I have been surveying the biblical evidence for the corruption of the Jewish temple and system of worship for several blogs. In this one I will being to show how it can appear as an idol in the Book of Revelation. The Temple system has become for Israel an idol substituting for a right relationship [...]
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To understand God’s judgment on Israel in the first century, you must recognize that it comes as the end result of a long rebellion against God. Even Israel’s central Temple is repeatedly corrupted so that it eventually becomes the object of God’s wrath in AD 70. This blog article will focus on the lamentable situation [...]
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The Book of Revelation focuses on the great redemptive-historical change legally-established by Christ and historically-effected in the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Revelation casts apostate first-century Israel in a negative light. Israel is a “synagogue of Satan” (Rev 2:9; 3:9). Israel’s capital is a “Sodom and Egypt” (Rev 11:8). These are the obvious [...]
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This is the fifth installment of my response to Tommy Ice’s article “Answers and Clarifications for Gary DeMar.” You can reference the other four posts here, here, here, and here. Tommy brings up the dating issue of when Revelation was written. He takes the position that Revelation was written around A.D. 95 while I and [...]
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Revelation is as fascinating a book as it is a confusing one. However, 99% of the confusion is dispelled if we take seriously its own statements about when its judgments are expected to occur. These judgments are not destructive of the postmillennial hope for the historical long-run because these judgments are expected in the historical [...]
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The Book of Revelation is perhaps the best known prophetic work in the Bible. It is filled with war and judgment, which many use to show that Revelation undermines the optimistic postmillennial hope. Yet Revelation can only be employed against postmillennialism if it is misinterpreted. And the usual misinterpretation arises the moment one opens Revelation, [...]
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Contrary to popular opinion, Revelation does not undermine the postmillennial hope — despite its enormous judgments. And this is mainly because it is prophesying events to occur soon. John uses two terms when he speaks of his temporal expectation: “shortly” (Gk., en tachei) and “near” (Gk., engus). If for some reason his original audience could [...]
Full Story »Dr. Gentry: “You are committed to the Reformed faith, yet you don’t take the historicist approach to eschatology which was widely held among the Reformers. Why do you not follow the Reformers in this part of their theology?” G.K., Minneapolis, Minn. Gentry’s response: Thank you for your inquiry. You are correct that I am committed [...]
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Dr. Gentry: If Revelation was written in AD 65-66 about events in AD 70, how could John have expected it to be widely circulated in so short a period of time? It seems the book’s grandiose vision would be largely wasted because of the time frame involved. It couldn’t do much good, especially since the [...]
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I believe that Revelation deals with Christ’s judgment-coming against Israel for crucifying Christ. This view is known as the preterist approach to Revelation. More specifically, I distinguish it as “redemptive-historical preterism,” in that it focuses on redemptive history rather than secular history. Redemptive-historical preterism looks at John’s prophecy as having mostly occurred (“preterist” is based on the Latin [...]
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KINGDOM LEAVENThe Parable of the Leaven reads: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid i...
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