Participants: Robb Long
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000104
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00:31 Hello and welcome back to Faith Chapel.
00:32 I'm Robb Long, the speaker for the 00:34 Revelation of Hope seminar based in Kansas City. 00:38 Well friends we've been studying what is call the 00:41 moral purpose of prophecy Today we have part three 00:45 our four part series, once again I want to encourage 00:48 you to try to obtain a copy of the moral purpose 00:51 of prophecy the book by Louis Weir 00:53 and you can get information on how to obtained 00:56 your copy by contacting 3ABN. 00:59 You know, in this series we are discovering to our 01:02 delight that a relationship with Jesus and salvation 01:05 through faith in him is taught not only in the 01:08 Gospel of the Bible, but also in the amazing 01:11 prophecies of the Bible as well. 01:13 In fact we are finding that every correct interpretation 01:16 of prophecy it shines a bright light 01:18 directly on the Jesus and reveals that salvation 01:22 from sin comes through faith in him. 01:26 Every correct interpretation of prophecy 01:28 will strengthen your soul to resist sin and encourage 01:32 you to seek the righteousness of Christ. 01:35 This is the moral purpose for which prophecy is given. 01:40 Again our theme text, Second Peter chapter 1, 01:43 in verse 19, there Peter says, 01:45 we have also a more sure word of prophecy; 01:49 where unto you do well that you take heed, 01:52 as unto a light. A light that shineth 01:55 in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star, 01:59 that's Jesus arise in your hearts: 02:01 Friends according to Peter, the purpose of prophecy and 02:04 and the study of prophecy is to cause Jesus and his 02:09 righteousness and his character and his glory to 02:12 arise within our hearts. Now, Satan knows 02:16 the power of Bible prophecy to reveal Christ 02:18 and salvation through his name and so, 02:21 Satan tries to rob the scripture of it's life 02:24 changing, transforming power. And he brings in false 02:27 interpretations, private interpretations of prophecy 02:32 that are not inspired by the Holy Spirit. 02:34 And we've learned that we must be very careful 02:37 how we study prophecy. Lest we be mislead 02:40 by Satan's devices and by another spirit 02:43 other than the Holy Spirit. Now we have seen that 02:47 we can learn a great deal friends, 02:49 by the mistakes of others in the past, 02:52 when it comes to interpreting the prophecy. 02:55 It has been said that those who do not learn 02:57 from the past they are doomed or destined to repeat it. 03:00 Well, I don't believe that you and I have to repeat 03:04 the failures of people in the past when it comes 03:07 to interpreting prophecy. I think we can learn 03:10 from their mistakes and then we can avoid 03:13 the pitfalls that Satan has so craftily 03:15 laid for our feet in these last days. 03:19 Now, we have found that the Jews of Christ 03:22 time as a people, as a nation they failed 03:26 to study prophecy in the light of God's 03:28 moral purpose for them as a people. 03:31 They read the prophecies, they studied them, 03:35 but for all of their knowledge, 03:36 they did not understand the prophecies 03:39 that they read. And, so great was their 03:41 misunderstanding of the prophecies 03:43 that they actually fulfilled those prophecies 03:46 and didn't even know that they were doing it. 03:49 Unwillingly, the Jews of Christ time fulfilled 03:53 all that was written of him, the Messiah in 03:56 condemning him to death, not knowing what they did. 04:00 How could such a thing happen, 04:02 how could such a zealous, earnest, sincere group 04:05 of religious people miss the boat so completely? 04:08 Well, we learned that the Jewish leaders 04:11 were not in harmony with Christ's moral purpose 04:15 and his mission which was to save them 04:17 from their sin. Desire of Ages page 212 04:22 told us that the Jewish leaders had studied 04:24 the teachings of the prophets concerning the Kingdom 04:27 of the Messiah, but they had done 04:29 this not with a sincere desire to know the truth, 04:32 but with the purpose of the finding evidence 04:34 to sustain their own ambitious hopes. 04:37 They studied the prophecies, but they didn't, 04:40 they weren't so interested in what kind of Messiah 04:43 he would be and the truth about him as a Messiah 04:46 and the principles of his kingdom as they were 04:48 about finding evidence to support what they hoped 04:51 would happen, the kind of Messiah 04:53 they were hoping for and the kind of kingdom 04:55 that they desired. The Jews of Christ time, 04:58 what were they hoping for? Well, they hoped 05:00 to be exalted above all the other nations 05:02 as God's chosen people. They hoped to be the head 05:05 and not the tail, the lender and not the borrower. 05:09 Even the disciples of Jesus early on were cherishing 05:14 hopes of sitting at Christ's right hand 05:17 and ruling with him in a glorious kingdom 05:19 of earthly prosperity. Now, there is something 05:24 that we must consider very carefully. 05:28 Friends, did you know that millions of professing 05:31 Christians today are misapplying the 05:34 prophecies about literal Israel and the Messiah 05:38 in the same fashion as did the Jews 05:40 of Jesus time, did you know that? 05:42 Think about it, think about it. 05:46 The Jews chose prophecies, they chose prophecies 05:49 that promised the triumph of Israel over their 05:53 literal enemies in battle. They selected prophecies 05:56 like Ezekiel 38, Ezekiel chapter 39, 05:59 Zechariah chapter 12 and chapter 14, 06:01 that all depicted the triumph of Israel 06:05 as a nation over their literal enemies in battle. 06:08 And, they took those prophecies literally they 06:11 cleaned them and they felt certain of God's 06:14 protection and blessing upon them in battle. 06:16 And, you know today friends many Christian teachers 06:20 are interpreting these prophecies of Israel 06:22 in the very same way. Teaching that Israel 06:25 as a nation will always be favored by God 06:28 and will always be assured of his protective care 06:31 and favor, but listen both the 06:35 Jewish Rabbis of Jesus time and many Christians 06:38 teachers today have failed to recognized the 06:41 spiritual qualities, the spiritual characteristics 06:44 that are required of those whose victory in battle 06:48 is assured by God. And, here is a case in point. 06:51 In Jeremiah of 31 verses 35 and 36, 06:55 God says, thus saith the Lord, 06:58 which giveth the Sun for a light by day, 07:00 and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars 07:03 for a light by night, which divided the sea 07:06 when the waves there of roar, 07:07 the Lord of hosts is his name. 07:10 And then he says if those ordinances speaking 07:13 of the Sun and the moon of the stars depart 07:15 from before me, says the Lord, 07:16 then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being 07:19 a nation before me forever. Now, the Jews, 07:24 they read these verses and they thought well, 07:26 this is telling us that just as the Sun and the moon 07:30 and the stars will always remain in place. 07:33 So, Israel as a nation will always be God's 07:37 chosen favorite people, but they had no conditions 07:42 on this prophecy. But notice, 07:44 notice the verse that comes before this prophecy 07:48 that we just read. It's in Jeremiah 31 07:51 in verse 33 and look what it says there. 07:53 God says this shall be the covenant that I will 07:56 make with the house of Israel after those days, 07:58 says the Lord. I will put my law 08:00 in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, 08:03 and they will be, I'm sorry and they 08:05 and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 08:09 Now, the promise of Israel being a nation was all 08:12 conditioned on a covenant that God 08:14 was making with them, a covenant is an 08:15 agreement friends. And, there are always at least 08:17 two parties in an agreement and there are conditions 08:19 that both parties must meet in order for the contract 08:22 to be enforced. God said, if I can write 08:24 my law in your hearts and in your minds, 08:27 then I'll be your God and you will be my people 08:29 and just as the Sun and moon and the stars 08:32 will always remain, so you will always 08:34 remain as my people. But it was all conditioned 08:37 on his law being written in their hearts. 08:40 That's the moral purpose of prophecy. 08:42 Desire of Ages page 106, put it this way 08:44 "To a people in whose heart his law is written, 08:48 the favor of God is assured". 08:51 Friends the favor of God is assured, 08:53 but it's the people in his heart his law is written, 08:57 but in this and many other instances the Jewish nation 09:01 over looked these conditions upon which the promises 09:05 to them were made. And, in overlooking 09:07 the conditions of course they failed to experience 09:11 and realize those conditions and as a result 09:14 of that they forfeited their title to those 09:18 promised blessings that had been made. 09:22 Notice how Jesus recognized this reality 09:26 and he confronted the Jews leaders of his time 09:29 with this sobering truth. In Matthew 21, 09:33 in verse 43, Matthew 21:43, 09:35 as Jesus saw that the Jewish people and their leaders 09:38 were rejecting him as the Messiah. 09:40 That they had said, we will not have this man 09:42 to reign over us and one day they would say 09:45 we have no king, but Caesar. 09:46 Jesus spoke very seriously and he said, 09:50 I say to you the kingdom of God will be taken 09:54 from you and given to a nation bringing 09:59 forth the fruits thereof. The kingdom of God 10:03 will be taken from you he said and given to a 10:06 nation bringing forth the fruits there of. 10:08 Friends, one of the clearest and most consistent teachings 10:11 in the New Testament is the principle that 10:14 the kingdom promises made to national Israel 10:16 in the Old Testament are given to a new nation 10:19 of people in the New Testament Era. 10:22 Notice what Paul says in Romans chapter 2, 10:25 verses 28 and 29. There Paul says, 10:28 for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, 10:32 neither is that circumcision, which is outward 10:34 in the flesh. But he says, 10:37 he is a Jew, which is one inwardly 10:39 and circumcision is that of the heart, 10:41 in the spirit and not in the letter, 10:43 whose praise is not of men, but of God. 10:48 Friends according to Paul in the New Testament Era? 10:50 A person is not a Jew based on any ethnic 10:53 or heritage or lineage, neither on any outward sign 10:58 like circumcision, a person is a Jew 11:01 spiritually inwardly, circumcision is that 11:04 of the heart. Now, Jesus said that 11:08 the kingdom would be taken from national Israel 11:10 and given to a nation that brings forth the 11:12 fruit there of. What are the fruits 11:14 of the true people of God that receive the kingdom? 11:17 Well, in Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23, 11:21 look what Paul says there. But the fruit of the 11:24 Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, 11:29 gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, 11:35 and then he says against such there is no law. 11:39 And, so according to Paul here, 11:41 we link this with what Jesus said about the fruits 11:43 of the kingdom. According to Jesus and Paul, 11:45 the kingdom promises fall to a nation that brings 11:49 forth spiritual fruit, that exhibits the spiritual 11:53 fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, 11:56 temperance, and the like. Now, what nation is it that 12:01 inherits these wonderful promises, 12:03 describe in the Old Testament prophecies given 12:06 to national Israel. What nation is the 12:08 kingdom given to? Is it given to the 12:11 United States? Is it given to Germany 12:13 or France or China or some other nation, 12:16 lets see what the Bible says. In first Peter chapter 2, 12:19 verses 9 and 10. Peter says this, 12:21 he is speaking to the Christian church and he says, 12:24 you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, 12:28 notice now, and holy nation. A holy nation, 12:32 a peculiar people; that you should show forth 12:35 the praises of him who has called you out of darkness 12:37 into his marvelous light and it goes on to say, 12:41 which in time past were not a people, 12:43 but are now the people of God. 12:47 Friends, according to Peter here, 12:48 he is referring to the Christian church as a nation, 12:52 but its not a literal nation with boundaries 12:56 or a capital city, it is a spiritual nation, 13:00 it's a holy nation made up of holy people, 13:03 who are bearing spiritual fruit to the glory of God, 13:06 they are showing that they have been called out 13:09 of darkness into marvelous light. 13:11 In other words, they are doing what God 13:12 wanted national Israel to do in the Old Testament 13:14 and that is bear fruits of righteousness to the glory 13:18 of his name. Now, what is this spiritual 13:20 nation that Peter speaks about here? 13:22 What is this spiritual nation actually called, 13:25 does it have a name. Well, in Galatians chapter 6, 13:28 verses 15 and 16, notice what Paul says there. 13:32 For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision 13:36 availed anything, nor uncircumcision, 13:39 but he says a new creature. In Paul's eyes, 13:43 only those that become new creatures in Christ, 13:46 that is all that avails. The Bible says, 13:49 if any man were to be Christ he is a new creature, 13:51 but then he says as many as walk according 13:53 to this rule, peace be them and mercy, 13:56 upon thee Israel of God. Notice friends, 14:00 Paul is referring here to those that are regenerated 14:05 through the new birth, they become new 14:07 creatures in Christ, their lives have been 14:09 transformed spiritually and he refers to them 14:12 as the Israel of God. The church has the same name, 14:18 Old Testament, New Testament refer to as 14:20 the Israel of God. In Ellicot's commentary, 14:24 notes on Revelation page 96 and page 125, 14:27 listen to this quote it says. "The Christian church 14:31 absorbs the Jewish, that is absorbs the Jewish 14:36 church and inherits her privileges and adopts 14:41 with wider and nobler meaning her phraseology, 14:44 Ellicot says, the Israel of God, 14:48 the church of Christ, takes the place 14:51 of national Israel". Clearly here is being 14:56 expressed the sentiment that, the church is the 14:59 New Testament, Israel of God, which actually takes 15:02 the place of national Israel in the Old inheriting 15:06 her privileges and phraseology. 15:08 Now, friends you may not realize this, 15:10 but this idea, this teaching that the church 15:14 replaces national Israel as spiritual Israel today 15:18 was and also inherits her promises and her 15:22 privileges was the widely held due of the majority 15:27 of Christians for hundreds of years. 15:30 For hundreds of years Christians realized that 15:33 the church had replaced Israel as a nation and 15:36 inherited her titles and her privileges 15:39 and her blessings. For example, 15:40 one verse of the popular Christian hymn crowned 15:43 him with many crowns says, ye seed of Israel's 15:48 chosen race he ransom from the fall, 15:51 here the Christians are being referred you as, 15:53 the seed of Israel's chosen race. 15:56 This interpretation of spiritual Israel 16:03 being the church, exalted the moral purpose 16:04 of prophecy and called Christians to be a holy 16:06 people set apart that would glorify God 16:09 and reflect his righteous character to the world. 16:11 This interpretation of the church as spiritual Israel 16:14 gave depth and gave meaning to the Old Testament 16:17 prophecies making them come alive. 16:20 This interpretation brought prophecy to life and infused 16:24 it with power and spiritual vitality for the Christian. 16:27 After all, the church could now hope for the 16:31 fulfillment of every promise made by God, 16:34 but left behind by his Old Testament people. 16:38 And, so that truth friends did so much to energize 16:43 the Christian church for hundreds of years, 16:45 but then came something known as Dispensationalism, 16:49 have you heard of that, Dispensationalism. 16:51 Now Dispensationalism was a revolutionary new 16:55 teaching that and most cases is traced back to a man named 16:58 John Nelson Derby and Dispensationalism 17:01 said that the prophecies concerning Israel skip over 17:06 the church and find a literal fulfillment in a literal 17:10 Jewish kingdom that comes after the 17:13 church age is passed. Dispensationalism teach us 17:17 that there is a rapture of the church and then the 17:20 promises to national Israel are fulfilled in a literal 17:23 Jewish kingdom after the church age is over. 17:25 Now, here is something very amazing, 17:30 where this was once a new and revolutionary teaching, 17:35 it is actually become the commonly held belief of the 17:39 majority of Christians in our world and is actually 17:41 the teaching of prophecy that is being promoted 17:44 by most of the major seminaries in our land today. 17:47 But unfortunately, unfortunately 17:51 Dispensationalism has robbed the church, 17:54 robbed the church of its true and rightful inheritance, 17:57 removed from the church the moral purpose of prophecy 18:00 and also took the moral purpose away 18:03 from Israel as a nation. In other words, the 18:06 moral purpose has no barring on national Israel, 18:09 they get rewarded in the end and it has no affect 18:12 upon the church, they are ruptured out 18:13 and taken away. And so this eliminated the 18:17 moral purpose of prophecy, is teaching called 18:20 Dispensationalism. Satan has succeeded friends, 18:23 in stripping God's word of its sanctifying power, 18:28 through a false system of interpretation that largely 18:31 ignores God's moral purpose for prophecy and once again 18:35 Satan has used rigid literalism to do the job. 18:39 In the book prophecy and the church, 18:42 pages 256 and 258, I read this quote, 18:45 it says, "Dispensationalism has its source in a faulty 18:49 and unscriptural literalism, literal interpretation seems 18:53 to make Bible study easy and also seems reverend, 18:56 it argues on this wise, God must have said just 18:59 what He means and must mean just what he has said, 19:02 and what he have said is to be taken just as he said it, 19:04 i.e., literally. But the fulfillment, 19:07 which he, Jesus offered the Jews was so different 19:10 from their literal and carnal desires 19:12 and expectations that they sent their King to Calvary". 19:18 Friends, Jesus had no real promises of glory, 19:24 for a nation that was rejecting him and 19:27 preparing to crucify him as a false messiah 19:30 and a blasphemer, and neither will Jesus 19:32 have any promises of glory for Israel or any 19:35 other nation for that matter, without a decided 19:38 change in character, without repentance for sin 19:41 and the bearing of the fruits of righteousness through 19:44 the grace of Jesus. Now, don't get me wrong, 19:47 I believe that many Jews can and will be saved 19:51 in the last days, but it will happen 19:53 when they are converted to Christ and accept 19:56 his salvation and when that happens friends, 19:58 according to Paul, they are not Jews any longer, 20:00 they are Christians. They are part of the Israel 20:05 of God that new nation of holy people whose 20:08 circumcision is not outward in the flesh, 20:09 but inward in the heart by the spirit. 20:13 Now, that's brings me to this very important principle. 20:16 Friends, the things in the Old Testament 20:19 that were literal and local in nature. 20:21 In the New Testament they often take on 20:23 a spiritual and world wide application, 20:26 for example; in the Old Testament, 20:27 the temple was a literal building in a local place. 20:30 You could touch it and go in and out of it. 20:32 But in the New Testament, the temple Paul talks 20:34 about is not a literal building, 20:35 but it's a spiritual temple. It's the people of God 20:38 that are being built up as a temple for the 20:40 habitation of God to the spirit. 20:42 Babylon in the Old Testament was a literal city on 20:45 a literal river Euphrates at a local place. 20:48 But in New Testament, Book of Revelation, 20:50 Babylon becomes a spiritual city, 20:52 a spiritual kingdom that is world wide 20:54 in its influence. All nations are drinking 20:56 it's wine, Revelation says. 20:58 And so it is with Israel, it was a literal nation 21:01 in the Old Testament in a local place, 21:03 in a local part of the world. But in the New Testament, 21:05 Israel becomes spiritual and world wide in its scope. 21:10 Now a failure to understand the truth of spiritual Israel 21:13 has led many well meaning expositors of the scripture 21:17 to apply almost the entire Book of Revelation 21:21 to literal, national Israel. Did you know that? 21:25 Many Christians don't bother to study the 21:27 Book of Revelation, because it's prophecies 21:30 they assume apply only to national, 21:33 literal Israel. Now friends think about the 21:36 seriousness of that. God has an urgent end-time 21:40 message for his Church. God has an urgent end-time 21:43 message for his people in the last days. 21:45 Days that will be fought with Satan's most 21:48 overmastering deceptions and delusions. 21:51 God's message in Revelation is designed to prepare the 21:54 people for the second coming of Christ. 21:57 God's urgent messages is found right in the heart 22:00 of the Book of Revelation, but God's urgent and end-time 22:04 message of Revelation, that he gave to his Church 22:08 is largely ignored today because the Church 22:11 has been taught that the book is only for the Jew. 22:15 Now it is true that the symbolism in Revelation 22:18 is almost exclusively Jewish in nature. 22:21 But the Jewish symbols, friends, that we find 22:24 in Revelation hold profound meaning for spiritual Israel, 22:29 the Church of God today. Indeed someone said, 22:33 a Lewis Weir said, that the entire message 22:38 of Revelation can be understood correctly 22:40 when it is seen through Jewish eyes as the 22:43 spiritual Israel of God. Christians must make the 22:47 symbolism of Revelation applicable to the Church 22:49 or miss the entire message of this all important book. 22:55 Professor. John W. Milligan, in his book the Revelation 23:02 of Saint John on pages 27 to 30 said this, 23:04 "The Christian Church even among the Gentiles 23:08 had been grafted upon the stem of David. 23:10 She had an interest in Zion and Jerusalem. 23:13 She saw in Babylon a type of her enemies. 23:16 She felt herself to be the true Israel of God. 23:19 She was well acquainted with the tabernacle and the 23:22 temple with their pillars and incense, 23:24 with their different alters, with a high priest robes, 23:28 with a seven branch candlesticks, 23:30 with the arch of the testimony, 23:31 with a hidden manner, with parchment rules written 23:34 both within and on the back. These symbols he says 23:37 were therefore closely adapted to her, 23:41 the Churches condition and must have gone home 23:43 to her with peculiar power". Here Milligan is saying 23:48 the Church recognize all the symbols 23:50 were applicable to her and they would have come home 23:53 to her because of the Jewish background 23:55 that most of the early Church members came out of, 23:57 they would have come home to her with peculiar power. 23:59 He goes on to say on page 72, "The book is absolutely 24:03 steeped in the memories, the incidents, 24:06 the thought and the language of the Church's past. 24:08 To such an extent is this the case that it may be 24:11 doubted whether it contains a single figure not drawn 24:15 from the Old Testament or a single complete sentence, 24:18 not more or less built up out of materials from 24:22 the same sources, that being the Old Testament. 24:24 Nothing can convey he says, a full and adequate 24:27 impression upon the point except the careful 24:30 study of the book, Revelation itself in this 24:33 particular aspect of it's contents". 24:37 He's saying that we can only understand 24:39 the Book of Revelation in the light of it's 24:41 symbolism that can be found in the Old Testament. 24:44 Now here are some examples of what Prof. Milligan, 24:47 is trying to convey. He says, even the crown 24:50 of life in Revelation 2, verse 10, is not the reef 24:54 of the victor in Grecian games, 24:56 but the Hebrew crown of royalty and joy like that 25:01 which Solomon wore. He says, the white stone 25:04 with a new name on it. In Revelation 2:17, 25:07 is not suggested by the white pebble, 25:10 which cast into the heathen courts of justice 25:13 into the ballot box, express the judge's acquittal 25:16 of the prisoner at the bar. But in all probability 25:19 by the glistening plate born on the high priest's, 25:23 upon his forehead and he says and all the 25:26 commentators agreed that the palms of chapter 7, 25:29 Verse 9, are not the palms of the heathen victor either 25:33 in battle or the games, but the palms are the feast 25:36 of tabernacles when in the most joyful 25:39 of all their national festivals, 25:41 Israel celebrated that life of independence on 25:45 which she entered when she marched 25:46 from Rameses to Succoth and exchanged her dwellings 25:49 in the hot brick fields of Egypt for the 25:52 free air of the wilderness, and the booze 25:54 which he erected in the open country. 25:57 The symbols of the apocalypse are to be judged 25:59 he says with the feeling of a Jew and not with those 26:02 of our own country for age. What he is saying friends 26:06 is that the crown prophecy means that 26:09 we as Christians can reign with Christ as kings 26:12 and royalty and joy and peace and prosperity 26:16 as Solomon did. The white stone 26:18 prophecy means that we will be priests 26:20 in the temple of our God. The palm branches 26:23 as we read in Revelation mean that we will be forever 26:27 free from the bondage of sin and breathe the free air 26:31 of heaven at the earth made new. 26:33 What glorious promises for the Christian 26:36 who understands this spiritual meaning of these 26:39 Jewish symbols in the Book of Revelation. 26:42 The entire Book of Revelation comes alive, friends, 26:46 it comes alive in our hearts and they burn within us 26:49 as these wonderful truths unfold, 26:51 but you know many are missing this blessing 26:56 and prophecy in Revelation today and for them 27:00 history is repeating itself. The Jewish interpreted 27:04 these prophecies with only the most literal of meanings 27:06 in mind and they missed the spiritual 27:08 significance entirely. Some Christians today 27:12 in making a literal application of these things 27:15 to literal Israel are missing the spiritual significance 27:18 of the Book of Revelation. May God help us, friends, 27:22 as the spiritual Israel of God today to see 27:24 and to claim these wonderful promises with all of their 27:29 forceful meaning for us with the moral purpose 27:33 that we might be a holy nation, 27:35 a royal priesthood and that we might show forth the 27:39 praises of our wonderful God. Now just a reminder friends, 27:43 don't miss our final program in the moral purpose 27:46 of prophecy when we look at what are being called the 27:49 fallacies of futurism. Don't miss it. 27:53 We'll see you next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17