Dave Reagan on the Promise of Victory

Will good finally triumph over evil? Speaker Dr. David Reagan explains at the Christianity Under Attack conference shown on television’s Christ in Prophecy.

Last aired on March 30, 2014.

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Transcript

Dr. Reagan: Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the evil that is abounding in the world? Do you sometimes wonder if righteousness is going to be extinguished and evil and is going to triumph? Well I have incredibly good news for you. The Word of God promises that one day soon those of us who are Christians will witness complete victory over the evil forces of this world. For the details about that great victory stay tuned.

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Part 1

Dr. Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus our Blessed Hope and welcome to Christ in Prophecy. You know folks we live in a world that is full of gloomy news. Each night the television news is full of stories about murders and rapes, child abuse, political corruption, revolutions, plagues, and yes even natural disasters. As we are assaulted by all this bad news it’s easy for us to become discouraged and depressed. The result is that we live in a world that desperately needs hope. And I am pleased to say that God’s Word provides it. I want to present you with a summary of that hope. And I am going to do so by presenting some of the highlights from a presentation I made in our 2011 Bible Conference. My presentation was titled, “The Promise of Victory.”

Presentation

Dr. Reagan: In his great novel about the French Revolution called, “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens began the story with some of the most memorable words in all English literature. Here is what he wrote, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the epic of belief. It was the epic of incredulity. It was the season of light. It was the season of darkness. It was a spring of hope. It was the winter of despair.” These words have never been truer than they are today. Everywhere we look in every direction the world seems literally to be falling apart. We are racked by wars and rumors of wars. Immorality and violence are rampant. Our money is being devalued and debased. Our educational systems have been hijacked by humanist, and by atheists. Our political systems are gridlocked by value wars and corruption. All of nature seems to be reeling out of control producing one calamity after another. And our churches are being destroyed by rampant apostasy. True Christianity is under attack from all sides and Christians are being marginalized as nothing in the world but a bunch of intolerant bigots.

Yet despite all this economic, social, and political chaos I would say it is also the best of times, because all these developments are a fulfillment of End Time Bible Prophecies that point to the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said society would be as immoral and as violent as in the days of Noah. And He said that when we see that immorality and violence developing that we are to look up and we are to be watchful because our redemption will be drawing near. Those of us who have committed our lives to Jesus may see all that is dear to us literally disintegrate before our very eyes. But we are going to win in the end. We may suffer terrible persecution. But we are going to win in the end. We may see the collapse of the dollar, and the fall of the United States as a world power. But we are going to win in the end. And how can I be so confident? Because the Bible promises ultimate victory. And I know for certain that the Bible is true.

What is our promised victory? Let me summarize it for you very quickly. We are promised that at any moment right now we will be taken out of this world in what is called the Rapture of the Church. We are promised that God will then pour out His wrath on wicked world leaders who currently thumb their noses at Him. We are promised that Jesus will then return to reign over all the world in majesty and glory from Mount Zion in Jerusalem and the world will be flooded with peace, righteousness and justice as the waters cover the sea. We are promised that we will ultimately be given an eternal home on a new earth that has been refreshed and refurbished and perfected as the original earth was. And we are promised that we will live eternally on that new earth in glorified, immortal bodies in the presence of our Creator and our Savior.

Again how could I be certain of these promises? Because the Bible tells me so and the Bible can be trusted as the infallible Word of God. And how do I know that? Because it is the only book in the world that has fulfilled promises. I don’t know if you ever thought about that or not. There is not one fulfilled prophecy in the Koran. There is not one fulfilled prophecy in the Hindu Vedas. There is not one fulfilled prophecy in the sayings of Buddha or Confucius. There is not one fulfilled prophecy in the Book of Mormon. The only book in the world that contains fulfilled promises, and not just promises about the Messiah, prophecies about the Messiah. But prophecies about cities and towns, and nations, and individuals the only one is the Bible. And it contains 109 prophecies about the First Coming of Jesus, every one of which were literally and precisely fulfilled. And because they were literally and precisely fulfilled we can be absolutely confident that all the prophecies about the Messiah’s return and triumph will be precisely and literally fulfilled.

Let’s take a quick look an overview at God’s Plan for the Ages. There are four major prophesied triumphant events that we can see on the horizon. And that we as Born Again Children of God can look forward to with confidence. One is the Rapture; then comes the Second Coming; then the Millennium; and then Heaven.

Our first promise of victory is the Rapture of the Church. Now this is an event that is often confused with the Second Coming, but they are not the same. A careful study of the Scriptures reveals that the Return of Jesus is going to be in two stages; first the Rapture and then the Second Coming. The fact of these two separate events can really be easily demonstrated, easily demonstrated. For example there are only two detailed descriptions in the New Testament of the Return of Jesus, only two. One is in 1 Thessalonians 4; the other is in Revelation 19. And if you will look at those in detail, you will find something very interesting the two passages are as different as night and day. Which raises a major theological question, the two passages describing the Return of Jesus have absolutely nothing in common except that they both focus upon Jesus Christ. They could not be any more different.

For example let me show you how different they are. In 1 Thessalonians 4 Jesus appears in the heavens, He does not come to earth. In Revelation 19 Jesus returns to the earth. In 1 Thessalonians 4 Jesus appears in the heavens for His Church. In Revelation 19 He returns to the earth with His Church. In 1 Thessalonians 4 Jesus appears as a deliverer to deliver His Children from this wicked world; but in Revelation 19 He returns as a warrior to pour out the wrath of God. In 1 Thessalonians 4 He appears in grace; in Revelation 19 He returns in wrath. In 1 Thessalonians 4 He appears as a Bridegroom for His Bride the Church; but in Revelation 19 He returns to earth as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

Now how can these two passages be reconciled? Well I believe that the only way that they can really be reconciled is to conclude that they are talking two different events. And at the Second Coming of Jesus is going to be in 2 stages; first the Rapture, and then later the Second Coming. And incidentally this reconciliation solves another problem the Bible says repeatedly that the return of Jesus is imminent that is it can happen at any moment. But folks how can it be imminent if there is only one future coming? If you only believe in one future coming what’s called the Second Coming then the return of Jesus is not imminent. Imminent means it can happen any moment. But if you only believe in the Second Coming and don’t believe in the Rapture the Return of Jesus is not imminent there is no way in the world He could come back today. And why is that? Because there are prophecies that have to be fulfilled.

Look here is the point if there is only one future coming then the Lord’s Return in not imminent because there are many prophecies that must be fulfilled before He can return to earth. There is a whole passel of them as we say in Texas, I’ll just list you a few. There must be seven years of Tribulation. There must be the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. There must be the revelation of the Antichrist. There must be the killing of the two witnesses, the desecration of the Temple by the Antichrist, the institution of the mark of the beast, the salvation of the Jewish remnant. All of those are things that must happen before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The point again is this the only way the Lord’s return can be imminent is for there to be a Rapture that is separate and apart from the Second Coming, and which can occur any moment without the fulfillment of any prophecies.

Now this reconciliation solves another problem, the Bible says that no one can know the date of the Lord’s return. No ands if or buts about it. There are a lot of sincere people who think they do know but they don’t. The Bible says that we can know the day of the Lord’s return. But I don’t know if you have ever thought about this or not but here is the problem and that is that the date of the Second Coming can be calculated precisely. It will be exactly 2,520 days or seven prophetic years that is 360 days to a year from the day the Tribulation begins. From the moment that the Antichrist signs that treaty guaranteeing the peace of Israel you can count down 2,520 days and Jesus will return. We can know the exact date of the Second Coming. Therefore the statement about not knowing the date must apply to the Lord’s appearing in the Rapture and not in the Second Coming. So when we hear that talking about you can’t know the date we are talking here about the Rapture and we are not talking about the Second Coming. Again the solution is too future comings first the appearing of the Lord for His Church and then the return.

Now this brings us to the second great prophetic event of triumph that we can look forward to and boy what a day this will be and that is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The Bible says Jesus will return to this earth at the end of seven years of great Tribulation. He will return to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem from which He ascended into heaven. And this will occur when the Jewish people have come to the end of themselves as a result of the persecution they experienced in the Tribulation motivating them to turn their hearts to God. That is one of the fundamental purposes of the Tribulation.

There are several purposes but one is to bring the Jewish people to the end of themselves. So that they will no longer look to the United States or anybody else but they will turn their hearts to God because that’s the only person they will have to turn to. When Jesus comes we are told that they will look upon Him that they have pierced and they will weep and they will mourn as over the loss of an only son. And it says that they will look upon Him and they will cry out, “Baruch haba b’Shem Adonai,” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” And a great remnant of the Jewish people will be saved on that day. In fact Jesus said He said, “I will not return until the Jewish people are willing to say, ‘Baruch haba b’Shem Adonia.”

At that point Jesus will speak a supernatural word and the Antichrist and his forces will be destroyed in the Valley of Armageddon. There is no such thing as the Battle of Armageddon, it doesn’t exist. Jesus doesn’t send some army out against the Antichrist and his armies. He just speaks a supernatural word after all this is the one who spoke and the whole universe came into existence. He will speak and the Antichrist and his forces will drop dead. It says their tongues will melt in their mouths, their eyeballs in their sockets, their skin will drop. It is not wonder it says that the Valley of Armageddon will be filled with blood as deep as a horses bridle for a distance of 200 miles. There is going to be hundreds of millions of people in that valley when Jesus Christ speaks.

He will then resurrect the Old Testament saints. You see the Old Testament saints are not a part of the Bride of Christ. When the Rapture occurs that’s for the Church that is for the Bride of Christ. The Old Testament saints according to Daniel 12 will be resurrected at the end of the Tribulation at the Second Coming of Jesus. They will be resurrected as will be the Tribulation martyrs and they will receive their glorified bodies at that point. He will then judge all of those who are still left alive both the Gentiles and the Jews will be judged. The saved will be allowed to enter the Millennium in the flesh. But those who are not saved will be consigned to death and to Hades.

This brings us to the third great triumphal event that Christians should be looking forward to and that is the millennial reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Bible says that those of us who are in glorified bodies the saved will reign with Jesus Christ over the flesh for a 1,000 years during which time the earth will be flooded with peace, righteousness, and justice. Jesus will be serving in Jerusalem as the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. David in his glorified body will be serving as the King of Israel. We in our glorified bodies will be scattered all over this earth to reign over different peoples around the world. You remember Jesus said that there is going to be degrees of reward depending upon your faithfulness to me in this life.

He said I will put one person over one city, another other two, another over five, one over 10. Some of you will mayors, some of you may be governors, some of you may be presidents of nations as we reign with the Lord Jesus Christ over this earth. Everybody in a position of reigning authority will be a person in a glorified body and that could include not only the people in administrative positions but judges and also teachers. I can hardly wait for the Millennium to come because every teacher on planet earth will be a person in a glorified body. Everything will taught out of this book, everything. We will teach mathematics, we will teach geology, we will teach history, we will teach it all out of here. And there will be no one there to say, “Separation of Church of State,” because there will be no separation of Church and State, Praise God.

You know what there will not be? There will be no Texas Legislature or United States Congress, because Jesus will give the law not some legislature. There won’t be any lobbyist or any people of that nature because Jesus will give the law and He will see to it that the law is enforced. Boy what a time that’s going to be. No wonder the earth is going to be flooded with peace, righteousness, and justice. And during that millennial time God is going to fulfill some promises that He has made.

You know when I first began to believe the Bible for what it said. I grew up in an Amillennial Church a church that said that Jesus is never going to come back to this earth there is never going to be a reign that is all just nonsense. But when I started believing the Bible for what it said the first struggle I had was why in the world would Jesus want to come back and reign on this earth? Why not just do away with it and let’s all go to heaven and it will be over with. And I had a real struggle with that. And then the more I studied Bible prophecy the more it became clear that we have to have a Millennium for a number of reasons. And one of them is that God has made promises that He must fulfill because God is a God of His Word. And the only way He can fulfill those is in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

For example God has made some promises to Jesus Christ. He has promised to Jesus that a day is coming when He is going to receive the honor and glory and power that He should have received the first time He came. Instead the first time He came He was spat upon, He was crucified, He was mocked, He was scourged. But He is going to receive honor, glory, and power. And that is going to happen during the millennial reign of Jesus, boy what a time that is going to be. Isaiah describes it, there are many descriptions of it in the Bible both Old Testament and New, but here is Isaiah one of his descriptions, “Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed for the Lord of host will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and His glory will go forth before His elders.” He is going to be glorified and honored as He should have been the first coming. And here is a underwriting of it in the New Testament 2 Thessalonians 1 Paul writes, “Jesus is returning to be glorified in His Saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed.” He is coming to be glorified. He is coming to receive majesty and glory. And God is going to keep that glorious promise during the Millennium.

Secondly God has made some promises to the creation. He has promised that He will restore the creation to its original perfection. Repeatedly in the Hebrew Scriptures the promise is made over and over again that one day God will redeem His creation. You know again I grew up in a Church that taught me that one day Jesus is going to come back and the whole universe is going to blow up and we are going to live in an ethereal world forever as disembodied spirits floating around clouds playing harps. I sure couldn’t get excited about that. But that’s not what the Bible teaches at all. The Bible teaches that God loves His creation. He created it perfect. He wants to return it to that perfection. It teaches that Jesus died on the cross not only for you and me and for our sins but that Jesus died on the cross to make it possible that the whole creation can be redeemed.

Do you remember that once a year when the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies he would walk in there and he would put the blood on the Mercy Seat? And this was a prophecy that one day the Messiah would die and His blood would make it possible for the grace of God to cover the law of God which was under that Mercy Seat. But did you ever notice it says he stepped back and sprinkled the blood on the ground? Most people never noticed that. He sprinkled the blood of the ground. What was that? A symbol it was a prophecy that the Messiah was going to die not only for the sins of mankind but die to make it possible for all of creation to be redeemed. And God is going to do that during this particular time.

Again there are many Scriptures that talk about this. For example Isaiah 11 talks about how the wolf will dwell with the lamb and how the lion will eat straw with the ox. There will no longer be any poisonous animals. There will no longer be any meat eating animals. A man will live in perfect peace and harmony with nature and the animal kingdom will live in peace and harmony with itself. And here is a affirmation of it in the New Testament here is Peter before the Sanhedrin Council in Acts 3 and Peter says to these men who crucified Jesus and who could crucify him, he said to them, “Repent in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send Jesus Christ the appointed for you whom heaven must receive where He is now until the period of the restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient times.” There is going to be a time of the restoration of all things and that is going to occur during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

God has also made some promises to the nations. He has promised that the day is coming when the nations will enjoy what they’ve always dreamed of what every summit conference has always hoped for and that is peace, righteousness, and justice. It doesn’t matter how many times the leaders of this world meet in summit conferences there will never be peace on this earth until the Prince of Peace returns, and that is Jesus Christ. So here is one of those promises there are many, many of them Micah 4:3, “He (the Messiah) will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war.” Oh how we have yearned for those days and they are coming when we win in the end.

There is a fourth reason that God is going to have a Millennium. He has made many, many promises to the Jews that have never been fulfilled. One of the worst apostasies taught by the Church for the last 2,000 years is that the Church replaced Israel, God has washed His hands of the Jews, has no purpose left for the Jews. You have to avoid three chapters of the Bible to believe that and that is Romans 9, 10, and 11 which says God still loves the Jewish people. Still has a purpose for the Jewish people. And is going to fulfill every promise He has ever made to them to a believing remnant of Jews who will turn to Him and accept Yeshua as their Ha’mashiah.

Well that is going to happen the Jews are going to be honored during the Millennium as the prime nation of the world. Again there are many, many Scriptures about this in the Old Testament I just want to show you one of the most glorious and that is in Isaiah chapter 60. Look what it says God is going to do for the Jews for the Jews during that time. “The glory of the Lord will appear upon you Israel. And nations will come to your light, and Kings to the brightness of your rising. The wealth of nations will come to you and the sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you and all who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet. Whereas you have been forsaken in hated I will make you an everlasting pride, a joy from generation to generation. The days of your mourning will be finished. Then all your people will be righteous and they will possess the land forever.” This is going to be fulfilled during this millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

God is going to take the world and just turn it upside down with regard to the Jews. Today the Jews are hated, today the Jews are mocked. Jokes are made of the Jews. The Jews are persecuted but when Jesus makes the Jewish people who are believers at that time makes them the prime nation of the world, the whole world will recognize the glory of God flowing through the Jewish people and coming out to the world and the whole world will honor the Jews. Here is a good example of it in Zechariah what an image this is. In Zechariah 8 beginning with verse 22, “Many peoples and many nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of Hosts in those days 10 men of all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew saying, ‘Let us go with you for we have heard that God is with you.'” When a Jew walks by in the millennial time 10 Gentiles will grab his robe and say, “Please let us walk with you because we know that God is with you.” What a day that is going to be when God fulfills the promises He has made to the Jewish people.

There is another reason for the Millennium during that time God is going to fulfill the promises He has made to you and me to the saints. He has promised that we are going to rule over all the nations of the world and that is a promise that has not been fulfilled but it is going to be fulfilled during that time. Take for example Daniel 7:27, “Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms and the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions will serve and obey Him.'” We are going to reign with the Lord Jesus Christ. And there’s many, many passages that talk about that. Here is one in Revelation 2 that underlines it verse 26, “And he who overcomes, and he who keeps my deeds until the end,” this is Jesus speaking, “to him I will give authority over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces as I also have received authority from my Father.” We are going to reign with the Lord Jesus Christ over all the earth.

The final stage of God’s plan for the ages will come at the end of the millennium when we will be presented with our heavenly home the home that Jesus Christ is preparing for us right now. The redeemed will be removed from this planet at the end of that millennium and we will be put into that heavenly home that is waiting for us. And I suspect that from that vantage point I can’t prove this but I suspect it, but from that vantage point we will be able to watch the greatest fireworks display in all of history as God superheats this earth to burn away all the pollution of Satan’s last revolt. And out of that fiery inferno we are told that God will create a new heaven and a new earth which will be our eternal abode. That’s right Heaven will come to earth in eternity. Heaven will come to earth. We always think about going up and living in Heaven eternally the Bible says no Heaven will come to earth and we will live on the new earth in new bodies in the New Jerusalem eternally. The new earth will be Heaven; the new earth will be our home in that New Jerusalem.

Closing

Dr. Reagan: One of the most comforting Scriptures to me in all the Bible is Psalm 2 it says that while all the political leaders of the world plot and connive against each other and against God’s Word, God sits in the heavens and laughs. His laughter is prompted not by a lack of concern rather it is motivated by the fact that He has everything under control. You see the message of Bible prophecy is that God has the wisdom and the power to orchestrate all the evil of mankind to the triumph of His son. Jesus is returning and He will be totally victorious over all the evil in this world.

Well that is our program for this week. I hope it has been a blessing to you. And I hope you will be back with us again next week. Until then the Lord willing this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb and Lion Ministries’ saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our redemption is drawing near.”

End of Program

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