Mike Johnson’s comment is in response to my book Ten Popular Myths Exposed and Answered, a book he has not read. Typical. In response to me putting up my “squat,” here is his proof that “DeMarr doesn’t know squat.”
Ok … the temple DOES need to be built. It will be rebuilt (Rev 11: 1 & 2) Otherwise the AC would not be able to commit the AOD. Both Paul & Christ reference the AOD as a sign of The Rapture, which will come very soon on the heels of the AOD.
The modern state of Israel is a sign The Rapture is near. Israel becoming a nation is covered in Rev 12 : 14. The woman is Israel / Judaism. We are told by Christ to watch for “earthquakes in divers places …” (Matt 24:7).
Once again, these prophetic events “will come very soon” because “the Rapture is near.” Do “soon” and “near” mean the same as “soon” and “near” in Revelation 1:1, 3; 22:6-7, 10)? If not why not?
Ten Popular Prophecy Myths Exposed and Answered
Since the reestablishment of Israel in 1948, “end-time” prophetic speculation has been on the rise. While there is a long history of date setting, the past century has seen an exponential increase in the number of books proclaiming that the end is near. It’s time that the “Boy who cried wolf” syndrome be dealt with in a biblical way. A seismic shift in biblical eschatology is taking place around the world because Christians, some for the first time, are willing to challenge what they have been taught based on what the Bible actually says.
Buy NowAnyone familiar with anything I and others have written on NT prophetic passages, especially on Matthew 24, knows that everything Mr. Johnson claims has been refuted so many times that what I’m going write will be tediously redundant for many of you. No one who has studied this subject would ever offer the above comments by Mr. Johnson as a refutation of anything from Ten Popular Myths Exposed and Answered. In fact, his comments show that he has imbibed a popular prophetic system that is filled with flawed operating assumptions.
The first flaw is not understanding that Matthew 24 is about events related to that first-century generation.
When Jesus said, “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (v. 34), He was referring to that present generation. Verse 33 makes it clear: “so you [those in Jesus’ audience] too, when you [those in Jesus’ audience] see all these things, recognize that He [or it, the end of the age: v. 3] is near, right at the doors.” The “you” referred to those to whom Jesus was speaking. Follow the second person plural throughout the chapter. In fact, begin with chapter 21 and follow the second person plural.
Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruit. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and on whomever it falls, it will crush him.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them” (21:43-45), that is, “the chief priests and the elders of the people” then (21:23).
See my books Last Days Madness, Is Jesus Coming Soon?, and Prophecy Wars, also John Bray’s Matthew 24 Fulfilled and James Jordan’s Matthew 23-25.
This means that Mr. Johnson’s comment about earthquakes in Matthew 24:7 refers to earthquakes during that generation. When Jesus was crucified (27:54) and when the angel came rolled the stone away from the tomb where Jesus was buried (28:2). This second earthquake is said to have been “severe.” The book of Acts records “a great earthquake” that shook “the foundations if the prison house” (16:26). J. Marcellus Kik writes in his book Matthew 24, “And as to earthquakes, many are mentioned by writers during a period just previous to 70 AD. There were earthquakes in Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colosse, Campania, Rome, and Judea. It is interesting to note that the city of Pompeii was much damaged by an earthquake occurring on February 5, 63 A.D.”[1] Josephus describes an earthquake in Judea of such magnitude “that the constitution of the universe was confounded for the destruction of men.”[2] He goes on to write that this earthquake was “no common” calamity, indicating that God Himself had brought it about for a special purpose. One commentator writes: “Perhaps no period in the world’s history has ever been so marked by these convulsions as that which intervenes between the Crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem.”[3]
According to the Annals of Tacitus (c. AD 56-c. 120) there were earthquakes from Rome to Asia Minor. Since the generation between AD 30 and 70 is past, there is no reason to attach prophetic significance to earthquakes in our day as a fulfillment of Matthew 24:7. “[T]here were earthquakes in Antioch (AD 37), Phrygia (AD 53), Asia (AD 61), the Lycus Valley (AD 61), and Jerusalem (AD 67, see Luz,[4] France [5])…. So the counting of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other disasters by prophecy preachers is erroneous, for Jesus explicitly says these do not signify the end.” [6] Some argue that it’s the number and severity of earthquakes that will increase in the distant future. Jesus does not say earthquakes will increase or they will be more severe. He states simply, “in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.” See Acts 11:28 about famines.
Mr. Johnson writes, “the temple DOES need to be built. It will be rebuilt (Rev 11: 1 & 2).” The NT does not say the temple needs to be built. Jesus did say the temple would be destroyed, but never said it will be rebuilt (Matt. 24:1-2). Jesus is the true temple (John 2:19-22) and by extension believers (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Pet. 2:5). Rebuilt-temple advocates Tommy Ice and Randall Price are forced to admit, “There are no Bible verses that say, ‘There is going to be a third temple.’”[7] Of course there aren’t any because a rebuilt temple would be contra Scripture and an affront to the finished work of Jesus.
Price and Ice are not alone in making their unsupported claim for another rebuilt temple. Merrill F. Unger, writing in 1955, made a similar claim: “The temple will be rebuilt, for the ‘abomination of desolation’ (Matt. 24:15) ‘shall stand in the Holy Place,’ in the ‘Temple of God’ (Jewish Temple) rebuilt (II Thess. 2:4), with an ‘altar’ and ‘worshipers’ (Rev. 11:1), and an [8] ‘outer court’ in the ‘Holy City’ (Jerusalem, cf. Rev. 11:2).” The problem with Unger’s end-time scenario is that the temple built by Herod was still standing when these prophecies were given. Unger assumes that the mention of a temple in a prophetic passage must be a reference to a rebuilt physical temple that will be constructed during the tribulation that follows a pretribulational [9] rapture in what has become a nearly 2000-year delay. If the “need” for a rebuilt temple is such a crucial piece of the end-time puzzle, why doesn’t the New Testament say something about it? The silence is deafening.
The Rapture and the Fig Tree Generation
For decades Christians have been enticed with the belief that they would be taken to heaven before a coming tribulation period in an event called the “rapture.” Some prophecy writers claimed the “rapture” would take place before 1988. We are far removed from that date. Where are we in God’s prophetic timetable?
Buy NowThe temple was still standing when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians (2 Thess. 2:4) and when John wrote that the events revealed to him were “soon to take place … because the time is near” (1:1, 2; 22:6-7, 10), that is, near for the first recipients of the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, “The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ” (1:1).
The abomination of desolation mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24:15 has an audience reference: “when you see.” The “you” referred to those to whom Jesus was speaking and precedes what we find in Matthew 24:33-34). Luke’s version backs up the timing of the appearance of the abomination of desolation: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize [let., know] that her desolation is near” (21:20). The “you” referred to those of that generation. Mr. Johnson mentions the antichrist but does not reference any of the verses that use the word “antichrist.” If he had, he would see that there were many of them in John’s day and their presence was evidence “that it is [present tense] the last hour” (1 John 2:18). Mr. Johnson also argues that “the modern state of Israel is a sign” that “the Rapture is near.” This is an old and refuted claim that was supposed to be fulfilled before 1988. If Mr. Johnson had read my book Ten Popular Myths Exposed and Answered he would have learned (and should have known) that there are no signs before the so-called rapture. Dispensationalists state this to be true and repeatedly ignore it to sell books.
Revelation 12:14 does not say anything about Israel becoming a nation again. Israel was a nation when Revelation was written. Dispensationalists, because they get the timing wrong, nearly everything they claim for a passage in Revelation becomes heavily speculative and fantastical.
Reading Revelation’s symbols in light of modern Western ideas instead of their ancient significance is a popular temptation. Hal Lindsey, for example, made the eagle a symbol of the United States…. Thus, Lindsey suggests that 12:14 may refer to an airlift from U.S. aircraft, such as the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean; not wishing to speculate unduly, he suggests merely that they might be removed to Petra.[10] But no one in the rest of history could have understood the symbol as the United States, and the text itself provides us no reason to understand the symbol in such terms.[11]
Because of the time elements in Revelation (1:1, 3; 22:6-7, 10, 12, 20), this means that the fulfillment should have taken place within the definition of “soon” and “near.” Kenneth Gentry comments:
The woman is now given the two wings of the great eagle (12:14a) so that he could fly into the wilderness to her place (12:14b). In this flight imagery, ideal Israel is conceived more narrowly than in 12:1; here she is embodied in the Jewish-Christian church at Jerusalem, the 144,000 of 7:4-8 and 14:1 (see exposition at 7:4). Beale (668) even allows that “this may refer particularly to the early Jewish Christian church and its subsequent Jewish-Gentile development, as vv 13–17 could imply.”
Satan persecutes the Jerusalem church in an attempt to destroy Christianity. Perhaps he thought that if he could kill the head, the body would die. John wanted his readers to understand that this assault from Satan did not demonstrate that he had won, so that their days were numbered. In fact, Satan’s action showed that he was defeated and desperate.[12]
Moses Stuart, in his Commentary on the Apocalypse (1845, 2:261-262) was convinced that what Revelation describes is linked to Jesus’ prediction in the Olivet Discourse: “Is it not plain, that in this whole representation the writer has expressed … what is said by the Saviour in Matt. 24:16 seq.? So plain does this seem to my own mind, that I cannot well entertain any serious doubt respecting it.”
Mr. Johnson’s claims are more of the same tired and worn-out arguments about Bible prophecy. If he is going to claim I don’t know “squat,” it would help that he read the “squat” I’ve written about and respond to it directly.
[1] Reprinted in An Eschatology of Victory (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1975), 93. See Henry Alford, The New Testament for English Readers (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, [1886] n.d.), 163. This is a one-volume edition of the four-volume work.
[2] Quoted in Thomas Scott, The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments, According to the Authorized Version; with Explanatory Notes, Practical Observations, and Copious Marginal References, 3 vols. (New York: Collins and Hannay, 1832), 3:108.
[3] Alexander Keith, The Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion Derived from the Literal Fulfillment of Prophecy Particularly as Illustrated by the History of the Jews (Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian Board of Publication, n.d.), 60.
[4] Ulrich Luz, Matthew 21-28: A Commentary, ed. Helmut Koester (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 2005), 192.
[5] “Such historical records as we have for the first century mention earthquakes in Asia Minor in ad 61and in Italy in ad 62, in Jerusalem in ad 67, and another serious earthquake at an unspecified earlier date in Palestine. [See respectively, Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2.84; Josephus, War 4.286–287; 1.370.] A widespread famine around ad 46 is mentioned in Acts 11:28 and Josephus, Ant. 3.320; 20.51–53, 101. Other more localized occurrences which did not get into historical records may also be assumed (note the mention of local earthquakes in 27:51 and Acts 16:26).” R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007), 903-904.
[6] Grant R. Osborne, Matthew, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 874.
[7] Thomas Ice and Randall Price, Ready to Rebuild: The Imminent Plan to Rebuild the Last Days Temple (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1992), 197-198
[8] Merrill F. Unger, Great Neglected Bible Prophecies (Chicago: Scripture Press Books, 1955), 23.
[9] Unger disputes Carl Friedrich Keil’s contention that “the New Testament says nothing whatever concerning the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple and the restoration of the Levitical worship.” Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1950), 2:122. Quoted in Unger, Great Neglected Bible Prophecies, 23. Unger accuses Keil of following a spiritualizing methodology (23). Notice that the New Testament uses spiritual designations for the temple and its sacrifices under the new covenant: “spiritual house” and “spiritual sacrifices” (1 Pet. 2:15).
[10] Lindsey, New World Coming, 179.
[11] Craig S. Keener, Revelation, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 329-330.
[12] Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation, 2 vols. (Tolle Lege Press and Chalcedon Foundation, 2024), 2:1037