Gary responds to recent article by John Piper, which is an excerpt of his new book, Come, Lord Jesus. The biblical writers are straightforward in their claim that certain prophetic events were to happen “soon” for those who first read the prophecies. The eschatological events were near for them. No other interpretation is possible if the words are taken in their “plain, primary, ordinary, usual, o [...]

(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 [...]

Gary discusses a recent article about artificial intelligence that raises many important points and Gary takes it in several different directions. Marvin Minsky of MIT “believes that humans are nothing but meat machines that carry a computer in their head” also made of meat. Minsky, who is an atheist and works in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), “claimed that people should give their mon [...]

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 [...]

Gary gives several examples of how Christians should do apologetics by “pushing the antithesis.” Instead of beginning with the bits and pieces of a worldview (evidences for this or that doctrine, or this or that god), the starting point is more fixed and fundamental. “Thus, when all is said and done,” Dr. Bahnsen makes clear to us, “apologetics becomes the vindication of the Christian [...]

What do the 1949 movie “Adam’s Rib” and transgender sports have in common? Find out on today’s podcast. The transgender chickens are coming home to roost. It’s no longer just bathrooms. Sports are being affected by the fiction of transgenderism. If a boy identifies as a girl, then why can’t he/she compete with girls in basketball, softball, or track and field? Given “transg [...]

This is some of the exchange that followed with my response: Satori Kane: Seams if you never read a book, you can claim whatever you want about it. “So maybe actually read the thing before you start quoting from it.” Brian Le Flem: Quoting from what? The Bible? If so, then please tell me the exact passage where Jesus spoke about homosexuality Joseph Salluce: Think not that I am come to destroy the [...]

Gary participated in a round-table discussion recently about Christian worldview and cultural response. Too many Christians believe that what they believe personally has no bearing on the political sphere. It was one of the reasons that often Christians opposed slavery personally but did not oppose it politically. They believed there were two standards—one for the Church and one for the State. The [...]

John Wycliffe of Oxford University produced the first hand-written translation of the New Testament into English in the 14th Century, he wrote in the preface: “The Bible is given for the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” The Bible was not given only for religious people of a particular theological persuasion; it was designed to be a standard for everyone and every gover [...]

To deny the validity of the many governments and the responsibilities that each has under God, would be to deny the authority that belongs to each of them in their designated realm of activity. If we as individuals neglect our personal governing duties, then we can expect the State to assume the role of all other legitimate governments and claim to be the sole government, while labeling all others [...]

Gary discusses several principles from his book God and Government to a class of homeschoolers. A brief survey of the Bible and its principles will show that it has directives for all areas of life. Does this, however, include civil government? Is God as concerned about the structure and principles of political systems as He is about families? Or, has God left the area of political systems for man [...]

Gary answers a listener question about the difference between how the word “age” is understood in Matthew 13 and Matthew 24. Typically, the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13 is often understood as describing the full course of redemptive history leading to the end of our world. It seems, however, that everything in Matthew’s Gospel — from fleeing the wrath that was “abou [...]

Speech is not free in the sense of being without cost; it’s free (at least theoretically) in the sense of being without restraint. What you don’t know can kill you, and in the case of ignorance about our nation’s founding document, it can turn you into a slave to the State. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution because the states were not satisfied with the claim that the Constitution w [...]

Gary answers a listener question about resources that best represent and present the dispensational premillennial position. In order to understand a thing aright, it is always helpful to seek to understand its purpose according to its designer and builder. Eschatology is a theological discipline that is concerned with discovering the divinely revealed, long range purpose of the world and of histor [...]

(This is Part Two. Part One is here.) For many dispensationalists and now some preterists, law in the Old Testament is “Jewish law.” In Dallas Theological Seminary’s scholarly journal, Bibliotheca Sacra, S. Lewis Johnson, a former professor at the seminary, argued that the Ten Commandments should not be a part of the Christian’s ethical life. He wrote the following: Donald Grey Barnhouse, a giant [...]

Gary continues his discussion of the 10 Commandments and whether they are applicable to Christians today. Since God’s law is a transcript of His personal character, it cannot change, any more than God can change. Jesus makes this point in Matthew 5:17-19: “Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill (or, put into force). For tr [...]

The Ten Commandments are under attack, and not only by religious skeptics like Ted Turner who at the National Press Association in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1988, said the following: “We’re living with outmoded rules. The rules we’re living under [are] the Ten Commandments, and I bet nobody here even pays much attention to ’em, because they are too old. When Moses went up on the mountain, there were no [...]

Gary responds to several authors and speakers about this topic and their (mistaken) understanding of the relationship between grace and law. The continuing authority of God’s law today is inherent to a biblically based theology. Time does not change or wear out the validity of God’s commands, and a change of geography or locality does not render them ethically irrelevant. With the coming of the Ne [...]

Robots are everywhere. We’re not at the I, Robot stage of development, but robots are here to stay. Automobile manufacturing today is a far cry from Henry Ford’s assembly line of production that revolutionized the industry and made cars more affordable. Their production facilities (below) are like a scene from the 2002 film Minority Report: Boston Dynamics has released two videos that show robots [...]

Gary responds to a listener from Australia that asks about how certain Greek words are translated in the new Legacy Standard Bible. An indispensable rule in Bible interpretation is understanding a text in terms of its original setting and audience, always asking the question, “How would those who first picked up copies of the gospels and epistles have understood what they were reading?” Louis Berk [...]