This blog is, at least in part, a swipe at the Baby Boom generation (~1946-1964). Yep, the ungrateful brats that F***ed-up the country for the rest of us. BTW I am barely considered a Boomer so I can say that and not get accused of dissing the gray-haired generation. Said comments also are applicable to those older than the Boomers. I don’t know what to call that generation. Contrary to Tom Brokaw, they aren’t the “Greatest Generation” because they were too young to participate in WW II.
Whether my comments are applicable to the younger crowd, maybe The Chief can let me know when next we speak.
Our society has been described as disposable. We have disposable diapers, razors, disposable food containers, and the like but we also treat humans as disposable. Abortion is “products of conception” which are fit to flush down the toilet. “Special needs” children get locked-up and are rarely seen in public. We have “old folk’s homes” where we send elderly people to await death. We have political parties in our country that support slavery, exploitation, child labor, and a host of other ills just as long as they occur in other countries and not are not seen in ours. Nobody in the West could afford an iPhone or Tesla car if the rare earth metals were obtained ethically. Much manufacturing in China would cease if not for slave labor. Then there is the eugenics behind organ harvesting on an industrial scale.
Below I take on false views held by many self-described Christians.
“The body is garbage,” claimed a nameless person mentioned by Rev David Chilton in one of his sermons recorded in the 1980’s. (Chilton didn’t believe that but dealt with folks that did.)
Rev David Chilton (1951-1997)
Yep, the spirit is what is important, the body is just the prison of the soul. Ever heard comments like that before? While such may have been spoken by the Apostle Plato, such language was never uttered by the Apostle Paul, or any other writer of Holy Scripture. Such division of body and soul is not biblical but Greek. Yet, many people believe it is true.
In this category, I include my own parents as well as my grandparents. When someone died in my immediate family circle they were cremated and forgotten. Typically, there is no memorial service, wake, or any other remembrance. No gravestone because there is no grave.
In addition, the possessions of said relatives are not offered to family members as keepsakes. Nope. When my grandfather died, my dad gave a few firearms to a cousin and then called Goodwill or some similar charity group to clean out the house. He kept nothing and offered nothing to the rest of us. Like I said before, it’s just dumping the trash.
Oh, so what happens when you ask to be present when the ashes of dear so-and-so are disposed of? Nothing. (I did think you needed a government permit to scatter human remains but I know my folks never followed that directive.) When the time came to scatter said ashes, do you know what happened? Zippo. The phone is silent. The email is mute. The snail mail was never sent. Years after the fact you might overhear a comment stating that over there is where some beloved person’s ashes went. It matters not if you ask to be present. Crickets.
Folks if you thought cancel culture was just on the Left, try dying in my family. There is zero hope of being honored or remembered. Your existence is swiftly erased with extreme prejudice.
When my aunts died, did I get notified? Generally, no; not if they were part of my grandmother’s generation. Occasionally, if they were of my parents’ generation then my folks might mention it. Either way, incinerate and forget them was the practice.
Lest you think this idea that the body is garbage is unique to my family, may I point you to the Neptune Society. They offer cremation services for the masses.
Or Oregon offers composting of dead people. Yep, they literally make you into worm food.
My problem is that biblically speaking, burning bodies is sacrilege. The body is to be honored. More on that shortly.
Lest you think my family are the only ones that advocate disposal of loved ones; here is how this often is manifests amongst folks that claim to be Christian. Grandma dies. We hold a service for her—which is good. But then someone says, “What’s in the coffin isn’t grandma, she’s in heaven not here.” Then they make a reference to Paul’s saying that “absent from the body is present with the Lord”.
If by saying this, they deny that the person in the coffin is actually grandma then they are wrong. Both the body and the spirit are grandma. The body is not a corrupted husk that contained the real grandma. Nope, that’s Greek thought not biblical thought.
Folks, this is the classic definition of loss of big picture. Jesus was not raised as a spirit. The Church has a name for people that believe that way, “heretic.”
Jesus was raised bodily. Yep, his resurrected body was different, it was a perfected body, but a body, nonetheless. In another sermon, David Chilton makes reference to a young man saying that he can’t wait to get to heaven because then he can’t sin anymore because he will no longer will have a body. This is not biblical.
God gave Adam a body and said it was “very good”.
It is unnatural that the body and spirit are separated at death. This is the result of sin. Please understand, I am ok with claiming that immediately following death, the deceased person gets their new, resurrected body. And following a judgment, believers are in the presence of God in that eternal form. Some folks think you need to wait until the end of something, usually not the end-end for this to occur. Some biblical passages seem to imply that the judgment is immediately after death not after one’s body spends thousands of years in the ground. Whether the body and spirit are reunited shortly after death or later on, it will happen. You will spend eternity in a body not as a disembodied spirit.
The normative in Scripture is that the body is treated with respect and reverence. A body is buried with honor and an expectation of an afterlife. The classic example is in the latter part of Genesis. Joseph, the guy with the coat of many colors, makes a final request just before his death. When you leave Egypt and return to the Promised Land, take my body with you and bury me there. Joseph had been dead for the better part of 400 years before his remains were returned to the land of his birth. People knew that this body was Joseph and he was given the honor due to a prince of both Egypt and Israel.
In like manner, every time a Christian is buried, he is testifying that he has a hope in a future resurrection. This is why churches have had graveyards in close proximity to their places of worship. Like many things, the present practitioners have forgotten the historic view; the faith of their fathers. Heck, for that matter, why don’t modern churches use church architecture for their construction? Why are they all theater-in-the-round or gymnasiums with folding chairs?
Those European Cathedrals that took centuries to build had a purpose in the way they were constructed. I bet you don’t even know why Holy Water and Gargoyles were included in the church’s design. The Gospel is silently built into how and why each building was designed, hence the name “church architecture.”
Oh, the answer to my rhetorical questions above, Holy Water is in the back of the church as a symbol that it is by baptism that we gain entry to the church. Gargoyles symbolize demons fleeing the presence of the Church. Remember Jesus saying that “… the gates of hell shall not prevail?” Again, church architecture has meaning, but folks don’t know the Gospel well enough to know what they are looking at.
Like many in our society, what I say or whatever reasons that I might give for Christian burial will not move the needle with folks. They are much more comfortable arguing feelings than facts. Facts can only be employed if both sides agree to let something external to them be their authority and rule for conduct. For Christians this should be the Word of God but often it is not. When every man does what’s right in their own eyes then civil dialogue is not possible. This is just as true discussing death as it is politics.
My folks want to be cremated, have no memorial service, and no acknowledgement of their lives. Oh, this also means no closure for grieving family members, but they don’t care. Such an attitude gives a new spin to the comments of Jesus when he said, “Let the dead bury the dead.”
Folks, there is such a thing as “Christian burial;” it’s too bad most Christians don’t believe in it anymore.
The set-up for the book is this: imagine that you are a Jew in the Second Century.
In 70 A.D. the Romans sacked and burned Jerusalem and destroyed your center of worship (the Temple) and thus your religion as it had been practiced for more than a thousand years. 1.2 million Jews died in this uprising.
Then in the Bar Kokhba rebellion, Christians failed to join the Jews in a second rebellion against Roman, 65 years after Jerusalem fell, because they rejected Bar Kokhba as a false Messiah.
At this point in history, the Jews and Christians finally split for good. However, Jews are still losing people to the upstart Christian sect. The remaining rabbis are desperate to consolidate power and stem the tide of converts following Jesus because of their understanding of the Old Testament promises.
In what today might be called a “Hail Mary” play, they decided to change the Old Testament Scriptures to stop the bleeding and erect barriers to any further losses to Jesus.
As Van Dorn shows, the Second Century rabbis did deliberate edits that two centuries later were being adopted by Christians. Today, nobody knows the difference and the falsehoods created by the rabbis are considered in many circles as Christian Orthodoxy today.
By comparing various texts and manuscripts, Van Dorn shows that the errant text is the Jewish one—the Masoretic—which is the basis of many English versions of the Bible including the King James Version (KJV).
I won’t spoil the book—which I highly recommend—however, the rabbi’s edit which is clearly the easiest to see is Deuteronomy 32:8
When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance,
When he separated the sons of Adam,
He set the bounds of the people
According to the number of the children of Israel.
In context, the phrase “according to the number of the children of Israel” is nonsense. In the Table of Nations—which follows the Flood in Genesis 10—Israel is nothing but a glimmer in the eye of Abram’s ancestors. There is no Abram or Israel in existence. Thus, to state that there is a relationship between the Table of Nations and the children of Israel is nonsense. The older translation is “the number of the sons of God.” This edit (the children of Israel) was unknown before the Second Century A.D. This shifts the passage from teaching about principalities and powers (i.e. heavenly, spiritual beings) and instead substituting men.
Substituting men for spiritual beings is a constant refrain in the Second Century edits. They tried to obscure or obliterate references to the pre-incarnate Christ. This was done deliberately to keep Jews from seeing the Messiah in their own Scriptures. Furthermore, the correct textual understandings were anathematized by teachers of Judaism.
By the Fifth Century, the rabbi’s ruse was adopted wholesale by the Christian Church and has been the majority view ever since.
Van Dorn is trying to expose and correct the record. The book is easily read and written at a level that is accessible to the masses. The type is larger than I was expecting and is only about 150 pages. It retails at Amazon for about $20.
A good companion book would be the “Unseen Realm” by Michael Heiser.
Heiser is concerned primarily with the supernatural view of the Old Testament. While there is some overlap, the emphasis of each book is different.
I highly recommend Van Dorn’s book to any and all.
Ideas have consequences. That is somewhat what this post discusses.
I gave my life to Christ in about 1974. I was attending the Baptist church. Not just any Baptist church but one on the conservative side of a conservative denomination. First Baptist Church in Woodland California was part of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC).
Baptists define themselves in terms of “Don’ts.” They don’t smoke, drink, cuss, or chew, and expect us not to go with girls that do. Mixed bathing; not blacks and whites, but males and females was forbidden. They also don’t like infant Baptist, wine for Communion, and Christian rock music.
The church was all-in on Hal Lindsey and Jesus is coming any second to Rapture the Church. Initially, I was enthused that we were living in the last days. The signs were everywhere that Jesus’ immanent return would soon occur. I dutifully watched the news and expected to see the final prophecies fulfilled on the evening news any day.
One night after youth group, I remember my sister coming home in tears. When asked why she was crying, she responded that it was unfair that Jesus was coming back any second and how unfair he was because she would never have the opportunity to become a mother. Wow, didn’t see that one coming. The incident with my sister was one of the most memorable things about that church.
Meanwhile, some siblings of my mother got involved in charismatic churches. Yep, if you don’t have the experience of speaking in tongues then you don’t have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. The guy that wrote the Gospel, oh, I mean the Four Spiritual Laws also wrote a tract about The Spirit Filled Life.
Tongues or no tongues became an issue for me to explore further. My Baptist church said tongues was bogus, but the charismatic folks were much happier and bubblier compared to the Baptist church members. There was something different about them. Eventually, I moved more toward the charismatic side of evangelical Christianity. I was mostly in and around the Assemblies of God denomination.
In high school I had an interest in a girl that went to a different church. (The Church of God of Prophecy.)
At the time, I didn’t know how different. At their evening service, I was asked to read a verse out of Acts. I read the correct verse but literally had the Bible taken away from me mid-sentence because it wasn’t the Authorized King James Version. Literally the only difference between my version (probably NIV) versus the KJV was one word had a “th” on the end of it. I was then directed to read from the correct version of the Bible. Later, I was informed that they were the only true church and all others were false. Needless to say, I stopped dating that gal quicker than Colin Kaepernick could take a knee.
Following my enlistment in the military, I ended up in the Sacramento California area. I began attending Capital Christian Center. This was one of the largest churches in the area. I tried to make Capital my church home, and it was for a while. The service that ended my membership there was preached by then pastor, Glen Cole.
Capital Christian Center — Sacramento, CA
Cole did a fire and brimstone sermon on all of the social evils that we, as American Christians, were confronted with at the start of the 1990’s. He hit many social issues very hard. I was elated that finally someone was kicking the church in the butt, and we were finally going to battle. But toward the end of the sermon, he got to the part about what to do about it and the whole thing imploded. Cole’s solution was that we need to spend more time in church, presumably waiting for the Rapture. Yep. We need to double down on withdrawing from “the world” and spending more time in church. His church literally has some type of service or activity every day of the week. His solution to all the evils of the world was more time in church activities.
Folks, I was devastated. What a cop-out and huge letdown.
Rev Glen Cole — Capital Christian Center Sacramento, CA
You see, what became apparent to me over time was that Premillennial Dispensationalism expects for things to get worse and worse. In fact, it is a theological requirement that things must get worse. Only when the sh*t really hits the fan will it be bad enough for Jesus to return.
They believe this so strongly that they discourage efforts to address social issues and righting wrongs. Essentially, to oppose evil is to keep Christ from returning. This is why large blocks of evangelicals don’t vote or excuse themselves with talk of not voting for the lesser of two evils. They say with their lips that they oppose evil but with their deeds they do nothing to stop it’s progression.
I’m sure someone like Thomas Sowell would state it more eloquently than I just did, but that’s the bottom line. Evangelicals expect things to get worse. Ever hear the phrase about polishing brass on a sinking ship, same idea. This is why Gary North called eschatological pessimism, “pessimillennialism.”
Folks, that was the last straw for me. The idea that we are wasting our time doing good, when such efforts could somehow delay the return of Christ, and somehow we needed to step aside and let everything around us literally go to hell, just did not sit right with me.
Thankfully, I found an alternative to Premillennial Dispensationalism. Christianity prior to 1830, had never heard of Premillennial Dispensationalism. It turns out that for most of the history of Christianity, such a scheme never existed. I found solace in the faith of the Reformers. The Reformers were bold and understood that Christianity has the power to transform not only men but cultures and nations.
The fruit borne of Premillennial Dispensationalism is rotten. Their scholarship is sloppy and they cherry-pick verses based on preexisting presuppositions that are not found in the text. Only by imposing their ideas onto the text can such ideas be seen. Yikes! You’d think after decades of using the New York Times, CNN, and other media outlets to prove their ideas, they might at least try to support their theology from the Bible. Don’t hold your breath. What’s that saying about not ruining a good story with facts?
Premillennial Dispensationalism is like learning how a magic trick is done. Once you understand their sleight-of-hand, the trick loses its hold on you. From that point forward you can no longer be duped by its practitioners. The difference between them and the magician is that the magician knows better while premils really believe they are manipulating unseen forces to reveal truth.
The following is a partial list of false prophecies about the Rapture, battle of Armageddon, or Return of Christ in my lifetime (post 1960).
Hal Lindsey
Date
Person
Group or other info
1964 – October
Seventh Day Adventist
1972
Herbert W. Armstrong
Worldwide Church of God
1975
Herbert W. Armstrong
Worldwide Church of God
1975
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society expected Armageddon
1981
Chuck Smith
1948 plus 40 year generation minus 7 year tribulation
1982
Pat Robertson
televangelist
1982 – June 21
Benjamin Creme
Buddhist related
1988
Hal Lidsey
The Late Great Planet Earth 1948 plus 40 year generation
1988
Edgar C. Whisenant
88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988
1989
Edgar C. Whisenant
The Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989
1991
Louis Farrakhan
Nation of Islam
1993
Edgar C. Whisenant
23 Reasons Why a Pre-Tribulation Rapture Looks Like it will Occur on Rosh-Hashanah 1993
1994 – September 6
Harold Camping
general manager of Family Radio and Bible teacher
1997 – October 23
James Ussher
17th Century Bishop expected the end as it was 6,000 years after creation
1999-2009
Jerry Falwell
predicted in 1999 that the Second Coming would probably be within 10 years
2000
Frank Cherry
Founder of the Black Hebrew Israelite religion
2000
Ed Dobson
The End: Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000
2000
Timothy Dwight IV
President of Yale University foresaw Christ’s Millennium starting by 2000
2000
Edgar Cayce
psychic
2000
Sir Isaac Newton
scientist
2000 – April 6
James Harmston
The leader of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days
2011 – May 21
Harold Camping
general manager of Family Radio and Bible teacher
2011 – October 21
Harold Camping
general manager of Family Radio and Bible teacher
2011 – September 29
Ronald Weinland
The Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God (COG-PKG) is an apocalypticist splinter sect of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)
2012 – May 27
Ronald Weinland
The Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God (COG-PKG) is an apocalypticist splinter sect of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)
2012
Jack Van Impe
televangelist
2012 – December 21
New Age Nuts
Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ended
2013 – May 18
Ronald Weinland
The Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God (COG-PKG) is an apocalypticist splinter sect of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)
2012
Jack Van Impe
televangelist
2015 – September 28
Mark Blitz & John Hagee
Blood Moon Prophecy
2017
David Meade
Predicted the end on YouTube
2018
Henry Morris
Morris claimed that Worlds War I was the first sign of Christ’s return which would occur before that generation died
2019 – Ronald Weinland
The Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God (COG-PKG) is an apocalypticist splinter sect of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)
2020
Jean Dixon
psychic
2020 – July 22
Chad and Lori Daybell
Multiple murders
2021
F. Kenton “Doc” Beshore
1948 plus70 to 80 year generation
2025 – September 23-24
Joshua Mhlakela
South African preacher
2025 – October 7-8
Joshua Mhlakela
South African preacher
This was the warning about the Rapture that happened last year. If you’re reading this, sorry but you were left behind.
Harold Camping
The list also does not include the voluminous number of prophecy pimps in modern pulpits claiming all the signs are in place and it could be any minute. In the Old Testament God’s people were to execute false prophets, in the New we just buy their books. WTF?
Ok Kids. First thing. This “Beast” has nothing to do with the Marvel comics character.
The Beast from Marvel Comics
Neither does it have much to do with modern prophecy pimps like Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHay, Jack Hibbs, or C.I. Scofield.
Hal Lindsey’s false prophecy on the end times reportedly sold over 25 million copies
The core of the biblical prophecies about the beast are found in Revelation chapter 13. First, there are two beasts mentioned. Revelation 13:1-10 concerns a sea beast. Revelation 13:11-18 concerns a land beast. Verses 16-18 are the ones people cite when talking about the “mark of the beast.”
Background
Virtually every symbol in Revelation can be found in one way or another in the Old Testament. When you want to learn about a symbol always start there. Then ask how the original readers and hearers of Revelation living in the First Century would understand what it says.
God gave Abraham a geographical area of land back in Genesis. From then on, it is frequently called “the land.” The land is pictured in various ways through the history of the Jewish nation. Those outside the land are the sea of Gentiles. The sea is wild and chaotic. John even describes the sea:
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest … are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Revelation 17:15.
Below are comments from Logos on this subject:
In biblical symbolism, the sea represents gentiles while the land represents Israel.1 This symbolic framework appears consistently throughout Scripture, particularly in how Old Testament literature portrays foreign nations. After humanity’s fall, the separation between land and sea became emblematic of the division between God’s covenant people and the ungodly nations, with the chaotic sea constantly attempting to encroach upon the land just as gentile powers sought to destabilize God’s established order.2
Throughout the Old Testament, gentiles are frequently depicted through aquatic imagery or referenced in connection with crossing waters.1 This symbolic language extends into apocalyptic literature as well. In Revelation, the many waters are explicitly explained as representing peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues3, and Revelation consistently distinguishes Israel through land and earth imagery while depicting gentiles through the sea.2
The shift from Old Testament to New Testament narrative reinforces this symbolism. In the Old Testament, God revealed His ways through His priestly people inhabiting His land, and the text focuses almost exclusively on land animals—prophets and kings functioned as farmers, shepherds, and herdsmen.2 By contrast, none of Jesus’ prominent disciples were farmers or husbandmen; the most prominent were fishermen, and the disciples are characterized as fishers of men rather than shepherds—imagery indicating that Jesus’ kingdom would extend to the entire world, including the gentiles.1 This transition in symbolic language marks the gospel’s expansion beyond Israel to encompass all nations.
1 James B. Jordan, “153 Large Fish,” in Biblical Horizons (Niceville, FL: Biblical Horizons, 2000), 630.
2 James B. Jordan, The Geneva Review (Birmingham, AL: Theopolis Books, 2022), 20.
3 Alfred Ernest Garvie, “SEA,” in A Dictionary of the Bible: Dealing with Its Language, Literature, and Contents Including the Biblical Theology, ed. James Hastings et al. (New York; Edinburgh: Charles Scribner’s Sons; T. & T. Clark, 1911–1912), 4:424.
The Sea Beast
This is a random sea beast that looked cool so I added it to the post
In Revelation 13:1 it refers to the sea beast as having seven heads and ten horns.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Revelation 13:1.
Again, what John is describing in Revelation is symbols from the Old Testament. So where is he getting this description of the Beast?
Jump back to Daniel chapter 7. Daniel sees four beasts come up out of the sea (vs. 3).
1 Beast one was like a lion (vs. 4)
2 Beast two was like a bear (vs. 5)
3 Beast three was like a leopard with four heads (vs. 6)
4 Beast four was like a terrible with ten horns (vs. 7)
Add these up and you get seven heads (1+1+4+1) and ten horns.
The dragon (see below) gave the beast in Revelation 13 it’s power.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Revelation 12:9
Please note also the corresponding creatures.
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Revelation 13:2.
Revelation 13:1 also adds something new which is not found in Daniel, the ten crowns.
“The ten crowned horns (powers) of the Beast are explained in 17:12 in terms of the governors of the ten imperial provinces, while the seven heads are explained as the line of Caesars (17:9-11): Nero is one of the “heads.”
David Chilton “The Days of Vengeance” pg. 327
David Chilton’s commentary on Revelation
The ten imperial provinces are referenced in this passage:
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Revelation 17:12.
The line of Caesar:
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
Revelation 17:9–11.
Chilton’s comments on Revelation 17:9-10 are also worth noting.
“The “seven mountains” again identify the Beast as Rome, famous for its “seven hills”; but these also correspond to the line of the Caesars, for they are seven kings; five have fallen: They first five Ceasars were Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. One is: Nero, the sixth Caesar, was on the throne as St. John was writing Revelation. The other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while: Galba, the seventh Caesar, reigned for less than seven months.”
David Chilton “The Days of Vengeance” pg. 435-6
The Land Beast
Nothing says land beast quite like Godzilla
Concerning Revelation 13:12, Chilton writes, “The Jewish leaders, symbolized by this Beast from the Land, joined forces with the Beast of Rome in an attempt to destroy the Church. Thus the Land Beast exercises all the authority of the First Beast: “As the first beast is the agent of the dragon, so the second beast is the agent of the first beast. “All the authority’ makes the second beast the complete agent of the first.” Apostate Judaism became completely subservient to the Roman State.” Pg. 337
Mark of the Beast
This what you get when using pop-culture to interpret the Bible
Ok. So, we have briefly dealt with the Sea and Land Beasts. What about the balance of the chapter? Buying, selling, and the Mark of the Beast.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive qa mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 13:16–18.
Folks, there is so much nonsense said about this passage that it makes me laugh on the one hand; but on the other, this is really simple if you confine your analysis to Scripture and don’t seek answers in your daily news feed.
Let’s take verse 18 first and then look at verses 16 & 17.
The first thing you need to remember when reading Revelation is this: what would the first Century audience think when reading or hearing this passage for the first time? Once you start looking at Revelation as someone living in 66 A.D. then a lot of the stuff that is popular today fades away as absurdity. Then it’s clear that the Beast is not Ronald Wilson Reagan (all three of his names have six letters) or Adolf Hitler, or Stalin, or the Prime Minister or any other contemporary person that might be suggested. Why would John suggest that someone in his day could calculate the number of the beast if they were wise? John is indicating that someone in his day might be able to calculate his identity; thus, the Beast was alive in his day.
So why six hundred threescore and six? Please note that it’s not presented as six-six-six or 666. Details matter. Remember also that I previously said that most of the symbolism of Revelation is from the Old Testament.
Let’s jump back to Deuteronomy. Moses knew that in the future that Israel would one day have a King. God planned for it. God even set up three rules for Israel’s king to follow.
14 When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; 15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. [Rule #1]16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. [Rule #2] 17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: [Rule #3] neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
Deuteronomy 17:14–17.
In summary, Israel’s King was not to multiply horses, multiply wives, and multiply gold and silver.
1 A multitude of horses were only for offensive armies. Now that Canaan had been conquered, Israel was only to have defensive military capabilities.
2 A multitude of wives would turn the King’s heart from worshipping the Lord. God was against political alliances bases in marrying daughters of pagan kings.
3 God was against excessive taxation and accumulation of wealth via harsh taxation.
My next question is kind of obvious, who in the Bible broke all three rules for a king and did so in spades? Solomon.
Violations of Rules 1 & 3 are covered in the same passage.
[Rule #1] 26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.[Rule #3] 27 And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore trees that are in the vale, for abundance. 28 And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price. 29 And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.
1 Kings 10:26–29.
Violation of Rule #2 immediately follows the chapter break.
But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; 2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. 3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. 4 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.
1 Kings 11:1–6.
Solomon broke all the rules God had set out for a King of Israel. Thus, he became a wicked ruler.
The Apostle John used Solomon as a prototype of a beast. Any ruler that sets himself up as a “god” is a beast. In Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar was called King of kings (Daniel 2:37) but Nebuchadnezzar because proud and in his heart took credit for what God had done for him and God, as punishment, made him a literal beast. Eventually, Nebuchadnezzar repented and became a man again.
30 The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? 31 While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. 32 And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. 33 The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws. 34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
Daniel 4:30–35.
Now, back to Solomon. Drawing upon this imagery in the Old Testament of Solomon being an apostate ruler, John went to a verse that referenced Solomon’s sin.
14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,
1 Kings 10:14.
Yep. There it is. The good old six hundred threescore and six. This was the excess amount of gold that Solomon was taking in each year.
When Solomon died, his successor was faced with a choice, reduce taxation so the people would love you or increase taxation and oppress the people even more. Rehoboam decided to oppress the people, and the result was that the kingdom was split with him getting two tribes (known as Judah) and Jeroboam getting the other ten tribes (known as Israel).
More biblically based science fiction
I have said this all to prove that the Mark of the Beast originated in the apostacy of Solomon when he because a tyrant. The Beast in Revelation is tied to Solomon via the six hundred three score and six. If you wrote Nero Caesar in Hebrew, it’s numerical value is 666. In this passage, some textual variations have 616 instead of 666. This is the numerical value of Nero Caesar in Greek. Nero was Emperor when John authored the Apocalypse. Nero’s name was written in code to get the manuscript past any Roman censorship.
Obscuring a direct reference to Nero is much like Mother Goose rhymes and other “children’s stories” written to get around censorship of the times. Political commentary was disguised as children’s stories while poking fun at the English government. John’s writing technique is still used today in various media presentations.
The other thing that somehow gets lost in Revelation is that everyone has a “mark.” The mark is symbolic not literal. God’s people are sealed with the mark of the Holy Spirit; the devil’s people are sealed with the Mark of the Beast.
Due to illiteracy of the book of Revelation, I guess I have to prove my claim so here goes.
“ … till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”
Revelation 7:3b-4
Oh, even better, the next verse after the number of the beast is about believers having God the Father’s name on their foreheads.
1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Revelation 14:1.
As Bob Dylan said, “It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody.”
Buying and Selling
Random Roman coins from the Internet
Now for verses 16 & 17. If you didn’t serve the beast then you couldn’t buy and sell. But buy or sell what. Is this a blanket claim that commerce was forbidden or was something more specific in mind?
I know folks claim that you need a microchip, or bar code, or whatever to be part of the world system but is that what somebody in the First Century would understand? I doubt it.
The idol of First Century Jews was the Herodian Temple in Jerusalem. The Herod family started to refurbish the Temple in 20 B.C. and the project was completed shortly after John wrote Revelation. Refurbishment was completed about 64 A.D.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Jesus told the church of Laodicea, “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see” (Rev. 3:18). There is no market available to make such a purchase. Purchasing a commodity like oil for lamps to greet the bridegroom is not about economics but worship (Matt. 25:6–13).
In the same way, buying gold refined by fire is symbolic and is also related to worship. It is reasonable, therefore, to assume that the reference to buying and selling in Revelation 13:17 is also symbolic and not part of an end-time economic system or even one in the first century. Similar language is found in the Old Testament:
55 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
Isaiah 55:1-2
Temple leaders controlled buying and selling to regulate access to the temple (John 2:12–22; Matt. 21:12). It’s why Jesus cleanses the temple twice as required by Leviticus 14:33–57. “This is established in [Revelation] 3:18 (and compare 21:6). When those who refuse the mark of the Beast are not allowed to buy and sell, it means that they are expelled from the synagogue and Temple. The merchants of the land in Revelation 18 are those who worshipped at the Temple and synagogue.” ((James B. Jordan, A Brief Reader’s Guide to Revelation (Niceville, FL: Transfiguration Press, 1999), 19. James was the person who suggested this interpretation. I’m indebted to him for it.))
Jesus foretold that this would happen: “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God” (John 16:2). Keep in mind that the “beast coming up out of the earth” is involved in these events. The land beast is most certainly associated with first-century Israel, especially the priests who controlled access to the temple, which was finished during Nero’s reign in AD 64.
Early in the church’s history the disciples went to the temple to preach the gospel (Acts 5:20–21, 24, 42; 24:12). At first, they were welcomed (2:46). Peter and John frequented the temple during “the hour of prayer” (3:1). Jewish Christians continued to use the temple, even participating in some of its rituals (21:26). After the temple officials learned that those Jews were preaching that Jesus was the Messiah—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—Paul was “dragged … out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut” (21:26–30).
During Jesus’ ministry, the temple officials were “selling,” and worshipers were “buying” access to the temple (Matt. 21:12), turning God’s house into a “robbers’ den” (Matt. 21:12–13). Only the Jews who aligned themselves with the priests (i.e., had the “mark of the beast”), the sacrificial system, and the temple buildings, could enter the temple for worship.
To take the “mark of the beast” meant a person denied that Jesus was the Messiah, the true temple of God, the only sufficient sacrifice (Heb. 9). Of course, Christian Jews avoided the “mark of the beast” and showed their true allegiance to Jesus, “having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads” (Rev. 14:1). They demonstrated that these (symbolic) names on their foreheads through their public professions of faith and allegiance to Jesus. Those who carried the mark of the beast professed that they had chosen Caesar over Christ (John 19:15).
When commanded not to speak to “any man in this name,” Peter and John responded, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:17–20). The proclamation that “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor. 12:3) and “that there is another king, Jesus” (Acts 17:7) was a religious and political affront to those in power throughout the Roman Empire. Such proclamations were acts “contrary to Caesar” (17:7) and “against this holy place [i.e., the temple] and this law” (6:13).
These passages fit together nicely since true redemption comes, not from Rome or earthly Jerusalem, but from where “the Lamb was standing,” that is, on Mount Zion. The writer of Hebrews describes Mt. Zion’s location: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels” (Heb. 12:22).
Revelation 13 and 14 contrast two ways of salvation: access to the temple through the mark, name, or number of the Beast (Rev. 13:16–17) or through the name of the Lamb “having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads” (14:1). Those who were circumcised only in their flesh followed the Beast, while those circumcised in the heart followed the Lamb.
Conclusion
So, I think this about wraps up everything you wanted to know about the beasts of Revelation and the mark. God places his mark on the foreheads of his people, and the devil places a mark on the foreheads of his people. This motif goes all the way back to the beginning in Genesis but that is a separate topic.
Fraternal organizations, church groups, volunteer groups, Kiwanis, Rotarians, Lions, Elks, even the Masons; when you think of them, you think service. Charitable donations, raising money, involvement in the community. One thing I doubt you think about? A branded credit card from said organizations.
In a first, the laymen’s service organization of the Roman Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus, is now proud to offer their very own branded credit card.
Samuel L Jackson asking, “What’s in your wallet?”
Nope, this card is not just for members who travel on church business that functions as a company credit card, but one available to the public. Remember that availability to all is a requirement, as red-lining and discrimination is illegal in banking. So yes, atheists, wiccans, freemasons, and heretical protestants can use and apply for our credit card too.
The Knights is a fraternal organization. A friend had sent me this email that I thought was either; the Onion (a satirical online newspaper), the Babylon Bee (also majoring in satire), or some AI generated attempt at trolling. Nope, it’s true! It’s on the Knights website.
I am actually pretty aghast. If it weren’t for other things going on in my life, I would likely leave the organization. Seriously. When you stray from your core values that much? It’s a big problem for me.
The big issue I have is what a credit card really is. Sure, you think it’s a way to front some money, and as long as you pay it back each month, you’re fine. In theory you are correct but that’s mostly the exception; I’m talking about the rule. Quite a large number of people do not pay off said credit cards each month. Many are in debt over their head. Just check out Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, or Suze Orman’s shows to name a few. Thousands of people are enslaved to debt, sometimes five figures!
The Knights’ credit card carries an interest rate of 36% while paying 1% in rewards. I believe the Bible makes several statements on usury (charging excessive rates/fees). This goes completely against the Church’s teaching.
Aren’t the Knights a church ministry? Correct.
At the same time we are touting the benefits of debt for our members, we have been offering prayers for the canonization (sainthood) of our founder Fr. Michael J. McGivney.
Fr. Michael J. McGivney
This prayer specifically talks about caring for the needy and the outcast. Doesn’t a credit card go directly against that? Why the need for unsecured credit? Don’t credit cards prey on the needy and outcast? So, what is the benefit to the Knights of Columbus in offering such a card?
The Knights do not have or operate a bank. We have life insurance and investment divisions that aren’t predatory in nature like a credit card is. Venturing into credit cards seems way off mission to me.
Yep. True story. Long ago I was a member in good standing of the oldest Christian Church in the West. I was baptized as an infant at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Woodland. A small town just north of Sacramento California. I attended the parish school from kindergarten through sixth grade.
I won’t go into all the weeds but let’s just say that by fifth grade, I had decided God wasn’t real. I purposely wrote God with a lower case “g” and was sour on the idea of his existence. I butted heads with the nuns from the on-campus convent. I drive Sister Ilene up the wall, and my behavior prompted more than one parent-teacher conference.
I came across someone of a different faith that got me to read the Bible. I found stuff in the Bible that was contrary to what the church taught. I brought some of these things to the nuns at the school. They had no response to my Bible based questions except to say that I wasn’t capable of reading the Bible on my own. I needed the priests and bishops to tell me what it said. I was warned that if I continued reading the Bible on my own that I might become a heretic just like Martin Luther. (Oh, FYI it was the first time that I ever heard of Martin Luther.)
I became hungry for some answers to my questions.
Oh, the passage that gave the nuns fits was that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Yep. Jesus was the oldest but clearly, he had siblings. Roman Catholics reject these scriptures or try to weasel out of them, but they are unambiguous.
Here is what Logos found via an A.I. search.
The Gospels identify Jesus with specific family relationships: he is called “the carpenter’s son” with brothers named James, Joses, Simon, and Judas (Matt 13:55–56), and sisters are mentioned but remain unnamed (Matt 13:55–56). Mark’s account similarly refers to him as “the carpenter, the son of Mary” (Mark 6:3), and after the resurrection, his brothers appear with Mary in prayer (Acts 1:14). Paul identifies James as “the Lord’s brother” (Gal 1:19), and James eventually became a pillar of the Jerusalem church.
Source R. Alan Culpepper, Mark, ed. Leslie Andres and R. Alan Culpepper, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Incorporated, 2007), 190.
The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches claim that said brothers and sisters can’t really be that due to claims of Mary’s perpetual virginity. This doctrine is nonsense. The Bible says so.
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. [quote from Isaiah 7:14] 24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: 25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
Matthew 1:23–25.
It says Joseph didn’t have sex with Mary until Jesus was born, not that he never had sex with her. Folks, sex is part of being married. In fact, it’s not really a valid marriage if the couple doesn’t have sex. That is why having sex is called “consummating the marriage”.
Oh, for doubters of my claim, here is a portion of an article on consummating a marriage that I grabbed from my friendly Internet search engine.
In canon law and many religious traditions, consummation is considered essential for a marriage to be fully valid, often linked to the potential for procreation. Some doctrines even specify that intercourse with contraception may not count as consummation. Historically, consummation was sometimes verified through rituals or inspections, though such practices have largely disappeared.
Here are some Bible verses concerning, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus’ siblings.
55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?
Matthew 13:55–56.
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
Mark 6:3.
22 … And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
Luke 4:22b.
42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
John 6:42a.
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Acts 1:14.
19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
Galatians 1:19.
By the end of seventh grade, I knew about Jesus, but I was confronted with the fact that I didn’t know him. I was missing a relationship with him. Frankly, I didn’t know there was such a thing. Knowing about someone and knowing them are two different propositions. I learned that this was a spiritual truth as well. Yes, I slowly decided that God was real, but I was missing him in the Roman Catholic Church.
During this time in my life, my mom ended up watching Bill Graham on television. She prayed along with Graham and gave her life to Christ. (More on this shortly.) She started taking us to a Baptist church in town. I liked that they had a youth program and was excited to have adults around me that were open to answering any questions that I could hurl at them. I got answers not deferrals to higher authorities.
As summer approached, mom signed all three of her children up to attend the summer church camp. At camp, I was told that Jesus died for my sins and I could have a personal relationship with him. He would forgive my sins and come into my life. I had only to ask him. As a first step to show my desire to know Christ in an intimate way, I was asked at the end of the chapel service to come forward and pray. I did so.
Folks, the act of walking down the aisle does not save anyone but for me it was a first step in knowing Christ as opposed to knowing about him. That camp experience really changed me. For others it was a flash in the pan that never really took, but it was transformative for me.
My life changed as a result of that encounter with God. My relationship with God has changed over the years because I have gotten deeper into the Bible than many others that I know. I have changed my views of somethings, but God is more real to me now than He was that summer. That was fifty years ago.
If you have a desire to know God more intimately, then ask Jesus to save you from your sin, redeem you, and make you a new person. Then, start reading your Bible. Many folks say to start with the Gospels. On one level, the Gospel of John is an easy read but if you grew up with “a Charlie Brown Christmas” then start with Luke. It will sound familiar.
Over time, God expects you to deepen your walk with Him. Yep, you will mess up. Ask forgiveness and keep going. Perseverance is an important part of living out your faith. Oh, exercising your faith in a community of believers is the biblical norm. This might take some trial and error to figure out. For me, the Roman Catholic Church was not the place where I got fed a lot in a spiritual sense.
Knowing God is possible if you seek after Christ. I may say that I’m really right but I know that only God truly is.
I’ve probably mentioned this before but felt like writing on it again.
Supposedly, Matthew 24 contains a rock-solid proof of the Rapture of the Church. First, here’s the passage in question.
36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. 37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Matthew 24:36–42.
Jesus says that something is coming and only the Father knows when. (We are actually given more context and time related information by Matthew but I’m strictly sticking to the quoted passage.) He then gives this analogy. People will be eating and drinking. Whoa. That’s evil? They will be marrying and giving in marriage. Whoa. That’s evil?
Seriously? Hey folks, life goes on, as normal but then Noah entered the Ark. Life still went on for another week.
“And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.”
Genesis 7:10.
Then the flood waters came. Guess what happened next?
21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: Genesis 7:21.
Yep, all the bad guys died. The righteous folks, i.e. Noah’s family were safe in the Ark. The wicked were taken.
Ok, now look at verse 39 in Matthew 24. It actually says the exact opposite of when premillennial dispensationalists claim it does.
“39 And [they] knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
So, the bad guys knew not until the flood came and took them all away. Yep, the people taken are the wicked not the righteous.
Now look at verse 40 & 41 in Matthew 24.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
So, who is taken? The bad guys not the Christians.
FYI zero Christians were killed in the siege of Jerusalem. This was the reason that the church in Jerusalem sold their property and held it in common all the way at the beginning of the Book of Acts. They were told to flee when they see the signs and they did. Obey and live. In fact, you didn’t even need to be a Christian to avoid the coming judgment, just flee when the predicted signs appeared.
Jump back to the Sermon on the Mount; “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5.
So, class, who inherits the world? The righteous. We don’t inherit Heaven, but the earth.
Need more proof?
The righteous shall never be removed:
But the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.
Proverbs 10: 30
For evildoers shall be cut off:
But those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be:
Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
But the meek shall inherit the earth;
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Psalm 37:9–11.
Jesus is promising that the wicked, those that oppose the Christians of the First Century, will be removed from the earth. This allows the meek to inherit the world.
The problem is not the Bible; it’s the false understanding that we have when we impose our presuppositions on the text instead of letting the text speak for itself.
In Matthew 24, Israel and more specifically, Jerusalem and its Temple, are about to be judged. The wicked Jews of the First Century are about to be judged for “all the righteous blood from Abel through Zechariah.”
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Matthew 23:29–38
47 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. 49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: 50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
Luke 11:47–51.
The blood of all the righteous prophets ever killed in the history of the Bible would be required of this generation—those that heard the voice of Jesus just days before he was crucified. Folks, this promise is airtight. There is no deferring it or waiting until some future event thousands of years hence, it was going to happen to them, and it did. Jesus said the judgment would be so terrible that unless it was cut short, no flesh would be saved. Over one million people died in the siege of Jerusalem that ended in 70 A.D.
Folks, at the trial of Jesus, the crowd screamed let his blood be upon us and it was.
25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.”
Matthew 27:25.
Within a generation of his crucifixion, the Jewish nation was wiped off the map. The Old Covenant era was ended forever. Jesus said I will take it from you and give it to a nation bearing the fruit thereof and he did. That new nation began with a remnant of Jews on Pentecost. Eventually, this righteous remnant began grafting non-Jews (Gentiles) into its assembly. This nation will encompass the entire world not just a small patch of land in Palestine. The Bible says that the Gospel was spread to all the civilized world before the New Testament’s writing was even completed. The Gospel was preached to every creature under heaven.
In the early church, there was apostacy in the form of Judaizers and gnostic teaching. Many fell away from the true faith. There was also persecution instigated by Jews jealous of the freedom found in Christ. Up until the end of Nero’s reign, Rome protected Christians from the Jews. Under Nero, persecution against the church began. The Apostle Paul and Jesus via Revelation both promised the church relief if they would stay faithful just a little longer. Relief came when Israel was judged for its sin. The apostate whore was burned by her lovers and destroyed just as John had recorded in Revelation 17.
The Olivet Discourse was a prophecy in 33 A.D. but history by 70 A.D. The Apostle John lived to see his prophetic work come to pass during his lifetime just as Jesus had promised on a beach in Galilee many years before.
Sorry kids. No Rapture in your future, just God’s promises … if you’d only believe them.
I don’t know if the passage which I quote below ever made it into print. I have very few books by Doug Wilson, maybe three. However, I think it has application on the Abolitionists movement so I wanted to place it on the record. As usual, I quote more than a sound bite or sentence fragment to insure that readers will understand the context; especially since verifying my transcript will prove difficult for most folks.. The source of my quotation is from a four lecture presentation on Eschatology. This is from Lecture 3 “The Power of the Cross”. I think it was recorded in the early 1990’s. This quotation is not about Abolitionists (since they didn’t exist at the time of the recording) but is applicable to them. Lastly, the transcript was made using voice recognition in Microsoft Word and then edited by me. Thus paragraph breaks and punctuation were created by me.
— Transcript begins now: —
Romans 4:13
“13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. “
Now, a very simple, straight forward thing, what was Abraham promised? Not just lots of descendants, he was promised descendants like the stars in the sky, he was promised descendants like the grains of sand on the seashore. But how does Paul put that promise here? What was Abraham promised? The world. All right? And who is promised the world along with Abraham? “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed …”, OK, in other words, the promise to Abraham is fulfilled not just in what is given to Abraham, but what is given to Abraham through his seed. So, what was Abraham promised and what was Abraham’s seed promised? The world.
Let’s put another, let’s throw another verse here that you are very familiar with, but nobody believes. “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit heaven when they die.” (laughter) “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5), not heaven, the earth. Abraham and his seed were promised the world.
Now this is a very important distinction, by what instrument were they were they to be given the world? Not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith; not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Now let me, let me, throw a parenthetical comment in here, and I’m going to throw some turns out, you probably had a very similar experience with them. I don’t call myself a Reconstructionist but other people do, and when these other people say that you know Wilson’s a Reconstructionist, what do they mean?
They generally mean that I want to, and others like me, others of my ilk, want to march on Washington, institute biblical law, and impose it on everybody; wrapping it around their neck all the way down. Alright? Some sort of top-down thing. Well, that whole idea appalled me. It just, it just appalls me. There are Christians who do it and they’re called Dispensationalists. They’re the ones with Christian Coalition. They’re the ones with religious lobbying organizations. They’re the ones who are doing their big thing in Washington D.C.
The promise, and everybody thinks that because the politics is such an idol in our in our era, everybody thinks that if you if you believe that that the Christian faith is going to exercise universal dominion, everybody thinks that you’re running for Congress
It’s one of those bizarre things… I do believe that we are going to inherit the world. How? Through the righteousness of faith. Through the proclamation of the Gospel. The most important thing we can do for the recovery of godly order and civil decency is to bring about a reformation in the church. We don’t, we don’t need umm, we don’t need any more godly people going to Washington. H.L. Manchin, the erudite unbeliever said, “Trying to reform Washington by sending good people there is like trying to reform prostitution by staffing brothels with virgins.”
We just don’t fix things that way. Alright. You can send a good man to Washington, and the first thing that happens, is he grows in office. That’s the first thing that happens. He starts compromising. He starts going along to get along. We don’t, that’s not where the action is. The, Abraham, Abraham was promised the world. Abraham and his seed were promised the world; and it says not through law, but through the righteousness of faith. What does the righteousness of faith mean? It’s justification. It’s a response to the gospel. As we hear the gospel proclaimed, we believe the gospel, through that instrumentality; cultures, nations, peoples will be transformed and it will eventually be reflected in the political realm.
All right, but we don’t, we don’t go for the political realm, and try and reform the church. We reform the church, and through the Reformation of the church, will see the Reformation of families, towns, counties, entire nation, That’s, that’s what God calls us to but we don’t minimize the goal. You know, a lot of the people who are in Washington doing their thing, they want, they want our voice to be heard. They want as the saying goes, they want a place at the table. And I don’t, I don’t wanna place at the table. I wanna know who’s the cook. I just don’t want to place at the table, I want the table. I want the whole table and I want the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the head of it and I’m not gonna have anything to do with it until he’s honored and and honored at that position of headship. Now how is that gonna happen? It’s not gonna happen through me writing letter a letter to a congressman. It’s gonna happen through the work of reformation in the Church.
As the church has become sound and biblical that is, that is, what God tells us to do and there’s a promise attached to it. We know that this work of reformation that we’ve undertaken will not be unsuccessful, we know in the long haul, it will necessarily be successful because God’s promised He made a promise to Abraham. He made a promise to Abraham and to his seed. Every time someone’s converted, comes into the kingdom of God, there is God being faithful again, still to Abraham.
— End of Transcription —
My point in quoting Wilson is that he is saying the exact opposite of Abolitionists. Abolitionists want to reform the Church by passing laws in the States that will then enforce biblical law on the citizens with the hope that this will then lead to reformation of our culture. The biblical pattern is just the opposite; namely, start with the church and the revival of the church will lead to cultural and societal transformation. This was the pattern of the Reformation and it worked as long as the faithful were faithful.
The other question that begs asking is why not implement all biblical civil laws, why single out abortion as opposed to adultery, divorce, homosexuality, Sabbath breaking or disobedient children? Abortion, adultery, and divorce are just as common in the church as in world at large.
In the next few days, I plan on posting a transcript from David Chilton that answers my question about whom should we really start with if we want to reform our society and culture.
The following discusses “Preterism.” Preterism is the belief that certain passages in the Bible were predicted and then fulfilled. To some degree, all Christians are preterists. They believe the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament is Jesus Christ of the New Testament. The issue is which biblical prophecies are fulfilled, and which are future. Within a subset of Protestants, a debate is raging over which prophecies of the coming of Jesus are future and which were fulfilled by the events of 70 A.D.—the destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem.
Three Questions
In 2023, a letter was sent to Gary DeMar with three questions. The letter demanded that Gary affirm three statements as true. The statements were about biblical doctrines, but no supporting verses were included.
The three questions asked of Gary DeMar in 2023 were:
Do you believe in a future, bodily glorious return of Christ?
Do you believe in a future physical, general resurrection of the dead?
Do you believe history will end with the Final Judgment of all men?
The letter then goes on to state:
To refuse to affirm the future, physical resurrection, the final judgment of the righteous and the unrighteous, and the tactile reality of the eternal state is to refuse to affirm critical elements of the Christian faith. To contradict these doctrines is not merely to contradict a few specific biblical texts, it is to contradict indispensable aspects of the Christian faith and the biblical worldview.
The letter was leaked onto Facebook because DeMar didn’t respond. Public pressure was brought to bear on DeMar, and a website was even set up to solicit signatures of people that affirmed the questions. On the website, the three questions were expanded to seven weirdly worded questions; supporting verses were also added. The weirdly worded questions employed the type of verbal gymnastics that California voters are frequently confronted with where “no” means “yes” and “yes” means “no.”
The letter’s author, and agreeing signatories, were trying to position DeMar as a heretic—in their mind DeMar is a closeted full preterist—while they are Orthodox because they are partial preterists which affirm the Historic Creeds. (More on that shortly.)
Before being aware of the website, Gary DeMar responded by saying, which verses apply to these questions? Tell me that and then I will respond.
Once the verses were attached, DeMar was presented with a target rich environment. The signatories were at odds with each other as to which verses applied to A.D. 70 and which to the final return of Christ at the end of history.
The Historic Creeds
In the circles that DeMar runs in, folks are Presbyterian. They acknowledge the Apostle’s Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and Westminster Confession of Faith. The controversy before people contemplating the Three Questions are mostly related to the return of Christ as mentioned in the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds.
“… he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.” — Apostle’s Creed
“He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” — Nicene Creed
“… and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” — Nicene Creed
DeMar’s Response
DeMar spent many hours on subsequent podcasts pointing out that the signatories did not agree as to which verses listed as supporting the Three Questions applied to the coming of Christ in judgment in 70 A.D. and which applied to a return of Christ at the end of history. Gary’s response was essentially, what am I affirming if y’all can’t even agree amongst yourselves on the position of Orthodox Christianity.
Some of the signatories have changed their positions over the years, one of which is Kenneth Gentry. Gentry has changed his mind on his interpretation of parts of Matthew 24. His current view seems to be nonsense to me and unsupportable. Either Matthew 24 is past or future, but Gentry has decided without any textual support to split it so one verse is fulfilled and the next verse is future and then the next verse is fulfilled again. I don’t agree with splitting past and future at Matthew 24:35 or thereabouts but at least that way keeps verses one to the split together, so the first half is history and the remainder is future. However, Gentry does not do that either.
Part of the issue is that the Creeds have no biblical citations to show where the various clauses come from.
Here is an example of the problems that this creates.
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Matthew 16:27.
Again, the Apostle’s Creed “he will come to judge the living and the dead”
These sound a lot alike but read the next verse.
28 Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
Matthew 16:28.
Read verses 27 & 28 together. Jesus said the Son will come with angels and reward (judge) every man and some of his First Century listeners would not die before they see this fulfilled. They would live to see him coming into his Kingdom!
Folks, many texts create similar problems. They were future to the people to whom Jesus spoke but fulfilled before the Creeds were even written. DeMar’s point was that the authors of the Creed ignored the time texts and just assumed it was speaking of a future event. As DeMar often says, “They [authors of the Creeds] didn’t show their homework.”
Per this verse, the judgment of all men is not a future expectation as the Creeds imply because some men were already judged—unless you want to say Jesus was a liar—which no signatories or DeMar would allow as a possibility. I think DeMar’s friend, Kim Burgess, would answer that the judgment of men according to their works (Matthew 16:27) was completed when the Old Testament Saints were released from Sheol and allowed to enter Heaven. This would have been between the Ascension and 70 A.D. Thus, Jesus literally opened the way into Heaven and before that time, nobody went there when they died. On this point, the Westminster Confessions are wrong. Only after this First Century judgment was “absent from the body, present with the Lord” a reality.
The problem that Gentry and others have is that they are wedded to the traditions of the Church. Sola Scriptura is not really a thing for them when considering this topic, they assume the tradition is right and then try to shoehorn everything into it. This is why Gentry changed his position on Matthew.
If you took every verse cited by one or more signatories of the Three Questions as applying to A.D. 70, you would end up with no verses applying to what is traditionally regarded as “The Second Coming”. This is why they regard Full Preterism as heresy. The underlying assumption of the signatories is that something must remain to support the position of the Creeds and the Church. DeMar points out that they have no agreement on the topic, but they assume the truth of the proposition because Church tradition and the Creeds demand it.
Jason Bradfield
Jason Bradfield
Kenneth Gentry has been putting forth Jason Bradfield as his attack dog on Facebook to counter Gary DeMar. I have two issues with this. First Bradfield comes across as holier than thou and smug in his attacks on DeMar and second, Gentry reposts Bradfield in a way that completely blocks comments on any of Bradfield articles. Thus, Bradfield does not have to defend his attacks on DeMar. To me it’s gutless if you are unwilling to defend your position.
The most recent volley between the two was on the topic of Acts 1: 9-11. Posts by both men on this topic went up on the Internet on March 22, 2026.
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Acts 1:9–11.
First, here is what DeMar posted.
Most futurists use this verse to show that Jesus will return in His physical body because that would be necessary in order to fulfill “just in the same way” He went away. The problem is that this Greek phrase is translated differently in other parts of the NT [New Testament].
The above quote from DeMar is not an exhaustive dissertation but from a teaser for a podcast episode on the passage.
Bradfield states this about DeMar:
Stage three is his only real engagement with the text itself: an argument about Greek phrase hon tropon (”in the same way” or “in like manner”). DeMar notes this phrase appears elsewhere in the New Testament (Matthew 23:37, Acts 7:28 Timothy 3:8) and is translated simply as “as” in those passages, not “in just the same way.” From this, he concludes that the translations of Acts 1:11 are prejudicially rendered, that hon tropon doesn’t actually require a precise correspondence between the ascension and the return, and therefore Acts 1:11 “not the slam dunk” people think it is.
Based on what I have heard DeMar say on his podcast, Bradfield’s summary, which I quoted above, is correct. Bradfield then accuses DeMar of sleight-of-hand because DeMar does not deal with each Greek word in the passage.
If Acts 1:11 is the very text under dispute, you cannot settle its meaning by appealing to your conclusions about other texts. That is circular reasoning. You must deal with what this text says.
I frankly think this is Bradfield invoking his own sleight-of-hand to counter DeMar. To dismiss out-of-hand the way the Greek word is used anywhere else in Scripture as irrelevant to understanding hon tropon is prejudicial. Bradfield also ignores any passages that are parallel to Act 1:9-11. He deals with this verse in isolation. Whether he is employing the magic prophecy scissors, I will let the read decide.
Bradfield then goes on to dissect several Greek words in the passage. Ironically, he does this by citing other instances where certain Greek words are used—which he just castigated DeMar for doing. He does this by selecting quotes from Keith Mathison.
Keith Mathison
Mathison is having an imaginary conversation where he is rebuking someone else’s views as wrongly understanding the text.
Bradfield wants his readers to assume that said person getting rebuked by Mathison is Gary DeMar. In My mind this is a strawman argument or a tearing down via proxy. The things being rebuked by Mathison are things DeMar has never said. Bradfield is putting words into DeMar’s mouth via this method of analysis.
DeMar points out in his podcast that Jesus’s coming is described differently in different biblical passages. In some passages, Jesus comes on the clouds. Sometimes with angels. In Revelation he is coming on a white horse—Darrell Mansfield’s favorite description. Elsewhere, Jesus comes with a two-edged sword coming out of his mouth. You get the idea. His coming is a fact, the particulars are more descriptive. Some are more literal than others.
The core of Bradfield’s article is:
DeMar also never addresses the presence of houtōs (“thus,” “in this way”) in this verse. He treats hon tropon in isolation, as though it alone carries the full weight of the comparison. But in Acts 1:11, houtōs and hon tropon work together: “will come thus (houtōs)…in the manner in which (hon tropon) you saw him go.” As Mathison explains, “The construction hon tropon is a compound adverbial phrase corresponding to houtōs. It means ‘in the manner in which’ or ‘just as.’ The use houtōs together with hon tropon serves to emphasize the point that Jesus will come in the same way that he departed.” This houtōs…hon tropon combination creates a double emphasis on correspondence between the manner of departure and the manner of return. This combination does not appear in Matthew 23:37, Acts 7:2 or 2 Timothy 3:8. DeMar’s cross-references, therefore, are not as parallel as he assumes.
Again, DeMar is not a careless thinker. He knows where the exegetical pressure points are. That is precisely what makes the pattern so damning. When he engages Acts 1:11, he isolates hon tropon from its context, ignores the verbs of sight and the spatial language that define the manner of the departure, and imports a conclusion from other passages rather than deriving one from the text at hand.
Essentially, Bradfield is demanding that the passage says that Jesus will physically return to earth in the same way that he left. Taken literally, the return of Jesus will be a local event that almost nobody will see except eleven or twelve folks on an obscure mountain top.
Compare Acts 1:9-11 to Revelation 1:7
Remember that the following verse is about the judgment on Jerusalem, not the end of the world.
7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Revelation 1:7.
So, every eye will see Jesus when he comes in judgment in 70 A.D. (Kenneth Gentry spends over 20 pages of his commentary on Revelation defending this interpretation) but in Acts 1:11, where Jesus is claimed to return physically at the end of the world, it is a private affair because his return is a carbon copy of his departure? Sorry but this makes zero sense. Clearly, Bradfield is trying to shoehorn the Acts passage into the preexisting mold of tradition and the Creeds.
Kenneth Gentry
Jason Brasdfield is trying to force at least two things from Acts 1, the when, and the how of Christ’s Return. If during the judgment on Jerusalem, “every eye will see him” then clearly Jesus came, and on the clouds too! The subject of “The Cloud” is important to the Acts passage too but gets zero mention from Bradfield. There is a long history and much biblical imagery attached to “The Cloud.”
The issue of Jesus coming more than once is also on the table but nothing from Bradfield on that either.
Bradfield can employ all the Greek Fire that he can muster but nobody has disputed that Jesus would return after the Ascension, it is the how, when, and how many times that needs to be addressed. DeMar is right. Once the signatories agree then have a chat with him and bring verses not slogans.
Conclusion
Gary DeMar has been singled out for special treatment for reasons that I just don’t understand. Gary doesn’t have to answer the questions. Frankly, his job is easy, pointing out the inconsistencies on the other side. I think Bradfield is tired of DeMar being evasive. I just think DeMar is having fun poking holes in the other side. They attacked him and he is making them pay for their stupidity.
The truth is that these guys agree on 98 percent of their theology. The Bible doesn’t tell us much of anything about what happens after death. When we die then we will be with Christ. Jesus comes multiple times in judgment throughout human history. It’s part of ruling on the Throne now. That is a present reality not a future hope.
Contrary to tradition, there are zero verses that say Jesus will ever set foot on planet earth again. I think he will, but I can’t find it in the Bible. The point of the New Testament is the end of the Old Covenant with its temples, blood sacrifices, and rituals. In the Kingdom age, we have work to do. The issue facing the Church in our age is Christians hiding out in their Churches praying for the Rapture, so they won’t have to transform their culture so it is subject to the Lordship of Christ.
Contrary to Premillennial/Dispensationalism, the focus of the New Testament is the Kingdom of God and his Church conquering the world. The last, last things (end of the world as we know it) are not for us to worry about. The Second Coming—whatever form it will take—will not happen for a very long time so quit worrying about it.
Enough with the circular firing squad, Jesus is knocking on the door of your church, will you let him in?
