The following is an introduction to an 80-page discussion dealing with controversies regarding preterism. It’s not designed as a published work. It’s more of an accumulation of material to help people work through the debate. It goes along with two abbreviated talks I gave at Berean Bible Church’s conference “How Shall We Then Live?” You can read and/or download a copy of the 80-page study here. * [...]

We take book publishing for granted. Today, anyone can be a published author. In fact, you don’t have to print a book to make it available to people. Electronic “printing” by way of eBooks and PDFs (Portable Document Format) can send information around the world without the need of ink and paper. Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1398-1468) Publishing was not always this easy. Gutenberg’s “introduction of me [...]

John Nelson Darby, the founder of dispensational premillennialism and the pre-tribulational “rapture” of the church doctrine, the basis of The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) and the multivolume Left Behind prophecy series, taught that “the imminent return of Christ ‘totally forbids all working for earthly objects distant in time.’”[1] This would have included the study of mathematics, medicine, ar [...]

Not long ago, I received an email from a woman who asked me if I could direct her to some information that refutes Gnosticism. She wrote that a friend of hers “claims to be on an extraordinarily intense spiritual ‘pilgrimage’ of ‘really pressing in to know God intimately’—but this guy has in effect divorced himself from the material world and from all relationships (including his wife and 10 child [...]

I love reading older commentaries that have not been tainted by elements of dispensationalism and where the authors had the freedom to publish their works without being shunned or denounced. Lightfoot is hard to go up against since his academic bona fides are difficult to question. Lightfoot was one of the original members of the Westminster Assembly that produced the Westminster Standards. His be [...]

“Compassion and humanity are virtues peculiar to the righteous and to the worshippers of God. Philosophy teaches us nothing of them.” — Lactantius (c. 240–c. 320), Divinae institutiones Literature is often a signpost for where we are in our worldview thinking. It’s not that everybody who reads the latest popular novel holds to what an author is expressing, but popular literature can tell us someth [...]

Since I’ve been studying eschatology, there has been a great deal of pushback. First it came from dispensationalists. This was expected since it’s where I spent most of my time and effort. It’s the dominant view today. In fact, it’s dominated the prophetic landscape for nearly 200 years. End-time thinking, and prophetic prognostication goes back further as Francis X. Gumerlock demonstrates in his [...]

A Christian teacher has been fired after claiming on social media that “homosexuality is invading the church.” This prompted Cliff College in Derbyshire to suspend the lecturer. The officials allegedly threatening “to report him to UK counter-terror police over his views.” (Breitbart) These types of incidents are becoming commonplace. Aaron Edwards is right. Many churches and religious leaders hav [...]

One of the few chapel messages I remember from my seminary days was delivered by Dr. Jack Scott. He began by outlining all the supposed orthodox statements made by Job’s “friends.” He then asked: “Right or wrong?” Not waiting for a response, he nearly shouted, “Wrong!” Some of the comments I’ve received in emails, private messages, and on Facebook come from “miserable comforters.” Eliphaz, Bildad, [...]

I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church. My Catholic upbringing included Catholic school through the fifth grade and serving as an altar boy through my teen years. My first dose of a foreign language was Latin, a prerequisite if you were an altar boy in the 1950s and 1960s. After becoming a Christian in 1973, I began to question several Catholic doctrines based on the Bible. It was sola scriptur [...]

“The Thing’s shifty scientist, Carrington, helps to keep the ‘super-carrot’ alive, hiding it from the military men who want to destroy it. According to him, ‘There are no enemies in science … only phenomena to study’, and he is awed by the creature’s evolutionary perfection: ‘No pain or pleasure as we know it. No emotions. No heart. Our superior … in every way’, although the compliment isn’t retur [...]

The claim has been made that “Gary DeMar has changed his eschatological beliefs” or that he’s been “bewitched.” Not so. These types of comments show how desperate some people are to avoid answering the hard questions. The questions I was asking in 1998 are the same ones I’m asking today (see below). The difference is that I have studied the topic in greater detail, but the original questions and t [...]

In a conference a few years ago, I emphasized the importance of biblical optimism during attacks, persecution, and the advance of secularism. Young people need to believe there is a future waiting for them, that not everything is gloom and doom and escapism. To be overly preoccupied with the future at the expense of the present is to replace discipleship with dreaming. God, the source of all hope, [...]

Listen to the podcast on this topic here The Asbury Revival and the release of the film The Jesus Revolution have gotten a lot of media attention. The reviews of the Jesus Revolution have been good. With Kelsey Grammar, fortunately replaced Jim Gaffigan, playing Chuck Smith (1927-2013), it should be good in terms of production value. Here’s the storyline: Inspired by a true movement, JESUS REVOLUT [...]

The enemies of the truth are always awfully nice. Truth is the strong compost in which beauty may sometimes germinate. — Christopher Morley (1890-1957) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) said the following about the $20 million spent on the “He gets Us” campaign: “Something tells me Jesus would not spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign.” Huh? Does she have any idea wh [...]

A post on a Facebook page has an interesting discussion on Luke 17 and its relationship to Matthew 24-25 and Greg L. Bahnsen’s view of that relationship. Dr. Bahnsen took the view that Luke 17:22-37 refers to the Second Coming while Matthew 24:1-34 refers to the judgment on Jerusalem that took place before that first-century generation passed away (24:34). Kenneth Gentry agrees with Dr. Bahnsen. K [...]

The Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed describe God as “Creator of heaven and earth”/ “Maker of heaven and earth.” Nothing is said about the age of the earth. The Westminster Confession of Faith states the following, but does not say anything about how old the earth is: It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, [...]

“Intelligence analysts and the chief counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Richmond, Virginia field office are concerned ‘radical-traditionalist Catholics’ are a threat to our democracy and could be ripe for recruitment by white supremacists.” What are the red flags? • Homeschooling • Meeting Every Sunday with Other People Who Want Good Lives • Pro-Life and Anti-LGBT+ Look what the DOJ [...]

(The following is the preface to a new edition of Left Behind: Separating Fact from Fiction. The book is currently in production and will be available in print next month.) I thought we were done with the Left Behind film franchise that started in 2000 with Kirk Cameron who played Buck Williams in three films, a television journalist investigating the sudden disappearances of millions of people. L [...]

There’s a debate going on about the translation of the Greek word mellō. Depending on the context, mellō can mean “about to” and “on the point of being done.” At times mellō is not translated and has the meaning of “necessity.” By reading some (most?) translations, the reader unfamiliar with Greek would never know mellō is used in some passages since it is often untranslated. For example, in Revel [...]