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Gary answers a listener question about a Greek word used in Matthew 25:5, Hebrews 10:37, and in the Septuagint in Habakkuk 2:3.
In Revelation 1:1, John was shown “the things which must shortly take place.” Why must they “shortly take place? Because the reader is told “the time is near” (Rev. 1:3). Jesus defines “near” to mean “at the door” (Matt. 24:33). James writes that “the coming of the Lord is at hand,” and he defines “at hand” to mean “right at the door” (5:8-9).
If the purpose of Revelation was to demonstrate that the events of the book were a prophetic certainty that could occur at any time, John could have been told to write, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His bond-servants the things which must take place.” This wording would have had the effect of expressing necessity without committing to any time parameters, the very thing dispensationalists claim the Bible teaches. Revelation uses this construction in several places (4:1; 10:11; 17:10; 20:3). But by adding “shortly,” Jesus is telling Revelation’s first readers that not only are these coming events a certainty, they will happen quickly because “the time is near.”
Let’s allow Milton Terry, author of Biblical Hermeneutics, to put the debate over time words into perspective:
When a writer says that an event will shortly and speedily come to pass, or is about to take place, it is contrary to all propriety to declare that his statements allow us to believe the event is in the far future. It is a reprehensible abuse of language to say that the words immediately, or near at hand, mean ages hence, or after a long time. Such a treatment of the language of Scripture is even worse than the theory of a double sense.
Terry is a good judge in this matter since he is respected by futurists and those who believe that the majority of events described in Revelation have already been fulfilled. He is to the point—near means near all the time!
Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times
If you’re willing to take the Bible at its word, the study of prophecy can strengthen your faith, but if your trust is in man’s speculations, you will be disappointed every time. And that is why Bible prophecy is such a crucial area for apologetics. Skeptics of all stripes have condemned the Bible as inaccurate merely because various well-meaning Christians have been in error about the End Times.
Buy NowGary answers a listener question about a Greek word used in Matthew 25:5, Hebrews 10:37, and in the Septuagint in Habakkuk 2:3. The NT often uses OT language to show that similar events are soon to pass in the first century. Israel’s history often feels like a series of cyclical events and Paul even mentions that these events happened as “examples” to his generation, “on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).