Resurrection

In my last four posts, I have laid the groundwork for a revised understanding of Paul’s “rapture passage” (1 Thess 4:13–5:11), especially his statements about the dead rising and the living being “caught up.” He says,  The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain…

A faithful friend has compounded my difficulties. I had admitted that Paul’s “rapture passage” (1 Thess 4:13–5:11) poses significant challenges for my prophetic view, which I call inmillennialism. Over two years ago, I wrote a series of blog posts explaining that Paul used protensive language in this passage: he put…

This is the third and final post that I am republishing to prepare for a discussion of Paul’s “rapture passage” (1 Thess 4:13–5:11), especially his words, “And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the…

Announcement The Southern Christian Writers Conference has chosen my book, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days, as a finalist for their 2021 Notable Book Award. They will host their Book Expo and live stream the award ceremony on Facebook (here). The Expo starts at 10 am (CST) and the awards at 3…

The major challenge to my prophetic view (inmillennialism) in Paul’s “rapture passage” (1 Thess 4:13–5:11) is in the following statements: The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.…

We have arrived at a passage—1 Thess 4:13–5:11—that mentions several important prophetic events. In this famous “rapture” passage, Paul discusses the coming (i.e., parousia = presence) of the Lord (1 Thess 4:15), the resurrection (1 Thess 4:16–17), the day of the Lord (1 Thess 5:2), and sudden destruction that would…

Matthew 22 shows a theological battle between Jesus and the apostate Jewish leaders of his day. The skirmishes comprise four rounds of Q&A. They occurred on Tuesday of Passion Week in AD 30. We have seen two in previous posts. We will review these before looking at the other two. Question 1…

This blog post is shorter than usual because I will request additional reading. Gary DeMar provoked me to make this appeal. One of his recent blog posts reminded me of a traumatic period in my life. I felt like the Israelites during their Exodus from Egypt, trapped between two powerful…

We reject Ralph Waldo Emerson’s dictum that “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” He claimed Moses and other great thinkers “set at naught books and traditions” by speaking “what they thought.” Emerson said they gave no heed to consistency.  This is a falsehood. Moses spoke what God revealed to him.…

On Tuesday of Passion Week, the Sadducees challenged Jesus regarding his doctrine of the resurrection (Matt 22:23–33). Their belief “that there is no resurrection” (Matt 22:23) is well known. Jesus’s response to the Sadducees is of vital importance to our prophetic model. Inmillennialism is a preteristic view of prophecy. “Preterism”…