Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 102
Gary responds to a recent video by Pastor Jack Hibbs about the “expiration date of the United States.”
When we approach the Scriptures, we must understand, first and foremost, that the Bible is a history book about redemptive history. So, we must ask, “Whose history of redemption is the Bible concerned with? Where was or is this history headed?” These important questions need to be answered. We must remain focused on the whole redemptive-historical picture while we study the individual parts of this history. We cannot neglect one focus for the sake of the other. Here is a helpful illustration.
Four blind men are instructed to reach out, touch, and describe what they feel. The first man reaches out and says, “Oh, it is a large rubber hose.” The next man reaches out and says, “It is a flag or a tent flap.” The third one reaches out and says, “It is a tree trunk.” The fourth one reaches out and says, “It is a rope.” Now, their individual testimonies about each one of these tactile objects, as based on the empirical data that they each had from their sense of touch, make plenty of sense. The fact remains that not one of these blind men had a clue about what they were dealing with because the one tangible reality that they were touching and talking about was an elephant, and yet all of them failed to comprehend or realize this reality in terms of the whole. This failure is what skewed their understanding of what it was that they each were touching.
So, what was said to be the “hose”? That was the elephant’s trunk. What was the “flag” or the “tent flap”? That was the elephant’s ear. What was the ‘tree trunk’? That was the elephant’s leg. What was the ‘rope’? Well, that was the elephant’s tail. Without the elephant in their minds the whole time, they could and did easily misconstrue these component parts of the elephant. They naively thought that the individual parts could be identified accurately apart from grasping the reality of the whole, the whole that was the elephant.
To avoid this hermeneutical error is what we are trying to do per the material in this series. It may seem complicated and difficult at first because we too often do not have an accurate image or mental understanding of the whole in view as we study the parts of Scripture. We are concerned in this hermeneutical series to deal with the redemptive history of the Bible as a whole that was OT Israel’s history as well as with its component parts.
The Hope of Israel and the Nations
The reader and student of the Bible must first understand the content of the New Testament writings in terms of how those in the first century would have understood it. The New Testament is written against the background of the Old Testament. The shadows of the Old were fulfilled in the reality of the New. All the rituals and ceremonies were fulfilled in Jesus. The same is true of the temple, land, blood sacrifices, the nature of redemption, the resurrection of the dead, the breaking down of the dividing wall dividing Jews and Gentiles, and so much more. The New Testament's emphasis is on the finished work of Jesus and its application, not only to that Apostolic generation but to the world today.
Buy NowGary responds to a recent video by Pastor Jack Hibbs about the “expiration date of the United States.” Claiming that Ezekiel 38-39 and Zechariah 14 are about what happens to Israel in our future, Hibbs makes an unbelievable leap in logic. Gary points out the actual context of these passages and the weapons that are being used to show it’s not about our future or the USA.
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