Audience relevance is an important consideration when dealing with the interpretation of any text. This is especially true when interpreting prophecy. Who’s the intended audience? This is especially true when interpreting Matthew 24. The use of the second person plural (you) unmistakably applies to those in Jesus’ audience. We know this because there is an audience: “And Jesus came out from the te [...]
Gary continues discussing Pastor MacArthur’s recent comments about Christian Nationalism. Does the Bible forbid Christians from being involved in politics? It would be a hard case to prove since there are numerous books of the Bible that are filled with politics—from Joshua, Judges, and 1 and 2 Samuel to 1 and 2 Kings and the Old Testament Prophets. King David is confronted by Nathan the Pro [...]
Last Sunday’s sermon (3/10/2024) at our church was from Mark 15. Verse 21 caught my attention: “They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.” Biblical skeptics call for historical proof that Jesus existed and that the NT record is authentic. Many of these critics contend that the Gospels were written very lat [...]
Gary begins discussing recent comments made by John MacArthur about Christian Nationalism, but he takes time to set up the full context. Many wonder why Jesus did not say more about the individual’s responsibility to civil authorities. (He said more than most people realize.) Why did Jesus not advocate the overthrow of the Roman regime? Why did Jesus not establish a system of civil government for [...]
What does cannibalism have to do with abortion? More than you might think. Michael Dowd, a minister and author of the book Thank God for Evolution!: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World, writes the following in his recently published article “Thank God for the New Atheists”: Let the story of evolution be told in ways that engender familial love and gratit [...]
Pastor John MacArthur denounced Christian nationalism insofar as it is defined as an attempt to usher in the Kingdom of God on Earth through political means. “There is no such thing as Christian nationalism,” MacArthur said during a question-and-answer period last month at Grace Community Church in Los Angeles. “The Kingdom of God is not of this world. Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. [...]
Ray Kroc, founder of the McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain wrote the following in his book Grinding it Out: “I believe in God, family and McDonald’s—and in the office, that order is reversed. If you are running a hundred-yard dash, you aren’t thinking about God while you’re running. Not if you hope to win. Your mind is on the race. My race is McDonald’s.”[1] Kroc’s statement reminds me of the [...]
Gary responds to a podcast episode where a biblical scholar reinterprets Paul as being purely “heavenly-minded.” Old Testament Israel was Yahweh’s chosen means to bring salvation to the Gentile nations of the world. Not understanding this principle gets us off track. People think that eschatology, because of the influence of the historic creeds of the Church and of the various systemat [...]
Gary brings up a recent news article about certain Democrats pitching a fit over a Christian pastor praying for “repentance for our national sins.” Jesus testified that He had “spoken openly to the world” (John 18:20). Since He had done “nothing in secret” (v. 20), Jesus asked where the witnesses were to accuse Him: “If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness of the wrong” (John 18:23; cf. [...]
Ron Rhodes appeals to Revelation 3:10 to support the pre-trib rapture view in his book Bible Prophecy Under Siege. (See Parts One and Two) Here’s what he has to say in support of his view: This verse reveals that church saints will be kept from the actual time period of testing, not just the testing itself…. That Revelation 3:10 refers to a rapture before this future period of worldwide testing is [...]
Keeping people dumb and ignorant is the plan, and it’s working. Teach children about sexual fluidity but not logic, history, economics, and a nation can be transformed without ever firing a shot. No internment camps or Gulags are necessary. Cutting young people off from the past in government schools and social media makes them ripe to be propagandized with a new history. Debates aren’t allowed. I [...]
Gary discusses a video from Christian apologist Frank Turek about Matthew 16:27-28 and Matthew 24. In Matthew 16:27-28, Jesus says, “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then recompense every man according to his doing. Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming [...]
Gary interacts with Ron Rhodes new book, Bible Prophecy Under Siege. In his best-selling book Misquoting Jesus, New Testament critic and skeptic Bart Ehrman, who is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, describes how he struggled to reconcile what he had been taught about the inerrancy of the Bible with what he believed to be pred [...]
(Note: This is Part Two of a series) I grew up in the Pittsburgh area with a very large extended family. My mother was one of twelve and my father was one of eleven children. Both sets of grandparents lived nearby, and we visited them often. We were closer to my mother’s side of the family because they lived closer. After a get together with some of the family, this statement was made by two of my [...]
Gary answers a listener’s question about how Luke 17 differs from Luke 21, and how both chapters relate to Matthew 24 and the events spoken of by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse Bahnsen and Gentry argue, along with many others, that verse 35 refers to the physical heaven and earth while I and others believe it refers to the making and breaking of the covenant relationship with Israel (e.g., Is [...]
Gary interviews his longtime friend, Kirk Cameron, about how he came to embrace a new view of Christianity and the world. One of the reasons we are in this cultural and political mess is partly due to a misunderstanding of particular prophetic texts that claim to teach that the “rapture of the church” is inevitably near (for 2000 years?). Why do battle when “the Antichrist” is inevitably going to [...]
(Note: This is the first part of a series) In 2019 I wrote a review and critique of Ron Rhodes’ book Jesus and the End Times titled “Repetitive Prophecy Books Keep Getting It Wrong.” I’ll be including it in my upcoming book Prophecy Wars. Rhodes’ latest book from Harvest House is Bible Prophecy Under Siege: Responding Biblically to Confusion About the End Times. It’s mostly a defense of pretribula [...]
Gary responds to recent comments that people have made claiming that Jesus is not currently reigning. The Church, and therefore the world (the nations) as a whole, for centuries now, have suffered quite badly from what is surely an “under-realized” eschatology! The many explicit eschatological (preterist) time markers all through the NT either have been ignored or just flat-out denied by the incre [...]
When a person loses hope and does not see meaning in this life, inevitable consequences follow. Giving up on life is the result of life having no meaning. Why bother if we are nothing but a conglomeration of atoms and molecules animated by an electrical charge? There’s no meaning in that. How does a civilization survive and grow when previous generations strip life of meaning. A life without meani [...]
Gary responds to comments made at an event with Todd Friel and several others about “dominionism” (with requisite scare quotes). Of all the complaints which are brought against Reconstructionism in Dominion Theology, by far the most strained and scurrilous is the argument that the position, although innocent of some fault, is nonetheless guilty because it might lead to that fault. Over [...]
