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 [...]

Red heifer stories are in the news. “The delivery of five red heifers to Israel has sparked a worldwide debate about its significance in biblical prophecy, particularly among Christians who believe a third temple will be built during the End Times,”[1] of which the New Testament says nothing. You will search the New Testament with a fine-tooth comb, and you won’t find any mention of another temple [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

If you question the modern-day claim that Jesus is physically returning “soon” (Rev. 1:1; 22:6) because “the time is near” (1:3; 22:10), then you are a ‘scoffer’ or a ‘mocker.’ This is standard prophetic agitprop. If the Bible says (and it does) that Jesus’ coming was “near … right at the doors” (James 5:7-9), and He hasn’t come after nearly 2000 years, then it’s necessary to evaluate popular prop [...]

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 [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 103 Gary answers a question he often receives about having conversations with dispensationalists. One of the difficulties dispensationalists have in understanding the Messianic kingdom promised by the prophets is with regard to its fundamental nature. Several major misconceptions lead them astray in this regard. We highlight but three: they assert that t [...]

Brock Hollett’s book Debunking Preterism opens with a discussion of “time texts” like “near,” “at hand,” “shortly,” and “quickly” and seven particular passages where the words appear in the book of Revelation (1:1, 3; 3:11; 22:6, 7, 10, 12, 20). He writes that these “time statements appear in the introductory and closing sections of the Apocalypse.” He claims that “[t]his type of literary device i [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 102 Gary responds to a recent video by Pastor Jack Hibbs about the “expiration date of the United States.” When we approach the Scriptures, we must understand, first and foremost, that the Bible is a history book about redemptive history. So, we must ask, “Whose history of redemption is the Bible concerned with? Where was or is this history h [...]

While I was visiting my late friend Mike Britton, 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. This friend would not look at alternative arguments. When he was confronted with some hard facts, he dismissed them. One of his arguments was that the early chu [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 101 Gary responds to various views about the seven churches of the book of Revelation. A popular argument for a pre-tribulation rapture is the claim that while the “church” is mentioned 19 times in the first three chapters of the book of Revelation, in chapters 4–18 “there is absolute silence.”[1] Similar to the way author Mark Hitchcock places a gap in [...]

Gary gives an overview of the book of Revelation and helps readers to put the confusing book into perspective. From the very beginning, cranks and crackpots have attempted to use Revelation to advocate some new twist on the Chicken Little Doctrine: The Sky Is Falling! But, as I hope to show in this exposition, St. John’s Apocalypse teaches instead that Christians will overcome al opposition [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 100 Gary discusses the date of the writing of the book of Revelation. Quite a bit of diversity existed in early Christianity regarding the date that John wrote the book of Revelation, and the dominance of one opinion is not synonymous with unanimity of opinion. Several writers in recent years have noted that markedly different opinions about the date of [...]

Gary reveals that he is considering having a prophecy conference in the Nashville area next summer. 2 Corinthians 7 begins: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (v. 1). “These promises” were made to Israel, and yet Paul applies them to the church at Corinth (1:1). There is no mention of [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 99 Gary points out that no one interprets purely “literally,” although many prophecy speculators claim that they do. Jesus often uses the plural “you” in Matthew 24 and in the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Luke 21: “They will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing y [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 98 Gary responds to a recent video by Joel Richardson about Matthew 24:15 and the “abomination of desolation.” Futurists need a rebuilt temple in order to project the fulfillment of prophecies related to the abomination of desolation to another time. Is this what Jesus had in view in Matthew 24:15? A careful reading of Scripture will show tha [...]

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 97 Gary discusses common misconceptions about Revelation 3:10 and its context, emphasizing the importance of understanding biblical prophecy within its historical setting. Many commentators from the early and medieval periods held that the hour of testing in Rev. 3:10 was, or could be interpreted as, a first-century persecution. These included Ecumenius [...]

Trying to link current events to prophetic texts to predict when the “rapture” might occur or when the Second Coming might happen is like linking scientific discoveries to the Bible. When the latest scientific discovery is later nullified by a new discovery, the biblical link is made null and void. Let me offer a typical example. With the rise in technology, speedier microchips, eBooks, gargantuan [...]