Why is it that so much technological advancement developed in the Christian West? Consider a few examples: The first working telephone was invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell. The cumbersome device had no delivery system, wires, phones, or switching system. Who would you call? And yet today, we carry phones in our pockets and purses that are smaller than a deck of cards, need no wires or ope [...]

A few years ago, a group of out-of-town American Vision supporters wanted to visit the church my wife and I attend and then have us over for dinner at a friend’s house. We often repeat the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed during the service as our Credo — “I believe.” We don’t know who composed the Apostles’ Creed or when it was written. Some historians place the writing around the 4th or 5th c [...]

The only way to grasp the significance of Peter’s de-creation language in 2 Peter 3 is to study similar language found in the Old Testament since that’s Peter’s reference point. In Micah 1:1, a prophetic word was revealed: “to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” Micah’s prophecy isn’t about a time in the dista [...]

(Note: This is a continuation of a previous article. For Part One, click here to read “The Magical Bible Verse That’s Used to Nullify 100 Others”) We need to understand the immediate context of 2 Peter 3. The entire argument over when the events Peter describes take place comes down to defining the last days, the identity of the scoffers, the expectation of Peter’s audience, the consistent definit [...]

The following is from Jerry Jenkins, the co-author of the Left Behind prophecy series: God has a different economy of time than we do. He wrote in the Bible 2,000 years ago that the end was soon or imminent, and that we should watch and wait. We’ve been doing that all these years. The Bible also says that to God, 1,000 years is as a day and a day is as 1,000 years [2 Peter 3:8]. [...]

In three previous articles, I dealt with “Confronting Eschatological Gnosticism, “Should the Bible Always be Interpreted Literally?,” and “The Bible Method: Scripture Interprets Scripture.” In this article, I will briefly deal with what many believe is end-of-the-world language even though the Old Testament uses such language with local events. Paul writes to the Corinthians: “Now these things hap [...]

In two previous articles, I dealt with “Confronting Eschatological Gnosticism” and “Should the Bible Always be Interpreted Literally?” In this article, I want to discuss the biblical method of interpretation that applies to everything not only prophecy. Sound biblical interpretation begins with a comparative study of texts based on what Milton Terry describes in his highly regarded Biblical Hermen [...]

In a previous article, I dealt with “Confronting Eschatological Gnosticism” when very specific time words in Scripture are redefined but only when it comes to the topic of Bible prophecy. For example, when the Bible says that Jesus was “near Jerusalem,” dispensationalists have no problem understanding “near” to be close in proximity: “Now while [the people] were listening to these things, Jesus we [...]

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to have a great discussion with my sister-in-law on the topic of Bible prophecy. It was very encouraging. Because of it, I thought I would resurrect something I wrote some years ago on the topic since there are a lot of Christians in churches where they are getting less than accurate teaching on eschatology. Some pastors don’t realize that other views approa [...]

Who were the mockers Peter was describing in 2 Peter 3:3–4? Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues as it was from the beginning of creation.” Many prophecy writers conclude that these verses describe a distant eschatolo [...]

Some of the responses to my article “Atheists are Duped by Bad Eschatology” are interesting. Not a single atheist offered a rebuttal. I suppose an atheist would say that it’s all poppycock since there is no God. It doesn’t matter what Jesus said or didn’t say. The prophetic Jesus—right or wrong—is a myth. At that point, the debate becomes epistemological: How do you know what you claim to know whi [...]

A fellow who calls himself Morgue and looks like Jeremy Irons in the 2002 remake of The Time Machine starring Guy Pearce has declared that Jesus was a liar because His prediction about His return did not happen as He predicted. Here’s the link to the video. Morgue, as in the place of the dead, and not Mork as in Mork and Mindy, claims that if Jesus lied about this one thing, then how can Jesus be [...]

If someone burps in the Middle East, the end-time speculators come out of the woodwork and claim that this time it’s the end. People said the end was near more than 100 years ago when Europe went to war, and 51 years ago when Hal Lindsey wrote The Late Great Planet Earth, and 20 years ago when the Sabbath Millennium was said to start. The rapture and the antichrist have once again taken center sta [...]

“1. Preterists. The prophecies contained in the Apocalypse were fulfilled with the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of heathen Rome.”[1] If today’s prophetic theorists are to be believed, Jesus will be returning “soon.” Dave Hunt’s book How Close Are We?, written nearly thirty years ago, claimed to answer the question in the subtitle: Compelling Evidence for the Soon Return of Christ.[2] On t [...]

There have been some comments recently about the Interpretive Maximalism of James B. Jordan. This has been an ongoing discussion for nearly 30 years. An article by Pastor Uri Brito from 2015 posted on Facebook brought the topic to my attention again: “James B. Jordan and Interpretive Maximalism.” Since I’ve known Jim since the mid-1970s and have benefitted from his works over the years, I thought [...]

Some years ago, Dr. Gary North and Ken Gentry wrote articles for a monthly newsletter titled Dispensationalism in Transition. So much about dispensationalism has changed over the years that C.I. Scofield most likely would not recognize it. The Scofield Reference Bible that first appeared in 1909 and was revised by the author in 1917, has gone through several revisions since then. “In 1967, Oxford [...]

Sam Waldron who teaches at Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary has been writing on the topic of postmillennialism. In his “DatPostmil? #4: Does the Growth of the Kingdom Require Postmillennialism?” he discusses some of the parables of Jesus. While he agrees with the growth imagery of the parables, he dismisses “postmillennial implications of these passages,” in particular “the Parable of the Whe [...]

A plain reading of Matthew 16:27–28 gives the distinct impression that what is being described by Jesus was going to take place within the time frame of that generation, their generation. (See Part One: “What Did Jesus Mean about His Coming in Matthew 16?”) Some would still be alive but most would have died before Jesus came in judgment against Jerusalem, an event that took place in AD 70 and prop [...]

Matthew 16:27–28 has been interpreted in numerous ways over the centuries. A plain reading of the text gives the impression that what is being described by Jesus was going to take place within the time frame of that generation—their generation. This is Part One of a two-part series titled “What Did Jesus Mean When He said, ‘There are some of those who are standing here who shall not ta [...]

A popular end-time prediction is that Daniel 12 is referring to events in our day, more than 2600 years from the time the prophecy was given to Daniel. For example, Hal Lindsey claims the following: “When Daniel emerged from the vision, the angel instructed him, ‘But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase [...]