Welcome to Day 1401 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to WisdomMastering the Bible – Israel Today and the Temple of God – Worldview WednesdayWisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. Today is Day 1406 of our Trek, and it is Worldview Wednesday. Creating a Biblical Worldview is essential to have a proper perspective on today’s current events. To establish a Biblical Worldview, you must have a proper understanding of God and His Word. Our focus for the next several months on Worldview Wednesday is Mastering the Bible, through a series of brief insights. These insights are extracted from a book of the same title from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars, Dr. Micheal S. Heiser. This book is a collection of insights designed to help you understand the Bible better. When we let the Bible be what it is, we can understand it as the original readers did, and as its writers intended. Each week we will explore two insights.


Mastering The Bible – Jesus’s Return and The LawInsight Seventy-One: New Testament Writers Expected Jesus to Return in Their LifetimeMany Christians are riveted by the study of biblical prophecy. They energetically study the Bible and look at current events for possible connections. They want to discern “the signs of the times” in earnest expectation of the return of Jesus.


That thinking isn’t foreign to the New Testament itself. The apostles and early believers expected the Lord’s return to be very soon. It was an impending event that they fully expected to see in their lifetime. We know this was the case from a variety of New Testament passages. Some are easy to read over and never notice. Others are transparent.


In regard to the former, consider 1 Peter 1:20 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+1%3A20&version=NLT) God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days, he has been revealed for your sake.  Peter warned his readers about the threat of self-serving scoffers “in the last days” (2 Peter 3:3). And the events at Pentecost were part of “the last days” (Acts 2:17).


Some passages are even more direct. The apostle John, writing in the book of Revelation, said, “The time is near” (Revelations 1:3; 22:10). The day of the Lord-the day of Christ’s return for New Testament believers—was “drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25). Some believers even thought they had missed it (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2)!


Paul taught the Thessalonian believers what to expect leading up to the Lord’s return: they needed to be mindful of their walk and faithfulness so as not to be unprepared like unbelievers would (l Thessalonians 5). It was sage advice. If we live as though the Lord could return soon, our lives will be pleasing to God and a blessing to ourselves and others, whether it happens soon or not. Jesus himself taught that no one could know the precise day or hour (Matthew 24:36). Since the intent of biblical prophecies associated with the first coming wasn’t obvious, we ought not to expect to be able to figure things out this next time. In other words, our interest in, and expectancy of, the future shouldn’t be distracting us from living as we should in the present. 


Insight Seventy-Two: Paul Had a High View of the Law, but a Higher View of Jesus


Throughout Dr. Heiser’s teaching career, he has often heard Christians talk about being “free from the law.” Usually, that referred to the idea that we can’t work our way to heaven—that salvation was by grace, through faith in Christ (Ephesians...