¤ ¤ 00:00:01.36\00:00:30.86 Hi, Welcome to Issues and Answers. My name is 00:00:30.89\00:00:33.26 C. A. Murray and my guest is Dr. Lee Gugliotto. We have been 00:00:33.29\00:00:38.20 talking about Bible study, the issue of Bible study, how to 00:00:38.23\00:00:42.70 do it, what to look for, what pitfalls to try to work your way 00:00:42.77\00:00:46.98 around, how to go to the Bible, how to understand what the Bible 00:00:47.01\00:00:51.15 is saying to you as opposed to you reading your preconceptions 00:00:51.18\00:00:54.75 into the word of God. And of course this is crucial because 00:00:54.78\00:00:58.25 what we understand from the word of God affects our life here and 00:00:58.32\00:01:03.26 hereafter, now and eternity. And so understanding the Bible 00:01:03.29\00:01:06.49 as it was meant to be understood reading out of the Bible as 00:01:06.53\00:01:09.80 opposed to into the Bible is very, very crucial to a correct 00:01:09.83\00:01:13.60 understanding of what the Lord is trying to say to us. Dr. Lee 00:01:13.64\00:01:17.37 has spent his adult life teaching these precepts, 00:01:17.41\00:01:21.48 teaching these concepts and we get to talk with him and pick 00:01:21.51\00:01:25.05 his brain a little bit today so good to have you back. 00:01:25.08\00:01:26.72 It's good to be back. 00:01:26.75\00:01:28.08 We ran out of time really when last we were together dealing 00:01:28.12\00:01:32.65 with Bible study. Let's do a quick recap of some of the 00:01:32.69\00:01:36.42 salient points from our last session together. One we asked 00:01:36.46\00:01:39.79 what it is and what to look for when we're going to the Bible. 00:01:39.83\00:01:43.13 How do you start, how do you work your way through it? 00:01:43.16\00:01:45.03 Well of course we came to the conclusion from scripture Bible 00:01:45.07\00:01:49.94 study is learning about Christ from Christ because the Holy 00:01:49.97\00:01:54.31 Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, repeats what Jesus tells him. 00:01:54.34\00:01:58.75 He's our appointed teacher. So if we're studying the Bible as 00:01:58.78\00:02:02.68 it should be studied then Jesus is going to be the one who is 00:02:02.72\00:02:06.52 actually teaching us. That's important. Let's see, what was 00:02:06.55\00:02:10.33 the other principle? Well one of the things we really 00:02:10.36\00:02:12.79 spent a lot of time on was you, I'm going to use the word harp 00:02:12.83\00:02:16.80 on it. When we go to the Bible it's context, context, context. 00:02:16.83\00:02:21.17 Yes, context is very important. I mean for example here we are, 00:02:21.20\00:02:25.27 and you know we're on screen here and for a moment there the 00:02:25.31\00:02:28.78 both of us were on screen and people have the big picture. 00:02:28.84\00:02:32.18 They can see the whole set, they can see you, they can see me. 00:02:32.21\00:02:35.65 But if they were just looking right now at the camera looking 00:02:35.68\00:02:39.62 at me, they're not getting the whole picture. All they're 00:02:39.65\00:02:43.53 seeing is just me and they can't even see where I am, where I'm 00:02:43.56\00:02:48.46 sitting, why I'm talking, who am I talking with. I mean so the 00:02:48.50\00:02:53.13 point is as the picture expands and now we can see the both of 00:02:53.17\00:02:57.77 us in the picture, now they have a better understanding. They can 00:02:57.84\00:03:02.58 see where I am, they can see who I'm talking with, they can see 00:03:02.61\00:03:07.05 what I'm up to, what you're up to. So it makes it much easier 00:03:07.08\00:03:11.49 then for people to understand what's happening. The same 00:03:11.52\00:03:15.06 thing is true when you study the Bible. If you try to take, like 00:03:15.09\00:03:19.03 even said on the last program, just rush right in, just dive 00:03:19.06\00:03:22.93 right in to a text you're going to miss a lot of what's around 00:03:22.96\00:03:27.37 it. And that text is not there by itself. It's part of a bigger 00:03:27.40\00:03:31.77 machine, it's part of a bigger thing. And so you have to 00:03:31.81\00:03:36.11 take into account the whole of what it's a part of and then you 00:03:36.14\00:03:40.02 have to take into account what comes before and what comes 00:03:40.05\00:03:43.99 after. Any dictionary would define context as taking into 00:03:44.02\00:03:48.42 account the surrounding words before and after so you can 00:03:48.46\00:03:52.79 grasp the fuller meaning of what you want to study. 00:03:52.83\00:03:55.20 Lee, we said it was a little counterintuitive. We've got to 00:03:55.23\00:03:59.33 resist the temptation to dive right into the text. I'm looking 00:03:59.37\00:04:03.81 at Psalm 23. So I go right to Psalm 23 and I just dive into 00:04:03.84\00:04:08.21 Psalm 23. I risk making a mistake don't I? 00:04:08.24\00:04:10.88 Sure you do because Psalm 23 does not exist by itself. It's a 00:04:10.91\00:04:15.55 passage in the book of Psalms. Just like if you were going 00:04:15.58\00:04:19.55 through any Bible book, if you look you're going to see all 00:04:19.59\00:04:23.02 these subheadings as you're going through. Those subheadings 00:04:23.06\00:04:26.49 are dividing the book into passages, units of thought, 00:04:26.53\00:04:32.23 collections of verses that are all dealing with something that 00:04:32.27\00:04:35.14 they all have in common, a person, a place, a thing, 00:04:35.17\00:04:37.51 whatever it is. And so if you're going to jump in on one passage 00:04:37.54\00:04:41.78 you can't just study it without knowing well what came before 00:04:41.81\00:04:46.15 so that you understand how the writer leads up to and prepares 00:04:46.18\00:04:49.98 the way for the part you want to study. And then if you really 00:04:50.05\00:04:53.76 want to understand what you're studying, like Psalm 23, in 00:04:53.79\00:04:57.46 addition to seeing how Psalm 22 gets us ready for Psalm 23, then 00:04:57.49\00:05:02.30 you want to see how Psalm 23 gets us ready for Psalm 24, what 00:05:02.33\00:05:07.24 comes after it. In this way you begin to see the bigger picture 00:05:07.27\00:05:11.51 and as you're interpreting Psalm 23 you're taking into account 00:05:11.54\00:05:15.74 the bigger picture. Now this leads us into our 00:05:15.78\00:05:19.95 discussion for today because something occurs to me. The 00:05:19.98\00:05:23.39 Bible gives its own definition on how to study the Bible. It 00:05:23.42\00:05:26.76 says here a little, there a little. The problem can be that 00:05:26.79\00:05:31.06 if I sort of cherry pick I can sort of force the Bible, I can 00:05:31.09\00:05:34.63 sort of arm wrestle the Bible to say what I want it to say by 00:05:34.66\00:05:37.80 using that same method. So what we need to wrestle with today, 00:05:37.83\00:05:41.04 Good Doctor, is how do we stay away from that particular 00:05:41.07\00:05:45.17 pitfall because you have said we need to find a certain, what's 00:05:45.24\00:05:48.71 the word I want, a pattern in the Bible which means you have 00:05:48.74\00:05:51.58 to go to a number of places. You don't want to develop a doctrine 00:05:51.61\00:05:55.48 with just one little text, but having done so we can sort of 00:05:55.52\00:05:58.72 arm wrestle the Bible a little bit and come away with what we 00:05:58.75\00:06:01.92 want. The best way to study the Bible 00:06:01.96\00:06:03.93 is, of course, the understand the passage in itself first; 00:06:03.96\00:06:08.03 come to grips with the message of the passage itself. So like 00:06:08.06\00:06:12.10 said we start with the big picture of the whole book and 00:06:12.13\00:06:15.20 then from the big picture of the book you start zeroing in 00:06:15.24\00:06:18.31 carefully on the passage you want to study taking into 00:06:18.34\00:06:21.34 account what comes before and after. Once then you've come to 00:06:21.38\00:06:25.55 grips with that passage now you want to connect it with the rest 00:06:25.61\00:06:29.75 of the Bible. To take into account the full counsel of 00:06:29.78\00:06:33.86 scripture so you can understand the passage even better and to 00:06:33.89\00:06:37.63 see the contribution the passage makes to the rest of the Bible. 00:06:37.66\00:06:43.00 So that is the skill that mostly we need to develop is how do I 00:06:43.03\00:06:47.90 go beyond this book and connect with other Bible books? Now the 00:06:47.94\00:06:52.57 mistake most people make is they use their theology. See, you 00:06:52.61\00:06:57.75 start using your preconceived notions now and yes this verse 00:06:57.78\00:07:02.08 must connect with that verse because in my theology they're 00:07:02.12\00:07:06.22 connected. Another mistake people make is they go right to 00:07:06.25\00:07:09.56 a Strong's Concordance. They'll look at a Strong's Concordance 00:07:09.59\00:07:13.36 and they say oh well the same words are in this verse as are 00:07:13.40\00:07:17.47 in that verse, therefore, they must be connected so they don't 00:07:17.50\00:07:21.54 understand that a Strong's Concordance only looks at the 00:07:21.57\00:07:26.24 content, the words in the passages, it doesn't look at the 00:07:26.27\00:07:30.88 context, taking into account the surrounding passages' words and 00:07:30.95\00:07:35.78 the flow of the writer's thought that gives it meaning. So what 00:07:35.85\00:07:41.16 I propose is a simple method and it can be very complicated if 00:07:41.19\00:07:45.59 you want to make it that way but it's really quite simple. 00:07:45.63\00:07:49.76 The best thing to do is to look for what I call inspired 00:07:49.80\00:07:53.87 connections in the Bible. Look for connections between verses 00:07:53.90\00:07:59.54 that tell you that the writers, those inspired writers, made an 00:07:59.57\00:08:05.15 authentic connection between themselves. Learn how to 00:08:05.18\00:08:09.98 recognize an inspired connection. 00:08:10.02\00:08:12.65 That's powerful. As opposed to you making the connection let 00:08:12.69\00:08:15.26 the Bible make the connection. 00:08:15.29\00:08:16.62 Exactly. So let's take for example. Let's take a powerful 00:08:16.66\00:08:20.20 passage. Why don't you open your Bible and we'll go to Revelation 00:08:20.23\00:08:26.40 chapter 12 and verse 17. Now we'll use this because there's a 00:08:26.43\00:08:31.21 lot of great lessons connected with this, just some tremendous 00:08:31.24\00:08:35.98 things. Verse 17 says so the dragon was enraged with the 00:08:36.01\00:08:40.35 woman and went off to make war with the rest of her children 00:08:40.38\00:08:44.89 who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of 00:08:44.92\00:08:50.09 Jesus. OK now. You look at that verse and you say well how do I 00:08:50.13\00:08:54.86 connect that with other verses in the Bible? Well the simplest 00:08:54.90\00:08:59.50 way to do that is, of course, if you recognize from this verse, 00:08:59.53\00:09:04.74 if it triggers a memory. You say that reminds me of... Could 00:09:04.77\00:09:09.44 there be a connection. You start looking at that verse. OK. For 00:09:09.48\00:09:14.22 all intents and purposes on this occasion, let's look in the 00:09:14.25\00:09:18.79 margin. If you look in the margin of your study Bible, what 00:09:18.82\00:09:23.12 your Bible will do is it will give you some suggested verses. 00:09:23.16\00:09:27.13 It will suggest other verses in the Bible that are connected 00:09:27.20\00:09:31.87 with verse 17. See, OK. And I say suggest because again the 00:09:31.90\00:09:35.70 publisher has an ax to grind as well and so many publishers, 00:09:35.74\00:09:39.81 their scholars have put these margin things together. This 00:09:39.84\00:09:43.48 reflects their understanding of scripture. So you cannot just 00:09:43.51\00:09:46.95 automatically say well my study Bible says that verse so they 00:09:47.02\00:09:50.85 really must be connected. You can't assume that. What you do 00:09:50.89\00:09:55.42 is you have to start researching the connection between the two. 00:09:55.46\00:09:58.99 So what you're going to do is you're going to look, and we're 00:09:59.03\00:10:02.03 going to look through here and there are a number of verses 00:10:02.06\00:10:05.03 that are connected with Revelation 12:17. What'll 00:10:05.07\00:10:10.31 happen is what they're looking for is, of course, resemblance. 00:10:10.34\00:10:15.54 That's what we're looking for. If another verse is a real 00:10:15.58\00:10:18.71 match for this verse, there'll be a lot of resemblance. If it's 00:10:18.75\00:10:22.88 only partial resemblance then it's only going to resemble a 00:10:22.92\00:10:27.06 part of this verse. And if you've ever noticed in your 00:10:27.09\00:10:30.23 margins you'll see sometimes a little letter a and then a 00:10:30.29\00:10:33.46 little b and little c. That's because the verse has been 00:10:33.50\00:10:36.56 divided into segments. OK, for example it's saying that certain 00:10:36.63\00:10:41.14 verses are only connected with the first part of it, that's 00:10:41.17\00:10:45.04 part a. If the verse is divided into two parts there'll be an a 00:10:45.07\00:10:49.48 and a b. If it's three parts, a, b, and c and so on. Now when I'm 00:10:49.54\00:10:53.92 looking through the margin here I see that this publisher is 00:10:53.95\00:10:59.19 recommending that Genesis 3:15 connects with Revelation 12:17. 00:10:59.22\00:11:04.19 OK, let's check that out. They are in opposite poles of the 00:11:04.23\00:11:08.73 scriptures and if we can see a connection, authenticate a 00:11:08.76\00:11:13.23 connection between verses that far apart, you should be able to 00:11:13.27\00:11:17.01 authenticate connections between any verses in the Bible. 00:11:17.04\00:11:20.78 OK, so here's the first thing we're going to do. When you read 00:11:20.81\00:11:24.85 the verse from your passage and you want to connect it, look at 00:11:24.88\00:11:28.92 that verse and carefully look and see what are the main 00:11:28.95\00:11:34.42 characters or actions or locations whatever. In this case 00:11:34.46\00:11:39.89 there seem to be characters or personalities. So the dragon was 00:11:39.93\00:11:44.07 enraged with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of 00:11:44.10\00:11:48.20 her children who keep the commandments of God and hold to 00:11:48.24\00:11:51.84 the testimony of Jesus. We have three main personalities or 00:11:51.87\00:11:56.64 characters: The dragon, the woman and the children. OK! Now 00:11:56.71\00:12:01.85 let's go to Genesis 3:15 and we'll try to see if there's a 00:12:01.88\00:12:06.59 legitimate connections between these verses. So Genesis 3 and 00:12:06.62\00:12:14.10 verse 15. And Genesis 3:15 says and I will put enmity between 00:12:14.13\00:12:19.87 you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall 00:12:19.90\00:12:25.14 bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. OK 00:12:25.17\00:12:29.71 now. Let's see what do we have here. Who are the personalities 00:12:29.74\00:12:34.25 here? There are three personalities in Revelation 00:12:34.28\00:12:37.22 12:17. If all three appear in verse 15 that's a match. If only 00:12:37.25\00:12:42.06 two of three appear, there's likelihood but not guarantee. 00:12:42.09\00:12:46.83 that there's a match and if only one of the three match it could 00:12:46.90\00:12:50.53 be just a coincidence. So let's look and see what we have. I 00:12:50.57\00:12:54.87 will put enmity between you and the woman. Who is you? If you 00:12:54.90\00:12:59.61 go back to verse 14 the you that God is speaking to is the 00:12:59.64\00:13:04.25 serpent. OK. The second personality in Genesis 3:15 is 00:13:04.31\00:13:09.55 the woman. And then the third personality is the seed. OK. 00:13:09.58\00:13:14.72 The offspring of the woman. Now let's go back here to Revelation 00:13:14.79\00:13:19.39 12:17. We have a dragon, a woman and children or seed as many 00:13:19.43\00:13:25.20 Bibles translate in verse 17. So the woman matches up and the 00:13:25.23\00:13:30.71 children and the seed match up. That's two out of three. We have 00:13:30.74\00:13:36.14 a dragon in the one and a serpent in the other. Now at 00:13:36.18\00:13:39.41 first you say will that doesn't look like it's a match. However, 00:13:39.45\00:13:43.52 you've been studying probably most of Revelation 12 and if 00:13:43.55\00:13:46.86 you've been studying Revelation 12 you would notice that back in 00:13:46.89\00:13:50.36 verse 9 it said and the great dragon was thrown down, the 00:13:50.39\00:13:55.13 serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan. 00:13:55.16\00:13:57.63 See that buttresses your point to even know what the dragon is 00:13:57.67\00:14:02.17 here in 17 you have to have read some context. You have to 00:14:02.20\00:14:06.64 have come across that before in other chapters so you can get an 00:14:06.68\00:14:09.54 understanding of what's going on Particularly in Revelation that 00:14:09.58\00:14:12.41 is very, very important. 00:14:12.45\00:14:13.78 Yeah, because in Revelation he's drawing on all parts of the 00:14:13.82\00:14:16.32 Bible and you're going to see little fragments of many verses 00:14:16.35\00:14:20.26 in every verse. John's amazing. He does an amazing job. So we 00:14:20.29\00:14:24.46 know now from verse nine that the dragon was the serpent, so 00:14:24.49\00:14:30.07 we have a match. However, there are certain restrictions here. 00:14:30.13\00:14:35.67 We have a dragon in one and a serpent in the other and so 00:14:35.70\00:14:39.87 there needs to be some kind of understanding as how did the 00:14:39.91\00:14:43.98 serpent become a dragon? OK. Now without getting too heavy in all 00:14:44.01\00:14:48.28 of that what we're looking at here is a matter called 00:14:48.32\00:14:51.72 typology. Typology is the relationship between the Old and 00:14:51.75\00:14:56.62 New Testaments whereby symbols in the Old Testament that apply 00:14:56.66\00:15:01.50 to national Israel become symbols that point forward to 00:15:01.53\00:15:06.80 realities for Messianic Israel and those symbols now become 00:15:06.84\00:15:12.14 what we call types. OK. And those symbols find fulfillment 00:15:12.17\00:15:16.51 in the New Testament. However, they find fulfillment in 00:15:16.54\00:15:20.82 something greater than themselves, greater than 00:15:20.85\00:15:25.59 themselves. So the serpent and the dragon are one and the same 00:15:25.65\00:15:28.89 however, the dragon was a serpent with limitations in 00:15:28.92\00:15:33.93 Genesis chapter 3 but becomes a full blown dragon with the 00:15:33.96\00:15:38.43 capacities of a dragon when you get to Revelation chapter 12. So 00:15:38.50\00:15:42.94 understand that any comparison between the two verses is going 00:15:42.97\00:15:47.41 to be based on somehow this expansion from a serpent in 00:15:47.44\00:15:53.72 Genesis 3 to a dragon in Revelation chapter 12. 00:15:53.75\00:15:58.42 Now the other thing we have to do to verify a legitimate 00:15:58.45\00:16:01.42 connection is not only do the characters or whatever these 00:16:01.49\00:16:05.23 items are have to match but what either what they do or what 00:16:05.26\00:16:09.60 happens to them should match as well. So let's take it one step 00:16:09.63\00:16:14.47 at a time. OK. In Revelation 12:17 what's happening between 00:16:14.50\00:16:18.71 the dragon and the woman? The dragon is enraged with the woman 00:16:18.74\00:16:23.21 What was happening between the serpent and the woman in Genesis 00:16:23.24\00:16:28.82 3:15. God says I will put enmity between you and the woman. Now 00:16:28.85\00:16:32.99 what is enmity? Now if you did your study you would see that 00:16:33.02\00:16:37.13 enmity is a sense of hostility. When I translate this I 00:16:37.16\00:16:41.50 translate enmity as bad blood. It's bad blood between the 00:16:41.53\00:16:45.83 serpent and the woman. So let's have a match in a sense again. 00:16:45.87\00:16:51.67 As the serpent is to a dragon, much greater, we have enmity, 00:16:51.71\00:16:57.35 you know basic hostility that turns into full blown rage when 00:16:57.38\00:17:02.18 we get to Revelation 12:17. So there is a connection and it is 00:17:02.22\00:17:06.99 a kind of an escalating, expanding connection from 00:17:07.02\00:17:11.16 Genesis 3 to Revelation 12. OK? Now what's going on with the 00:17:11.19\00:17:15.40 rest of them? We have also in this we have the dragon and 00:17:15.90\00:17:20.24 the seed. What's going one between the dragon and the 00:17:20.27\00:17:23.84 woman's children or seed. Well in Revelation 12:17 there's a 00:17:23.91\00:17:29.01 full blown war going on between the dragon and the 00:17:29.04\00:17:32.75 children, a full blown war. When we come back to Genesis 3:15 00:17:32.78\00:17:37.99 what happens here? We see that the seed of the woman and the 00:17:38.02\00:17:43.43 seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent are in one-on-one 00:17:43.46\00:17:48.13 combat and it is life and death. One is going to bruise the 00:17:48.16\00:17:52.53 other's head and the other is going to bruise him on the heel. 00:17:52.57\00:17:58.51 So what you have is in Genesis 3:15, we have on the level of 00:17:58.54\00:18:03.61 the serpent we have between the serpent and the seed we have 00:18:03.65\00:18:09.08 one-on-one mortal combat. When you get to Revelation 12:17 we 00:18:09.12\00:18:14.29 have all-out war and not just between the serpent and a seed, 00:18:14.32\00:18:19.69 but between the dragon and all the rest of her children. OK. So 00:18:19.73\00:18:24.37 we do have a match. These two verses are actually legitimately 00:18:24.40\00:18:29.04 connected. And as you're studying Revelation 12 you 00:18:29.07\00:18:33.17 begin to see some of the reasons why. OK. Revelation 12 deals 00:18:33.21\00:18:39.11 with very delicate issues and that issue is if Genesis 3:15 00:18:39.15\00:18:45.05 was really speaking about strictly combat between the 00:18:45.09\00:18:51.29 serpent and one seed which in Galatians Paul tells us was the 00:18:51.36\00:18:57.87 seed, Jesus Christ. OK. Then how come the whole thing between 00:18:57.90\00:19:02.97 Jesus and Satan didn't end when Jesus went back to heaven? 00:19:03.00\00:19:08.01 It should have been over, right? Well look at the chapter again. 00:19:08.04\00:19:11.21 When you start in Revelation 12:1 you have a woman clothed 00:19:11.25\00:19:14.92 with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown 00:19:14.95\00:19:18.02 of 12 stars and she was with child. And she cried out being 00:19:18.05\00:19:21.62 in labor and in pain to give birth. Another sign appeared in 00:19:21.66\00:19:24.93 heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and 00:19:24.96\00:19:28.83 10 horns and on his head were seven diadems and his tail swept 00:19:28.86\00:19:32.67 away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the 00:19:32.70\00:19:35.87 earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was about 00:19:35.90\00:19:39.51 to give birth so that when she gave birth he might devour her 00:19:39.54\00:19:43.11 child. Now here is your confrontation between the dragon 00:19:43.14\00:19:47.62 the Seed and obviously the man child we're talking about here 00:19:47.65\00:19:51.99 is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's waiting to devour the child. 00:19:52.02\00:19:55.76 However, verse five, she gave birth to a son, a male child, 00:19:55.79\00:19:59.46 who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron and her child 00:19:59.49\00:20:04.37 was caught up to God and to his throne. Shucks says the dragon. 00:20:04.40\00:20:08.67 Didn't get 'im. Now the combat should be over, right? Yes. But 00:20:08.70\00:20:12.77 it's not. There's more to this than appears and that's why 00:20:12.81\00:20:16.44 there is a connection between Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 00:20:16.48\00:20:20.02 12:17. Because at that point, at that point, the woman, verse six 00:20:20.05\00:20:24.85 flees into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God. 00:20:24.89\00:20:29.62 So there she would be nourished for 1,260 days. OK. So what 00:20:29.66\00:20:35.76 happens now is the dragon turns his anger, his frustration, he 00:20:35.80\00:20:40.80 turns it on the woman and he's trying to get rid of... and 00:20:40.84\00:20:45.74 let's just say the woman is the church... So now he's trying to 00:20:45.77\00:20:48.88 get rid of the organized church. Twelve hundred and sixty days 00:20:48.91\00:20:53.75 there's an interlude here where we have the reference back to 00:20:53.78\00:20:58.45 the serpent, the dragon, and the battle between Michael and his 00:20:58.49\00:21:03.16 angels and the devil and his angels and so on. And then we 00:21:03.19\00:21:09.10 get back to the story again in verse 13. When the dragon saw 00:21:09.13\00:21:13.90 that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman 00:21:13.94\00:21:18.51 who gave birth to the male child OK. So he's out to get her, but 00:21:18.54\00:21:22.28 the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so that 00:21:22.31\00:21:26.01 she could fly into the wilderness to her place 00:21:26.05\00:21:28.18 where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time 00:21:28.22\00:21:33.69 from the presence of the serpent And the serpent poured water 00:21:33.72\00:21:38.39 like a river out of his mouth after the woman so that he might 00:21:38.43\00:21:42.36 cause her to be swept away with a flood, but the earth helped 00:21:42.43\00:21:46.03 the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river 00:21:46.10\00:21:50.27 which the dragon poured out of his mouth. Shucks number two. 00:21:50.31\00:21:54.34 He tried to get rid of the woman and he can't get rid of her 00:21:54.38\00:21:59.91 either. So now the dragon he is really angry and so now he is 00:21:59.95\00:22:04.35 enraged with the woman and you can see that this has been 00:22:04.39\00:22:08.72 escalating all along and instead of giving up went off to make 00:22:08.76\00:22:13.63 war with the rest of her children who keep the 00:22:13.66\00:22:16.93 commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. So now 00:22:16.97\00:22:21.27 you begin to understand all this better. In the light of Genesis 00:22:21.30\00:22:25.57 3:15 you see that what's happening in 12:17 is rooted in 00:22:25.61\00:22:29.81 the ancient description of the combat between the serpent and 00:22:29.84\00:22:34.72 his seed and the woman and her seed, a confrontation between 00:22:34.75\00:22:40.46 Satan and Christ. But what Revelation 12 does is it takes 00:22:40.49\00:22:45.29 that conflict described in Genesis 3:15 and expands on it 00:22:45.33\00:22:50.07 till we understand that it was not over. After that the dragon 00:22:50.10\00:22:54.80 knows he's defeated, he knows it's over, he knows there's 00:22:54.84\00:22:58.31 nothing he can do. But what does he do? He continues to carry out 00:22:58.37\00:23:02.64 his anger. It turns into rage and first he tries to get rid of 00:23:02.68\00:23:06.92 the church as a whole. When he can't do that he's out to 00:23:06.95\00:23:09.62 exterminate her remnant, those last children who resemble Jesus 00:23:09.65\00:23:13.82 They keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of 00:23:13.86\00:23:17.99 Jesus. Now what is interesting about 00:23:18.03\00:23:19.83 this, Good Doctor, is that one of the keys for understanding 00:23:19.89\00:23:24.60 Revelation is found all the way back in the book of Genesis and 00:23:24.63\00:23:29.44 without that full set of going through the whole Bible, you 00:23:29.47\00:23:33.91 don't get a true and accurate picture of what's going on in 00:23:33.94\00:23:37.28 Revelation because the key is way back in the first book, 66 00:23:37.35\00:23:40.65 books later the riddle is unmasked as it were. 00:23:40.68\00:23:44.09 So again you're reemphasizing the point that to understand a 00:23:44.15\00:23:49.26 given text you've got to find the context and that context may 00:23:49.29\00:23:54.40 exist 66 books earlier in the book of Genesis. 00:23:54.43\00:23:58.23 Yeah. The context of the book of Revelation begins with the 00:23:58.27\00:24:01.34 book of Genesis. So now we understand the reason we're 00:24:01.37\00:24:05.41 being persecuted by the enemy, the reason he is out to 00:24:05.44\00:24:09.38 exterminate and get rid of us is not just because he's mad at us, 00:24:09.41\00:24:13.52 it began with his frustration because he wanted to exterminate 00:24:13.55\00:24:17.22 Christ, he wanted to defeat and get rid of Jesus. He was unable 00:24:17.25\00:24:20.86 to do that. So the reason the enemy hates us is because he 00:24:20.89\00:24:25.46 hated Jesus first. Isn't that what Jesus said. In John he told 00:24:25.49\00:24:30.07 his followers believe me if the world persecutes you, it 00:24:30.10\00:24:34.80 persecuted me and if it hated you remember this, it hated me 00:24:34.84\00:24:39.37 first. So we see that playing itself out here. So now you can 00:24:39.41\00:24:43.11 connect with other verses in the Bible, for example that one in 00:24:43.14\00:24:46.82 particular about the hate directed at Christ is hate that 00:24:46.85\00:24:51.89 was now directed or deflected toward us and so on. So this is 00:24:51.92\00:24:56.02 how you study the Bible, right? Don't isolate a verse, don't 00:24:56.06\00:25:00.36 bring a system to that verse, don't try to force it to say 00:25:00.40\00:25:04.63 something or to fit your agenda or whatever. Just the sheer joy 00:25:04.67\00:25:09.44 of connecting with Christ, listening to him, trying to 00:25:09.47\00:25:14.78 understand the way the whole Bible is speaking to you. That 00:25:14.81\00:25:18.21 is the real joy of Bible study. That's powerful. 00:25:18.25\00:25:20.22 Do we have time, Good Doctor, to get into timeless truths, 00:25:20.25\00:25:23.39 principles and precepts. I want to try to get that real, real 00:25:23.42\00:25:26.55 quick. Can we do it? 00:25:26.59\00:25:27.92 Actually that's going to take quite a bit of time. Yeah, we 00:25:27.96\00:25:30.93 should save that for another program. But the thing here 00:25:30.96\00:25:34.76 again is also we can see the typology as valid. Now 00:25:34.80\00:25:39.77 understand the writers of the scriptures, especially the New 00:25:39.80\00:25:43.71 Testament writers, they and the prophets were hand in hand in 00:25:43.74\00:25:47.61 this. See the prophets originally, if you look at the 00:25:47.64\00:25:51.15 early prophets, they're calling Israel to go back. In other 00:25:51.18\00:25:55.58 words, if we can just get our act together with God, God will 00:25:55.62\00:26:00.06 bring back the glory days of Solomon, because that to them 00:26:00.09\00:26:04.03 was the height of what God had done for Israel and so they 00:26:04.06\00:26:07.80 wanted to go back to the good ole' days. But as the prophets 00:26:07.83\00:26:11.77 continued to plead with Israel as time went on they discovered 00:26:11.83\00:26:16.74 that it was not going to be. Israel was not going to respond 00:26:16.77\00:26:21.61 at that time. Their response was way in the future in the days of 00:26:21.64\00:26:25.68 the Messiah, in the latter days OK. So in the latter days what's 00:26:25.71\00:26:29.68 going to happen is the fulfillment of promises made to 00:26:29.72\00:26:32.52 Israel in the Old Testament are going to take place in the 00:26:32.55\00:26:35.82 latter days. So that's when the prophets instead of talking, 00:26:35.86\00:26:39.53 continuing to deal with symbols and their limited application to 00:26:39.56\00:26:43.50 national Israel, now they begin to talk about symbols that have 00:26:43.53\00:26:47.57 even greater power; symbols that project way into the future 00:26:47.60\00:26:51.71 looking for grand fulfillments at the end of time. And so the 00:26:51.74\00:26:55.81 prophets are then ones who invent typology. So the New 00:26:55.84\00:26:59.68 Testament writers, they see this connection between the Old 00:26:59.71\00:27:03.22 Testament and the New, going from the shadows of the Old to 00:27:03.25\00:27:06.82 these grand realities, these glorious realities in the New 00:27:06.86\00:27:10.86 Testament. And so they use typology in their writings and 00:27:10.89\00:27:14.53 the early church did too, but then some of the early church 00:27:14.56\00:27:18.20 fathers went, they went overboard with typology and it 00:27:18.23\00:27:21.70 became discredited for a long time. But anyone who really 00:27:21.74\00:27:25.14 wants to understand prophecy, to understand the New Testament in 00:27:25.17\00:27:29.01 light of the Old has to understand typology and I think 00:27:29.04\00:27:32.25 we've got a pretty good taste of it today. 00:27:32.28\00:27:34.45 I do too. Thanks Dr. Lee. This has been good. 00:27:34.48\00:27:36.62 Thank you for having me. 00:27:36.65\00:27:39.75 We've seen that Bible study can be a blessing, it can be a very 00:27:39.82\00:27:44.49 good thing when we follow a few simple rules. Our time has 00:27:44.53\00:27:47.60 slipped away. We'll be back next time as we talk more about this 00:27:47.66\00:27:50.70 fascinating thing called study of the word of God, Bible study. 00:27:50.73\00:27:53.77 We'll see you again on Issues and Answers. Bye bye. 00:27:53.80\00:27:56.91