Hebrews and 70 AD

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, Making Theology Central. All right, get a piece of paper, get something to write with. Get a piece of paper, get something to write with. Before we do the normal introduction, get a piece of paper and something to write with. And I just want you to write down seventy a D seventy A D seventy eighty. I want you to write it as large as you can write it seventy eighty. I want you to put it on your refrigerator. I want you to put it every Just make make a piece of paper like oh, basically you're making a little poster. Put them it all over your house. Seventy eighty. Put it in your car, put it in seventy eight D, seventy eight D. Grab a piece of paper, write seventy eighty. Put it in the front of your bible. Put it in the middle of your bible. Put it at the end of your bible.

0:58 Seventy a D, seventy seventy a D seventy a D. I want you to write it down. And you may at this point you may like, why why am I writing down seventy A D. Because well, I'm gonna we're gonna be talking about it for the next hour, but I'm gonna start by asking you a question. What is the significance of seventy a D on biblical interpretation? What is the significance of the date seventy a D on biblical interpretation? How often? How frequent when you're reading and studying your Bible you're like, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, I better remember seventy a D. How frequently? How often do you hear your pastor mention seventy A D when you if you were participating in the Sermon's two point oh app sermon Challenge of twenty twenty four, how frequently with seventy AD mentioned and the sermons you were listening to now you I think many Christians have made it ten, fifteen, twenty years in their Christian life with barely ever hearing anything about seventy a D. And I'm going to make a very some may say radical, some may say a very extreme statement, but I think there's a lot to back this up. I will say seventy a D may be one of the most significant and important things to

2:30 know when it comes to Biblical interpretation. The fact that so many churches. So many pastors ignore seventy AD. I think is one of the leading causes to the Bible being handled in an incorrect manner. If pastors and Bible teachers and Christians would understand the significance of seventy a D, it would transform how they handle scripture. But time and time again, seventy a D gets completely ignored, and in many cases it leads to a complete mishandling of significant parts of the Bible. You cannot forget seventy a D.

3:11 And I'm going to explain to you how seventy a D is absolutely significant. Just in the Book of Hebrews. That's all we're going to focus on right now, just a book of Hebrews. Now. Yesterday we reviewed a sermon from a church to twenty eight nineteen church and they were in Matthew twenty one. They're going to Matthew twenty four. When they get to Matthew twenty four, we will review their sermon on Matthew twenty four and we will see if they mentioned seventy a D. If they do not, then it'll be another example of pastors and churches, no matter how popular they may be, mishandling text because they will just they just will not understand the significance of seventy a D. If you've ever if you've ever been a part of a study, I cannot stress and I hate to say this. I'm just I'm going to say, I don't care who gets offended. If you've ever gone to church and your church studied the Book of Hebrews and they did not interpret the Book of Hebrews and light of seventy a D, they misinterpreted the Book of Hebrews.

4:17 If you're in a church and they're teaching the Book of Hebrews and they're not interpreting in a lot of seventy AD, you just as well go home and not even bother coming back until they're done, because you're being given a false interpretation of the Book of Hebrews. It's that simple. Without seventy a D. You cannot understand the Book of Hebrews correctly. You will make it about us and once again miss the entire meaning of the book. And I'm going to try to demonstrate that. But before we start all of that, and I really want you to write seventy eight down anywhere and everywhere you need it. You need to have it right there at the front of your Bible. You need to have it everywhere, because if you don't, it's going to lead to all of these problems. But before we get that, I guess I will go ahead and say welcome everyone. It is Thursday, February sixth, twenty twenty five. It is currently eleven fifteen am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas.

5:18 I'm gonna call this to seventy a D studio right because I cannot stress the importance of it. All right, So let's start. If you have a Bible, open it up to the Book of Hebrews. That's where we're going to be. I wanted to do this. I wanted to do this maybe in just like one episode. I think this may we may have to turn this into a mini series. We may have to turn this into a mini series. I know we still need to work on AI versus Lordship Salvation. We need to still do some work on that. But I think this is important. Here's what happened, all right, So I think I will do it this way. I have here in front of me. You can hear it sort of the Lord Newspaper. This is January the third, twenty twenty five edition of the Sort of the Lord Newspaper. I think I've already referenced this edition multiple times, because what happens when I get a sort of the Lord newspaper, I go through the thing over and over and over and over again. I will pick it up and just go through page after page and just look and look and look and cont I mean, sometimes one issue of the Sort of Lord Newspaper can lead to I don't know, five ten hours of broadcasting. It's really crazy. Even though I may disagree with a lot, one of the reasons I always want a subscription to the Sort of the Lord newspaper is because whether I agree or disagree, it always just gives me so much to think about and unpack and interpret. Well,

6:49 there's been this article that I've been just I've been keeping the paper folded with this article open for I don't know, well since since I receive the addition the issue of sort of the Lord Newspaper for January the third, twenty twenty five, it's been a while. I've just had it here, and I keep saying I'm going to do a broadcast on it. I'm going to do a broadcast on it because it brings up this concept that I'd never heard before, right, that there's that we that there's these different things that we get after salvation. And I'm like, well, this, this is kind of it raises this question. I don't think I've ever heard it this way. And then all of a sudden, I was like, wait a minute, there's a bigger problem here. So at some point I will go through the article and get to the problem I first was going to address. I'm not going to get to it now because then everyone will be focused on that, but I want to. But the more I looked at it, I'm like, well, there's a bigger problem here. So here is the article. All right, I'm gonna I'm just gonna go through a little bit of it here. Right. The article is found on page twenty one of the January the third twenty twenty five issue of the sort of the Lord newspaper. It is entitled seventeen Thing that Come with Christ. Seventeen Things that Come with Christ. And now I was a student at a Bible institute and I can't remember how many we had to There was twenty five, maybe thirty I can't mab there's like twenty five or thirty things that follow our salvation there, or that comes

8:23 with our salvation, or that we receive and light of our salvation, right, And we had to find all the scriptures for it, and we had to do this kind of like mini project. It was really I really liked it. I really enjoyed it. I utilized it early on in my ministry as a pastor. I thought it was really good and I had a good time with the project. I don't remember everything about it, but when I saw seventeen things that come with Christ, it reminded me a little bit of that course that I had to take, and I'm like, hmm, that's interesting. I remember that maybe this will be you know, maybe I will enjoy this like I did that. So I started reading. Right under the title things that Come with Christ, we have a quote quote from the Book of Hebrews. Uh oh. Now, as soon as I see Hebrews, my mind as soon as I see a verse from the Book of Hebrews, it's the second my mind immediately goes seventy eight. As soon as I see a verse and a verse from Hebrews seventy eight, I cannot see a verse from the Book of Hebrews and not think seventy eight. If you don't do that, I know you may disagree, but I'm just gonna be bold here. You're wrong. If you if you, if you disagree with me that you should see seventy eight with every verse in the Book of Hebrews, I'm sorry.

9:44 I'm just gonna we're We're not going to get along here because I am dogmatic about it. I am sick and tired of hearing sermons on the Book of Hebrews, and the book and seventy a d is not mentioned. What are you doing? You are mishandled it. So that's where my mind immediately goes. But I went ahead and read the partial quote here of the verse. But beloved, we we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation Hebrews six ' nine. Now immediately what you hear me stressed it? Who are the we and who are the you? Well, I can tell you that you is not you, all right. I can tell you that the you is to a specific audience which I don't know. The book is called the Book of Hebrews.

10:38 I would believe it would be written to Jewish individuals, right, I think that's I don't think it requires a lot to figure that out. Right. So that but then look at how the article begins, good news exclamation point. When you received Christ, you received not only eternal life, but also many other things that came with Christ. At that time, you may may have been unaware and unknowing. Even now, you may be unaware and unknowing of all the bundled things you receive with Christ. Inconceivable. Now here's an article taking a verse from the Book of Hebrews, taking the you in the in the Book of Hebrews and making that you about you, and making it about me. And I get sick and tired of this happening. This is where I get frustrated with pastors in the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Jeremiah. It's just everything is you, you, you, you, and it's like, no, what about the original recipients. So this article turns into about us, Well, what I want to do? And at some point we're going to take this article apart and we we will talk about the things that they say are applicable to us, and we'll get into it. But you can't open up the book of Hebrews and not see seventy eighty. I wish there

12:09 was a with modern technology. With modern technology, I wish when you opened up the Book of Hebrews, alarms would go off seventy eight's and red lights would start flashing seventy A D. Seventy eight and then you close it, like what was that? And every time you open up your Bible, warning sirens would go off in seventy eighty and red lights would start flashing. It would just start yelling seventy eight. That's what we need, all right. I think people would be like, this Bible is broken. No, this Bible's trying to get you to interpret it the correct way. So I'm going to try to demonstrate to you the absolute significance of seventy eight when it comes to the Book of Hebrews. And I'm going to do so by focusing on five specific passages that everyone now in my early Christian life, these five passages in the Book of Hebrews, everyone argued about, does it prove you can lose your salvation? No, it proves you you could claim to be saved, but not save unless you do this.

13:13 And everyone starts arguing from a sew teiological point of view, and it drives me crazy when everyone's arguing about it from a soteriological point of view, because I want to scream, I don't know, could we consider seventy eight day? But nobody wants to listen. Now, what are these five passages? Well, I'm just going to go through these quickly, all right. The first one is Hebrews Chapter two, Hebrews Chapter two, Verse one. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, less at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompensive reward, how should we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and divers, miracles and gifts of the holy ghosts, according to his own will?

14:20 How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Now, of course, the we becomes us, we take it out of its context. That's one of the That's what this is. What is called a warning passage. Most believe the Book of Hebrews contains at least five warning passages where there's a warning, how shall you escape if you neglect so great of salvation? And we make it about us, we make it about lost people, and we remove it from its context. I believe that should be first and foremost interpreted in a lot of the historical context, which is seventy a D. And we will explain. So there's the first passage, he Bruce two, how will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? Right? I think it has to be first understood in light of seventy a d.

15:10 The second one is Hebrews Chapter three. So the first is Hebrews two one through four. The second one is Hebrews chapter three, Hebrews chapter three, starting in verse I think we can go verse seven to nineteen, where four I'll just read a little bit of it Hebrews. You can just write down the reference Hebrews two one through four, Hebrews three seven through nineteen above all of these passages you should just write down, maybe in pencil, seventy a d. Hebrews three seven where four as the Holy ghoes saith today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation and the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers. See, there's the first there is the first clue hermeneutically speaking. See wait now it's been talking about we and you Wei and you and immediately what do you see when your father's tempted me and proved me and saw my works forty years who were your father's Oh that's Israel. Oh, so the you there is referring to Jews, Hebrews, Israelites. That's who the book is. Two it's oh, it's not even that.

16:31 You don't even need to go to Bible college, your seminary to figure this out. This is basic reading comprehension. See that article took Hebrew six ' nine and you became you. But just the context here, the you, uh, the you here clearly now is referring to Israel. When your father's tempted me, wherefore I was grieved with that generation has said they do all alway air and their heart, and they have not known my way. So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed brethren, who had the brethren there who's the brethren. Lest there be in any of you in evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the Living God, but exhort one another daily will it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So this idea, in departing from the Living God, do not have a heart of unbelief and depart from the Living God.

17:29 Again this we'll be talking about us and how we can depart from God and how we can have unbeliefd Well, does this mean departing from God in a soteriological way so that you lose your salvation and you can hear all of the debates in Christianity. Well, that cannot be understood. In fact, I don't even know why we make it about us. It's about Israel, you can see right there from the context. But Hebrews two one through four, that's warning passage number one. Warning passage number two is Hebrews three, seven through nineteen, Warning passage number three. I'adly the one that really gets all of the attention, I believe is Hebrews chapter six, starting in verse four. Hebrews chapter six, verse four. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come. If they shall fall away, to renew them again under repentan seeing they crucified themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame.

18:31 While this turns into again being interpreted from a soteriological perspective, and it becomes about can people then are these people where they saved? Were they not saved? Did they lose their salvation? And it turns into all of this, But once again, you got to interpret it in light of seventy a d. That's the correct way to interpret it, all right. So warning passage number one is Hebrews two one through four. Warning passage number two is Hebrews three, seven through nineteen. Warning passage number three. And if we go, oh, if we continue reading here in Hebrews six, yeah, I think that's good. We could read a little bit more. But you get the basic idea, Hey, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, and they're like, well, if they fall away, in other words, then can you be saved again? Can you not be saved? I've heard all of the debates about this. Usually it's people arguing about it. I hate to say they shouldn't be arguing about it because they obviously don't have the hermeneutical knowledge to be arguing about it, because they keep ignoring seventy AD.

19:36 All right, So Warning passage number one Hebrews two one through four. Warning passage number two, Hebrews three, seven through nineteen. Warning Passage number three hebrew six, four through eight. The next one is Hebrews Chapter ten, Hebrews Chapter ten, verse twenty six. For if we send willfully, after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain, fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour their adversaries. Wait, if you can, if you sin willfully after you receive the knowledge, there's no more sacrifice for your sin. Wait do you sin willfully? I sin willfully? Don't you sin willfully? Wait?

20:25 Wait what do we mean by this? So then it turns into this never ending debate. Well, it means this. It doesn't mean this. I can before you even get into that, go to seventy eight D and start there. So. Warning passage number one is Hebrews two one through four. Warning passage number two is Hebrews three, seven through nineteen. Warning passage number three is hebrew six four through eight. Warning passage number four is Hebrews ten twenty six through thirty one. And then last but not least, Hebrews Chapter twelve, Hebrews twelve twenty five through twenty nine. Hebrews twelve twenty five through twenty nine. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, For if they escaped, not who refused him that spake on earth? Much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven?

21:16 Say hey, don't turn away, or we're not going to escape? Escape? What what is? What's referring to? This referred to losing salvation right, And we could go all the way Hebrews twelve twenty five, all the way down to twenty nine, verse twenty six. Whose voice then shook the earth, But now he hath promising yet one more, I shake not the earth only, but also Heaven and the word yet once more significant the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made that these things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receive a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have great, have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear for our God as a consuming fire. All right, there's a lot going on there. Once again, it's considered one of the warning passages. So what are the warning passages?

22:03 One more time? Hebrews two one through four, Hebrews three seven through nineteen, Hebrews six four through eight, Hebrews ten twenty six through thirty one, and Hebrews twelve twenty five through twenty nine. My argument is, you cannot understand any of those warning passages even remotely correctly, if you interpret them apart from seventy A D. If you do not have seventy a D as your hermeneutical lens, I'm sorry, you're gonna make You're gonna just you're gonna make it. You're gonna rip these verses out of context. You're gonna make them about us. You're gonna probably end up in some kind of arguments about salvation, losing salvation and all of that, and none of and I think you're misinterpreting the entire situation. So what we need to do then, My argument is you can't interpret Hebrews without seventy a D.

22:48 So I am going to then set up start I'm gonna at least start here by trying to demonstrate the timing of the writing of the book and the siege of Jerusalem. Now, the siege of Jerusalem goes from sixty six AD to seventy a D. I'm going to put forth the argument, but the writing of Hebrews occurs pretty close, maybe even during It's either right before sixty six, right before the siege begins, or I think, even more likely, the writing of Hebrews occurs during the siege of Jerusalem, which would put it somewhere sixty six, sixty seven, sixty eight, sixty nine. While the siege of Jerusalem is happening under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The writer of Hebrews, I know, some say it's Paul. Whoever the writer is, writes Hebrews to the Jews, and they are literally living in the midst of the siege of Jerusalem. Oh wait, that's going to be the most significant religious event in many cases, not only religious, geopolitical, physical, I mean, this is gonna change their entire world. I cannot stress to you the importance of seventy eight D. So I'm gonna try to prove this, Okay, So I'm gonna be utilizing a lot of things here. I will argue that Hebrews

24:21 was likely written very close to seventy eight D. And as I've already stated, I believe it was. In fact, I'm more almost dogmatic about it. I think it was written during the Roman siege of Jerusalem. I'm almost I will be almost emphatic, like you can't read Hebrews and not almost see on every page. Hey guys, look what's happening around you. Look what's happening around you. Everything's about to be destroyed. You need something better now. I may not be able to pinpoint an exact date, but I think there are several facts which would strongly suggest it was written just before or maybe the or during the final years leading up to the Temple's destruction. I think again, I believe sixty it's somewhere. I think it was written somewhere after sixty six, before seventy obviously before the destruction of the temple. So I think somewhere between sixty six and sixty nine, maybe sixty six and sixty eight. I think it was written during the siege. I don't think there's any way to get around it. So what is the evidence I have that Hebrews was written close to seventy AD? Number one? The first piece of evidence. If you read the Book of Hebrews, you will notice that it clearly indicates that the temple system was still functioning.

25:54 If you look at Hebrews ten eleven. If you look at Hebrews ten eleven, I see some people think, well, this is just some dating thing. Who cares about the date? I don't care. I don't care. Give me something practical, come on, don't get all academic on me. Well, this is the key to understanding the entire book. Hebrews ten eleven says, and every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. It literally speaks, says, if this is happening at that time. From another translation, in every priests standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice which can never take away sins.

26:40 There's no way to get around this. This screams I don't think it just suggests. It screams that the levitical priesthood was still active, meaning that the Temple had not yet been destroyed. He didn't say, don't you remember when the priest used to do this? It's spoken of in the present tense. Hebrews was written after seventy a d. The author would have likely pointed to the actual destruction of the Temple as evidence that the Old Covenant was abolished. But he speaks of it as still ongoing, but about to end. Look at Hebrews, I think is at chapter eight.

27:21 I think it's Hebrews, chapter eight, verse thirteen, in that he saith a new covenant. He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth, old is ready to vanish away. It's the Old is ready to vanish away. It's not gone yet. Look if if the writer of Hebrews is trying to say, hey, the Old is about to go, this is all about to gone, he would have just said it's already gone. It's been destroyed. Seventy eight is the end of the Jewish system. It's gone. Whatever we the Jewish system that exists today, the Jewish religious system today it's but a shell of itself. There's no priests, there's no sacrifice. It's Judaism today is not Judaism as found in the Bible. It's a shell of itself.

28:10 Nobody can argue otherwise. They have no sacrifice, they have no priests, they have no temple, they have nothing that's required. Hebrews is saying, hey, it's the sacrifices were still happening, but it's telling them this is about to go away. It's about to vanish away. How is it going to vanish away? In the most literal way possible, the entire temple is going to be destroyed. It's gone. Israel's going to be in a sense, you know, figuratively speaking, wiped off the face of the earth. The temple was still standing, it was still functioning. That's my first evidence that clearly this is written before seventy eighty. There's no way to get around it. And because it's saying, hey, it's about to vanish, well, oh, that'll lead to my second piece of evidence. So number one, the temple system was still standing, still functioning. Number two, Hebrews eight thirteen, which I just read to you, suggests the Old Covenant was about to disappear. Hey, let me read it again. Hebrew's eight thirteen in that he saith a new covenant. He hath made the first old.

29:22 Now that which to kaieth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. The phrase ready to vanish away implies that the Jewish system was still standing but was on the verge of being removed. This fits perfectly with a pre AD seventy timeframe, especially during the growing tensions of the Jewish Roman War, which again was sixty six AD to seventy a d Hey, guys, it's about just look out your window. I don't know if they could have just looked out the window and saw it, but they had to know the siege of Jerusalem was underway. Read Josephus. If you agree with his account or you believe he embellishes some. There's all lots of arguments about the accuracy of Josephus, but Josephus at least gives you some idea of what was happening. Guys, it's all about to go away.

30:17 So what is my proof that seventy that hebrews is to be understood in a lot of the context of seventy eighty that about its timing of its writing. The temple is still standing according to Hebrews itself, and Hebrews itself is suggesting the old covenants about to disappear. How about number three? The growing pressure on Jewish Christians seems to match the presiege contexts if you look at things like Hebrews chapter ten. I think it's verse thirty two, but it says, but called to remembrance the former days in which afterward you were illuminated, you end a great fight of affliction. Partly wi while you were made a gazing stock, both by reproach affliction, partly while you became companions of them that were used for you had companions of me and my bonds. You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in Heaven a better enduring substance, a cast not away, therefore your confidence. But it seems to speak that they were going through some pressure, they were going through some persecutions. Well, this seems this pressure that was being placed on them seems to fit the Preseiege context. Hebrews ten thirty two through thirty four, which we just read, seems to speak of persecution imprisonment and the plundering of their possessions. This speaks of the intensifying persecution of Jewish Christians around the top around this time. And I don't think you can

31:48 get around that they were facing pressure from Jewish authorities to return to Judaism. I want you to say, I'm gonna go into greater detail in this one. The Jews were facing pressure from the authorities to return to Judaism. Hey, you were a Jew returned to Judaism. And I think the reason they would have been facing that pressure, especially between sixty six and sixty nine AD, is we're under siege. How dare you go to Christianity? How dare you go to this Messiah who wasn't the Messiah. He didn't defeat our enemies. If he was the Messiah, we wouldn't be under siege from the Romans. He would be ruling and reigning in Jerusalem. He died, he was crucified. Stop going back.

32:37 You are disloyal to your country, you're disloyal to your family, You're disloyal to your religion. Return to Judaism. That would explain the pressure in the historical context. And I'll go into greater detail about that there's no way to get around that. That would have been suffering possibly economic and social penalties for leaving the Jewish system. This would then explain the urgency of the warnings. Not not only was apostasy spiritually dangerous, but staying within Judaism was about to become physically dangerous due to the war. So in some ways, if if you they could have been tempted, there was two things going on. Hey do I want to be associated with Judaism? I mean we're under siege. Maybe I want to run to Christ or run to Christianity to get away from it. But then the Jews would have been like, who whoa, whoa, whoa whoah, No, no, no, you better stay with us. You your country is under attacked.

33:34 We're about to be where we're under siege. You need to be loyal. There would have been They would have been pulled in two different directions. That fits all, and that all of Hebrews fits this whole thing. Because Hebrews are saying who whoa, no, no, no, goude, don't go back there, don't go back to Judaism, stay with Christ. They would have had other people saying no, come back to jute Hebrews is the book for them. So what is the evidence that this was written close to seventy eight? Number one, the book itself speaks of the temple system still standing functioning. Number two, it suggests that the old Covenant was about to disappear, but it had not been gone yet. Number three, you have this growing pressure and persecution on Jews. Seems to match the context of the presiege.

34:27 Number four, Jesus, Oh, Jesus in the Book of Hebrews, the urgency aligns with jesus prophecy about Jerusalem's fall. Now this becomes very key, right. Remember I said seventy eighty seventy eight D. You can't understand anything. If we understand Hebrews and the context of seventy a d. Then this makes perfect sense. Because we have Jesus himself who gave prophecy about the coming destruction of the Temple, which everyone seems to conveniently make it about us and make it about the Second Coming, and Matthew twenty four to go to Matthew twenty four. All of this fits together like a puzzle as long as you get away. If you just don't go to church and you don't listen to sermons.

35:20 You can do better in understanding this. Matthew twenty four. I hate to say that Matthew twenty four. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and this is Matthew twenty four, verse one. And his disciples came to him to show him the building of the Temple. And Jesus said, see you not all these things barely asked, saying to you that there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. And then they want to know what what are you talking about? Please to when is this going to happen? Because for them, the destruction of the temple is basically the end of the world. And Jesus then tells them all the signs. Those signs are pointing to seventy a D. Seventy a D. Jesus warned, not only here in Luke chapter twenty one, and I quote this is Luke twenty one, twenty through twenty four. And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know it that the desolation thereof is nigh. Jesus instructed his followers to flee Jerusalem when they saw these signs. If Hebrews was written during or just before the siege it repeated. Its repeated warnings would make even more sense. The Jews who rejected Christ were about to face God's judgment through Roman destruction. If Jewish Christians went back to the temple system, they would be destroyed along with it. Don't go back to Judaism. It's gonna be destroyed. If you go back to Judaism, you're gonna be wiped off the face of the earth. You're not gonna have a sacrifice for sins, You're not gonna have anything. It's gonna be gone. Flee. Listen to what

36:51 Christ said, get out of Jerusalem. Run for your life, get out, go, don't stand if you stick around. Whoever sticks around is going to be taken. Go. So when you take Jesus of prophetic words and Luke twenty one, Matthew twenty four about the coming destruction, you look at the warnings and Hebrews, it all fits together. Seventy a D seventy a D. You've got to listen to Christ, you've got to flee to him, and you've got to get out of Jerusalem. You're going to die, and the temple is going to be destroyed. You may think God's going to protect it. It's all coming down. So what is the evidence that this was written close to seventy eighty.

37:47 Number one, the temple system was still functioning, who was still standing? Number two. Hebrews eight thirteen says that the old covenants are just about to disappear. Number three, the growing pressure on Jewish Christians matches the presiege co txt. Number four the warnings and the urgency, and Hebrews aligns perfectly with jesus prophecy about Jerusalem's fall and Luke twenty one in Matthew twenty four. All right, now, could Hebrews have been written during the siege? During the siege? Now what I did here is I went to look at another source that we may would be was not as convinced as I am. I am utterly convinced it's written during the siege. I don't know how you can get around it. It has to be. So the argument here is, well, it's possible was written during the siege, but we don't have enough evidence to confirm it. However, if it was written between eighty sixty six and seventy, it would have been during the Jewish revolt eight sixty six. It would have been the beginning of Titus's military campaign and what's the other person, Vespasian, I think was his name, their military campaigns, and then of course the siege of Jerusalem itself in seventy a d. If Hebrews was written during this time, the warnings about judgment would have been unfolding right before their eyes. And I think that's what was a curry, all right. So I think, so Ai said this,

39:20 the AD sixty six through seventy timeframe is most likely, is most likely, making Hebrews a document written on the sea on the edge of one of the most pivotal moments in Biblical history, the fall of Jerusalem and the definitive end of the Old Covenant system. So Ai says, it's most likely that this is the timeframe, and all of that other evidence, the internal evidence of the book screams it. Now, if that's the context, If sixty six to seventy is the con text, that would have had a significant impact on the Jews at the time. So let's put this then altogether, Hebrews are written to Jews during the siege of Jerusalem. If Jerusalem was under siege sixty sixty, seventy eighty, which is a historical fact. There would have been immense pressure on Jewish Christians to return to Judaism, and this would have been done as a sign of loyalty, a sign of loyalty to Israel, a sign of loyalty to their fellow Jews, a sign of loyalty to their culture. And this would add another layer

40:54 of urgency to the Jews. So the Jews are being tempted. They're facing a strong timation to be pulled back, because it would have been like, how don't look around. We're under siege and you're gonna turn your back on your country, You're gonna turn your back on your family, You're gonna turn your back on your culture. How dare you do that? The siege created a nationalistic and religious crises for the Jews at that time. If you don't understand this, you don't understand the Book of Hebrews. I am so sick and tired of listening to sermons, and it's like, Hebrews is about us and about us and about us, and just stop it for crying out loud. If you don't know how to teach the book, don't The siege created a nationalistic and religious crisis. There's no way to get around this. The Jewish Roman War between eighty sixty six and eighty seventy was a nationalistic and religious struggle against Rome.

42:02 The Jews saw the war as a fight for survival, and there was a strong pressure to unite under Judaism to resist Roman oppression. Jewish Christians would have been seen as traders for following Christ instead of standing with the Jewish nation and its religious system. The Jews would have you are a trader. And the writer Fever's like, whoa wha, wha, wha whah woa. No, no, no, don't go back. If you go back, you're placing yourself under judgment. And the specific judgment that's being referred to, we want to make it about heaven or Hell. It's the judgment that's coming upon Jerusalem. God is going to wipe them off. They they rejected the Messiah, they rejected their king, and judgments coming upon them, They're going to be destroyed. That doesn't again, I don't believe God is done with Israel, because He's going to fulfill his promise. But they are set aside.

42:54 The jew The gentiles are ingrafted in and at the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled, then God will return back to Israel. He will keep his promise. But at this time, so the writer of Hebrews is like, no, no, no, don't go back there, don't go back to the jew To Judaism, you need something better. There's something better. Then, so it takes everything Judaism would offer and say, no, you have a better this. You have a better priest, you have a better high priest. You ever better this. You have something better than the prophets. You have something better than Moses. You have something better than this. You have something better than this. Don't go back. But then their families and everyone around them would be like, you are a traitor. Can you imagine living in such a difficult circumstance. Well, you would need the Book of Hebrews specifically for them. What would be some of the pressures that they would have been facing. Religious pressure. The Temple was the center of Jewish faith, and rejecting it was seen as rejecting God, Israel and their Jewish identity. You're rejecting everything. You're rejecting God, you're rejecting your nation, you're rejecting your identity of who you are. There would have been political pressure Christianity was seen as a was disloyalty to the Jewish cause. To not participate in temple rituals would be seen as siding with Rome. Basically, you'd be like you, you're going for the Romans, You're going for the very countries trying to come kill us. How dare you?

44:27 Can you imagine the social and family pressure. Jewish Christians would have been urged to return to the synagogue and temple worship and sacrifice to show solidarity with Don't you care about your own family? And food and resources would have been scarce during the siege. Josephus speaks of this. Staying with the Christian community might have been socially and economically costly. Oh you're gonna go stay with the Christians, Well, then when you're not, we're not gonna feed you. We're not gonna give you any food, and there's limited food going around. And I belie, well you can read Joseph's I believe Josephus speaks of possible cannibalism happening during the siege. I would have to verify that. I don't have Josephus in front of me, And it's been a while since i've read it, so don't don't. I'm not citing that as a fact. I'm saying that is a question mark, so you can go verify that. I could look it up right now, but we're already at forty five minutes, so you can do some research on that so you can see. Then the context Hebrews is like don't go back.

45:29 Everything around them would be like go back, and they're caught in the middle. Now Hebrews then comes along and warns against returning to the old system. That's what Hebrews is, don't go back now, and that context, all of those warnings, now they make a lot of sense, don't they. Now those warnings make perfect sense. And the next time you're in Sunday school or some small group and Christians start arguing about the warnings and Hebrews. I hate to say it, but there's times I've almost wanted to stand up and just scream, shut up, all of you stop talking. Nobody here knows what you're talking about. And it's not because I'm smarter, it's not even anything to do with it.

46:20 It's just it's basic historical context. I get so sick of Christians saying, well, you need the proper context. You need the proper context, and then over and over and over ignore the proper context. And this is not even a difficult context to demonstrate. Almost anything you look up will say Hebrews was written somewhere between somewhere in the sixties. They may make it early sixty eighty, sixty four eighty. I think it's between sixty six and seventy eighty, but it's going to be somewhere very close within within nine eight seven, five four three years of the temple being wiped off the face of the earth. But again, you know why Christians don't interpret Hebrews that way, The interpret Matthew twenty four and then the passage in Luke that way.

47:04 They make it about the end times. And you know what pastors and churches are preoccupied with. They're preoccupied with their stinking self, and they gotta make every passage about me, me, me, me, me, me me. You gotta make it all about themselves. Now, if you look at these if you look at these warnings, now, if you go to these warnings, they make more sense. Right, Hebrews two one through four, don't neglect salvation. We already read Hebrews two one through four. Don't neglect salvation. Well, what does this mean. In the context of the siege, the pressure to return to Judaism was strong, but abandoning Christ would mean judgment. Don't neglect salvation. Don't one listen to what Christ has said earlier when you see these signs, get out of Jerusalem, don't neglect it. Stay with Christ.

48:07 Or if you go back and you stay here and you're you're going to get wiped off the face of the earth. Hebrews three seven through nineteen. Don't harden your hearts like Israel in the wilderness. Just as Israel perished in the wilderness, those who reject Christ now will perish in the siege. Stay with Christ and get out, Go leave. If you stay, judgment's coming Hebrews six four through eight. Those who fall away cannot be renewed. Those who return to Judaism might not get another chance before destruction comes.

48:49 Not only that, the idea here is those who fall away cannot be renewed. If you go back to Judaism, you're not gonna have any You're not gonna have a system where you can do it. Anything to be renewed. Right, There's not gonna be any more animal sacrifice you're not gonna have a priestthood. Everything's gonna be destroyed. There's not gonna be another sacrifice for sin that you're not going to have anything Hebrews ten twenty eight through thirty one. No more sacrifice for sins. If they returned to the temple system, that would be left with nothing after it was destroyed. There's no chance for renewal. There's no blood, there's no sacrifice, there's no priest Hebrews twelve twenty five through twenty nine. God is shaking the earth. The coming destruction was a final shaking of the old covenant system.

49:36 The entire argument of Hebrews is that Jesus is greater than the Jewish system, so returning to Judaism in this moment of crisis would be a fatal mistake, both spiritually and physically. That's the book. It drives me crazy. So if you put it in this context, everything makes sense. And then again, let's put it back in it again. I believe this is all written during the siege. I think this is all And if it's written during the siege, there's all these implications. Again, I'll go back to Jesus prophecy and the escape of Christians and Luke twenty one twenty four. Jesus explicitly warned his followers about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and told them to flee when they saw it surrounded. Hey, when you see these signs, get out.

50:30 Early Christian tradition, I don't know if this is fact, records that many Christians fled to I think it was called Pella pe l La when the Roman siege began. So many Christians like, we gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta get out. We were told by Jesus himself to get out. This would mean that Jewish Christians who remained in Jerusalem were facing intense pressure from fellow Jews to stay and fire rather than flee. Stay fight. Well, but Jesus said to flee, Well, who you're going to follow? You're going to turn to your dead supposed messiah? Or are you're going to stay and fight for your nation, your family, and your identity and your culture. You see the pressure. I believe it was written during the siege.

51:27 And if it was written during the siege, then the siege created a nationalistic and religious crisis, all right, they would have faced immense pressure. Once we understand then all the pressure that we're facing, everything that was going on. Then the Hebrew warnings make all. The Hebrew warnings are about returning to Judaism. That's what it's about, and the context of seventy a d. If it's written during the siege, then Jesus prophecy to get out of Jerusalem. It's not about the Second Coming, it's about right there. It all makes sense. So the real danger that they're being warned of is that judgment was coming. Literal physical judgment was coming, and those who stayed Judaism would those who stayed with Judaism would face not just spiritual loss, but physical destruction.

52:23 This aligns perfectly with the warnings and Hebrews. They were not just theological, but eschatological destruction was coming, and eschatological not in the Second Coming, but eschatological in that, Hey, guys, this is coming, this destruction, this judgment was foretold, it was prophesied. This is a fulfillment of the prophecy Jesus gave during his ministry. To stay within Judaism was to remain under God's judgment, to hold on to Christ was the only one to escape. Literally, hold onto Christ, to his words and get out. So then, how do we understand Hebrews. Hebrews was a I think we could see it this way. It was a final our. Hebrews was a last warning. Let's go with that. It was a last warning before disaster. The Siege of Jerusalem intensified the pressure for Jewish Christians to return to Judaism as a sign of loyalty to Israel. Hebrews was written as a final warning, do not go back. Judaism is ending. Christ is your only hope. Those who held onto Christ and fled were spared. Those who rejected Christ's and stayed face God's judgment in seventy a d. This makes Hebrews one of the most this is Ai Now, this makes Hebrews

53:54 one of the most urgent and historically significant books in the entire New Testament, as it was written on the brink of one of the most catastrophic events in Jewish history, and yet Christians think it's all about us. Now. I thought I was gonna do maybe a part two of part three. I don't think I need to do a part one, part two, part three. I've got plenty of notes here, I got plenty of notes. I didn't even get to I skipped a bunch of notes here. I skipped a bunch of these, But I have a whole thing now looking at all of those warning passages and light of seventy eighty, which I have already kind of done.

54:46 I could go back through it again, but I think I've already demonstrated it. I mean, I got a lot more I could go into, but I think that just gives you the framework and if you put it all together. Matthew twenty four, is that like Luke? Was that Luke twenty one? I think it's Luke twenty one, and we look here, I have to look at my notes going by memory. Here is that Luke twenty one where he says, uh, I think it's Luke twenty one. Yeah, Luke twenty one where Jesus says, no stone and all of that. Let them which are in Judea fleet to the mountains. Let them which are in the midst of depart okay. And when you shall see Jerusalem come pass with armies, then you know that the desolation therefore is not Christians take that and make that about some second coming, and what do you There's about seventy eight d for crying out loud Okay, you take Luke twenty one, Matthew twenty four, seventy a d. Hebrews, all of Hebrews and all those warning seventy eight d. He put it all together. Now you have some capacity to interpret scripture correctly and light not only if it's textual, but historical context. Now you say, well, what how is it applicable to us? Well, it tells us there's no point in going back to Judaism, right.

56:13 People who want to return back to Judaism and Judaism and Judaism and and and seem drawn back to wanting to do passover and wanting to do this and want to wanting to supposedly explore their Jewish roots of Christianity. I got no problem understanding it. But we don't go back to that. That's gone, It's vanished, it disappeared. We look to Christ. Christ is better than all of that. Now, you may want to look at how it pointed to Christ. Okay, but it was written to a specific people and a specific context for a specific reason. You've got to be careful when you go take a book who has written to a specific people and a specific situation for a specific reason, and then just throw them out and move us in and then turn it into some kind of debate about salvation and eternal security, not eternal security. Whenever I see that, I'm just like, you know what, I'm just walking away. You people have no clue what you're talking about. And I know it comes across as arrogant, and I'm not trying to be. It's just I get sick and tired of it. This information about Hebrews connection to seventy A. D Is not hidden in some dusty library somewhere that you have to, you know, cut through a jungle to find this hidden library from antiquity, and you've got to break in and hopefully you can grab the book before the large ball. Okay, I'm using Raters of the Lost Start. You get the idea. You don't have to do that. You can just simply you can

57:44 just simply do a little bit of research and go, huh, seventy eight what happens seventy eight temple is destroyed? Hmm. This is written to the Jews. Maybe we should interpret it that way. It doesn't require Bible college doesn't require you can use a Bible dictionary. Most study Bibles. Their introduction is gonna connect it to seventy eighty. You don't need anything, you know. What you do need to do is not go to church and listen to sermons. Now I'm not saying that every church does. I'm saying that I am baffled by how frequently I hear Hebrews taught with very little reference to seventy eighty. They may throw a little bit of lip service to it. And the same thing with Matthew twenty four and Luke twenty one.

58:31 I've said it before. The sermon, because it's almost designed to always be about us, is almost inevitably the culprit and actually keeping people from the true meaning of the text. All right, fifty eight minutes, I'm gonna stop. You could hear the iPad there. That's my daughter calling me, So she's probably gonna call me about some political rant. So I'm gonna go listen to her. All right, So thank you for listening. Now my rant is over, ladies and gentlemen, seventy a D. If you don't know what happened, if you don't understand the significance of that, learn that. Don't ever forget the significance of seventy a D. On biblical interpretation, If you interpret the Bible with very little knowledge or even acknowledgment of what happened in seventy A, d Inevitably you're gonna misinterpret scripture. God bless