Episode 56: Understanding the Apocalypse

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Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 56

Gary discusses general interpretative principles about the Bible and specifically, the book of Revelation.

The view of prophecy that is most popular today is dispensational premillennialism, the belief that the Bible is split up into a variety of “dispensations” and that most prophetic passages in the Bible refer to a time still in our future. Modern dispensational scholars like to argue that their prophetic teachings are as old as the hills, and that preterism is the wild, new kid on the prophetic block. But a survey of Bible commentators will prove that the reverse is true. Dispensationalism is relatively new and has become popular only within the last one hundred years with the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible which first appeared in 1909 and was revised in 1917.

On the other hand, preterism—the belief that key New Testament prophecies were fulfilled in the first century—is by far the dominant eschatological perspective within the whole history of the church. A simple examination of the way Bible commentators have interpreted Matthew 24 throughout church history will show that for centuries the phrase “this generation” in Matthew 23:36 and 24:34 was interpreted as the generation of Jesus’ day, not a distant generation. In addition, these commentators understood that all the events prior to Matthew 24:34 referred to events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

What would the original audience have thought Jesus was talking about? What conclusion would they have drawn other than a realization that judgment was going to come upon their generation? Would they have jumped to the conclusion that Jesus was talking about some generation in the distant future? It is far more likely that they would have been impressed by the impending nature of the coming tribulation in their own day.

Is Jesus Coming Soon?

Wars and rumors of wars, famines, plagues, and earthquakes. These are the biblical signs. All of them are realities of planet earth each days. Is Jesus coming back soon? Did Jesus provide an exact, predictable scenario as so many modern prophecy writers advocate? The answer to these questions will shock the majority and ambush the sentries of the end-times status quo. Readers of Is Jesus Coming Soon? will no longer be bound by the idol of eschatology tradition which has paralyzed the Church and minimized the impact of Christianity on our world.

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Gary discusses general interpretative principles about the Bible and specifically, the book of Revelation. When people become Christians due to some scary interpretation of the end times taught by a well-meaning teacher, they often jump right to the last book to begin their initial reading of the Bible. This usually causes more confusion than clarification for them.

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American Vision’s mission is to Restore America to its Biblical Foundation—from Genesis to Revelation. American Vision (AV) has been at the heart of worldview study since 1978, providing resources to exhort Christian families and individuals to live by a Biblically based worldview. Visit www.AmericanVision.org for more information, content and resources