The calendar weighs heavy with religious and secular significance this weekend, and that's before we even get to birthdays, anniversaries, and other occasions made special in relation to family and friends. Tonight, for example, October 31, is "Halloween," short for "All Hallow's Evening," the evening before All Saints' [Hallows'] Day on November 1. Although it is far more difficult to be a saint in the Catholic Church than it is in the Bible, that hasn't slowed down the manufacture of the Catholic brand. As a result, Catholic saints greatly outnumber calendar days, leaving enough day-less … [Read more...]
SPECIAL GRACEMAIL ESSAY
Robertson's comment on Haiti earthquake reveals bad manners, embellished history and poor theology: The ground had hardly stopped shaking in Haiti when Pat Robertson, the affable but loose-lipped founder of Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and President of Regent University, started a rumble of his own by saying that the stricken nation was "cursed" because of a 200-year-old "pact with the devil" supposedly made by rebellious slaves to obtain freedom from their occupying French masters. Robertson's off-the-cuff remarks, easily accessible in a video clip now gone viral on internet's … [Read more...]
DEVIL, BEAST & FALSE PROPHET (2)
A gracEmail subscriber asks for an explanation of Revelation 20:10, in which John sees the devil, the Beast and the False Prophet thrown into a lake of fire where they are "tormented day and night forever." A few verses later, "anyone not found written in the Book of Life" is cast into the same lake of fire (20:15). * * * It is significant that every time John mentions human beings in the Lake of Fire, he is careful to add the explanatory phrase, "which is the second death" (Rev. 20:15; 21:8). He seems to go out of his way to ensure that we do not make a mistake on that point. This symbol of … [Read more...]
DEVIL, BEAST & FALSE PROPHET (1)
A gracEmail subscriber asks for an explanation of Revelation 20:10, in which John sees the devil, the Beast and the False Prophet thrown into a lake of fire where they are "tormented day and night forever." A few verses later, "anyone not found written in the Book of Life" is cast into the same lake of fire (20:15). * * * The Book of Revelation is written in a kind of prophetic code drawn from certain Old Testament books and some nonbiblical Jewish writings between the Testaments. Writings that use this code-language are known as "apocalyptic" literature. (The Book of Revelation is known as … [Read more...]
SPIRITS IN PRISON (3)
A brother writes: "First Peter 3:18-22 stumps me. I just can't understand that preaching to the spirits in prison. Do you have any clue to what Peter is referring?" * * * Now Peter makes another connection between Noah and Peter's first readers. There was a time when Noah was surrounded by mocking unbelievers, but then he was "saved by water" from that wicked world. The old world of unbelievers did not go through the Flood with Noah. They stayed on the other side of those waters. In this same way, Peter writes in verse 21, Christian believers are "saved" from the unbelieving world by … [Read more...]
SPIRITS IN PRISON (2)
A brother writes: "First Peter 3:18-22 stumps me. I just can't understand that preaching to the spirits in prison. Do you have any clue to what Peter is referring?" * * * Peter's first readers are discouraged because their society and companions and sometimes their families have rejected them for their faith in Jesus. The apostle encourages them to rely on God's judgment of them instead of the world's judgment. He shows us the difference in those judgments in the first two verses of the epistle. Peter addresses these believers as "scattered aliens" -- which tells us the world's view of them. … [Read more...]
SPIRITS IN PRISON (1)
A brother writes: "First Peter 3:18-22 stumps me. I just can't understand that preaching to the spirits in prison. Do you have any clue to what Peter is referring?" * * * As you know, First Peter is written to believers who are suffering for their Christian faith at the hands of unbelieving relatives, neighbors and associates (1:6-7; 2:12; 2:19-24; 3:6; 4:12-19; 5:10). Peter's longest discussion of suffering for Christ begins at 3:14 and goes through 4:6. The passage you mention comes in the middle of this section. Throughout the epistle, Peter points to Jesus Christ as the great example of … [Read more...]
MARK OF THE BEAST (2)
A gracEmail subscriber asks: "What is the mark of the beast mentioned in Revelation 13:16-18? Is it a RFID ('radio frequency identification') chip that will be implanted in the hand or forehead of those who follow the great adversary of Jesus Christ in the last days?" * * * People sometimes call the last book of the Bible "the Book of Revelations," as if it were a preview description of the details of earthly history. In doing so they are twice mistaken. It is not the Book of "Revelations," but rather, as its opening words tell us, "the Revelation (or Uncovering) of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 1:1). … [Read more...]
MARK OF THE BEAST (1)
A gracEmail subscriber asks: "What is the mark of the beast mentioned in Revelation 13:16-18? Is it a RFID ('radio frequency identification') chip that will be implanted in the hand or forehead of those who follow the great adversary of Jesus Christ in the last days?" * * * After an introduction that begins with an appearance of the glorified Jesus Christ (Rev. 1-3), the Book of Revelation consists of a series of dramatic visions given to the aged Apostle John who was exiled on the island of Patmos because of his gospel witness. This cosmic drama is full of vivid, larger-than-life symbols … [Read more...]
THE ANTICHRIST
GracEmail subscribers from several states ask about the Antichrist or the Abomination of Desolation in biblical prophecy. Will there yet arise such a specific individual on the stage of world history? Need we fear such a one? * * * The Old Testament prophet Daniel originally spoke of such a figure (Dan. 9:27; 11:20-45). Daniel's prophecies were fulfilled first in the Seleucid tyrant Antiochus IV, who persecuted the Jews nearly three centuries before the birth of Christ. Jesus, Paul and John repeated language taken from Daniel's prophetic imagery, probably foretelling the Roman emperors Nero … [Read more...]