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The Coming of Jesus: Daniel's 70 Weeks

Daniel's 70 Weeks   To fully understand Jesus's first, and indeed what is commonly called his "Second Coming," we need to understand the book of Daniel. This prophetic books give many details and glimpses into the future about coming kingdoms, rulers and above all, the Messiah. I'm going to be focussing on just one part of the book, chapter nine, often referred to as "Daniel's 70 Weeks". But just what is "Daniel's 70 Weeks" you might be asking as you read this. For those unfamiliar with Old Testament prophecy, it is a prophetic vision that Daniel was given from God, and interpreted by the angel Gabriel. You can read the prophecy in fu...

How Polycarp (And Others) Show The Early Use Of The New Testament

Polycarp is one of the most important people in early church history. He was a disciple of John the Evangelist, and later became the bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp was born around 69 A.D. in Smyrna, which is now modern-day Turkey. He grew up during a time when Christians were being persecuted for their beliefs, and he himself became a Christian at a young age. Polycarp is regarded as one of the earliest church fathers because he had a significant impact on Christianity as it spread throughout Asia Minor and Europe, and he also played an important role in shaping biblical canon for centuries to come. We don’t know a great deal about his life, apart from t...

Has Brexit just spoiled “end times” prophecy?

...rd for “end times prophecy”) which is mainly based on interpreting newspaper headlines over Scripture, leads to all sorts of nonsense and failed predictions year after year, plus the need to rewrite your theories whenever something doesn’t turn out as expected… like the UK leaving the EU and potentially bringing about its collapse. Maybe Brexit just inadvertently thwarted the devil and unwittingly did the world a favour!   Or maybe, it could be that those who are popular teachers on this subject aren’t necessarily the right teachers for the job, but just end up being listened to as they have a large platform from which they can speak.   Looking...

The Coming of Jesus: Revelation Fulfilled?

...Don’t let the title put you off, we’re about to go on a mad journey through the annuls of history and the Roman Empire, contrasting what John saw in his vision with what has already played out on the “world’s stage” and what we possibly have to look forward to! First though, let’s look at a little history concerning the book itself before delving into its contents. Why do this? For a couple of reasons really: one, Revelation has some dispute over the year in which it was written, which can impact on the interpretation. Two, at various points in early church history, the book was held in suspicion of being spurious and almost...

Is it the end of the world as we know it?

...t modern "end times" theology accept this in part, but then say that the Last Days began back then, but still continue today. But the New Testament writers don't really allow for such an interpretation without some scriptural gymnastics! The "Last Days" began at Pentecost 2000 years ago and continued until near the end of the first century. Quite a few of the New Testament books reference the last days or that the time is short, or "at hand", but it's when we get to 1 John 2:18 that we see something different: it was the "the last hour"! Saying the last days could be an innumerable amount of days which span from Pentecost 2000 years ago and keep on going is o...

The Coming Kingdom of the Son of Man

...The importance of context of what's being said, and to whom, in Scripture. I came across this image the other day (in the header above; see larger here) that links together three parts of Matthew’s Gospel to highlight the connection which many often miss, or read as separate events. I like the image because it shows that when Jesus spoke these things, he would have been saying them directly to the disciples and others who were listening to his teaching, and not in some cryptic, ambiguous dictation to a prophetic scribe, devoid of all context and meaning to those around him at the time. Update Feb 2017: I am adding some additional information to this to dis...