Mike Bickle discusses Historic Premillennialism and the concept of a victorious church, emphasizing the importance of seeking God amidst trials and the promise of mercy for those who do. He highlights that everyone has an eschatological view, whether they acknowledge it or not, and stresses the need for a balanced understanding of end times that recognizes both challenges and victories. Bickle encourages believers to pursue intimacy with Jesus and to engage actively in establishing righteousness and justice in society, asserting that their efforts will have lasting impact even into the millennial kingdom.

We'll look at that in a minute. Uh, Zephaniah, chapter 2, verse 3, if you're right there, Joel, you're not far from Zephaniah, a few books away. Zephaniah, chapter 2, verse 3, uh, well, actually, if you're in Joel 2, verse 11, it says it in Joel 2, verse 14, the same verse as Zephaniah 2, verse 3, now that I think of it. You're right there, it's the idea, it's the verse I've shared so often, it's the who knows, the perhaps of God. Meaning, in the midst of all the trouble, it says in Zephaniah 2, seek the Lord, seek righteousness. It may be, perhaps, you'll be hidden in the day of his wrath. God's gonna have pockets of mercy, geographically, all over the earth. The where the perhaps of God, perhaps, for those who seek the Lord, it's related, there's a condition. Those who seek in the Lord, with meekness and humility, in other words, they're living in the spirit of truth, in the grace of God, with wholeheartedness. The Lord says, there will be pockets of mercy, you'll be hidden, you'll be protected, even in the midst of the negative. And what I'm believing for, is that in the midst of our city here, there will be pockets of mercy, right here in our geographic area, related, not just to us, but related to those in our midst, in the city I'm talking about. Plenty of different places besides this, who are going hard and hot after God. There will be pockets of mercy, even in the midst of the great crisis. Okay, Roman numeral four, in the notes, end times, or I have the word eschatology, because it's the same thing. What does it matter? What does it matter? Jesus gave information about the end times to describe what the church attains to before Jesus comes. The end time teaching is a divine description of what we can expect to attain to. End times is critical. When I talk to people, they go, I'm not in end times. I go, you have to be in end times. You absolutely have to be. And, what's interesting, is that everybody has a view of the end times. Everybody does. They may not have a clear view. They may not know how to articulate it. But everybody has a view of the end times. I'm talking about every ministry that's teaching the word. You know the old saying, not to decide is to decide? If they don't, but you ask them what they're doing in their ministry, and it reflects some idea about what's going to happen in the years ahead. They don't know, I never think about the end times. I go, so you're preaching because you expect your ministry to prosper right now, right? Good, so you don't believe the Lord's coming any day. Hmm, I guess not. Well, that's an end time conviction then. Huh, I never thought that I had a view of it. Everybody in ministry that's teaching the word has a view of the end times. Maybe they haven't clarified it, but they do. And maybe there's contradictions in their thinking, but they do have a view. And so when someone says, I'm not into end times, I go, that's impossible. Your view of end times is the end times don't happen for a long time. But it is a view of the end times. It is an eschatology. Some people find that surprising. Let me say this. I don't have this sentence in the notes. Ideas have consequences. That's kind of a popular phrase. Ideas have consequences. What we believe in has major consequences to the way we spend time and money. Ideas have serious consequences. Okay, I have three wrong approaches to the end times. Because there's a lot of fuzzy thinking, but they do have thinking. If you ask the right questions, you can even show them what they believe about the end times, even though many people think they don't ever think about it. That is in itself a statement that they believe it's down the road a long way, but they have come to that conclusion. Three wrong approaches to the end times. Number one, too negative, a pessimistic, a non-scriptural pessimism. And the rapture view ends up a pessimistic eschatology. We're going up, so what we're doing does not matter. That's an eschatology of pessimism. A defeatist view of the great tribulation is too negative. It's not a biblical view of eschatology. A defeatist view. I have a victory view of the great tribulation. It is the optimum setting for us to enter into unity and fullness and the great harvest in all nations. It is our greatest hour. The second approach to the end times is too positive. There's not that many people out there, but it's out there. They have a non-biblical optimism. They're imagining that everything is going to be fully impacted. All society will be changed before the Lord returns. It's nice to be optimistic, but it's better to be in the spirit of truth. And the idea is, brother, I'm really optimistic. The point isn't whether you're optimistic or not. The point is that God is infinitely wise. His plan cannot be improved upon. And even your optimism can't change His wise plan. It's not about being optimistic. That's not the goal. The goal is to be in the spirit of truth because the one who devised the plan is perfect in love and wisdom. And he's not going to change if a whole bunch of people get together and vote a change out of optimism. I go, let's get realistic. Let's get into the spirit of truth because the one who has the plan is perfect in love. And don't imagine you can ignore the scripture and somehow it will change God's mind or change where it's going. Get into the spirit of truth. And then, of course, the third one is the most common. It's too vague. It's incomplete. They haven't thought it through. Or they have thought it through and they don't come up with a lifestyle and a vision that the early apostles would recognize as being New Testament Christianity, apostolic Christianity. It has to have intimacy all through it. I've studied eschatology for some time now and almost never can I find an urgency for intimacy with Jesus as the bridegroom God. It's the spirit of the bride crying come. Intimacy is the centerpiece of biblical eschatology. It must have intimacy in it. Or it's vague. It's incomplete. It must have victory in it. It must have an apostolic lifestyle of abandonment of fasting and prayer. Or it's not biblical apostolic eschatology. It must reflect the vision and the lifestyle of the early church. Absolutely must. Let's go to the next page. The apostolic view of the end times calls the church to victory, wholeheartedness, and relevance. When I say victory, we're going to live in the great power, unity, and purity. We just looked at that. When I say wholeheartedness, we're going to live in self-denial by the grace of God in the fasted lifestyle described in the Sermon on the Mount. Relevance. Here's an idea that some people find it's new to them. When I say this to them, this is the one that typically raises more eyebrows. They go, huh? Where's that in the Bible? Never thought about that. It's the idea of relevance. Understanding the continuity of our labors in this age and the age to come. Relevance. Some of the impact that we will have. I'll just pick Kansas City since we're here. Some of the impact we will have in Kansas City. The continuity of it will continue when the Lord has his millennial kingdom on the earth. That Kansas City and Grandview will be different in social institutions because we existed in this city. And when the Lord returns, the impact will continue. It has continuity. That's a biblical idea. Many people assume that when the Lord comes, it's like a computer. He turns it off and reboots it up and we start with zero again. No, absolutely not. When the Lord comes, the process of purging what is wrong and defiled continues for a season. The idea of establishing justice and righteousness. In every city, the task will be different in every city. Some regions, according to the move of God before the Lord returned, the task of righteousness and justice will be already on its way. Other cities, they will be more intensive strongholds of darkness and sin and the work of righteousness and justice will be far greater amount of work to establish it. What we're doing in Kansas City, some of it will last. When the Lord returns, now you never know where earthquakes are going to hit and bombs and bowls. You don't know that. But apart from that, the idea is when the Lord returns to rule the earth from Jerusalem, 435 will still exist. This building, very possibly, will still exist. People go, no. I go, what do you think they're going to do? It's like eliminate the whole earth. It's going to go to zero and like the computer boot back up. And so the whole world is just flowing fields of grain. And then we're going to know there's going to be cities and rubble and destruction. And it's all starting from wherever it was when the Lord returned. And there is significant continuity to our labors in society. There will be lulls in cities and in governments that won't need to be changed. And there will be other lulls that will need greatly to be changed. We can change lulls now and it will have relevance after the Lord returns. It's not a defeatist view that because the Antichrist is coming and setting up regime, he will not dominate the whole world. There will be pockets of mercy everywhere. Well, there will be supernatural protection and there will be spheres of righteousness and justice. Regions that have it far more than other places. And I'm going for the whole thing right here. I don't know. I can't fully measure. None of us can how far we can go because God leaves us under that perhaps of God. He says, go for it. He goes, just know this. I'm the leader of the whole program and I love righteousness and justice. That's a tip off. If that's what you're really after, I'll probably help you more than you think. Pockets of mercy everywhere. Okay. Let's go to the next thing. Uh, E. No, D. The view we have in measuring the amount of victory before the second coming is very essential. To measure. I mean, it's your paradigm. It's your view of it. What do I mean by that? E. There's two different extremes. One group has the minimal impact view. That's not a theological term. That's just a made up term. You can change it. By the way, as you know, you could use all this word for word and you don't have to reference this place at all. It's yours to run with if any of it registers with you. The minimal impact view. That's where the, uh, dispensational pre-millennialism where they rapture coming any minute. They have, let's just draw back. Why put in the effort? Because it's going to, you know, the antichrist is going to run it all anyway. And he will have a very significant government, but he will not conquer all the nations of the earth. His influence will be everywhere, but he will not prevail. He absolutely will not. And I believe that in America we have the best opportunity to make lasting change. I think this will be his hardest ground, uh, in terms of, in the natural, in terms of political, in terms of military and economic. I believe this will be his hardest ground. I believe spiritually, this will be a part of the earth that will tumble quickly, except for those raising up in apostolic Christianity. I believe apostate Christianity will, will be prolific in America, but there will be a sufficient number. Millions who will go the other direction. This will be a hard place for him to, him to do. I have great hopes for our nation, even in the midst of what's happening. And then after the Lord returns, it's like, you know, I'm hoping to hang out in Grandview later. You know, after, well, maybe, I don't know. Maybe not. Someone says, I want to go to Jerusalem. I don't want to go to Jerusalem. It's going to be so crowded. There's going to be so many people there. Me and the Lord will get a good thing going. I'll just see him on, you know, outside of the staff meetings, you know, let the, everyone else go to Jerusalem. I'm talking about in the millennium, that's what I'm talking about. Okay. You can overlook that as a little foolishness there. Okay. So two extremes. Number one is what I call the minimal impact view. It's like they said, well, we're not going to make a difference anyway, so why bother? But the other one is the total impact view that says we're going to totally Christianize everything. Glory to God. You get a room shouting if they all agree with that, but it absolutely is not the spirit of truth. We must, we must measure. I don't mean precisely the sense of what scripture says about the amount of victory. It's critical so that we're not disappointed. We're not into hype. We're into the spirit of truth. We're into reality. So we're not going one direction. And then we find out it's all different. We want the spirit of truth and it's a, and it's possible to have that. And I find that both groups, what they have to do, the, the minimal impact group or the total impact group. And most everybody who has a, who's thought about a while or one camp or the other. And I don't believe either camp is right. What they end up doing often is they have to just, uh, spiritualize a whole bunch of Bible verses to make their view work. Or they have to just ignore a bunch of in time prophecies. I want a view of the end times where we can look at every single Bible verse on the end times and not have to spiritualize it or not have to just hope nobody asks us about it. We want to view the end times that actually could hold up under the scrutiny of scripture. The whole thing, right? Okay. Three approaches. I realize I'm giving you a lot of information for those of you just visiting tonight. You know, you're going, my goodness, it's not, I can think of maybe a few moms and dads. They just dropped their children off at fire in the night and they go, man, I don't think my kids could be able to handle under all this intellectual stuff. Well, the good news is every session isn't like this. We're going to get them in love with Jesus. That's what we're aiming for. Okay. Three approaches to the end times. There's three different approaches. Let's go a few more minutes and then we'll end it here. Number one approach. And I'm relating these three approaches to the millennium, to the thousand year kingdom. There's the premillennial approach. Here's the good point. They take the premillennial approach, takes the end time prophecy at face value. They take it literal. That's, that's brilliant. That's good. They take the Bible. It means what it says and it says what it means. All millennial approach means no millennium, which means there's no literal millennium. The millennium is the spiritual reign of Jesus in the heart of his people. Right now, during the whole 2000 year church age, the all millennial view is Jesus is reigning for a thousand years. Well, it just happens to be 2000 because it's not literal anyway. It's spiritual, it's symbolic, and he's not reigning in the earth. He's actually reigning in the hearts of people who say no to sin. The problem with that view, besides the fact it's not biblical, it said it, it, it's, it's, uh, spiritualizes a significant amount of end time prophecy. I've got a number of friends that are really into that. And there's this passage after passage. You just can't answer it. Even the real brilliant guys. You know, one of the main guys into that is Calvin. John Calvin's one of the big heroes. You look at his commentaries. He has whole sections completely. Verse 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. He just makes no comment. You can't because you just have to. There is no answer, but it says what it means. And so that to me is a very, uh, it's good view is that it has a real high value for victory over sin. It's bad view is that it doesn't take literal biblical prophecy. It's spiritualizes it. The next view is post-millennial and the post-millennial view says Jesus comes post. He comes after the millennium. He comes after the church Christianizes society. We're going to Christianize it and all the institutions of society will be Christianized and then Jesus will come. That's a very positive eschatology. Like we're going to have victory in every area. Again, the, what they have to do all millennial post-millennial, they have a significant amount of end time prophecy. They have to spiritualize it, make it symbolic. They can't take it at face value because it doesn't hold up. There's too many because the scripture says a time of negative of crisis is coming. And so the post-millennial go, we can't have a time of crisis because we have a time of crisis that our view is wrong. Because their view is it's going to be unbroken victory everywhere. And that's not the truth. What's going to happen is there will be victory in the midst of chaos. It's both and not either or how much victory. Well, in one part of the world, in one city, whole lot more than another. Perhaps if you seek me, I will hide you from the negative spread of sin and judgment. Perhaps if you seek me, I will break in and establish a beachhead for righteousness. So D this is essential. The only one of the three approaches is, uh, to print I prophecy or to the millennium. I'm just, it's still the three approaches to prophecy with a face value, literal common sense, uh, interpretation of end time prophecy. The only one is pre-millennialism. The other two, a vast, I mean, a significant amount is spiritualized and made symbolically. It's kind of like, uh, you have to read it as poetry, like the chronicles of Narnia, like CS Lewis. It doesn't mean what it says. You have to read it and say, well, it's using symbolic language. And what they do post-millennial and all millennial to the book of revelation is they make it a poem. That gives a description of spiritual conflict in a poetry form, but it's not, none of its actual literal are going to happen. And that's a, to me, a very significant, uh, uh, ignoring of scripture that was given to be grace to us so we can triumph in this hour. Let's go to the next page, page five. I give the positive view, the, the, the strength of all millennialism victory over sin. That's a big strength. I like that strength. That's a good strength. The weakness they don't take in time prophecy literal and equally bad is that they transfer all the promises God made in the covenants to Israel. They transfer them all to the church. And so Israel has no place in God's economy. It's called replacement theology. That is one of the greatest deceptions in the church today. And all millennials, most of them, not all of them, but by far, the majority of them buy into that. It's a really serious weakness. They very, very serious weakness of their approach. Okay. Let's look at the next one. Post-millennial it's strength. Very cool. They want to go change society. It's called the cultural mandate. They want to establish justice and righteousness everywhere. That is fantastic because we're supposed to do that and our victory will have continuity. Some of it will in the age to come. It will last through the great pressure and the great trouble. It's weakness. Same thing. They don't take in time prophecy literal. Some of it they do, but almost most of it they don't. They have Israel as a rule. Some of them, their exceptions explained away. Because if you don't take in time prophecy literal, you can't have Israel with promises. If you get rid of in time prophecy, you got to get rid of Israel. But there's so many, you know, I've talked to some of them. I go, what about this verse, this verse, this verse? It's like, well, it's all symbolic. I go, how can you say it's symbolic? What's it symbolic of? Well, no one knows for sure. I says right there, it says in Jerusalem, it's going to happen. I go, what does that mean? I says, you know, the river Euphrates is going to do this and that. What is the Euphrates? What's it symbolic of snakes in the children's church or something? I mean, what Euphrates is Euphrates. I mean, how can it be other than that? Well, it's hard to say exactly what's symbolic of, but something bad. I'm not meaning I actually, I don't want to, uh, that's actually literally what I said. I wasn't trying to be humorous. That's actually what I said. I, because they said it's got to be a, a consistent symbolism everywhere. If it's going to be symbolic, let's, we can't change the symbolism when we change passages. It has to be a consistent hermeneutic. But its strength is they see the value of establishing justice and righteousness in society. That is really good. Let's go to the next page. Premillennialism. Now this is the one that takes biblical prophecy literal. I am an adamant premillennial. I take biblical prophecy literal. Now there's three camps within the premillennial. I mean, you could define it more specific than that, but three is good enough to get the feel of it. Of the people who take end time prophecy, literal number one camp, dispensational premillennial. They are premillennial. They do believe in end time prophecy, but they have us gone. And in heaven, when it's happening, it's bad. That's real bad. We're gone. It's our greatest hour. So we're not preparing for it. We have no urgency about it because the truth is we're not going to be gone. They're just going to be completely unprepared. That is disastrous. The second type of premillennialism is called historic or classic premillennialism. I have it all here in the notes. It has very similar weaknesses and strengths as the pre-wrath and the mid-tribulation. The good part of historic premillennialism, they believe in literal end time prophecy. Okay, that's great. And they see us as preparing for a time of difficulty in the tribulation. That's good. But they don't have us in victory. They have us hanging on by the skin of our teeth. And praise God, some of us make it. Like, no, you got to have victory in it. And there's got to be intimacy. And there's got to be the power of God in the great harvest. And almost every single classic or historic premillennial who take end time prophecy, they see us getting prepared to go through it. But it's a hanging on. I go, what about the great harvest? I've asked a dozen guys this. I mean, real theologians. They go, well, I don't know about the great harvest. I go, bro, you got to have a great harvest. It's everywhere. What are we doing if there's no great harvest? We're hanging on so we don't backslide. I go, I love the hang on part because we don't want to backslide. I like that. But what about the victory? What about making an impact on the culture that has continuity? Well, hey, the devil is going to win anyway down here. Let's just hang on. Our goal is to hang on. That's not good enough either. Then the third one is what I call apostolic premillennialism. It has the strengths of the other ones. It has the spiritual victory of the all millennial. It has the cultural mandate to reestablish justice and righteousness in society of postmillennial. It takes the Bible literal like the dispensational premillennial. It has us enduring and being persevering in trouble as the historic premillennial. But it has us entering into apostolic power and lifestyle and victory of the apostolic church. Well, the note rests the note. It just says the same thing over and over and over. I got about five, four more pages of notes. I just got real repetitive. There it is. Let's stand. Good. That means you're going to say this stuff, right? When you go back and somebody is like, doesn't like it. I want you to know people do not like this. It's disruptive because it messes up. It messes up some ministry plans. Now the worship team, I didn't give it an ounce of warning that I was ending. Normally I say in conclusion like three times. That's okay. Come on up. Let's stand. Oh, we are. Okay. Father, we love you. We just want to worship. Anyone that wants prayer, I want to invite you to just come on up to the blue lines right now. Whether you want prayer for healing, whether you want prayer just for your heart to be touched, for revelation, for impartation. Anybody wants prayer, just come up to the blue lines. Come to the first one first. There must be more than this. Oh, breath of God. Come.