Nearing the end of this (have to check my list). It's time for "when was the book of Revelation written?" The two candidates are, of course, before or after 70 AD (the latter in the 90s). I think the most thorough recent discussion on this is by Greg Beale in his...
eschatology
Why an Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 13
Previous post found here: Seventy Weeks Prophecy in Daniel 9: A Messianic Perspective I want to start this post with something I'd do in class during my teaching days at Christian colleges that I think will make this post -- which is about the question of whether...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 12
Before leaving Daniel 9 I wanted to comment on Peter Gentry's very recent article, as well as two others. All three take Daniel 9:24-27 as messianic (i.e., that the anointed one who is cut off is indeed Jesus the Messiah), though they do not take all elements of the...
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...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 7
The question to address in this post is much simpler than others: Is there any biblical proof that the 70th week of Daniel = the tribulation period? This equation is critical to the pre-trib, premill vide of the rapture. That is, without this equation, that view is...
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 7
I just posted another installment on eschatology (end times) over on my Naked Bible blog. Again, the goal in that series is to get people to understand that the typical "there's going to be a Great Tribulation, a rapture, and a millennial kingdom in Israel" view of...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 6
Now that we're out of the covenants, it's time to move on to other items that demonstrate how anyone's position on end times is driven by presuppositions. Our discussion of the covenants (and some reader comments) brought to light how readily many Christians assume...
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 5
In the last two posts I've been making a simple observation: arguments defending a literal millennium that depend on the unconditionality of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants are poor. The reasons are twofold: (1) each of those covenants also have clear conditional...
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 5
In the last post, we moved into the fourth element to a Christian fundamentalist view of UFOs and aliens (i.e., that UFOs that are not man-made or other natural phenomena are demonic and alleged alien life forms are demonic). The four elements are: 1. Abductee...
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...
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 4
So far we've covered the first three of the four elements to a Christian fundamentalist view of UFOs and aliens (i.e., that UFOs that are not man-made or other natural phenomena are demonic and alleged alien life forms are demonic). The four were: 1. Abductee...
Why An Obsession with Eschatology is a Waste of Time, Part 3
To this point, we've talked about a single dispute that divides biblical scholars and students on eschatology: whether or Israel and the Church are to be kept distinct when interpretating prophecy. The question matters since any position that wants a literal...