Just as early Christians benefitted from the roads created by the Roman Empire, so we benefit from electronic and networking advances today. Eschatological ideas have consequences, and many Christians are beginning to understand how those ideas have shaped the cultural landscape. A world always on the precipice of some great and inevitable apocalyptic event is not in need of redemption but only of [...]
I saw the article “Preterism Examined and Refuted” by Charles H. Campbell on the AlwaysBeReady website. I picked a few of his examinations and refutations and quickly put together a short response. There were many more, but I didn’t see anything new that I and many others have not already dealt with in great detail over many centuries. For example, see my book Wars and Rumors of Wars, an expositio [...]
The latest in last days madness comes from, naturally, the Middle East. It concerns the drying up of the Euphrates River. Supposedly the dry Euphrates is an end-time sign that the end is near. When Russia invaded Ukraine, that was said to be an ancillary fulfillment of Ezekiel 38-39. Linking Russia with the Hebrew word rosh in Ezekiel 38:2 and 39:1 goes back a long way. Rosh is not a prophetic mar [...]
Voting isn’t a long-term solution, but ignoring it isn’t the right response either. Christians cannot shrink from the scene when political decisions are hard to make. We need to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16) while recognizing that “the sons of this age are often more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light” (Luke 16:8). We live in a sinfu [...]
Gary discusses the providential history of his life after high school and college. The War of the Worlds depicts a clash between very alien societies—one planetary world hell-bent on destroying another. The fictionalized Martian attack was relentless. Cobra-like periscopes emitted pulverizing beams of energy that ravaged the countryside. The sleek and deceptively beautiful Martian flying machines [...]
Some readers get upset any time I point out how modern-day prophecy writers misrepresent the Bible. My critics don’t seem to mind that Hal Lindsey has been wrong over the years in an area of study that has made his reputation and so much of Christendom has embraced as “gospel.” I’ve pointed out a number of these “miscalculations” in previous articles and books. It was amazing to see how people def [...]
Gary answers a listener question about 2 Peter 3 and the fire language. 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” ( [...]
My wife will tell anyone that my mind works in mysterious ways. It seems to ramble around until it finds disparate bits of information and makes odd connections that mystify her. “How did you get that from that?,” she often asks. To be honest, I don’t really know. The latest is from the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) that stars John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles, Edmon [...]
The story of the Geneva Bible is a fascinating and important part of world and Church history. When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Massachusetts in 1620, they brought along necessary supplies, a consuming passion for advancing the Kingdom of Christ, and their most precious cargo —William Bradford’s copy of the Geneva Bible. The famous painting of the embarkation of the Pilgrims (above) shows Brad [...]
A recent film was a spectacular box-office failure for several reasons, and speaks volumes about public support for the gay ideology. In 2006, Larry David wrote this in the New York Times: “Somebody had to write this, and it might as well be me. I haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain, nor do I have any intention of seeing it.” He writes this as something of an apology. Like it is expected that all good [...]
Tyrants have always feared God’s Word, especially when it is translated so the average person can read, understand, and apply it to every area of life. This is no less true today… The Geneva Bible is unique among all other Bibles. It was the first Bible to use chapters and numbered verses and became the most popular version of its time because of the extensive marginal notes. These notes, w [...]
Gary discusses the film, The Omega Man, and modern climate armageddonists claiming that the “end is near” thanks to our continuing use of fossil fuels. The materialists are still trying to prove that God does not exist. If they could only find another highly evolved civilization among the multitude of unexplored galaxies, then such a discovery would prove that no god is needed to expla [...]
When I became a Christian in 1973, last days madness was all the rage. Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth was becoming a mega-bestseller. Lindsey had implied rather strongly that something called the “rapture” would take place before the 1948-1988 generation passed away. You can read his comments in the hardback edition on pages 53 and 54. I don’t know if he ever revised LGPE. I was new to [...]
Authority figures have been claiming to speak for God ever since the beginning in the Garden of Eden. There are mostly harmless misreadings of Scripture such as: the belief that the forbidden fruit was an apple (no fruit is specified), that Jonah was swallowed by a whale (it was “a great fish”), and that angels have wings (they don’t). These and other fables parade as facts only because we have he [...]
Gary discusses the true meaning of Halloween and the defeat of evil and of demonic powers that should be associated with it. The supernatural power which energizes God’s kingdom is never bound by political rhetoric: “For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). The battle against the kingdoms of this world is waged through the awesome power inherent in God’s Word, [...]
Guest article by Charles Jacobi A few weeks ago, I responded to a Christianity Today columnist who, using C.S. Lewis, argued household discipleship takes precedence over “participating in culture wars.” The columnist’s point was that Christian parents shouldn’t run for school board: public education is an “open system” influenced by its local environment, thus, Christians should forgo the politica [...]
Gary discusses yet another new book release claiming to help readers understand Matthew 24. Matthew 24:1–34 is a key prophetic passage, and its interpretation is one of the most hotly debated subjects in “end times” discussions. We must put aside our preconceived interpretations and let the Bible interpret the Bible. After all, this is the only acceptable approach to take when trying to understand [...]
Once Christians adopt a quietist and radical separationist perspective on Christ and culture, the other tyrannical shoe will drop. In time, churches in Nazi German were “confined as far as possible to the performance of narrowly religious functions, and even within this narrow sphere [they] were subjected to as many hindrances as the Nazis dared to impose.” This assessment is from a 1945 report pu [...]
Part Two of Gary’s discussion of a new book by David Jeremiah and the publishing history of (failed) prophecy books. Hal Lindsey and dispensationalists in general have a low regard for the Law of God, [1] similar to the views of the arch-heretic Marcion (second century A.D.). “Marcion stressed the radical nature of Christianity vis-a-vis Judaism. In his theology there existed a total d [...]
Gary discusses David Jeremiah’s new book, which is essentially repeating the same message about being “near to the end." Christians have always had disagreements over theology. The letters of the apostles to the first-century churches were designed to clear up doctrinal confusion, error, and heresy. The letters are well-reasoned, and, of course, they are truthful. Scripture and hi [...]
