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In the past one-hundred and fifty years or so, some Christians have argued that there will actually be two comings of Christ. Believers from the dispensational tradition have said that there will be a “secret rapture” of Christ a few years before His visible return. While even those who confess a secret rapture disagree about its timing, the idea basically says that at some point, the church will be removed from the world by Jesus in order that it might escape an ensuing tribulation. Jesus will then make His physical return some time later, usually three and one-half to seven...

"The Roots of Fundamentalism," by Ernest R. Sandeen, in discussing the history of the Brethren, says that [John Nelson] Darby introduced the idea of a secret rapture of the church and a gap in prophetic fulfillment between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel. These beliefs became basic to the system of theology known as dispensationalism. From 1862 to 1877, Darby lived in and traveled throughout the United States and Canada, spreading his message. He was a very appealing speaker and also intolerant to criticism. At first he tried to win members of existing Protestant congregations to his sect, but...

Evangelical book catalogs promote books such as Planet Earth: The Final Chapter, The Great Escape, and the Left Behind series. Bumper stickers warn us that the vehicle’s occupants may disappear at any moment. It is clear that there is a preoccupation with the idea of a secret rapture. Perhaps this has become more pronounced recently due to the expectation of a new millennium and the fears regarding potential Y2K problems. Perhaps psychologically people are especially receptive to the idea of an imminent, secret rapture at the present time. Additionally, many Christians are not aware that any other position relative to...

A recent attempted expose by a “ lefty pinko rag ” called Mother Jones has called out Michelle Bachmann and Coral Ridge Ministries and its founder D. James Kennedy for allegedly being tied to “Christian Reconstructionists.” Coral Ridge has answered the charge as nonsensical and distorted considering the religious expression of some of our founding fathers. I think the retort against the obvious propaganda of Mother Jones is needed, but protests a bit too much. After all, Kennedy did have friendly connections with the Christian Reconstruction leaders, had them at his conferences and shows, and said things like this: “As...

In the movie Raising Arizona (1987), H.I. (Nicholas Cage), an ex-convict, and Edwina “Ed” (Holly Hunter), an ex-police officer, are a down-and-out married couple who desperately want a child. Unable to have a child of their own, they decide to take one from the Arizonas who just had quintuplets. According to the paper, it’s “more than they can handle.” H.I. reasons that since the Arizonas have so many and they don’t have any, taking one of five should not be an ethical problem. Their baby-snatching socialism is the beginning of their nightmare. If H.I.’s approach to possessions sounds familiar, you...

In response to my views on Jerusalem and the Mother of Harlots in Revelation 17, some readers expressed their predictable denial. God would never write off ethnic and physical Jerusalem in that way, they say, because He made an eternal covenant with Abraham and his seed. One reader objected thusly: You are forgetting about God’s promise to Abraham, which is eternal in nature. God made a covenant “between me and thee forever.” Either God meant forever, or He did not. Yes, the Jews have been disobedient literally for centuries in denying Christ, but they will be restored in a total...

Almost daily I get questions about prophetic topics. In most cases, I’ve already dealt with them in my books Last Days Madness, The Early Church and the End of the World, Why the End of the World is Not in Your Future, and10 Popular Prophecy Myths Exposed and Answered. When I point people to these books for my take on a particular passage, a number of them bristle at the suggestion. A few of them want a “yes” or “no” answer right then and there. It’s almost never that simple. What they’re really looking for is an excuse not to...

By | Published: Jesus told his listeners, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43). For many people, this verse provides the heart of “replacement theology”—the idea that the Christian Church has replaced the old physical nation of Israel as God’s chosen people and priestly nation (1 Pet. 2:9–10, et al). Without requiring the use of the label “replacement,” this is essentially what the verse teaches. It does not mean that Jewish people can never again taste of God’s grace, it simply means that the Old Jewish...

The average American and most Christians have grown up with a “smorgasbord theology.” As a result, they can no longer tell the real from the counterfeit. The writer to the Hebrew Christians describes this mind-set. He stops in mid-thought, wanting to explain the priesthood of Jesus and how it is similar to the priesthood of Melchizedek. He recognizes that their spiritual discernment makes what he wants to write “hard to explain” (Heb. 5:11). What had happened to these converts? They had become “dull of hearing” (Heb. 5:11). By this time in their Christian walk they should have matured, advancing from...

Part 2 – What Should We Watch for in 2011 ... 4. Russian arms contracts to Israel’s enemies to increase. This is prophetic as per Ezekiel 39:9. Additionally, the global economic crunch has not slowed down Russian arms exports which totaled 7.4 billion in 2009 and will likely exceed that in 2010. (Military export totals not yet available for 2010).

Why is there no need for a Jewish Temple to replace the Muslim Dome-of-the-Rock? Well, first of all, the Dome is very pretty, and would make a nice Church some day. But secondly, the idea that a Jewish Temple must one day (soon) stand in the place of the Muslim Dome of the Rock is a pure superstition. It is founded upon a tradition of the Jews—infused with some imagination—and not upon any command of God’s Word. With all of the talk and Bible study concerning the Jewish Temple Mount, you would expect the Bible to have much to say...

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17) There is a certain church that I pass on my way home from work every day. Like most churches, this church has a sign out by the road. I have already expressed my extreme frustration with church signs elsewhere, so it should come as no surprise that I am always...

In yesterday’s article, “ Testing the Prophets (Again) ,” I began a brief response to Greg Laurie’s article “ Are these signs of the times? ” I included comments From H. Wayne House who is a NT scholar and takes a dispensational premillennial approach to the passage. One of House’s points is that the “wars and rumors of wars” mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24:6 had to be global. But notice Jesus’ words: “you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars.” There is no expectation that His audience would see or experience any of these wars. They would...

As this millennial decade comes to an end and North Korea is rattling its military sword, popular Christian writers will reach into their prophecy bags, appeal to the Bible, and tell us that the end is near. The more judicious ones don’t come right out and say Jesus’ coming will take place in “our generation”; they temper their claims with something like this: “So is the end of the world near? I don’t know for certain, but clearly there are signs of the times.” Greg Laurie, like so many prophecy writers past and future, adds a caveat after spending a...

Frank Schaeffer, the son of the late Christian worldview apologist Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984), writes the following in a post-election article that was published on the ultra-liberal Huffington Post website: “One reason the Republicans won on Tuesday is because many of their supporters have already given up on this world and are waiting for the next. I know, I used to be one of them.” One of the major faults of his father’s worldview was its lack of a viable eschatology. I’m not the only one to make this observation. William Edgar, a professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, recounts...

At the Baptist General Association of Virginia’s Nov. 9-10, 2010 annual meeting in Hampton, Virginia, the participants “adopted a resolution decrying versions of American history that minimize or deny the role of church-state separation and encouraging diligence in correcting mistaken historical accounts.” The resolution, which was passed by a wide margin, considers it “‘a threat to the flourishing of religious liberty when any version of our nation’s history minimizes or denies the historical basis’ of church-state separation. It also says Virginia Baptists should ‘be diligent in resisting and correcting any such mistaken version of our history.’” Not a bad resolution...

Through the years there have been many theories on the identity of “The Antichrist”. The common belief held by many Christians today looks quite different than what you actually find in the Bible. How important is it to have a correct eschatology and does it really matter?

CONCLUSION 1. God fulfilled His promise for Israel to receive the land...       a. So says Joshua, the Psalmist, and the Levites       b. At the very least Solomon ruled over the entire land described to Abraham 2. Israel's retention of the land was always conditional...       a. Moses and Joshua warned Israel that it was conditional       b. The Assyrian and Babylonian captivity illustrates how Israel lost the land       c. The Restoration described in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah illustrates how Israel regained the land

You can pretty much rest assured that prophecy teachers (pastor, preacher, “prophet,” pundit, televangelist, and the like) have little idea what they’re talking about when they use the phrase “the Antichrist.” It’s a dead giveaway that any such person has sold out dogmatically, uncritically, and close-mindedly to a particular system of end-times theology rather than a purely biblical assessment of the issue. Why such a strong conclusion over the mere phrase “the Antichrist”? Because no such character appears in Scripture. Let me explain.

The main purpose of the present chapter is to bring clearly to view the important truth that in Scripture the contrast is not between the spiritual and the literal, but between the spiritual and natural; for a passage of Scripture may refer, when taken "literally," either to "that which is natural" or to "that which is spiritual." In other words, the literal interpretation may call for a thing which exists in the realm of nature, or for the counterpart of that thing which exists in the realm of spiritual realities (1 Cor. 15:46). It is of the utmost importance that...