Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 62
Gary explains why he spends so much time writing and talking about Bible prophecy—it’s a worldview issue.
Soon after graduating college in 1973, I began to delve into the complexities of Bible prophecy once again. By this time I was no longer the biblically ignorant convert. Bible study had become a daily affair. While I was certainly far from being an expert, I noticed that a number of verses did not fit with the prevailing system of Bible prophecy offered by Hal Lindsey and others who shared his views. A number of questions were raised when I tried to put together all the pieces of Lindsey’s prophetic jigsaw puzzle. Too many pieces were missing. That is, a number of verses were either not discussed or were so twisted as to have no real meaning. At the time it seemed as if a prophetic system was trying to govern what the Bible says.
In 1974, I entered Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson, Mississippi. Two new worlds were opened up to me at RTS: the theological library and campus bookstore. Most bookstores typically carry only those books that sell well. This means that the average Christian is introduced to a small number of new books each year. Many great books are never read or even seen. There is no such limitation at a seminary library or a bookstore like the one at RTS. I scrutinized Bible commentaries and history books. My dissatisfaction with the Lindsey system forced me to go digging for answers to solve the hermeneutical puzzle.
I believed the Bible. There is no way that it could err. This was my starting presupposition. Scripture had to be taken at face value. Pet interpretations had to go, no matter how dearly held or how popular they were. This is why I was disheartened to read Bible passages that could not be reconciled with what I had been reading about the last days in prophetic best sellers like The Late Great Planet Earth. Either Lindsey was wrong or the Bible was wrong. Hal Lindsey was egregiously wrong. But Lindsey wasn’t the only one who was dodging the plain meaning of the Bible. I soon learned that there were others who did not share Lindsey’s end-time scenario but who still fudged on some of the most crucial prophetic texts.
Last Days Madness
In this authoritative book, Gary DeMar clears the haze of "end-times" fever, shedding light on the most difficult and studied prophetic passages in the Bible, including Daniel 7:13-14; 9:24-27; Matt. 16:27-28; 24-25; Thess. 2; 2 Peter 3:3-13, and clearly explaining a host of other controversial topics.
Buy NowGary explains why he spends so much time writing and talking about Bible prophecy—it’s a worldview issue. He discusses some of his own personal history and the cultural climate of the last few decades that forced him to begin studying the topic. Worldviews are “package deals,” which means what you believe about the future (as well as the past) affects what you do in the present.
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