The kingdom of God

Last week Matthew and I were having a discussion about the nature of the thousand year reign of Christ in the book of Revelation.  A question that I’ve always had is, “Where do the unregenerate folks that rebel against Christ at the end of the 1,000 years come from?” 
I thought of a couple of other texts [...]

Wright on the question of Israel

As much as I like NT Wright, I found this podcast interview with Wright unconvincing.  In it, Wright argues that God, for the most part, is done with ethnic Israel.    This doesn’t make good sense to me since so much of Wright’s work has focused on how the end of exile plays into the New [...]

Ezekiel and the end of the exile

Ezekiel 38 and 39 have always been just a big mystery to me.  Let’s face it.  Ezekiel is not exactly ideal devotional material.  He was kind of a weird dude, shaving his head, running around with a frying pan, cooking over poop.    But when I realized just horrible the exile must have been to him [...]

Ezekiel’s dry bones

So last Sunday I preached on Ezekiel seeing God’s shekinah glory in chapter 1.  This week my text will be Ezekiel 37.  This is one of the most familiar passages in the book, and yet it’s not quite about what most folks think it’s about. 
Ezekiel sees a vision of resurrection.  He sees the dry bones of [...]

Bauckham on the millennium

Millennium theology has always been a source of disagreement in Protestant circles.  Right now the Evangelical Free churches are debating on opening up their doctrine statement to allow amil folks into their fellowship.  The Berean Fellowship,  which I’m a part of, is decidedly pre-mil.  We’re of the dispensational variety, not of the historical classic variety represented by folks [...]

Ad Hom?

“The problem with all of these points of view characteristic of amillenialism and postmillennialism is that they do not provide an intelligent explanation of many passages in the Old Testament and in the New Testament which teach a literal kingdom.”  John Walvoord

Wright and Dispensationalism

As much as NT Wright is a critic of dispensationalism, he actually has a lot in common with it.  For instance, Wright makes a strong case that the kingdom of heaven is an earthly kingdom which involves Jesus reigning as the Messiah here on earth.  That sounds very dispensational. 
 Another aspect that they have in common [...]