Without a doubt Matthew 13 is a pivotal chapter in the development of the first Gospel in our New Testament. What makes that chapter so critical is the Lord’s teaching about the kingdom. It is almost universally agreed the Lord is discussing the present age and its culmination in Matthew 13. Because of this, one’s view of the kingdom in this dispensation depends on one’s understanding of the parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13...
Why is Revelation 3:10 such a hotly contested passage between pretribulationists and non-pretribulationists? It is important since it is a text claimed by pretribulationists to teach that the church will be kept out of the Tribulation. Jeffrey Townsend has written perhaps the best study ever done in defense of the pretribulational understanding of this key passage. He demonstrates from the Greek New Testament that the church will be removed before the seventieth week of Daniel begins...
Many Christians throughout church history have held the view that the New Testament church has replaced or superseded national Israel as the people of God. According to Alister E. McGrath, a "wide consensus" existed in the early church that "the church is a spiritual society which replaces Israel as the people of God in the world." H. Wayne House also notes that this view known as "supersessionism" or "replacement theology" has been "the consensus of the church from the middle of the second century A.D. to the present day with few exceptions." ...
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Dispensational interpreters often categorize various prophetic books of the Bible, such as Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, as "apocalyptic literature." By using this category, these interpreters simply mean that these books unveil or disclose God’s future prophetic program. Defining apocalyptic literature as biblical material that unveils is in harmony with the meaning of the Greek word from which "apocalyptic" is derived...