Time Stamps

The last paragraph of Paul’s first letter to Timothy shows his underlying prophetic perspective. As I’ve said, the pastoral nature of this epistle keeps this viewpoint in the background, but it sometimes crops out. The Apostle’s conclusion (1 Tim 6:13–21) is such a place. In this post, I will discuss…

I want you to consider inmillennialism, a model for interpreting prophecy based on the Olivet Discourse and 1 Corinthians 15. This view supports an optimistic view of the kingdom of God—Jesus Christ is reigning and is subduing all His enemies. His ultimate conquest will be over death, in the bodily resurrection…

Commentators often make interesting interpretive adjustments when they encounter certain words and concepts in prophetic contexts; they do not allow them to keep the meaning they have elsewhere. Our present passage in 1 Thessalonians furnishes two examples important for our understanding of God’s prophetic word: (1) Paul’s desire to be…

We have now come to the last five days of Jesus’s life on earth. Philip later used Isa 53:7–8 to show the Ethiopian eunuch what happened next: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth.…

Jesus is now entering the prophetic crossroads of the ages. He has just finished giving the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24–25) on Tuesday of Passion Week. He will die on the cross and rise from the dead within five days. The Old Testament prophecies about the messianic-age kingdom depend on what…

  One of our readers said, “As I read through your blog … I was struck to ask you one single question—so what?” We began our response in our last post (here). Our prophetic model—inmillennialism—makes a difference in five categories: Vision, Apologetics, Legacy, Understanding, and Experience. That post addressed the…

One atheist used Matthew 16:27–28 to explain his rejection of Christianity. Speaking to the South London Branch of the National Secular Society in 1927, Bertrand Russell said, I do not believe that one can grant either the superlative wisdom or the superlative goodness of Christ as depicted in the Gospels;…

This post will appear during Thanksgiving week. Our forefathers in the United States established a tradition of thanking God for the year’s harvest. We continue that practice and here acknowledge our Father’s blessings this year. A harvest of a different kind is the subject of our blog this week. We…

Jesus commissioned at least three distinct evangelical missions. We mentioned one in our last post (here). The Lord commanded his servants to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19). John Gill says this means to “make them disciples by teaching them; or, as the Persic version, by way of…

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…