Biblical Church History

1. Biblical Church History Following the Hand of God and the Hand of Satan

2. THE CHURCH PERIODS

3. THE 7 PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY

4. Smyrna Revelation 2:8-11 c. 200-325 A.D. “Bitterness and death”

5. Smyrna I. The Commission Rev. 2: 8a

6. (Rev 2:8) And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;

7. Smyrna II. The Character Rev. 2:8b

8. (Rev 2:8) And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;

9. Smyrna III. The Commendation Rev. 2:9-10

10. Smyrna A. It was a persecuted Church “bitterness and death”

11. (Rev 2:9) I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. (Rev 2:10) Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

12. THE TEN OFFICIAL ROMAN PERSECUTIONS

13. Smyrna B. It was a performing Church “bitterness and death”

14. Smyrna C. It was a poverty stricken Church “bitterness and death”

15. Smyrna IV. The Condemnation Rev. 2:9-10

16. (Rev 2:9) I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

17. Smyrna A. The progression of Bible deviations “bitterness and death”

18. THE FALSE DOCTRINE THAT GOD IS DONE WITH THE JEW

19. S M Y r N A THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THIS TEACHING • Our lord calls this teaching Satanic and Blasphemous • He also is letting us know that this will be one of the fundamental doctrine that Satan will use to build his counterfeit church (Religious system)

20. S M Y r N A WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS DOCTRINE THAT OUR LORD IS REFERRING TO? • During this time the Ante-Nicene church fathers began to teach that: • Because the Christian is a Spiritual Jew (Romans 2) • Therefore he is also a Physical Jew • Therefore all the promises in the Word of god to the Jew are now given to the Church. • And because of that God is now through with the Jews

21. S M Y r N A WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS DOCTRINE THAT OUR LORD IS REFERRING TO? • Further ramifications of this teaching: • The Christian has replaced the Jew • The Church has replaced Israel • And the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are the same

22. MILLENNIAL REIGN

23. S M Y r N A • What you believe about the Jew will put you in one of three Categories doctrinally when it comes to the Biblical teaching of the Millennial reign • Pre-Millennial • Post-Millennial • A-Millennial

24. S M Y r N A Understanding the different views of the millennium • Pre = Before • A pre - millennialist believes that Christ will return before the 1000 year reign • Post = After • A post - millennialist believes that Christ will return after the 1000 year region. • A = Not • A – millennialist believe that Christ is NOT going to come back to reign on this earth

25. Three relevant examples of what happens doctrinally when you lose sight of the Jew:

26. BAPTISM

27. TONGUES

28. ETERNAL SECURITY

29. Warning! The millennial reign issue is always a Political issue… because it deals with Governmental authority on Earth

30. (Isa 9:6-7) For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

31. PRE-MILLENNIAL REIGN

32. S M Y r N A PRE-MILLENNIALIST • We Don’t believe God is done with the Jew • We believe Christ came the first time to establish the kingdom of God..(a spiritual Kingdom) • We believe Christ came the first time to establish the kingdom of heaven..(a physical kingdom) • We believe the kingdom of Heaven was rejected by the Nation of Israel, so God turned to the Gentile.

33. S M Y r N A PRE-MILLENNIALIST • But we don’t believe that means God is finished with the Jews!!! • We believe Rom.9,10,11.. “Blindness in part is happened to Israel..” And we simply entered a parenthesis called the “Church Age.” (70 weeks of Daniel) • Believe God will restore the Nation of Israel, and all the promises in the Word of God to them will be fulfilled. • We leave their promises alone, and claim promises intended for the church..

34. S M Y r N A PRE-MILLENNIALIST • We invest our time, resources, and energies in reproducing spiritual “sons of God” on the earth • We believe our job is to make disciples in every nation. • The premillennialists’ view and approach toward human government:..We believe every government is destine for failure

35. POST-MILLENNIAL REIGN

36. S M Y r N A POST-MILLENNIALIST • They believe the job of the Christian is to make the world a better place in which to live…(i.e. To bring about peace on earth, and good will toward men)..And when we get the world to that place, THEN Christ will come back to rule for 1000 years. • This belief proves that man is an incurable optimist

37. S M Y r N A POST-MILLENNIALIST • That’s why the Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Southern Baptist approach missions the way they do: Socially • Feed the poor • Build a school • Build a hospital • The postmillennialists view and approach toward human government:

38. The Postmillennial View By Jay RogersPublished April 2008 Postmillennialism (literally, “after the thousand years”) is the belief that Christ will physically return to the earth only after a non-literal millennium is completed. Postmillennialism is optimistic about the end times. Christ’s reign over the earth from heaven increases during the millennium, which is thought to be not a literal one thousand year period, but “a very long time.” Postmillennialism places the Church in a role of transforming whole social structures before the Second Coming and endeavoring to bring about a “Golden Age” of peace and prosperity with great advances in education, the arts, sciences and medicine.

39. Rick Warren The author of the all-time best seller “The Purpose Driven Life” wants church members to get involved in fighting poverty and disease around the world. Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church in California, calls the church “the untapped giant” in the struggle to end poverty. In an interview with host Peggy Wehmeyer, Warren says, “My goal is to move the American church from selfish consumerism to unselfish contribution.” He says helping the poor is what being a Christian is all about.

40. Soulful Matters By Kenneth L. Woodward | NEWSWEEK From the magazine issue dated Oct 31, 1994 …She thinks like a Methodist, talks like a Methodist and wants to reform society just like a well-Sunday-schooled Methodist churchwoman should. ""I am,'' she told Newsweek in an exclusive interview at the White House last week, ""an old-fashioned Methodist.''

41. ""She's really a self-churched woman,'' says the Rev. Donald Jones, her former youth minister, who developed his privileged suburban students' social consciences by taking them to visit migrant workers' children. More than other Protestants, Methodists are still imbued with the turn-of-the-century social gospel, which holds that Christians have been commissioned to build the Kingdom of God on earth.

42. And like her mother, 14-year-old Chelsea Clinton is being raised a Methodist. The Methodist ethos extends to politics as well. The First Lady's speech in April 1993 calling for ""remodeling society by redefining what it means to be a human in the 20th century'' may have startled some listeners, but its ambitious optimism was fully consonant with the Methodists' liberal social creed

43. Religion in the Civil War: The Northern Side James Howell MoorheadPrinceton Theological Seminary …To examine Protestant attitudes in the 1860s is thus to learn much about the popular mood and motivations of Northerners as their "boys" marched off to war. We will look at three of these attitudes of Northern Protestants:

44. Next, Christian ministers often portrayed the war for the Union in millennial terms. Drawing on the imagery of the twentieth chapter of Revelation and on other portions of the Bible describing events near the close of history, they suggested that a Northern victory might prepare the way for the Kingdom of God on earth.

45. a technical term designating those who believed that the Second (This did not mean that they expected Jesus to return visibly or literally in the near future. Most Northern ministers were postmillennialists {a technical term designating those who believed that the Second Coming of Jesus would occur after the millennium or the thousand years of earthly bliss foretold in the twentieth chapter of Revelation.} In this scheme, no visible return of Jesus could be in the offing since that event, at the earliest, had to be at least a thousand years away.)

46. Yet even if most did not expect an early literal return of Jesus, they did anticipate that current events would lead shortly to a time when God's reign would be more thoroughly established on earth. Thus one Baptist minister, preaching in Philadelphia in 1863, claimed that the defeat of the rebellion would bring a time that the Founding Fathers of the republic "pictured and dreamed about, and prayed for. It will come with blessings, and be greeted with Hallelujahs, it will be the Millennium of political glory

48. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;His truth is marching on.Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling campsThey have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;His day is marching on.Chorus I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,Since God is marching on. Chorus

49. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;Our God is marching on. Chorus In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;[originally …let us die to make men free]While God is marching on. Chorus He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,Our God is marching on.