Light on the Hill

Announcer: Next on Light on the Hill, hear about an interesting prophecy. When it's fulfilled, the Jews on earth will want to run for the hills.

Guest (Male): I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you. Because all I need is you. All I need is you.

In Mark chapter 13, Jesus gave us a remarkable description of the many things to expect in the last days. Several things he spoke of require drastic action when they happen. This is one such moment. If you're a Christian, be thankful we won't be here when these things happen. Here is Pastor James Kaddis on Light on the Hill.

James Kaddis: All right, well, it goes without saying and it doesn't really need much of an intro, but we are into this portion of Mark where Jesus is talking about the things that are going to happen as we lead into the second coming. Now, there are a few things that I want to talk about because I think that there are some big mistakes that end up getting made when we talk about Bible eschatology.

Eschatology is a fancy way of talking about the end times. Anytime we have these discussions, there is a sense of unawareness that often times floats with this because you have people on different extremes who believe different things. So much of the things that we often times hear being reiterated again and again and again come from a place of functional ignorance at times. In other cases, it just comes from the perspective of really not being taught.

When we get into these discussions, there's a lot of cockamamie conclusions that people come to and it's a very broken way of looking at things. I don't really get it. I think sometimes people in the Bible prophecy world, when they don't teach according to sound doctrine, they tend to just turn off complete common sense when it comes to passages that are often times associated with eschatological ascent.

The reality of it is, when we speak about eschatology, the Bible makes it very clear what's going to happen to us in the last days. We don't have to allegorize everything and we certainly don't have to tie metaphors or typologies to any of these things because the Bible rarely does. Some people will say, "James, look at the book of Revelation. It's filled with metaphors and allegories." Says who? Who says that? Does the Bible say that or do you say that?

What's the thought process? I think that if you'll give yourself to good, solid study through solid biblical eschatological ascent as it relates to the full counsel of God's word, you are going to realize very quickly that so much of it is completely literal. I don't even think a majority of what you read in the book of Revelation is somebody looking at an Apache helicopter that can't describe what that looks like, or somebody looking at an airplane, or somebody referring to a 200 million man army.

In reality, when we even look at passages like that, if you take them literally, they're a whole lot easier to understand, a whole lot easier to swallow, and a whole lot easier to recognize how deep the spiritual warfare is specifically within context of what happens in the last days. The whole Revelation 9 and the whole Revelation 16 conflation is mind-boggling.

You think about that. People will go look at how many individuals, what kind of resources it takes to build an army of 200 million, and then how do you transport that army? There are so many different weird thoughts, when in reality, the Bible never spoke about a human army of 200 million. The Bible actually speaks about a demonic horde of 200 million. Very different.

Again, the thing is, if we look at it specifically, if we seek to understand it for the way that the terminology was intended to be communicated, then so much of this will begin to make sense. Now, as it sits within Mark chapter 13, Jesus has already foretold the destruction of the temple. He's also making indirect reference to himself and he actually directly confirms that. We can see that in parallel gospel accounts.

Even more importantly and perhaps more consequentially, the disciples don't know what they're doing with the information that's being given to them and they're focusing on entirely the wrong things. We spoke about this at length last week, about how dangerous it is to get yourself to the point where you are allowing yourself to be focused on that which is sensational when instead you could find yourself in a position to develop a deeper and more thorough understanding of the more consequential issues if you will simply seek to take things at face value.

These apostles, who actually were amazing men who completely changed the world, at one point when Jesus said that the temple would be destroyed, they absolutely wanted to understand the aspect about it that deals with the sensationalism, the aspect about it that deals with the timing. Their very first gut response is, "When is it going to happen?"

Isn't that the world that we live in today? You've got people making all kinds of money online telling people, insisting that Jesus is going to come at a certain time. You had that guy from Africa, I'm going to call him the clown from Africa, that gave out multiple dates again and again and again. "Jesus is going to rapture the church here. Oh no, he's going to rapture the church there. Oh no, I was wrong. He's going to rapture the church on this date."

Actually, you're a liar. Instead of repenting and instead of actually saying, "I chose to deceive the people of God and make money off their hopes," he continued to go on lying. There are hundreds, if not thousands, if not millions of people that believed it, not because what he said was credible and not because what he said was even biblical. They believed it because they have this hope within them to want to see a better life, to want to see a better day.

If they were to look at the scriptures and understand it as they were intended to be communicated, quite literally and quite substantively, then perhaps their hope would be more realigned with what God is doing with them in the current moment. Understand that when the time does come, when we begin to see all of these things leading into the second coming, then we'll know we have great hope.

I'm excited about the fact that the things we're about to read about in Mark chapter 13, specifically when we start in verse 14, we will not be here for. I'm excited to tell you that we're going to be raptured before this time happens. I'm also excited to tell you that all of the events related to the second coming, as painful as they are and as difficult as they are, are also things that we should well acquaint ourselves with because we develop a deeper and more consequential understanding of the things that are to come.

Last night, or two nights ago, I had to stay late to get some videos done and to catch up on some footwork. My wife sends me a very depressing picture. It was depressing because I wanted to be the first house in the neighborhood, but I wasn't. It was encouraging because of the season that it talks about. My wife sends a picture of a house that has Christmas lights up and she says, "First in the neighborhood." Then it seems as though you see one and pretty soon they start just coming up fast.

Now, we are beginning to see the Christmas lights come up. We're beginning to see the Christmas trees. You go to Home Depot, I'm not kidding you guys, November the 1st, Saturday, we went to Home Depot because they had the kid workshop where they can go build whatever they want to build. We take the kids to that every single month. Literally as we get out of the car, they're already selling all the mini Christmas trees, all the Christmas decorations, they're all out, every kind of thing that you can think about.

It's kind of exciting because you know what it tells me? It tells me Thanksgiving is around the corner. That's exciting, isn't it? When Thanksgiving is up, then it's even more exciting because you know Christmas is coming and that's really cool. Then of course, it's not depressing for us when Christmas is over because Christmas really isn't over until after the New Year for us because in the Middle East, we celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. So we get two Christmas celebrations and it's super exciting.

My point is, when you begin to see all of these things come up, when you see the Christmas trees come up and you see that, you know that Thanksgiving is around the corner. We are beginning to see so many signs around us and those signs are telling us that the second coming is literally around the corner. We're not going to know the hour, we're not going to know the day, we're not going to know the time, just like we're not going to know the hour, the day, or the time of the rapture.

What we do know is that Christ rapturing the church is absolutely eminent. We also know that God has given us signs to look for concerning when to understand the second coming. As a matter of fact, Matthew chapter 24, which appears to be the parallel passage to this as well as Luke chapter 21, tells us that the very first sign that we will see that gives us an indicator that this will be the generation, as they would call it the fig tree generation, that will see the second coming is when the abomination that causes desolation takes place. That's where we leave off here in Mark chapter 13.

Let's jump into it here, verse 14. "But when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, let him that readeth understand, and let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains."

Okay, we're looking at the beginning of a parenthetical. Now, some of you might look at me and you might say, "James, what in the world is the abomination that causes desolation?" There will be a lot of people that will tell you that the abomination that causes desolation is what happened when Antiochus came in and actually poured pig's broth or pig's blood on the altar. It has absolutely nothing to do with Antiochus. That was a time in the past.

The abomination that causes desolation will be when the Antichrist sets himself up in the temple and demands to be worshiped. We get this from Daniel chapter 9, specifically in verse 27 that tells us that this is going to end up happening. There's a lot of context to be able to regard in Daniel chapter 9 that is absolutely important. It is critical for us to be able to understand what happens and what leads up to it.

The best way to understand this is to know that Daniel is studying Bible prophecy within the context of Daniel 9. We know that because at the very beginning of Daniel 9, Daniel says, "I understood by the words that I read from the prophet Jeremiah what the numbers would be for the restoration of our country, the restoration of those of us who hope and follow God into Jerusalem."

What you read is, and this is very interesting, I want everybody to pay attention to this. Daniel realizes because Jeremiah 29 makes this prediction, several other passages in Jeremiah make this prediction where he basically tells the people of God, and God of course is saying this through Jeremiah to the people, he tells the people, "You have been ripping me off for 490 years."

490 years I've been telling you every seventh year you're supposed to give the land a rest. You haven't obeyed me. Why didn't they obey them? Because they were hugely incentivized by the economic benefit that they were gaining from farming on the seventh year. Why is that? Because God made a deal with them. I think the deal is fantastic. I think it was a great deal and I for one would have taken them up on it.

The idea of resting for a whole year without any consequence is incredible. But God would tell the people, "Work for six days, you rest the seventh." By the way, that's a really good idea. I think the world that we live in today, especially with the youngsters that we have in this world, are all about resting for six days and working for one. That's if they're really hard working.

God says you work six days, on the seventh day you rest. He told them this: "Likewise, I want you to work for six years. Work the land, farm it. On the seventh year, give the land a rest. Do not farm the land." God was incredible in what he did because like clockwork, what would happen? Like clockwork on the sixth year, they would get enough crop, not just for that year, but they got enough crop for three years. Why did they get enough crop for three years? Well, it was for that year and then it was for the following year that they were supposed to give the land a rest and then it was for the year after that because once they go plant into the ground again, they weren't going to have a crop to be able to pull. So they needed those three years.

What did Israel do? What did the Jewish people do? They said, "Ah, you know what? We're going to take advantage of this opportunity." And they hustle and they sell the two years worth of extra crop. They make their money and then they go and plant in the ground on the seventh year. They recognized every sixth year is their bonus year, they take advantage of it, and they did that.

Most of us will say, "Well, that's terrible, that's horrible." I don't know how many of us would be quick to actually just say we're not going to do that. I think a majority of us would do exactly what the Jews did. But God said, "All right, for 490 years you've been doing this. You have not given the land a break. You owe me. You owe me 70 years. Since you won't repent, since you won't listen, since you won't obey, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to send my instrument. I'm going to send my tool, Nebuchadnezzar, known by the secular world as Nebuchadnezzar II. We're going to send him in and old Nebo is going to destroy you."

He's going to take what was left of all of Israel, which was the southern kingdom of Judah, and he's going to, and he did it. He did it on the 9th of Av, 586 BC. He literally destroyed Jerusalem. He took the lives of at least a half million men, women, and children in the city of Jerusalem and then destroyed the temple. The temple was completely gone.

Daniel was taken away in the first of the three sieges. He was taken away in 605 BC. Nebuchadnezzar did three sieges. The first one was in 605 BC. The second one was 595 BC. That's the one where Ezekiel was taken away. Then on the 9th of Av, 586 BC, that's where all of Israel or all of the southern kingdom was destroyed.

Of course, you can see Jeremiah weeping over it and that's where we get the book of Lamentations from, where Jeremiah lamented over the destruction of Jerusalem. It's interesting how Lamentations is broken up. It's broken up kind of in three sections and it's interesting to be able to understand, but the middle of Lamentations becomes really consequential in that the middle of Lamentations is another picture at the time that Jeremiah is lamenting that shows what it's going to look like when Jerusalem is restored and the people of God come back to that saving knowledge and experience all that God has for them.

Daniel of course counts it. He is now at 535 BC. He gets taken away in 605 BC. He's at 535 BC and that's when in Daniel chapter 9, he prays to the Lord and he says, "I don't know what to do, God. We sinned against you, we destroyed our lives, we got ourselves taken out of the land, and now we are at 70 years. I just finished reading Jeremiah. Jeremiah says that in 70 years you'll restore us back to the land. What do we do?"

That's when God begins to speak to Daniel and he tells Daniel exactly what to do. He explains to him. By the way, it's interesting, it's worth us going to Daniel for just a second. I have in my notes, "Don't go to Daniel." I'm going to Daniel. I know, I know, but it's worthwhile. We kind of got to do it. It's kind of important. It's after Ezekiel.

This is where Daniel tells us that he's reading Jeremiah's words. Look what he says, and this is actually how we know the dating, because he says, "In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem."

He's like, "Yeah, we got 70 years and the 70 years is about to be up and this is really, really big news. So I went to the Lord." By the way, this is such a great pattern for us to follow because what we do is we read what the word of God says and then based on what we know the word of God says, we go to God and we ask God for wisdom as to how we handle the information that we've been given, the information that's real and the information that's true.

I do that every single day when I make videos online. I say, "God, give me wisdom to communicate the things that you want me to communicate," because we live in a world of people who are self-proclaimed subject matter experts who think they know everything about the Middle East, they think they know everything about the Bible, and they completely, tragically destroy all the facts and continue to deceive people's minds.

I know what God's word says and I say, "God, you've proclaimed it, you've declared it in your word. Give me wisdom. What's next? What's the next step? What do you want me to do? How do you want us to act? How do we respond to this?" That's exactly what Daniel is doing. He's going to the Lord, he's saying, "God, I need to know. I don't know what to do."

He said in verse 3, "I set my face unto the Lord to seek by prayer and by supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes." Of course, the Lord appears to him after he repents, after he humbles himself, and the Lord makes it very clear to him what's happening. Look what it says. He says this in verse 24. This is the declaration that he makes to Daniel and this is very important that you pay attention to this.

Look what it says. He says in verse 24, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city." We know these 70 weeks relate to the Jews and it relates to Jerusalem. Who is "thy people"? It's not the church. The church isn't around at this time. So it is the Jews and it is Jerusalem. People say that the Jews are done. Read them passages like this. "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people," meaning the Jews, "and the holy city," that very city Jerusalem.

Now, there are six things that he says these 70 weeks are going to do and I want you to pay attention to this. Number one, to finish the transgression. Number two, to make an end of sins. Number three, to make reconciliation for iniquity. Number four, to bring in everlasting righteousness. Number five, to seal up the vision and the prophecy. Number six, to anoint the most holy.

Let me just make myself very clear. Item number one, item number two, and item number three were fulfilled in the first 69 weeks of Daniel. Items number one, two, and three were fulfilled in the first 69 weeks. Item number four, five, and six has not happened yet and will be fulfilled as a result of the 70th week.

God's word is accurate and God's word is precise and God's word is quite obvious and you can do the math with respect to how these weeks actually ended up. Look what he says concerning this, verse 25: "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. The street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times."

What are we talking about here? First of all, let's look at how the timeline starts. We're talking about a very important timeline. He says, "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." The going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem happened on March 14th, 445 BC by a king who is titled Artaxerxes. His name is Longimanus. You can read about this in Nehemiah chapter 2.

If you take March 14th, 445 BC, and I do not have the time to explain how 69 weeks translates to 173,880 days. Suffice it to say, let me just simply say this: we're talking about a Babylonian calendar. If we're talking about a Babylonian calendar, that means each week is representative of seven days. Each day is representative of an actual year.

If you take 69 weeks and you multiply those times the amount of days that are in those weeks, you get yourself that number of years. It would technically be 483 years. When you get the 483 years and you multiply it times 360, that brings you to 173,880 days.

Day one of that 173,880 days takes you to the declaration that Artaxerxes Longimanus makes on 445 BC on that very specific day. If you count 173,880 days and you put all the math together, it brings you to March 29th, 33 AD, which happens to be the day that Jesus rides in on the donkey into Jerusalem and they're saying "Hosanna, Hosanna," they're saying "save now," and that is the beginning of the very week that he is executed when he actually dies.