August 24, 2010

A Big Problem: Where Is Har Magedon?

A Big Problem - Where is Har Magedon.pdf

August 19, 2010

Two Unparalleled Periods of Wrath

Two Unparalleled Periods of Wrath.pdf

July 30, 2010

Stand Your Ground in Tribulation - Part 2

Stand 2 of Fight, Flight, or Faith.pdf

July 26, 2010

Stand Your Ground in Tribulation

Stand Your Ground.pdf

May 30, 2010

From the INBOX:

Thanks for your recent post at the "prewrath" site. I've flirted with amil, a bit; read Hoekma, Beale, Riddlebarger, and others. But in the end found the amil perspective wanting, and the points you highlight in your post represent some of the inconsistencies of that system (not even mentioning its origins and popularization by Augustine). Anyway, great post...

B.

May 24, 2010

Is the Devil Fettered or on the Loose?

This past Sunday morning I preached at a church on: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). One of the points I highlighted was that before we can take seriously the biblical principles to resist the devil, we need to be aware that he is a force to be reckoned with---otherwise, why would James give us this warning to resist the devil? This command to resist the devil necessarily implies that the devil is loose. It makes no sense to resist the devil if he is restrained.

Yet, this is in some sense what amillennialists teach. To get around the literal sense of Revelation 20:1-3, amillennialists are forced to conclude that Satan is not bound today if that "means that he cannot move a muscle against God" (William Cox, Amillennialism Today, p. 59). Perhaps one of the best known supporters of amillennialism is Dr. Anthony Hoekema who in agreement with Cox defines the sense in which Satan is bound. Hoekema writes,

This [binding of Satan] does not imply that Satan can do no harm whatever while he is bound. It means only what John says here: while Satan is bound he cannot deceive the nations in such a way as to keep them from learning about the truth of God (Hoekema, The Bible and the Future (1982) p. 228)."

In other words, Satan is bound in the sense that he is only able to keep people from understanding the gospel. Yet, the New Testament at every point contradicts both Cox and Hoekema's conclusion. Peter explicitly talks about the activity of the devil: "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him" (1 Pet 5:8-9)

John says: "We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." (1 John 5:19).

And Paul says: "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places....In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;" (Eph 6:11-12, 16)

So the diverse testimony of Scripture proves that the devil is on the loose and bent on our destruction. This is in stark contrast to the situation when Christ comes back:

"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. (2) And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, (3) and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer," (Rev 20:1-3).

If language has any meaning at all, Satan is not bound at this moment in the sense that amillennial theology teaches. Satan was not bound and chained up in a pit at the first coming of Christ in any sense whatsoever. Certainly, the victory of Christ was won on the cross, which provides the believer the basis to resist the devil. But only when Christ comes back will the prowling devil be fettered in a sealed pit.

April 26, 2010

Daniel 2 and Daniel 7: Equal or Not Equal (Part 4)

Daniel 2 and 7 - Equal or Not Equal - Part 4.pdf

April 15, 2010

Martin Luther on Tribulation

This poignant statement from Luther on tribulation in our lives can be applied to the Church when she enters into the Great Tribulation. May we cultivate this spiritual self-control if God calls this generation to suffer at the hands of Satan and his Antichrist:

We have the promise and hope of heaven, and the recompense and reward of our present misery will be so great that we shall rebuke ourselves severely for ever having dropped one tear or sigh on account of this contempt and ingratitude of the world. Why, we shall say, did we not suffer even worse things? I never would have believed that there could be such surpassing glory in eternal life; else I should not have so dreaded to suffer even much worse things (St. L. II:1237; Erl, Exeg. Opp. Lat. 9, 235.)

March 14, 2010

If it Looks Like the Rapture, Quacks Like the Rapture...it Probably is the Rapture

(Click here for a larger image of this chart.)

Pretribulationists and Preterists claim that Jesus and Paul are not speaking about the same coming (parousia) in their end-time teachings. The preterists maintain this because their system requires that the coming that Jesus refers to is the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The pretribulationist system requires that Jesus is not speaking about a coming that applies to the Church that begins with the rapture, since that would mean that the Church would be persecuted by Antichrist.

Both of those interpretations are convoluted at best. The prewrath position says, "Let's compare Jesus and Paul's teaching and see if they are consistently talking about the same event." And sure enough, the natural comparison above does leads to the conclusion that the 20 plus parallels between their respective teachings is overwhelming: Jesus and Paul are speaking of the same singular future coming. If this was any other doctrine such as the deity of Christ, this would not even be up for debate. But because tradition is very strong in some quarters, it prevents others from seeing the obvious.

March 2, 2010

Daniel 2 and Daniel 7: Equal or Not Equal - Part 3

Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 - Equal or not Equal - Part 3.pdf