This is the third installment of a three-part exchange I had with a man who disagreed with me on certain prophecy topics. Here are parts one and two. GDD: Your claim that “both sides will not change their view” is off the mark. Many people have changed their views after studying preterist works. I changed my view after reading J. Marcellus Kik’s commentary on Matthew 24. Many hav [...]

Graeme Codrington grew up in the conservative Baptist context of South Africa and graduated from the Baptist Union Seminary in Johannesburg. For a number of years, he has championed same-sex marriage while identifying himself as an evangelical Christian. Codrington wrote the following as a defense of same-sex sexuality after his debate with James White that took place in South Africa. James White [...]

Facts do not come with interpretation tags, telling us how to view them. . . . Both sides haggle over the facts. Both sides search for new facts to add to their arsenals. Both sides raise accusations, yet it’s a rare day indeed when both sides acknowledge that their differences stem from something much more basic than facts. Their differences are rooted in opposing worldviews, which in turn are pe [...]

After posting my article “Prophecy Writers Making Predictions Again,” it got quite a few comments. One particular commenter (TDS) was very frustrating to deal with because he refused to acknowledge facts that are not in dispute. This is not unusual. Facts don’t speak for themselves. They are always interpreted. I often see Christians going to extraordinary lengths to hold onto a prophetic system e [...]

Bernie Sanders tweeted the following: Fossil fuel executives should be criminally prosecuted for the destruction they have knowingly caused. Bernie should take the time to investigate how many lives have been saved as a result of fossil fuels. The automobile eliminated horse pollution. Can you imagine what our streets and highways would be like if we were still using horses or transportation? See [...]

I received Ron Rhodes’ new book New Babylon Rising: The Emerging End Times World Order the other day. Rhodes seems to be the go-to guy when it comes to prophetic speculation of the dispensational premillennial variety. I’ve dealt with some of them here and here. In 2010, Rhodes wrote The Coming Oil Storm: The Imminent End of Oil … and Its Strategic Global Role in End-Time Prophecy. The book’s titl [...]

The place to begin to evaluate the assertion that premillennialism was the only view of the early church would be to survey the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, the writings of the early church prior to the drafting of the Nicene Creed in A.D. 325. The thing of it is, we don’t have all the writings or opinions of Christian pastors and/or writers of that era. There were no printing presses, rec [...]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., described the Electoral College a “scam” and claimed that it disenfranchises people of color. “The Electoral College has a racial injustice breakdown,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Due to severe racial disparities in certain states, the Electoral College effectively weighs white voters over voters of color, as opposed to a ‘one per [...]

What present laws would have stopped the latest murder sprees? What about future laws? Red flag laws wouldn’t have stopped any of the shooters, but they might bring a cadre of gun-toting government law enforcement agencies down on your house if you are a conservative blogger. All it takes is some disgruntled Leftist (is there any other kind?) who reports a person he or she considers to be da [...]

Al Mohler has written “Evolving Standards of Decency? How Progressivism Reshapes Society.” My question: “Where were Christians when the Supreme Court codified “evolving standards of decency”? Mohler writes that we share with progressives a belief “in a linear view of history…. We also believe that history doesn’t go forward and backward in time. But we do not believe as Christians that the world i [...]

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” (Psalm 2:2-3) I followed David Horowitz on Chris Arnzen’s “Iron Sharpening Iron Show” on August 14, 2019. Horowitz was interviewed about his book Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian Amer [...]

In his “History of Preterism” in the book The End-Time Controversy, Thomas Ice fails to deal with a number of historical sources that refute his claim that preterism was unknown among the early Church Fathers. In the final analysis, it’s the Bible that counts not the works of non-biblical writers. Even someone like Peter was taken to task for a misreading of the Bible: But when C [...]

While I was visiting my friend Mike Britton (who’s been in a coma for more than a year), I spoke with a man who had been discipled by Mike. He’s been teaching a Bible study on prophecy. We spoke on the phone. He told me about a back-and-forth debate he was having with a friend. His friend would not look at alternative arguments, no matter how authoritative. When he was confronted with some hard fa [...]

Every time there is a crisis or tragedy, there is the usual call for our government to do something. Consider this Facebook post: Guns in our country are a little too sacred. There needs to be something done, hope our leaders can figure it out. By “our leaders,” he meant “The White House, The Senate, The House of Representatives.” My response: What have they fixed? This is [...]

Like a trampled spring and a polluted well Is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked. (Prov. 25:26). One of the things I like about Pres. Trump is that he doesn’t back down in a political fight. For decades I’ve watched Republicans back down over policy issues, and Democrats have taken advantage of the perceived weakness. Democrats know that Republicans will almost always back [...]

There’s no escaping a belief in God. The individual can be a god unto him or herself. “Every person doing what is right in his or her eyes” (Judges 17:6). The problem is, someone with a rock, club, sword, spear, knife, gun, or a nuclear weapon can change all of that. Separating the God of the Bible from the State in its many manifestations makes the State god. “We have no k [...]

London buses were outfitted with the following banner ads: “There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Life.” ((See Gwynne Dyer, “The Atheist Buses” (February 8, 2009).)) The sponsors hoped the postings would get people to question the existence of God: “This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think — and thinking is anathema to religion,” the promoters [...]

If you had to instruct someone on how to interpret the Bible, how would you go about doing it? There are many books on how to interpret the Bible. These books in and of themselves aren’t bad, but the ordinary Christian is not going to spend time taking a hermeneutics course and studying these texts. R.C. Sproul’s primer Knowing Scripture is helpful. I always begin with the Bible itself [...]

In the modern world, then, each Christian is a citizen of two nations: An earthly nation like France, England, or the U.S.A., and the heavenly nation (Eph 2:6; not of this world, John 18:36), the church. Though we belong entirely to Christ, we do not on that account renounce our citizenship in the earthly nations, any more than we leave our earthly families. Indeed, we seek to be good citizens, fo [...]

Never apologize to anyone if you didn’t do anything wrong, especially if you think it will gain you favor in a political dispute. Consider Mario Lopez’s comments about “transgenderism” in a recent interview with conservative pundit Candace Owens: “My God, if you’re three years old and you’re saying you’re feeling a certain way and think you’re a boy or a girl, or whatever the cas [...]