How Do The Current Events Relate To Biblical Prophecy? With Phil Hopper— Part 1 | 913

Podcast (hsj): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:52 — 17.8MB)

Today is Mailbox Monday and I have a special guest on the show with me today. My friend, Pastor Phil Hopper, is here to answer your questions about COVID-19, everything that’s happening around us right now, and how it relates to biblical prophecy. Listen in to part one of two— I think you’re going to be encouraged.


Transcribed version of podcast is below.

Today’s Scripture Writing Challenge Verse

  • John 14:16-17

Resources Mentioned In Podcast

All Things Heidi

Join us at MomStrong International for our newest Bible Study and Scripture Writing!

Phil Hopper has been the lead pastor of Abundant Life Church in Lee’s Summit, Missouri since 2000. He watched God do extraordinary things in the life of the church as it has grown from 100 people to a church touching thousands of people each week. Prior to entering the ministry, he was a police officer and sergeant with the Kansas City Police Department where he served as a SWAT team member. It was through this experience that God uniquely prepared him for the ministry. Phil lives in the Lee’s Summit area with his wife, Christa. They have three adult children – Jake, Makay and Josh.

Connect with the Phil Hopper: Abundant Life Church | Website | Defeating the Enemy | The Weapons of Our Warfare

Don’t Miss These!

TRANSCRIPTION:

This podcast is brought to you by LearnAtHome.today

 

Hey everybody, this is Heidi St. John. Welcome to the Heidi St. John Podcast. Today is Monday, April 20th. This is episode number 913—right in the middle of COVID-19. I’m so glad you guys have joined me. Today is Mailbox Monday and I have a special guest on the show with me today. My friend, Pastor Phil Hopper is here to answer your questions about COVID-19, everything that’s happening around us right now, and how it relates to biblical prophecy. Stick around, I think you’re going to be encouraged.

So thanks for tuning in today. You guys know this is one of my favorite days of the week here at the podcast, and I am actually using this whole COVID-19 thing to my benefit, because a lot of my friends who I normally have to schedule weeks in advance are on quarantine like I am. And today I’m really, really excited, because a lot of you are writing in and you’re understandably concerned about what you see happening around you, right? We see a lot of what can only be considered government overreach. We’re seeing very strange things happen in government. We’re in the middle of a pandemic, a lot of you struggling with fear, which we’ve talked about a lot at the podcast.

But today I’m going to take your questions in a little bit of a different direction and we’re going to talk about the book of Revelation and the end times, and answer some of your questions about how we can know whether or not we’re living in the end times.

You guys have heard me reference Pastor Phil Hopper here several times at the podcast. I was honored to write the forward for his latest book. And Phil has a very good understanding of Scripture and he’s a very, very gifted communicator. And so I called him to see if on a whim he could join me if he happened to be quarantined, and he is. And so I’ve asked him to come and answer your questions today at the podcast. Hey, my friend, Pastor Phil, welcome back to the show.

[Phil] Heidi, it is so great to be on your show. So thankful for your ministry and really excited to talk about prophecy today and what we see happening in our world events. We are living near, I’m convinced, to the return of Jesus as He’s promised.

[Heidi] Yeah, it’s exciting. I mean, I think this is a really exciting time to be a Christian, because our hope comes from knowing God and knowing His Word. So I’m going to just jump right in. The first question comes from a listener whose name is Rachel. So Hey Rachel, thanks for writing in.

She says, “Heidi, how can I know that I’m not being deceived? Anytime I hear a pastor talk about this generation, I hear they only want their ears tickled while they turn away from truth. And I want to be certain that’s not me. But when I go to read scripture to understand it for myself, I often see myself as the accused, the wicked that will perish or the one who is cast into the fire, and I’m left confused. I believe I have confessed and seek to live a life that honors God and the redemptive work of the cross. I seek to believe truth and be faithful, so why do I struggle when I read the Bible, and how can I know the truth for myself without feeling condemnation when I turn to God’s word?”

Pastor Phil, what you gotta to say to our girl, Rachel?

[Phil] Well, Rachel, fantastic question and I want to direct your attention to 1 John 5:11-13, all right? The book of 1 John is written as a metric for how we can know that we really are a Christian. And it’s true, we live in a world of counterfeits. Satan’s a counterfeiter of all that God is, all that God does. There’s counterfeit religion, counterfeit worship, there’s a counterfeit church, there’s even counterfeit christ. And so, 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourself, whether you be in the faith, examine yourself, whether or not you’d be reprobate.”

And so Rachel, you’re doing exactly what you ought to do. We all ought to have times of self introspection, self-examination. Am I truly a Christian? Because we live in America. And what that means is, 71% of Americans say they’re Christians. But we also know that if 70% of American were really Christians, our world would look a lot more like heaven, a little bit less like hell.

And so the reality is, we don’t live in a nation full of Christians. You have a lot of people that profess Christ but don’t possess Christ, may have been baptized, but not born again. And so I think it’s a relevant question. Now, here’s the metric system the Apostle John gives us in 1 John 5:11. How do we know that we’re really in the faith, a true born again believer, child of God? It says in verse 11: “And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life isn’t his Son. He who has the son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

So God is not trying to confuse us. He’s not trying to hide Himself from us. He’s trying to reveal himself to us. He wants you to know of your destiny eternally. He wants you to have the security of knowing your destiny, your destination is heaven. He doesn’t want you to wonder, you don’t have to wish. And so He gives us the metric very clearly. Simply, he says in 1 John 5:12, “He that has the Son has life. He that does not have the Son, does not have life.”

And so very simply, if you have received the Son of God, you have eternal life. If you have not received the Son of God, you do not have eternal life. Verse 13: “These things I’ve written to you that you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” So you don’t have to wonder or wish or hope or guess. God wants you to know that you have eternal life. He says, “I’ve written this to you so that you may know you have eternal life.”

And so Rachel, if there’s been a time that you believed on Jesus to forgive your sin and you believed that he died for your sin, that he rose again and by faith you received Him as your Savior, and you asked him to forgive your sin, that’s what Jesus called being born again. Romans 10:9-10 : “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Romans 10:13 : “For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

So if there’s been a moment that you called them the name of Jesus to forgive your sin, recognizing you were separated from heaven because of your sin, you called on Jesus to forgive your sin and you trusted in Him, and this is different than knowing about Him. A lot of people know about Him and that’s different than trusting in Him. But if there’s been a moment that you trusted in him to forgive your sin, then you can be confident that you’ve really been what Jesus called born again. You now have been born again as a child of God.

And so I want you to see that God no longer sees your sin, because now He sees the righteousness of the Son. 2 Corinthians 5:21: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” So Rachel, you need to understand God no longer sees your sin as a Christian. Even though you still sin practically, positionally you’re now in Christ, which means he now sees the righteousness of Christ instead of your sin.

So what do you do now that you sin? You don’t lose your relationship with God because of sin. It says in Ephesians 4:30, “Grieve not the Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.” The Spirit of God does now come to live inside of you and has sealed your salvation until the day of redemption the day you stand before Him.

And so what’s that say? Don’t grieve the Spirit of God. Our sin grieves the Spirit of God, but it does not break the seal of the Spirit of God. You see, we’re saved by grace and we are kept saved by grace. What that means is, it’s not our work, but rather His work. It’s not you trying to appease God by keeping a list of things for you to do for God, because it’s not you’re working your way to God. It’s God who has done all the work for you.

And so grace is not you hanging on to God. It’s about God hanging on to you. If we could lose our salvation, there’s not one of us that could keep our salvation, because even one sin would keep you out of heaven. So sin, when we sin, and we all still sin, all right? 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” But then verse nine tells us what to do: “If you confess your sin, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

And so what does that mean now that you’re a Christian as a child of God? It means that you’re now a child and God no longer sees you as a sinner, as His enemy. You’re now a member of His family. And so sin does not sever your relationship with God, but it severs your fellowship with God.

So what you do now is confess it. Just like if you’re a mother and your children have disobeyed you. They don’t stop being your children just because they’ve sinned against you, but they had broken fellowship with you. So you want them to confess what they’ve done. Fess up, son, come on, tell me the truth, sweetie. Come on, tell me the truth, daughter. And then when they repent, then that fellowship can be restored. That’s what God wants you to do now.

And so the key, now that you’ve been born as a child of God, is to grow as a child of God. And that’s a process; that doesn’t happen instantly. That happens as you pour yourself into the Word of God and the word of God pours into you. 1 Peter 2:2: “As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby.”

And so Rachel, listen, you’ve been born a child of God. And I’m telling you, you wouldn’t be listening to Heidi St. John if you wanted your ears tickling.

[Heidi] Yeah, you’re right.

[Phil] So that tells me you’ve got the Spirit of truth living in you. The Spirit of God is in you, because you haven’t turned your ears from the truth, because Heidi is going to tell you some tough truth and hard truth. That tells me you’ve got the Spirit of truth living in you. The Spirit of God resides in you and so He’s not going to allow you to be deceived. And that’s why you can be confident in your salvation. Don’t let Satan in any way shake you from that foundation. Be confident Rachel.

[Heidi] I love what you have just done for Rachel, because I think what you’ve also done is encourage a whole lot of other people who have the same question. The enemy of our soul is very good at tweaking us just where we hurt the most, right? The past sin, the places where we’ve tripped up in the past. But the Bible teaches us that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And you have just really affirmed that. And one of the things I love … and you guys, for those of you who are in the Kansas City, Missouri area, I tell you guys this all the time, if I lived anywhere near Lee’s Summit, Missouri, I’d be checking out Pastor Phil’s church, Abundant Life. Which you guys are like straight up doing all your services online right now, right?

[Phil] We’re doing everything online Heidi.

[Heidi] It’s kind of crazy. I watched your Easter service.

[Phil] God gave us an amazing day, Easter weekend. He’s moving in unique ways. And there’s revival and awakening happening, and God is moving in the middle of this chaos. I’m absolutely convinced the bride of Christ is awakening. And in the middle of this suffering and pain, and anxiety, and uncertainty, God is moving, maybe in a way that none of us have ever seen in our lifetime. And for that, and we can be thankful and confident.

[Heidi] Yeah, that’s right. And I think it’s a really important time for God’s people to be examining who they’re listening to for biblical counsel and for teaching, which was the primary reason that I reached out to you today, because the next question comes from a woman named Bonnie. And Bonnie said, “Hi Heidi, can you please help us choose biblically sound resources in helping us to study the end times prophecies. This subject is so complicated and I know we need to go to the Bible first, but it is beneficial to receive outside help.” And I couldn’t agree more.

Phil and I have had this conversation many times. There are many false teachers in the world right now, and God’s Word teaches us how to discern between a false teacher and a teacher who is listening to you and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And Phil, this is a complicated issue, but you really have studied the book of Revelation. And I thought, I’m going to just pitch this one to you and say, can you help us understand how will we know when is the Lord going to return? And how can we study the book of Revelation and really begin to understand end times prophecy?

[Phil] Yeah. So I would drive all of your listeners to our website, livingproof.co. I’ve done a verse by verse study of the book of Revelation; just completed it about a year and a half ago and it’s on our website, and it was about a year and a half project. I did it because it’s something I want people maybe to refer to for years and years to come. And so that’s livingproof.co, and you can click on The Well at our sermon page and you’ll see Revelation there verse by verse, line by line.

Just a snapshot: How do we know that we are living on this threshold of time as we know it? It’s true that every generation of Christians have believed that Jesus could come in their lifetime, but we are unique in all of church history. Jesus made it emphatically clear, no one knows the day or the hour. And so I’m convinced we shouldn’t be naive to think we’re going to figure it out exactly and others have. And I think when people set dates specifically, they really injure our credibility as the church, as Christians. They really don’t believe or take what Jesus said seriously, that no one will know the day or the hour, that he said in Acts 1 : “Only the Father alone.”

But we do know based on the prophetic signs and the seasons, that we really are living in the last times. And unlike any generation in church history, we do have, in the last century fulfilled prophecy, to say emphatically we really are living on the threshold of the rapture of the church and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us two super signs to look for, both of which were fulfilled just in the last century, all right?

The first one was the parable of the fig tree He gave in Matthew 24. Throughout scripture, the fig tree is a symbol of the national life of Israel. Not to be confused with the olive tree. Paul used the olive tree in Romans 10 as a picture of the spiritual life of Israel. The national life of Israel has always been that of a fig tree.

Now remember in Matthew 21, Jesus cursed the fig tree because it had leaves but no fruit. He cursed that fig tree because that was a picture of the national life of Israel; leaves but no fruit. They had the appearance of life, but because they were rejecting the Messiah, they were going to be fruitless, and He was prophetically foreshadowing 2000 years where the Jews would be out of the land. They would not be a nation. Israel would completely crumble as a nation, as a people.

In 135 A.D., the Romans would completely kick the Jews out of the land of their forefathers, after one Jewish revolt after another, after another, they finally said: it’s enough. They legally mandated the Jews leave the land of Israel. They actually change the name of the land from Israel to Palestine, and that’s where we get the word from, even today; the Palestinians who moved in after the Jews moved out. They moved into the land of Palestine. Palestine is the word Philistine, Philistine. And so the Romans were trying to erase any memory of the Jews ever having been in the land. Instead of the land of the Jews or the land of Israel, it became known as the land of the Philistines or the Philistines.

Well, what happened? God promised because of their sin, and rejection of the Messiah, He would scatter them among the nations, but he also promised to one day bring them back again. After 2000 years, about a hundred years ago, the end of World War One, the British foreign minister, Lord Balfour, signed the Balfour Declaration and it was the end of the Ottoman empire. The Muslim Arabs controlled the Holy Land for centuries. They lost to the British army, not coincidentally in a Valley called Armageddon, at the end of World War One.

That was the end of the Ottoman empire and the Holy Land became a colony of Great Britain. Lord Balfour signed the Balfour Declaration for the first time in 2000 years, legally allowing Jews to begin returning the land of Israel, but they still were not a people. And Jesus prophesied that the fig tree would die and go dormant and it did. Matthew 21, He curses it, but then in Matthew 24 he gives us the parable of the fig tree. He says, “When its leaves are yet tender and put a fourth leaves,” the summer is near, “Even so, you know that it is at the door.” What is it? The second coming of Christ. He’s giving the signs of the second coming in Matthew 24. He said, “Here’s one of your signs. When the fig tree puts on leaves and its leaves are yet tender, you know that it is near even at the door.”

And so what happens in 1948, the fig tree is reborn. Israel miraculously becomes a nation again, having been dead and dormant for 2000 years, the fig tree came back to life. And then he said these words, “This generation shall not pass away until all these things be fulfilled.”

Now the great debate among prophecy scholars is what is a generation? There were some who thought a generation was 40 years. Hal Lindsey would be among these who wrote the book Late, Great Planet Earth, predicting Jesus would come by 1988, 40 years after 1948. Well, of course, 40 years came and went. So we know that a generation, biblically, is not 40 years. Some argued for 70 years. Well, 70 years have come and gone. So we know it’s not 70 years. I’ve often said, Heidi, the easiest way to interpret prophecy is once it’s happened.

So, by process of elimination, we’re learning what a generation is. It’s not 40 years. You might’ve heard of a book published in the 1980s, 88 Reasons Why Jesus Will Come In 1988. It sold three and a half million copies. The remarkable thing is Hal Lindsey’s book sold 35 million copies; 10 million after 1988 and it was wrong. So again…

[Heidi] Isn’t he still selling it? I think he’s still selling it.

[Phil] And incidentally, I happen to like Hal Lindsey and think he is a reputable prophecy scholar. He never should have predicted a day. But fundamentally, he’s got a good template I think, prophetically, to work from.

But, here’s what I think and here’s where I would say I’m speculating. What is a generation? I’m convinced a generation is alive while one person from that generation is yet still alive. A generation hasn’t died until every member of that generation is dead.

So the implication I think Jesus was teaching is this, that the generation born in 1948, that generation would still be alive to witness the signs of the second coming, specifically the tribulation. Now that generation, you’re born 1948; you’re 71, you’re 72, all right, so you’re still young. But let’s be honest, that generation’s not going to live forever. So the implication, it will be somewhere in the next 30 years before that generation has fully died. And while that generation is in some ways still alive, they will live to see the signs that Jesus is describing.

What we know is the fig tree has put on leaves. That was a super sign in 1948. Now we’re not done. Jesus gave another super sign and Luke 21:24. He said, “Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Times of the Gentile; same term the Apostle Paul uses in Romans 10.

So what happens? The Jews are kicked out of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The Romans come as Jesus predicted. Not one stone is still left to top another. They burn it, they pillage it, they plunder it, they tear down the temple, they drive the Jews out of Jerusalem. Jesus said, “Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

Now even in 1948 when the fig tree put on leaves and was reborn, the Jews still did not have control of Jerusalem. That did not happen until 1967 the six days war. And at the end of the six days war, miraculously, the Jews roll back into Jerusalem, and for the first time in 2000 years, they take back control of the Holy City. Now, to keep the peace, they’ve given parts of it back, but they are still in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, for the first time, was no longer trampled under foot and controlled by Gentiles. A super sign and a sure sign that the times of the Gentiles are coming to an end. Which means, every day since 1967, we are living on borrowed time. The age of grace is coming to an end; the church age. The times of the Gentiles, because the Jews rejected their Messiah, God put them on the shelf, almost like He puts them on hold. Kind of like if you’re talking to somebody and somebody else is beeping in, you don’t hang up on them, but you hit it a button, you put them on hold. He temporarily put the Jews on hold. God’s prophetic clock stopped when they rejected their King and crucified the Messiah. He turns then, from Israel to the salvation of the Gentiles, and that’s what he’s been doing during this age of grace, also known as the church age.

Now what happens when the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled? And we know according to 1967 when the Jews took back Jerusalem, times of the Gentiles coming to an end, we know that very soon He’s going to turn his attention back to the salvation of the Jews. And that is what the tribulation is about. Revelation 7, 144,000, 12,000 from each tribe miraculously received their Messiah, the one they crucified, and they go forth preaching the gospel to all nations.

Jesus says in Matthew 24, “And then the end will come.” And we see in Revelation seven, John sees the revival of every tongue, tribe, people, and nation standing around the throne of God, of those who have followed the true and living Christ having rejected the antichrist.

So that’s how we know we’re living on the threshold, unlike any other generation of church history who did not have those super signs Jesus talked about. Israel was not a nation and the Jews did not have control of Jerusalem. Well, now they do, and think about it, it’s happened within some of our lifetimes.

[Heidi] I hope you guys have been blessed by my conversation with my friend, Pastor Phil Hopper from Abundant Life Church. This was such a great conversation that we decided to go ahead and make two podcasts out of it. And so on Wednesday we’re going to continue this conversation. I will play part two of my conversation with Pastor Phil Hopper, and we’re going to talk about some things that you guys have been asking me quite a bit lately. Mainly, how will we know what the role of the churches during all this? So what now? So now that we know that the Lord’s going to return, what does it mean for the church? How should we live? What can we expect? So we’re going to tackle that part of this important topic on Wednesday.

Thanks for listening today everybody, and I hope you’ll join me at momstronginternational.com.

Write to Heidi
Heidi St. John
c/o Firmly Planted Family
11100 NE 34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682

Support this ministry by donating through E-giving. You can also send donations to: 11100 NE34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682

This entry was posted in Current Events, Faith on by .

About Heidi St. John

Heidi has been married to her husband Jay since 1989. Together they have seven children and three grandchildren! The St. Johns homeschooled their kids all the way through high school. Heidi is the the author of seven books, host of the popular podcast "Off the Bench," and the founder of MomStrong International, an online community of women learning God's Word and how to apply it to every day life. She and her husband Jay are also the founders of Firmly Planted Family and the Firmly Planted Homeschool Resource Center, located in Vancouver, Washington.