The Blessed Hope Podcast -- with Dr. Kim Riddlebarger

Episode Synopsis:The kingdom of God is a major topic throughout the Scriptures.  The kingdom of God refers to the rule or reign of God over all of creation and all of its creatures.  The Old Testament speaks of YHWH as Israel’s king, whose kingdom is everlasting.  The prophets speak of this kingdom using royal images associated with heavenly glory and absolute sovereignty–the creator of all things does indeed rule over all that he has made.  Everything is subject to him.Although YHWH rules the nations, because of Israel’s repeated and stubborn rebellion against him, YHWH has directed those nations to conquer Israel and possess the promised land.  This is why the focus of the later prophets is upon the future, when YHWH’s kingdom is gloriously and finally realized.  Israel’s king will come to visit his people with salvation, but will also mete out judgment upon all who reject his rule.So, when the messianic age dawns with the supernatural conception and birth of Jesus, we should not be surprised that it is in his person and work that YHWH’s promised kingdom will be realized.  Since Jesus is YHWH’s promised king, YHWH’s kingdom has arrived in and with him–such a kingdom cannot exist apart from its king, Jesus, the second person of the blessed Trinity who is God now clothed in human flesh.  The arrival of this kingdom can be seen in the preaching of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets who speaks of a coming one in whom YHWH’s kingdom will dawn.  Throughout his messianic mission Jesus proclaims that in him YHWH’s kingdom draws near–it is a major theme of his preaching.  This kingdom conquers all, but not in the way we might think, nor in the way Israel expected.  They wanted Jesus to restore David’s kingdom and lead them to victory over the Romans.  When Jesus taught otherwise, he was rejected by his people, crucified, and then rose again from the dead.  He ascended to the Father’s right hand and promised to return.  Jesus’ kingdom is a spiritual kingdom absolutely victorious over the guilt and power of sin.  He has defeated Satan in anticipation of a time when that kingdom will be fully and finally consummated on the last day, when all the inhabitants of the earth bow the knee and confess that Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.That day, when Jesus returns and his kingdom comes in its fullness lies at the heart of the New Testament’s eschatology.  It is that kingdom about which Jesus taught us to pray, “thy kingdom come.”  Jesus, Paul, and the rest of the New Testament writers direct us to that time in the future when our king will return and his kingdom will be consummated.  On that day all tears will be wiped from our eyes, we will receive our promised inheritance, and not a hint or trace of human sin will remain.  This beloved, is our hope for the future and this is the context in which we must discuss the signs of the end.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:I begin this episode with a personal testimony.I was born and raised a dispensationalist.  Our family owned a Christian bookstore.  The first Christian book I picked out and read on my own was Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth.  Years later, I was challenged by one of our delivery men about the books we were selling–all the dispensationalist best sellers.  He said he was “Reformed.”  I thought he meant that he had gone to “reform school” or was on work release from prison.  The questions he put to me bounced off like BB’s against a Battleship.  Dispensationalism was biblical.  How could anyone doubt that?But those BB’s actually penetrated my embarrassingly thin armor.  Eventually, I became a very reluctant Calvinist and then I started re-thinking my eschatology.  After university and a year at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law (which was founded by John Warwick Montgomery, the faculty included Walter Martin, and Rod Rosenbladt, and is now the Trinity Law School in Santa Ana), I was steadily moving away from my doctrinal roots (Arminian and dispensational).  I found that the Reformation views on law and gospel, the five solas, and the end times, were absolutely compelling because they were thoroughly biblical.  To my surprise Drs. Montgomery and Rosenbladt suggested a career change–seminary, specifically the new seminary in Escondido (90 miles to the South), Westminster Seminary California.In the Acts and Paul class taught by Dennis Johnson, I first encountered what I came to know as the two-age model–terms I was familiar with from reading the New Testament but never thought much about–“this age” and “the age to come.”  After reading Herman Ridderbos and Geerhardus Vos on Paul, I realized how serious a challenge the two-model was to my premillennial eschatology (I had pretty much given up on most of my dispensationalism by then, although I still thought like one).  Driving home after Dr. Johnson’s class, I had an “ah-ha moment.”  “I can’t be premillennial any more.”   The two-age model makes premillennialism (in all its forms) a biblical impossibility.  I dug in my heels and fought the inevitable.  But here I am far down the road, presenting and defending the two-age model.  If you’ve not heard this before, you are in for a real surprise.  This is a game changer in terms of your view of the end times.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:We are beginning a new series on the Blessed Hope Podcast, “The Future.”In this series we will wrestle with the question “what does the future hold for God’s people?”  What historical events and biblical prophecies remain to be fulfilled before Jesus returns on the last day?  How are we to interpret the various signs of the end we find throughout the New Testament?In this series we will talk about the necessity of understanding the biblical past (specifically the person and work of Jesus Christ) since this gives us the biblical context to understand the promises God makes to us about the future.  What do we expect and what are we to be looking for?  To what (or to whom) do the signs of the end point?In order to answer these questions we will need to talk about the proper biblical framework in which the signs of the end unfold.  Our future expectation is not the Rapture or a millennial age, but the return of Jesus Christ to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new.  Biblically speaking, all of the promises of the future center in and upon our Lord’s return.  This is the critical event to which all of the signs of the end point us.So, what is included among the signs of the end?  We’ll talk about this in some detail in the episodes to come.  Wars and rumors of war?  What about technology?  What about plagues?  We’ve just lived through one.  What about Israel?  What role will Israel play in the future?  What about an Antichrist?  How does he figure into the end times?  Can we make any specific predictions about what is to come?  We discuss all of the things and more in coming episodes in our new Blessed Hope Podcast series “The Future.” For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Season Two Postscript – Where Do We Go from Here?We’ve completed season two of the Blessed Hope Podcast, fifteen episodes in all, in which we covered Paul’s two Thessalonian letters.  The season two series was entitled “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, taken from 2 Thessalonians 1:7, a text which captures Paul emphasis in these two letters upon the key event in biblical eschatology–the second coming (advent) of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Well, as they say that’s a wrap.The obvious question then is “where does the Blessed Hope Podcast go from here?”For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:As Paul comes to the end of his second Thessalonian letter, he still has much to say to the Christians in Thessalonica.  But the most important thing the apostle does when concluding his second letter, is to remind the Thessalonians of his prayer of thanksgiving on their behalf.  Paul hopes this will be of great encouragement.  The apostle reminds them that God has graciously rescued these Gentile pagans from the guilt and power of sin, and points out to his readers that they will share in the glory of Jesus Christ through the gospel which has been preached to them.  But Paul also asks for their prayers on his behalf–that the same word which he preached to them, might continue to spread and that many more would be brought to faith in Jesus Christ.Paul also exhorts them to stand firm in the things which he has taught them–that tradition (or teaching) proclaimed to them by the apostle.  He prays for their comfort and assurance in Christ, that God’s word be honored, and that God would see fit to deliver them from evil men–those who drove Paul from their city and who seek to keep the gospel from spreading.  Paul reminds them that the Lord is faithful in keeping his promises, but he also warns some in their midst not to be idle so as to be a burden on others.  He mandates that those who will not work, should not be given a handout.  Yet, he also cautions the Thessalonians that this “tough love” approach is to be done for the purpose of restoring such a person.Paul concludes his second letter by praying for God’s blessings upon the congregation, he attaches his signature to this letter to confirm its authenticity, and then closes by reminding these brothers and sisters that the Lord is always with them.  So there is much here to discuss–election and its connection to the gospel, election as the basis for our sanctification and its connection to the Word of God, the role and authority of tradition, and finally what to do about the idle (the application of church discipline).For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:Soon after Paul sent his first letter to the Thessalonian Christians, the apostle received word that someone in the congregation was teaching that the day of the Lord had already come.  Composing his second Thessalonian letter to correct this error, Paul makes it abundantly clear that anyone spreading such a rumor is flat-out wrong.  Paul declares that two things must occur before the day of the Lord can come.  First there will be a great apostasy, and only then comes the revelation of a figure Paul identifies as “the man of sin”– an individual often associated with the Antichrist.  But Paul also tells the Thessalonians that a mysterious “restrainer” is currently preventing the man of sin from being revealed.  He informs the Thessalonians that at some point this restrainer (a “who” or a “what”) will cease to restrain the man of sin, who will then appear (in connection with the apostasy) only to be destroyed by Jesus Christ when the day of the Lord does come to pass.In part two of our study of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, we will discuss this mysterious restrainer in some detail, identify to whom or what Paul is referring, and then wrestle with the question of the timing when all of this will come to pass.  Is Paul referring to the events of AD 70 and the destruction of the Jerusalem temple–which are still future to him, but long in the past for us?  Or is he predicting an end-times Antichrist, who will appear at the end of the age immediately before Jesus returns?For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:There is little doubt that one of the most interesting, controversial, and a constant source of on-going speculation is the doctrine of the Antichrist.  Indeed, there has been so much written about the Antichrist by Christians–both ancient and modern–and so many references made to the Antichrist in film and popular culture, it is vital that we go back to the biblical accounts of this mysterious and evil figure to separate biblical fact from speculative fiction.  What does the Bible actually say about the Antichrist?Paul tackles the subject head on in his second Thessalonian letter.  Soon after completion of his first Thessalonian letter, Paul received news that someone in the Thessalonian congregation was teaching that the day of the Lord had already come.  If true, this meant that all of Christ’s promises to his people have already been realized.  It also reminds us that Bible prophecy pundits and speculators have been around for a long time.  Paul exhorts the Thessalonians not to listen to such wild speculation because the day of the Lord had not yet come.  Two things need to happen first.  One is a great apostasy, and only then comes the revelation of a figure whom Paul identifies as “the man of sin.”  Either the apostasy creates the conditions necessary for the man of sin to be revealed, or the apostasy is closely connected to the man of sin’s appearance.  But Paul is clear that the day of the Lord has not come because these two things have not yet occurred when he writes his second letter.  Paul also tells the Thessalonians that something is preventing the appearance of the man of sin, a mysterious “restrainer” who, at some point, will cease to hold back the revelation of the man of sin (the Antichrist), who then will be destroyed by Jesus when the Lord returns.  Join us then, in this, part one of our discussion of the “man of sin,” as we tackle 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:Paul has already written one letter to the Thessalonians to clear up the confusion in their midst about the Lord’s return on the last day.  Paul has instructed the congregation that should anyone die before the Lord’s return, they will not miss out on any of the benefits secured for them by Jesus Christ (including eternal life) as some feared.  Paul also told them that since the Lord will return as a thief in the night (suddenly and unexpectedly), there should be no speculation among them about the date or timing of Christ’s return.But not long after the first letter was sent, additional news came to Paul that someone in Thessalonica had been teaching that the day of the Lord had already come.  So, Paul writes a second letter to the Thessalonians to inform them that the day of the Lord had not come since two as yet future event must occur before Jesus returns.  First, there will come a time of great apostasy, and then will come the revelation of the man of sin–a figure often spoken of as the Antichrist.  Furthermore, these things cannot happen until a present and mysterious restraining power is lifted so that the man of sin is revealed, only to be destroyed by the Lord Jesus at his return.Paul opens this second letter by reminding the Thessalonians that when Jesus returns he will bring about God’s righteous judgment–when all accounts are settled and everything will be made right.  But Christians need not fear this day because the coming day of God’s wrath, vengeance, and vindication is their day of deliverance when God is glorified in his saints.  Paul also writes to these Christians to encourage them to persevere against the opposition they were facing, and reveal the content of his prayers for them.  There is much here, so get out your Bible and join us for a look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:Since the Lord will return suddenly and unexpectedly, what are the Thessalonians to do until Jesus’s return?  Paul has already encouraged them earlier in his letter, telling them that they are doing well despite the persecution and on-going threats they were receiving from Jews and Greco-Roman pagans in Thessalonica.  But Paul knows there is always the possibility that things might go south.  Therefore, he uses his closing remarks to urge the Thessalonians to be at peace among themselves and respect those who labor among them.  Paul also takes the opportunity to urge them to encourage any strugglers and malingerers in their midst, to do good, to pray without ceasing, and to avoid evil.  He reminds them that the Lord will deliver them from their enemies and right all wrongs on the day of judgment.  Paul urges the Thessalonians not to quench the Spirit, nor despise prophecy.  He prays that God will sanctify them so that they might be blameless on the day of the Lord’s return.  He then instructs the brothers to make sure his letter is read aloud in the churches, so any questions the congregation had about the Lord’s return might be answered.As we have come to see from Paul, there is much practical wisdom here, which is as much a benefit to Christians now as it was to Thessalonicans who first heard this letter read in their churches.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Date-setting has been a problem for God’s people since the days of the apostles.  Church history is full of the accounts of those who, for whatever reason, attempted to figure out when Jesus will return, set dates, and then miserably failed to predict the unpredictable.  Two recent examples should suffice.  Edgar C. Whisenant predicted the Lord’s return in 1988 in his booklet, “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.”  When that failed, he went for 1989.  When that failed he picked 1993.  And when that failed, he went for 1994.  He died in 2001, preventing any future date-setting.  The first book created quite a stir, and sold lots of copies (4.5 million of them).  Although the later volumes (each with a revised date of Christ’s return) drew less of an audience, Whisenant’s reach was still far larger than anything than any sound theologian has written on the end times before or after.And there was Harold Camping–a CRC elder–who, in 2005, predicted that Jesus would return on May 21, 2011.  According to Camping, those who were saved would be taken to heaven while five months of fire, brimstone, and plagues will strike the earth, with millions dying under the divine onslaught.  Following his own time-line Camping concluded that on October 21, 2011 (five months after the rapture), final destruction would come upon the world.  When none of this materialized, Camping was completely discredited, his radio empire nearly collapsed, and in response, he called upon Christians to leave their churches because they had all become apostate! By that I take Camping to mean that Christians stopped listening to him and churches were calling him out for his date setting.  So, they were at fault not Camping.When we turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 of Paul’s Thessalonian letter, and carefully consider what Paul teaches about the Lord’s parousia, (coming) it does not take long to realize that according to Paul, Christ’s return will be like “a thief in the night.”  The Lord’s return will be sudden and unexpected, and will bring about sudden destruction (i.e., final judgment) upon those who do not expect it because they are blissfully indifferent to the awful fate which awaits all those apart from faith in Jesus Christ. For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/