MacArthur Daily Bible Reading - Dec 14th

Amos 4:1–5:27 Psalm 141:5–10 Proverbs 29:26 Revelation 4:1–11
- Amos 4 - Cows of Bashan oppress the poor, The Lord God swears by his holiness they will be taken away with fishhooks, God was withholding food, and rain and they did return to him,
- Famous line from the Bible: 12“Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” Go creates the wind and mountains, BIG view of God here in Amos,
- Amos 5 - there is no on e to raise her up, He turns the shadow of death into morning And makes the day dark as night; He calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face of the earth; The LORD is His name.
- He again warns about the coming day of The LORD,
- MacArthur's note - Stephen quoted Stephen recited Amos 5:25–27 when he recounted the sins of Israel in Acts 7:42–43.
- They will go into captivity... near far prophecy
- Psalm 141:5-10 - pray this in our day: 8 But my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord; In You I take refuge; Do not leave my soul destitute. 9 Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, And from the traps of the workers of iniquity. 10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, While I escape safely.
- Proverbs 29:26 - 26 Many seek the ruler’s favor, But justice for man comes from the LORD.
- Revelation 4:1-11 - A door standing open in Heaven, voice of a trumpet, 3And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. 4Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. 5And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
- Isaiah 6, Daniel 7, these are chapters we need to pause in and look,
- “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” Holy Holy Holy one of the hymns I recommend.
- Macarthur's note: The preterist approach interprets Revelation as a description of first-century events in the Roman Empire. This view conflicts with the book’s own often repeated claim to be prophecy (1:3; 22:7, 10, 18–19). It is impossible to see all the events in Revelation as already fulfilled. The Second Coming of Christ, for example, obviously did not take place in the first century.
- The historicist approach views Revelation as a panoramic view of church history from apostolic times to the present—seeing in the symbolism such events as the barbarian invasions of Rome, the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, the emergence of Islam, and the French Revolution. This interpretive method robs Revelation of any meaning for those to whom it was written. It also ignores the time limitations the book itself places on the unfolding events (11:2; 12:6, 14; 13:5). Historicism has produced many different—and often conflicting—interpretations of the actual historical events contained in Revelation.
- The idealist approach interprets Revelation as a timeless depiction of the cosmic struggle between the forces of good and evil. In this view, the book contains neither historical allusions nor predictive prophecy. This view also ignores Revelation’s prophetic character and, if carried to its logical conclusion, severs the book from any connection with actual historical events. Revelation then becomes merely a collection of stories designed to teach spiritual truth.
- The futurist approach insists that the events of chapters 6–22 are yet future and that those chapters literally and symbolically depict actual people and events yet to appear on the world scene. It describes the events surrounding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (chaps. 6–19), the Millennium and final judgment (chap. 20), and the eternal state (chaps. 21–22). Only this view does justice to Revelation’s claim to be prophecy and interprets the book by the same grammatical-historical method as chapters 1–3 and the rest of Scripture.