It’s been a busy year. As many of you may know, I and American Vision have been attacked by some high-profile Christians because I have asked some necessary questions concerning eschatology. Some of the attacks have been vicious, mean spirited, and downright ugly. The questions I am asking have been designed to construct a better understanding of the topic. Many Christians are afraid to make a study of the topic because of Creedal and Confessional statements that are often regarded as equal to Scripture. They believe that what’s been said and stated on the topic has settled the topic. There’s nothing more to discuss. Anyone who has studied eschatology knows that eschatology is all over the map. It’s been this way for centuries.
These attacks have come in different forms, from deplatforming my work and that of American Vision and attempts to shut down the work of American Vision. Letters have been sent to my church and presbytery. These critics want me disciplined by the elders of my church. I would be more than willing to be examined by my elders and those of the presbytery. It would be a helpful exercise.
Thankfully, their attacks have come to naught. I’ve been attacked before from dispensationalists and anti-Christian groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. American Vision was sent “white powder,” and some LGBTQ+ malcontents have attacked me at our offices with faux wanted posters because of my views on homosexuality. The EEOC even tried to sue American Vision. I’m used to being attacked.
Against All Opposition
An apologetic methodology that claims Christians should be "open," "objective," and "tolerant" of all opinions when they defend the Christian faith is like a person who plans to stop a man from committing suicide by taking the hundred-story plunge with him, hoping to convince the lost soul on the way down. No one in his right mind would make such a concession to foolishness. But Christians do it all the time when they adopt the operating presuppositions of unbelievers. There are no "neutral" assumptions about reality.
Buy NowAmerican Vision has had international support. I receive encouraging emails from people all over the world. As an example, I received this on Monday (6.26.23) from a pastor:
You were willing to be cancelled by so many brothers who were willing to throw you under the bus because you wouldn’t play their game and accept their false premises in their highly colored and slanted questions.
Thank you for standing tall and faithful to Jesus ALL these years. As you know, I have been highly blessed and taught through all your writings and teachings, and I continue to hand out your materials. Please know that I and my family not only pray for you and yours, but we continually defend you against these attacks. Just like Presbyterians to eat their own!
American Vision continues to press on.
From June 20-24, I was in Mexico speaking to pastors about eschatology. I delivered and recorded five talks with a Spanish translation. We will be making these available soon. I have been in touch with missionaries who have a worldview emphasis who understand that eschatology is a hindrance to so many Christians in Mexico and Central and South America. The “rapture” is engrained in them. Many can’t think beyond “Jesus is coming soon.” The problem is also prevalent in the United States. It’s a hindrance because it is thought to be biblical. I spent time taking the dispensational system apart piece-by-piece so that they had no room to move. In the evening I answered questions. Their questions made it clear to me that they knew the implications of what I was teaching. The Bible offers hope not escape or destruction.
In addition to the Spanish series on eschatology, American Vision has been busy with some publishing projects. Here are a few of them:
Transcendental Arguments and Van Til’s Transcendental Apologetic Methodology edited by Joshua Pillows
We will be publishing Transcendental Arguments and Van Til’s Transcendental Apologetic Methodology based on talks by Greg L. Bahnsen and Michael Butler and transcribed and edited by Joshua Pillows. In the Summer of 1995, just a few months before Greg passed away, he gave a three-day seminar surveying on both the history and contemporary climate of transcendental reasoning, as well as expounding the transcendental program of Cornelius Van Til and how it relates and withstands the transcendental charges of its critics. Does Van Til’s Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God (TAG) succumb to the same problems of modern transcendental arguments in secular philosophy? Does Van Til’s TAG prove the truth of Christianity and Christianity alone? Does Van Til’s TAG prove that all other worldviews are false? Does Van Til’s TAG prove that the Christian worldview is metaphysically (or objectively) the case and not that it is indispensable simply to think that it is? These sorts of questions are answered in the most incisive way by Greg. Transcendental Arguments and Van Til’s Transcendental Apologetic Methodology has been typeset and is in the proof-reading stage.
The Destruction of Jerusalem, the Mysterious Language of St. Paul in His Description of the Man of Sin, and the Day of the Lord by Nehemiah Nisbett
For most modern readers, Nehemiah Nisbett (d. 1812) is an unknown writer. He’s almost never quoted or cited, and yet his works were widely read in his day. He was most noted for his works dealing with the defense of Christianity against skeptics as in The Triumphs of Christianity over Infidelity Displayed; Or the Coming of the Messiah, the True Key to the Right Understanding of the Most Difficult Passages in the New Testament… A Full Answer to the Objection of Mr. Gibbon, That Our Lord and His Apostles Predicted the Near Approach of the End of the World in Their Own Times. Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), the author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, believed the Roman Empire fell because it embraced Christianity, an interpretation that has been questioned and rejected by modern historians.
Most of Nisbett’s works dealt with eschatology. I was introduced to Nisbett’s books by John Bray, author of Matthew 24 Fulfilled, who discovered them while traveling in England. While doing research at Cambridge University on Matthew 24, he came across Nisbett’s book An Attempt to Illustrate Various Important Passages in the Epistles, etc., of the New Testament, from our Lord’s Prophecies of the Old Testament. To which is Added an Appendix, Containing Remarks upon Dr. MacKnight’s Commentary and Notes on the Two Epistles to the Thessalonians that was published in 1787. You never had to guess the subject matter of a book from the 18th century. The titles said it all.
Bray shortened the title to The Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem and first published it in booklet form in 1992. In 1997 he republished Nisbett’s 1808 work The Mysterious Language of St. Paul, in his Description of the Man of Sin [2 Thess. 2] Proved from the Gospel History, to Relate Not to the Church of Rome, but to the Times in Which it was Written. With Some Remarks upon Sir H.M. Wellwood’s Sermons on Matt. xxiv. 14 as The Man of Sin of II Thessalonians 2.
John Bray had the original books typed and later typeset using a modern typeface.
American Vision has combined these two books into a single volume. They have been typeset with a slightly larger font and added line spacing. All the Greek words have been transliterated. Quoted and referenced Scripture passages have been added where Nisbett does not include them. The notes have been included as footnotes using standard numbering. Nisbett cites and quotes numerous obscure and long out-of-print theological authors and their works. When I could find the original source of a referenced or quoted work, I included the reference as well as a link in a bracketed footnote. I did the same for the first names of authors and when they lived. I kept Nisbett’s use of italic, and there is a lot of it. For the most part, Roman numerals were converted to standard numbers. This work will go to the printer soon.
Why It Might Be OK to Eat Your Neighbor: If Atheism is Right Can Anything be Wrong? by Gary DeMar
This 200-page book deals with the moral implications of atheism and its accomplice Darwinism. There is no way to account for morality given the operating assumptions atheism and an evolving universe where only physicality is real. The mind is the brain, and there is no greater reality than what we see and touch. This is an impossible worldview. Those who advocate and defend it cannot be consistent without becoming nihilists. R.C. Sproul wrote that “the existence of God is the supreme proto-supposition for all theoretical thought. God’s existence is the chief element in constructing any worldview. To deny this chief premise is to set one’s sails for the island of nihilism. This is the darkest continent of the darkened mind—the ultimate paradise of the fool.”
It’s amazing to read what many atheists say about their worldview. DNA is deterministic. We dance to its music. The question remains as to the source of the organized information that makes up our DNA. Can immaterial morality and thought be derived from it? Not if you are a physicalist and believe something came from nothing.
The operating assumptions of atheism wedded to Darwinism is at a philosophical and moral dead end so it must borrow from the Christian worldview to give anything and anyone meaning.
Why It Might Be OK to Eat Your Neighbor will take the reader through the thinking of atheists to show that at every turn their worldview is an impossibility. While they deny and renounce the God they know exists, they can’t escape Him and the way He made the world to work. Not only do they work with God’s created material, but they must work with God’s created laws, moral and natural. You don’t have to be a philosopher or seminary graduate to apply the principles set forth in Why It Might Be OK to Eat Your Neighbor. All you will need to know is what questions to ask your unbelieving neighbors and call on them to live consistently with their operating assumptions. This book will help you do that.
Covenant Hermeneutics by Kim Burgess and Gary DeMar
I am in the process of editing the 25 transcripts that are the result of my conversations with Kim Burgess on the Covenant Hermeneutics and Biblical Eschatology podcast (find all 25 episodes here). Because this editing process is only something I can do, it’s going to take some time. Many people are asking for the book version of our discussion. I’ll be adding all the Scripture passages that Kim and I quote as well as the texts of those passages only cited.
Kim covered a great amount of material. A written work to help people study what he has proposed will be helpful. The book will also include the visual diagram that he has developed to go along with some of the chapters. A designer is working on it now.
Matthew 23-25: A Literary, Historical, and Theological Commentary
While many commentators argue in terms of historical fulfillment by appealing to sources like The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus (c. 37–100) (not in itself wrong), an eyewitness to the destruction of the temple and judgment on Jerusalem in AD 70, Jordan concentrates on the biblical literary connections. He does this by putting Matthew 23–25 in the full context of Matthew’s gospel and the rest of the Bible. This way, the forest can be seen within the context of the trees.
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