Interlocked

To conclude the series, we go through one final Faith in Action Drill: critically evaluating worldviews. We examine what a worldview is. It is a map of our beliefs that lead to our behaviours. A worldview is made up of four interconnected levels and we will examine what they are and how we can use this understanding to analyse the worldview of someone we’re engaging with so we will know where they...

The class works through the statements in the Faith in Action exercise. The first step is to identify the assumptions, its sources of truth and the type of logic used. Then we draw on the biblical events and use God’s truth as revealed in the biblical events to respond to the statement. We learn how to take apart the idea for ourselves, then if needed, we form a polite, respectful response if we n...

Another Faith in Action drill is learning how to evaluate thoughts, ideas and philosophies that come from a non-biblical worldview. We first examine the book of Acts to see how the apostle Paul shared the gospel with Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, people with an understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. Then we compare that with how he shared the gospel with the philosophers in Athens. At the Areopa...

We’ve concluded our journey through the Bible’s meta-narrative from Genesis to Revelation. We have examined the major events of history and have looked ahead to the major events of the future. We can now construct an interlocked network of truth, or a biblical framework, which we can use as the foundation of our worldview. Using the biblical framework, we can then critically examine the Christian...

We conclude the narrative of God’s Word by first examining how it is possible that there are so many unbelievers in the Kingdom. The problem with fallen mortal mankind is that the sin nature still leads people to rebel against the God whom they can see and personally interact with. Then we continue with the final battle, also named Gog and Magog where an untold number of rebellious mankind follow...

At last, we get to see the Kingdom of God return to earth! Immediately after the Tribulation, the prophet Daniel describes a 75-day gap before the Kingdom begins. King Jesus will personally and physically reign on the earth from His capital in Jerusalem for a thousand years. During this time, Satan is bound up in the bottomless pit. He will not have any influence on the earth during this time. Kin...

We conclude Lesson 51 by examining John’s description of how Babylon at the end times will be destroyed by God. While the evil earth dwellers mourn the loss of Babylon, they are aware that Yahweh is the One judging Babylon. In heaven, there is a different reaction—one of celebration for Yahweh has judged evil. We also see that Revelation’s description of Babylon’s destruction is not the first time...

We conclude Lesson 50 by examining the seven bowl judgments, the last of the Tribulation judgments. These seven are very similar to the plague judgments of the Exodus. There we saw Yahweh judging Egypt. Now we see God judging the rebellious world. When the bowl judgments are complete, a voice announces, “It is done!” This is in much the same way that Jesus at the cross announced, “It is finished!”...

As we continue our journey through Revelation, we go to Revelation 12 and study the two beasts. The first is the ultimate false christ, often known as the Antichrist. We will learn he is a Gentile whom Satan empowers with his power and authority. We see that both Daniel and John in Revelation describe the beast as a man as well as the kingdom he takes over, the final version of the pagan, rebellio...

We conclude Lesson 49 by examining who the two witnesses are and what they do. And we see that the “third woe” or seventh trumpet is the announcement of Christ’s second coming to judge the rebellious peoples of the world and then to establish His Kingdom. Then moving into Revelation 12, we see a very brief and symbolic summary of the history of Israel and her battle with Satan and also what happen...

We finish Lesson 48, looking at who the 144,000 sealed people are and also the countless multitudes who are worshipping Jesus. We also discuss the prophecy given to Ezekiel about Gog and Magog and the battle they lead against Israel, and we look at possible timings for this event. Thereafter, we continue with Lesson 49 and see how the seventh seal unleashes the seven trumpet judgments. These next...

Now we begin to see what John was shown—the future events of the Tribulation. John is brought up to God’s throne room in heaven and he witnesses Yahweh being worshipped. We go through a quick overview of how to understand what John has recorded for us. Then we head straight into the events of the first six seal judgments. John first sees from heaven’s perspective how Jesus initiates the Tribulatio...

We conclude this lesson by examining the question of when the events of Revelation 4–22 will occur. There are four main views of Revelation 4–22: (i) these events have already happened in the past (Preterist); (ii) these events are unfolding now in the present (Historic); (iii) these events are not real but are metaphors and timeless (Idealist); (iv) these events will happen in the future (Futuris...

We conclude Lesson 46 by examining the consequences of believing in the premillennial, amillennial and postmillennial views of the Christ’s return to the earth. We see that what we believe about the future does impact how we live today. So it’s important to understand God’s Word correctly. Then we continue with Lesson 47: Overview of the End. In this first section, we look at what Revelation is ab...

We continue to examine God’s plan for the church. We see how Israel has earthly enemies (other nations), but the church’s main enemy is Satan. That is why Paul exhorts church-age believers to put on God’s armour for spiritual warfare. The main aspect of this warfare is a battle of the mind—a battle of worldviews, philosophies and ideas. Then we go on to examine how the church will be removed and p...

We examine God’s plan for the church and contrast that with God’s plan for national Israel. We will see that the church and Israel are two separate peoples of God with two separate destinies. Some points we examine are: the church started on the day of Pentecost. The church on earth is united with the ascended, seated Lord Jesus in heaven. The church is called the body of Christ and is indwelt by...

We continue examining God’s plan for national Israel, particularly looking at what the apostle Paul says in Romans 11. We examine closely what he says about God sovereignly directing Israel, then setting aside national Israel for a time because of its rebellion. He then focuses on using church-age believers to tell the world about the Messiah. When the church age is done, we see how God resumes Hi...

After the Fall, Yahweh promised a Saviour who would rescue mankind. God sovereignly chose Abraham and his descendants, the nation of Israel, to work out His plan to send the Saviour. Through Israel, God intended to fulfil His plan to bless the world. But Israel rebelled to the point where God sent them into exile. Since that time, the Jewish people have been waiting eagerly for Yahweh to send His...

We continue our journey through our family history, looking at key people of the Reformation and continuing to see the impact of reform in the universal church. We see also how the church was influenced by the Enlightenment, the Romantic period, then Liberalism and the response from the Fundamentalists, and then the impact of the events of the early 20th century. Through the often messy and chaoti...

In this supplementary lesson, we take a closer look at 2,000 years of church history to examine where did all the Christian denominations come from. We stand in the stream of history and whether we realise it or not, the way we understand God, worship Him and “do church” has been influenced by the Christians who have come before us (the ones upstream from us). So we want to examine the lives of th...

We conclude Lesson 44, examining how the church recognised the Scripture God had given and how over the centuries, Christ followers worked hard to refute heresies and develop a clear understanding of God’s Word. The church worked out issues like: who is the final authority in matters of life and faith? Who is Christ? Who is the Holy Spirit? How does God’s salvation work? What did the cross achieve...

How did the church grow since AD 33? This lesson examines four distinct periods of growth. Starting with the beginning of the church at Pentecost, we then examine what the young church was like during the time of the Apostles. How did the early church learn? How did they teach each other? How did they receive the New Testament Scriptures? Access the notes at https://interlocked.online/s/44-The-Mat...

We conclude this lesson by observing how the apostles and Jewish believers recognise that the Gentile believers of Christ are also part of the church. Then we survey the remainder of the book of Acts to see how the church gradually takes on more Gentile characteristics as it spreads throughout the Roman Empire. We see that the book of Acts is describing how the early church grew, it is not prescri...

On the day of Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit started the church by indwelling Jesus’ Jewish disciples. The apostles then remained in Jerusalem and continue to share the gospel, leading more Jews to come to faith in Christ. But it seems they forgot Jesus’ command to take the gospel to all of Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So the Holy Spirit took action to get the believers to realise...

We finish up Lesson 42 by examining what the baptism of fire is, what it means to be sealed by the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and how He gives each believer at least one spiritual gift so that we can help the body of Christ grow. Access the lesson notes at https://interlocked.online/s/42-The-Holy-Spirit-Directs-the-Church.pdf Also access the additional paper about “One Anot...