Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10084 In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Paul warns that the day of the Lord will not come “unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” This figure, also called the man of sin in older translations, is one of the most significant individuals in biblical prophecy. He…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10085 Paul warns in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 that the day of the Lord “will not come, unless the rebellion comes first.” The word translated “rebellion” or “falling away” is the Greek apostasia, and its meaning, scope, and timing have been the subject of sustained debate among interpreters. Understanding this apostasy is essential for grasping…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10080 The impulse to calculate the date of Christ’s return is understandable. Believers long for the Lord’s coming, and prophecy gives enough detail to make the temptation to set a timetable feel almost reasonable. But date-setting is not a harmless exercise in prophetic enthusiasm. It is a practice that contradicts Scripture directly, damages the…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10081 The doctrine of imminence is one of the most distinctive and practically significant features of pretribulational eschatology. It holds that the Rapture of the Church could occur at any moment, without prior warning, without the fulfilment of intervening prophetic events, and without any sign that must precede it. Understanding this doctrine requires careful…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10083 Second Thessalonians 2:6-7 introduces one of the most debated figures in prophetic Scripture: “And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10079 Few questions generate as much popular fascination as the timing of Jesus’ return. Books predicting specific dates have sold millions of copies. Websites track supposed prophetic signs in real time. Social media amplifies every earthquake, eclipse, and geopolitical development as a potential harbinger of the end. The question of whether we can know…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10032 The book of Revelation describes a sequence of divine judgements poured out upon the earth during the seven-year Tribulation period. The seal judgements, opened by the Lamb in Revelation 6, form the opening wave of this programme of wrath and set the stage for the intensifying trumpet and bowl judgements that follow. Understanding…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10034 The bowl judgements of Revelation 16 are the final and most severe wave of divine wrath during the Tribulation. Sometimes called the vial judgements after the older English rendering of the Greek phiale (a broad, shallow bowl used for pouring), they are described as completing God’s wrath (Revelation 15:1). There is no further…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10144 Inaugurated eschatology is a term that attempts to hold together two truths that Scripture clearly teaches: the kingdom of God has genuinely arrived, and the kingdom of God has not yet been fully established. As a description of what the New Testament actually says, it captures something important. As a theological framework, however,…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 10145 One of the most important patterns running through the New Testament is the way in which certain realities are described as both present and future at the same time. Salvation is something the believer possesses now and yet awaits in its fullness. The kingdom of God has arrived and yet is still coming….