Bible, Theology & Philosophy

What will the world be like just before the second coming of Christ? Our Lord emphasized the enormous potential of global deception at that time.

In answer to the disciples’ urgent question: “What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (NKJV, Matt. 24:3), our Lord warned them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many…. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many…. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matt. 24:4-5, 11 22). Note the emphasis on the words “false” and “deceive” in our Lord’s answer.

One moment after the rapture of the church, every surviving religious leader in the world will be a false one. Yes, millions of good gospel tracts, books and recorded messages will still be here—but all born-again Christians will be gone. Human reflectors of the light of the world will be in heaven with their Savior. Suddenly, the worst person the world has even seen will introduce himself to the people of Israel, and will offer to them hope for security and military victory in the midst of a world that hates them. That person is the Antichrist. He is the one of whom the Lord Jesus spoke: “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive” (John 5:43).

Read Part 1.

The ubiquity of mythology is undeniable, but to what degree should Christians interact with mythology? An answer in the third-century would most likely be in the negative if answered by the church father Tertullian, who famously asked, “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Tertullian didn’t have time for a “mottled Christianity,” mixed with Platonic philosophies or other heresies.

But what about an answer in the twenty-first century? What amount of involvement with pagan mythology is proper? Christians and non-Christians alike have had differing responses to this question.

Bradley Birzer writes,

To the modernist, “myth,” like religion, merely signifies a comfortable and entrenched lie. For the postmodernist, myth simply represents one story, one narrative among many; it is purely subjective, certainly signifying nothing of transcendent or any other kind of importance. For religious fundamentalists, myths also represent lies.¹

Some fundamentalists may object to Birzer’s taxonomy, but I have witnessed a similar reaction by a fundamentalist leader. A few years ago, I presented this topic at a conference for educators, and at lunch, just before I held my workshop, I mentioned to an inquiring stranger² that my workshop had to do with the benefits of mythology. He commented that it sounded like “benefits of paganism” and questioned whether there could be any benefits of paganism.³

Read Part 1.

In the Bible, a people or nation is fundamentally an ethnic unit. Its solidarity stems from the fact that all individuals in the nation (with rare exceptions) are descended from a common ancestor. Ammonites come from Benammi. Moabites come from Moab. Assyrians come from Asshur. Even when a people no longer remembers its specific ancestor, the sense of ethnic solidarity remains.

This is not to say, however, that all individuals who can trace their lineage to a common ancestor are necessarily a people. Abraham and Isaac both had two sons, but in neither case did their descendents comprise a single people. Jacob had twelve sons, but these sons and their immediate families did not by themselves constitute a people. When Jacob and his household went down into Egypt, they were a family but not a nation.

When did the family of Jacob become the nation of Israel? This question cannot be answered in terms of numbers alone, as if 100 Israelites remained a family but 100,000 could constitute a nation. Common descent may be a necessary condition of biblical nationality, but it is not a sufficient condition. Something else has to be added in order to transform a group of related individuals into a people. Something else must take place in order for a large number of related individuals to galvanize them into national awareness. Other factors are essential to becoming a people: usually some combination of a common language, the occupation of territory, submission to a common religion, and, perhaps most importantly, a significant level of national self determination through a national leadership.

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CHAPTER 2: THE RECENT TESTIMONY OF ARCHAEOLOGY TO THE SCRIPTURES.