Optimism

“Matthew . . . is the Gospel of the King and His kingdom.” We have seen this in our previous posts on Matthew. For example, the “little horn” king (Herod) opposed the King (Matt 2). And, John the Baptist preached the gospel of the kingdom (Matt 3:1). In Matthew 4,…

Announcement A 17-page summary of our prophetic framework is now available. It shows how inmillennialism arises out of a natural reading of two New Testament passages. Please click the “Free” menu item above to download the PDF. The concept of the “last days” plays a unique role in inmillennialism. (We…

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…

Two major earthquakes have shaken my theological world. Elements that caused both appear in Revelation’s sixth vision (Rev. 17–21). One quake happened in my mid-twenties. It involved the doctrine of salvation. Bible teachers had taught me to believe Christ died for all men without exception. God loves everyone and wants…

The post The Seven Vials — Part 2: Our Vision caused interesting reactions. One reader suggested I am smoking a hallucinogenic drug. Speaking of his younger days, he said, “none of us had the wild visions you have had and/or [sic] still having. Perhaps you would send me some of…

The Song of Moses was an age-changing song. As we saw in our last post, John hears the saints in heaven singing it in the Vision of Seven Vials. God would soon judge apostate Israel. This judgment would end the Mosaic age and allow the Messianic Age—started by Jesus during his…

The Seven Mystic Figures vision makes a slight change to the timeframe of the first two judgment visions. They concentrated on the “great tribulation” Jesus predicted in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24:1–3, 21, 34; Rev. 7:14). This vision focuses on the entire generation of Jesus’s life on earth. It begins with…

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…

Jesus taught parables that show the kingdom of heaven changing. For example, it grows like a mustard seed becoming a tree (Matt. 13:31–32). But can God’s kingdom grow? Our first answer might be that it cannot grow: God’s domain already includes heaven and earth. He exercises absolute rule everywhere. God…

The message is hard to avoid: Caesar is Lord! Coins circulate throughout the Roman Empire proclaiming the Emperor’s divinity. The “divine” power has increased since Julius, the first Caesar, established the Empire in 49 BC. One of his successors, Nero, now uses it in every area of life. In the…