David Jeremiah’s Revelation series

The David Jeremiah radio show has been doing a series through Revelation, Escape the Coming Night.  I had only heard his name a few times before this, as one on my list of Calvinist-Dispensational teachers, but recently I’ve listened to a few shows on a new local Christian radio station.  I’ve since gone to the website and listened to the introductory messages.

His preaching style is geared to the masses, as opposed to a more serious and in-depth preaching style of, say, Believer’s Chapel (site of the late S. Lewis Johnson, as well as many other good preachers), and (like John MacArthur, at least in his earlier years) includes frequent use of alliteration of sermon points.  One idea he teaches, that I think he takes too far, is the claim that  — based on 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 — all those who have heard the gospel before the rapture will be lost and won’t believe the truth afterward during the tribulation; those who come to faith during the Great Tribulation will only come from those who had never previously heard the gospel.  I can certainly see that there will be many hardened people, who knowingly reject the gospel, and so as 2 Thessalonians says, they will believe the lie and be deceived — as the judgment scenes in Revelation also demonstrate.  But I find it hard to believe that by the time of the Great Tribulation there will be a vast uncounted multitude (Revelation 7) that had never heard the gospel during the Church Age.

Overall, though, David Jeremiah has decent, Bible-based teaching, including the following New Testament scriptural references for a proper understanding of Bible prophecy and how that affects how we should live:

1.  1 Corinthians 4:5 — Refrain from judging others
2.  1 Corinthians 11:26 — Remember the Lord at His supper — makes communion more important and significant
3.  Colossians 3:1-4 — Respond to life spiritually — set your affection on things above
4.  1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 — Relate to one another in love
5.  2 Timothy 4:1-2 — Recommitted to the ministry
6.  Hebrews 10:25 — Refuse to neglect the church — rejoicing and praising God in our churches
7.  James 5:8 — Remain steadfast
8.  1 John 3 –  Renounce sin in our lives — the purifying hope.  Also Titus 2:12-13 and 1 John 2:28
9.  Jude 21-23 — Reach the lost for Christ — sense of urgency in our lives
10. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 –  (here he never gave the “R” word) — “Comfort one another with these words” –  we can deal with the present, knowing the future

Here is the same thought, how we should live in the light of our understanding of Christ’s return, from J.C. Ryle:

Live as if you thought Christ might come at any time. Do everything as if you did it for the last time. Say everything as if you said it for the last time. Read every chapter in the Bible as if you did not know whether you would be allowed to read it again. Pray every prayer as if you felt it might be your last opportunity. Hear every sermon as if you were hearing once and forever. This is the way to be found ready.  This is the way to turn Christ’s second appearing to good account. This is the way to put on the armor of light.

(Back to David Jeremiah)  One disappointment so far: the website seems too focused on selling products rather than really educating and equipping believers.  Radio programs are archived for the last three months (at Oneplace.com), but even those can only be played on the web — it costs $3.50 to download the MP3 for each 30-minute program.  Contrast that with John MacArthur’s “Grace to You” which, even before they opened up the sermon archive, had several years of radio show archives available for free download, plus free online transcripts of all sermons.