Hijacked Theology: How the Scofield Bible Rewired the Church—And Why It Matters Now

Hey, Fran, welcome back to the Marquesto program where we challenge the old systems, confront cultural compromise and reimagine the world through the lens of kingdom wisdom. If you're tired of weak theology, small thinking, and building your life on sand, this is the show that hands you a hammer and a blueprint and says, let's build the future together. Because here we don't just talk about reformation, we live it. Now, before we get going deep into this podcast today, if this podcast is helping you, challenging you, calling you higher, do this right now. I want you to go write a review, whether you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, once you write that review, I want you to take a screenshot of your written review and DM it to me on Instagram. And then what I'm going to do is for everybody that does that is I'm going to give you a free training that I have on finances. And I want to give that to you for absolutely free. And then on top of that, I'm going to shout you out on my Instagram so that others can find and follow your journey too. So I want to do this because I want to know who's riding with this movement. Okay. Now, today's episode is not going to sit comfortably in a pew. But if you hang with me, it might set you free from theology that's kept you waiting for escape instead of engaging in your God-given assignment. Now, take a deep breath because we are about to dive deep. Now, what if I told you that the theology that you were raised on, the one that told you that Jesus was going to come back at any second, the one that made you afraid to plan to build to dream, the one that told you to bless Israel, no matter what, what if it wasn't from Jesus? It didn't come from Paul. It didn't come from Peter. It came from a Bible with footnotes funded by political Zionist and global bankers. Yep. We're going there. This one book, The Skullfield Reference Bible, it rewired the entire Western church. And it didn't just shape how you read Scripture. It told you how to think about the world, about war, about prophecy, about your future. And it's time that we exposed it because you were never called to survive the end. You were called to build what's next. This is episode seven of the Marquesto program. And we're calling this hijacked theology, how the Skullfield Bible rewired the church and why it matters now. And let's start tearing this thing down and start building ourselves back up again. Now, this really came to my attention because there were several viral videos that took off in the past couple of weeks. One of them was on the Tucker Carlson interview talking to another gentleman. And he began to reference the Skullfield Bible and really open up this conversation. And man, it really intrigued me because I, this is something I'm deeply passionate about is about reforming our eschatology. And so I want to dive deep in this. And we're going to just begin here about the Bible that rewired the church. And we're going to travel all the way back to the early 1900s. It's the dawn of the 20th century. The printing press is booming. Industrialization is reshaping the Western world. Revivals breaking out in wells, Los Angeles, and other unexpected corners of the globe. And quietly, almost unnoticed by the average believer, a man named Cyrus Ingerson Skullfield is preparing a book that will profoundly influence the theological imagination of American Christianity for the next 100 years. Guys, it's not just a Bible. It's a re-framed Bible. The Skullfield reference Bible, it first published in 1909 was groundbreaking in one key way. It wasn't just the King James text. It included footnotes and commentary that systematized a completely new theological lens. It wasn't just a tool for understanding Scripture. It was a tool that told you how to interpret the whole story. And the theology that it promoted, it can be known as dispensationalism. Now, what is dispensationalism? Dispensationalism is a system of theology that divides human history into distinct periods or dispensations during which God interacts with humanity in different ways. So I'm going to give you the short version of what Skullfield taught. Number one, God has two separate plans, one for Israel and one for the church. Secondly, that we're living in the church age right now, but God will return His focus to Israel soon. Thirdly, before that happens, there will be a secret rapture, a sudden disappearance of all true believers from the earth. And then fourthly, after the rapture, a literal seven-year tribulation will begin featuring the rise of the Antichrist, Worldwide Chaos and Divine Judgment. And then fifthly, Jesus will then return physically, defeat the Antichrist and reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years in a restored Jewish kingdom on earth. Does any of that sound familiar to anybody? That's because this framework is now embedded in everything from left behind novels and TV prophecy teachers to church sermons and political policies. But here's the shocking truth. None of this was standard Christian belief for the first 1800 years of the church. I want you to let that sink in for a second. The early church didn't teach this. The apostles didn't preach this. The creeds don't contain this. And the reformers, they didn't promote it. So we have to ask the question then, where did this come from? Well, dispensationalism didn't descend from the early church. It emerged in the 1830s through a man named John Nelson Darby, a leader in the Plymouth Brethren Movement in England. Darby, reacting against what he perceived as the failure of the visible church, proposed a radical new idea that the church was some kind of "interruption" in God's plan for Israel. This idea split God's work in the world into distinct programs and offered a brand new end times framework that no one had ever heard of before. It was innovative. It was exciting. And eventually, it was dangerous. Now, I want to talk about Skullfield's genius and subtle deception here. See, C.I. Skullfield took Darby's ideas and did something Darby never thought to do. He baked them into the pages of scripture through footnotes and cross references and charts in a printed Bible. So now for the first time, the average lay person wasn't just reading the Bible. They were reading the Bible with a built-in theological filter. Imagine being a believer in 1920. You open your Skullfield Bible, and there it is. A timeline for the end times. Notes explaining who the Antichrist is. margins declaring Israel's central role in God's plan. A clear distinction between the heavenly destiny of the church and the earthly destiny of Israel. Because you're not just studying scripture, you're being shaped by Skullfield's system. And over time, the system became invisible. The footnotes became doctrine, and people stopped asking if it was true because it had already become the norm. Now, I want to talk to you about the spread of Skullfield's Bible. Within a few decades, the Skullfield reference Bible became the most influential study Bible in American evangelicalism. Bible colleges like Moody and Dallas Theological Seminary and Philadelphia College of the Bible adopted its framework. Pastors preached it from their pulpit without ever critically evaluating it. Denomination split over entire eschatological ecosystems emerged from it. And by the mid-20th century, dispensationalism had become synonymous with orthodoxy in much of the American church. And here's the tragedy. Most believers had no idea that the lens they were using to interpret the Bible didn't come from Jesus, Paul, or the early church. It came from a lawyer turn preacher and his politically funded notes. Now, why does this matter? You may be wondering, why mark are you covering this and why does this really matter? Friend, it absolutely does matter because how you interpret the Bible determines what kind of God you believe in, what kind of future you expect, what kind of worldview you build, and what kind of kingdom you advance. And if you believe the world's supposed to get worse, you won't try to make it better. If you believe Jesus is coming any minute to evacuate the faithful, you won't build anything that lasts. And if you believe God's real plan is for geopolitical Israel and not the global body of Christ, you'll misunderstand your own identity and assignment. The theology that you inherit becomes the life that you live. And if the theology is off, the fruit will certainly be distorted. So I want to ask you some questions again. What if the Skullfield Bible didn't clarify scripture, but corrupted our liens? What if the notes in your Bible taught you to wait for escape instead of preparing for dominion? What if the most widespread theological framework in modern evangelicalism was rooted not in apostolic teaching, but in Zionist politics, Western fear, and a deep misunderstanding of the kingdom? Because if that's the case, we've got some serious deconstruction and even more urgent rebuilding to do. Now, don't get hung up on the word deconstruction. I know, I don't like the word very much either. But to me, it's the same thing as saying the word repent. And repentance doesn't mean just simply turn and go into the opposite direction. It means to literally change the way that you think. So we've got some serious repentance to do and even more urgent rebuilding to do. Now, we're going to talk about something big here, something you've probably never thought of or heard taught. But we're going to follow the money trail here. We're going to talk about the Roth's child connection. That's one thing to question a theology. It's another thing to ask who stood to benefit from its spread? Because theological revolutions don't just happen in a vacuum. They're shaped, supported, and many times funded. And when a theology spreads like wildfire, especially when it rewires the way millions of people read the Bible, you should always ask who lit the match. I hope you're ready to get into this. So I want to talk about the hidden players behind the Skullfield Bible. So see how Skullfield's life before his famous Bible wasn't exactly marked by spiritual clarity. He was Confederate soldier, a lawyer, and even according to some records, a man with a criminal past and accusations of forgery and fraud. But sometime in the late 1870s, he experienced a dramatic conversion and quickly entered into the world of ministry. And by the early 1900s, Skullfield had a line himself with the dispensational theology of John Nelson Darby, and he began working on his own Bible commentary. But publishing a project of that scale requires major backing, financially, institutionally, and politically. And that's where the trail gets both fascinating and disturbing. Now, enter Samuel, I'm having trouble saying this, but his name, I believe it's Samuel Uttermar. And historical accounts point to a man named Samuel Uttermar, a wealthy and influential Jewish American lawyer as one of the key figures who helped elevate Skullfield's work. Uttermar was not a Christian. He was a staunch Zionist and a major figure in international finance and law. His name appears in connection with early support for Zionist causes in the US and interestingly in the circle of support around Skullfield. Some historians and researchers believe that Uttermar and other Zionist allies helped Skullfield gain access to publishing resources, distribution networks, and even connections to theological institutions that would adopt and normalize his work. Now, I want you to think about that for a second. A non-Christian Zionist helped fund and distribute a theology that would convince millions of Christians to tie their spiritual future to the political future of Israel. Coincidence? Or strategy? Now, let's follow the thread to the Rothschilds. But it doesn't stop with Undermar. As you pull the thread, you find a network of wealthy elites and banking families, many of whom were invested in the geopolitical project of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The most prominent of these was the Rothschild family. Now, let's be careful and responsible here. We're not trying to pedal conspiracy theories. We're pointing to historical facts. The Rothschilds funded the early Zionist movement, including land purchases in Palestine. They played a key role in lobbying European powers, including Britain, to support the creation of a Jewish state. Their influence extended to publishing, media, and religious institutions. They weren't trying to shape theology because they cared about Christian doctrine. They were shaping narratives to create alignment and what better way to win over millions of evangelical Christians than produce a theology that says you must support the state of Israel because God's entire end time plan depends on it. Skullfield's Bible delivered that message in black and white and evangelicals ate it up. So let's put in plain terms because this was genius strategy. You take a new theology, you bake it into a Bible, you fund its production, you promote it in Christian institutions, and you convince an entire religious movement that political allegiance equals prophetic obedience. And this is how theology gets weaponized. This is how the church trades its prophetic authority for political propaganda. And this is how a generation of believers stops reading the Bible through the lens of Christ and starts reading it through the lens of geopolitics. And once the Skullfield reference Bible was in the hands of pastors and preachers, teachers, and Bible students, it was game over. The political goals of Zionism now had theological cover in the most influential Christian movement on the planet. So what does this mean for us today? This isn't about being anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. That's not the heart of this teaching at all. The issue isn't the Jewish people. The issue is using theology to manipulate allegiance. The church has been discipled to support a nation state uncritically, to interpret every conflict in the Middle East as a sign of the end times, and to believe that the church in Israel are permanently divided in God's plan. And this is led to Christians cheering on war instead of praying for peace. Pastors refusing to preach reconciliation because of end time charts. Believers idolizing political alliances instead of walking in kingdom authority. We've been told that to bless Israel means endorsing everything the modern state of Israel does. But here's what scripture actually says. Galatians chapter 3 verse 28 through 29 says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Guys, the seed is Christ. Not a nationality, not a flag, not a war, not a map. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise, and anyone who belongs to him is a part of that covenant. Now, here's the deeper danger. When you baptize political agendas in prophetic language, you create something Jesus never endorsed, a counterfeit kingdom. You end up with Christians who defend empires instead of advance the kingdom. You end up with Christians who justify violence as a means to prophecy fulfillment, and you end up with Christians who worship timelines more than they obey the teachings of Christ. And most of all, you get a church that's lost its voice because instead of speaking truth to power, it's in bed with power. And all of this because of a Bible with footnotes. Now, real quick, this podcast, the videos we post, the events that we host, it's all made possible by the faithful partners of the Shepherdstint, which is our nonprofit ministry. We're currently right now raising $50,000 to build out new media studios, upgrade the quality of our content, fund our book projects, and most importantly, help us to continue to minister to pastors and leaders, and help us make campus end, which is our annual youth gathering, the best that it absolutely can be. Guys, your donation is always text deductible, and every dollar goes toward building what's blessing your life right now. So I want you to go to marcasto.co/donate and sew into this movement today. Now, we're about to jump into the rise of Christian Zionism. And by now, it's clear that the Skullfield reference Bible didn't just popularize a new theological system. It created an entire world view, okay? But that world view didn't stay in seminaries or pulpits. It became a powerful force in international politics, foreign policy, and the church's collective imagination. This new world view had a name. You ready? Christian Zionism. Now, you may be asking, what is Christian Zionism? Well, Christian Zionism is the belief that modern-day Israel is the prophetic fulfillment of Old Testament promises, and that the church is obligated by scripture to support the Jewish nation unconditionally. But this isn't just a theological opinion. It's a framework that merges biblical interpretation with political allegiance. At its core, Christian Zionism teaches that the modern state of Israel is a divinely mandated fulfillment of prophecy. That Jewish people returning to the land is a necessary precondition for Christ's second coming. That any opposition to Israel politically or military action is rebellion against God's plan. That the church and Israel are forever distinct with separate covenants and destinies. It's a theology, guys, that doesn't just influence beliefs. It influences behavior, voting, international policy, and yes, wars. Now, there's been a huge evangelical shift. Here's what happened. When the Skullfield reference Bible framed the return of Jews to Palestine as prophetic fulfillment, Christians in the West, especially in America, began to see the formation of the state of Israel in 1948 as proof that in times prophecy was coming to pass. This created an adrenaline rush in the evangelical world. Prophecy books flew off shelves. Preachers updated charts and timelines. Christians believe the rapture could happen at any moment. And once the six-day war happened in 1967 and Israel regained control of Jerusalem, it was seen as divine confirmation. God was moving. Jesus must be returning soon. But something more dangerous was happening beneath that excitement. The church was trading the gospel of peace for a gospel of political loyalty. It was no longer just about the kingdom of God. It was about national borders, military victories, and defending a state no matter the cost. And this is where we make a shift from theology to foreign policy. By the 1980s and the 1990s, Christian Zionism wasn't a fringe idea. It was mainstream. Teller evangelists like John Hegey made it their life mission to promote unwavering support for Israel. Organizations like Christians United for Israel grew into massive lobbying forces in Washington DC. Millions of dollars were funneled from evangelical churches into Israeli causes regardless of what those causes were. And presidential candidates were vetted based on their stance on Israel. And at the root of all of this is the skull is skull-filled footnotes. This wasn't just theology anymore. This was a foreign policy framework dressed up in religious language. And guys, I know this world very well. I was a part of a ministry for almost a decade that was a champion of the very things that I'm talking about. So there's the tragedy of the exchange here and what we lost in the process was this. Number one, we lost the ability to discern justice. We replaced critical thinking and moral discernment with blind allegiance to any action taken by the state of Israel. And guys, I'm going to be honest with you, when we saw those gross terrorist attacks in Israel just a couple of years ago, guys, as terrible as that was, we have justified the killing of innocent people. And we've made, and this is this is the reality here. We've lost the ability to discern justice. So even in modern day events or recent events that we're seeing take place between Israel and Gaza, we've lost our ability to critically think and we've lost our moral compass and moral discernment because we have to have blind allegiance to any action taken by the state of Israel. And I'm here to tell you, friend, that is wrong. Secondly, we've lost our prophetic edge. Instead of speaking truth to all nations, including Israel, we become court prophets blessing empire instead of calling nations to repentance. When that leads to us losing the gospel of reconciliation, guys, Jesus tore down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. That's in Ephesians 2:14. But then Christian Zionism rebuilt that dividing wall. And fourthly, we've lost our global perspective. Instead of John 3, 16, for God so loved the whole world, we fixated on one small plot of land as the centerpiece of God's eternal plan. And this is what happens when political agendas become sacred. This is what happens when geopolitical maps replace the mission of Jesus. Now, let's be clear, we're not talking about anti-Semitism. We're talking about adultery. Christian Zionism has turned the modern nation state of Israel into a golden calf demanding loyalty, praise, and offerings. And it's done so at the expense of our witness to Arab believers. Our understanding of the true Israel, if you want to look that up, Romans 9 verse 6 through 8. And our responsibility that the Apostle Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 20, to be ministers of reconciliation. Here's the truth. The promise was always Christ. Not a flag, not a border, not a military victory. 2 Corinthians 1,20 says, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ." Now, why this still matters? Because today, guys, churches still hold Israel nights while ignoring the suffering of Palestinian Christians. Pastors preach prophecy while never once teaching peacemaking. Millions of Christians are still being told that the gospel requires allegiance to a state instead of surrendering to a king. And the voice of Jesus, the peacemaker, the reconciler, the lamb, gets drowned out by charts, maps, and politics. So let me state something plainly here. You can love the Jewish people without idolizing the state of Israel. You can bless Israel by preaching Christ, the fulfillment of every covenant, not by defending tanks and bombs. You can honor the scriptures without distorting them to fit a political narrative. And you can be a kingdom-first person without being anti-anyone. Guys, I'm telling you, this is something that just blows my mind as we get further down the political slant that we have in this generation, in generations prior to us. Guys, we have become, we say that we're kingdom people, but we've become anti-anybody that's not our race, anybody that's different from our political views. We become anti-everything else except for our crew. And I'm telling you, guys, that's not the way of Jesus. You can be kingdom-first without being anti-anyone. And most of all, you can reject the theology of Skolfield without rejecting the God of Abraham, because the true seed of Abraham is not a nation state. Galatians 3.29 says this, "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Okay? So let's just make that plain. Now, let's talk about the fruit of this fear-based eschatology and political adultery, because Jesus made it plain in Matthew 7.16 when He said, "You will know them by their fruits." So let's look at the fruit of Skolfield's theology. Let's examine what dispensationalism has produced in the body of Christ, not just in doctrine, but in culture, worldview, and emotional reality. You're ready for the verdict? Fear, retreat, division, and worst of all paralysis. At the heart of dispensationalism is a certain kind of fear. Not the reverent fear of the Lord, not the awe that leads to wisdom, but the fear of collapse, the fear of evil, the fear of "the end." It's the theology that teaches the world is going to get worse and worse. The anti-Christ is probably alive right now waiting to take over. Don't waste your time fixing culture. It's all going to burn away. And Jesus is coming back at any moment, so don't get to attach to anything here. And guys, this creates a bunker mentality. Believers stop building. They stop dreaming. They stop innovating. They stop engaging. They live on red alert, reading the news like tea leaves, watching for signs of the end, instead of walking in the authority of a new beginning. And here's the tragedy, guys. A theology rooted in fear cannot produce courageous people. I'll tell you what it does. It raises up conspiracy theorists instead of reformers, timid believers instead of kingdom architects, cynics who preach escape instead of sons who preach dominion. And it's everywhere. Entire ministries are built on prophecy speculation and end time hysteria. Churches host seminars on blood moons and microchips instead of equipping believers for leadership and innovation. And worst of all, millions of Christians have been trained to expect defeat when Jesus has already declared victory. Guys, this theology has taught generations that the Christian life is about survival, not stewardship. I want you to think about it. If the rapture is coming any day, why build a business? If the antichrist is around the corner, why run for office? If the planet's destined for destruction, why care about creation? See, skull-filled theology handed Christians a ticket to heaven, but robbed them of heaven on earth. It robbed them of their inherited on earth. It left us looking up instead of planting roots. It made us spectators instead of stewards. It made us fear the future instead of shaping it. But here's the truth. Psalm 24 verse 1 says, "The earth is the lords and the fullness thereof. Not the devils, not the antichrist, not the elites. The earth belongs to God, and He has entrusted it to us. And you weren't saved just to survive. You were saved to govern." And now we come to the deeper infection. Dispensationism doesn't just teach fear. It taught us to baptize politics with prophetic language. Because once your theology says that the modern state of Israel is central to God's plan, and once your theology says that certain political events must happen before Jesus can return, you've created a dangerous formula. Political allegiance plus biblical language equals idolatry in the name of Jesus. Now, let me show you how this plays out. First, Christians defend war because it fulfills prophecy. Christians vote not based on kingdom values, but on which candidate will bless Israel. Christians equate disagreement with national policy as rebellion against God. And here's the greatest irony of it all. We've been so busy watching for the antichrist that we don't notice how many pulpits have already bowed to its empire. So let me be clear, Jesus didn't come to endorse a political regime. He came to inaugurate a kingdom. And when you fear the future, you stop creating. When you idolize politics, you stop discerning. When you view the gospel through the lens of dispensationism, you stop seeing the kingdom that is already here and coming. And slowly, but surely, prophetic imagination dies. Cultural engagement dries up. An apostolic advancement disappears. The church becomes a scared, silent and powerless institution desperate to escape instead of destined to transform. And here's what dispensation ism never told you. The real enemy of the church is not the antichrist. It's unbelief. Not in the return of Jesus, but in the victory he's already secured. Because here's what your Bible actually says, Matthew 28, 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me. That's the words of Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 25, Paul says, Jesus must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet. And then he will come and deal with the last enemy, which is death. Well, friends, who then, if God must remain, if Jesus must remain in heaven and he must reign until all of his enemies have been put under his feet, who's supposed to put those enemies under his feet? We are. And I'm not talking about through war. I'm talking about through kindness, goodness, peacemaking, anybody ever heard of the sermon on the Mount. And it says in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 7, and of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. Friend, that doesn't sound like defeat. That doesn't sound like retreat. That sounds like advancement. Guys, let's get honest. We've been discipled more by skull-filled than by scripture. We've traded the hope of the gospel for the fear of the future. We've allowed a man-made system to hijack the mind of Christ. But guess what, guys, we don't have to stay there. Because fear is a liar. And Jesus didn't raise up sons and daughters to hide. He raised up builders. He raised up ambassadors. He raised up overcomers. And that's what we're reclaiming starting now. So what now? After all, we've just unpacked the manipulation of theology, the infiltration of politics, the fruit of fear, which has caused the paralysis of the church. So where do we go from? The answer isn't just in deconstruction. So many people are doing this right now. You can't stop with deconstruction. You can't stop with just repenting of the bad. The answer is in rediscovering what the early church already knew. It's time to rebuild on the foundation of the gospel of the kingdom. It's time to reclaim what Jesus actually came to announce. And it starts with one revolutionary truth. Jesus is not coming back for a defeated church. He's coming back for a glorious bride, a victorious church, a kingdom that has been advancing all along and one that cannot be shaken. So let's define it clearly. Victorious eschatology is what we're after. And you may be asking, what is victorious eschatology? Well, it means this. Jesus has already defeated sin, death, and the powers of darkness. It means that his kingdom was inaugurated at his resurrection and is expanding right now. It means that the church is not waiting to escape but called to disciple nations. It means that the world is not destined to spiral into destruction. It's destined to be restored through Christ's finished work and we as his ministers of reconciliation. Guys, this is not "positive thinking." This is historic Christianity, the kind the early church lived and listened to this and died for. Before Skullfield, before dispensationalism, before the rapture charts and timelines, the church believed the future was hopeful because the king was victorious. Guys, dispensationalism treats the cross like a comma, like an interruption, a holding pattern, until God can "really get back to business." But the early church saw the cross as the climax of the ages. When Jesus cried out, it is finished. He wasn't starting a countdown to destruction. He was launching a new creation reality. He was dismantling the old age. He was disarming the powers. He was declaring an open invitation for every tribe and tongue to enter into his reign. And his resurrection wasn't just proof of personal salvation. It was a public declaration. The kingdom has come. The king reigns now. Jesus didn't say, "Wait until I return for things to get better." He said in Matthew 13, 33, "The kingdom of God is like yeast that works its way through the entire dough." He said in Matthew 13, two verses right before the one I just read, "The kingdom's like a mustard seed, the smallest seed that becomes the biggest tree." And again, in Isaiah 9, 7, he said, "Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end." Guys, this doesn't sound like retreat. That sounds like relentless growth. It's slow. It's underground. It's sometimes hidden, but it's real, and it's global, and it's working right now. And if you're in Christ, you are not a victim of history. You're a co-air, a reformer, a wise builder. You don't need to fear the future because you're called to shape it. You don't have to panic over politics because you operate from a higher government. And you don't need to escape because you've been empowered by the same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. The prophet Habakkuk said in chapter 2 verse 14, "The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters do cover the sea." Guys, that's not a wish. That's a prophetic guarantee. So let's get really practical here. This shift in eschatology isn't just about theology. It affects your life's direction. If you believe the world's getting worse, you won't invest in anything long-term. If you believe the kingdom is expanding, your plant roots, your race families, and you'll build for the next generation. If you believe your business is just temporary income, your cut corners. But if you believe your kingdom or your business is a kingdom expression, you'll steward it with excellence and legacy in mind. Friend, we need believers who are done with escapism and ready for engagement. We need entrepreneurs who build with legacy in mind. We need politicians who carry justice like Joseph and Daniel. We need artists and storytellers who prophesy beauty into broken culture. We need parents who raise children like arrows and not liabilities. We need pastors and church leaders who equip saints for dominion, not just mere survival. We need people who actually believe the words that Jesus said in Matthew 28, 18 through 19, that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him and therefore go and make disciples of all nations. It didn't say convert individuals, it said disciple nations. And guys, anything less than a victorious view of Christ's kingdom is a betrayal of the resurrection. If Jesus reigns now, if he crushed the serpent's head, if he disarmed principalities, if he gave you the spirit of the living God, then why would we believe the devil gets to finish the story? Guys, we've read it. It's right there at the very end of the book, Revelation 11, 15, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever. So here's the real question. If we stopped waiting for the escape hatch and started building for increase, what could we restore? What could we redeem? What could we resurrect? So I want to jump into a final challenge here. By now, you've probably felt it, that uncomfortable tension, that holy disruption in your thinking, that ache in your chest when you realize you've been handed a version of the gospel that Jesus never preached. I want you to let that sink in. If we've been handed a theology that produces fear instead of faith, let me say it this way, if we've been handed a theology that produces fear instead of love, if we've been discipled by systems instead of scripture, if we've traded our inheritance for someone else's footnotes, then we have to do more than just wake up. We have to tear that stuff down. So I want to give you some practical steps here. First thing is, we've got to deconstruct the blueprint of bondage. We've got to repent from this blueprint of bondage. Some of us were raised in churches that spent more time studying end time charts than the sermon on the mount. Some of us were taught the kingdom of God was on pause until Jesus returned with a political solution. Some of us were warned that caring about the earth, the nations and justice was a distraction from the real goal evacuation. But let me say it clearly, you cannot build the future with the blueprint of bondage. You cannot build the kingdom, you cannot build kingdom culture on fear-based eschatology. You cannot raise kids, kingdom kids with rapture anxiety. You cannot create generational wealth with a poverty mindset that's rooted in poor theology. And we certainly cannot disciple nations when you've been told not to get involved. So here's what we must do. Repent. But not in the trendy rebellious deconstruct your faithway. We're not throwing out Jesus. We're throwing out the lies that kept us from Him. We're tearing down the adultery of Skullfield's notes, the false dualism that says heaven matters and earth doesn't. This scapehism that told you to hold on instead of take ground. And we're tearing down the fear that paralyzed your calling. Step number two, we've got to rebuild on the foundation of the kingdom. Once we deconstruct the lie, we must rebuild with truth. And here's the truth. Jesus Christ is King now. His kingdom is advancing now. And you were born to build it now. The future of the church is not about surviving until Jesus shows up to rescue us. The future of the church is about sons and daughters who partner with the Spirit of God to create with heaven's blueprints, to build with heaven's wisdom, to govern with heaven's heart, to occupy with God's authority. That's your assignment. That's the invitation. And guys, another practical step here, we've got to answer the builder's call. The question now is simple. Will you answer the call? Will you stop waiting for something supernatural to fall out of the sky and realize that the supernatural revival outpouring of the Spirit begins in you? Guys, will you stop hoping for rescue and start building something that rescues others? Will you stop defending a political system and start demonstrating a spiritual kingdom? Because here's what I believe with all of my heart. We are living in the age of the builder. And God is calling people like you to build homes filled with glory, not fear, build businesses that overflow with wealth and justice, build media that tells redemptive stories, build schools that raise reformers, not robots, build communities that reflect heaven, not empire. Guys, you don't need permission. You already have the commission, go, make disciples of nations, teach them everything that Jesus commanded. And Jesus' promise is, I am with you always. Guys, you were born for this. You weren't born to be a prophecy junkie. You weren't born to anxiously scroll headlines in decode blood moons. You weren't born to hide in the church basement and wait for the trumpet to sound. You were born to be a wise builder. One who hears the words of Jesus and puts them into practice. Guys, you were born to take territory. You were born to redeem systems, multiply talent, raise sons and daughters, leave a legacy, shine in Babylon, build in Goshen. Let me say this. I said just a minute ago, rebuild systems. I think, first of all, we've got to completely deconstruct the old ones. And then we've got to set up structures, blueprints that are for this day, for this age and for this hour. Guys, it's time to reimagine the church, not as a rescue center, but as a government center. It's time to reimagine your life, not as a waiting room for heaven, but as a construction site for the kingdom. It's time to repent, not just from sin, but from small thinking. It's time to build with fire in your bones, with wisdom in your spirit and with the king's name on your plans. Now, let me interrupt this episode here towards the end to ask you something important. What if the wisdom and experience God has given you is the key to building real wealth, impact and legacy? And guys, that's exactly why I created the wise builders business community. It's for faith, field, nine to five years and purpose driven leaders who are ready to build a personal brand, launch digital products and scale a business to $10,000 a month and beyond. And guys, you can do this without burnout, without compromise and without waiting for someone else to validate you. If you're ready to build, and I mean really build, then I want you to book a strategy call with me. Guys, we're going to talk about your goals, your calling and whether wise builders is the right next step. All you have to do is tap the link in the show notes below. Remember, you were born to build, and I'd love to do it with you. Love to show you how to do it. Be great. Now, you've made it to the end. And if you're still here, I believe because it's because something inside of you refuses to stay in bondage to bad theology. You're hungry for truth. You're not just tired of religion. You're ready to rebuild. And maybe for the first time in your life, you're realizing that much of what you were taught about the future was never actually kingdom. Maybe today, you're waking up to the fact that God isn't panicking about the world. He's inviting sons and daughters to govern it with him. And maybe, just maybe, you're starting to fill the hammer in your hand again. Because this is what builders do. They tear down the old. They clear out the rubble. They count the cost and they lay a foundation that lasts. Psalm 127 verse four or verse one says, unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor and vain. But when the Lord builds it through people like you, it lasts for generations. So here's my final word for this episode. Don't let fear right your future. Don't let Scofield shape your story. Don't let timelines still your time. Build something that reflects the rule and reign of Jesus right here right now, because that's what you were born for. You were not born for evacuation. You were born for expansion. You were not born for survival. You were born for dominion. You were not born to study in times. You were born to initiate new beginnings. Guys, if today's episode stirred something in you, would you do two things for me? Number one, share this with someone who needs it. Text it to a friend. Post it in your group chat. Send it to that pastor who's still preaching doom and gloom. Well, maybe you shouldn't. I don't know. But let's spread this message like wildfire. Secondly, if you're ready to build a digital business, create wealth with your wisdom. Get out of the nine to nine to five grind while advancing the kingdom. I want to help you. So book a book a call with me. All you have to do again is tap the link in the show notes below. We'll talk. We'll pray. We'll plan and we'll build together. Guys, this has been the Mark Kastow program where we don't just talk reformation. We live it until next time. Remember, you weren't called to survive the end. I'll catch you in the next episode.