Doctrine For Difficult Days

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Heaven and Hell

They say, “Here you can see exactly what Peter said. He said there is to be the ‘restoration of all things.’” They need to look at Acts 3:21 again. It is “the restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” All things that the prophets said would be restored are going to be restored.

Paul clarifies this by using the same expression in another matter. Look at Philippians 3:8 where he wrote: “I have suffered the loss of all things.” What did he mean? Did Paul own the world? No. Well, what was it Paul lost? He suffered the loss of all the things that he had to lose — that’s all! He couldn’t lose what he didn’t have.

Likewise, Acts 3:21 speaks of the restoration of all things that the prophets prophesied would be restored. These will be restored. Nothing else will. And nowhere does any prophet say that the lost are ultimately to be restored. May I say to you that the very verse of Scripture used by the restitutionalists, instead of carrying out their thought, confirms the opposite.

Restitutionalists also rely heavily on another passage.

… that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)

The restitutionalists say, “You see that every knee must bow to Him in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, so that the lost ultimately are going to come to Him.” May I say again, that is false reasoning, which is made evident by Colossians 1:20:

… and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

When Paul is talking about reconciliation through the blood of Christ, it is things in heaven and things on the earth, but not things under the earth. When he talks about how every knee must bow and acknowledge the lordship of Jesus, he includes the lost. And I say to you that the devil and his angels and all the lost are going to have to bow and acknowledge the lordship of Jesus, but that does not mean they are saved. That does not mean they are reconciled with God. In fact, these two verses of Scripture make it quite obvious that Paul never taught that the lost would be restored.

May I say to you, restitutionalism is purely a figment of the imagination. Isn’t it amazing what folks will believe when they don’t want to believe the Word of God? That’s the natural man, and that’s the natural mind. It will do anything rather than believe God!

There is a sixth theory used to offset the scriptural doctrine of hell, and that is purgatory. It teaches that purgatory is a place you go when you die, and there you will suffer for the sins you committed after you were baptized. This theory says that Christ’s death covered your sins before baptism but not after you were baptized. You must suffer for those sins yourself in purgatory until you are fit for heaven. For some people that could take a long time. However, if you are smart, you will wait until you get on your deathbed before you are baptized so you can’t commit any sins before you die, and therefore you will miss purgatory altogether.
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Heaven and Hell

Purgatory is nowhere mentioned in the Scriptures, but it appears in one of the apocryphal books. It’s been, of course, developed through the years and has led to this matter of praying for the dead, because prayer is made for the release of those who are in purgatory. May I say to you that there is no scriptural basis for purgatory whatsoever, but you can see how it has softened the viewpoint concerning hell.

Those are six of the major detours folks will take in order to avoid the clear and explicit teaching of the Word of God on the subject of hell.

Let me add this: I do not believe that any saved person can take any delight in the reality of hell, and certainly we ought not to handle it in that way. It was said of Dwight L. Moody that he was the only man who had the right to preach on hell. Friends, it is a solemn, heartrending subject, and Moody preached it that way.
 
What the Bible Says About Hell

You may reject the Word of God, but you cannot reject the fact that the Word of God has some very clear statements on hell.

First, hell is a prepared place. May I add this right now, and this is the language of the Lord Jesus:

Then He will also say to those on the left hand, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41)

The two individuals in the Scriptures who taught more on the subject of hell than any others were the Lord Jesus Christ and John, the apostle of love. In fact, if you take out of the Bible what they had to say, you will have practically nothing left on the subject of hell. They are the two who emphasized it, and when people talk today about the “gentle Jesus” and about following His teaching, what do they mean by “following His teaching”? It will lead you then to believe, and to know, that hell is a reality, my beloved.

The second fact concerning hell is that it is not only a prepared place, but it is also eternal:

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46)

And John wrote this about the last days:

The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)

Now, my beloved, there’s no way in the world of toning that down and trying to make it temporary. These verses mean exactly what they say.

Not only is hell a prepared place, and not only is it an eternal place, but it is a place of retribution. Let me give you some of the statements that are used concerning it. In Luke 16:28 it’s called a “place of torment.” In Matthew 25:41 it’s called “everlasting fire.” In Mark 9:44 it’s “where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched”; in Revelation 21:8, “the lake which burns with fire and brimstone”; Revelation 9:2, “the bottomless pit”; Matthew 8:12, “outer darkness,” a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth”; Luke 3:17, “unquenchable fire”; Matthew 13:42, “furnace of fire”; Jude_1:13, “blackness of darkness”; and Revelation 14:11, “the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night.” May I say that this is solemn language indeed! Hell is a place of retribution.
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Heaven and Hell

Four Different Words

Now let’s consider these four Bible words: sheol, hades, gehenna, and tartarus. These four words we need to know because they explain a great deal as far as the subject of hell is concerned. First of all, let me say that sheol is the Hebrew word and hades is the Greek word, and unfortunately both are translated hell in many places. But although they mean the same thing, they do not mean hell as we think of it today.

I want you to note that they do mean the same thing. The psalmist in his prayer has written:

For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
(Psalms 16:10)

When that same verse is quoted by Peter, it is:
For You will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
(Acts 2:27)

Sheol and hades are used synonymously, And they are used sometimes, if you please, to refer to the grave; that is, where the body is placed. I could give you at least fifteen examples, but let me give you just two. First,

But he [Jacob] said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave [sheol].” (Genesis 42:38)

For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks? (Psalms 6:5)

By the way, the second is one of the verses that Jehovah’s Witnesses use for their doctrine of extinction, that the grave ends it all. May I say that the reference, of course, is only to the body in this particular passage. A corpse is incapable of giving thanks.

In addition to the grave where the body is placed, sheol is also used to describe the place where the lost go, and a great deal is said about that. I could give you at least twenty-five verses, but I don’t want to weary you:

The wicked shall be turned into hell [sheol],
And all the nations that forget God.
(Psalms 9:17)

The sorrows of Sheol [hell] surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
(Psalms 18:5)

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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Heaven and Hell

Now sheol is the place where the dead go, and it’s divided into two compartments.

You are, I’m sure, familiar with the record our Lord gave about two men who died, a rich man and a man by the name of Lazarus who was a beggar. It is found in Luke 16:19-31. Jesus said that when these two men died, this is what happened: One of them, the rich man, went to a place of torment. The other, Lazarus, went to Abraham’s bosom, which is also called paradise. The unseen world (hades in the Greek language and sheol in Hebrew) refers to both compartments. Half of sheol or hades is called “a place of torment,” and this is where the rich man is. This is not hell, my beloved, but it is where the lost go today. They do not go directly to hell at all.

Now may I mention briefly the other two words for hell that we have in Scripture. gehenna is a place of burning. It was in the Valley of Hinnom, a narrow ravine outside Jerusalem where city refuse, including bodies of beggars, was dumped and burned. Our Lord used it to picture hell.

tartarus is found only once in the Scripture, and that time it was used by Simon Peter:

God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell [tartarus] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment. (2 Peter 2:4)

The Old Testament saints were taken to paradise, called Abraham’s bosom. They will not be raised bodily until Christ comes to establish His Kingdom. Then they will be raised from the dead. Since Christ’s ascension into heaven, no believer has ever had to go to sheol. The Word of God says concerning believers today that they are

absent from the body …present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8 )

The following passage has caused some folks confusion, giving the impression that when Jesus died, He descended into the place we think of as hell.

Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”
(Now this, “He ascended” — what does it mean but that He
also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?)
(Ephesians 4:8-9)

“When He ascended on high” refers to the ascension of Christ. He did not go into hell as we think of it. Rather, as He told the thief on the cross (see Luke 23:43), He descended into paradise, that section of hades where the saved were, to announce to them the deliverance that He had wrought for them, and at His ascension He led them “captivity captive” into God’s presence.

But the lost who are in the place of torment today, we are told in Revelation 20:11-15, are to be judged at the Great White Throne, and then they are to be cast into the lake of fire.

The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the rake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:13-15)
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Heaven and Hell

The lake of fire is eternal.

Beloved, it is tragic beyond imagination to fail to receive Christ as your Savior!
 
 —  —  —  —  —
Heaven

There are many who are willing to accept the fact of heaven while rejecting the fact of hell. Let me say again, Christ and the apostle John said more about hell than any others in Scripture. Yet neither said very much about heaven.

Apparently there is an intermediate state of the saved. I’m not sure that I know what Paul meant when he wrote 2 Corinthians 5; but I want us to consider carefully what he has written, and let’s see if we might arrive at some sort of conclusion.

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent [skenos in the Greek, which refers to the body, the flesh], is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1)

There has always been a question here. In these days in which you and I live, what happens when a believer dies and goes into God’s presence? Is he a spirit or is he given a temporary body? Apparently his body is not to be raised until the total church is caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Then he gets his new body. But does he have a temporary body in the meantime? I can’t give you God’s answer because all I know is what is said here, and 2 Corinthians 5:1 is the only Scripture on it.

Here is one view: Just consider this with me for a moment. I personally hope that, when I leave this earth and go into His presence, I get a body. I’m sure going to feel undressed without it. I can’t conceive of Vernon McGee being a spirit. I’d feel like I was in a spiritual nudist colony if I didn’t have a body. That’s the way I express myself, that’s the way you express yourself, so it’s possible that we will have a temporary body until that day comes. After all, what is this body? It’s only a house you live in.

Now here is the second view: I have never been too dogmatic about either interpretation of it. But I have now come to the conviction that what Paul is talking about here is not a temporary body. For many years I thought that God would have sort of a temporary body for us when we got to heaven. It would be like taking your car to the garage for repair work and having a loaner to drive until it is fixed. I thought that the Lord would give us a temporary body until our new body was given to us. I never liked that idea, but it seemed to be what Paul was saying. Now I don’t believe he is referring to a temporary body, because he says it is “eternal in the heavens.” He is talking about that new body that we are going to get.
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Heaven and Hell

What the Scriptures Say about Heaven

I want you to look at what the Scripture has to say about heaven itself. There are three heavens actually. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:2 he was “caught up to the third heaven,” and I take it if he was caught up to the third heaven there must be a heaven number one and a heaven number two. The first heaven is presented in Scripture as earth’s sphere. Actually it’s a little bit more, I think, than the air spaces. Our Lord referred to “the stars of heaven” and “the birds of heaven.” Well, the birds of heaven would use the air spaces, but you may recall (in Acts 1:10-11) that two men in white clothing appeared when our Lord ascended, and they asked the disciples why they were standing gazing up into heaven. Since they were looking up through the atmosphere, we know that was the first heaven.

You will also find air spaces mentioned in the very first chapter of Genesis, verses 6-8. Verse 6 says:

Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

And there is water up there today, according to the weatherman. In fact, there is as much water up there as there is in any river in Los Angeles! And it will come down, you see. That’s what God did — He divided the waters below from those above. Thus God made the firmament and divided the raqia, these air spaces, by dividing the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.

And God called the firmament Heaven. (Genesis 1:8 )

That’s the first heaven. And I think it reaches out even beyond our air spaces. Also note this very interesting verse:

The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s;
But the earth He has given to the children of men.
(Psalms 115:16)

God has not given the heavens, these outer spaces, to mankind. He hasn’t made our bodies for it.

Then there is the second heaven, and that is the heaven up yonder in the galactic systems of this universe, out beyond our solar system.

And beyond that there is the third heaven, and that is the place to which Paul said he was caught up. Evidently the throne of God is there. Paul said he saw things that he could not speak about. This third heaven is the abode of God.

Here are two Scriptures on that:

The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
(Psalms 14:2)

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
(Psalms 2:4)

This makes it clear that heaven is the abode of God.
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Heaven and Hell

Now here is something I’d like for you to note. The earth will be the eternal abode of Israel — that is, saved Israelites. And it will be heaven, as far as they are concerned. When we as children of God say, “I want to go to heaven,” we are going to a prepared place. But it is not for the nation Israel. The Old Testament believer, for instance Abraham, never had any idea he would leave this earth. He had no expectation or hope above this earth. God never told him, “I go to prepare a place for you.”

And the Lord said to Abram [Abraham], after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are — northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever…. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.” (Genesis 13:14-15, Genesis 13:17)

In other words, God said to Abraham, “Look about you. This is the land I have given to you for an eternal possession. This is your land.”

And when God made the covenant with David that there would be One on this earth to sit on his throne, David said, “That is my salvation. That’s my hope for the future.” They had no hope above this earth at all. And saved Israel, including the Tribulation saints, will be here on this earth. And after God makes it a new heaven and a new earth, this is going to be a pretty nice place to live. And then I think you and I would enjoy it here also, but this won’t be our place.

The New Jerusalem, which will come down from God out of heaven, will be our home. Apparently this New Jerusalem will become the center of this vast universe because God is going to be there.
 
So You Want to Go to Heaven

My friend, you say that you want to go to heaven. First of all, God says that heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. You and I have to be prepared for heaven. God cannot take us there the way we are now. If today God lifted up your church to heaven just as it is on a Sunday morning, what would you have? Heaven? No, you would have your church, and that’s not heaven. Consider this:

We also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

We have to be prepared for heaven.

As someone has well said, we are going to get our space suits and take off. I think that is a very appropriate figure of speech, because these bodies that we have now are adjusted for only this earth, you see. They are set for us to go at this speed down here. But the body we shall get in the future will be a body prepared for the New Jerusalem.

Also, within ourselves we have to be prepared:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)

Have you ever stopped to think of your position in heaven? Not only do the people in heaven have to be prepared, but also their position in heaven must be determined. Remember that our Lord Jesus is going to give rewards. One of the last things He said was: “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me” (Revelation 22:12). Will you get a reward? Not everyone will. But He will give rewards to those who have earned them.

There will be no idleness in heaven. There will be rest, but rest and idleness are not the same. We are going to rest, but actually, what is it that disturbs us and wearies us mostly today? Isn’t it all our frustrations and our irritations down here? Up there we’ll be free from those and have a new body! My beloved, I don’t believe there will be any idleness at all.
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Heaven and Hell

There will be recognition of others. Our faculties will be sharpened.

Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

That is when we will reach the place of supreme fulfillment.

I was talking to some friends in Santa Ana the other night, and I made this statement, “I wouldn’t want to live my life over, but honestly, I would like to go back and make some corrections.”

Wouldn’t you? Would you like to go back and make a few corrections? May I say, it is going to be wonderful to get to a place where there will be no frustrations, but there will be the supreme fulfillment of life.

And heaven is going to be a place of love. To me the wonder of that is that everybody is going to love me in heaven! That’s going to be wonderful, friend. And everybody will love you. Love is going to make heaven a very wonderful place. And everything will be there to delight the person. As I said, there will be no irritation. Nothing there to trouble you. No worries, no bother. Everything there will be for your delight and for your enjoyment.

And to top it all, Christ is there — what a glorious reality!

And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

I would like to close this message on heaven and hell by reminding you that you are going somewhere when you die. I know a lot of people who like to think that death ends it all. But, my friend, if you are banking on that and then find out you were wrong, you’ll be awfully wrong, won’t you? It’s a terrible thing to be lost and not know your way in this world today. But it is tragic beyond imagination to be eternally lost.

..........
TO BE CONTINUED...

[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Eschatology

To conclude this book, I would like to chat with you on the subject of eschatology. What is eschatology? That’s a fifty-cent word, by the way, but actually it’s very simple when you break it down: The Greek word eschatos means “last,” and logy means “doctrine.” Since it is the doctrine of last things, it means the things that are yet in the future. The common colloquialism is “prophetic study” or “future things.” It means “prophecy,” so I think we had better use that familiar term.

Now in Southern California where I live, prophecy has often been brought into disrepute because there has been so much unreliable teaching. There have always been sensation-mongers who used prophecy for promotion rather than for imparting the Word of God that we might come to know Him better. I personally believe that these folks are just as much apostates as the liberals are. I think Jude was speaking of them when he wrote:

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. (Jude 1:16)

Although Jude is speaking of apostates, not all apostates are liberals. They can pose and pass as Bible-believing Christians and yet be attempting to use prophecy for some personal advantage — not always money, but some can be bought with a doctor’s degree or by giving them some other honor or preferment. Anyone, you see, can become an apostate in that direction.

Also, there can be an overemphasis on prophecy. Because of this and the sensational character of prophecy, a great many folk have turned away from it. And yet, friend, prophecy is one of the great subjects of the Word of God. Did you know that at least one-fifth (some say one-fourth) of the Scripture, when it was written, was prophetic; that is, it announced things that would take place in the future? Just think of that for one moment. Before me right now is a Bible of 1,300 pages. That means about 260 pages of this Bible contain predictive prophecy.

That brings me to say that prophecy can be divided in many different ways. I think that probably the more obvious division is between that which is fulfilled and that which is unfulfilled. The Book of Revelation, which is the great prophetic book of the New Testament, was written about 1,900 years go. If you go back even further, you’ll find that the earliest prophecy was written over 3,500 years ago. In the interval between the time they were written and where we stand, many things have come to pass, and I’m told that about one-third of predicted prophecy has already been fulfilled. Any intelligent person can take up these passages and see that when they were given, the projection was way out in the future, and in the meantime they have come to pass — so that what was given as prophecy is now a record of history. This to my mind is one of the greatest proofs that the Bible is the Word of God.
 
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Why and How Prophecy Was Given

Now let’s talk a little about why God has given prophecy to us.
 
Because of God’s Desire

One of the most interesting things is that God seems to delight in revealing the future to His own. God likes to talk to us who belong to Him. Remember, He came down in the cool of the day to talk with Adam in the Garden of Eden. And you find God coming down to Enoch.

And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:24)
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Eschatology

God enjoyed Enoch’s fellowship so much that one day He just took him home, out of this earthly scene. Then there is Noah, the only man in his day who was found walking righteously with God. God likes folks to walk with Him and talk with Him, and He likes to have fellowship.

Oh, how many believers are robbing themselves of one of the most wonderful experiences they can have! We sing the song, “He walks with me, and He talks with me.” Well, does He? He will if you’ll let Him, but He’s not going to walk and talk with you somewhere away from His Word. God speaks only in His Word, my friend, and there are a lot of saints who are very far from the Word today.

Again, God likes to reveal Himself, and He likes to reveal the future to those who are His children. To illustrate, let’s look at a familiar incident in the life of Abraham. God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, which was God’s business, although many people have made it their own business and say, “Why did God do this?” You may think that He is wrong, but He is right and you are wrong. Oh, my friend, let’s not criticize God for doing this or that. Instead let’s say, “I know God is right and I’m wrong, but I wish I could see it His way.” Our problem is we always want to blame God. But God is not accountable to any one of us.

Well, when God was preparing to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He came down to visit with Abraham. And just as God was about ready to leave him, He did something that to my judgment gives us one of the most amazing passages in the Word of God:

And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” (Genesis 18:17)

Just think of that! He says in effect, “Hadn’t I better stay around a little longer and tell Abraham what I’m going to do?” And, you know, God decided He would tell him, and this is what happened:

… since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him. (Genesis 18:18-19)

In other words, God said, “I’m going to tell him. I want Abraham to understand it because he is going to tell his children and I’m going to make him a blessing to the world, and I don’t want Abraham saying that God is unjust. If I don’t tell him, Abraham might not understand.”

And you know, friend, it’s a good thing God told Abraham what He was going to do because Abraham is like you and like me — Abraham misunderstood. Abraham thought God was doing wrong. Oh, if we could only get into our thinking that nothing God does is wrong, but it’s so hard for us to do that.

And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. (Genesis 18:20-22)
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Eschatology

Abraham was amazed. These messengers from God gave the word, and Abraham just stood there before the Lord and worshiped, but he didn’t understand. I suppose he was thinking, God called me out of idolatry and all which was not right. I knew I was following a high and holy God, and I thought He was just and right in all He did, but now He tells me He is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah! With these thoughts in mind, do you know what Abraham did?

And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” (Genesis 18:23)

Oh, isn’t it a good thing God told him? Because Abraham did misunderstand. Abraham would have always thought that God was unjust to destroy the righteous with the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah. So Abraham said, “If there were fifty righteous there, would You save the city?” And God said:

If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. (Genesis 18:26)

Then Abraham brought God’s promise down from fifty to forty, to thirty, to twenty, and even down to ten. And God said:

I will not destroy it for the sake of ten. (Genesis 18:32)

Why didn’t Abraham go below ten? Well, I believe he got cold feet. He came to the conclusion there was no one righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. And I think when he reached that conclusion, his dark thoughts were that Lot, his nephew, had become an apostate, that he had turned his back on God. But Lot had not. Although Lot lived in Sodom we learn from the New Testament that he tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds [in that city]. (2 Peter 2:8 )

You can be sure of one thing, Lot had not turned his back on God, and God got him out of the city before He destroyed it. Of course, Mrs. Lot, she apparently was not one of the righteous. She got outside the city physically, but her heart was in Sodom, and when she looked back, she turned to a pillar of salt.

However, the important thing is that Abraham then understood something more about God. “Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do?” God says, “No, I want to tell him.” And in our day God wants to tell us what is coming in the future.

But there are some things that are veiled even to this day. In the study of the Books of Daniel and Revelation, I want to let you in on something, and I hope you won’t tell anybody this because some folks think I know all the answers to those two books on prophecy. I want to tell you right here and now, there are many things that I don’t know about them. They are wonderful books, and it disturbs me when I meet somebody who thinks he has all the answers. But when I read the works of these men or listen to them, I find they don’t have the answers either, although they think they do. God hasn’t told us all things, and that’s the way it should be.
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Eschatology

By the Holy Spirit

Let’s turn to the Gospel of John at the point where our Lord is talking to His own disciples yonder in the Upper Room. This is what He said to them:

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. (John 16:12)

You see, God wants to tell you today a lot of things, but do you know what the trouble is? You’re not ready for them. God wants to tell me many things, but I’m not ready for them. Many of us are not prepared or ready for God to speak to us and give us new truth. Oh, how we need to stay in a position to receive new truths from God!

Our Lord continues speaking:

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. (John 16:13)

Only the Spirit of God can guide you into truth today. That’s the reason the Lord Jesus sent Him into the world — that He might be the One to teach you.

Many folks write to thank me for my teaching. Well, if they have gotten anything helpful from my speaking or writing, the Holy Spirit has been the teacher. He alone can open up the great truths of the Word of God. He is the only teacher in the world today who can teach us the Word of God. We are absolutely dependent upon Him.

As the Lord Jesus was preparing His disciples for His leaving them, He said:

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you…. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. (John 16:7, John 16:12-13)

Will you especially notice this: “And He will tell you things to come.” In my opinion that is our authority for studying prophecy. It is God’s delight, friend, to tell you some things He is going to do.

Although our Lord, when He was preparing to go back to heaven, told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth and He would show them things to come, they still weren’t prepared to receive some things. For instance, they didn’t believe Jesus was going to die. He didn’t reveal that to the disciples until six months before He went to Jerusalem to be crucified. He had told Nicodemus:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. (John 3:14)

But it must have been more than two years later that He first revealed His impending crucifixion to His disciples. And they didn’t understand even then.

Simon Peter said, “Far be that from You, Lord,” and our Lord just had to tell him that it was satanic to say a thing like that. My, how far Simon Peter was from the truth! He didn’t have any notion what was really going to happen. Our Lord, as He traveled with His disciples all the way from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem, reiterated to them again and again that He was going to Jerusalem to die.
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Eschatology

Well, He died; He was buried; He was raised from the dead; He was with them forty days (Acts 1:3); then He ascended into heaven and, as He promised, He sent the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them into all truth. And in the third chapter of Acts, listen to Simon Peter — he doesn’t even sound like the same fellow. He and John were at the temple; a crowd had gathered around them, amazed and wondering at the healing of the lame man, so Peter stood up and preached Jesus to them:

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. (Acts 3:18 )

Simon Peter didn’t see that before — you remember he didn’t. He had said, “Far be that from You, Lord,” but now that the Spirit of God had come and led him into all truth, Simon Peter says, “The prophets told all about this!”

My friend, the only way you and I can understand prophecy is by the Spirit of God. You see, He must take these things of Christ and show them to us, and our Lord said that “He will tell you things to come” (John 16:13).
 
For Our Edification

Now why and how does the Holy Spirit do that? Does He reveal these things in order to satisfy our curiosity, to entertain us for the evening perhaps? No. Prophecy is to affect our hearts and lives. That’s what John, who wrote the Book of Revelation, meant. God says:

Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:3)

And if prophecy doesn’t make you live a better life, if it doesn’t lead you to the place of separation to God, it is not fulfilling its purpose.

When I say “separation,” I do not mean some little man-made separation. I mean that you have presented yourself a living sacrifice to God. That is real separation, and that’s what the study of prophecy should produce, friend. If it doesn’t help you in your daily living, it is of no value. What difference does it make to know how many bowls of wrath are going to be poured out in judgment during the Great Tribulation unless it has some effect on your living here and now?

You will also find out that the Book of Daniel is a wonderful book for Christian living. You may be amazed at that statement, but it’s true. Did you know it’s one of the greatest books on separation that’s ever been written? And it’s one of the greatest books on prayer that’s ever been written.

Somebody might say, “I thought it was prophecy.” Oh, it is! But, you see, the purpose of prophecy is that “everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself.” Simon Peter is an example, as I’ve already pointed out. Before the Cross and before the Day of Pentecost, he was rebuking Christ for saying He was going to Jerusalem to die, but a short time later he was telling these religious rulers, “The prophets spoke about this.” Where did he find that out? “The Holy Spirit will show you things to come,” our Lord had told him.
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Eschatology

 
To Explain Coming Kingdom

And then there was something else. You remember, before the Day of Pentecost these apostles had asked Jesus about the coming Kingdom.

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” (Acts 1:6-7)

Believe me, the commentators have had a field day with that. They have put these apostles in the ring and really punched them for asking that question. You’d think they made the biggest mistake in the world by asking such a thing. But our Lord didn’t tell them they had made a mistake. They asked a very sensible question. Our Lord gave them a very sensible answer. He told them it wasn’t for them to know the times or the seasons when it would be, which means that it would not be established in their lifetime so it wouldn’t concern them.

And actually, it doesn’t concern us today either. After two thousand years, we still don’t know when the Kingdom will be established. We only know it has not been established yet. Oh, I know a lot of churches today are “building the Kingdom.” I used to go to denominational meetings, and always some brother was “building the Kingdom.” About the best thing they had to offer was a good-sized chicken coop which was a disgrace to any architect! But they’re still busy building it. The kingdom that I hear these folks talking about is not much of a kingdom, is it? Well, the reason we don’t know anything about it is because the Kingdom does not concern us at all.

“It is not for you to know times or seasons,” our Lord said. He will build it, and when He builds it, it’s going to be a good job. In fact, it’s going to be a wonderful job. And He hasn’t let out the contract to any church to build it. He still holds the contract. The Lord Jesus is the author of it, and He’s going to be the finisher of it. He is the One who drew the blueprints, and He is the One who is going to put the last shingle on the top. He’s not going to ask anybody down here to do it for Him. He is going to establish His own Kingdom.

Now you and I have another job to do which, of course, is to preach the gospel. But if statistics are correct, we’re not getting very far, are we? We’re sort of like the proverbial cat that climbed up the pole three feet during the daytime but slipped back three feet at night. He didn’t get up the pole very fast like that. And apparently we are not making any progress today in preaching the gospel. We ought to!

In the first chapter of Acts the apostles did not know much about the Kingdom, you see. But a little later they got an entirely different conception of it. Simon Peter said, speaking to the amazed crowd who had seen the lame man healed:

… and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before. (Acts 3:20)

Believe me, friend, this man Simon Peter is in on something now. He realizes that Jesus Christ has to come again in order to establish the Kingdom, although he thought at one time that Jesus would establish the Kingdom when He was here on earth.
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[nChrist]

Doctrine For Difficult Days
by J. Vernon McGee
Eschatology

Prophetic Divisions

It is helpful to know that prophecy can be divided not only into fulfilled and unfulfilled, that which is passed into history and that which is predicted in the future, but also it divides into Old Testament prophecy and New Testament prophecy. Here’s an example.
 
The Old Testament and the Church

Some prophecy applies to Israel, and some applies to the church. There’s a sharp division right here, so much so that I’d like to call your attention to something that will deliver you from making mistakes there. In the Old Testament no prophet gave any prediction concerning the church. When you get to the Book of Daniel I hope you will not make the mistake of thinking that Daniel is talking about the church, because he is not. That was not his theme at all. A great many people wonder why there is that hiatus, that silent period between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week of Daniel. Well, I’ll tell you why. Because between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week of Daniel, the church is being called out of this earth. Daniel was not writing about the church, friend. It’s a very reasonable explanation when you begin to look at it.

You’ll find that God revealed things to the prophets back in the Old Testament, but not one of them ever predicted the birth of the church, that is, the body of believers who came into existence on the Day of Pentecost. Not one prophet knew of it because it was not the theme of Old Testament prophecy. But it is the theme of New Testament prophecy.
 
The Cross and the Crown

Here is another division. Back in the Old Testament you will find that the prophets always put the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ together. They never made a division between the two. You must have the New Testament to know about the first coming of Christ. Then you are able to go back and make that division in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament you definitely have the two comings of Christ. You have His first coming as the suffering Savior and His second coming as the Sovereign. The first coming is the Cross; the second coming is the Crown.

Let me repeat that you’ll find them both back in the Old Testament, but the prophets never made that division — it was something they desired to look into. In the little Book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, we find that even up to that period, the prophet did not divide the first and second comings of Christ for us:

“Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.
But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire
And like launderers’ soap.
(Mal_3:1-2)

The first part of this passage is quoted in the New Testament by Mark as referring to Christ’s first coming:
As it is written in the Prophets:
“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You.”
(Mark 1:2)

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