Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 01003 The Bible is frequently described as a prophetic book, and with good reason. A substantial portion of its content involves prophecy in one form or another, whether foretelling future events, proclaiming God’s will to a present audience, or doing both simultaneously. The sheer volume of prophetic material is one of Scripture’s most distinctive…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 01021 The book of Revelation has generated more confusion, more speculation, and more wildly divergent interpretations than perhaps any other book in the Bible. Yet it opens with a blessing: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 01013 The term “apocalyptic literature” is frequently used in biblical studies, and understanding what it means is essential for reading significant portions of Scripture well. The word “apocalypse” comes from the Greek apokalypsis, meaning “unveiling” or “revelation,” and it describes a specific literary genre that uses vivid imagery, symbolic language, and dramatic cosmic scenes…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 60025 The idea that nations are morally accountable to God is increasingly foreign to modern political thinking, which tends to treat nations as power structures rather than moral agents and views divine judgement as an archaic concept. The Bible takes a fundamentally different view, and the prophetic literature in particular presents the nations of…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 1122 Amillennialism is the view that there is no future literal thousand-year reign of Jesus on earth. Instead, the millennium of Revelation 20 is understood symbolically, referring either to the present Church age or to the reign of deceased believers with Jesus in heaven. How does someone arrive at this position? What hermeneutic, or…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 1121 Pretribulationism, the view that the Church will be raptured before the seven-year tribulation period, is sometimes accused of being a recent invention with little biblical support. Critics say it was invented by John Nelson Darby in the nineteenth century and read into Scripture rather than derived from it. But is this fair? How…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 10015 Paul frequently speaks of “mystery” in his epistles, and the mystery of the Church is one of the most significant theological revelations in the New Testament. Understanding this mystery is essential for grasping how the Church fits into God’s eternal plan and why the Church age represents something genuinely new in redemptive history….
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 10016 This question strikes at the heart of God’s faithfulness. Has God abandoned the Jewish people? Has the Church replaced Israel in God’s purposes? These are not abstract theological debates but questions that touch on the very character of God Himself. If God has cast away His chosen people after making eternal promises to…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 10017 Few verses in the New Testament have sparked more debate than Romans 11:26: “And in this way all Israel will be saved.” What did Paul mean by “all Israel”? Does this refer to every individual Jew throughout history? The Church? Only the elect among ethnic Israel? Or Israel as a nation at some…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 10018 In Romans 11:25, Paul speaks of a “partial hardening” upon Israel that will continue “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” This phrase—”the fullness of the Gentiles” (τὸ πλήρωμα τῶν ἐθνῶν, to plērōma tōn ethnōn)—has generated considerable discussion. What exactly does it mean? And how does it relate to God’s timetable…