Destruction of the Temple

Unintended consequences plague Elder Michael Ivey’s division of the Olivet Discourse. After Jesus foretold the temple’s fall, the disciples asked two questions: when would it happen and what signs would precede it (Matt 24:1–3). The Lord answered by giving the signs (Matt 24:4–31) and their timeframe (Matt 24:32–36). He then…

The Olivet Discourse (Matt 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21:5–38) determines biblical prophecy. If we misunderstand it, we will distort “the gospel of the kingdom” that is “a witness to all the nations” (Matt 24:14). This distortion will affect our view of the Great Commission. Jesus said, “Go into all the…

I published Elder Michael Ivey’s essay on the Olivet Discourse in two previous posts (here and here). It contradicts my prophetic framework (i.e., inmillennialism) and, therefore, my view of Paul’s “rapture passage” (1 Thess 4:13–5:11). I am responding to that essay: last week’s post contained Part 1; here, I will…

“Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone [of the Temple] shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.… Then they crucified Him.… He is risen from the dead” (Matt 24:2; 27:35; 28:7 NKJV).  Peter W. L. Walker makes an important observation about these events. “The…

In Matthew 27 we have reached the zenith of prophetic revelation. Here, Jesus offers “one sacrifice for sins forever” (Heb 10:12a NKJV) in the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. After his resurrection in Matthew 28, Jesus “sat down at the right hand of God, from that time…

The timing of this week’s post on Matthew 21 is fitting. This passage describes events that occurred on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in the week of Jesus’s crucifixion. The anniversary of this (Palm) Sunday will occur on April 14, 2019. So, this post is about events that happened almost exactly 1,989…

A friend asked me to develop a 15-page summary of inmillennialism, my framework for the interpretation of biblical prophecy. This post is the fourth and final part of that summary. I plan to soon post a downloadable PDF of the entire document. We started building our model of prophecy in…

If I were John Bunyan, author of the famous Pilgrim’s Progress, I might write an allegory about Mr. Inmillennialist traveling through the book of Revelation with four companions, Misters Premillennialist, Dispensationalist, Postmillennialist, and Amillennialist. At the end of the third vision, they would say to him, The first six trumpets…

This post deals with the “two witnesses” John describes in Revelation 11. We are publishing it on Oct. 31, 2017. This day marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. This act started the Protestant Reformation. We will recognize this historic…

Churches are not often concerned about false Jews today. If someone identifies themselves as a Jew, people do not ask for verification. And they shouldn’t. In John’s day, a unique historical situation made “false Jews” a threat to the churches. This category did not arise from a person’s ethnicity, but…