There is a phrase that is not in scripture, but it captures so much of what the Bible is all about. “Against All Odds” is the apt title of a video series that traces the modern miracle of the Jewish repatriation of the Land, and the amazing story of how the fledgling […]
Seeing Jacob in His Struggle – with a Father’s Heart
… if God is the biblical God, and Israel is his text book to the nations, it is not possible they can ever win [a great military victory] while in their unbelieving condition. If they can [win], everything I have ever learned goes out the window. Art always had it […]
The Rapture Question Decisively Answered by the Timing of the Day of the Lord
The rapture debate has raised the question of whether the references to a trumpet that sounds after the tribulation (Mt 24:31; Rev 10:7; 11:15) should be identified with, or distinguished from Paul’s ‘last trump’ (1Cor 15:52; 1Thes 4:16)? Where we locate the day of the Lord will be decisive for […]
More on the Two Witnesses
I’ve struggled in my interpretation of this section about the “two witnesses” for a long time. My question is about the identity of the two witnesses. Corporate witnesses or individuals? It is written, “These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.” […]
The Transforming Power of Covenant Mercy
This morning, I was thinking of Paul’s statement, “but I obtained mercy to be faithful …”. I was noticing the order, that mercy precedes and goes before faithfulness, as though the ability for true faithfulness is in the prior revelation of mercy. Searching for the verse that contained this particular […]
Israel: God’s Chosen People?
I believe it is important that we affirm that the Jews, despite their current disobedience, are “the chosen people”. The age ends by a great international conflict called, “the controversy of Zion” (Isa 34:8; Zech 12:2-3; see the paper on my website recently found and posted, called, “The Significance of […]
Dominionism
I do not exaggerate when I say that I’ve never seen the prophetic portions of scripture handled more irresponsibly. This writer distorts and goes beyond the most extreme forms of non-millennial and anti-futurist viewpoints of preterism and / or amillennialism. At least those schools recognize a great tribulation and some form of Antichrist. Even if they interpret this to be Nero, or the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem, still, they understand that any “dominion” that Christ secured at the cross did not mean that the early church would not face a future falling away and Antichrist persecution. Even on amillennial terms, Satan’s “little season” is still future, as this is where many amillennialists locate a future Antichrist, just prior to what they see as a general resurrection, with no millennium to follow.
Even in the view of preterists and amillennialists, the early church is not so completely ‘done with the devil’, as to be exempt from what was certainly to them a future tribulation and Antichrist (2Thes 2:3-4). The “dominion” of the fourth beast was not so completely broken, as to exempt the early church from its expectation of a future tribulation of unequaled severity (Dan 12:1; Mt 24:21; Rev 7:14).
The God Who Hides Himself
Thank you (and thank God!) for the piece I just re-read on “The Mystery of the Gospel”. The matter of the gem and its setting explains so succinctly the transition that my wife and I have undergone, as I have tried to express before, in this regard. But, once the […]
The Near-Far Interpretation of Prophecy
[…] In every context where the eschatological day of the Lord is in view, there is usually a near and a far fulfillment. This is seen most clearly by the simple fact that the messianic salvation, everywhere identified with a climactic post tribulational day of the Lord, simply did not happen. A view of the inerrancy of the inspired scripture, will, of course, demand that a gap be recognized between the past, near and partial fulfillment, and a future fulfillment that is complete and exhaustive.
Even if you happen to deny a distinct future for natural Israel, and even if you are prone to interpret scripture allegorically, one is still obliged to recognize that the promised messianic salvation did not come until much later with the advent of Jesus. Beyond the earnest and first fruits (the “already”) of Israel’s promised salvation, there remains the “not yet” of a yet future day of the Lord that will accomplish “the restoration of all things spoken by the prophets” (Acts 3:21; Ro 11:25-29).
[Note: The difference between pre-mill and a-mill eschatology is simply the question of how much of Israel’s promised salvation came in with the revelation of the gospel? All or part? […] […]
The Prince of the Covenant
Reggie, I heard you mention once that “the prince of the covenant” was someone other than Antichrist. Can you give me your thoughts on this? Watson [i.e. P.S.G. Watson] seems to have taught they are one and the same. See attached. Bro. Phil I have to differ with Watson on […]
