Category Archives: Uncategorized

INTRODUCING REVELATION

AD 70, Revelation of John, Uncategorized September 22, 2026 Leave a comment

PMW 2026-074 by Larry E. Ball

Gentry note:
I am continuing introduces Larry Ball’s insightful primer on Revelation, titled Blessed Is He Who Reads. This article provides a brief review of some important issues necessary for entering into the Book of Revelation. I think you will find these words — and the whole book! — a valuable resource. And now from Larry Ball:

A Short Review

Before I look at the first few verses of Revelation chapter 1, I will review the principle of historical limitation that I described previously. Even though the Bible is written for us, not everything in the Bible is written to us. This is not being disrespectful to the Bible, nor does it deny that God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit can speak to us in his Word as we read it or hear it preached. It is simply being honest in recognizing that the Bible as a whole was not written directly to us. I will apply this to Revelation, but first I need to clarify a few things, and consider some significant points made by John in the first few verses of Revelation. Afterwards I will return to our main premise about how historical limitation applies to this text. Continue reading →

BLESSED IS HE WHO READS

AD 70, Revelation of John, Uncategorized September 18, 2026 Comments: 2

PMW 2026-073 by Larry E. Ball

Gentry note:
Victorious Hope Publishing released this book by long-time (now retired PCA pastor, Larry E. Ball. It is an excellent, fully orthodox, (partial) preterist commentary on Revelation. Larry’s pastoral experience and excellent research has allowed him to compose this very readable, very insightful Primer on the Book of Revelation. This article is his Introduction to the work. I highly recommend your buying it for yourself, and to recommend for a Sunday school or small group Bible study. Now for Larry’s introduction:

What is a Primer?

This book is intended to be a primer (pronounce like “prim and proper”) on the book of Revelation. A primer is a book for beginners, presenting the most basic elements of a field of study. It is a first step toward understanding something more complicated. Actually, a primer assumes you know very little about a particular subject. It is an introduction to a particular topic that may encourage you to pursue your own study in more detail and depth. Continue reading →

THE CONSUMMATE STATE

Uncategorized September 15, 2026 Leave a comment

PMW 2026-072 by Geerhardus Vos

From: Geerhardus Vos, “Eschatology, of the New Testament,” ed. James Orr et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Chicago: Howard-Severance, 1915), 1:991.

Gentry note: This material overlaps a little with my preceding posting also from Vos’ writings. The following is Vos’ work:

Side-by-side with “the future age,” and characterizing it from a less formal point of view, is the phrase “kingdom of God.” This designates the consummate state, as it will exist for believers after the judgment. Jesus, while making the kingdom a present reality, yet continues to speak of it in accordance with its original eschatological usage as “the kingdom” which lies in the future (Matt. 13:43; 25:34; 26:29; Mark 9:47; Luke 12:32; 13:28, 29; 21:31). With Paul the phrase bears preponderatingly an eschatological sense, although occasionally he uses it of the present state of believers (Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:20; 6:9, 10; 15:24, 50; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Col. 1:13; 4:11; 1 Thess. 2:12; 2 Thess. 1:5; 2 Tim. 4:1, 18). Elsewhere in the NT the eschatological use occurs in Hebrews 12:28; James 2:5; 2 Peter 1:11; and Revelation 11:15. Continue reading →

SCHOLARLY ADVOCATES OF SIX-DAY CREATION

Creation, Uncategorized September 8, 2026 Comments: 3

PMW 2026-069 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Too many Christians dismiss six-day creationism as naive. They usually do so in order to avoid being mocked by evolutionist Christians. This is unfortunate because there are many scholars who hold to six-day creation. Perhaps a survey of some of these names will be encouraging to my readers. The Six-day Creationist view that I hold, and which I present and defend, stands upon the exegetical observations of well-argued, long-standing, traditional orthodoxy — an orthodoxy including many noteworthy biblical and exegetical scholars from the past and the present. Continue reading →

MY WORK ON THE TWO AGES (Part 1)

Olivet Discourse, Preterism, Uncategorized August 25, 2026 Comments: 4

PMW 2026-065 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In this short series I will introduce my reasoning for my currently working on  a book on the two age doctrine of redemptive history. I will begin this series with an important issue which forms a necessary backdrop to understanding the two age doctrine:

The unity of the Bible

The Bible is the divinely-ordained collection of sixty-six books which were directly revealed by God’s Holy Spirit for his own glory and the benefit of man (1 Pet. 1:10–12; 2 Pet. 1:20–21). Yet despite the Bible’s collective nature it is fundamentally one book. The very word biblios is a word in the singular form that signifies the unified nature of Scripture. Commenting on 1 Peter 1:10–12 and citing WCF 1:5, Richard Gaffin (2023: 49) argues that the “overarching activity of the Spirit explains why in the Old Testament as such ‘the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole’ is present and discoverable. The multi-authored diversity and varied genre of the Old Testament constitute an organically unfolding and divinely determined didactic unity.” Continue reading →

OLIVET’S TWO QUESTIONS (2)

AD 70, Second Coming, Uncategorized July 28, 2026 Leave a comment

PMW 2026-057 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

I am continuing my presentation of the evidence that the Disciples of Christ ask him two questions in Matthew 24:3, not three questions. See preceding posting.

Eighth, disciples’ confusion tendencies. In their question the disciples confound two separate issues. In their interaction with Jesus in Matthew 24:1–3, their tendency to confusion leads them to associate the destruction of the temple with “your parousia and the end of the age.” And this despite the fact that they had already heard from the Lord that “the end of the age” was the end of time brought about with the final judgment (Matt. 13:39, 40, 49). Of course, the implied reader would also know of Jesus’ soon-coming great commission reaching to “the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). And the disciples’ confusion on this matter becomes even more evident to us in that Jesus’ prophetic statement (which gives rise to the disciples’ question) focuses solely on the temple’s destruction. Continue reading →

OLIVET’S TWO QUESTIONS (1)

AD 70, Second Coming, Uncategorized July 24, 2026 Leave a comment

PMW 2026-056 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

The Olivet Dscsourse is prompted by the Disciples questioning Jesus about his prophesying the destruction of the temple (Matt. 24:2–3). It is important to understand their questions in order to follow Jesus’ answer. I believe the evidence is clear that they ask only two questions, not three (as per John Walvoord and some others). The exegetical support for the two-question view is as follows.

First, lexical observation. Lexically the disciples’ questions present only two interrogatives, not three. They ask “when” (Gk., pote) and “what” (Gk., ti): “when [pote] will these things happen, and what [ti] will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? Continue reading →