Really Right

Category: Christianity

  • The Times of the Gentiles

    The Times of the Gentiles

    Folks, I just can’t catch a break. I was minding my own business, as best I can at the church Bible study last night and presto, yet another time when we as modern Christians can’t let the Bible define terms but have to project stuff into the text that it plainly never says.

    The study lead brought up the time of the Gentiles. Before speaking, I actually looked up the verse before opening my mouth, not that it helped, but …

    Oh, said passage is Revelation 11:2

    2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

    So, there it is in black and white but as usual, nobody cared. It didn’t agree with Scofield so of course I had to be wrong. A parallel passage is found in Luke 21:24

    24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

    The leader tried to say that the time of the Gentiles began with the vision of Daniel of the statue representing four kingdoms. And continues until the return of Christ to establish the millennium. Somehow his understanding of the vision always leaves out the fact that the rock (Christ) destroys the statue and that the rock grows into a mountain that fills the whole earth. The rock clearly represents the growth and success of the Gospel which will eventually fill the whole earth.

    Here’s the text from Daniel.

    31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. 34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out fwithout hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

    Daniel 2:31–35.

    Daniel then interprets the dream.

    36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. 37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. 39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. 44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

    Daniel 2:36–45.

    The four kingdoms are understood as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece (Alexander the Great), and Rome. Rome initially protected Christians (see Paul and the book of Acts) but eventually turned on them and became an enemy of God’s people. If you don’t believe me, look up Nero and Roman candles.

    Dispensational Premillennialism Wrong Again

    Below is the Dispensational Premillennial position on the “Time of the Gentiles” per Logos software.

    Jesus speaks of Jerusalem being trampled by Gentiles “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled,” (Luke 21:24) a phrase that has generated considerable theological discussion about its scope and endpoint.

    The term refers to God’s use of Gentile nations as instruments of discipline upon Israel1, functioning as a prolonged period of subjugation rather than a brief episode. This era commenced with Israel’s initial oppression in Egypt and will conclude when Christ returns to deliver Israel from Gentile domination and establish their prominence among nations in the millennial kingdom.1

    The chronological boundaries remain debated. One interpretation places the beginning at Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, when Judah was exiled to Babylon, with the conclusion arriving through the Lord’s intervention from heaven.2 Another view suggests the era extends from Jerusalem’s destruction in AD 70 through the end of history.3 Throughout this period, four successive Gentile empires dominate world affairs, as depicted in Daniel’s visions.2

    A common interpretive framework calculates the times of the Gentiles as 2,520 years based on calculations derived from Leviticus 26, yet no specific ending date appears explicitly in Scripture, despite numerous scholarly attempts to identify one.1 The phrase concerns political dominion over the Jewish people rather than the salvation of Gentiles—a distinction important for understanding what “fulfillment” actually entails.1

    1 Finis Jennings Dake, in Dake’s Topics (WORDsearch, 1991). [See here, here, here, here.]

    2 F. W. Grant, Leaves From The Book (Galaxie Software, 2004), 82.

    3 Timothy A. Gabrielson, “Times of the Gentiles,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). [See here.]

    Please note that nowhere in the above discussion does anybody cite the actual biblical reference to the times of the Gentiles mentioned in the Bible. Using a term and purposely skipping its definition is clearly sloppy scholarship if not outright dishonesty.

    Oh, in fairness, I did look up the notes for Luke 21:24 and Revelation 11:2 in my Scofield Reference Bible and Scofield claims that the time of the Gentiles began when Babylon captured Jerusalem and destroyed the first temple but as usual he never cites any actual evidence in the Bible to back up his claim.

    Here’s a Contrary View

    The following question was put to me. What follows is my response:

    In Luke 21:24, after the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, it says, “and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” The man on the street reading this without a theological bias and the person reading this with a literal interpretation would clearly think there is a time gap involved here.

    The “gap” this person is referring to is the time between the destruction of Jerusalem that took place in AD 70 and some yet future time when the Gentiles—the nations—ravage Israel again. Supposedly we are living in that “in-between time” that’s nearly 2000 years long.

    He is assuming a distant future fulfillment when none is implied. It’s certainly in the future for those who heard Jesus’ prophecy around AD 30, but not necessarily in the distant future. The fulfillment of the “times of the Gentiles” occurred when the Gentiles—represented by the Roman armies that made up “the nations” at the time (Rom: 16:25-26; 1 Tim. 3:16; Acts 2:5) and depicted as four kingdoms in Daniel 2–3—acted as God’s agent(1:1–2) in the destruction of the temple and the judgment on the city of Jerusalem.

    Until the Times of the Gentiles are Fulfilled by Gary DeMar 02/09/2021

    DeMar continues:

    Milton Terry wrote the classic work Biblical Hermeneutics, a standard study on biblical interpretation that has been around for more than 135 years. Here’s what he wrote about the time of the Gentiles:

    “The statement of Luke xxi, 24, that “Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled,” is supposed to involve events which did not take place in that generation. The “times of the Gentiles” (kairoi ethnown [nations from the Greek word ethnos from which we get the word “ethnic”]) are assumed to be the times of the opportunities of grace afforded to the Gentiles under the Gospel. But to understand the words in this sense would be, as Van Oosterzee observes, to interpolate a thought entirely foreign to the context. “The times of the Gentiles,” says Bengel, “are the times allotted to the Gentiles to tread down the city;” but there is nothing in the passage or context to authorize his further remark that “these times shall be ended when the Gentiles’ conversion shall be fully consummated,” and that the treading down by Romans, Persians, Saracens, Franks, and Turks is to be understood. These kairoi [times] are manifestly times of judgment upon Jerusalem, not times of salvation to the Gentiles.”

    “The most natural and obvious parallel is Rev. xi. 2, where the outer court of the temple is said to be “given to the Gentiles,” by whom the holy city shall be trodden down forty-two months, a period equivalent to the “time and times and half a time” of Rev. xii, 14, and of Dan. vii, 25; xii, 7. This is a symbolical period of judgment (see above, p. 384 [in Biblical Hermeneutics], but does not denote ages and generations. It is three and a half—a divided seven, a short but signal period of woe. The “times of the Gentiles,” therefore, are the three and a half times (approximating three and a half years) during which the Gentile armies besieged and trampled down Jerusalem. (Milton S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics, unabridged ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, n.d.), 445.)”

    Terry is not alone in his interpretation. Heinrich Meyer in his Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Mark-Luke (Trans. Peter Christie (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1884), 530–531.) argues in a similar way that “till the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled” refer to “the time that the periods which are appointed to the Gentile nations for the completion of divine judgments (not the period of grace for the Gentiles, as Ebrard foists into the passage) shall have run out. Comp. Rev. xi. 2. Such times of the Gentiles are ended in the case in question by the Parousia ([Luke 21:] 25f., 27), which is to occur during the lifetime of the hearers (ver. 28); … hence those καιροί [times]are in no way to be regarded as of longer duration.”

    Closing Comments

    As usual, the Premillennial Dispensationalist position cannot be found in the Bible, only imposed upon it as an interpretive grid. When something agrees, quote it, when it doesn’t, ignore it. When someone cherry-picks texts instead of looking at all the relevant data and then drawing a conclusion, then you know they have their thumb on the scales and are pushing something other than the truth.

    As you can tell, such sloppiness gets me riled up, but I usually manage to keep myself in check. I find that picking my battles in this group is better than insisting on winning the war by bayonetting all the wounded. Instead, I vent on my blog.

  • The Myth of the Antichrist

    The Myth of the Antichrist

    As I touched on in my last installment, the word “antichrist” never appears in the book of Revelation. Yep, it’s a doctrine to many folks but like most of the B.S. propagated by C.I. Scofield, it cannot be found in the actual text of the Bible.

    The Antichrist, of popular culture, is a composite of several different symbols and images that are not related but simply linked together in much the same way as a child would link a few random Legos and then declare it a flower or a spaceship. Abstraction and imagination are more essential to see the Antichrist than sound analysis and fidelity to the biblical text.

    One of the key building blocks for this composite is the Beast of Revelation. Actually, there are two beasts—found in the account in Revelation chapter 13. The sea beast and the land beast. The sea beast is related to the Roman Empire. The sea is a reference to the Gentile nations. The land is a reference to the Jews that live in the “Promised Land”.

    The second thing to point out about the beast is the number given in the latter part of the chapter. Contrary to popular belief, lots of that going around, the number is not six, six, six. It is six hundred, threescore and six. Like all symbols in Revelation, the reference to this number is from the Old Testament.

    Secondly, the text of Revelation 13 states that it was possible for the original hearers and readers of this book to know who the beast was. Yep, like his actual name. That is because Revelation was a prophecy about things about to take place during the lives of the original audience of John’s book. Jesus states that he was coming quickly to the readers of the First Century.

    Six Hundred, Threescore and Six

    Rules for Rulers

    The Old Testament background of this number is rooted in two passages.

    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. 17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

    Deuteronomy 17:16–17

    Per my Logos software:

    Deuteronomy 17:16–17 establishes three restrictions on Israel’s king: he must not accumulate horses, multiply wives, or amass silver and gold.

    These prohibitions operate on multiple levels. The restriction on horses prevents the king from building a professional standing army and limits foreign military alliances1, while requiring the monarch to trust Yahweh rather than military strength.2 The prohibition on multiple wives guards against foreign entanglements and the religious compromise that accompanies marriages outside Israel’s covenant community.1 Limiting wealth prevents the king from dominating other Israelites through commercial power and status accumulation.1

    Beyond these specific prohibitions, the rules reflect a broader theological vision. Israel’s king operates under a fundamentally different model than the monarchs of surrounding nations—not conforming to typical ancient Near Eastern expectations of kingship.3 Since Yahweh is Israel’s supreme King, no human monarch may claim absolute power; these limitations force the king to acknowledge his dependence on God.2 The king’s restricted role reflects Deuteronomy’s core theology that Israel functions as a covenant community and brotherhood.3

    1 Patricia Dutcher-Walls, “The Circumscription of the King: Deuteronomy 17: 16–17 in Its Ancient Social Context,” Journal of Biblical Literature (2002), 121:604.

    2 Paul R. Gilchrist, “Deuteronomy,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 3:121.

    3 Andreas J. Köstenberger and Gregory Goswell, Biblical Theology: A Canonical, Thematic, and Ethical Approach (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023), 141–143.

    Oh, please note these rules for kings were written by Moses before anyone ever conquered the Promised Land and hundreds of years before Saul was anointed the first king.

    Rulers Breaking the Rules

    Now that you know what the rules were, it’s time to introduce the guy that broke them all. As is often the case, it didn’t take long for Solomon, Israel’s third king, to violate them all in spades.

    Rule 1 Broken: Multiply Horses

    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.

    1 Kings 10:26.

    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 10:28–29.

    Rule 2 Broken: Multiply Wives

    1 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.

    1 Kings 11:1–3.

    Rule 3 Broken: Multiply Silver and Gold

    27 And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones,

    1 Ki 10:27a.

    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.

    A ruler that breaks the God’s rules is a wicked and rebellious leader. All of what I just explained, and more is packed into the idea that the number of the guy in Revelation 13 is six hundred threescore and six.

    So, who was six hundred threescore and six?

    It was Nero Ceasar. The number of his name written in Hebrew was 666. The textual variant of this verse in Revelation is 616. This is Nero Ceasar written in Greek. Thus, when John wrote:

    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 13:18.

    He expected that folks reading or hearing Revelation in his day would be capable of solving the riddle.

    The Man of Sin

    Another New Testament character often shoehorned into being part of the composite antichrist is called “the man of sin”.

    This passage is long but here goes:

     3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

    2 Thessalonians 2:2–12.

    No, I am not going to go line-by-line through this passage. The words everyone keys on in this passage are as follows from verse 3: “that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

    Verse 4 says this guy sits in the temple “shewing himself that he is God”.

    Verses 6 and 7 speak of him being held back until it’s time to be revealed.

    From verse 6, “ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.”

    Verse 7 states that whatever was holding this man of sin back will eventually be removed; “only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way”.

    Here is the same passage from a different translation. It is easier to follow than the King James Version quoted above.

    6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

    ESV  2 Thessalonians 2:6–8.

    Folks, there are two main reasons that this passage gets used when making a composite of the antichrist. First, nobody can agree who this guy is or the name of the guy who is restraining him. This makes the passage more malleable. Secondly, and as usual, this time indicators must be ignored to use these verses as part of the composite.

    Folks, who was the original audience?

    If the guy being discussed was alive and contemporary with the Apostle Paul, then he is dead and has been for at least 19 centuries.  Given this important but frequently discarded fact, the only coming where he could have been destroyed was when Jesus came in judgment in AD 70.

    Lastly, this man of sin, whoever he may have been, was a religious leader and not a political figure. The person is clearly and predominantly associated with worship in the Temple, and thus, was alive and active prior to its destruction.

    Daniel 9

    The last place where folks look to mine nuggets to be used in their composite construct, commonly known as “Antichrist,” is in the book of Daniel. None of what is claimed as the modern understanding of antichrist is actually in the text; instead, it is injected there in the form of presuppositions which are added to the text prior to anyone actually reading said texts.

    Daniel chapter 9 begins with this:

    2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

    Daniel 9:2.

    Daniel takes Jeremiah literally when Jeremiah predicted that the Babylonian captivity would be a period of 70 years. This point will be important later in this discussion. Daniel’s response was repenting of his personal sins and also for the sins committed by his nation; something that I would argue we need to do more of in our day and age.

    As Daniel is praying, the angel Gabriel appears (verse 21). This is important for at least two reasons, first, angels are rarely ever mentioned by name in the Bible and Gabriel is the same angel that announces the pregnancy of the Virgin Mary in the Gospel accounts.

    Gabriel says, “O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.” Daniel 9:22.

    Gabriel then tells Daniel of a vision. This is the famous seventy weeks of seven years. Yep, seven times seventy; which, not so coincidentally also shows up in the words of Jesus when he is asked how often one should forgive his brother (Matthew 18:21-22).

    Here is the prophecy given to Daniel:

    24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

    Daniel 9:24–27.

    Please note that Daniel is told that from when the seventy years of captivity is ended and the reconstruction of Jerusalem begins to the time Messiah is cutoff is seven weeks plus threescore and two weeks. Doing the math, you get 69 (7+60+2) weeks of seven years or 483 (69*7) years. This math is why Simeon and Anna, in the Gospel of Luke (2:22-38) were looking for Messiah before their deaths. Their faith was in the word given to Daniel in this passage.

    After Messiah is cutoff in verse 26, a prince will come and destroy the city and sanctuary. Said war will result in a flood that brings desolation. This vaguely echos Jesus in Matthew 24 invoking the flood of Noah (Matthew 24:38-42) and speaking of abomination that brings desolation (Matthew 24:15).

    Please note that in Daniel 9:27 that this invader will “cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease…”

    When Roman legions attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, in a war that lasted 42 months or 3 and one half years, the city was destroyed, the temple was razed to the ground as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:2b “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” This destruction was accomplished within one generation of Jesus making the prediction. Furthermore, the Jewish Historian Josephus says that Roman soldiers plowed the dirt upon which the temple had once sat after it was completely destroyed.

    As John records in Revelation, Rome turned on the Jews and destroyed Jerusalem. This was the prediction of Daniel 9 being fulfilled.

    There is no time when the 490 years of the prophecy was stopped or paused. It was completed just as Gabriel told Daniel. No such delay is indicated by the text or context. Yet modern prophecy pimps claim that there is a hidden 2,000 plus year gap being introduced as a parentheses, pause, or unforeseen delay found somewhere in this passage between the 69th and 70th week. They also claim it contains the Rapture doctrine and the C.I. Scofield/Hal Lindsey version of the Antichrist somewhere in all this; plus, a rebuilt 3rd or 4th temple in Jerusalem.

    Again, none of this is found in the text of Scripture, it must be added via an external template or interpretive grid that is read into the text.

    Closing Thoughts

    As I am fond of quoting, “A text without a context is a pretext; usually, for error” Walter Martin.

    If you look at the Scriptures from the point of view of the original hearers and respect the context, then none of the things that you are reading have application for the future. They were all concerned with God’s people living in those times not ours. To claim otherwise, is to make them irrelevant for the last 2,000 plus years.

    However, all Scripture is given for our instruction. We are expected to learn from our history and apply the lessons to our age. This means that history is relevant for us to learn from, not that we are the focus of imminent and unfulfilled prophecy. It’s not about us; it’s about Him and His faithfulness. Because God demonstrated His faithfulness in the past, we know that He will be faithful to us in the present and guide us in the future.

    Scripture was not written to us but for us.

    The idea of antichrist being a ruler of a one-world government and murdering billions of people in a futile attempt to defy God is science fiction. Yes, this type of sensationalism sells millions of books to gullible Christians with itching ears, but it has no sound biblical warrant.

    The biblical warrant is that this world belongs to Jesus Christ and He is ruling now and He will make, and is making, all his enemies his footstool. Our job is to make every area of life subject to His lordship and rule. The kingdom of God is now, and the Kingdom of God is Christian Civilization.

    Burying your God given talents and waiting for the fictional Rapture instead of using them, has resulted in shallow Christianity and paralysis of the faithful. Satan has gained only what God’s people have willingly ceded to him through unbelief, which sadly is quite a lot.

  • Futurism: Seven Years and Other Thoughts

    Futurism: Seven Years and Other Thoughts

    Folks, the short version is this: the phrase “seven years” is never mentioned in the New Testament. Not ever. Never once. But somehow, it’s a doctrine in the minds of most modern evangelicals. Ditto for lots of other proclaimed doctrines. Amongst these are:

    A rebuilt temple in Jerusalem—never mentioned in the New Testament. Jesus said the existing temple would be torn down during the generation that heard his voice. “And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”  Matthew 24:2.

    A pig sacrificed in the temple—never mentioned in the New Testament. Folks, if you take a look at the book of Hebrews, I would argue that every animal sacrifice done in the temple after the Resurrection of Jesus was an abomination—a denial of His once and for all sacrifice. In the years following the Resurrection, the temple itself became an idol for the Jews. Whatever the correct understanding of the abomination of desolation was in the prophecy, it occurred between the Resurrection and the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. there is no gap of 2,000 plus years between the 69th and seventieth week of Daniel. This is injected into the text by Scofield, not derived from Scripture.

    The Rapture—never mentioned in the New Testament. Appealing to the days of Noah, Jesus says that one is taken and on left, but who was taken in the days of Noah? Sorry kids, the bad guys, not the righteous. The good guys remained on the earth, the wicked perished. This is true throughout the Bible, the wicked are taken in judgment and the righteous remain. The “meek inherit the world”, not heaven.

    A worldwide tribulation—never mentioned in the New Testament. The great tribulation was a local judgement that could be escaped on foot. “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains.” Matthew 24:16. There is zero biblical warrant for belief in a worldwide, seven-year, tribulation. Oh, I know it’s a doctrine, just not a biblical one.

    The Antichrist—only mentioned in the New Testament by one author. (“Antichrist” is only mentioned four times in the Bible. All four are in the epistles of John, never once in Revelation.) Antichrist is clearly religious by definition—denying that Jesus is the Christ—and the Bible never once described him (or them) as a political figures.

    18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

    1 John 2:18–19

    22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

    1 John 2:22

    3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

    1 John 4:3

    7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

    2 John 7

    The modern idea of ‘Antichrist” is a composite of several different and unrelated people and symbols mentioned in the Bible. Once these verses are separated from their historical context, they can be shaped to say whatever someone can imagine. However, people alive in the first century were expected to know what and who these people and their symbols were. Anyone offering something other than a first century explanation is lying, mistaken, or misled.

    Broken Sevens

    There are lots of broken sevens (three and a half year periods) in Revelation—at least five—but never are they constructed in a way to give you an overall period of seven years. A broken seven is a different symbol.

    “Forty-two months (which equals 1,260 days and three and a half years) is taken from Daniel 7:25, where it symbolizes a limited period during which the wicked are triumphant; it also speaks of a period of wrath and judgment due to apostacy, a reminder of the three and a half years of drought between Elijah’s first appearance and the defeat of Baal on Mount Carmel (I Kings 17-18; cf, James 5:17). Whereas seven is used to represent wholeness and completion, three and a half appears to be a broken seven: sadness, death, and destruction (cf. dan. 9:24; 12:7; Rev. 12:6, 14; 13:5).”

    David Chilton Days of Vengeance p. 274.

    Four Groups of Seven Judgments in the Bible

    David Chilton also points out that Revelation is four groups of seven judgments. This is because the Holy Land is portrayed as God’s Footstool. There are lots of occurrences of the numbers “four” and “seven” in Revelation and other Scriptures. Think, four directions of the compass, the four winds, four rivers in Eden, etc. Thus, four sets of seven judgments are a complete judgment upon Jerusalem and the temple. Chilton’s comments can be found here.

    Chilton’s Old Testament citation, in tape one of the above link, is Leviticus 26. In this passage, you will find four occurrences of seven judgments on Israel due to apostacy. See verses 18, 21, 24, and 28. Chilton asserts that John is using this pattern as the template found in Revelation. Most symbols in Revelation have strong roots in the Old Testament. John may have put them together in a different form than the OT, but the symbols have a long history with God’s Covenant people in the Scriptures.

    The book of Revelation, at least in part, is the execution of Israel for spiritual adultery. Chilton, on another tape, cites the law of executing a priest’s daughter with fire for committing adultery.

     9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.

    Leviticus 21:9.

    As Chilton states many times, you can’t understand Revelation if you don’t know the Old Testament. There are at least 600 allusions, references, and citations, of the Old Testament in Revelation.

    World, Land, or Civilized World

    Part of the confusion with understanding the New Testament, especially passages touching on prophecy, is purposely sloppy translating. Here is one such example.

    Just because a word is translated “world” in English does not mean it is in Greek. It could really be world, civilized world—think boundaries of Roman Empire—known world, or it could be the land in and around Israel. Without looking at the original languages, you can’t tell which is the case.

    Here’s two examples. Which Greek word is translated “world”?

    14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

    Matthew 24:14.

    21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be

    Matthew 24:21.

    Verse 21 is cosmos which is understood as the whole planet

    Verse 14 in not planet but oikoumenē meaning civilized world—or Roman Empire.

    Here is another verse that is ignored by most who claim to take the Bible literally but really don’t.

    23b for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

    Matthew 10:23b.

    Jesus said he would return before his disciples finished going through the cities of Israel. Do you believe him or not? He came in judgment in 70 AD and that was his proof that he was sitting at the right hand of the Father.

    Look at this passage during his trial.

    63 But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. 64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 65 Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. 66 What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death.

    Matthew 26:63–66.

    This is a direct reference to Daniel where one like the Son of Man is going UP to the Ancient of Days. Jesus said that the generation that heard his voice would not pass away until his words were fulfilled. Modern Christians just dismiss the words of Jesus because they don’t believe him any more than the high priest did.

    Closing Thought

    Sorry, the Old Covenant age is over. Like it or not, you live in the early part of the Kingdom age. As Gary X Paxton used to sing, “You gotta take a little turf for Jesus.” The Kingdom of God is Christian Civilization. If you think waiting for the Rapture is the hope of Christians, then your theology and eschatology are fatally broken. You are suffering from unbelief and paralysis.

  • Whose World is This Anyway?

    Whose World is This Anyway?

    Last night, the Thursday night Bible study was yet another doozie. Folks, this group is so hung up on Premillennial Dispensationalism that it’s disgusting.

    First, they know that I disagree with them on eschatology; therefore, lots of prayers were offered that the Holy Spirit reveal the Truth to them by fiat. Intense study of the Bible is not an option for them because they already think they know it so well. This is kind of weird to me, but they really dig the milk of the Word and like spending time in the theological Kiddie pool. (Cue music to Servant playing Shallow Water.) Also, they cannot see the text except in terms of Scofieldism as a preexisting template that they impose onto the Bible.

    I managed to get in a few well-placed barbs last night. This is my goal every time that I attend. I don’t fight every battle but hit a topic or two each meeting.

    They insist on an artificial division of the Church and national Israel as per Scofield, but I did ask if that meant that Jesus has two Brides—the Church and Israel? Nobody really responded to that question. It didn’t compute.

    There was a whole screed about Jesus is preparing a place for us—as if that is all he can do until the Rapture. Yep, he can create the world in seven days by speaking it into existence, but it takes him 2,000 plus years to prepare a place for us? How is that even logical? What is he doing now?

    This portion of the discussion presupposes another tenant of Scofield, that Jesus offered the Kingdom of God then the Jews used free will to thwart the plan of God and then God rolled-out Plan B—the Church—until such time as national Israel will listen to Jesus.

    Oh, a corollary of said Scofield doctrine is that 2/3 of all Jews on the planet will have to die before being so grateful of their mass slaughter that they will turn to Jesus in gratitude. This is a farcical idea, but for them it’s a doctrine.

    So as this topic was being discussed, I asked, “Whose world is this?”

    Without missing a beat, the person sitting next to me said, “Satan’s.”

    My reply was, “Then what did Jesus accomplish at the Crucifixion?”

    Several folks mumbled and finally one guy replied, “He defeated Satan.”

    To which I quickly agreed. This threw the room into confusion because under Scofield, the world is still Satan’s not Christ’s. A few folks then said, “But, blah, blah, blah …”

    At this point they have no answer because it’s not one that Scofield has a response to. Therefore, the point I was making simply bounces harmlessly off of them because their presuppositions don’t include a reply to the question. It does not compute, so it becomes discarded information.

    Oh, but the Spirit is supposed to lead them into Truth when they are not open to it! Go figure!

    My argument is we are in the process of seeing Jesus make all his enemies his footstool now. (See Psalm 2 and 110 amongst others.) This happens not through the mass slaughter of people, but through their mass conversion.

    In a previous meeting of this esteemed group, it was stated without much dissent that God would kill all unbelievers during a worldwide, seven-year tribulation and only believers would be left on the earth. We would not convert the masses; they would be slaughtered. God will separate the sheep from the goats at the point of the sword. Thus, only the saints will inherit the millennial Kingdom once it finally gets here.

    In fairness, I don’t think Scofield ever taught this idea, but the members of this Bible study were certainly ok with it.

    Oh, the text last night was Micah 5 for the second week in a row. Another nugget of nonsense was the explanation of the word “stand” in verse 4. Per the leader of the group, this part of the prophecy had a quadruple fulfillment. Yep, double prophetic fulfillments are common in Dispensationalism but fulfilled four different times? That’s about a record.

    Verses 2-5a are clearly a prophecy of the first coming of Christ and the incarnation but nope, not good enough. It has to somehow also involve the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming too. Scofield must futurize everything.

    “The Assyrian” introduced in verse 5 also was proclaimed to be the Antichrist according to members of the Bible study. The fact that Isaiah chapters 36-37 talk all about the defeat of the Assyrian King Sennacherib and the death of 185,000 of his warriors was just coincidental and had little, if anything, to do with an historic explanation of the prophecy and its fulfillment.

    In this group never left facts, especially historical ones, get in the way of a good conspiracy theory involving some future cataclysm.

    I know that such people can be frustrating. I get that. Thankfully, the church’s pastor has denounced Premillennial Dispensationalism from the pulpit. However, he has yet to say what should take its place. Leading sheep like this must be frustrating for him. God has put me in this congregation for a reason. If nothing else, it gets me looking harder at the Bible to have a reason for the hope that is in me.

    If there is a “silver bullet” that can lift the veil of Scofieldism, I have yet to find it, but I feel called for now to try and expose it in my own humble way.

    Folks, I don’t see any way forward for Christianity until the Church repents of its unbelief and realizes that Christian civilization is the Kingdom of God in action. The West once believed this and changed the world, but we have forgotten God and reduced our faith to simply the salvation of souls and not the discipling of nations. A task that we need to start doing again.

  • Matthew 24: Gary DeMar vs Kenneth Gentry, et al.

    Matthew 24: Gary DeMar vs Kenneth Gentry, et al.

    Kenneth Gentry, and some others that he uses as proxies, have been attacking Gary DeMar publicly (much of it on Facebook) since 2023 about the three questions controversy. Gentry and others have been alleging that DeMar is a closet full preterist. (More on full Preterism later.) In their minds, that makes DeMar a heretic and thus guilty of unorthodox eschatology.

    Kenneth Gentry

    In response, DeMar has simply pitted one supporter of the three questions against another to show that none of them agree with each other, so why should he respond directly. As a debate tactic, this is brilliant.

    Gary DeMar

    Furthermore, the original three questions lacked any citation of Scriptures to defend their claims. The originators of the three-question letter controversy base the whole thing on church tradition and not Scripture. This is why they are divided on their understandings. It is this hole in their logic that I would like to comment upon.

    As DeMar likes to point out, when it comes to the historic Creeds of Christendom, nobody decided to “show their homework.” The Creeds make claims about the Christian faith but never cite any verses as proof texts; neither do they have any minutes of the meetings to explain the logic of why statements were included. In short, all that is preserved for us are the conclusions and not anything to back them up.

    For the purposes of this blog, I am limiting discussion to the Nicene Creed. FYI the Nicene Creed was drafted in 325 AD and updated slightly into its final form in 381 AD.

    I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

    I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.

    God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made.

    For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

    For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

    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.

    I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son,* who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

    I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

    Two comments on the above version. First, this is from a Roman Catholic website and a word or two might be different in another English translation. Second, in the paragraph on the Holy Spirit, “who proceeds from the Father and the Son” is the difference between Eastern and Western Christianity. Yep, “and the Son” highlights the difference in the understanding of the Trinity between Churches; although there is much history behind this division.

    Preterism

    Preterism, in its simplest form is believing that some parts of the Bible are in the past. If you believe Jesus is the prophesized Messiah and fulfilled related Old Testament prophecies, then you are a preterist. If you believe that some prophecies were fulfilled in the destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD, but others are still future to us then you are a partial preterist. If you believe everything in the Bible including the last few chapters of Revelation are fulfilled in some way, then you are a full preterist.

    Sadly, the difference between full and partial Preterism is really more nuanced than what I just stated. There are people that are in between full and partial preterists. Some folks believe that some things began in the past, continue to be true today, and will not know complete fulfillment until sometime in the future.

    The two sections of the Creed getting the most attention in the controversy are these:

    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.

    and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

    I could dissect these parts in much detail but not too many folks would care so I’ll try to keep this simple.

    The type of questions being asked are like this:

    • Where are these statements found in the Bible (Proof texts)?
    • How did the original audience understand these statements?
    • Were the statements based on Scripture, future or past when written into the Creed in 325 AD?
    • When is or will be the resurrection of the dead?
    • When is or will the Kingdom begin?
    • What and when is the world to come?
    • If Jesus is on the Throne now, what is he doing or waiting for?
    • When is the resurrection of the dead?

    Again, we have to reverse engineer the Creed to figure out such questions.

    Folks, this sounds simple at first blush but once you start looking at this, it is evident that you are treading into deep theological waters trying to fully grasp the concepts tossed out by the writers of the Creed.

    The Creed speaks of a future coming of Jesus, presumably at the end of the world but where is that in the Bible? Most of the coming passages are understood by the signers of the three questions letter as coming in judgment in the First Century, but “The Church” has historically believed in a final and consummating coming at the end of history.

    This leaves a theological mess. Were the coming passages fulfilled (full Preterism)? Mostly fulfilled (partial Preterism)? Mostly in the future (Premillennial)? Requiring double fulfillment? Or something else?

    Here’s an example from Paul to illustrate the complexity of the issue. He writes that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. This verse is often quoted to give comfort to grieving families. It was quoted at my wife’s funeral. But how do you get to be “present with the Lord” without being judged in some fashion so God permits you to enter his presence? This implies that judgment is not at the end of the world but upon death. So, if you are judged at death then why not also be given your resurrected body at the same time? We spend eternity in bodies not as spirits floating around on clouds playing harps.

    Gentry and his friends presuppose that the Creeds and Church tradition are correct about much of this being future and then interpret the Bible with these presuppositions trying to discern which bucket that a particular verse belongs in. If you agree with him then he calls you “orthodox” and if you disagree—especially about the timing—then I guess you get a letter calling you “un-orthodox.”

    Matthew 24

    Generally, Matthew chapters 23-25 are all one dialogue by Jesus frequently called the Olivet Discourse. Chapters 24 & 25 are said in response to questions asked of Jesus by his disciples. Some folks like DeMar believe that chapters 24 and 25 are a single unit speaking of the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. Others split chapter 24—some like Gentry at very odd points—into part being fulfilled in 70 AD and part of the prophecy being future.

    J. Marcellus Kik and many others split Matthew 24 between about verse 34 to 36 so that the first part of the chapter is about 70 AD and the rest is the traditional Second Coming.

    Kenneth Gentry does this too, plus he pulls Matthew 24: 27 as a stand-alone verse concerning the Second Coming even though it comes in the midst of the part which most think applies to AD 70.

    “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

    I don’t want to get into the weeds about this except to say that Gentry didn’t always hold this position but has adopted it in more recent times. It makes no sense, but he is hell-bent in accommodating the Creed into his post millennial position. He needs verses to support both AD 70 and the traditional Second Coming. Gentry is a lone gunman on verse 27 but holds this unique position.

    If you look at the Olivet discourse, what many such as Kik try to do is book end the statements about “this generation” to fit an AD 70 application (Matthew 23:36 to Matthew 24:34) and then futurize the rest of chapter 24. Gentry randomly cherry picks verse 24:27 that he is compelled to futurize in the midst of the “this generation” passage.

    Gentry is obliged to shoehorn verses into the future because of the Creed and Church tradition; not the context.

    Were Matthew the only account of what shall be the signs of the end and coming of Jesus, then maybe Kik could have a point, but this bifurcation of Matthew is destroyed by looking at the same account in the other synaptic Gospels.

    Conflicting Versions

    Once you compare Matthew 24 & 25 with the parallel accounts in Luke 21 and Mark 13, then the structure forced onto the account in Matthew collapses. It is clear that all three accounts in their entirety are about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. It was a local judgment that could literally be escaped on foot by fleeing to the mountains. As proof that this was so, there are zero historical records of a single Christian being killed in the siege of Jerusalem. Secondly, Christians knew it would happen all the way back to the beginning chapters of Acts. Why was the Church in Jerusalem the only place where property was sold and the proceeds held in common by and for the Church? It was not socialism in the Bible; it was a testimony that the city would be lost within a generation as Jesus prophesized.

    The problem that Gentry and other signatories of the three-question letter have is that there is not a single verse in the Bible that all parties signing the three questions letter agree apply to the end of the world. At least some of the signers believe verses should be applied to the AD 70 judgment.

    On the one hand they want the traditional view that Jesus returns at the end of everything and at the same time they know that most verses apply better to an AD 70 fulfillment.

    Folks the truth is that Jesus doesn’t really tell us how it all ends. Neither does he tell us what heaven will be like. In the end, we will have a body like his. We will not marry nor be given in marriage. We will have jobs of some sort and worship God. There is no more death or sin. Anything beyond this is speculation.

    Between now and then, the Gospel will spread across the world. Most people will be believers at some point in the future. So many folks will be saved that when it is all over, it can truly be said that Jesus is the savior of the world. The end, whatever form or time it happens, is thousands of years from now. You are still living in the early church so buckle up and get to work.

  • Ex-Mormon and I Takedown Bible Study Leader

    Ex-Mormon and I Takedown Bible Study Leader

    Yep. The highlight of my day was going to the church’s men’s Bible study last night. One guy that regularly attends is a former member of the LDS Church. He made a comment concerning Jesus binding the strong man and stealing his goods. (We’ll get to the text in a moment.)

    The Bible study leader was dumbfounded. He couldn’t get past the wooden literalism that Premillennial Dispensationalists have when reading the Bible. Pre-Mil people don’t have the discernment to know when the Bible is using figures of speech, metaphors, and so forth or is intended to be read as written. Literally means in accordance with the literature but such a concept is outside of their biblical understanding.

    The leader was tripped up on the idea that Jesus could possibly steal anything. Why? Because Jesus was honest, and God and a good teacher. Also, binding is a violent act, another obstacle to understanding the text. Biblical Jesus is not the weakling, milquetoast guy that modern people envision him to be. Of course, the context didn’t help. He just got more confused.

    Later, I told him that Jesus binding the strong man—the Devil—and stealing his stuff—us—was the unanimous understanding of the passage by the Reformers, but those guys have no credibility with him. Nope, he is nondenominational and proud to have never been a member of any church. He thinks he knows the Bible but like all such people in nondenominational churches, he knows the milk of the Word backwards and forwards but seems to miss that we are commanded to get into the meat of the Word.

    Sorry, but the meat of the Word gets messy and difficult; challenging our most deeply held ideas about God and our relationship to him.

    We—the ex-Mormon and I—left him last night totally stuck after being confronted with the Truth but unable to comprehend it.

    I will now quote the passage and then toss it to Logos software to give you their take. I’m doing this sight unseen (I don’t know what Logos will say but I’m confident I’m right.)

    Yep, now you can test both the Scripture and AI in the same exercise. Sounds like fun to me. Here we go.

    The Text

    25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: 26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? 27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. 29 Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house

    Matthew 12:25–29.

    Logos AI analysis

    Jesus uses the image of binding a strongman to respond to accusations that he casts out demons through Satan’s power—the strongman represents Satan himself[1]. The parable poses a logical challenge: how can anyone plunder a strong man’s possessions without first restraining him (Matt 12:25–29)? The strongman’s house symbolizes the world under Satan’s control, his possessions are the spirits and people enslaved to him, and Jesus’ exorcisms constitute an assault on that domain[2].

    Rather than being in league with Satan as the scribes claimed, Jesus came to Satan’s “house” to bind him and liberate the souls held captive there[1]. Satan’s kingdom collapses not through internal division but through the invasion of God’s kingdom in Jesus’ ministry[2]. The binding itself remains theologically complex—while the text doesn’t explicitly clarify the timing, it’s fundamentally connected to Jesus’ death, resurrection, and eventual return as judge[2]. In the immediate context of his earthly ministry, the binding may relate to his baptism and wilderness temptation, or more broadly to the kingdom’s inauguration through his work[2].

    The metaphor invites reflection on God’s role as liberator—mirroring the exodus when God bound Pharaoh and freed Israel, Jesus’ ministry inaugurates a new exodus, liberating God’s people[2]. Some modern charismatic movements apply this parable to believers’ spiritual warfare, teaching that Christians must bind strongmen in their cities, though Jesus never instructs his followers to do this[1].

    **Biblical passages related to this theme:** The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and through death Christ destroyed him who held the power of death—the devil (Heb 2:14–15). Jesus declares that the judgment of the world has come and the prince of this world will be cast out (John 12:31).

    [1] Got Questions Ministries, Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2014–2021).

    [2] R. Alan Culpepper, Mark, ed. Leslie Andres and R. Alan Culpepper, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Incorporated, 2007), 115–116.

    Yep, like Doug Wilson said, “Jesus binds Satan and steals his stereo.”

    Conclusion

    Folks, this illustration is exactly why I attend this church. They need the light of the Gospel. God put me here for this and a few other reasons. If we are to break the false doctrine of popular prophecy thinking, somebody has to disrupt the paradigm. Breaking said paradigm is done by exploiting the cracks in the prevailing presuppositions and demonstrating the inability of their template of providing real answers.

    Michael Heiser is right in saying the stuff people skip over are the important parts that are there for a reason. Premillennialism skips the parts that don’t fit their system or recast them into something foreign to the text. Forcing them to account for the things they can’t forces them to either adjust their worldview or deny God’s Word.

    I hate that modern folks compartmentalize everything because then they can’t see the relationships between things or the way that Idea A and Idea B are contradictory and can’t simultaneously be true. By holding both in isolation, they attempt to affirm both, which is a logical contradiction.

    The frustrating thing at this Bible Study is the claim that they are right about everything because the Holy Spirit showed it to them. That’s laughable. The Spirit can only use what you have studied. If you block stuff because it is difficult or potentially doesn’t agree with you then you aren’t grappling with the text. We are told to be ready and always have an answer for the hope that is within us.

    Lastly, the pastor has renounced Premillennial Dispensationalism from the pulpit but the folks in the pews haven’t got the message yet. They have ears but don’t hear and eyes that can’t see but they claim to be more enlightened than Christians in previous generations. Such a claim is laughable but was made earlier last night with much affirmation. Sad.

  • On Death, Dying, and Taking Out the Trash

    On Death, Dying, and Taking Out the Trash

    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.

  • Book Review: The Battle for the Bible’s Truth

    Book Review: The Battle for the Bible’s Truth

    • Have you ever wondered why tens of thousands of First Century Jews converted to Christianity while virtually none do today?
    • Why does the Gospel of John start with “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God?”
    • Why is there about a 900-year discrepancy between genealogies in the Old Testament—depending on which version of the Bible that you read?
    • What or who was Melchizedek?
    Douglas Van Dorn

    These are just some of the issues touched upon by Douglas Van Dorn’s book “The Battle for the Bible’s Truth: Genesis 6, Jesus, and the second Century Plot to Deny the Messiah.”

    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.

  • Why I Left Premillennial Dispensationalism

    Why I Left Premillennial Dispensationalism

    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.

  • False Prophets in my Lifetime

    False Prophets in my Lifetime

    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
    DatePersonGroup or other info
    1964 – October Seventh Day Adventist
    1972Herbert W. ArmstrongWorldwide Church of God
    1975Herbert W. ArmstrongWorldwide Church of God
    1975 Watchtower Bible & Tract Society expected Armageddon
    1981Chuck Smith1948 plus 40 year generation minus 7 year tribulation
    1982Pat Robertsontelevangelist
    1982 – June 21Benjamin CremeBuddhist related
    1988Hal LidseyThe Late Great Planet Earth 1948 plus 40 year generation
    1988Edgar C. Whisenant88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be in 1988
    1989Edgar C. WhisenantThe Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989
    1991Louis FarrakhanNation of Islam
    1993Edgar C. Whisenant23 Reasons Why a Pre-Tribulation Rapture Looks Like it will Occur on Rosh-Hashanah 1993
    1994 – September 6Harold Campinggeneral manager of Family Radio and Bible teacher
    1997 – October 23James Ussher17th Century Bishop expected the end as it was 6,000 years after creation
    1999-2009Jerry Falwellpredicted in 1999 that the Second Coming would probably be within 10 years
    2000Frank CherryFounder of the Black Hebrew Israelite religion
    2000Ed DobsonThe End: Why Jesus Could Return by A.D. 2000
    2000Timothy Dwight IV President of Yale University foresaw Christ’s Millennium starting by 2000
    2000Edgar Caycepsychic
    2000Sir Isaac Newtonscientist
    2000 – April 6James HarmstonThe leader of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days
    2011 – May 21Harold Campinggeneral manager of Family Radio and Bible teacher
    2011 – October 21Harold Campinggeneral manager of Family Radio and Bible teacher
    2011 – September 29Ronald WeinlandThe 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 27Ronald WeinlandThe Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God (COG-PKG) is an apocalypticist splinter sect of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)
    2012Jack Van Impetelevangelist
    2012 – December 21New Age NutsMesoamerican Long Count calendar ended
    2013 – May 18Ronald WeinlandThe Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God (COG-PKG) is an apocalypticist splinter sect of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG)
    2012Jack Van Impetelevangelist
    2015 – September 28Mark Blitz & John HageeBlood Moon Prophecy
    2017David MeadePredicted the end on YouTube
    2018Henry MorrisMorris 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)
    2020Jean Dixonpsychic
    2020 – July 22Chad and Lori DaybellMultiple murders
    2021F. Kenton “Doc” Beshore1948 plus70 to 80 year generation
    2025 – September 23-24Joshua MhlakelaSouth African preacher
    2025 – October 7-8Joshua MhlakelaSouth 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?