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 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
(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 [...]
Eschatology continues to be a hot button topic. In addition to the popular prophecy theorists who can’t help themselves from claiming the rapture is near, there are Facebook posters who add grist to the eschatology mill by critiquing arguments that are grounded on solid biblical study by people who should know better. I saw the following post on Facebook post: I sent my friend information related [...]
Gary responds to a recent article by Pastor Robert Jeffress in Dallas, Texas about the world looking like it’s getting very close to the “end.” The central message of the Bible is salvation through Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant. Apart from His work, through which He acquired and eternally possesses the Covenant, there is no hope for mankind. He has overwhelming [...]
Gary discusses an article that makes the claim that Hamas attacked Israel in order to stop the sacrifice of the “red heifer.” Remember how Jesus had described the temple to the Jews as “your house” and how it would be left to them “desolate” (Matt. 23:38). Earlier Jesus had inspected the temple (21:12-17). There He called it “My house” (21:13) and cited two passages from the Old Testam [...]
Is Jesus on His throne now? If so, are we in the “new world”? Matthew is traditionally the first of the Gospels. In my opinion, as I argue below, the tradition is correct. Matthew was one of the disciples and was a man of letters. Who better to take notes during Jesus’ lifetime? Moreover, immediately after Pentecost there would have been a demand for a book containing the teaching and [...]
An image of Isaiah 13 from the Bible with some highlighted verses was posted on Facebook followed by a comment that stated that “the wrath of God is coming on the world,” that is, our world that was 2700 years in the future from the time the prophecy was given to Isaiah. Of course, God hasn’t stopped with judging the world when He sent Israel and Judah into captivity or with Babylon, the Medes and [...]
Gary begins a two-part podcast about preterism and God’s law. It is important to note that the noun “preterism” has been squeezed too far back as if it is about nothing more than what is past, about completed action in the past with no future application. The New Testament does address the issue of preterism and acknowledges that certain prophetic announcements—such as Christ’s Olivet Discou [...]
Gary responds to an Advent devotional in Christianity Today regarding Matthew 24. A failure to understand the symbolic nature of these passages has led many popular writers (and, surprisingly, not a few scholarly ones) to assume that such expressions as “the sun turned to sackcloth and the moon to blood” can only be understood as referring to the collapse of the physical cosmos. Nobody takes these [...]
Gary responds to a video where a pastor claims you must “rightly divide the Bible,” based on 2 Timothy 2:15. By this he means that you must rightly divide the “people” of God into Jew and Gentile and understand New Testament passages in light of “the Church age.” How could Christians believe that Jesus could come at any moment and also believe that He would not [...]
Now that the first volume of the book is available, this recap from the initial episodes of Covenant Hermeneutics and Biblical Eschatology was due for a re-run. New Testament eschatology is the eschatology of Old Testament Israel. Israel’s eschaton is what is being discussed there. But, of course, Israel’s eschaton was a subset of the greater world history. OT Israel was not the end of the road. I [...]
A few years ago, I spoke at a conference on postmillennialism in Torrance, California, on the topic, “Evidence that Postmillennialists are Winning the Prophecy Debate.” I only got through a small portion of what I prepared. Ken Gentry also spoke. Kirk Cameron was there at my invitation. He gave a great talk about his prophetic pilgrimage. Sorry to say, the recording of my talk did not turn out. Th [...]
The year 2023 was an interesting and productive year for me and American Vision. In December of 2022, I noticed a large lump nearly the size of my fist on my left calf. After numerous tests, I found out that it was a high-grade carcinoma. Cancer! After 25 sessions of radiation the tumor was removed in March. Every three months I get an MRI of my calf and a CT scan of my thoracic region because thi [...]
What does the incarnation of Jesus mean? For Simeon and Anna, it was a confirmation of God’s faithfulness to act on behalf of His people. They believed that the incarnate Jesus WAS God’s plan of salvation for the world. They weren’t bothered by the fact that their hope for Israel was bound up in the helpless frame of a baby. Quite the opposite; they were overjoyed. Simeon and Anna rejoiced to see [...]
