DEMAR’S CRITIQUE OF GENTRY

Uncategorized July 4, 2025 Leave a comment

PMW 2025-055 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

On May 15, 2025 Gary DeMar (my old RTS classmate, friend, fellow-conference speaker, and publisher of several of my books) published an article about me that does not make sense: “Why Ken Gentry Must Oppose Full Preterism.”

DeMar’s opening charge

“Ken Gentry keeps changing his views about preterism. That’s OK because we all make changes. I believe his charges are designed to avoid having to deal with challenges to the partial preterist position.”

I must note up-front that Gary is correct. As I study the issue more carefully, I discover that I have made some exegetical oversights and argumentative mistakes in the past. However, I would note that though I have changed some of my arguments within preterism, my overall theology has not changed. I still remain fully within the flow of historic, orthodox Christianity (as reprehensible as that may sound to some). Continue reading →

WAS LIGHTFOOT A “PRETERIST”? AGAIN.

History, Preterism, Revelation July 1, 2025 Leave a comment

PMW 2025-053 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

My mistake
I am returning to a thought that I had written on previously on my Postmillennial blogsite: I am explaining why I no longer hold that John Lightfoot of the Westminster divines was a preterist. I do this because Gary DeMar for some reason rebukes me for changing my understanding of Lightfoot. In a post on the American Vision website, DeMar asks: “Why is Gentry dismissing an author like Lightfoot whose works are filled with preterist arguments?”

I would note in the first place that I am not “dismissing an author like Lightfoot”! I admire and appreciate Lightfoot as a great Reformed scholar and remarkably brilliant Hebraist.
Continue reading →

NEW LEXICON SUPPORTS PRETERISM!

Interpretation, News June 27, 2025 Comments: 5

PMW 2025-052 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Introduction
The academic world has recently released a new, updated Greek-English lexicon that is certain to replace the standard lexicons currently in use today. Research in ancient Greek continues unabated at major research universities, with more powerful research tools providing deeper insights into ancient culture and language. And this one will surely displace the universally accepted standard lexicons, such The Liddell-Scott-Jones Lexicon, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, and the Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich Greek-English Lexicon.

The current batch of Greek-English lexicons has proven helpful to scholars for years. But some academic questions remained as linguistic hurdles impeded fully understanding the Greek, especially New Testament Koine Greek. Now we are witnessing a major upheaval with this publication of the latest, upgraded lexicon, which is invested more strongly in AI-enhanced research.

This new lexicon is called, quite appropriately, New Lexicon of the 21st Century and Beyond. And it certainly will be a tremendous boon for scholars — especially for preterist scholars, as we will see. Plus with the new layout and 100% computer-generated text, the cost of this lexicon will fall well below those currently available — perhaps even 50% less. Let me explain how this can be in this review. Continue reading →

INTRODUCING GENESIS (2)

Creation, Old Testament June 24, 2025 1 Comment

PMW 2025-051 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

This is my second in a two-part, rather extensive series introducing Genesis. We now move on to consider its:

Genre
Moses was a gifted writer, as both the careful structure of Genesis as a whole and the exalted prose of Genesis 1 particularly testify. He was also quite capable of writing compelling poetry; in fact, and he did so frequently, both in Genesis (e.g., 2:23; 3:14–19; 12:1–3; 27:27–29; 49:2–27) and elsewhere (e.g., Exo. 15:1–8; Num. 6:24–26; Deut. 32:1–43; Psa. 90). But what is the basic genre of Genesis?

The content and structure of Genesis show that he wrote in narrative, historical prose. This is expected in that Israel possessed a factual, real-world oriented faith. As noted above, Genesis serves as the prologue to the Pentateuch. This is significant in that the Pentateuch is a lengthy narrative of the historical formation of Israel as a nation. Genesis would be useless for its purposes if we discount its historicity. Scholars do not doubt the basic historical nature of his genre in Exodus through Deuteronomy, even when they dispute its accuracy. And only a few scholars from critical schools of thought doubt his historical intent in Genesis 12–50. Nor do we have any evidence of a genre shift in the historical narratives from Genesis through the rest of the Pentateuch. Continue reading →

INTRODUCING GENESIS (1)

Creation, Old Testament June 20, 2025 Leave a comment

PMW 2025-050 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Title
Genesis is the first of the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch). The titles to the first five books of the Bible are actually the first words of the Hebrew text in each book. Thus, the Jews called the first book Bereshith, which is the first word in the Hebrew of Genesis 1:1. It means “by way of beginning, or in beginning.”

The title by which we today call this book is derived not from the first words of the Hebrew, but from its Septuagint title. The Septuagint title is directly transliterated as: Genesis. Each of the Greek titles of the Pentateuch summarize the subjects of the books, rather than presenting their first words. Had the ancient Greek translators used Genesis’s first words, it would have been called: En archē (“in beginning”). They apparently derived the title we use from Genesis 2:4a which reads: “This is the book of the generation [geneseos] of heaven and earth.” The Greek word means “origin, source, or generation.”
Continue reading →

ISRAEL’S LAND FOREVER?

Israel June 17, 2025 Comments: 2

PMW 2025-049 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In Genesis 3:14–15 we read: The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.”

In this context God promises that he will give the land to Abraham’s descendants “forever” (cp. 12:7). This will soon be confirmed by solemn covenant (cp. 15:7, 18) and is noted elsewhere in Scripture (Exo. 32:13; Josh. 14:9; 2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 60:21).

Since “the earth is the LORD’s, and all it contains, / The world, and those who dwell in it” (Psa. 24:1), as Moses well knows (Exo. 9:29; Deut. 10:14), the land is God’s to give to whomever he pleases. Besides this, the evil Canaanite culture would eventually (15:16) justify God’s expelling them from the land (Lev. 18:2–3, 24–28). Continue reading →

HIS LIGHTNING COMING

Olivet Discourse, Preterism, Second Coming June 13, 2025 Comments: 2

PMW 2025-047 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

I am an orthodox preterist. I believer that Matt 24:1–34 presents Christ’s great prophecy against the first century Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In that prophecy, known as the Olivet Discourse (or more technically: The Eschatological Discourse”), Jesus denounces the temple and warns of its soon-coming destruction (Matt. 24:2). I have argued in numerous writings that the Discourse as a whole deals with AD 70, as well as the end of history. I see the line of demarcation between AD 70 teaching and Second Advent teaching being drawn at Matt 24:34–36.

Nevertheless, a Second Advent intrusion appears in the near-term prophecy. Though I previously held that Matt 24:27 spoke of his judgment-coming in AD 70, I have come to realize I was mistaken. Read carefully in its context, it refers to the Second Advent. That statement reads:

“For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

How can this be? Continue reading →