Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 80 Gary responds to a Facebook video by an individual claiming that the rapture and the end times are very “soon” to begin. In terms of audience relevance related to a study of the Olivet Discourse, students of Scripture need to begin with Matthew 21:1 where we read that Jesus and some of His disciples had come “to the Mount of Olives.” By th [...]
Americans revere the Bible—but, by and large, don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates. This lack of Bible-reading explains why Americans know so little about the Bible that is the basis of the faith of most of them. For example, eight in ten Americans say they are Christians, but only four in ten know that Jesus, according to the Bible, deli [...]
It was Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals who wrote, “Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing—but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates.”[1] It could be argued that, because we have limited our application of the Bibl [...]
Gary is interviewed by UK Pastor Alex Gillan about biblical eschatology and fulfilled prophecy. Hal Lindsey argued that Revelation was written in the form of an ancient code that needed a time machine to speed to the right prophetic era where the original Revelation symbols could be understood. “You might say,” Lindsey writes in There’s A New World Coming, “that John was put into a ‘divine time ma [...]
Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 79 Gary responds to recent comments by individuals who claim that our modern days are fulfilling Daniel 9. It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. The “gap” that has been placed between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks of Daniel’s prophecy was created because it was needed to make the dispensational hermeneutical model work. Nothing [...]
California just implemented a law requiring many businesses to pay employees at least $20 per hour. First, like so much government regulation, this is theft. Only governments (and the mafia) can force people to pay more money for work they don’t do. Second, it’s a job killer for young people seeking work experience. If you listen to Democrats, most Americans are working at jobs for minimum wage. I [...]
Gary uses a recent trip to a pizza restaurant (two actually) to teach a lesson about free-market economics. The call for government intervention into market pricing is ancient. This call was resisted politically in the West until the decade before World War I began. After that war ended in 1918, the West saw the triumph of the isms: Communism, Fascism, National Socialism, Fabianism, and the smalle [...]
Note: This is the sixth and final article on worldview concepts that Christians have failed to overcome. (First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth) George Will called 1968 “perhaps the worst year in American History” and called the sixties “the most dangerous decade in America’s life as a nation.”[1] This is not surprising because of the continued escalation of the Vietnam War, the draft, and the assas [...]
Gary discusses some of the logical consequences of the craziness being espoused by certain people lately. What people often object to is the legislation of morality that affects them personally. Some women want abortion to be legal so they can choose the procedure if a birth control device fails. They object to any legislation that would make abortion illegal and infringe on their personal choices [...]
Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 78 Gary disputes the claim of preterists being “scoffers” by using the Bible to interpret itself and also by recognizing the Bible’s own timing of when the last days take place. What does the Bible say, not just about the “last time,” but about the “last days”? In 1 Peter 4:7, we read: “The end of all things is at hand.” Whatever “all t [...]
Hermeneutics is often defined as the science and art of interpreting what people write (mostly) and speak. R.C. Sproul writes: “The purpose of hermeneutics is to establish guidelines and rules for interpretation. It is a well-developed science that can become technical and complex. Any written document is subject to misinterpretation and thus we have developed rules to safeguard us from such misun [...]
Gary continues his interview with artist Dan Riedel about his friendship with Dr. Cornelius Van Til. Without the Christian worldview, Van Til says: Our argument, then, is that those who come apparently ever so near the Christian position but stop short or maintaining the fundamental conceptions of an absolute Christ, an absolute Scripture, and regeneration, reduce experience to an absurdity. Here [...]
Futurists just can’t bring themselves to believe what Jesus actually said and meant about His “this generation” coming, that it was “about to” take place, before all those who first heard His words died (Matthew 16:27-28). Jesus told His apostles that they would not finish going through the cities before He came (10:23). The use of “about to” in Matthew 16:27 coincides with 10:23, 23:36, and 24:34 [...]
Gary interviews his long-time friend, Dan Riedel, who painted the artwork for the cover of the new book, The Objective Proof for Christianity. [T]he process of knowledge is a growth into the truth. For this reason we have spoken of the Christian theistic method as the method of implication into the truth of God. It is reasoning in a spiral fashion rather than in a linear fashion. Accordingly, we h [...]
Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 77 Gary analyzes a clip from a teacher on Facebook claiming that Gog and Magog from Ezekiel 38-39 will soon be upon us. A more recent interpretation holds that Ezekiel’s Gog and Magog battle is fulfilled in the details of Revelation 20:7–10 when Rome and its international armies attacked Israel and destroyed the temple in A.D. 70. This approach is diffic [...]
How do we determine how documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution should be interpreted? Let’s check with those who were there when they were written and the circumstances for their construction. Such a methodology comes to mind with a book I read as a child, We Were There at the Driving of the Golden Spike (1960).Eyewitness accounts are the starting point (e.g., Luke 1:1 [...]
Politicians constantly boast about how they are helping people. Gary disagrees. The only functions allowed to the state by the Bible are defense of its people and punishment of criminals. To go a step beyond this is forbidden. Biblical law works to prevent power being concentrated in any one institution, by creating and sanctioning many institutions—family, church, community, voluntary association [...]
One of the arguments against the preterist (past) interpretation of the Olivet Discourse and the use of the second person plural “you” is an appeal to Matthew 23:35: “And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” The claim is made that Jesus’ use of “ [...]
Gary discusses ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. He explains when and why it began and what its jurisdiction and purpose is. Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) establishes the proper definition of the word “right”: “Conformity to the will of God or to his law, the perfect standard of truth and justice. In the literal sense, right is a straight line [...]
Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 76 Gary discusses Jesus’ statement in Matthew 23:35 about Zechariah, son of Berechiah. There is no record of the prophet Zechariah (Zech. 1:1) being murdered. Berechiah, like Zechariah, is a common name in the Bible (1 Chron. 3:20; 6:39; 9:16; 15:17; 15:23; 2 Chron. 28:12; Neh. 3:4, 30). Jesus says that it was this Zechariah who was murdered by som [...]
