Gary completes his lessons on Mark 13 on today’s podcast. The audience and time context of the Olivet Discourse must not be ignored. The first people to embrace Jesus as the promised Messiah were Jews (Acts 2:5), and the first to reject Jesus were also Jews. James Jordan comments: The Judaizers were the heirs of the tradition-serving Jewish teachers who were Jesus’ worst enemy. The Jud [...]

On today’s podcast, Gary continues teaching through Mark 13 in this second lesson given at his church. When Jesus’ disciples heard His prediction of “desolation” for the temple and city (Matt. 23:29-39) when He “came out from the temple” (24:1), they “came up to point out the temple buildings to Him,” as if to say, “Lord, You can’t mean t [...]

John Nelson Darby, one of the founders of dispensational premillennialism and the pre-tribulational “rapture” of the church doctrine, the basis of The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) and the multi-volume Left Behind series, taught that “the imminent return of Christ ‘totally forbids all working for earthly objects distant in time.’”[1] Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths takes [...]

On today’s podcast, Gary discusses whether fulfilled prophecy has any significance after it has been fulfilled? If, as the writer of Ecclesiastes writes, “there is nothing new under the sun” (1:9), then how do we evaluate historical tumults prophetically? Five hundred years ago many in Christendom believed that the end was near. As we now know, their speculations were misguided. [...]

The Internet is filled with claims that modern-day Russia is the rosh of Ezekiel 38 and 39. Those who believe this rarely read the chapters in terms of the time the prophecy was revealed to Ezekiel, the weapons used in battle, and parallels to other parts of Scripture. There’s a much simpler solution. A Beginner's Guide to Interpreting Bible Prophecy With so much prophetic material, it seems d [...]

On today’s podcast, Gary discusses the hermeneutics (the method of interpreting) of Bible prophecy. One of the first things a Christian must learn in interpreting the Bible is to pay attention to the time texts. Failing to recognize the proximity of a prophetic event will distort its intended meaning. Certain destructive events confronted the early Church, events that were “near” for those w [...]

On today’s podcast, Gary answers a listener question about the manuscript differences in Revelation 13 and the “number of the beast.” The number 666 has long fascinated theologians and mathematicians. Maybe the interest in the number has something to do with the attainment of wisdom and understanding since to “calculate the number of the beast” will reward the diligent (Rev. 13:1 [...]

In this final part of his response to the Michael Brown debate, Gary discusses Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13. For many (perhaps even most) Christians, the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43) tells the story of the final judgment. This view is especially understandable when based on the old King James translation. It says: Another parable put h [...]

On today’s podcast, Gary responds to the questions the disciples ask Jesus about His coming and the “end of the age.” What “age” or “period of time” was about to come to an end when Jesus’ disciples asked about “the end of the age” in Matthew 24:3 after they heard Jesus say that the temple was going to be “left desolate” (23:36)? The end of the old covenant age was on the horizon [...]

Click here to read Part One 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 “about [μελλούσης] to come” (Matt. 3:7; also 1 Thess. 1:10; 2:14–16) to the judgment on that generation (Matt. 23: [...]

Today’s podcast is the second part of Gary’s response to the online debate he had with Dr. Michael Brown about Matthew 24. If Jesus had wanted to specify the generation to whom He was speaking, how would He have said it if “this generation” doesn’t mean the generation to whom He was speaking and “you” does not mean them? Does anyone believe that those who heard [...]

In my debate with Dr. Michael Brown on the fulfillment of Matthew 24, he spent considerable time dismissing the argument that the “end of the age” (v. 3) referred to the end of the old covenant system of sacrifices, cleansings, food regulations, and priestly oversight. He implied that the “end of the age” was yet in the future. What “age” or “period of time” was about to come to an end when Jesus’ [...]

On today’s podcast, Gary discusses the “great tribulation” in Matthew 24:21. Was the destruction of AD70 Israel’s greatest tribulation or does it need to be repeated with even worse consequences? Is the great tribulation of Matthew 24 a description of a future seven-year period where the Antichrist makes a covenant with Israel and then turns on the Jews, bringing about worl [...]

On today’s podcast, Gary responds to an article’s assumption that Russia and the current invasion of Ukraine are fulfilling Bible prophecy based on Ezekiel 38-39. The twentieth century is replete with books and articles assuring readers that Russia is clearly mentioned in the Bible. Nearly every modern-day prophecy book comes to the same conclusion. Russia is Ezekiel’s “Gog,” with its [...]

In my debate with Dr. Michael Brown on February 17, 2022, I made the point that the Great Tribulation mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24:21 took place during the time of that generation since Jesus said, “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (24:34). “This generation” always means the generation to whom Jesus was speaking. It does not mean “this kind of generation,” [...]

Robert Van Kampen, a prophecy author who believed the events outlined by Jesus in Matthew 24 are yet to be fulfilled, wrote, “Christ tells His disciples that only after the gospel is preached to all nations, ‘then the end shall come.’” [1] Since the Bible clearly states that the gospel “was proclaimed in all creation under heaven” (Col. 1:23), then the end spoken of by Jesus is a past event for us [...]

Futurism mandates that a new temple must be rebuilt so the events of Matthew 24 can be fulfilled. History records that the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, with the events of Matthew 24 preceding its demise. Not one verse in the New Testament mentions the need for a rebuilt temple, a fact admitted by those who believe a future temple is necessary for prophecy to be fulfilled. Thomas Ice and Timoth [...]

In Matthew 24:36, Jesus refers to “heaven and earth passing away” and not knowing the “day or the hour.” (It’s interesting that John refers to the “last hour” that was near in his day: 1 John 2:18). Is this statement by Jesus a reference to the new heavens and new earth of Revelation 21? John Lightfoot applies the phrase “passing away of heaven and earth” to the “destruction of Jerusalem and the w [...]

C.S. Lewis famously dubbed the modern ignorance of old books to be “chronological snobbery.” Thinking that only what is produced by our own modern generation is worthy of our time and attention is not only hypocritical; it is dangerous and can lead to a variety of false assumptions both about ourselves and those that came before us. Nowhere is this idea more evident than in the area of [...]

If there’s one passage of Scripture that is repeatedly brought up as an indictment against people who object to modern-day prophetic speculation it is 2 Peter 3:3–18. If you dispute with those who argue that all the signs around us indicate that we are living in the “last days,” then you are labeled a “scoffer” or a “mocker” (2 Peter 3:3; Jude 18). If this is how the passage is to be understood, t [...]