2 Kings 18 (Part 3)
Kingdom, Come • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Starting Next Week, We’re Going to Take Another Break from Kings
In My Last Sermon from 2 Weeks Ago…
I Taught What I Believe is the Truth from the Scriptures…
Concerning the Nature of the Age to Come
If You Don’t Know What I’m Referring to…
I Believe the Scriptures Teach that When Jesus Returns…
God is Going to Destroy & Restore All of Creation…
And the Righteous are Going to Live Forever on a Renewed Earth
I Don’t Believe the Scriptures Teach that We are Going to Heaven When Jesus Returns
I Believe They Teach that, in a Sense, Heaven is Going to Come to Us
I Understand How Crazy that Makes Me Sound to Most of You
I Thought it was Absolutely Crazy & False When I First Heard it Too
But Over 4 Years of Studying on “the NHNE” in the Scriptures…
I’ve Come to Believe it is Absolutely True
But, at the Same Time, I Don’t Believe that Those Who Disagree with Me are Lost
Whether You Believe You’ll Spend Eternity in Heaven or on a Renewed Earth…
Is Not a Salvation or a Fellowship Issue
But, What is a Salvation & Fellowship Issue…
Is Angrily Gossiping about & Slandering Someone…
Who Interprets Certain Scriptures Differently Than Yourself
Before the Week was Up After I Preached about this Topic…
I had People & Preachers from Other Congregations…
Talking about How I’m Essentially a False Teacher
I’m Not Worried about that
What Others Wrongfully Think about Me…
Doesn’t Effect My Relationship with God One Bit
But What I Do Worry about…
Are the Souls of Those Who’d Rather Gossip about & Slander Me…
Instead of Simply Coming to Me & Talking to Me
One Concern that I’ve Heard from Several is that:
I Said, “There is No Heaven.”
I Don’t Believe that, Nor Did I Say/Teach that During My Lesson
I Went Back & Listened to My Lesson
What I Said was:
“Nowhere in the Scriptures Does it Say…”
“That We are Going to Heaven Whenever Jesus Returns”
I’ve Talked Numerous Times about the Fact that…
Jesus Ascended into Heaven…
And that He’s Reigning in Heaven Right Now
I Believe in Heaven
I Don’t Believe We’re Going to Heaven in the Age to Come
I Understand the Many Reasons this View is Concerning to Many
Most of Us have Probably Never Heard of it
It’s Especially Concerning When a Young 30 Year Old…
Who Never Went to a Bible College or Preaching School…
Starts Teaching it
But this is Not a New Belief
This isn’t the Product of Young, Impressionable, Immature Liberals
The Belief in the Earth Being Renewed…
When Jesus Returns…
Has Been Around for a Very Long Time
Early Church Fathers
Early Church Fathers
Irenaeus (130-202)
The righteous will “rise again to behold God in this creation which is renovated…”
Origen (185-254)
For if we rightly understand the matter, this is the statement of Moses in the beginning of his book, when he says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” For this is the beginning of all creation: to this beginning the end and consummation of all things must be recalled, in order that that heaven and that earth may be the habitation and resting-place of the pious; so that all the holy ones, and the meek, may first obtain an inheritance in that land, since this is the teaching of the law, and of the prophets, and of the Gospel.
If the heavens are to be changed, assuredly that which is changed does not perish, and if the fashion of the world passes away, it is by no means an annihilation or destruction of their material substance that is shown to take place, but a kind of change of quality and transformation of appearance.
Reformation Leaders
Reformation Leaders
Martin Luther
“…some may disquiet themselves as to whether the saints shall exist in heaven or on the earth. The text seems to imply that man shall dwell upon the earth, yet so that all heaven and earth shall be a paradise where God dwells…”
John Calvin
“Of the elements of the world I shall only say this one thing, that they are to be consumed, only that they may be renovated, their substance still remaining the same, as it may be easily gathered from…other passages.”
Restoration Movement Leaders
Restoration Movement Leaders
Alexander Campbell
“The Bible begins with the generations of the heavens and the earth; but the Christian revelation ends with the regenerations or new creation of the heavens and the earth. This [is] the ancient promise of God confirmed to us by the Christian Apostles. The present elements are to be changed by fire. The old or antediluvian earth was purified by water; but the present earth is reserved for fire, with all the works of man that are upon it. It shall be converted into a lake of liquid fire. But the dead in Christ will have been regenerated in body before the old earth is regenerated by fire. The bodies of the saints will be as homogeneous with the new earth and heavens as their present bodies are with the present heavens and earth. God re-creates, regenerates, but annihilates nothing; and, therefore, the present earth is not to be annihilated. The best description we can give of this regeneration is in the words of one who had a vision of it on the island of Patmos. He describes it as far as it is connected with the New Jerusalem, which is to stand upon the new earth, under the canopy of the new heaven.”
“The impression prevails in many minds, that the earth is to be annihilated. Such is not our belief. There is a vast difference between annihilation, and change, or general alteration. This earth will, unquestionably be burned, yet, through the process of variation and reconstruction of its elements, God will fashion the earth and heavens anew, and fill them with tenants to glorify His name forever.”
Walter Scott
“Just as the present world was “formed out of the ruins of the first and original one, so the third and future world shall, by the power of God, be constructed from the ashes of the present one.” The “present habitable globe,” like the primitive one, will be destroyed, but “from the ashes will rise another heaven and another earth…the abode of [the] righteous.” This is “the new heavens and new earth…created as the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This “new earth” is the inheritance promised Abraham (Rom. 4.13) and it is the “hope of all Christians.”
David Lipscomb
“God is holy. As a pure and holy being, he cannot tolerate guilt and sin. The two cannot permanently dwell together in the universe. When sin came into the world, God left this world as a dwelling place. He cannot dwell in a defiled and sin-polluted temple. He has since dwelt on this earth only in sanctified altars and temples separated from the world and consecrated to his service. He will again make this earth his dwelling place, but it will be only when sin has been purged out and it has been consecrated anew as the new heaven and new earth in which dwelleth righteousness.”
James A. Harding
“But—thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ grace came with a mighty hand to meet this great, dark, cursing, onrushing tide of woe and death, to roll it back, to free men from death and the earth from every curse of sin, and to give to it a glory and beauty never dreamed of by Adam and Eve in the midst of their Edenic home. This earth, with its surrounding heaven, is to be made over, and on the fair face of the new earth God himself will dwell with all the sons and daughters of men who have been redeemed through grace…through Adam we lost the garden of Eden; through Christ we gain the paradise of God.”
“…the earth is God’s nursery, his training grounds, made primarily for the occupancy of his children, for their education, development and training until they shall have reached their majority, until the end of the Messianic age has come; then it is to be purified a second time by a great washing, a mighty flood, but this time in a sea of fire. Then God will take up his abode himself with his great family upon this new, this renovated and purified earth.”
Jimmy Allen
“The point about groaning creation is that when man fell, the earth was cursed, when man is glorified, the earth will also be glorified…This means, if I am correct, that at the end of time our present system will not be annihilated…
We will have new bodies in the next life in that they will be changed from what they are now. Similarly, we will have a new earth in eternity in that it will be this one changed by fire into what is glorious and incorruptible.”
Just Because All These Men…
And Many, Many More Throughout History…
Believed in a Renewed Creation…
Doesn’t Make it True
It Simply Proves that this isn’t a New or “Liberal” Belief
It’s a Very Old Belief that was/is Believed…
Not in Spite of Scriptural Evidence
But Because of Scriptural Evidence
Starting Next Wednesday…
We’re Going to Start Studying that Evidence
Even Though I Believe the Renewed Earth View is Correct…
I’m Still Going to Treat the Heaven View Fairly
I Want You to See the Evidence for Both Sides…
And Come to Your Own Conclusions Based on the Evidence
Please Feel Free to Ask Whatever Questions You Like…
And as Many Questions as You Like…
As We Go Through the Study
We’ll Start Next Wednesday Night
2 Kings 18
2 Kings 18
Last Time, We Saw Judah’s King Hezekiah…
Begin a Great Reformation in Judah
1st, He Restored the Levitical Priesthood
2nd, He Restored the Temple
3rd, He Restored Temple Worship
4th, He Restored the Passover Celebration
5th, He Restored the Levites’ Portion…
Where They would Once Again Be Supported By the Other Tribes…
So They could Perform Their Duties to the Temple
Now it’s Time to Read One of the Most Interesting Stories in the OT
It Sounds Like Reading the Script to a Hollywood Blockbuster
Though Hezekiah has Been a Great King…
Who’s Bringing Judah Back to God…
Assyria is Coming to Overtake Judah
Chronicles Usually Paints a More Positive Picture of God’s People than Kings
2 Chronicles 32:1–8 (NIV)
1 After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. 2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem, 3 he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. 4 They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they said.
5 Then he worked hard repairing all the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it. He built another wall outside that one and reinforced the terraces of the City of David. He also made large numbers of weapons and shields. 6 He appointed military officers over the people and assembled them before him in the square at the city gate and encouraged them with these words: 7 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. 8 With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.
Chronicles Shows Us a Hezekiah Who is Faithful & Brave from the Start
Kings Shows Us a Different Hezekiah
2 Kings 18:13–16 (NIV)
13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace. 16 At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
Kings Presents King Hezekiah as Faithless & Cowardly
We Don’t have All the Details to What’s Going on…
But We Know Hezekiah Owed Tribute to Assyria…
And, in Fear/Faithlessness, He Took from the Temple to Pay it
But at Some Point, Assyria Decided to Come Against Jerusalem Anyway…
And Hezekiah, with Faith/Courage…
Decided to Stand Against the Evil Empire
But Evil Empires Don’t Back Down Easy
2 Kings 18:17–37 (NIV)
17 The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field. 18 They called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.
19 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: “ ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 20 You say you have the counsel and the might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 21 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 22 But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?
23 “ ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 24 How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ ”
26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.” 27 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”
28 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
31 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 32 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’
33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
36 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.” 37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.
20 King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed about this and cried out to heaven, 21 and the Lord sent an angel who annihilated every valiant warrior, leader, and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria returned in disgrace to his land. He went to the temple of his god, and there some of his own children struck him down with the sword. 22 So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the power of King Sennacherib of Assyria and from the power of all others. He gave them rest on every side. 23 Many were bringing an offering to the Lord to Jerusalem and valuable gifts to King Hezekiah of Judah, and he was exalted in the eyes of all the nations after that. 24 In those days Hezekiah became sick to the point of death, so he prayed to the Lord, who spoke to him and gave him a miraculous sign. 25 However, because his heart was proud, Hezekiah didn’t respond according to the benefit that had come to him. So there was wrath on him, Judah, and Jerusalem. 26 Then Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart—he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem—so the Lord’s wrath didn’t come on them during Hezekiah’s lifetime. 27 Hezekiah had abundant riches and glory, and he made himself treasuries for silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and every desirable item. 28 He made warehouses for the harvest of grain, new wine, and fresh oil, and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and pens for flocks. 29 He made cities for himself, and he acquired vast numbers of flocks and herds, for God gave him abundant possessions. 30 This same Hezekiah blocked the upper outlet of the water from the Gihon Spring and channeled it smoothly downward and westward to the city of David. Hezekiah succeeded in everything he did. 31 When the ambassadors of Babylon’s rulers were sent to him to inquire about the miraculous sign that happened in the land, God left him to test him and discover what was in his heart.