Category Archives: Revelation

REVELATION AND ORIGINAL INTENT

Interpretation, Preterism, Revelation August 29, 2017 Leave a comment

PMW 2017-070 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

I am concluding a brief series presenting interpretive issues necessary for understanding Revelation rightly, i.e., from the preterist perspective. Many evangelicals deem Revelation’s judgment passages to be counter-indicative to postmillennialism’s long term hope. In this article I will focus on John’s original intent which shows he was not speaking past his audience to an audience thousands of years in the future.

Today we are so distant from the events of A.D. 70, so removed from the ancient culture, so little acquainted with the first century Jewish outlook, and so accustomed to the Christian perspective, we tend to overlook the enormous redemptive-historical significance of A.D. 70. Those events are not merely another sad instance in the history of “man’s inhumanity to man which makes countless thousands mourn.” They serve not as demonstration of “nature, red in tooth and claw.” Neither do they merely remind us of “the carnage of war, the blood-swollen god.” Continue reading →

HELP FROM JOHN’S AUDIENCE

Interpretation, Preterism, Revelation August 25, 2017 1 Comment

PMT 2017-069 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In my last article I noted the significance of John’s opening time-indicators for interpreting Revelation. These powerfully demonstrate the preterist (past tense) approach to Revelation. That is, that the vast majority of Revelation’s event lie in our distant past and in John’s approaching future.

If you want to explain Revelation to a friend, the first thing you need to do is have them read the first three verses. Then point out to them the near-term indicators (as per my last article). Then you need to point out to them the fact that he is writing to a real, historical audience who would not be inclined to overlook those indicators. Continue reading →

THE POWER OF FICTION FOR PRETERISM

Revelation March 17, 2017 Comments: 2

PMT 2017-022 By Brian Godawa

If you are like me, a postmillennial redemptive-historical preterist, you have been deeply disturbed by the past huge success of Left Behind, as well as the current financial siphon of speculative novels on the book of Revelation. Is this concern because of greed or envy for the success of others? May it never be. My sadness is because I think it represents the spirit of the age: a hunger for conspiracy theories. In this world of obsession with narrative over facts, even Christians are more drawn to sensational fantasies of the end times than to the real-world glory of the Gospel in the Kingdom of God. Futurists (like Left Behinders) seem more interested in the coming of the “Antichrist” than in the coming of Christ, or rather, than in the current reign of Jesus Christ over all (Eph 2:20-22). Continue reading →

REVELATION COMMENTARY COVER VOTE

Revelation January 16, 2017 Comments: 78

three-coversSpecial Survey

I am interrupting my Postmillennial Primer series for a one-time special survey.

Tolle Lege, the publisher of my forthcoming commentary on Revelation, has typeset vol. 1 and is working on typesetting vol. 2. Not only so, but they are now looking into cover designs.

We are going to test the waters with three options. If you would like to vote on your favorite cover, please let me know which you would prefer. I will only display the cover to vol 1;  the cover to vol 2 would copy the design of the first one while replacing the graphic image with a related one.

UPDATE!

On the afternoon of 1/17/17 from all sources of our survey the votes were:

#1 = 34%
#2 = 33%
#3 =  33%

On 1/18/17 at 6:00 AM the votes have changed remarkably:

#1 = 29%
#2 = 29%
#3 = 40%

It looks like we might have to go to the Electoral College after checking the hanging chads! I wonder if the Russians are doing this to make matters more difficult?

Book covers are important because people actually do judge a book by its cover. The cover of a book must capture the eye on a store shelf containing scores of other books. Otherwise, a potential reader/buyer might walk on by, not picking up the book and surveying its Table of Contents to see what it is about. (If they had taken my course on Righteous Writing, they would know how important it is to look at a book’s Table of Contents to help evaluate the book.)

By the way, I will not be posting the high-resolution version. So they will not seem as clear as the final result. But I think you will be able to figure it out. Continue reading →

REVELATION COMMENTARY UPDATE

Preterism, Revelation January 6, 2017 Comments: 39

revelation-commentary-typesetPMT 2016-003 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

A number of my readers have expressed interest in the Revelation commentary I have written. I have finally received notice from the publisher that vol. 1 has been fully typeset. The commentary will be titled: The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation.

The first of two volumes is 880 pages long and covers Introduction through Revelation 9. Of these pages, 208 are the “Introduction.” Introducing the distinctive approach to the commentary is vitally important, hence the depth of the material therein. Continue reading →

BELIEVERS AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE?

Revelation May 24, 2016 Comments: 2

Great White ThronePMT 2016-036 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

A reader writes

“As I anxiously await the publication of your full commentary on Revelation, I was wondering if you could give me your perspective of the Great White Throne Judgment. Growing up as a dispensationalist I was always taught that it was a judgment of only unbelievers. But then reading through several commentaries from a Reformed perspective, it sounds like it’s a general judgment of everyone (which makes sense, cf. Mt. 25:31ff).”

Gentry responds

Let’s briefly consider Rev 20:12, which is the verse in question.

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne (20:12a).

Continue reading →

REV 11:2 AND ISRAEL CAST OUT (4)

AD 70, Israel, Revelation February 29, 2016 Leave a comment

jer 3-8 divorce 2PMT 2016-017 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

This is the final installment in a four-part series discussing the significance of John’s imagery in Rev 11:2. To get the context of this study, please begin at the first one.

Ekballō and Spousal Divorce

Scripture employs the term ekballō of divorcing one’s wife by sending her out of the house. “As a [technical term] of the LXX for expulsion of a wife, ekballō appears in the citation of Gen 21:10 in Gal 4:30” where Paul refers to the expulsion of Hagar from Abraham’s house (EDNT). In that the judicial backdrop of Rev is God’s divorce decree against Jerusalem/Israel, this fits perfectly with John’s theme stated in Rev 1:7. The excommunication concept (discussed in my previous point) fits nicely also with God’s casting Israel out of his house as a divorced wife, as we shall see. Continue reading →