Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 2 * PART 2 * BOOK 74
CONNECTING THE DOTS OF SCRIPTURE – PART 6
Genesis through Revelation
Okay, it’s good to see everybody back. You’ve had your coffee, and again we want to welcome our television audience and say thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, I just can’t thank you enough for your prayers and your letters of encouragement and then, above everything else, your financial help. After all, television is expensive, and I will not run up a bill. If we can’t pay for the time, then we have to drop the station. So far we haven’t had to. It just keeps coming in. And we just thank you from the depths of our heart, because even through the summer when a lot of ministries have a hard time, we haven’t had any drop at all. So again, we just know it’s a God-thing, and we just praise Him for it.
Okay, we’re going to keep right on with our line of the coming Earthly Kingdom. For this series of programs, we’re going to be looking at the physical attributes of this Kingdom and hopefully help people see that this Kingdom is going to be right here on this planet earth, although God is going to renovate the earth first. The whole planet is going to be renovated and made like the Garden of Eden, and, as we pointed out at the beginning of our last program, even the animal kingdom will revert back to the behavior that it had before the Fall. In other words, nothing killed something else for food. There was no death. And it’s going to go back to that.
All right, now we’re going to continue on up through the Book of Isaiah, and we’re going to start in Isaiah chapter 34 verse 1. The reason I’m doing this is to show you that the Kingdom will immediately follow the horrors of the Tribulation, which ends, of course, with the Battle of Armageddon. That’s why I’m going to start here with chapter 34; it’s just an introduction to the Kingdom described in 35.
Isaiah 34 and we’re going to start at verse 1. Now remember what we’re doing. We’re going back to see what’s going to take place just before Christ returns and sets up His Kingdom.
Isaiah 34:1
“Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken; ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation (or the wrath, the vexation) of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.”
Now we have done this before. You’ve got to realize that those final months of the seven years are going to be beyond human description. The Lord Himself said it in Matthew 24:21 – “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” So, don’t ever think for a minute that this is just a stretch of a prophet’s imagination. This is the Holy Spirit inspired account of those coming days.
Isaiah 34:3-4a
“Their slain (in other words, the dead) also shall be cast out and their stink (or their odor) shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 4. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll:…” Revelation says the same thing. All right, verse 5.
Isaiah 34:5
“For my sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, (Which, of course, is the whole human race.) to judgment.”
Now, let’s skip some of these, because it’s just a graphic description of the horrors that are going to take place at the Second Coming. Now, I wasn’t intending to do this, but again, I have to whenever I get the chance. You know, there is such scorn lately of the Rapture. I think we’re under attack more than has ever been in the last 2,000 years. Where people are almost getting hateful of our teaching of a sudden disappearance of the believers. And when they try to write letters of argument, and I’ve mentioned this before, the only Scriptures they use are all those pertaining to the Second Coming; which, of course, are the four Gospels and Revelation and the Old Testament. They utterly ignore Paul’s Epistles, and that’s where the Rapture is.
And see, this is another thing they can’t get through their heads—that the references to the Second Coming are all like this—the horrors and the death and the destruction that’s going to take place on planet Earth leading up to Christ’s Second Coming. Paul never speaks of those kinds of things. And I think I did it in the last taping. All Paul speaks of leading up to the Rapture is a social breakdown. II Timothy chapter 3 starting with verse 1, “…in the last days perilous times shall come. 2. For men shall be lovers of themselves… 4. …more than lovers of God.” There’s going to be this moral breakdown and apostasy in Christendom but not a word about death and destruction. Not a word. And that triggers the Rapture. But the Second Coming is filled with these kinds of prophecies.
All right, let’s go on into chapter 35 of Isaiah and get away from all the language of horror and get into the language of hope of this glorious Earthly Kingdom. Now remember, this is primarily promised to the Nation of Israel. This is not promised to the Body of Christ. Now, how much we are going to have to do with this Earthly Kingdom I’m getting further and further removed from understanding, because a lot of the things that I always used to associate with it aren’t for the Body of Christ, they’re for the Nation of Israel. So, again, I’m just going to leave it at that. Here the prophet again is addressing God’s chosen people.
Isaiah 35:1
“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” Now, isn’t that a far cry from what we just read in chapter 34? My! What a difference. Do you see that?
Isaiah 35:2
“It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon (Now Lebanon, of course, in antiquity was known for its beautiful landscape; the cedars of Lebanon, you know that.) shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, (which are beautiful places in the land of Israel) they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.”
Isaiah 35:3-4
“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 4. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, (back there in the Tribulation) even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.” Now we come back to those that have survived the Tribulation and are now going into the Kingdom.
Isaiah 35:5-6a
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb will sing:…” All of these things that were part of the curse will suddenly be corrected. Now verse 7:
Isaiah 35:7-9a
“And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. 9. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon,…” Because that’s all part of the curse. All right, now the last verse.
Isaiah 35:10
“And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs (see, not the cry of wrath and death and destruction, but–) and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Now this is on the planet, beloved, not up there in what we call Heaven; but it’s going to be a heavenly atmosphere on this planet.
All right, now let’s jump ahead to Jeremiah 23 verse 1, and he picks up the same tune that Isaiah has just left us with. While you’re looking it up, I’ve got my timeline back here in front of me, and we’re going to run over that for a minute, quickly. Remember that the first eleven chapters of Genesis took us up to chapter 12—the Abrahamic Covenant and the appearance of the Nation of Israel. All right, now from Genesis chapter 12 all the way up through our Old Testament economy 500 years after Abraham, we come to Moses, and we started out with that in Exodus 19 and the giving of the Law at about 1500 B.C.
Five hundred years later (1000 B.C.), we have David and Solomon and the Nation of Israel at the peak of glory in its Old Testament time. Then we come to the time of the prophets and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Then, of course, at the time of Daniel, about 600 B.C., we have the Babylonian invasion and the destruction of the temple. And that has all been called the “Time of the Gentiles” – when Israel would be under the heavy boot of first the Babylonians, then the Medes and then the Greeks and then the Romans, which takes us all the way up to sometime beyond Christ’s First Advent.
All right, now all the prophets are talking in terms of two distinct events always in succession. The first one is, there had to be judgment and chastisement, and that was such as the Babylonian invasion. Israel had gone into stark idolatry and rebellion and God chastised them with that Babylonian invasion. They went out into 70 years of captivity, but then they came back and rebuilt the Temple and went under God’s blessings for a period of time. That led us all the way up to Christ’s earthly ministry, bringing the prophets all these promises of chastisement and blessing, chastisement and blessing—three of them.
Now the first chastisement I’ve already mentioned was Babylon. Then the next one was the Roman invasion in A.D. 70. They’ve been under the chastisement for almost 2,000 years; and the blessing is about to come, which will be this glorious Kingdom. Now all the Old Testament promises are leading up to Christ’s First Advent. Then, so far as prophecy was concerned, yes, He would be rejected. He would be crucified. He’d be three days in the tomb. He’d be resurrected and then spend forty days with the Twelve. Then He ascended back to Glory, and then, so far as the Old Testament and the Gospels and everything were concerned, in would come the Tribulation. Those final seven years are always divided 3 ½ and 3 ½.
That’s why we can determine a seven-year period. Daniel speaks of 490 years. But only 483 were fulfilled. So, we’ve got seven years left. That’s just plain arithmetic. All right, then we come to the Book of Revelation. It stipulates 42 months and 42 months, that’s 3½ years and 3 ½ years. Another chapter will say 1,260 days and 1,260 days; 3 ½ years and 3 ½ years. All of Scripture fits into this seven-year time frame. So, don’t let people try to foul your thinking with all these other things. But we have this final seven years always divided in half, because the first half will not be anything like the last half.
All right, then, as we’ve already seen today, these seven years will lead up to the Second Coming and the coming in of the Kingdom. Now, all through Scripture there was not one hint but that it would all be coming right down the line. In other words, the Tribulation would take place just a few years after the ascension and the Second Coming. So, this was all going to take place in the lifetime of people living here after Christ ascended back to glory. Now think for a minute. Take the twelve disciples, for example. What do you suppose was their average age? Just a guess. How old do you think the disciples were? In their thirties? All right, now we know that from the crucifixion until sometime after Peter starts preaching at Pentecost, we’ll say five years go by. And that would have brought in the Tribulation. So, five plus seven would take you twelve years beyond the crucifixion, and you’d have the what? The Kingdom.
All right, so if the guys were 40 and twelve years later they are still only what? Fifty-two. So you see, this whole top line could have easily taken place in the lifetime of the people that were living at the time that Christ ministered. They had no idea that God was going to do something different. Because you see, after we’ve gone past the ascension, instead of the Tribulation taking place, Israel rejected it all when they stoned Stephen. That was shortly after His ascension, remember. All right, so they stoned Stephen. And who are we introduced to at the stoning of Stephen? Paul—who would be going to the Gentiles—not with the Gospel of the Kingdom, but rather with the Gospel of Grace.
And that’s what you have to understand. That all of a sudden Israel rejects their Messiah; rejects all these Old Testament promises, and God says, I’ll do something different. Just like He did when He called Abraham. He had one race of people. He had been dealing with them for 2,000 years, and what does God say in so many words, I’m going to do something different. And He raised up Abraham.
All right, now it’s the same way when Israel rejected and rejected. They stoned Stephen—we’ll not have this Jesus of Nazareth ruling over us—and we’re introduced to the next major player, Saul of Tarsus. All right, that means that God was going to put this whole timeline on hold. That’s why we drop it down to a second line now. Instead of bringing in the Tribulation, we bring in the Dispensation of Grace.
When this Dispensation of Grace for the out-calling of the Gentile Body is complete, it has to be taken out so that God can finish this top line dealing with Israel. And it’s so obvious from Scripture if you realize that only Paul speaks of the Rapture. Nobody else knows about it, as it was given only to Paul. The Rapture will happen when the Body of Christ is complete and just before the seven-year Tribulation begins. And so, as I’ve already pointed out, the Second Coming is associated with nothing but the wrath and destruction and the vengeance of God setting the stage for the Kingdom that’s still future.
All right, now at break time I had Sharon put on the board, again, the three circles explaining the Kingdom of God. I thought I did that Kingdom of God and Body of Christ six months ago. I went back and checked the books, and you know how long it was? That’s over two years, Sharon. That’s over two years ago. Man, it seems like six months. But anyhow, we did a whole series on the circles that she’s got here now. The Kingdom of Heaven and The Body of Christ, but they’re all in the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is everything from eternity past to eternity future that is under God’s righteous control. There’s nothing of evil in here. There’s nothing of eternal doom in here. There’s nothing of the Lake of Fire in here. This is only that which pertains to God’s righteousness, which would be: Heaven, the angelic hosts, the Old Testament saints, the Gospel’s, Christ’s earthly ministry saints, the Tribulation saints, and the Body of Christ saints. We’re all in the Kingdom of God. But we’re not in there in a mumble-jumble group. We’re in there in two totally separate entities.
Everything pertaining to the Old Testament believers all the way from Adam until the Second Coming, which would include the Tribulation believers, they’re in the Kingdom of Heaven. They’re either going to come in here as flesh and blood, having survived the Tribulation and having become believers from the 144,000 preaching. If they’re martyred, they’re going to be resurrected and brought into the Kingdom of Heaven along with the Old Testament Saints. If they’ve managed to stay alive, then they’ll come into the Kingdom as flesh and blood, as we’ve been looking at now this afternoon.
All right, now if we don’t get to it this afternoon, then in our next taping we’re going to talk about that other group of believers who are in the Kingdom of God, which is the Body of Christ. But they’re two totally separate entities. And that’s what we have to understand.
Okay, now let’s go back to where I just was in Jeremiah chapter 23. Let’s start at verse 1. Now again, we’re going to be looking at the physical attributes of this glorious Earthly Kingdom that’s coming. Like I said in the last half hour, we don’t know when, but it’s closer today than it was yesterday. Tomorrow it’s going to closer yet, because we’re moving ever nearer and nearer. Now again, we’re going to back up a little bit in time to the reason God had to bring in wrath and destruction.
Jeremiah 23:1
“Woe be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! Saith the LORD.” Now remember, who is Jeremiah writing to? Israel. The pastors here are the priests and the religious leaders of Israel.
Jeremiah 23:2-3
“Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; (This is all Jewish.) Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. 3. And I will gather the remnant (the believing remnant) of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.” Now then, we’re coming into the Kingdom economy again. Reading on…
Jeremiah 23:4-5a
“And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. 5. Behold, the days come, (Now it hasn’t happened yet. Nobody can ever tell me that this took place any time in the past.) saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, (And that’s capitalized, because Branch is another one of the Old Testament terminologies for the Messiah. All right, and so–) and a (What’s the next word?) King shall reign, and prosper,…”
Now that just reminds me. You know, sometimes I do things that I don’t intend to do. Come back with me to Revelation, so that we compare Scripture with Scripture. That’s the name of the game. Now Revelation is a New Testament book that is written in the same order for the Nation of Israel, to give them a road map of what’s ahead. It’s not church language; it’s Jewish language. All right, so Revelation chapter 19 and let’s just start at verse 11. Now remember why I came back here, the word King that Jeremiah uses.
Revelation 19:11
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” See, that’s the Tribulation.
Revelation 19:12-14
“His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: (because of His victims) and his name is called The Word of God. 14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.”
Revelation 19:15
“And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, (in other words, the Word of God) that with it (His Word) he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron:” (In other words, there’s no funny business in the Kingdom. He’s going to be a benevolent King, but He will tolerate no opposition. All right, so He’s going to rule with an absolute, and then–) and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” As He winds up the Tribulation. And now here it comes. When He appears at His Second Coming and He sets up His Kingdom, here’s His title now.
Revelation 19:16
“And He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” My, that reminds me of Handel’s Messiah, doesn’t it? But that’s what He’s going to be. He’s going to be the King of Kings! Why is that so hard for people to swallow? He has every right, and all of Scripture is prophesying it. All right, back to Jeremiah. My goodness, I’ve only got three minutes left. Back to Jeremiah 23.
Jeremiah 23:5
“Behold, the days come, (See, it hasn’t happened yet.) saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King (God the Son!) shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment (or I always take the term government) and justice in the earth.” Now, is that plain enough? We’re not talking about Heaven; we’re talking about planet Earth.
Jeremiah 23:6
“In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” And if I remember my Hebrew right, that’s “Tsidkenu.”
Jeremiah 23:7-8a
“Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; (That’s what it’s always been so far. But at this point in time, it’s going to be a little different saying.) 8. But the LORD liveth, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country; (Primarily Russia and northern Europe.) and from all countries whither I had driven them;…”
And we know, from Deuteronomy 30 verses 1 and 2, that the Jews would be scattered into every nation on this planet. And then at a point afterwards, God would bring them back to their homeland. We always use that in association with the signs of the times of Matthew 16. And there they are, back in the land! My goodness, I tell everybody that if for no other reason, we know this Book is true because the Jew, against all odds, is back in their homeland. And our politicians are too stupid to know the difference. It’s just unbelievable. Why can’t anybody recognize that these people who have been scattered for 1,900 and some years are, against all odds, back in Jerusalem? Back in their homeland. All of Scripture says it was going to happen.
All right, now we’re going to end this so we can move on in our next program, but again verse 8:
Jeremiah 23:8
“But, The LORD liveth, who brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries from whither I had driven the; and they shall dwell in their own land.” Does this Book lie? Well, it can’t. So, is it going to happen? Yes, it’s going to happen. And we’re getting closer every day. All the things that are taking place in the world are getting ready for this glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.