Episode 33: Timing is Everything

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Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 33

Gary riffs on a short clip from an individual trying to explain away the meaning of the word “soon.”

Commentator Robert Thomas uses 1 John 2:18 in an attempt to prove that “Scripture has a different standard from ours” when it comes to measuring time. This can only be true if one begins with the unproven premise that John was not describing some near eschatological event. John’s readers had heard that antichrist was coming. John corrects them by stating that “many antichrists have arisen.” This was evidence that it was the “last hour.” For Thomas, “last hour” is nearly two thousand years. Is this what dispensationalists mean by the “principle of literal interpretation” and the “plain sense” method?

Revelation is introduced by time words, and it concludes with the same time words. Jesus says, “And behold, I am coming quickly [ταχὺ]. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book” (22:7, 12, 20). Then John is told by the angel in Revelation 22:10, “‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near [ἐγγὺς].’” Notice the use of “quickly” in the middle portions of Revelation (2:16; 3:11; 11:14). In what way would a soon return be a threat to Pergamum and Philadelphia if quickly meant “it will be fast when I come”?

While the time indicators do not tell us when Revelation was written, they do indicate that events had to have taken place within a time period that was relatively close. To argue that what was revealed to John was nothing more than a claim that the events could happen at any moment over a period of thousands of years does not fit how “near” and “shortly” are used elsewhere by John and the other New Testament writers. If these verses do not mean that Jesus’ return in judgment was chronologically near to Revelation’s first readers, then what words could He have used if He wanted His first readers to know that these events were chronologically near for them and not chronologically near for some distant future generation? How would Jesus have said it?

If near, shortly, soon, and quickly don’t mean what they mean in ordinary speech, then how can we know anything about what the Bible says? Up is down, down is up, near is far, and far is near in the mad, mad, mad world of prophetic dissonance.

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Commentators, theologians, preachers, and social media pundits have a lot to say about Bible prophecy. In Prophecy Wars, Gary DeMar takes a hard look at some of Christendom’s most popular end-times misconceptions and compares these theories to a plain reading of many well-known but often misinterpreted Bible texts.

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Gary riffs on a short clip from an individual trying to explain away the meaning of the word “soon.” Context always determines what words actually mean, not what we want them to mean. Although “soon” can have various meanings about how close an event may be, it is always clarified by what surrounds it. This podcast will begin as “soon” as you push play…

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