"The Future History of the Church, Part 1"
A typological and midrashic examination of what will happen in the future of the church by seeing how the past history of the church is recapitulated eschatologically; how past events happen again in the Last Days. What to expect, and what to prepare for.
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Consider American basketball: there are African-Americans who play basketball almost like they're superhuman – it's unbelievable how good they are. It doesn't matter to them if there are two hours on the clock left to play the game or only 30 seconds. They play with such energy, vigor, and concentration that even though there are only ten seconds left in the game, they know that can make a difference and as far as they're concerned, there might as well be an hour left in the game. Yet as soon as the final buzzer goes off, that's it; it's over. That is how we should be: totally intent on what we're doing. It doesn't matter if there are three days left until Jesus comes or 300 years, we should be playing the game in the same way, with the same concentration, vigor, and intensity. But as soon as that buzzer goes off, that's it. We're done.
It's always ten minutes to midnight. In John's epistle he says it is the last hour; the idea in Greek is that time freezes.(1 Jn. 2:18) Israel is God's timepiece for the nations. Why did the early Christians say it was the Last Days? Let me explain:
One day, Harold was watching rugby on television and Susan said, "When do you want your dinner?" It was then ten minutes to six so he said, "I want my dinner in ten minutes when the rugby game is over; the game ends at six o'clock.” So Susan puts his dinner in the microwave, pushes the buttons. All of a sudden, at ten till six, there's an injury on the rugby field, and they stop the clock. The medics come out and say they can't move the guy without a doctor. The doctor comes out and says they need an ambulance because they have to move him a certain way. They can't do anything about it, the rest of the game is delayed. But how many minutes are left in the game? Ten. Ten minutes ago there were ten minutes left in the game, but the game time hasn't advanced from that point. There are always ten minutes left in the game, but at any time the clock can be started again, once the injured man is removed. This time is the time of the Gentiles; it is Israel that is God's timepiece.
Nebuchadnezzar represents many things in the Bible; he is a very interesting and complex figure in Scripture. The seven churches of Revelation were seven churches that literally existed in Asia Minor in the 1st Century; they're also seven types of churches that can exist generally, especially in the Last Days before Revelation 4. But I am convinced that they also correspond to overlapping periods of church history. The Greek names of those churches also mean something: “Ephesus” is “not lasting”, “Smyrna” is “myrrh”, “Pergamum” is “divorced”, “Thyatira” is “continuing sacrifice”, and so on. (We have a series of tapes dealing with this in depth.) Nonetheless, those seven periods occur before we go on to Revelation 4 and the main part of the vision. Nebuchadnezzar is cut down and an iron collar is put around him. It says that for seven periods that iron collar is kept on him to prevent him from blossoming, but at the end of those seven periods the collar is removed and he blossoms again. It's the same idea. The age of the church occurs, to the best of my understanding, between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel. Somehow the age of the Gentiles comes to a close, as it says in Luke 21:24 and Romans 11, and then the clock is started again. There are always ten minutes left in the game; time is frozen.
Therefore, it is always the “Last Days”. So concerning the days of Noah, we have to warn the unsaved about their immorality, but we must also warn ourselves about becoming attached to this life. When you want to understand the days of Noah, you must go back and read the story of Noah.
This is Page 3 of 16 of PART 3
Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.