The Day of the Lord - 15

Well, we continue from 1 Thessalonians 4 into chapter 5 as we are still looking at the subject of eschatology, that is, the study of last things, that surround the second coming of Christ.

The second coming, which is mentioned in all five of the chapters of 1 Thessalonians, but in only two of those chapters is their extended treatment of this subject. Last week we looked at the first of those in chapter 4 and today we're looking at the second in chapter 5. Chapter 4 deals with the rapture of the saints. Chapter 5 with the day of the Lord. Now there is no division in the original writing of this book between chapter 4 and 5 because there were no chapter and verse divisions originally, and therefore we can see by the subject and by the placement of these two sections, one right after the other, that they are connected. Yet even though there are connections, there are also some dissimilarities, or at least some contrasts, which we will look at today.

But though there are connections, there certainly is a shift in emphasis. Chapter 4, the treatment, was addressed entirely to believers and was entirely about believers. There is not a single word in chapter 4 about what the second coming of Christ means for the unbeliever. But in chapter 5, Paul deals with both believers and unbelievers and he tells us what that event will mean for those who will not repent of their sins and turn to Christ. Number 2, the great contrast, verses 4 through 10, and finally the great purpose in verse 11. The great event, verses 1, 2, and 3, and I will begin by reading those verses again.

The great event, what, when, and how. What, and for that we start in verse 2 and pick up that phrase, the day of the Lord. That's what we're talking about, the great event, the day of the Lord, a phrase which is found rather frequently throughout Scripture in both the Old Testament and the New. When I put my sermon notes into my computer this morning after I finished typing them, I realized that I already had a sermon on my computer entitled the day of the Lord. So this is in my sermon file, the day of the Lord number 2.

And I can see by first glance that that previous sermon, the day of the Lord, was preached in 2017 and I thought that probably was in our study, the book of Malachi, but just to be sure, I clicked on it to check and no, it was our study, the book of Joel. So in the book of Joel, you'll find the day of the Lord. In the book of Malachi, you'll find the day of the Lord.

In fact, you'll find that phrase a lot of times in the Old Testament and as well in the New. And every time you find it, that phrase the day of the Lord carries with it the idea of God's judgment, not always the final judgment as we have it here, but always the concept of judgment. The day of the Lord is going to come and he's going to judge those who have persisted in rebellion and unbelief. The day of the Lord brings judgment, sometimes judgment upon the nation of Israel for their transgressions, but not necessarily at the end of time. And of course, we're talking about the final judgment. The day of the Lord is going to bring judgment to this world and also that phrase the day of the Lord along with judgment generally carries the idea of some significant intervention by God into Earth's history. He comes with judgment and he changes some things. Likewise, that's what we find before us in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. The day of the Lord is when God comes in judgment and he changes some things.

That's what. Question number 2, when? That takes us back to verse 1. Paul says concerning the times and seasons, brethren, I have no need that I should write to you. Times and the seasons.

When is this going to happen? That's always the question. That's the exact two terms that are used in Acts chapter 1 verse 7 where the disciples of Christ were told that the times and the seasons they would not know. Christ would return, but the times and the seasons were to be left determined by the Father. The times and the seasons, that's what we always want to know. When Christ started the Olivet Discourse, the disciples had called attention to the temple, you know, the great massive buildings. How magnificent, how wonderful. And Jesus said the time's coming when there'll be not one stone left upon another.

All these things are going to be destroyed. What did they want to know? Immediately they wanted to know when? When?

When's that going to happen? We always want to know. We're curious.

That's a natural desire. And so we're not surprised that that arises very quickly in our minds when the subject of Christ's second coming is before us. But Paul makes clear what is made clear elsewhere in Scripture, namely that the times and seasons are in the Father's domain. And we don't know.

It's interesting what Paul says here. He says concerning the times and the seasons, you already know. I don't need to write to you. Well, what is it that you already know? Do you already know when this is coming? No, you already know that you don't know. You already know that you can't know. You already know that this is something that God will not reveal to man.

We don't know when the time will come. It's interesting that Paul indicates that what he's going to cover in chapter 5, they did know because he had taught them before. In contrast to what he said in chapter 4, when he said, I realize, and I'm paraphrasing now, I realize you're ignorant about this subject. You're wondering about what happens to your departed loved ones when the Lord returns. Do they miss this glorious event?

Are they somehow at a disadvantage to living believers when Christ returns? And I don't want you to be ignorant about that, so let me fill in the information about that. But when he comes to chapter 5, he says basically this is review. You've already been taught this. You already know, but you need to be reminded about the day of the Lord. So that's the what. That's the when. But now the how. How is this going to transpire?

And Paul just gives two illustrations. How is it going to come? Verse 2, as a thief in the night. How is it going to come?

Verse 3, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. How is it going to come? It's going to come as a thief in the night. That is suddenly, unexpectedly, no prior announcement.

Thieves don't call you up and say, I plan to beat your house tonight at midnight. Suddenly, unexpectedly, no prior announcement. That's how this is going to come.

And therefore, unbelievers will be caught off guard and unprepared when this transpires. So how? As a thief in the night. How?

As labor pains. And he says specifically, when they say peace and safety, when there's a sense of normalcy, a sense of everything's all right, when there seems to be peace and safety, instead, sudden destruction. Their safety is illusory. It's not real. It's imagined. It is supposed.

But it is wrong. And like labor pains, suddenly come upon a woman, and though there's a general idea that it's going to happen eventually, we all know that it is notoriously difficult to predict when that is going to occur. Even today, with all the modern methodology and techniques, God blessed my wife and I with four children. I didn't enter into the labor pains.

That's the wife's responsibility. But in every case, we didn't know when that child was going to come, and in some cases, one case in particular, the doctor was off by, I think, a couple of weeks or so. It just was impossible. You never can tell, but one thing is for sure, when they hit, they hit suddenly, and when they hit, they hurt urgently, and when they hit, there's no escape. You are going through this thing now. It's going to happen.

No way out. And that's the way the day of the Lord is. It is inescapable. Once our Lord begins His return, then the day of the Lord comes, and no one is going to escape that. It is inevitable.

That's the great event. Now, most of this passage is taken up with what I've called the great contrast, because the rest of the time, Paul contrasts believers with unbelievers, and he's addressing most of it to believers, but what he says to believers is often the opposite of what is true of unbelievers, so both are very much in view. Believers versus unbelievers, the great contrast.

Paul tells us that unlike unbelievers, because of course he's writing to believers, not to unbelievers, unlike unbelievers, believers are, and he mentions several things, and I've summarized them in six statements, and let me give them to you. Believers are, number one, not spiritually blind, nor two, not spiritually unaware, nor three, not spiritually inactive, nor four, not spiritually defenseless, nor number five, not spiritually condemned, or number six, spiritually hopeless. Now, unlike unbelievers, believers are not spiritually blind, but you brethren, verse four, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. Believers are not in darkness, that is, in spiritual darkness, in spiritual blindness, unable to discern, unable to understand spiritual truth, just the opposite. Believers are sons of light. They are in the light. In fact, they are of the light.

There's really more than being in the light. They are of the light, not only sons in the light, but what? Sons of the light. Sons of God have something of the character and nature of God within them. Sons of light have something of the character and nature of light within them. Sons of light have truth given to them which they understand. You are sons of light.

That's your very nature. You're sons of the day. And now Paul shifts in the middle of verse five from this is true of you to this is true of us. He shifts from you to we. He starts including himself in what he says for the rest of his passage. But number one, you're not spiritually blind.

Number two, you're not spiritually unaware. And I take that also from verse four. You, brethren, are not in darkness, so as this day, my Bible has a capital D, this day, this day of the Lord that we're talking about, this day should overtake you as a thief.

Unbelievers, he's already told us, are going to be overtaken like a thief in the night. They're going to be surprised. They're going to be unprepared.

They're going to be unaware. They didn't know this was going to happen. They thought everything was okay. They thought life was going on. I have been surprised sometimes in talking to unbelievers in our day at how many of them think everything is just fine in the world.

Everything's fine in our country. Believers are saying, I've never seen it like this before. It's getting worse and worse and worse. Things are changing.

Things are getting worse. And there are unbelievers who say, no, everything's just fine. Are they living in the same country? Are they living in the same world? Well, yes, they are.

What's the difference? Well, there are sons of light and there are sons of darkness. And sons of light see things differently than sons of darkness.

Sons of light can perceive truth in a way that sons of darkness cannot. And so it is with the coming of the day of the Lord. And the unbeliever is prepared.

He's going to be surprised like a householder when a thief comes in suddenly in the middle of the night and he wasn't looking for him. But prepared people will be aware. We will not be spiritually unaware. We will be prepared. But notice, though we're going to shift from what I'm saying now in a moment, but right now from what I'm looking at in verse four, notice Paul does not say, now believers, you need to be prepared. You ought to be prepared. He says, believers, you are prepared. And Paul does not negate what he says in a moment about, you need to be alert, you need to be sober.

There are some things for us to do. But sons of light, sons of the day, cannot be overtaken by this day in the same way that unbelievers are. Sons of light are prepared precisely because they have been saved, precisely because they are sons of the light, precisely because they do have the indwelling Holy Spirit, precisely because the good work has already been begun in them and will be completed until the day of Christ, which is what he's talking about here. Believers, on the one hand, should be getting ready and alert and should not be indifferent, but believers cannot be unprepared for this day.

Isn't that a great thought? Glory, hallelujah. I'm ready.

Why are you ready? Because I'm saved. Praise God.

I'm born again, and I'm ready for that day to come. So believers are, number one, not spiritually blind. Believers, number two, are not spiritually unaware. But, and this takes us to the other side, believers, number three, are not spiritually inactive. Verse six, therefore, contrast with verse five, you are all sons of light and sons of the day. You are not of the night nor of the darkness.

Therefore, now, here's what we ought to do, exhortation. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. There is that element to it, but that's not the whole picture.

That's not everything. Even Peter and John in the Garden of Gethsemane, who could not stay awake and watch with the Lord while he prayed, did not face the danger of God's judgment falling upon them because of their lack of alertness. It was shameful on the one hand. It was revealing, very much so, of their spiritual lethargy, but probably as much also of their physical weariness.

They were worn out. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. But believers still have a responsibility to stay alert, to be watchful, to be looking for the coming of Christ. Believers are not spiritually inactive, so therefore, let us not sleep.

Let us watch and be sober. There is the activity of spiritual preparation, but once again, what Paul is saying is something we often miss, and that is, believers are to do according to what we are. We sometimes get that the other way around, as if we become what we do, but the emphasis in Scripture is the other way around. You're already a Christian. You're already a child of God.

You're already saved. Now act like it. Behave according to it. Demonstrate this reality in your life. In this case, be alert, be watchful, unlike the unbeliever who is totally oblivious to what's going on. So believers number three are not spiritually inactive.

Believers number four are not spiritually defenseless. Oh, things are bad. Things are terrible around us.

Yes, they are, but, but, but. Verse seven, for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, there again, responsibility, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet of hope, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. Nighttime activities characterize the people of the night. Sleeping, we all sleep, of course, at night.

I hope so. But he's not talking about physical sleep. He's talking about spiritual slumber. People of the night are unalert to things around them, particularly spiritual truth. They just sleep through all of that. People who get drunk generally get drunk at night. That's not the only time that it happens, but it's the most common time it happens. So the things that, what he's generally saying, is the things that characterize nightlife are the things that people that belong to the night do. That's the way they live, that's who they are, that's what they do, and that involves both sinfulness, like drunkenness, and that involves spiritual lethargy, like sleeping through admonitions of truth, sleeping through sermons, going to church sometimes for years and years and years, and never really hearing, never really getting it, never really applying it to your own heart. Isn't it sad?

But that's true. How many times have I heard somebody say, I went to church all my life, and I've heard them say this, and it may be true in some cases, but I rather doubt it, but they often say something like, and I never heard the gospel until I was 23, and then I heard it, and I believed it was saved. And I'm thinking, that could be true, but probably what you mean is, you heard it, but you didn't hear it. You heard it with your ears, but you didn't hear it with your soul. You heard it with your ears, but it just bounced off you. You heard it, but it never made any impact because you were a child of the night, and you were sleeping, spiritually speaking.

And then one day you heard it. Why? Because the work of God's Spirit made a change in your soul. You didn't understand why it was. You thought, ah, I did that. Why didn't you do that for 23 years?

I did that. No, you did, in a sense, but you did it because the Spirit of God changed your heart. He changed your listener. He changed your ears. He changed your receptors, and suddenly you're hearing something that, as far as your consciousness is concerned, you don't remember hearing that before, and here it is, the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ, and you believed, and you were saved.

Yes. So nighttime activities characterize people of the night, but, as Paul is telling us here, people of the day act differently. There's a great contrast between people of the night and people of the day. There's a great contrast between unbelievers and believers.

There's a great contrast. Folks, if you act like a child of the night, if that's the way you want to act, that's the way you want to live, that's what you're drawn to continually, and you don't seem to have any desire for the things that characterize people of the day, what conclusion should you draw about yourself? Aren't you being foolish to insist, but I know I'm saved because I walked an aisle and prayed a prayer, so you can't talk me out of that.

God help me to talk you out of it. For the sake of your never-dying soul, if you're acting like a child of the night, then you must be a child of the night. You're acting according to that which characterizes children of the night, because if you are of the day, you act differently. And if you are of the day, then put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of hope. That's your defense against spiritual assaults in this world. Faith in the Word of God, love for God and the people of God and others beyond that. Hope, that is, expectation, earnest expectation for future salvation, which is promised to you, and you believe it. You know that it's coming, and it fortifies you as you think about that day when that will come, which is connected with this day, the day of the Lord. So believers are not spiritually blind, not spiritually unaware, not spiritually inactive, not spiritually defenseless, not spiritually condemned, verse 9, for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.

Whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. We are not spiritually condemned. We're not appointed to wrath. Unbelievers are appointed to wrath, but children of the day are not appointed to wrath, but are appointed to obtain salvation in this future aspect.

What is that future aspect? Salvation, as you know, comes in stages, there's past, present, future. I was saved. I'm being saved. I shall be saved.

I was saved the day the Spirit of God worked in my heart and brought me to faith in Christ, and I was born again. I was saved. I am being saved.

I'm still wrestling with Adamic desires and sinfulness, and I confess those to the Lord, and I ask God to help me, and I work on those. I'm being saved. I'm becoming slowly, far more slowly than I wish, and far more slowly probably than I should, but I'm becoming more like Jesus Christ day by day.

I'm being conformed to the image of His Son. I am being saved, but yes, I shall be saved. And the day is coming when all of my old Adamic nature is going to be gone, gone, gone, gone, no more sinful thoughts, no more sinful desires.

The day's coming when I'll be entirely sanctified. And the day is coming when I shall have a glorified body. This body of flesh cannot inherit eternal life. This mortal must put on immortality. This earthly must put on the heavenly.

And so this body of flesh is going to decay, and it's got to be changed. It'll either be changed in the rapture at the resurrection, it'll be changed in the rapture if I'm alive when Christ comes, it'll be changed as I rise to meet Him in the air, but it's going to be changed, and when that happens, my salvation is complete. What am I waiting for in salvation? I'm waiting for complete holiness, and I'm waiting for that glorified body, and when that happens, I'm saved.

Past, present, and future, I'm saved. Now I just enjoy eternity with the Lord in that condition. And that's what believers are looking forward to. That's our hope, our hope of final salvation, of eternal salvation. And so this is what believers receive when Christ returns, not wrath like unbelievers, but salvation, which is for believers.

And so number six, we're not spiritually hopeless, verse 10, because we believe in Christ who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Christ who died for us, that's substitution. He died for us. He died for believers. He died for those who trust in Him. Did He die for you?

Can you say that with assurance? Christ died for me. He died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we shall live together with Him. Well, that sounds like what Paul was talking about in chapter 4. The whole question was, what will happen to believers who sleep, they've died, when Christ comes, in connection with believers who are awake when Christ comes?

And Paul made that very clear. They're going to be unified. They're going up together. The living are not going to precede those who've died. The resurrection of the dead will occur first, and they'll receive their glorified bodies. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with Him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And so there's going to be this wonderful union, and we shall be with the Lord forever. And that will begin from whatever position we are in when Christ returns. If we're living, it'll begin with the glorification of our bodies and the sanctification of our souls.

If we're dead, our souls are already sanctified in the presence of the Lord, but we're still waiting the resurrection and glorification of our bodies. And so these same concepts that are found in the chapter 4 coming of the Lord passage, the Parousia passage, are also touched upon here in chapter 5 in this day of the Lord passage, which connects, therefore, the day of the Lord with the Parousia at some point. It doesn't make clear all the points that that may be so.

So that covers what? Number one, the great event. Number two, the great contrast. But number three, the great purpose. Why does Paul give us this material? And he tells us, verse 11, therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as you are also doing.

Well, that sounds just almost exactly like what he said at the end of chapter 4, doesn't it? I teach you these things, therefore, verse 18, comfort one another with these words. That was the purpose for my teaching in chapter 4. That's the purpose for my teaching here in chapter 5. Comfort one another, what the purpose is not to argue and divide about these words and the different positions, but mutual encouragement and edification. Comfort one another, edify one another, build up, encourage and strengthen one another, which is accomplished by mutual edification, which requires interaction with one another, and truth, the teaching of God's word.

We use God's truth to mutually comfort and build up one another. Paul says that in this case, they're already doing that. That's different from chapter 4. In chapter 4, they weren't because the truth he covered in chapter 4, they didn't know.

So they couldn't use that truth to edify and build up and encourage. But the truth of chapter 5, they already had, and obediently they were using that already to encourage and build up and edify one another. They did as they were instructed with as much knowledge as they had, even as they waited for more knowledge. Good for them.

What about us? Sometimes I think we've got tons and tons and tons of knowledge and only handfuls of practical activity with the knowledge that we have. They were doing what their knowledge enabled them to do. But now let me give you some comparisons and contrasts between these two passages. First of all, contrasts. There are different terms. In chapter 4, it is the coming of the Lord. The Greek word parousia, parousia sometimes pronounced, coming of the Lord. In chapter 5, it is the day of the Lord.

There's also the contrast of different aspects. In chapter 4, it's all for believers and it's all about encouragement and hope. There's nothing there for the unbeliever.

But in chapter 5, there is both comfort for the believer, but there's strong warning for the unbeliever. For the unbeliever, it is a day of wrath. It is a day of destruction.

It is an awful day. Please, please, please don't delay. Don't procrastinate. Don't assume that that's not going to catch you. It's going to catch you, or if you're dead, it will still catch you. It's going to catch every unbeliever someday.

You need to be ready. But there are a lot of commonalities in these two sections. Both passages deal with Christ's second coming. Both passages are addressed to believers. Even though in the second passage, he deals with unbelievers, he's not talking to unbelievers, he's talking to believers, as you would expect in an epistle written to a Christian church where people who are believers would be listening to these words. Both of these conclude with the same practical exhortation. Use this truth to encourage, strengthen, and comfort one another.

That's its purpose. And both passages address the issue of departed believers. What about those who have died already? When the Lord returns, they'll be raptured with the living saints. And so in chapter 5, whether we are asleep or alive, we shall be together with him. He deals with both aspects in both sections. Now, as last week, let me touch upon some unanswered questions.

Question number 1, how do we reconcile the public announcement of the coming of Christ in chapter 4 with the stealth of the day of the Lord in chapter 5? Well, I think the answer's pretty simple. Maybe my mind's too simple. But I think the answer's as simple as this. It's a secret until it begins. And when it begins, it begins with a bang.

I think that's the answer. Those things are not mutually exclusive at all. There's no contradiction. It is unknown. Nobody knows the time.

Nobody knows when. It's like a thief in the night. But when this thief breaks in, he doesn't just cut a screen quietly and slip inside and put a few things in a pillowcase and slip back out quietly.

When this thief comes in, he comes in with a bang, and everybody knows he's there at that point, but they weren't expecting him. But another question, how do we understand the nature of God's wrath in chapter 5 and verse 9? For God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Is that wrath the seven years of tribulation? God did not appoint us to wrath. God did not appoint us to the seven years tribulation.

If you are pre-tribulation rapture position Christian, you probably think that's what that is. I've narrowed down. I usually start out, when I start a new book, I start out with several commentaries until I can find the ones that I think will be most useful to me, and then I narrow it down and concentrate on those. And for 1 Thessalonians, I've narrowed it down to six commentaries that I use regularly every week. And three of them are dispensational, and three of them are not.

I'm not stacking the deck here. I'm reading what both sides have to say. I'm reading it carefully, and interestingly, one of the commentaries that I would have to say, if I had to pick one for my favorite, I would say it's a dispensational commentary, and it's excellent in most regards. But this does not identify the day of wrath with the seven-year tribulation. To make that identification, you have to put into the text what it does not say.

Agreed? It's not there, is it? It doesn't say that God did not appoint us to wrath, by which I mean the seven-year tribulation. It just says God did not appoint us to wrath. And so we're not told. And we do understand that to have protection from God's judgment does not require that we be in a different location from where the judgment occurs.

That seems to be the assumption. We can't be here during the tribulation because God says we're not appointed to wrath, so we can't be here. Consider Israel and the Egyptian plagues. Was Israel there when the plagues fell on Egypt? They were. Were they protected from the plagues, at least from the worst of them? They were.

Okay? Consider Daniel and the lions dead. Didn't that dead and those same lions tear up the officials at Nebuchadnezzar? Or was it Belshazzar?

I've forgotten now. Threw in there, but Daniel, in the same location with the same lions, was perfectly protected. He wasn't removed from the lions dead.

He was protected in the midst of the lions dead. Or consider the three Hebrew children. I don't know why we call them children.

At this point, they certainly weren't children. But consider Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Did God remove them from the fiery furnace to protect them, or did He protect them in the midst of the fiery furnace?

And when the servants of the king threw them into the fire, some of the servants got burned up by that very same fire that did not even cause the clothes of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to smell like smoke. So is it necessary, if God promises to protect us from wrath, from judgment, is it necessary that He remove us from the location where that's going on? And the answer is clearly no. That's not necessary, is it?

So that brings me to this question. Are either of these passages, chapter 4 or chapter 5, listen to me now, are either of these passages incompatible with a pre-tribulation rapture position? My answer to that is no. Neither of them are incompatible with that. I'm reading three commentaries that take that position.

They don't think it's incompatible, though they do make some statements occasionally that make me scratch my head, like the one from Thomas Constable, Bible knowledge commentary from Dallas Seminary, said, when it says God will protect believers from wrath, he says, because we've already been raptured and we're safe in heaven. I said, where did you get that in the passage? It's not there.

You stuck that in. That's what you believe, that's what you think, but it ain't there. That wasn't the place to say that, I don't think, was it, because there's nothing, nothing in the passage that would indicate that. But is there anything in either of these passages that's incompatible with the pre-tribulation rapture position?

No. Both of them can be interpreted in that light, in that way. I've got three commentaries to prove that. One of them is pretty, pretty convincing. But question number four, does either passage prove the pre-tribulation rapture position?

Answer again, no. Neither passage certifies that position. In other words, neither of them is clear enough about that to be able to say dogmatically one way or the other. Neither of them teach a pre-tribulation rapture. Neither of them negate the possibility of a pre-tribulation rapture. So my final question is, which scenario fits these passages best? Saints raptured and continue on up to heaven to escape the seven-year tribulation period, or saints raptured and join the Lord in a huge retinue and return to earth, but they will not be affected by the judgment of God that takes place then? Present but protected.

Which scenario fits these two passages best? And the answer is, you decide. I'm not really here to try to persuade you to any particular position. I'm here to teach you what it says. I'm here to point out what it doesn't say. I'm here to try to help you think. I'm here to try to dislodge some dogmatism that is unwarranted because things are assumed to be said that are not said. But I'm not here to persuade you one way or the other. Study, think, decide. If you come to a different decision than mine, we'll be friends. I'll be fine. I've told you before, I don't think eschatology is something that we ought to divide over.

I don't think eschatology is something that we're supposed to understand all the details of. But it's very interesting and very instructive and very helpful, and I'll listen to what you have to say and ask you questions, and you can listen to what I have to say and ask me questions, and hopefully in both cases we will be faithful to encourage, build up, comfort one another with these words. Let's pray. Father, help us to know your word. Help us to believe your word. Help us to utilize your word for the purpose for which it is given. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.