Gary briefly discusses the four major interpretive approaches to the book of Revelation. Revelation uses many Old Testament symbols: eating scrolls, beasts, marks on the forehead, gold, thrones, sun, moon, stars, candlesticks, Balaam, Jezebel, dragon, Gog and Magog, Sodom, Egypt, and Babylon. It’s unlikely that Old Testament references to people and places appeared either in John’s day, or will ap [...]

Gary begins a short lesson on the four views of the book of Revelation. Political tyranny and religious apostasy are not necessarily signs of impending eschatological destruction. They, too, have been with us since the Fall. The light of the gospel was nearly extinguished as the church approached the sixteenth century. Few could ever have predicted what was about to happen, not only in terms of Ch [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 109 Gary responds to a critic who challenges his interpretation of “this generation” in Matthew’s gospel. In Matthew 24:33, the word “you” (plural) is used twice: “so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize [lit. know] that He is near, right at the door.” Who does Jesus say will see “all these things”? Certainly not a future [...]

Gary continues his lesson on hermeneutics by looking briefly at the context and time words that bookend the book of Revelation. The past fulfillment of most of the prophecies in Revelation 4-19 is compellingly suggested by the various time indicators contained in its less symbolic, more didactic introduction and conclusion. Revelation 1:1 opens the prophecies of Revelation and prepares the reader [...]

Gary begins a short course on hermeneutics—the art and practice of interpretation—on today’s podcast. The Bible can be an intimidating book, but it doesn’t have to be. We must be like the Bereans who examined “the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Too often, Christians rely on so-called Bible experts and complicated charts that include gaps in time, ou [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 108 Gary concludes his response to Ayo, who had questions about preterism and decided to return to dispensationalism. God’s presence was a sign of blessing because of Israel’s special covenantal status (Isa. 55:3; Jer. 1:19) and His departure was a sign of judgment, neither of which were physical. For the nations, God’s presence was a sign of judgment be [...]

Gary concludes his interview with Pastor Greg Chacon by dealing with questions about prophetic systems that have to add to the finished work of Christ. People who get caught up in the latest end-time speculative prophecy story either have short memories of past predictions or no knowledge at all. Without having all the facts or a worksheet of past failed prophetic claims, it’s not hard to convince [...]

Gary continues his interview with Pastor Greg Chacon about biblical interpretation and application. I would like to know why it’s “boasting against the branches” (Rom. 11:18), as my letter-writing critic maintained, to question the basic assumptions of dispensationalism. Such a specious argument is typical of some dispensationalists who find it difficult to represent non-dispensational views accur [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 107 Gary concludes his initial response to Ayo, who claims to have left preterism for dispensationalism. John was a “fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance in Jesus” (Rev. 1:9; see 2 Thess. 1:4). The church at Smyrna was experiencing a “tribulation” that Jesus knew about (Rev. 2:9). This tribulation period is in our past. The tim [...]

Gary continues his discussion with Pastor Greg Chacon about biblical interpretation. God’s promises to Israel are not in doubt, but to maintain that they have been postponed for nearly 2,000 years only to be realized when Israel encounters another holocaust when two-thirds of the Jews living in Israel will be slaughtered and only a remnant saved, is not an answer to the claim “that God is finished [...]

Gary is interviewed by Pastor Greg Chacon about eschatology and how dispensationalism has influenced prophetic interpretations. The Bible requires that Christians “always [be] ready to make a defense to everyone who asks [us] to give an account for the hope” that is in us, “yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15). We are to be “ready in season and out of season; [to] reprove, rebuke, exh [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 106 Gary begins a response to an individual who says he left partial preterism for dispensationalism. What did the church in Philadelphia think Jesus meant when He told them, “I am coming soon [ταχύς]; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown”? (Rev. 3:11) Who is Jesus addressing? A local church in Asia Minor. He told them to “hold fa [...]

Gary continues his comments on a recent interview with author and apologist Frank Turek. He talks about worldview, culture, history, and “Grape Juice Christianity.” During my talk that morning, after describing how Christians might teach on Paul’s actions after he was beaten and imprisoned by the Roman government in Acts 16 as “Grape Juice Christianity” that grape juice does not burst [...]

Gary discusses a recent interview in World magazine with author and apologist Frank Turek. The assumption that all existence-claims are questions about matters of fact are all answered in the very same way is not merely oversimplified and misleading—it is simply mistaken. The existence, factuality, or reality of different kinds of things is not established or disconfirmed in the same way in every [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 105 Gary dismantles a popular end-time belief, exemplified to an extreme in a Facebook video, about the Earth being burned to a cinder in the end in order to be remade. The language of 2 Peter 3 is certainly apocalyptic and world ending, but is Peter describing the end of the space time universe as we generally conceive it or is he describing the end of [...]

Gary discusses the conference that is being planned for next year in Franklin, Tennessee. If Jesus’ kingdom is “not of this world,” so the argument goes, then how can Christians claim to have a responsibility to be involved in kingdom work? Since God’s kingdom is exclusively in the future and in heaven, as some assert, there can be no earthly manifestation of God’s works other than redeeming the l [...]

Gary discusses some arguments people are raising online against trying to reform our current system of government. God did not reserve His commandments for just the nation Israel and the church. Scripture makes it clear that all kings in Israel should copy the law in the presence of the Levitical priests so the rulers would be careful to observe every word of the law (Deuteronomy 17:18-19). Even n [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 104 Gary does a deep dive on the absence of a seven-year period discussed in the New Testament, which is crucial for many end-time theories. Could God have placed a “gap” between the sixty-ninth and seventieth years of Israel’s captivity, adding, say, a hundred years and still maintain that He had kept His word? There is no way He could have done it and [...]

Gary responds to a comment made by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch about the “American Creed.” The concept of jurisdictional boundaries and limitations is not new to our time. God established property and moral boundaries when He instructed Adam and Eve not to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). From beginning to end the law is a code of boundary l [...]

Gary discusses three recent items that address the ideas of the intellectual “elites” who believe they know how to understand and fix the world. The long-term consequences of brains, bodies, and babies are that in the end we are nothing more than meat machines that have no intrinsic value. If this is so, and science tells us it is so, then in the future there will never be a valid mora [...]