God's Hope for God's World
PMT 2014-049b by Don Strickland
Eph 4:29 “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
In the last few weeks there have been two incidents of a person making a comment that has created a firestorm of criticism. First there was Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame who made a few comments in an interview pointing out the sin of homosexuality. Continue reading
PMT 2014-048b by Don Strickland.
Colossians 1:9 reads:
For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Verse 9 begins the second half of Paul’s preface which was originally stated in verse 3. In that verse Paul said he was thankful and praying for the Colossians. Paul then outlines the reasons for his thanksgiving in verses 4-8. And now with verses 9-11, Paul ends the letter’s preface with a discussion about his prayers for those at Colossae. Continue reading
PMT 2014-047b by Don Strickland.
1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Having gone to my childhood home for a visit, I was surprised to see a patch of bare ground in the front yard where a large oak tree had stood. The tree was one of the last original trees on my parents’ property (only a hickory in the back yard remains). Though the tree looked mostly healthy on the outside, my dad was told it was diseased and needed to be removed. Now that piece of my childhood is just a memory. Continue reading
PMT 2014-046 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
Revelation is a book as fascinating as it is difficult. Unfortunately, it is made more difficult by approaching it in the wrong way and viewing it through out-of-focus lenses. In our day the naive dispensational view is the dominant evangelical approach to eschatology — despite its many and continuing failed predictions of the date of the rapture and its erroneous identitifying of the Antichrist.
So many Christians have been raised in this system that they cannot even understand any other approach. This makes reasoning with them extremely difficult. In fact, reasoning with a populist dispensationalist is a lot like saddling a cow: It is a whole lot of work and there is not much point in it. Continue reading
PMT 2014-045 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
In this article I am concluding a two-part study of Acts 3:21. Please consult PMT 2014-043 for previous material.
As we continue, perhaps the Jews would lament their having destroyed the only One who could bring them divine consolation — a fear much like Peter had encountered before (Acts 2:37). In order to circumvent such, the Apostles sets a promise before them. That promise is that Christ will yet come to them in salvation: ‟and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you” (Acts 3:20 NASV). It is true that He is in heaven physically away from them; in fact, ‟heaven must receive [Him] until the times of restoration of all things” (3:21). Still, there is the promise that God will send Him to them in salvation. Though He is in heaven He is not beyond their reach, for He comes to dwell in those who have faith in Him (John 14:23). As the gospel is preached, the hearers discern the voice of the living Christ (Eph. 2:17).
PMT 2014-044 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
Acts 3:19-21, a favorite passage for the dispensational search for a special future for Israel in the New Testament record, is thought to establish the premillennial expectation against all others. This passage reads:
Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, 21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
PMT 2014-043 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
This is the third and final installment of a brief series defining key eschatology concepts. Hopefully it will be useful for earnest Christians endeavoring to study this field of systematic theology, a field so over-run with crackpots and untrained enthusiasts. So let’s begin where I left off in the preceding article.
Last Days. In the biblical scheme, the Lord Jesus Christ is the focal point of history. His coming divides history into two parts. The Old Testament era served as the “former days” (Mal. 3:4) that gave way to the “last days,” the times initiated by Christ’s coming: “God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). The last days are initiated by the appearance of the Son (Heb. 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:20) to effect redemption (Heb. 9:26) and by His pouring out of the Spirit (Acts 2:16, 17, 24; cf. Isa. 32:15; Zech. 12:10). The “ends of the ages” comes during the apostolic era (1 Cor. 10:11). These will run until “the last day,” when the Resurrection and Final Judgment occur to end history (John 6:39; 11:24; 12:48). Because the last days have been with us since the first century coming of Christ, no days are to follow them except for “the last day.” Consequently, no Millennium will introduce another grand redemptive era in man’s history.
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