How is it that so many godly men and women can be so convinced that Calvinism is the clear teaching of scripture? Though I believe to fully answer that question it would take an entire book, in this post I will only give the answer that seems the most obvious to me; namely, several passages of the New Testament seem to teach its primary doctrines. Men and women with a sincere desire to submit their hearts and lives to the plain teaching of scripture have read these “Calvinist verses,” sincerely and prayerfully wrestled over them, and ultimately submitted to that interpretation which seemed obvious to them. I am convinced that if there were no such passages in the Bible there would be no Calvinists in the world today. One of the greatest compliments I can give my Calvinist brethren is that their error does not primarily come from a desire to promote a cherished philosophical belief, but from a sincere devotion to the word of God and an equally sincere misunderstanding of it.
Continue reading “Ground Rules of Biblical Interpretation – Part 1”
Category: Kingdom Theology
Describing the Last Days
In my last post, “Defining the Last Days,” I tried to lead us into a biblical definition of the last days. I noted that according to the New Testament the last days began with the coming of Christ and will end sometime after his second coming when he destroys death at the Great White Throne Judgment. Often people have the impression that the last days is one generation long, but the Bible is clear that the last days is an era, not a generation. Simply put, the term “last days” refers to the Messianic age.
In this post we want to get a general picture of what is to be expected in the last days. Usually people want to look for “signs” that we are living in the end times, but the Bible is more interested in telling us what to expect than trying to prove to us that we are living in that age. We don’t need signs to know it is the last days, the Bible has already told us that is (Heb.1:2, 9:26,1 Cor.10:11). But we do need to be prepared for the things we will face.
Continue reading “Describing the Last Days”
Defining “The Last Days”
What does the Bible mean by the terms like “last days”, “last hour” and “end of the ages”? These phrases, and others like them, are the most fundamental terms in eschatology (i.e. the study of the end times) and yet they are commonly misused. A misunderstanding on these phrases can lead to a lot of unbiblical conclusions. So I would like to look at some verses and come up with a basic New Testament definition. This will give us a clear place to start as we embark on the journey of understanding what the Bible teaches about the end of the world. If we are not clear on this point, the rest of what we learn will be skewed at best, and downright false at worst.
Before getting into how we should interpret such phrases, I would like to demonstrate how we usually interpret them.
Continue reading “Defining “The Last Days””
The Righteous Judgment of God
The Bible teaches that God has prepared a day when the “righteous judgment” of the Lord will be revealed (Rom 2:5). But it is important for us to understand what “righteous judgment” means. Some who misunderstand the Word of God teach that God judges some men with mercy and judges others with justice. Calvinism brings the righteous nature of God’s judgment into question. They seem to misunderstand the fact that God must always act justly and graciously. He can’t decide to forget about his compassion anymore than he can forget his justice. He is always guided by a sweet mixture of the two. All men will stand before the same compassionate and just judge. Each will be judged by the perfect mixture of those righteous attributes of our God. This is why the judgment we will all face is a “righteous judgment.” Continue reading “The Righteous Judgment of God”
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