Ethelbert W. Bullinger

Let’s pause for a moment to reorient ourselves, especially regarding the overall theme of this blog series—the Great Commission and prophecy.  Jesus, in His Olivet Discourse, foretells the temple’s fall (Matt 24:1–2). The disciples, in response, ask for signs of that event (Matt 24:3). Jesus gives preliminary signs (Matt 24:4–14)…

Jesus gives a second description of the “great tribulation” sign: it would be one “such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt 24:21). This begins the shift in literary styles that I mentioned earlier (here), from unadorned prose…

Luke draws attention to the location where Peter preached his first two sermons. He mentions the Temple seven times (Acts 2:46; 3:1, 2, 3, 8, 10) between his accounts of these sermons. This emphasis is striking. Forty-five days earlier, Jesus had said this Temple would fall in his generation (Luke…

Jesus’s Olivet Discourse was about nothing but the Temple’s destruction. He foretold that event (Mark 13:1–2). His disciples asked two questions about it (Mark 13:3–4). He answered them in reverse order (Mark 13:5–27). The disciples asked, “what will be the sign” of the Temple’s fall? Jesus began with signs that…

We have defined two terms Jesus used in Matt 16:17–19 in previous posts. Jesus used “my church” to mean the congregation that comprises those in covenant with God during the messianic age. Scripture speaks of local churches as “the church” by synecdoché, each one representing the whole. The “kingdom of heaven” refers…

What did Jesus mean when he said, “I will build my church”? In last week’s post (here), we defined the terms “church” and “kingdom” as Jesus used them in Matt 16:18–19. The church (Gk. ekklēsia) comprises all persons in covenant relationship with God during the messianic age. The kingdom is…

A friend asked me to develop a 15-page summary of inmillennialism, my framework for the interpretation of biblical prophecy. This post is the third part of that summary. The next two posts will provide the rest. I plan to then post a downloadable PDF of the entire document. We started…

The visiting Christian brother did not suffer from dementia, but his 90 years had removed many inhibitions. We learned this in a somewhat humorous way. Our small congregation sometimes sang Samuel J. Stone’s hymn, The Church’s One Foundation. On the day of his visit, when we sang the verse Yet…

“I know that’s what it says, but that is not what it means,” said my red-faced father to my maternal grandfather. Grandpa Smith had a second-grade education but loved God. I often saw him read the Bible and pray with tears streaming down his cheeks. He was also a died-in-the-wool…

Jesus and his disciples visited the buildings of the Temple on Tuesday of Passion Week. The disciples expressed great admiration for their beauty, but Jesus was unimpressed. He knew the objects of their admiration were short-lived; they would soon become rubble. When he informed the disciples of this, they asked…