I just wanted to put something on the blog (again) about my rejection of the idea that Revelation 12 has anything to do with the second coming or end times in general. I've been getting emails with links to YouTube videos like this one that use my thoughts about the...
eschatology
Book Review: The New Christian Zionism
Most Christians are interested (and many absorbed) by the topic of the future of Israel and how, in the wake of the New Testament emphasis on the Church as the people of God (Gentiles included), Israel still matters. The New Christian Zionism: Fresh Perspectives on...
Naked Bible 90: Lake of Fire
This episode discusses why hellfire in the New Testament is associated with “the devil and his angels" (Matt 25:41). Where does that idea come from? There are in fact earlier books that are the basis for this language—inside and outside the Old Testament. Transcript...
The Planet X Fraud
In case you haven't heard of "Planet X," it's a notorious piece on Paleobabble that was derived from Zecharia Sitchin's 12th planet Nibiru nonsense. However, Planet X has since taken on a (fake) life of its own, so that the idea cannot be equated with Sitchin's...
Nick Redfern Final Events Lecture Online
Readers may recall that I reviewed Nick Redfern's book, Final Events and the Secret Government Group on Demonic UFOs and the Afterlife on this blog back in 2010. Nick has posted a lecture on the book and its content here. Having heard Nick lecture before, I'd...
Camping Crackpottery Survey Update
Contest voting is pretty tight, as the graphic shows. No sign of a clear consensus yet, so I'll be leaving the survey live for a while yet. Not sure if Harold Camping's latest nugget of incoherence will sway voters, either. In case you haven't heard you're blessed,...
Harold Camping, Bible Crackpottery, and a Contest
In honor of today's blazingly stupid (and failed) rapture prediction by Harold Camping, I thought I'd coin a new term to use for Bible crackpottery. I can't decide between two alternatives. I was actually hoping he'd be right since I've been grading (mostly poor)...
Eschatology Spasm
I wanted to post this before year's end, but things didn't work out. I plan to append this post to the eschatology archived threads. Came across three articles that (again) point out certain aspects of eschatology that all-too-often assumed rather than thoughtfully...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 10
Continuing on with our series, "why the seventy weeks of Daniel is more complicated than popular prophecy writers tell you -- or even know." This Daniel 9 issue requires especially close attention. It runs so contrary to what all the popular end times experts have...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 9
Continuing on with the assumptions made in regard to the 70 weeks of Daniel... In the last post we jumped into Daniel 9:24-27 and saw (to the surprise of some I am sure) that, although so many people are sure that the 70 weeks prophecy was about a timeline that had...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 8
I was going to try and address Daniel 9:24-27 in one post and then move into another point of eschatology, but the comments have persuaded me that this passage needs close scrutiny. My reason for that is the same as it has been for this entire series: I want readers...
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 6
We've reached the point now where we can transition from explaining the four pillars of the "fundamentalist" view to offering some points of (friendly) critique. Here they are for sake of review: 1. Abductee testimony of the forcible trauma of their experience. 2....
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 4
In the last post, we talked about how certain views of end times are tied to certain views of the biblical covenants with Abraham and David, as well as the New Covenant. Many Christians want to argue for a literal millennium on the basis of the irrevocable nature of...
Reviews of Scholarly Books in Biblical Studies, Archaeology, and Theology
I don't recall ever having blogged about the RBL site and blog (Review of Biblical Literature). Both the website and blog provide free access to book reviews on scholarly books for biblical studies, archaeology, and theology. The most recent issue showed up in my...
Thoughts on Prophecy: Embracing the Messiness
Some of you know via other interactions that I'm currently teaching a four-week class at my church on interpreting prophecy. (Yes, I got talked into it). This past Thursday was the first session. My goal throughout the four weeks will be to convince people that...