25-1123sc - Detailed Summary

The teacher, Jim, introduces the main topic of the class: the intertestamental period, often called the "silent years" or "400 years of silence." This is the time between the last prophet Malachi and the beginning of the Gospel accounts when God gave no new prophetic messages to Israel.

Jim asks the class to imagine 400 years without any prophet speaking for God, noting that the United States has existed for less than 300 years yet Israel experienced over 400 years of divine silence. He draws a parallel to the present Christian age, which has also been a time of silence since the end of the miraculous age when apostles and prophets received direct revelation and performed miracles through the Holy Spirit. The miraculous gifts ended with the death of the apostles and those on whom they laid hands. Today God still works and speaks, but only through the completed Holy Scripture. Malachi prophesied the coming of one like Elijah (fulfilled in John the Baptist) who would prepare the way for the Messiah promised since Abraham. During the 400 years there were no new revelations, yet God was actively working through providence for His people, as foretold in earlier prophecies such as Daniel’s visions.

In the current age of silence, many false teachers on platforms like YouTube claim new revelations from God. Jim labels such people charlatans and liars, insisting that true believers who know Scripture and history can easily identify them.

God speaks today exclusively through His written Word. From the close of the New Testament until now there has been no new revelation. While the apostles lived, the Holy Spirit inspired them to write letters that circulated among the churches and became Scripture. These writings are holy, instructional, and infallible because men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). Paul affirmed that all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). Peter himself referred to Paul’s letters as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15-16), showing that even in the first century these writings were already regarded as part of the sacred canon alongside the Old Testament. Jesus anticipated that His words would be recorded; in Matthew 24:15 He inserted the parenthetical note "let the reader understand," indicating His teaching would be written down for future readers.

The parenthetical remark in Matthew 24:15 was especially meant for first-century Christians who would read the written Gospel and recognize the signs of Jerusalem’s coming destruction in AD 70. When Roman armies (the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel) surrounded the city, believers remembered Jesus' warning, fled Jerusalem during a brief Roman withdrawal under Titus, and were spared. Not one Christian perished in the siege according to historical records. The total destruction of the temple in AD 70 marked the permanent end of the Mosaic age and the old covenant. Jim criticizes modern political leaders who show religious respect at the Western Wall, saying it reflects ignorance of biblical doctrine and history.

The church today lives in a similar period of silence. God’s patience throughout history is for salvation, giving people time to repent (2 Peter 3:9,15). Jude states that the faith was "once for all" delivered to the saints, meaning the revelation was complete in the first century. John’s Revelation was the final book, written to encourage persecuted Christians under Roman emperors such as Nero and Domitian who brutally martyred believers (lighting them as torches, throwing them to lions in the Colosseum, etc.).

Revelation primarily addressed first-century persecution; its prophecies are largely fulfilled. The only remaining event is Christ’s second coming. Jim strongly rejects premillennial teaching about a secret rapture, a future seven-year tribulation, multiple resurrections, and a literal thousand-year earthly reign from Jerusalem, calling it false doctrine. When Christ returns there will be one general resurrection of the righteous and unrighteous, immediate judgment, the destruction of the earth by fire, and eternal destiny for all.

Returning to the intertestamental period, Jim shares his own conversion story. Raised in a home with no real faith (father non-practicing Catholic, mother universalist), he first encountered God through reading Hal Lindsey’s "The Late Great Planet Earth" in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Though he later rejected much of Lindsey’s premillennialism, the book’s explanation of fulfilled prophecies during the 400 silent years (especially Daniel naming Cyrus centuries in advance) convinced him the Bible was supernaturally accurate. This led him to purchase a Bible and eventually come to faith.

Jim explains why the 400-year intertestamental period fascinates him personally, as it formed the roots of his faith. Palestine sat at the crossroads of three continents—Africa, Asia, and Europe—making it the superhighway for trade and military conquest. Daniel’s statue prophecy accurately predicted the sequence of empires: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The Greek conquest under Alexander the Great spread a single common language (Koine Greek) across the entire known world, from India to northern Africa and Europe, including the Holy Land itself.

When Rome later conquered the region, their legendary road-building created durable highways, many still in use today, that would later serve the rapid spread of the gospel. Palestine at the time of Christ was divided into four main areas: Judea in the south (center of Jewish conservatism), Samaria in the center (mixed Jewish-Gentile population despised by pure-blooded Jews because of Assyrian resettlement policies), Galilee in the north (heavily populated with over three million people and a strong Greek influence; Nazareth was only four miles from the regional capital Sepphoris), and Perea east of the Jordan with the prosperous Roman Decapolis cities nearby. Major ruling centers included Alexandria (second-largest city in the empire, 300 miles southwest) and Antioch (third-largest, 300 miles north). At the close of the Old Testament around 430 BC, the Holy Land was a Persian province.

The Persian period lasted until 332 BC when Alexander the Great conquered the region in 331 BC. He treated the Jews with mercy and spared Jerusalem. After his mysterious death in 323 BC, his empire was divided among four generals (the Diadochi): Ptolemy, Seleucus, Antigonus, and Cassander. Palestine initially fell to Ptolemy (Egypt), who treated the Jews well, allowed synagogue building and worship, and made Alexandria a major Jewish intellectual center with the world’s largest library. The Egyptian rulers were now called Ptolemies, while Syrian rulers were called Seleucids.

In 198 BC Antiochus the Great (Seleucid) seized Palestine. His son Antiochus Epiphanes (175–164 BC) became a vicious persecutor of the Jews, a forerunner of Hitler. He nearly destroyed Jerusalem in 168 BC, sacrificed a pig on the temple altar, erected a statue of Jupiter in the Holy of Holies (many believed this fulfilled Daniel’s “abomination of desolation”), banned temple worship and circumcision (on pain of death), ordered all copies of Scripture destroyed, and tortured Jews to force them to renounce their faith. This extreme oppression sparked the Maccabean revolt. Mattathias, a courageous priest, and his five sons began a guerrilla war against the Seleucids. After Mattathias died in 166 BC, leadership passed to his son Judas, nicknamed “Maccabeus” (the Hammer) for his devastating victories against overwhelming odds. In 165 BC Judas recaptured Jerusalem, cleansed and rededicated the temple—an event commemorated by the new eight-day Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), which Jesus himself observed (John 10:22). The Maccabean (Hasmonean) period of Jewish independence lasted from 167 to 63 BC. Jim recommends reading 1 and 2 Maccabees (found in Bibles with the Apocrypha) as reliable historical accounts, though not inspired Scripture, and notes that Jesus honored the Maccabees.

In 63 BC Pompey conquered Palestine for Rome and installed Antipater (an Edomite) as ruler; his son Herod the Great seized the throne (37–4 BC) through brutality, even murdering his own wife and sons out of paranoia. To gain Jewish favor he magnificently rebuilt the temple, yet when the Magi announced the birth of a new “king of the Jews,” Herod ordered the massacre of all boys two years and under in Bethlehem. After his death, his son Herod Antipas beheaded John the Baptist and mocked Jesus, while his grandson Herod Agrippa I later executed the apostle James. Rome made Caesarea the provincial capital and linked the empire with excellent roads—providentially preparing the way for the rapid spread of the gospel through a common language (Greek) and safe highways. Jewish resistance continued through groups like the Zealots (one of whom, Simon the Zealot, became an apostle of Jesus). Jim concludes the lesson, noting time ran out and more history remains for a future class.