One may on occasion come across a questionable pronouncement or two regarding the Bible from a
preacher or teacher, but I had the rare “privilege” of hearing a series of talks in which it was hard to
detect any truth whatsoever. This happened when an outside speaker was invited to our home Bible
study for a month to present his version of Walk Through the Bible, which turned out to be nothing like
the popular Bible study of that name (which I also would not recommend). He proceeded to bombard
us with one sensational fact after the other, to which we listened politely. After he had finished his
series and I had questioned him privately on a few of his most outrageous claims, I put together the
following “rebuttal” of some of his comments to present to our group. The speaker's statements are
given in bold.
Genesis 1:21 Tannin refers to sea-dwelling dinosaurs. However, the same Hebrew word is used in
Psalm 148:7 where it applies to creatures present in King David’s time (about 1000 BC).
“Behemoth” in the Book of Job refers to land-dwelling dinosaurs. It can’t be a hippopotamus (as
most Bible scholars believe) but probably refers to a dinosaur because of the huge tail described in
Job 40:17. In the first place, poetic language is used to describe this beast (limbs of brass, bones of
iron, etc). And as almost all translations show, its tail isn’t said to be as big as a cedar tree, but only as
stiff or straight as one. This picture does not fit most dinosaurs, which had very flexible tails. Finally,
many commentators believe that “tail” is actually a euphemism for the male sexual organ, described as
“thigh” or “foot” elsewhere in the Bible. (see Hartley, The Book of Job).
Genesis 5:1-31 The meanings of the proper names in this passage form the following sentence if
read together: “Man is appointed mortal sorrow. Blessed God shall come down teaching and his
death shall bring the despairing rest and comfort.” It is true that most Hebrew proper names meant
something in that language. But to get this sentence, one must add verbs not present and change nouns
into adjectives or verbs. In addition, the names have in most cases (other than the three bolded words
below) entirely different original meanings than the speaker claimed. The meanings below come from
Strong’s Concordance (used by our speaker as a primary source elsewhere in his talks):
Adam = man
Seth = compensation, sprout
Enosh = mortal
Kenan = one acquired or begotten
Mahalalel = God is splendor
Jared = contender or avenger
Enoch = tuition, teacher
Methuselah = man of the spear
Lamech = overthrower, wild man
Noah = rest, comfort
Jerusalem is the center of the nations as stated in Ezekiel 5:5, as one can see from a European
map of the world. That verse in its context just says that Jerusalem is immediately surrounded by
pagan nations, not that she is the geographical center of all the civilized world at the time. Also, you
can make any nation in a map to appear as the center depending on the prospective, but you certainly
can't make Jerusalem the center of any European map, as he stated.
Columbus relied on the Bible to know the world was round. He really relied primarily on the
Apocrypha, not the Bible. 2 Esdras 6:1 uses the phrase “circle of the earth,” and a later verse in the
same chapter states that the earth is seven parts land and one part ocean, which is why Columbus
totally underestimated the size of Atlantic Ocean. (Oxford RSV --Bruce Metzger) And if Colombus
relied on the word “circle” in Isaiah 40:22, even that was incorrect since it probably applies to the
“dome or vault” of sky above the earth where God dwells, not to the shape of the earth. (New
International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis)
Deuteronomy 2:22-23 was a prophecy of death by crucifixion, an amazing prophecy since this was
a form of punishment totally unknown to the Jews.
But Deuteronomy does not say that this was a means of killing someone, only a way of disgracing an
already dead body by hanging it from a tree. This practice was well known to the Jews. Also see
Joshua 8:29; 10:26-27.
All of the apostles died a martyr's death.
This is a comment you will probably hear from many other popular writers and speakers when in fact,
only a few of the deaths are described in reliable sources; the rest come from fanciful Christian
writings dating to no earlier than the 5th century. They should not be taken as reliable historical records
at all.
The “James the brother of Jesus” ossuary provides historical proof of Jesus' life.
Unfortunately, the latest sceintific analysis shows that not to be true. The ossuary (carved stone box to
hold bones of deceased) was genuine, but part of the carved inscription was found by analysis of the
patina to be made in modern times in an apparent attempt to deceive.
Paul killed about 5,000 Christians
There is not the slightest evidence that Paul was responsible for even one death except possibly
Stephen, whose martyrdom is so important that over one chapter of Acts is devoted to it. The
persecution under Saul, according to Acts, was limited to his arresting Christians and driving them out
of town. Jews under Roman rule were not allowed to enforce the death penalty for any reason.
Therefore it only happened through rare cases of mob action. The somewhat later stoning of James
(Jesus’ brother) was so unusual that the Jewish historian Josephus even remarks on it and says that
many Jews later felt that the killing of such a righteous man was the cause of the fall of Jerusalem in
AD 70. There is no mention of the killing of 5,000 righteous men in Acts, Paul’s letters, or Jewish or
Roman sources.
PROPHECY
Our speaker spent much time (as does the standard Walk Through the Bible course) dealing with future
events. But it was strictly according to his own particular brand of theology, dispensationalism, without
a hint that there might be alternative interpretations. My own recommended sources on this subject
describing the four major views of the future are given below, or you can consult several posts I have
written on this subject.
H. Wayne House, Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine, Zondervan, 1992)
The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views (Robert G. Clouse, ed., InterVarsity Press, 1977)
Revelation: Three Viewpoints, David George ed.
A Guide to Biblical Prophecy, Amerding and Gasque, ed.
A brief description of the hermeneutical methods underlying these beliefs (according to my admittedly
biased opinion) is given below.
a. Postmillennial: not much reliance on specific Scriptures, influenced by current events in the world.
b. Amillennial and Historical Premillennial: start with clear teachings in the NT and then add the
apocalyptic NT scriptures with a recognition that they allude to OT events and use OT imagery.
c. Dispensational Premillennial (also called pre-trib premillennialism): relies primarily on a literal
understanding of OT prophecies first and then adds NT apocalyptic texts. Details may change
according to current events.
One-third (He later said 31%) of the Bible is prophecy (i.e. telling the future). We should first keep
in mind that the term prophecy includes telling forth, not just foretelling. Most of prophets
concentrated on issues of social justice and godly living. But our speaker was mostly correct
concerning the amount of predictive prophecy in the Bible. The actual % of verses according to
Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy is 27% (closer to 1/4 than 1/3). However, this includes OT
“types.” Look at Genesis 3:14-15 for a predictive prophecy and Genesis 3:21 as a possible example of
a type (a person or event, especially in the OT, that turns out later to resemble something or someone in
later events). If types are removed (and they include all the details of the temple and the sacrificial
system), the actual number of verses containing actually future prophecies drops to only 17 ½ %.
The probability of seventeen different prophecies being fulfilled is one-in-trillions.
Josh McDowell uses similar misguided reasoning as do other Christian apologists, but their math is
highly suspect. It is almost impossible to assign a probability to any individual event (it can vary from
1 to 0), and one must guarantee that each event is totally independent of the others in order for the
calculated probability to make any sense.
The most spectacular example of fulfillment is Daniel 9:24, which predicts to the day when Jesus
entered Jerusalem. That proves that other prophecies will be similarly fulfilled in a literal
manner.
Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy, p. 384-385 shows that there have been several other
accepted ways to understand this Daniel prophecy that differ completely in their choice of a proper
starting event, the method of assigning “weeks,” and the nature of the actual fulfillment. The additional
problem with the method shown by our speaker was that a 360-day year is needed for the dates to
come out right. Although Jews used a 30-day month in their calendar, their year, of course, contained
365 1/4 days just like ours. So the priests had to somewhat randomly add make-up days periodically so
that their winter months didn’t eventually turn into summer months, etc.. That alone makes it almost
impossible to calculate to the day when any event occurred unless one has outside confirmation from
other historical records. Commentators have noted that it is highly unlikely that such a calculation (360
days = one year) was intended.
“The Lie” in II Thessalonians 2:11 = Satan. This Greek phrase only occurs four times in the
Bible, always meaning Satan. However, there are only two other occurrences (John 8:44 and Romans
1:25) in the NT, not three. I consulted nine commentaries each for the Thessalonians and Romans
references (including one by a leading dispensationalist, John Walvoord). None even hinted that this
was a valid interpretation (neither did two standard Greek word study books). And John 8:44 says that
Satan speaks the lie; therefore he cannot be the lie in that verse.
The Nations in Ezekiel 38 that will be involved include Russia and USA. I have discussed the faulty
reasoning behind this nonsense in my post: “Ezekiel 38: A Chain of Reasoning.”
II Thessalonians 2:5-7 says that the Holy Spirit is the restraining force that is now holding back
evil; He will be removed from the earth at the rapture of the Church. This idea is given nowhere
else in the Bible, and nowhere is restraint of evil stated as a role for the Holy Spirit. Wanamaker (The
Epistles to the Thessalonians, p. 249-254) says that “these verses are among the most problematic
texts in the whole Pauline corpus.” Any survey of standard commentaries will give at least 4-8 possible
views on this subject. Some do not even mention the possibility that the Holy Spirit is the restraining
factor, Hendricksen rejects it out of hand, and others such as John Stott (The Gospel and the End of
Time) and Peter Cousins (The International Bible Commentary, F.F. Bruce, ed.) mention it only to
reject it in favor of another explanation. Even modern dispensationalists reject this idea and now say
that the Holy Spirit will continue to be active on the earth during the tribulation (Encyclopedia of
Biblical Prophecy, p. 565).
There are current plans to rebuild the Temple in Israel. In actuality, the news article our speaker
handed around just described the attempts to breed a red heifer by a cooperative effort between some
dispensational “crackpots” in Texas and a small group of radical Jews in Israel trying to bring about the
end times by their own efforts. Similarly, several years back a group of American dispensationalists
started an expedition to recover Noah’s ark so that they could accurately measure the length of a cubit,
without which information the temple could not be rebuilt to proper specifications. Almost all Jewish
rabbis today will firmly state that the time of sacrifices is forever over.
SOME KEY PROPHETIC TEXTS
A. The Book of Daniel
This is a favorite book for dispensational teachers, who feel that the prophecies refer to the last days.
However, most of the prophecies describe in such minute detail the events that actually happened in
Israel between the two Testaments that scholars of a more critical nature are convinced that they must
have been written after the events took place (see Hartman and Di Lella, The Book of Daniel, Anchor
Bible). This is especially true of the events surrounding King Antiochus IV Epiphanes entering the
Holy of Holies in 167 BC and desecrating the temple with pagan offerings (“The Abomination of
Desolation”) which triggered a general Jewish revolt under the Maccabees against Greek rule. See
Josephus or the apocryphal, but historically accurate, book of I Maccabees for more details of these
events.
B. I Thessalonians 4:17-18. The speaker appropriately noted that the term “rapture” occurs nowhere
in the Bible. In addition, it is fair to say that the existence of the event is only clearly stated in this one
passage. But a strict reading of this passage does not at all prove that Christians will be translated up
into heaven at some point while the world goes on without them.
Both historical premillennialists (Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy, p. 561) and
amillennialists (Hendricksen’s More Than Conquerors) note that the Greek phrase (eis apantesin)
translated “meet” appears in only two other places in the NT: (a) in the parable of the ten virgins
greeting the wedding party (Matthew 25:6) and (b) when a group of church officials meets Paul on the
outskirts of town (Acts 28:15-16). In each case the phrase clearly means to go out to greet an important
party and then escort him or them back to where you came from. In addition, even some scholars who
do not believe that the phrase has the same meaning in this particular verse (Wanamaker, The Epistles
to the Thessalonians) admit that it was a technical term in secular Greek for going outside the city to
welcome a visiting dignitary and escorting him back to the city.
As one commentator put it, “Jesus will come down from heaven as the Christians rise up from the
earth. They will meet in mid-air. One of the parties has to turn around, and it won’t be Jesus.” This
picture fits exactly the amillennial and historical premillennial understandings of the event in which
Christ appears in the sky; the believers rise to greet him in the air; and then they escort Him back to a
renewed earth. But this scenario is totally inconsistent with any schemes that involve pre- or mid-
tribulation raptures (such as dispensationalism).
C. Matthew 24
Our speaker used, as do many others, this chapter as the basis of much of his proposed scenarios of
future events of the last days. And he assumed that all of Jesus' words there concerned the Last Days.
One key principle of interpretation is to first ask what the text would have meant to the original
audience. In this case, the apostles ask two different questions (one with two parts): when will the
Temple be destroyed? and what are the signs of the End and the Second Coming?
Question 1: According to most commentators outside of the dispensational camp, Jesus gave some
strong hints in Matthew 24 (alluding to similar events occurring earlier in Israel under Antiochus IV)
and practical warnings to the Christian community in Jerusalem concerning the destruction of the
temple (which occurred about 40 years – one generation – after Jesus’ prophecy, in AD 70). Luke’s
parallel account gives even more concrete information. In fact, early historical sources such as
Eusebius state that many Christians were able to escape to Petra just before Jerusalem was besieged by
Titus’ troops because they recognized the signs that Jesus had given them in this passage.
Question 2: By contrast, Jesus refuses to satisfy the apostles’ curiosity regarding the End Times (as he
consistently does elsewhere in the Gospels) and tells them not too get excited when various disasters
happen. He concentrates on the impossibility of predicting when the final events will occur except to
say that it will happen suddenly and at a time when those present (even Christians) least expect it.
Jesus’ overall tone is far removed from the mania for detailed timetables and order of so-called
required events that have plagued and misled many Christians over the years who were absolutely
convinced that the signs of the times indicated they were living in the Last Days.
The major problem in interpreting Matthew 24 is how to sort out Jesus’ answers to the two questions.
My own rough stab using literary analysis is given in my post “Matthew 24: One or Two Questions?”
If you look at F. F. Bruce’s The Hard Sayings of Jesus, chap. 63, you will see that he divides the text
using similar reasoning, although we may differ a little in the details.
D. The Book of Revelation
The reasons for the great diversity of opinions regarding this book (none of which were given by our
speaker) include the following factors: which “millennial” scenario one subscribes to, the time period
covered in the body of the book, the structure of the book, the nature of the book's genre, and the
relationship of the book with other OT and NT texts. These factors and other have been discussed in
more detail in my posts with titles beginning “Book of Revelation.”
Our speaker said that he had references for all of his information, which he would provide upon
request, and so I took him up on his offer in regard to several of his statements. It turned out that some
of the internet sites no longer existed while others led me to a group of Indonesian businessmen and a
small article in a New Zealand newspaper. Not exactly definitive sources for biblical truth! In fact, he
did not provide even one reference to a book; they were all on the internet.
After questioning our speaker privately concerning a number of problems I had with his presentation,
the only point he agreed to back down on was his statement that since God created light on the first day
and Jesus was the light of the world, that implied that Jesus was created on the first day. Even he
admitted that it was a rather heretical conclusion.
He also admitted to me that although some of what he said may have been “a little dubious,” he had
found out that people really get excited when they hear sensational information about the Bible. It
makes them stick around to eventually hear the Gospel message also. In other words, the ends justify
the means even if it involves spreading obvious lies. And there is the added danger that if any of these
people go to the trouble of checking out some of his statements, they will realize they have been misled
and may even doubt the veracity of the Gospel message itself.
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