Flavius Josephus

Jesus closes His explanation of the “great tribulation” sign with a promise to deliver the elect Jews from that catastrophe: “Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matt 24:22). He also tells His disciples what they must…

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…

Jesus answered the disciples’ sign question by presenting signs that would be “the beginning of the birth pains” for Israel (Matt 24:8 ESV). Now, He gives a sign nearer to the temple’s fall: “There will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until…

Inmillennialism requires us to view many Scriptures in a new way. It challenges some of our underlying assumptions. For example, few people think of the “last days” as the final period of the Mosaic age. Inmillennialism says we must adopt the perspective of the biblical writers to understand their meaning.…

Preaching the kingdom of heaven was central to the early church’s ministry. This was true from the start of the gospel. God chose John the Baptist to prepare the way for Christ. His first and primary message was about the kingdom. He said, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at…

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…

According to Inmillennialism, Revelation describes God’s first-century judgment of apostate Israel. It does so in visions two through six. In vision two, seven seals reveal that judgment. Seven trumpets announce it in vision three. In vision four, seven actors dramatize the judgment. Now, in vision five, the saints in heaven…

In this post, we continue applying our prophetic model—inmillennialism—to John’s third vision in which he hears seven trumpets. The sixth trumpet and the following interlude pose several difficulties. Speaking of Revelation 11, which describes this part of the vision, Alan F. Johnson says: Some have considered this chapter one of…

In our last post, we began showing how Inmillennialism can account for the signs in Revelation’s third vision (i.e., of the seven trumpets). Some of them have kernels of physical reality inside John’s figurative language. Others continue long-standing prophetic traditions where the figures portray God’s judgments against Israel. Let’s resume…

Trumpets of tribulation appear often in the Scriptures. In John’s third vision of the Revelation, seven trumpets announce the “great tribulation” in the land of Israel (Rev. 1:9; 7:14; cp. Matt. 24:21). In AD 30, Jesus said this time of tribulation would come in his generation (Matt. 24:34). John, writing…