https://americanvision.org/Recent content The American VisionHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usAll rights reserved.Fri, 05 Jun 2026 06:37:34 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-95-looking-for-biblical-connections/Fri, 05 Jun 2026 06:37:34 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-95-looking-for-biblical-connections/<p><strong>Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 95</strong></p> <p><em>Gary <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/looking-for-biblical-connections" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">responds</a> to a video by John Bevere that makes several claims about the pretribulational rapture and what the early church believed about Bible prophecy.</em></p> <p>History is important, but it is not authoritative. In terms of <em>sola Scriptura</em>, it does not matter what men of the past believed; <strong>the Bible is the standard</strong>. The argument is often made that some Church Fathers knew the apostle John or they knew someone who knew John, therefore the writings of these men carry a great deal of historical weight. Peter knew Jesus, and Peter needed a vision from heaven to inform him that his narrow understanding of the gospel’s application was wrong (Acts 10:9-23). Paul writes, “But when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned” because he would not eat with Gentiles (Gal. 2:11-21).</p> <p>The writers of the New Testament continually corrected error in the Church (Rom. 16:17; Gal. 3:1; Eph. 2:16-19; 2 Thess. 2:2; 1 Tim. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:16-18; etc.). John warns his readers not to “believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). Paul warns that “even though we, or an angel from heaven should preach” a gospel contrary to what had been preached, that angel was to be “accursed” (Gal. 1:8). <strong>What makes us think that those a hundred years removed could not also be in error on a complicated topic like Bible prophecy?</strong> The history of prophetic speculation has been a persistent embarrassment to the Church. From the first century to the present, writers of theology have been wrong in their interpretation and application of prophetic texts.</p> <p>Proximity to an event does not assure future generations that past events have been reported or remembered accurately. Many people still believe that religious leaders in the fifteenth century taught that the earth was flat and Columbus wanted to prove it was round even though there is no evidence to substantiate this commonly held myth.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/files/NTEfr_large.png?v=1712955428" alt="New Testament Eschatology: What the Early Church Believed About Bible Prophecy"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>New Testament Eschatology: What the Early Church Believed About Bible Prophecy</h3> <p>It has been maintained by some modern writers that the early church was predominately premillennial and exclusively futuristic on Bible prophecy. While these claims have been made with certainty, there has always been a lack of clear historical documentation to support them. But since the futurist perspective has been promoted as an early church reality by so many for so long, few question it. New Testament Eschatology challenges this prevailing futurist view with a careful study of the historical record. The evidence shows that many early church writers understood the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 to be the end of the Old Covenant world.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/new-testament-eschatology-what-the-early-church-believed-about-bible-prophecy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Gary responds to a video by John Bevere that makes several claims about the pretribulational rapture and what the early church believed about Bible prophecy. Gary goes back to the text of the New Testament, specifically Matthew 24, to see what Jesus actually said about these things that were to come upon that first century generation.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/looking-for-biblical-connections" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://americanvision.org/categories/microscope/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for all episodes of Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope</a></p>https://americanvision.org/posts/how-would-the-first-century-christians-have-interpreted-the-time-texts/Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:40:14 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/how-would-the-first-century-christians-have-interpreted-the-time-texts/<p>Since John is told the events revealed to him were to take place “soon” (1:1) “for the time is near” (1:3), Revelation is about events that were to happen soon for those living in John’s day, in particular, in events leading up to and including the end of the Old Covenant represented outwardly by the temple and Israel’s capital city, Jerusalem. The Old Covenant was replaced with a better covenant in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who embodies all that the Old Covenant could only represent in temporal (stones) and fallen elements (human priests). Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), the temple built without hands (John 2:13-22; see Mark 14:58; 15:29; Acts 6:14),<strong>[1]</strong> the fulfillment of the Davidic kingship (Acts 2:22-36), and “a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man” (Heb. 8:1-2). The Old Covenant was always planned obsolescence. With the coming of the true tabernacle in the Person and work of Jesus (John 1:14), the Jews should have used it as a museum or torn it down and used its stones for other habitable structures (see Num. 21:8-9; 2 Kings 18:1-7; John 3:14).</p> <p>There is another component to consider in the interpretive process: audience relevance. How would John’s audience have understood the prophecy? Even today, prophecy preachers turn to the time indicators in Revelation and argue that Jesus is coming soon. But if “soon” means near to the time when we hear a prophecy enthusiast say that Jesus’ coming is “soon,” then why didn’t “soon” mean “soon” to Revelation’s first readers?</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/files/RFCfr_large.png?v=1779468036" alt="Revelation and the First Century"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Revelation and the First Century</h3> <p>This book provides selections from ancient and medieval commentaries on the book of Revelation, writings composed long before the seventeenth century. Many of these selections are translated into English here for the first time. All of the selections reflect the fact that some Christians in ancient and medieval times interpreted visions in the book of Revelation in a preterist fashion.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/revelation-and-the-first-century" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Dave Hunt’s book <em>How Close Are We?</em> includes the following subtitle: “Compelling Evidence for the Soon Return of Christ?” What did Mr. Hunt want his readers to understand by the word “soon”? He certainly didn’t have nearly 2000 years in the future in mind when he wrote his book in 1993.</p> <p><em>On the Brink</em> is the title of a prophetic work written by Daymond R. Duck. In the introduction, Duck states that his book contains “300 Points of Light on the Soon Return of Jesus.”<strong>[2]</strong> Duck wants his readers to believe that Jesus’ coming will take place soon, and by “soon” he means “near,” and by “near” he means this generation, and by “this generation” he means this one here and now. Why didn’t “soon” and “near” mean “soon” and “near” to those who read these time words in the first century?</p> <p>Put yourself in the first century, reading or hearing these passages about the soon or near coming of Jesus. Would they have believed that this coming was far off, or would they have thought it was near? They would have thought it was near. How do we know this? Because people today believe Jesus’ coming is near, they read about “near,” “soon,” and “quickly” in the last chapter of Revelation and believe it applies to them!</p> <p>In 1926, Oswald J. Smith wrote <em>Is the Antichrist at Hand?</em> The following copy appears on the cover:</p> <blockquote> <p>The fact that this book has run swiftly into a number of large editions bears convincing testimony to its intrinsic worth. There are here portrayed startling indications of the approaching end of the present age from the spheres of demonology, politics and religion. No one can read this book without being impressed with the importance of the momentous days in which we are living.”</p> </blockquote> <p>Smith identified the antichrist as Benito Mussolini. John Warwick Montgomery writes that after Mussolini’s death in 1945, “Smith himself tried to buy up all the remaining copies of the book to destroy them.”<strong>[3]</strong></p> <p>Chuck Smith published <em>The Soon to be Revealed Antichrist</em> in 1976. Note the date. What did Chuck Smith mean by “soon”? While he said we can’t know who the antichrist is, he did say, “God is giving us many signs that we are nearing the last days — the stage is being set.” Smith also stated that “we are living in the last generation, which began with the rebirth of Israel in 1948 (see Matt. 24:32-34).”<strong>[4]</strong> We can infer from these comments what Smith meant by “near.”</p> <p>What did these authors intend for their audience to understand with words like “at hand,” “soon,” and “close”? Does anybody think these books would have sold well if they carried a title like “We Don’t Know When the Antichrist Will be Revealed”? The authors deliberately chose temporal adverbs to keep readers on the edge of their seats, knowing that “soon,” “close,” and “at hand” or “near” mean “soon,” “close,” and “at hand” and “near.”</p> <p>I wrote <em><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/is-jesus-coming-soon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Is Jesus Coming Soon?</a></em> The answer is, Jesus came soon after He told His disciples that He would return within a generation of His earthly ministry based on what He told them in Matthew 24: “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (v. 34), and that included His judgment coming (v. 27) and His ascension where He took His seat at His Father’s right hand (v. 30). Chuck Smith appealed to these same passages to persuade his 1976 reading audience that they were “nearing the last days” and “this generation” is their generation. So why didn’t Jesus’ audience interpret these same words and phrases in the same way and apply them to their time? They did, and that’s the point.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/IJCSNewCoverart__65968__57059.1353075235.1280.1280_large.jpg?v=1364987031" alt="Is Jesus Coming Soon?"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Is Jesus Coming Soon?</h3> <p>The date-setting frenzy persists. The prophecy pundits continue to be wrong again and again. How many of these prophecies have failed in your lifetime? Daily on Christian radio and television and the endless stream of prophecy books, we get pumped up with even more "evidence" that Jesus is now "at the door." World events are matched with prophecies as definitive proof that the end is "near." Again, we wait and hope. It's a familiar cycle: time nullifies each prediction, our hopes are deflated, and our trust level smashed. No more! The truth is out! </p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/is-jesus-coming-soon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>While Dave Hunt offered what he believed was “compelling evidence for the soon return of Christ,” he claimed that “the early church believed that Christ could come at any moment.” In a chapter describing what he believed is the New Testament doctrine of “imminency,” Chuck Smith wrote,</p> <blockquote> <p>From even a cursory reading of the New Testament there can be no doubt that it was considered normal in the early church to expect Christ at any moment. Paul greeted the Christians at Corinth as those who were “waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7) — again language that requires imminency. He urged Timothy to “keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 6:14).<strong>[5]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>What we find missing regarding the issue of timing related to the coming of Jesus is a discussion of verses that deal with the timing of Jesus’ return. The Bible does not state that Jesus can come “at any moment” over several millennia. The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus’ coming was “near,” close at hand, for those living in the first century. Here are some examples:</p> <p>• “Be patient, therefore, brethren, <strong>until the coming of the Lord</strong>. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts,<strong>for the coming of the Lord is at hand</strong>. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, <strong>the Judge is standing right at the door</strong>” (James 5:7-9).</p> <p>• “<strong>The end of all things is at hand</strong>; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer” (1 Peter 4:7).</p> <p>• “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond‑servants, <strong>the things which must shortly take place</strong>” (Rev. 1:1).</p> <p>• “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; <strong>for the time is near</strong>” (Rev. 1:3).</p> <p>• “And he said to me, ‘These words are faithful and true’; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to his bond‑servants <strong>the things which must shortly take place</strong>” (Rev. 22:6).</p> <p>• “And behold, <strong>I am coming quickly</strong>. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book” (Rev. 22:7).</p> <p>• “And he said to me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, <strong>for the time is near</strong>’” (Rev. 22:10).</p> <p>• “Behold, <strong>I am coming quickly</strong>, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done” (Rev. 22:12; cf. Matt. 16:27).</p> <p>• “He who testifies to these things says, ‘<strong>Yes, I am coming quickly.</strong>’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).</p> <p>These verses, and others like them, clearly state that Jesus’ return was “near,” that He was coming “quickly.” Dispensationalists like to claim that Jesus could come at “any moment” to “rapture” His church. There is no such doctrine in Scripture. “That James does not expect the period to be long is clear when he says the <em>parousia</em> of the Lord (cf. 5:7) is near.”<strong>[6]</strong></p> <p>In the closing chapter of Revelation John was told, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near” (Rev. 22:10). The first readers of Revelation would have read words like “soon,” “near,” “quickly,” and “at hand” and most likely would have assumed that the time was near for them. This contrasts with what was told to Daniel hundreds of years before: “But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the time of the end; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase” (Dan. 12:4; also 8:26, 10:14). A. Berkeley Michelson writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>Everyone who interprets a passage of the Bible stands in a <em>present</em> time while he examines a document that comes from a <em>past</em> time. He must discover what each statement meant to the original speaker or writer, and to the original hearers or readers, in <em>their</em> own present time.<strong>[7]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>This is easier said than done, since there is always the temptation to interpret Scripture through our own reference point. We are comfortable with the familiar and not so competent with the way other people write and think.</p> <hr> <p>[1] Notice that the Jews were thinking in literal terms.</p> <p>[2] Daymond R. Duck, <em>On the Brink: Easy-to-Understand End-Time Bible Prophecy</em> (Lancaster, PA: Starburst Publishers, 1995), 9.</p> <p>[3] John Warwick Montgomery, “Prophecy, Eschatology, and Apologetics,” <em>Looking into the Future: Evangelical Studies in Eschatology</em>, ed. David W. Baker (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 366.</p> <p>[4] Chuck Smith, <em>The Soon to be Revealed Antichrist</em> (Costa Mesa, CA: Maranatha House Publishers, 1976), 3.<br> <br> [5] Dave Hunt, <em>How Close Are We?: Compelling Evidence for the Soon Return of Christ</em> (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1993), 248.</p> <p>[6] Peter Davids, <em>Commentary on James</em> (NIGTC) (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1982), 184.</p> <p>[7] A. Berkeley Michelsen, <em>Interpreting the Bible</em> (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985), 55.</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/anti-historical-bias-in-americas-christian-history/Wed, 03 Jun 2026 08:16:51 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/anti-historical-bias-in-americas-christian-history/<p><em>Gary <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/anti-historical-bias-in-americas-christian-history" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">responds</a> to an article published by</em> Baptist News <em>written by Mara Richards Bim about the recent report released by President Trump&rsquo;s Justice Department.</em></p> <p>A 1982 article in <em>Newsweek</em> magazine stated the following: “[F]or centuries [the Bible] has exerted an unrivaled influence on American culture, politics and social life. Now historians are discovering that the Bible perhaps even more than the Constitution, is our founding document.” <em>Time</em> magazine said something similar in 1987: “Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea. That good idea combines a commitment to man’s inalienable rights with the Calvinist belief in an ultimate moral right and sinful man’s obligation to do good. These articles of faith, embodied in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution, literally govern our lives today.” Our nation’s values were rooted in the Bible. Of course, this does not mean that all Christian Americans followed the biblical precepts they claimed to believe or that nonbelievers rejected them.</p> <p>Even those who would dismiss the Bible as a standard of moral righteousness cannot help themselves from appealing to the Bible when it suits their purpose. An editorial in the <em>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</em> quoted the words of Jesus to “love your enemies” as a moral prescription against torture. Good for them. I wonder if the same editors are ready to adopt Jesus’ definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman (Matt. 19:4-6)? The governor of the state of Alabama wanted to raise taxes based on the article “An Argument for Tax Reform Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics” that appeared in the <em>Alabama Law Review</em>. There were very few if any atheists in early America, although there were a number of religious skeptics. But even these could not develop a moral worldview on reason alone. They continually pointed to the Bible, even if they rejected its revelational claims. Thomas Jefferson is a good example.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/cachfr_large.png?v=1675169569" alt="The Case for America&#39;s Christian Heritage"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>The Case for America&#39;s Christian Heritage</h3> <p>It’s not enough, however, to relive history. There’s much work before us to reset the foundation stones of a firm reliance on Divine Providence. We need to heed the words of Benjamin Franklin who quoted Psalm 127:1 during the drafting process of the Constitution: “except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it,” and “that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel.” The principles that were true and necessary centuries ago for building nations are equally true and necessary today.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/case-for-americas-christian-heritage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Gary responds to an article published by <em>Baptist News</em> written by Mara Richards Bim about the recent report released by President Trump&rsquo;s Justice Department. Bim is very selective in her reporting, and what she will accept as &ldquo;historical evidence&rdquo; (it must come from a PhD &ldquo;expert&rdquo;). She also discounts many Christian writers for their lack of doctorates, yet never deals with their actual claims. Gary points out her own historical ignorance.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/anti-historical-bias-in-americas-christian-history" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here to browse all episodes of The Gary DeMar Podcast</a></p> <p>Read the Baptist News article <a href="https://baptistnews.com/article/anti-christian-bias-report-exalts-calvinism-and-lies-as-normative/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">here</a></p>https://americanvision.org/posts/james-talaricos-biblical-defense-of-weird-stuff/Tue, 02 Jun 2026 06:51:46 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/james-talaricos-biblical-defense-of-weird-stuff/<p>James Talarico, the Democrat nominee for the 2026 U.S. Senate election in Texas, will face Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in November. Paxton trounced incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the primary by nearly 30 points. Good riddance. Talarico claims to be a Christian. As a Presbyterian seminarian, he argues that issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights are <a href="https://americanvision.org/posts/james-talarico-is-a-woke-nutjob/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">not biblically settled</a>, famously stating that God is nonbinary and that the <a href="https://americanvision.org/posts/james-talarico-is-a-woke-nutjob/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Annunciation</a> demonstrates divine support for reproductive consent. In April 2021, as a Texas State Representative, Talarico stated during a legislative hearing on an anti-trans sports bill that “modern science obviously recognizes that there are <strong>six</strong> really common biological sexes.”</p> <p>Recently, he said, “Most Christians would acknowledge that God is beyond gender. In fact, the apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, said that ‘In Christ there is neither male nor female.’” While God is “beyond gender,” He (note the pronoun) created the first man and woman. Paul’s point about “neither male nor female,” note the binary sex designation, concerns that salvation in Christ is not restricted to either men or women. The full context includes, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free” (Gal. 3:28). Everyone is welcome to embrace Jesus as Savior and Lord. Paul was not in any way declaring that there are numerous ‘genders.’</p> <p>Like how some argue that “Jesus never talked about homosexuality,” Talarico states that “Jesus never talks about abortion.” In fact, he goes on to say, “The Bible is silent on abortion.” When Jesus defines marriage as between a man and a woman, based on what we find in Genesis 2:24 and elsewhere (Eph. 5:31), what Jesus quotes in Matthew 19:3-6, all other relationships are excluded. This includes transgenderism.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/mlht1_large.png?v=1365620692" alt="Myths. Lies, and Half-Truths"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Myths. Lies, and Half-Truths</h3> <p>Like the Bereans of Paul’s day (Acts 17:11), Christians should check the veracity of all opinions against the only reliable standard of authority that God has placed in our hands: the Bible. This may mean a change in belief systems for some. There is no novelty in this. God confronted Peter directly about the inclusion of Gentiles into the household of faith (10:9–16). Paul confronted Peter “to his face” on a similar matter (Gal. 2:11–14). There are times when we all need to be knocked off our horse of mistaken opinions (Acts 9:4). “Testing” is a biblical mandate (2 Cor. 13:5; 1 John 4:1).</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/myths-lies-and-half-truths" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Now on to Talarico’s claim about abortion. He’s not the first person to make the claim that the Bible does not mention abortion. For example, Jacob Shelton, writing for the website Weird History, claimed that the translation of Exodus 21:22-25 was altered to support Republicans and the Christian Right:</p> <blockquote> <p>In the 1975 version of the <em>New American Standard Bible</em>, the verse read: “And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that <strong>she has a miscarriage</strong>, yet there is not further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as the judges decide.”</p> <p>In 1995, the verse was changed to read: “If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that <strong>she gives birth prematurely</strong>, yet there is no injury&hellip;”</p> <p>*****</p> <p>The words were changed in the 1995 version in order to make it so the fetus doesn’t die in the verse, thus supporting the Christian Right’s pro-life message that killing a fetus is the same as killing a human, and the Bible says so.</p> </blockquote> <p>Shelton may be “a know-it-all when it comes to horror movies, serial killers, government conspiracies, comic books, and movies about comic books,” as he describes himself, but he does not know much about the Bible and Bible translations.</p> <p>Let’s put Mr. Shelton’s claim to the test that the NASB editors changed their translation of Exodus 21:22 for political reasons. First, Exodus 21:22-25 deals with a judicial case where two men struggle (fight) with each other. We are not told why they are fighting. A pregnant woman is standing close enough to them to be affected by the altercation. She goes into premature labor. This case law covers all the “cases,” everything from no harm to the mother and her prematurely born children (plural) to harm resulting in death to the mother and one or more of her unborn children.</p> <p>Second, the woman is not deciding to have an abortion. At one level, it’s an accident that she goes into labor. There is no premeditation on her part to abort. At another level, however, the men should not have been fighting, so there is some liability on their part. The woman could be the wife of one of the men who is trying to break up the fight.</p> <p>Even if there is a distinction in terms of harm to the mother and/or the unborn children in what is ostensibly an accidental act, this is a far cry from permitting women intentionally to kill their unborn children up until the endpoint of a normal pregnancy. Dave Mill comments in his article “Abortion and Exodus 21.”</p> <blockquote> <p>Notice that this Mosaic regulation had to do with injury inflicted indirectly and <strong>accidentally</strong>: “The phrasing of the case suggests that we are dealing with an instance of unintentional battery involving culpability” (Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 92). Abortion, on the other hand, is a <strong>deliberate, purposeful, intentional termination</strong> of a child’s life. If God dealt severely with the <strong>accidental</strong> death of a pre-born infant, how do you suppose He feels about the <strong>deliberate</strong> murder of the unborn by an abortion doctor in collusion with the mother? The Bible states explicitly how He feels: “[D]o not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked” (Exodus 23:7). As a matter of fact, one of the things that God <strong>hates</strong> is “hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:17; cf. 2 Kings 8:12; 15:16; Hosea 13:16; Amos 1:13). Abortion is a serious matter with God. We absolutely must base our views on <strong>God’s</strong> will—not the will of men. The very heart and soul of this great nation is being ripped out by unethical actions like abortion. We must return to the Bible as our standard of behavior—before it is everlastingly too late.<strong>[1]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>Third, the text is clear; she is pregnant with at least one child: “And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child&hellip;” (Ex. 21:22). The Brown-Driver-Briggs <em>Hebrew-English Lexicon</em> defines the Hebrew word <em>hareh</em> as a pregnant woman with child. It’s clear that she is not carrying around a mass of undefined tissue that <strong>becomes</strong> a human being when “it” exits the sanctuary of the womb.</p> <p>Fourth, the Bible attributes self-consciousness to unborn babies, something that modern medicine has studied and acknowledges. Jacob and Esau “struggled together within” their mother’s womb (Gen. 25:22). The New Testament offers a similar glimpse into prenatal consciousness: “And it came about that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb” (Luke 1:41). “Struggling” and “leaping” are the result of consciousness. John leaps in reaction to Mary’s pregnancy.</p> <p>Fifth, some commentators claim that in Exodus 21:22, the death of a “fetus,” either accidentally or on purpose, is a property crime. The Bible teaches otherwise. The original Hebrew reads: “And if men struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that her <strong>children</strong> [<em>yeled</em>] come out….” The Hebrew word for “children” in this verse is used in other contexts to designate a child who has already been born. For example, in Exodus 2:6 we read: “When Pharaoh’s daughter opened [the basket], she saw the child [<em>yeled</em>], and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrews’ children [<em>yeled</em>].’” Exodus regards a <em>yeled</em> as a person, not like an appendix or a kidney.</p> <p>Sixth, if there is no injury to these individuals—the mother and her prematurely delivered child or children—then there is no penalty. If there is injury, the judges must decide on an appropriate penalty based on the extent of the injury to the mother and/or her child, because both are persons under biblical law.</p> <p>Seventh, As Shelton points out, the 1977 edition of the <em>New American Standard Bible</em> of those working on the passage translated the Hebrews as “so that she has a miscarriage.” The 1995 translation is better (“she gives birth prematurely”), but it still does not capture the literal rendering of the Hebrew. In a marginal note, the NASB translators recognize that the literal meaning of the text is “her children come out.”</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/bkp0397_front__84725.1286483519.1280.1280_large.jpg?v=1371841572" alt="Thinking Straight in a Crooked World"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Thinking Straight in a Crooked World</h3> <p>The nursery rhyme "There Was a Crooked Man" is an appropriate description of how sin affects us and our world. We live in a crooked world of ideas evaluated by crooked people. Left to our crooked nature, we can never fully understand what God has planned for us and His world. God has not left us without a corrective solution. He has given us a reliable reference point in the Bible so we can identify the crookedness and straighten it. </p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/thinking-straight-in-a-crooked-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>It’s frustrating to read translations that include marginal notes telling us what it <em>literally</em> says. It’s better to translate a passage literally and then add a margin note to explain if needed. Other translations are more word-for-word. Here’s one example from the Holman Christian Standard Bible:</p> <blockquote> <p>When men get in a fight and hit a pregnant woman <strong>so that her children are born</strong> [prematurely] but there is no injury, the one who hit her must be fined as the woman’s husband demands from him, and he must pay according to judicial assessment.</p> </blockquote> <p>Notice that it’s “so that her <strong>children</strong> are born.” Here’s another from <em>Young’s Literal Translation</em> (1898):</p> <blockquote> <p>And when men strive, and have smitten a pregnant woman, and <strong>her children have come out</strong>, and there is no mischief, he is certainly fined, as the husband of the woman doth lay upon him, and he hath given through the judges.”</p> </blockquote> <p>Note the date (1898), Young’s translation is long before there was a Christian Right.</p> <p>Eighth, there are two Hebrew words that fit the circumstances of a miscarriage or premature birth. Umberto Cassuto (1883-1951) was a Jewish rabbi and biblical scholar born in Florence, Italy. In his commentary on Exodus, long before <em>Roe v Wade</em> or the rise of the Christian Right, he presents an accurate translation of the passage based on the Hebrew:</p> <blockquote> <p>When men strive together and they hurt unintentionally a woman with child, and her children come forth but no mischief happens—that is, the woman and the children do not die—the one who hurts her shall surely be punished by a fine. But if any mischief happens, that is, if the woman dies or the children, then you shall give life for life.<strong>[2]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>Ninth, the <em>King James Version</em> uses a different translation approach, but it is consistent with the text in showing that “children” are “coming out.” The KJV reads, “If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that <strong>her fruit</strong> depart <em>from her</em>, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges <em>determine</em>” (Ex. 21:22). The use of the word “fruit” is a descriptive euphemism for a child in the Old Testament (Gen. 30:2) and the New Testament (Luke 1:42). Elizabeth responded to Mary this way when she learned of Mary’s pregnancy:</p> <blockquote> <p>And she spake out with a loud voice, and said,<br> Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the <strong>fruit of thy womb</strong>.</p> </blockquote> <p>Mr. Shelton and Mr. Talarico are biblically ignorant. Mr. Talarico needs to pick a different seminary.</p> <hr> <p>[1] Dave Mill, “Abortion and Exodus 21,” Apologetics Press: <a href="https://bit.ly/33ix90y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">https://bit.ly/33ix90y</a></p> <p>[2] Umberto Cassuto, <em>Commentary on the Book of Exodus</em> (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1967), 275.</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/answering-anti-preterist-heresies-part-two/Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:00:32 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/answering-anti-preterist-heresies-part-two/<p><em>In this <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/answering-anti-preterist-heresies-part-two" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">conclusion</a> of a conference talk Gary gave recently, he discusses the apologetics of preterism.</em></p> <p>Before any worthwhile discussion can take place about the Bible, the first question I always ask is, “What does the text say?” The tempter approached Eve with a question about the text: “Indeed has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’” (Gen. 3:1).</p> <blockquote> <p>The serpent intentionally misconstrues the command of God by formulating the question designed to get the woman to express the command in her own words.<strong>[1]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>The devil does a similar thing in the wilderness temptation of Jesus (Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). Paul makes a necessary distinction between “seed” and “seeds” (Gal. 3:16). The particulars of the text matter. An interpreter can’t move on to what a text means until he nails down what the text says.</p> <p>It matters that Jesus said “this generation” rather than “that generation,” just like it matters that He mostly uses the second person plural “you” and not the third person plural “they” (Matt. 24:30, 33) throughout the Olivet Discourse.</p> <p>Matthew 24:33 tells us what audience Jesus said would see “these things”: “so, <strong>you</strong> too, when <strong>you</strong> see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.” It is obvious, and without any need for debate, that the first “you” refers to those who asked the questions that led to Jesus’ extended remarks (Matt. 24:2-4). Jesus identifies those who will “see all these things” by again using “you.” If Jesus had a future generation in mind, He could have eliminated all confusion by saying, “when they see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, that generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/files/pwfr_large.png?v=1736370066" alt="Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times</h3> <p>If you’re willing to take the Bible at its word, the study of prophecy can strengthen your faith, but if your trust is in man’s speculations, you will be disappointed every time. And that is why Bible prophecy is such a crucial area for apologetics. Skeptics of all stripes have condemned the Bible as inaccurate merely because various well-meaning Christians have been in error about the End Times.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/prophecy-wars-the-biblical-battle-over-the-end-times" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>In this conclusion of a conference talk Gary gave recently, he discusses the apologetics of preterism. Many futurists are vehemently opposed to any argument put forth by any preterist, to the point that they call it heresy, even though they must reword and redefine simple words in the New Testament. Gary gives some advice about how to approach such people.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/answering-anti-preterist-heresies-part-two" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here to browse all episodes of The Gary DeMar Podcast</a></p> <hr> <p>[1] John H. Walton, <em>The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis</em> (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 204.</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-94-put-yourself-into-the-first-century/Fri, 29 May 2026 06:53:50 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-94-put-yourself-into-the-first-century/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><strong>Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 94</strong></p> <p><em>Gary <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/put-yourself-into-the-first-century" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">discusses</a> the hermeneutical concept of &ldquo;audience relevance.&rdquo;</em></p> <p>In Matthew 24, Jesus continually uses the second-person plural (“you”) to identify His present audience: “when you see these things” (24:33). Follow the use of “you” throughout the chapter and notice that it refers to Jesus’ present audience (24:2, 4, 6, 9, 15, 33, etc.). If this audience reference is reliable, then Jesus could not have had a future generation in mind or He would have used the third-person plural (“they”): “when they see these things.”</p> <p>Some prophecy writers object to this argument by claiming that “the pronoun does not always require that the listening audience is in view.”<strong>[1]</strong> For example, Randall Price uses Deuteronomy 30 in an attempt to make the case that Jesus’ use of “you” “may refer to the future ‘this generation.’”<strong>[2]</strong> It’s obvious that the use of “you” by Moses refers to the nation since the entire nation was being addressed.<strong>[3]</strong> While it’s appropriate to refer to the Old Testament when a passage is quoted in the New Testament, why go back to Deuteronomy 30 for how “you” is used when there are hundreds of examples of the use of “you” in Matthew’s gospel? An interpreter would be hard pressed to find “you” being used by Jesus in Matthew in any way other than as a reference to the audience that He was addressing:</p> <blockquote> <p>“Therefore I say to <strong>you</strong>, the kingdom of God will be taken away from <strong>you</strong> and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, <strong>they understood that He was speaking about them</strong>” (Matt. 21:43-45).</p> </blockquote> <p>The Pharisees understood “you” to refer to them, and Jesus did not correct them, because He meant them.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/WRWfr_large.png?v=1678474893" alt="Wars and Rumors of Wars"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Wars and Rumors of Wars</h3> <p>A first-century interpretation of the Olivet Discourse was once common in commentaries and narrative-style books that describe the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. There is also a history of skeptics who turn to Bible prophecy and claim Jesus was wrong about the timing of His coming at “the end of the age” and the signs associated with it. A mountain of scholarship shows that the prophecy given by Jesus was fulfilled in exacting detail when He said it would: before the generation of those to whom He was speaking passed away.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/wars-and-rumors-of-wars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Gary discusses the hermeneutical concept of &ldquo;audience relevance.&rdquo; Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation and we do it every day by reading other people&rsquo;s body language and tone of voice, among many other visual cues. Written words in the Bible don&rsquo;t have these cues, but we still need to read them as if we were the original recipients of the NT messages and letters in the first century.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/put-yourself-into-the-first-century" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://americanvision.org/categories/microscope/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for all episodes of Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope</a></p> <hr> <p>[1] Paul N. Benware, <em>Understanding End Times Prophecy: A Comprehensive Approach</em>, rev. ed. (Chicago: Moody Publishes, 2007), 163.</p> <p>[2] Randall Price, “Historical Problems with a First Century Fulfillment,” <em>The End Times Controversy: The Second Coming Under Attack</em>, eds. Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2003), 380.</p> <p>[3] Price claims that Moses’ “words speak about a future generation that will live thousands of years later and into the eschatological period.” There is nothing in the context that leads necessarily to this unproven assumption.</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/american-visions-international-impact/Thu, 28 May 2026 08:14:23 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/american-visions-international-impact/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p>American Vision had always wanted the name World Vision, but it had been taken by the time AV began operating in 1979. We started off as a Christian history organization with our first product, <em><strong><a href="https://youtu.be/LPZ5rNnhIsU" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">The American Vision: 360 Years Later</a></strong></em>, which traced the history of America from the signing of the Mayflower Compact to 1980. It won the prestigious Angel Award.</p> <p><img src="https://americanvision.org/images/uploads/av-360.png" alt="AV 360 Years Later" title="AV 360 Years Later"></p> <p>The three-volume <em><strong><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/god-and-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">God and Government</a></strong></em> followed. It set forth the principles of government, beginning with God’s government over all things and applying His governing authority to the individual in self-government and to the governing of the Family, Church, and State (the civil sphere).</p> <p>In time, we found our work taking on an international flavor with many of AV’s books being translated into Spanish, French, Russian, and Portuguese. My work has taken me to China, Mexico, England, and South America. In Guatemala, <a href="https://americanvision.org/posts/an-american-vision-in-guatemala/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">William Ochoa</a> is developing a biblical worldview ministry based on American Vision’s work, in particular, <em><strong>God and Government</strong></em>. William will be visiting AV’s offices again in July. See his organization&rsquo;s flyer below.</p> <p><img src="https://americanvision.org/images/uploads/kredoflyer.jpg" alt="Kredo Flyer" title="Kredo Flyer"></p> <p>I’ve done several interviews on eschatology with a Christian TV station in Canada, as well as interviews in Great Britain and France. Then I just received the following about AV’s podcast reach.</p> <blockquote> <p>“I have some cool information that might interest you. I received the following from Carlos.</p> <p>The Gary DeMar Podcast has a good performance in Apple Podcasts rankings (last 30 days):</p> <p>Position 12 in the category Christianity (Lebanon)</p> <p>Position 33 in the category Christianity (Netherlands)</p> <p>Position 52 in the category Religion &amp; Spirituality (Lebanon)</p> <p>Position 54 in the category Christianity (Guatemala)</p> <p>Position 58 in the category Christianity (Belgium)</p> <p>Position 85 in the category Religion &amp; Spirituality (Netherlands)</p> <p>Position 88 in the category Religion &amp; Spirituality (Guatemala)</p> <p>Position 94 in the category Christianity (Croatia)</p> <p>Position 117 in the category Christianity (Sweden)</p> <p>Position 145 in the category Christianity (Zimbabwe)</p> </blockquote> <p>It’s a start. This type of exposure was not possible just five years ago. AV is working on several new projects. The podcasts we did with Kim Burgess on 1 Corinthians 15 and related passages have been transcribed. We are getting them ready for publication. The book I did on Zechariah 14 with Robert Cruickshank was recently published.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/files/z14fr_large.png?v=1776945869" alt="Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14</h3> <p>Zechariah 14 has been interpreted in various ways throughout history. The chapter describes a future “Day of the Lord.” How far in the future is that time, and what events does the final chapter of Zechariah describe? Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14 covers a lot of ground, including the history of interpretation going back centuries. As this volume points out, interpretations vary, and some are radically different, even when they agree on the time of fulfillment. There is no consensus, given the fact that it’s one of the most difficult prophetic sections found in Scripture, as many well-known and respected commentators have admitted.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/making-prophetic-sense-of-zechariah-14" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>I’m putting the final touches on <em>Israel in Bible Prophecy</em> that I’ve written with Brian Godawa. Several other projects are in the works.</p> <p>All this is to say that we have a <a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">$15,000 matching-grant donation in effect</a>. We are nearly there. Anything you can do to put us over the top would be appreciated. You can donate online or with a check.</p> <p>Any amount will be appreciated and put to good use.</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/answering-anti-preterist-heresies-part-one/Wed, 27 May 2026 06:59:25 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/answering-anti-preterist-heresies-part-one/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><em>In another <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/answering-the-anti-preterists-part-one" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">conference talk</a> Gary gave recently, he discusses the apologetics of preterism.</em></p> <p>During the Symposium, James Hamilton said if the destruction of Jerusalem was the fulfillment of the Olivet Discourse, then why didn’t the biblical writers comment about the subject after the event? The answer is quite simple: The New Testament books were written before AD 70. John A. T. Robinson, in his book <em>Redating the New Testament</em>, developed the thesis that every New Testament book was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, including the book of Revelation. There are many events recorded in the Bible that are not found in non-biblical historical works. Consider everything from the announcement to Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth would give birth to John the Baptist and the ascension of Jesus into heaven and much of what is in between.</p> <p>There aren’t many historical works from the first century that touch on the period, so to find a source as complete as the works of Josephus of that period of history is a providential find of the first order.</p> <p>Through a process of discovery, I found that a preterist interpretation of the Olivet Discourse was a common feature in commentaries and in various narrative-style books that describe the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 as it is outlined in the Olivet Discourse of the synoptic gospels.</p> <p>• Thomas Newton, <em>Dissertations on the Prophecies</em> (1754). Newton, like James Hamilton, was a premillennialist, but unlike Hamilton, Newton is a preterist when it comes to much of the Olivet Discourse.</p> <p>• Nehemiah Nisbett, <em><strong><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/the-destruction-of-jerusalem-the-mysterious-language-of-st-paul-s-description-of-the-man-of-sin-and-the-day-of-the-lord" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">The Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem</a></strong></em> (1787).</p> <p>• George Halford, <em>The Destruction of Jerusalem: An Absolute and Irresistible Proof of the Divine Origin of Christianity</em>, etc (1805).</p> <p>• William Patton, <em>The Judgment of Jerusalem Predicted in Scripture, Fulfilled in History</em> (1876).</p> <p>• Alfred J. Church, <em>The Story of the Last Days of Jerusalem</em> (1902).</p> <p>There are also numerous editions of Alexander Keith’s (1791-1880) <em>Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion Derived from the Literal Fulfillment of Prophecy, etc</em>., first published in 1832, in which he includes a chapter on “The Destruction of Jerusalem.” It went through numerous editions and many printings.</p> <p>Keith’s apologetic work on prophecy was designed to counter liberal claims that the Bible is merely the work of men. Bible prophecy, Keith maintained, demonstrated that this was an impossible claim that could not be defended in terms of many examples of fulfilled prophecy. Edward Giddings, in his book <em><strong><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/american-christian-rulers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">American Christian Rulers</a></strong></em>, “relates how Keith’s book was instrumental in persuading Supreme Court chief justice John Marshall of the messianic claims of Jesus Christ in the days before his death on July 6, 1835.”<strong>[1]</strong> The following is from Giddings:</p> <blockquote> <p>[Marshall] believed in the truth of the Christian revelation, but not in the divinity of Christ; therefore he could not commune in the Episcopal Church. But, during the last months of his life, he read Keith on Prophecy, where our Saviour’s divinity is incidentally treated, and was convinced by his work, and the fuller investigation to which it led, of the supreme divinity of the Saviour.<strong>[2]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>Keith used a number of extra-biblical sources, as do almost every Bible expositor, ancient and modern, to offer support for the biblical record regarding fulfilled prophecy. It was no different when he came to the Olivet Discourse.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/files/pwfr_large.png?v=1736370066" alt="Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times</h3> <p>If you’re willing to take the Bible at its word, the study of prophecy can strengthen your faith, but if your trust is in man’s speculations, you will be disappointed every time. And that is why Bible prophecy is such a crucial area for apologetics. Skeptics of all stripes have condemned the Bible as inaccurate merely because various well-meaning Christians have been in error about the End Times.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/prophecy-wars-the-biblical-battle-over-the-end-times" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>In another conference talk Gary gave recently, he discusses the apologetics of preterism. Many futurists are vehemently opposed to any argument put forth by any preterist, to the point that they call it heresy, even though they must reword and redefine simple words in the New Testament. Gary gives some advice about how to approach such people.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/answering-the-anti-preterists-part-one" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here to browse all episodes of The Gary DeMar Podcast</a></p> <hr> <p>[1] Eric Rauch, Publisher’s Foreword, Alexander Keith, <em>Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion: Derived from the Literal Fulfillment of Prophecy</em> (White Hall, WV: Tolle Lege Press, [1834] 2011), v.</p> <p>[2] Edward Giddings, <em><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/american-christian-rulers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">American Christian Rulers, or Religion and Men of Government</a></em> (New York: Bromfield and Company, 1889), 332. American Christian Rulers was reprinted by American Vision Press, Powder Springs, Georgia, in 2011. The corresponding page number in the new edition is 348.</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/all-governments-are-theocratic/Tue, 26 May 2026 07:52:16 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/all-governments-are-theocratic/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p>For decades, secularists have told us that what certain countries need is democracy. What if a country votes to make Sharia law the law of the land? Once power is secured through the democratic process, the door is often shut to exclude those who might challenge the status quo. American politicians have used the democratic process, through promises to special interest groups, to gain power, shut off dissent, and establish their own secular theocracy.</p> <p>“A professor found that a vast majority of his university students were unable to tell the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/putin-changing-russian-constitution-in-power-until-2036" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">U.S. Constitution from the Russian constitution</a>…. Many students respond, confessing how they have never read the U.S. Constitution and how they appreciate the foresight of the founding fathers to implement minimum wage and paternity leave,”<strong>[1]</strong> of which the Constitution is silent.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/cons101_large.png?v=1564072636" alt="Constitution 101: The Biblical Foundations"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Constitution 101: The Biblical Foundations</h3> <p>Constitution 101 is a complete education. In this course, you will learn from top legal and historical minds about this amazing document and what it really means to be a constitutional republic. Complete with audio, video, and text, Constitution 101 is filled with dozens of hours of learning. After watching, listening, and reading all of the material in this course, you will be ready to take on any skeptic making claims about our country and its founding document being "secular."</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/constitution-101" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Let’s begin with “theocracy.” The word “theocracy” consists of two Greek words: <em>theos</em> (God) and <em>kratos</em> (power or rule). In its simplest definition, theocracy means the “rule of God,” not the rule of the church. That would be an ‘ecclesiocracy.’ The word ‘theocracy’ is not found in the Bible, although the concept is present. Most do not know the definition of theocracy. Here’s an example of someone who confuses ‘theocracy’ with ‘ecclesiocracy.’</p> <blockquote> <p>Unfortunately, there <em>are</em> some Christian groups … who <em>are</em> espousing an unhealthy Christian nationalism that merges Christian identity with national identity and wraps the Gospel in the American flag. And the most extreme among them would even welcome a theocratic kingdom on earth <strong>where religious leaders dictate how the society is governed</strong>.</p> </blockquote> <p>This is not the proper definition of theocracy, though it is popular. The word ‘theocracy’ was coined by Flavius Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian for the Romans, whose <em>Wars of the Jews</em> parallels Jesus’ prediction of the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70 (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 21).<strong>[2]</strong> The word appears in <em>Against Apion</em> (2.164-165): “placing all sovereignty and authority in the hands of God.”<strong>[3]</strong></p> <p>Gabriel Sivan, a Jewish writer who has contributed articles to the <em>Encyclopedia Judaica</em>, offers the following as a helpful clarification of the term:</p> <blockquote> <p>To the modern ear the word ‘theocracy’ has distinctly pejorative overtones, suggesting the rule of some oppressive priestly caste, “government by state by immediate Divine guidance or by officials regarded as divinely guided,” to quote a standard definition. Yet, unlike certain other systems known in antiquity, “<strong>the ‘Theocracy’ of Moses was not a government of priests, as opposed to kings; it was a government by God Himself, as opposed to the government by priests or kings</strong>” (Dean Arthur Stanley, <em>A History of the Jewish Church</em>, 1862). The U.S. jurist and statesman Oscar Straus, a close associate of President Theodore Roosevelt, also stressed this point in his study of American culture’s indebtedness to the Hebraic concept: “The very fact that &hellip; with the single exception of Eli, no priest was ever elected to the magistracy during the entire period of the Commonwealth, decidedly [negates] any such interpretation” (<em>The Origin of the Republican form of Government in the United States of America</em>, 1887).<strong>[4]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>I explain these principles in my books <em><strong><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/god-and-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">God and Government</a></strong></em> (with <strong><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/god-and-government-student-workbook" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Student Workbook</a></strong>), <em><strong><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/restoring-the-foundation-of-civilization" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Restoring the Foundation of Civilization</a></strong></em>, and <em><strong><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/liberty-at-risk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Liberty at Risk</a></strong></em>.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/godandgovt_large.png?v=1608039906" alt="God and Government"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>God and Government</h3> <p>With a fresh new look, more images, an extensive subject and scripture index, and an updated bibliography, God and Government is ready to prepare a whole new generation to take on the political and religious battles confronting Christians today. May it be used in a new awakening of Christians in America—not just to inform minds, but to stimulate action and secure a better tomorrow for our posterity</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/god-and-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>God is the Sovereign Theocrat/Governor. He has instituted limited human governments for our world: family, church, and civil governments. The church and civil spheres are jurisdictionally separate but bound to follow God’s law as they apply to each sphere. Every law is based on someone’s view of morality. Rushdoony makes this point.</p> <blockquote> <p>It must be recognized that in any culture the source of law is the god of that society…. If law has its source in man’s reason, then reason is the god of that society. If the source is an oligarchy, or in a court, senate, or ruler, then that source is the god of that system&hellip;. [I]n any society, any change of law is an explicit or implicit change of religion.<strong>[5]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>Every political system is theocratic if either the individual (Libertinism, Moral Anarchy, King, Monarch) or the group (Democracy, Oligarchy) is the basis of what’s morally right or wrong. Atheistic regimes are theocratic since they place the source of law in the independent and unbound ruler (“every person doing what is right in his own eyes”: Judges 17:6), a power-entrenched group, or the civil sphere, in which elected or appointed officials became a “law unto themselves.” Communism and many modern civil governments come to mind.</p> <p>The rejection of the true God leads inescapably to the choice of another god. Democracy can become theocratic if absolute power is given to the voice of the people. You may have heard the Latin phrase, <em>Vox populi, vox dei</em>. Those who promote a particular worldview and seek to implement it socially, educationally, politically, and judicially have elevated humans to the status of gods. Their intentions are theocratic. Only their choice of god or gods has changed.</p> <p>The word “Messianic” is used in a similar way. While it’s generally attributed to religious figures, it can also apply to education (“The Messianic Character of American Education”) and politics (“The Messianic State”).</p> <p>Theocracy is no different. Once there is no need for a transcendent God, there is no longer an operating system of fixed laws. Man becomes the new god collectivized in the State. To use Hegel’s phrase, “the State is god walking on earth.”</p> <p>Conde Pallen’s utopian novel, <em>Crucible Island</em>, describes what happens when the God of the Bible is rejected, and the State becomes God. Man looks for a substitute provider so that “the individual should have no thought, desire, or object other than the public welfare, of which the State is the creator and the inviolable guardian. As soon as the child is capable of learning, he is taught the Socialist catechism, whose first questions run as follows:”</p> <blockquote> <p>Q. By whom were you begotten?<br> A. By the sovereign State.</p> <p>Q. Why were you begotten?<br> A. That I might know, love, and serve the Sovereign State always.</p> <p>Q. What is the sovereign State?<br> A. The sovereign State is humanity in composite and perfect being.</p> <p>Q. Why is the State supreme?<br> A. The State is supreme because it is my Creator and Conserver in which I am and move and have my being and without which I am nothing.</p> <p>Q. What is the individual?<br> A. The individual is only a part of the whole, and made for the whole, and finds his complete and perfect expression in the sovereign State. Individuals are made for cooperation only, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.<strong>[6]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>A biblical worldview creates boundaries for all governing authorities. Each sphere has its jurisdictional limits, authority, and enforcing powers.</p> <hr> <p>[1] Sarah Rumpf, “Professor finds most students can&rsquo;t differentiate between US and Russian Constitutions,” Fox News (September 20, 2022).</p> <p>[2] See “APPENDIX B: Josephus on the Fall of Jerusalem” in David Chilton’s <em><strong><a href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/paradise-restored-a-biblical-theology-of-dominion" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Paradise Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion</a></strong></em>.</p> <p>[3] “Some peoples have entrusted the supreme political power to monarchies, others to oligarchies, yet others to the masses. Our lawgiver [Moses], however &hellip; gave to his constitution the form of what—if a forced expression be permitted—may be termed a ‘theocracy,’ placing all sovereignty and authority in the hands of God.”</p> <p>[4] Gabriel Sivan, <em>The Bible and Civilization</em> (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1973), 145.</p> <p>[5] Rousas J. Rushdoony, <em>Institutes of Biblical Law</em> (Nutley, NJ: The Craig Press, 1973), 4-5.</p> <p>[6] Conde Pallen, <em>Crucible Island: A Romance, an Adventure and an Experiment</em> (New York: The Manhattanville Press, 1919), 109-110.</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/in-a-little-little-while/Mon, 25 May 2026 07:55:33 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/in-a-little-little-while/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><em>Gary <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/in-a-little-little-while" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">answers</a> a listener question about a Greek word used in Matthew 25:5, Hebrews 10:37, and in the Septuagint in Habakkuk 2:3.</em></p> <p>In Revelation 1:1, John was shown “the things which must shortly take place.” Why must they “shortly take place? Because the reader is told “the time is near” (Rev. 1:3). Jesus defines “near” to mean “at the door” (Matt. 24:33). James writes that “the coming of the Lord is at hand,” and he defines “at hand” to mean “right at the door” (5:8-9).</p> <p>If the purpose of Revelation was to demonstrate that the events of the book were a prophetic certainty that could occur at any time, John could have been told to write, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His bond-servants the things which must take place.” This wording would have had the effect of expressing necessity without committing to any time parameters, the very thing dispensationalists claim the Bible teaches. Revelation uses this construction in several places (4:1; 10:11; 17:10; 20:3). But by adding “shortly,” Jesus is telling Revelation’s first readers that not only are these coming events a <strong>certainty</strong>, they will happen <strong>quickly</strong> because “the time is near.”</p> <p>Let’s allow Milton Terry, author of <em>Biblical Hermeneutics</em>, to put the debate over time words into perspective:</p> <blockquote> <p>When a writer says that an event will shortly and speedily come to pass, or is about to take place, it is contrary to all propriety to declare that his statements allow us to believe the event is in the far future. It is a reprehensible abuse of language to say that the words <em>immediately</em>, or <em>near at hand</em>, mean <em>ages hence</em>, or <em>after a long time</em>. Such a treatment of the language of Scripture is even worse than the theory of a double sense.</p> </blockquote> <p>Terry is a good judge in this matter since he is respected by futurists and those who believe that the majority of events described in Revelation have already been fulfilled. He is to the point—near means near all the time!</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/files/pwfr_large.png?v=1736370066" alt="Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times</h3> <p>If you’re willing to take the Bible at its word, the study of prophecy can strengthen your faith, but if your trust is in man’s speculations, you will be disappointed every time. And that is why Bible prophecy is such a crucial area for apologetics. Skeptics of all stripes have condemned the Bible as inaccurate merely because various well-meaning Christians have been in error about the End Times.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/prophecy-wars-the-biblical-battle-over-the-end-times" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Gary answers a listener question about a Greek word used in Matthew 25:5, Hebrews 10:37, and in the Septuagint in Habakkuk 2:3. The NT often uses OT language to show that similar events are soon to pass in the first century. Israel&rsquo;s history often feels like a series of cyclical events and Paul even mentions that these events happened as &ldquo;examples&rdquo; to his generation, &ldquo;on whom the end of the ages has come&rdquo; (1 Corinthians 10:11).</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/in-a-little-little-while" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here to browse all episodes of The Gary DeMar Podcast</a></p>https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-93-will-jesus-return-in-just-the-same-way/Fri, 22 May 2026 09:00:10 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-93-will-jesus-return-in-just-the-same-way/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><strong>Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 93</strong></p> <p><em>Gary takes a <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/will-jesus-return-in-just-the-same-way" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">closer look</a> at Acts 1:11, which is often pointed to as proof that Jesus will return exactly as He left during the Ascension.</em></p> <p>At His trial, Jesus told Caiaphas the high priest and the Sanhedrin that they would see “the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:64). When would this take place? “The phrase… ‘from now on’ means exactly what it says…, and refers not to some distant event but to the imminent vindication of Jesus which will shortly be obvious to those who have sat in judgement over him.”<strong>[1]</strong> What did they “see”? Certainly not an event that was thousands of years in the future. N. T. Wright comments:</p> <blockquote> <p>Jesus is not, then, suggesting that Caiaphas will witness the end of the space-time order. Nor will he look out of the window one day and observe a human figure flying downwards on a cloud. It is absurd to imagine either Jesus, or Mark, or anyone in between, supposing the words to mean that. Caiaphas will witness the strange events which follow Jesus’ crucifixion: the rise of a group of disciples claiming that he has been raised from the dead, and the events which accelerate towards the final clash with Rome, in which, judged according to the time-honoured test, Jesus will be vindicated as a true prophet. In and through it all, Caiaphas will witness events which show that Jesus was not, after all, mistaken in his claim, hitherto implicit, now at last explicit: he is the Messiah, the anointed one, the true representative of the people of Israel, the one in and through whom the covenant God is acting to set up his kingdom.<strong>[2]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>At His ascension, Jesus had come up to the Ancient of Days “with the clouds of heaven” to receive the kingdom from His Father (Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9). Jesus’ reception of the kingdom gave Him possession so that He could do with it as He pleased. He had earlier stated that the kingdom would be “taken away from” those who rejected Him and would “be given to a nation producing the fruit of it” (Matt. 21:43). The church—made up initially of believing Jews and later of believing Gentiles—is described by Peter as a “holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). It is this “nation” that is in possession of the kingdom by right of transfer. This covenant transfer is confirmed for us at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:54-56). Stephen’s murderers objected to being called “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears” (7:51). His words of condemnation had put them outside the covenant community because they, too, persecuted and killed the prophets by publicly denouncing the gospel message (7:52).</p> <blockquote> <p>So Stephen saw Him, before his death by stoning (Acts 7:56), and thus prophesied judgment on his murderers, at the very moment when he prayed for their forgiveness. The priesthood stood on trial that day, although the execution of their sentence was yet to come, on that awful day in AD 70 when the priests were cut down at the altar as they steadily continued their sacrifices.<strong>[3]</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>The church was persecuted by Jewish opposition for forty years after Jesus’ death, once again confirming what Jesus had prophesied. With the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the truth was comprehended by the tribes of Israel (Rev. 1:7). The generation that Jesus said would not pass away until all these things came to pass finally came to understand the implications of their rebellion: Jesus is the one who was given “[D]ominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him” (Dan. 7:14). They were not to look for another (Matt. 24:26).</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/LDM-front_large.png?v=1572279906" alt="Last Days Madness"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Last Days Madness</h3> <p>In this authoritative book, Gary DeMar clears the haze of "end-times" fever, shedding light on the most difficult and studied prophetic passages in the Bible, including Daniel 7:13-14; 9:24-27; Matt. 16:27-28; 24-25; Thess. 2; 2 Peter 3:3-13, and clearly explaining a host of other controversial topics.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/last-days-madness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Gary takes a closer look at Acts 1:11, which is often pointed to as proof that Jesus will return exactly as He left during the Ascension. Most futurists use this verse to show that Jesus will return in His physical body because that would be necessary in order to fulfill &ldquo;just in the same way&rdquo; He went away. The problem is that this Greek phrase is translated differently in other parts of the NT.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/will-jesus-return-in-just-the-same-way" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://americanvision.org/categories/microscope/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for all episodes of Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope</a></p> <hr> <p>[1] R.T. France, <em>Matthew: Evangelist and Teacher</em> (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, [1989] 1998), 315.</p> <p>[2] N. T. Wright, <em>Jesus and the Victory of God</em> (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 525.</p> <p>[3] R.A. Cole, <em>The Gospel According to Mark: An Introduction and Commentary</em> (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1961), 229.</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/prime-time-historical-ignorance/Thu, 21 May 2026 07:27:57 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/prime-time-historical-ignorance/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p>Katy Tur and an <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/ms-now-anchor-draws-backlash-for-questioning-god-given-rights.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">MS NOW panel show</a> that ignorance of our nation’s history is rampant. We’re coming up on July 4th, celebrating the Declaration of Independence in its 250th year. Apparently, some people have never read the Declaration of Independence. Let’s not forget that it’s not a standalone document. The Constitution references it: “done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September <strong>in the Year of our Lord</strong> one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the <strong>Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth</strong>.” That’s a reference to the Declaration of Independence, 12 years after its signing.</p> <p>The MS NOW panel questioned whether House Speaker Mike Johnson’s prayer during a National Mall event celebrating the coming 250th anniversary of America was appropriate or accurate. Here’s what Johnson prayed:</p> <blockquote> <p>You gave our fathers the wisdom and faith to establish this new nation, premised on the biblical and foundational principle that all men are created equal and free before you. Through Your divine providence, our Founders acknowledged and boldly proclaimed this self-evident truth: That every single person is created in your image and that we are endowed by you, our Creator, with our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.</p> </blockquote> <p>Tur opened the discussion by speculating on whether Johnson was “putting God over” the Declaration and, by extension, over our government. The simple answer is “yes.” Johnson responded with a “newsflash” for MS NOW: “The Declaration literally proclaims the self-evident truth that our rights come from our Creator.”</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/cachfr_large.png?v=1675169569" alt="The Case for America&#39;s Christian Heritage"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>The Case for America&#39;s Christian Heritage</h3> <p>America’s original founding was rooted deeply in the things of Jesus Christ and His kingdom. The original charter given to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century was to establish “the true Christian faith.” John Rolfe at Jamestown sought to “advance the Honor of God and to propagate his Gospel.” The faithful Christians who wrote the Mayflower Compact stated that their mission was “for the Glory of God and advancements of the Christian faith.”</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/case-for-americas-christian-heritage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Sen. Ted Cruz commented, “How can Katy Tur and MSDNC be so historically ignorant? The Speaker is not putting God ABOVE the Declaration—he is literally QUOTING FROM the Declaration: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’” The Declaration also states that God is “the Supreme Judge of the world” and the need of “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.”</p> <p>What’s the alternative? Anarchy, where everyone does what is right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6)? We have a lot of that today when people celebrate the various assassination attempts on President Trump, the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and Luigi Mangione being charged in the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, on a Manhattan sidewalk on December 4, 2024. Women are lining up to support him.</p> <p>What about a pure Democracy where the voice of the majority is the voice of God and becomes the standard of government legislation? The phrase “democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch” is a metaphor warning that pure majority rule can lead to the tyranny of the majority, where the dominant group exploits the minority.</p> <p>There is so much talk about democracy that few people have considered what our founders said about it. Democracy is no moral cure-all. John Winthrop (1588-1649), the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, declared <em>direct</em> democracy to be “the meanest and worst of all forms of government.”<strong>[1]</strong> John Cotton (1584-1652), a seventeenth-century Puritan minister in Massachusetts, wrote in 1636: “Democracy, I do not conceive that ever God did ordain as a fit government either for church or commonwealth. If the people be governors, who shall be governed?”<strong>[2]</strong> James Madison (1751-1836), recognized as the “father of the Constitution,” wrote that democracies are “spectacles of turbulence and contention.”</p> <p>Pure democracies are “incompatible with personal security or the rights of property&hellip;. In general, they have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”<strong>[3]</strong> John Adams, the second president of the United States, stated that “the voice of the people is ‘sometimes the voice of Mahomet, of Caesar, of Catiline, the Pope, and the Devil.’”<strong>[4]</strong> Francis A. Schaeffer described democracy as “the dictatorship of the 51%, with no controls and nothing with which to challenge the majority.”<strong>[5]</strong> The logic is simple: “It means that if Hitler was able to get a 51% vote of the Germans, he had a right to kill the Jews,”<strong>[6]</strong> if that’s what the majority of people wanted.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/CLC-front_large.png?v=1625058462" alt="The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States</h3> <p>Organizations like the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State have done their best to ignore the content of the massive compilation of original source material found in this book. If Americans ever become aware of the facts assembled by the author in this historic encyclopedia of knowledge, arguments for a secular founding of America will turn to dust. Reprinted by American Vision for the first time in over 140 years in 2007, we can't keep this book in print!</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/christian-life-and-character-of-the-civil-institutions-of-the-united-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Democracies degenerate into exploitation because rulers discover that if they promise certain benefits to a majority of voters, they can get those voters to put them in power. These voters realize that with their chosen ruler now in power, they can pressure him to vote in their best interests by threatening not to vote for him in the next election. The following is attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747-1813). (Note: I have not been able to find the source for it, but it’s true nevertheless.<strong>[7]</strong>)</p> <blockquote> <p>A democracy cannot exist as a permanent force of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote for themselves largesse [benefits] from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always foiled by dictatorship.</p> </blockquote> <p>Randall Holcombe’s book, <em>Liberty in Peril: Democracy and Power in American History</em>, states that while “the Founders wanted those in charge of government’s operations to be selected by a democratic process,” they “also wanted to insulate those who ran the government from direct influence by its citizens” because “[b]y insulating political decision-makers from directs accountability to citizens, the government would be in a better position to adhere to its constitutionally-mandated limits.”<strong>[8]</strong> In this way, “the Constitution created a limited government designed to protect liberty, not to foster democracy,”<strong>[9]</strong> where the majority rule directly.</p> <p>Let’s dispense with all these forms of government and declare, “We have no king but Caesar.” How did that work out?</p> <hr> <p>[1] Quoted in A. Marvyn Davies, <em>Foundation of American Freedom: Calvinism in the Development of Democratic Thought and Action</em> (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1955), 11.</p> <p>[2] Letter to Lord Say and Seal, quoted by Perry Miller and Thomas H. Johnson, eds., <em>The Puritans: A Sourcebook of Their Writings</em>, 2 vols. (New York: Harper and Row, [1938) 1963), 1:209-210. Also see Edwin Powers, <em>Crime and Punishment in Early Massachusetts: 1620-1692</em> (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1966), 55.</p> <p>[3] Quoted in Jacob E. Cooke, ed., <em>The Federalist</em>, (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1961), 61.</p> <p>[4] John Adams, quoted by Gilbert Chinard, <em>Honest John Adams</em> (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., [1933] 1961), 241 in John Eidsmoe, “The Christian America Response to National Confessionalism,” in Gary Scott Smith, ed., <em>God and Politics: Four Views on the Reformation of Civil Government</em> (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1989), 227-228.</p> <p>[5] Francis A. Schaeffer, <em>The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century</em> (1970) in <em>The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview</em>, 5 vols. (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), 4:27.</p> <p>[6] Schaeffer, <em>The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century</em>, 4:27.</p> <p>[7] Tytler did write the following: “The people flatter themselves that they have the sovereign power. These are, in fact, words without meaning. It is true they elected governors; but how are these elections brought about? In every instance of election by the mass of a people—through the influence of those governors themselves, and by means the most opposite to a free and disinterested choice, by the basest corruption and bribery. But those governors once selected, where is the boasted freedom of the people? They must submit to their rule and control, with the same abandonment of their natural liberty, the freedom of their will, and the command of their actions, as if they were under the rule of a monarch.” Book 1, Chapter VI – <em>Political reflections Arising from the History of Greece</em>, 217.</p> <p>[8] Randall G. Holcombe, <em>Liberty in Peril: Democracy and Power in American History</em>, 2nd ed.(Oakland, CA: Independent Institute, 2019), 15.</p> <p>[9] Holcombe, <em>Liberty in Peril</em>, 16,</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/from-pittsburgh-to-atlanta/Wed, 20 May 2026 06:49:25 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/from-pittsburgh-to-atlanta/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><em>Gary</em> <em><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/from-high-school-to-college-to-atlanta" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">discusses the providential history</a></em> <em>of his life after high school and college.</em></p> <p><em>The War of the Worlds</em> depicts a clash between <em>very</em> alien societies—one planetary world hell-bent on destroying another. The fictionalized Martian attack was relentless. Cobra-like periscopes emitted pulverizing beams of energy that ravaged the countryside. The sleek and deceptively beautiful Martian flying machines destroyed everything in their path.</p> <p>A similar war rages in our own day. The invasion is not extraterrestrial in the usual sense. Alien worldviews, however, have made their way to planet Earth bringing with them even greater devastation than that depicted in the fictional <em>War of the Worlds</em>. Today’s real-life battle is between the worldview of biblical Christianity where the infinite and sovereign God of the universe reigns and rules and the worldview of the many varieties of man-centered belief systems where finite and dependent creatures work to rule and reign independent of God.</p> <p>Man-centered worldviews oppose the biblical worldview at every point. Truth is turned into a lie (Rom. 1:25); good becomes evil, and evil good (Isa. 5:20); darkness is substituted for light, and light for darkness (Matt. 6:23; John 3:19; Isa. 5:20); a “futile” and “depraved mind” (Eph. 4:17; Rom. 1:28) is preferred over a “renewed mind” (Rom. 12:2). “It must be emphasized that it is not just a question of the <em>mental</em> rejection of the truth, for what is involved is nothing less than the rebellion of the whole man, man in the totality of his being, mind, emotion, and will, against God. It is the refusal to give God the glory which is his due.”<strong>[1]</strong></p> <p>The Bible tells us that those who parade their alien, anti-biblical worldviews “are without excuse. . . . For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks” (Rom. 1:20–21). The rejection of the sovereign God of the Bible leads to a downward spiral that begins with perverse thinking and degenerates into corrupt action. What was originally designed to be straight, man has made crooked by suppressing the truth in unrighteousness (Deut. 32:5; Psalm 125:5; Prov. 2:15; 3:32; 14:2; 17:20; 21:8; Phil. 2:15).</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0220/1508/products/bkp0397_front__84725.1286483519.1280.1280_large.jpg?v=1371841572" alt="Thinking Straight in a Crooked World"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Thinking Straight in a Crooked World</h3> <p>The nursery rhyme ‘There Was a Crooked Man’ is an appropriate description of how sin affects us and our world. We live in a crooked world of ideas evaluated by crooked people. Left to our crooked nature, we can never fully understand what God has planned for us and His world. God has not left us without a corrective solution. He has given us a reliable reference point in the Bible so we can identify the crookedness and straighten it.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/thinking-straight-in-a-crooked-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Gary discusses the providential history of his life after high school and college and how he met and worked with Greg Bahnsen, David Chilton, Ken Gentry, and many others. This excerpt is from the Burros of Berea podcast.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/from-high-school-to-college-to-atlanta" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here to browse all episodes of The Gary DeMar Podcast</a></p> <p><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-77-testimonies-gary-demar-for-god-and-country/id1588605731?i=1000584078209" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Listen to the full interview here</a></p> <hr> <p><strong>[1]</strong> Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, “Crucial Biblical Passages for Christian Apologetics,” in <em>Jerusalem and Athens: Critical Discussions on the Philosophy and Apologetics of Cornelius Van Til</em>, ed. E.R. Geehan (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1971), 136.</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/prophetic-dealing-off-the-bottom-of-the-deck/Tue, 19 May 2026 08:08:04 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/prophetic-dealing-off-the-bottom-of-the-deck/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p>Imagine yourself hearing or reading the New Testament gospels and letters for the first time as they circulated throughout the Roman Empire. Would anyone in those days have constructed the prophetic wild child that passes for biblical eschatology today with gaps between a number like 70, redefining Greek words like “near” and “shortly” by quoting 2 Peter 3:8, when they were common words of their time?</p> <p>How about those who first read Ezekiel’s prophecy about Gog and Magog and the use of the Hebrew word <em>rosh</em> (used 600+ times in the OT and means head and chief and not ‘Russia’) and decided that it described a battle far in the future to be fought with space-age weapons, where bows and arrows would be missile launchers and missiles, and referred to an Islamic antichrist? Pop Prophecy has a long history, as this list of Gog and Magog Candidates through the centuries shows from Frank Gumerlock’s book <em>The Day and the Hour</em>.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/DAHfront_large.png?v=1673474916" alt="The Day and the Hour: Christianity&#39;s Perennial Fascination with Predicting the End of the World"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>The Day and the Hour: Christianity&#39;s Perennial Fascination with Predicting the End of the World</h3> <p>In The Day and The Hour, Gumerlock spans two thousand years of conjecture on the last days, disclosing the dreams and delusions of those who believed that their sect was the 144,000 of Revelation 7; that the 1290 days of Daniel 12 had expired in their generation; that the "Man of Sin" of II Thessalonians 2 was reigning in their time; that a Rapture of the saints, a Great Tribulation, a Battle of Armageddon were just around the corner; or that a Millennial Kingdom was about to dawn.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/the-day-and-the-hour-christianitys-perennial-fascination-with-predicting-the-end-of-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <ol> <li>Goths (4th century)</li> <li>Goths and Moors (5th century)</li> <li>Huns (7th century)</li> <li>Islamic Empire (8th century)</li> <li>Hungarians (10th century)</li> <li>Mongols (14th century)</li> <li>Persecution of the Lollards (14th century)</li> <li>Turks (16th century)</li> <li>Mohammedans and the Papacy (16th century)</li> <li>Pope and Spain (16th century)</li> <li>Native Americans (17th century)</li> <li>France (18th century).</li> </ol> <p>When Jesus said, “this generation will not pass away,” does anyone honestly believe that those who heard what Jesus said would have interpreted “this generation” to mean a distant generation was in view? Not based on what Matthew 24:33 states. Why tell <em>them</em> (note the use of ‘<em>you</em>’ throughout the Olivet Discourse) to flee to the mountains, like the way Lot was told to flee to the mountains in Genesis 19, if Jesus was not referring to <em>them</em>? Do you think Lot thought God had a distant generation in mind when he was told to flee to the mountain? No, he fled!</p> <p>The religious leaders knew Jesus was talking about them: “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, <strong>they</strong> understood that He was speaking about <strong>them</strong>. And although they sought to arrest Him, they feared the crowds, since they considered Him to be a prophet” (Matt. 21:45-46). Jesus meant to say, “No, it’s about a future generation of Jews who will be slaughtered during a Great Tribulation because that generation will just happen to be there at that time.”</p> <p>What do we make of Jesus’ response to the high priest? “You have said it yourself. But I tell <strong>you</strong> [plural], from now <em>on</em> <strong>you</strong> will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:64). I guess the high Priest was mistaken in not understanding Jesus to mean a future generation when He will come again: “Then the high priest tore his robes and said, ‘He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? See, you have now heard the blasphemy; what do you think?’ They answered, ‘He deserves death!’” (vv. 65-66) I guess Jesus didn’t have time to tell them that His coming was way in the future, and there was nothing for that generation to worry about.</p> <p>But dispensationalists and those associated with their end-time beliefs always have a prophetic ace up their sleeves when someone shows a nearly unbeatable hand. It’s called “double fulfillment.” But there’s always someone with a “triple fulfillment” card. Dealing off the bottom of the deck is also popular.</p> <p>I found this comment interesting by someone who rejected preterism and went back to premillennialism after listening to Joel Richardson: “This is what happens when you read the Old Testament on its own terms, without spiritualising &amp; allegorising all the promises made by God to Israel, applying them to the church.”</p> <p>First, but this is what ALL dispensationalists and their kin do with chapters like Ezekiel 38 and 39. “Those ancient weapons are only symbols of modern weapons because the people in Ezekiel&rsquo;s day and beyond for nearly 2500 years could not have understood future weaponry.” No matter how many parallels there are with the book of Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah, there’s always “But what about that verse?” One verse can be used to nullify a hundred or more.</p> <p>Second, the ‘church’ is not something new in the NT. The Greek word 𝙚𝙠𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙖 is commonly used for ‘assembly’ or ‘congregation,’ as in Acts 7:38: “the congregation (𝙚𝙠𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙖) in the wilderness.” The KJV translates 𝙚𝙠𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙖 in Acts 7:38 and Hebrews 2:12 as ‘church.’</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/figtree_large.png?v=1578455246" alt="The Rapture and the Fig Tree Generation"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>The Rapture and the Fig Tree Generation</h3> <p>Since the national reestablishment of Israel in 1948, countless books and pamphlets have been written defending the doctrine assuring readers that it could happen at any moment. Some prophecy writers claimed the “rapture” would take place before 1988. We are far removed from that date. Where are we in God’s prophetic timetable? </p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/the-rapture-and-the-fig-tree-generation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Third, the promises made to Israel were being fulfilled in the NT, and many Jews understood that (Acts 2:37-42). What dispensationalists must explain is how an eternal covenant can be postponed for more than 2000 years!</p> <p>Fourth, what will be the result of renewing that long-overdue ‘eternal’ covenant? Millions of Jews will be slaughtered during the Great Tribulation based on Zechariah 13:7-9. Why would God single out a generation that had nothing to do with the rejection of Jesus, based on what we read in Acts 2:22-23? It was that “perverse generation” (2:40) that was going to come under judgment and did. Unlike today’s eschatologists who claim to love the Jews, Jesus warned those of that generation (Matt. 24:34) how they could escape it (24:15-20; Luke 21:20). You never hear Joel Richardson and dispensationalists telling Jews to leave Israel because millions of them are going to be wiped out!</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/so-youre-a-preterist-now-what-part-two/Mon, 18 May 2026 07:11:40 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/so-youre-a-preterist-now-what-part-two/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><em>In the <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/so-youre-a-preterist-now-what-part-two" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">conclusion</a> of this conference talk, Gary discusses the worldview implications of eschatology and why they&rsquo;re so important.</em></p> <p>The ungodly are involved in a game of self-deception, so that even they are “being deceived” when they think their worldview will ultimately prevail. We also must remember the previous words of Paul: “But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all” (2 Timothy 3:9). While the ungodly burn themselves out on present-oriented living, the faithful steadily influence their world: “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of” (2 Tim. 3:14). In time, faithfulness will be rewarded: “And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary” (Gal. 6:9).</p> <p>Paul does not deny “persecutions” and “sufferings” (2 Tim. 3:11). In fact, his words echo those of Jesus: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Paul can tell Timothy, “out of them all the Lord delivered me!” (2 Tim. 3:11). If God delivered Paul and the Christian church of the first century from Jewish persecution and Roman tyranny, what leads us to believe that God cannot and will not do the same today? A belief in the inevitability of certain prophetic events, the belief that we are the terminal generation, can lead to a spirit of malaise, indifference, and despair.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/mlht1_large.png?v=1365620692" alt="Myths. Lies, and Half-Truths"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Myths. Lies, and Half-Truths</h3> <p>There was a time when the gospel of Jesus Christ touched every area of a person’s life and the world in which he lived. This is no longer the case. Our nation is in a crisis. The world is crying out for answers in the face of bewildering and seemingly unsolvable problems. Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths demonstrates that the Bible has real answers and shows that the church has been instrumental throughout history in the development of what is uniformly described as a comprehensive Christian worldview.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/myths-lies-and-half-truths" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>In the conclusion of this conference talk, Gary discusses the worldview implications of eschatology and why they&rsquo;re so important. Believing something is one thing, but acting on that belief has daily consequences. Morality, ethics, education, and social action all stem from a person&rsquo;s ultimate commitment to their beliefs about the future.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/so-youre-a-preterist-now-what-part-two" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here to browse all episodes of The Gary DeMar Podcast</a></p>https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-92-debunking-major-signs-that-the-end-is-near/Fri, 15 May 2026 08:09:30 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-92-debunking-major-signs-that-the-end-is-near/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><strong>Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 92</strong></p> <p><em>Gary <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/debunking-major-signs-that-the-end-is-near" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">responds</a> to an article titled &ldquo;Major Signs That the End of Life as We Know It is Near.&rdquo;</em></p> <p>It’s no wonder that Jesus applied the judgment against Babylon (Isa. 13; Matt. 24:29) to [His own] generation (Matt. 24:34). Peter described that generation as “this perverse generation” (Acts 2:40). Jesus withdrew from the religious leaders and the crowds and entered Gentile territory. This is the region referred to when He condemned the unwillingness of fellow Israelites to repent (Matt. 11:20-24). The stone temple had no significance to the Gentiles. Accepting Jesus was to embrace the everlasting temple and bypass the temporary stone temple that had always been planned to be done away with because it accomplished its stated goal as a type of the true temple, Jesus.</p> <p>The dividing wall between Jews and the nations was removed (Eph. 2:11-22). Jesus was about to turn the tables on the unbelieving religious leaders in His encounters with the Canaanite (Syrophoenician) woman who begged Him to cure her daughter (Matt. 15:21-28). Jesus initially refuses her request saying, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” (15:26). But under the New Covenant, people “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues” stand “before the throne and before the Lamb” and are “clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’” (Rev. 7:9-10). The world was opened for the gospel. Distinctions among nations would no longer exist in Jesus.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/files/z14fr_large.png?v=1776945869" alt="Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14</h3> <p>Zechariah 14 has been interpreted in various ways throughout history. The chapter describes a future “Day of the Lord.” How far in the future is that time, and what events does the final chapter of Zechariah describe? Making Prophetic Sense of Zechariah 14 covers a lot of ground, including the history of interpretation going back centuries. As this volume points out, interpretations vary, and some are radically different, even when they agree on the time of fulfillment. There is no consensus, given the fact that it’s one of the most difficult prophetic sections found in Scripture, as many well-known and respected commentators have admitted.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/making-prophetic-sense-of-zechariah-14" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Gary responds to an article titled &ldquo;Major Signs That the End of Life as We Know It is Near.&rdquo; Not surprisingly, the article uses biblical language to prove what it claims, and yet ignores both the context and the time frame of the original writing of the New Testament documents.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/debunking-major-signs-that-the-end-is-near" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://americanvision.org/categories/microscope/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for all episodes of Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope</a></p>https://americanvision.org/posts/what-israel-is-really-all-about/Thu, 14 May 2026 07:24:20 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/what-israel-is-really-all-about/<p><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></p> <hr> <p>What is the focus of redemptive history? Is it Jesus or the modern state of Israel? This is not a trick question. Every Christian would say Jesus is the focus and center of redemptive history. Our calendars used to use BC for <em>Before Christ</em> and AD for <em>Anno Domini</em>, that is, “the Year of our Lord.” Our nation’s Constitution affirms this in words just below George Washington’s signature, “Done in the Year of our Lord &hellip; one thousand seven hundred and Eighty-seven.” The year 1787 marked the number of years since the birth of Jesus Christ. In academic, scientific, and educational contexts, BC has been replaced by BCE (Before Common Era), and AD by CE (Common Era). So far, we still follow the dating based on the birth of Jesus that even BCE and CE acknowledge. Our constitutional framers did not do what the French Revolutionaries did by starting with a ‘New Year One’ and replacing the seven-day creation week with a ten-day week. Our Constitution notes that Sunday is a day of rest based on the change from the seventh day (Saturday) Sabbath to the first day of the week (Sunday), the “Lord’s Day” based on the biblical calendar (Article I, Section 7, Clause 2).</p> <p>The birth of Jesus changed the world forever, and Israel was the chosen nation to make it happen.</p> <blockquote> <p>For to us a child is born,<br> to us a son is given;<br> and the government shall be upon his shoulder,<br> and his name shall be called<br> Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,<br> Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6).</p> </blockquote> <p>Without the nation of Israel, the redemptive work of Jesus would not have happened. The genealogies found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke confirm this truth.</p> <blockquote> <p>So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations (Matt. 1:17).</p> </blockquote> <p>The magi inquired about the “King of the Jews” (Matt. 2:2). Even in death, Jesus was identified as “the King of the Jews.”</p> <ol> <li> <p>“This is Jesus the King of the Jews” (Matt. 27:37).</p> </li> <li> <p>“The King of the Jews” (Mark 15:26).</p> </li> <li> <p>“This is the King of the Jews” (Luke 23:38).</p> </li> <li> <p>“Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews (John 19:19).</p> </li> </ol> <p>This declaration was a worldwide proclamation. We learn from John that the inscriptions were written “in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek” (John 19:20), the main languages of the Middle East, Asia Minor, and the farthest boundaries of the Roman Empire at that time. At least some portions of the Bible have been translated into more than 4,000 languages, out of a total of 7,396 known languages (including sign languages and Braille) to proclaim that Jesus is the source of reconciliation with God.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/godandgovt_large.png?v=1608039906" alt="God and Government"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>God and Government</h3> <p>With a fresh new look, more images, an extensive subject and scripture index, and an updated bibliography, God and Government is ready to prepare a whole new generation to take on the political and religious battles confronting Christians today. May it be used in a new awakening of Christians in America—not just to inform minds, but to stimulate action and secure a better tomorrow for our posterity.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/god-and-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Christianity would not exist without the Jewish nation. God made that the case. That’s why Israel was chosen by God.</p> <blockquote> <p>“The LORD did not make you His beloved nor choose you because you were greater in number than any of the peoples, since you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt (Deut. 7:7-8).</p> </blockquote> <p>The message of the kingdom went first “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6). Paul declared that the gospel message was “to the Jew first” (Rom. 1:16; 2:9). Israel’s role in God’s redemptive plan for the world is self-evident. No matter how unfaithful Israel had been in the past, sent into exile for 70 years, and nearly wiped out by the evil Haman (Esther 3), God faithfully guided and directed His chosen nation through people like Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna, John the Baptist, and Jesus’ disciples, Let’s not forget Stephen, Paul, and Timothy, among others.</p> <p>So, what of Israel today? What role does Israel play in prophetic history? What’s left on the prophetic calendar to be accomplished? Has anything been postponed? Will the temple be rebuilt? Should it be rebuilt? Nothing in the New Testament says anything about a rebuilt temple. There is no need for one because the temple was always planned for obsolescence. Jesus was the temple (John 2:13-22). He was “the door” (10:7, 9) and the “chief cornerstone” (Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6). Jesus serves as the High Priest and Mediator between God and humanity, a role most fully explained in the New Testament book of Hebrews. Unlike the Old Testament Levitical priests who offered repeated animal sacrifices, Jesus offered Himself as the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice for sin, thereby securing eternal redemption.</p> <p>Today&rsquo;s pop-prophecy writers continually accuse those who hold to these truths of being ‘antisemitic&rsquo; because we believe the gospel unites Jews and Gentiles in Christ (Eph. 2:11-22). We believe the destruction of the temple in AD 70 marked the end of the covenant’s exclusive and temporary nature with Israel. This never meant that God was finished with Israel, not in the least. The first believers were Jews. The first New Testament <em>ekklēsia</em> (improperly translated as ‘church’) was made up exclusively of Jews (Acts 5:11). The first evangelists were Jews. Jews were being saved from “every nation under heaven” (2:5). The gospel went to “the Jew first and also the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). Paul&rsquo;s message was “for the sake of the hope of Israel”<strong>[1]</strong> (Acts 28:20). Of course, there was opposition from many of the Jewish religious leaders (28:22-30).</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/files/HOIAN1_large.png?v=1752935538" alt="The Hope of Israel and the Nations"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>The Hope of Israel and the Nations</h3> <p>The reader and student of the Bible must first understand the content of the New Testament writings in terms of how those in the first century would have understood it. The New Testament is written against the background of the Old Testament. The shadows of the Old were fulfilled in the reality of the New. All the rituals and ceremonies were fulfilled in Jesus. The same is true of the temple, land, blood sacrifices, the nature of redemption, the resurrection of the dead, the breaking down of the dividing wall dividing Jews and Gentiles, and so much more. The New Testament's emphasis is on the finished work of Jesus and its application, not only to that Apostolic generation but to the world today.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/a/bundles/the-hope-of-israel-and-the-nations-two-volume-series-byue" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Additionally, the Bible records a significant event in Acts 6:7 , where “a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” and joined the early Christian community in Jerusalem, marking a transition in which the traditional priestly role expanded to include believers. Paul was never deterred from his mission because he knew that not every Jew would come to Christ, and that has not changed. Dispensationalists want to revive that period of history that included the destruction of the temple that took place before that generation passed away (Matt. 24:1-3, 34). They believe and teach that there will be another Jewish holocaust that will result in the slaughter of millions of Jews and billions of non-Jews around the world. They tell us that this is a prophetic inevitability.</p> <p>These facts are not up for debate. The Bible is clear. Does this mean that Jews today are disenfranchised? Not any more than non-Jews are disenfranchised. Peter gave this answer to this question: “What must I do to be saved?”</p> <blockquote> <p>“Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on urging them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” (Acts 2:38-40)</p> </blockquote> <p>That answer has not changed. It remains the same for Jews and non-Jews. It’s the starting point—not the end point—of worldview thinking and application. End-time thinkers can’t think beyond what they believe are inevitable prophetic events: zero hope for the church and sure disaster for a single end-time generation of Jews living in Israel. We are in a waiting game in anticipation of some great end-time cataclysmic events that can’t be avoided. Nothing is going to be built because it’s all going to be destroyed. Lovers of Israel only see hope when Jesus returns to Earth to set up His millennial kingdom. We sit. We wait. We anticipate. Nothing on this side of Revelation 20 matters.</p> <p>Can you imagine what the world would have been like through the centuries if Christians had embraced this kind of thinking? Israel is not the focus of history. Jesus is. If you love Israel, then make that the message.</p> <hr> <p>[1] Kim Burgess with Gary DeMar, <a href="https://store.americanvision.org/a/bundles/the-hope-of-israel-and-the-nations-two-volume-series-byue" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">The Hope of Israel and the Nations, 2 vols</a>. (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2024).</p>https://americanvision.org/posts/so-youre-a-preterist-now-what-part-one/Wed, 13 May 2026 08:25:52 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/so-youre-a-preterist-now-what-part-one/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><em>In this <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/so-youre-a-preterist-now-what-part-one" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">first part</a> of a conference talk, Gary discusses the worldview implications of eschatology and why they&rsquo;re so important.</em></p> <p>While it is true there is an attempt by the ungodly to dominate culture, and some are successful for a season, the fact is, that over time “they will not make further progress” (2 Timothy 3:9); their fling with ungodliness is only temporary (cf. Rom. 1:18–32). Christians can be optimistic even if the actions of the ungodly increase in their own day. If Christians remain faithful in influencing their world with the gospel and applying a Christian worldview to every area of life, the world can and will change. History and God’s providential care are on our side.</p> <p>Paul, however, does not allow Christians to remain passive as the ungodly self-destruct. Timothy has followed Paul’s “teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, [and] sufferings” (2 Tim. 3:10–11), and he calls on us to do the same. While the ungodly expend capital from their contrary and corrupted worldview on present-oriented living, the Christian is to develop future-oriented spiritual capital to replace the bankrupt culture of secularism, humanism, materialism, relativism, and hedonism.</p> <p>Notice that the characteristics of the ungodly are all self-directed and short-lived, summarized by the phrase “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:4). Sin has its pleasure for a short period of time: “He who loves pleasure will become a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not become rich” (Prov. 21:17). The love of pleasure is no investment in the future.</p> <p>The characteristics of the godly are directed toward the future, foregoing the lure of present pleasures for future blessings. Teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love and perseverance take time and energy from the present but result in lasting rewards. Moreover, even persecutions and sufferings should not deter future-oriented Christians because “out of them all the Lord” delivers His people (2 Tim. 3:11).</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/mlht1_large.png?v=1365620692" alt="Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths</h3> <p>Like the Bereans of Paul’s day (Acts 17:11), Christians should check the veracity of all opinions against the only reliable standard of authority that God has placed in our hands: the Bible. This may mean a change in belief systems for some. There is no novelty in this. God confronted Peter directly about the inclusion of Gentiles into the household of faith (10:9–16). Paul confronted Peter “to his face” on a similar matter (Gal. 2:11–14). There are times when we all need to be knocked off our horse of mistaken opinions (Acts 9:4). “Testing” is a biblical mandate (2 Cor. 13:5; 1 John 4:1).</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/myths-lies-and-half-truths" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>In this first part of a conference talk, Gary discusses the worldview implications of eschatology and why they&rsquo;re so important. Believing something is one thing, but acting in terms of that belief has daily consequences. Morality, ethics, and social action all stem from a person&rsquo;s ultimate commitment to what they believe about the future.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/so-youre-a-preterist-now-what-part-one" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here to browse all episodes of The Gary DeMar Podcast</a></p>https://americanvision.org/posts/racial-gerrymandering-and-black-victimhood-profiteering/Tue, 12 May 2026 07:44:10 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/racial-gerrymandering-and-black-victimhood-profiteering/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p>Exploiting race for political and financial advantage has a long history. Black “leaders” like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton made their living by promoting black victimhood and white guilt. Jackson spent his career shaking down big-name corporations with threats and boycotts if they did not do his bidding in the name of “racial justice.” Rush Limbaugh described Jackson and Sharpton as the “Justice Brothers.” They were anything but in the business of justice. Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, “went on a real estate buying binge, snagging four high-end homes for $3.2 million in the US alone, according to property records.” (<a href="https://nypost.com/2021/04/10/inside-blm-co-founder-patrisse-khan-cullors-real-estate-buying-binge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Source</a>)</p> <p>The new “everything is racist” mantra is being used to keep racial Gerrymandering alive. For decades, congressional districts have been drawn to ensure that mostly Democrat Black candidates would win elections because of their race. Now that’s racist! Consider this map from Louisiana:</p> <p><img src="https://americanvision.org/images/uploads/bluela.png" alt="Gerrymandered Louisiana" title="Gerrymandered Louisiana"></p> <p>The <em><a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-109_21o3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Louisiana v. Callais</a></em> “case focused on a lawsuit led by the NAACP demanding Louisiana create a second majority-black congressional district. What they were really after was forcing the red state to draw up another Democrat seat. Lower courts helped them do just that. The plaintiffs argued that just one majority-black district was a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As <em>The American Spectator</em> described it, the section established ‘affirmative action for black Democrat politicians.’” (<a href="https://thefederalist.com/2026/05/11/scotus-liberals-caught-slow-walking-another-ruling-to-help-dems/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Source</a>)</p> <p><em>The American Spectator’s</em> Scott McKay wrote. “The Congressional Black Caucus has been the repository of crooks, dopes, communists, and reprobates on a scale unmatched by any other, for the express reason that the districts producing the Star Wars cantina-scene cast of characters that make up that caucus are protected.”</p> <p>Playing the race card is about keeping the Democrat Party in power by keeping Black people under the heel of the Party. The creation of welfare programs for Blacks and poor whites has kept these groups dependent on and empowered by the Democrat Party while the Party’s leaders get rich.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/mlht1_large.png?v=1365620692" alt="Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths</h3> <p>Like the Bereans of Paul’s day (Acts 17:11), Christians should check the veracity of all opinions against the only reliable standard of authority that God has placed in our hands: the Bible. This may mean a change in belief systems for some. There is no novelty in this. God confronted Peter directly about the inclusion of Gentiles into the household of faith (10:9–16). Paul confronted Peter “to his face” on a similar matter (Gal. 2:11–14). There are times when we all need to be knocked off our horse of mistaken opinions (Acts 9:4). “Testing” is a biblical mandate (2 Cor. 13:5; 1 John 4:1).</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/myths-lies-and-half-truths" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Thomas Sowell argues that the expansion of the welfare state in the 1960s significantly harmed Black families by undermining family structure and incentivizing single parenthood. He contends that before the Great Society programs, in the 1960s, 22% of Black children were raised by a single parent, but by 1985, that figure rose to 67%, which he attributes to welfare policies that financially discouraged marriage and father involvement.</p> <p>Black victimhood is big business. It’s an old story. Booker T. Washington (1865-1915) warned of such people within the black community in his 1911 book <em>My Larger Education</em>. He described them as “problem profiteers”:</p> <blockquote> <p>There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.</p> </blockquote> <p>Washington could have had in view, although writing more than a hundred years ago, black people who rail against a black conservative like the late Herman Cain or any Black conservative. Cain didn’t present himself as a victim, and this disturbed people like Al Sharpton. Cain lived at a time when there were “colored” water fountains, segregated schools and neighborhoods, and racial discrimination that few people today can imagine. If anyone had a right to play the victim card, it was Cain. He didn’t feel sorry for himself. He stayed out of trouble, worked hard, and made something of himself without the help of a cadre of “poverty pimps.”</p> <p>Black people are not immune from victimizing other Blacks people. Black-on-black crime is real, and so is white-on-white crime, but there is a distinct disproportionality of such crimes among Black people. In 2024, there were <strong>8,158 Black murder victims</strong> and <strong>6,753 white murder victims</strong> in the United States. African Americans experienced a homicide victimization rate of <strong>28.4 per 100,000</strong>, which is nearly nine times higher than that of White Americans.</p> <p>Washington continues with a story that encapsulates what is wrong with so many black “leaders” and their guilt-ridden white supporters, which shows up in other areas.</p> <blockquote> <p>A story told me by a coloured man in South Carolina will illustrate how people sometimes get into situations where they do not like to part with their grievances. In a certain community there was a coloured doctor of the old school, who knew little about modern ideas of medicine, but who in some way had gained the confidence of the people and had made considerable money by his own peculiar methods of treatment. In this community there was an old lady who happened to be pretty well provided with this world’s goods and who thought that she had a cancer. For twenty years she had enjoyed the luxury of having this old doctor treat her for that cancer. As the old doctor became — thanks to the cancer and to other practice — pretty well-to-do, he decided to send one of his boys to a medical college. After graduating from the medical school, the young man returned home, and his father took a vacation. During this time the old lady who was afflicted with the “cancer” called in the young man, who treated her; within a few weeks the cancer (or what was supposed to be the cancer) disappeared, and the old lady declared herself well.</p> </blockquote> <p>When the boy’s father returned and found the patient standing perfectly well, he was outraged. He called the young man before him and said the following.</p> <blockquote> <p>“My son, I find that you have cured that cancer case of mine. Now, son, let me tell you something. I educated you on that cancer. I put you through high school, through college, and finally through the medical school on that cancer. And now you, with your new ideas of practicing medicine, have come here and cured that cancer. Let me tell you, son, you have started all wrong. How do you expect to make a living practicing medicine in that way?”</p> </blockquote> <p>I am afraid that there is a certain class of race problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well because, if the disease holds out, they not only have an easy means of making a living but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.</p> <p>If the patient gets well, an entire industry of victimhood will get cancer and die. This would be the best thing for Black communities. Until Black people throw off the shroud of victimhood, they will be at the mercy of “doctors” who treat a self-inflicted cancer that only makes the doctors rich. Of course, white victimhood is also real.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/maker-takers_large.jpg?v=1648865334" alt="The Maker vs. the Takers"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>The Maker vs. the Takers</h3> <p>Academic historians of first century Palestine/Judea have been pushing an account of a poor peasant Jesus leading a poor peasant's revolt based on the idea of mass displaced workers in Lower Galilee. The problem is the actual archeological findings paint a picture of an industrious and entrepreneurial economy during Jesus's time there. Reading the Gospels in light of archeology and history, which are now available to us, gives us a very different picture than the one you’ve been told regarding what Jesus taught about work and money.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/the-maker-vs-the-takers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div>https://americanvision.org/posts/a-worldview-of-optimism-and-victory/Mon, 11 May 2026 06:53:22 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/a-worldview-of-optimism-and-victory/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><em>Gary <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/a-worldview-of-optimism-and-victory-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">interviews</a> his longtime friend, Kirk Cameron, about how he came to embrace a new view of Christianity and the world.</em></p> <p>One of the reasons we are in this cultural and political mess is partly due to a misunderstanding of particular prophetic texts that claim to teach that the “rapture of the church” is inevitably near (for 2000 years?). Why do battle when “the Antichrist” is inevitably going to take over the world that will lead to the death of billions of people?</p> <p>I’ll let Kirk Cameron, formerly known as the “Left Behind Guy,” explain that the job of the Church is “to push back darkness and stop corruption and disciple nations with the power that raised Him from the dead in a kingdom which wins; it doesn’t lose. Greater is He who is within us than he that is in the world.” As Jerry Bowyer in his interview with Cameron describes it, “In other words, go ahead and polish the brass. Swab the decks, scrape the hull, stoke the coal, grab the wheel and full-steam ahead. This ship is going forward, not down.”</p> <p>In an interview, Kirk Cameron listed some of his heroes of the faith by naming St. Patrick, John Knox, Martin Luther, the Puritans and the pilgrims:</p> <blockquote> <p>They were being run out of the country by a woke mob and what did they do? They didn’t put their head between their knees and cry in their Chick-Fil-A soup and wait for the rapture while the culture deteriorated. They read their Bibles. And they got on a little boat, and they sailed across the world to start a new society that would later become the freest, strongest, most benevolent and generous nation the world has ever known.</p> </blockquote> <p>The promised false hope is that Christians will miraculously escape this soon coming “Great Tribulation” that the latest reiteration of the Left Behind film franchise depicts. Watch it, the tagline tells us, so you won’t have to experience the horrors of the Great Tribulation and possibly go to hell! But what if the entire Left Behind approach to Bible prophecy is more fiction than fact? That’s what this book is about.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/files/lbfront_large.png?v=1683813853" alt="Left Behind: Separating Fact from Fiction"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>Left Behind: Separating Fact from Fiction</h3> <p>Will Any Actually Be Left Behind? You might think so, if you've read Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series (written with Jerry Jenkins). You can be convinced that the Bible specifically teaches that in the end times Christians will be rescued from a terrible seven-year tribulation period while unbelievers will remain on earth to be subjected to countless horrors at the hands of the antichrist. In Left Behind: Separating Fact From Fiction, Gary DeMar takes a critical look at the theology behind this popular fiction series and challenges readers to consider a different interpretation.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/left-behind-separating-fact-from-fiction" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Gary interviews his longtime friend, Kirk Cameron, about how he came to embrace a new view of Christianity and the world. Kirk explains how he met Marshall Foster, how he came in contact with Gary DeMar, and what he is doing now. Spoiler Alert: He is taking his victorious Christian faith to the streets and libraries near you.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/a-worldview-of-optimism-and-victory-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here to browse all episodes of The Gary DeMar Podcast</a></p>https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-91-the-esther-connection-to-gog-and-mogog/Fri, 08 May 2026 08:11:08 -0400https://americanvision.org/posts/episode-91-the-esther-connection-to-gog-and-mogog/<p><strong><a href="https://subsplash.com/u/americanvision/give" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Please help us meet a $15K matching challenge here</a></strong></p> <hr> <p><strong>Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 91</strong></p> <p><em>Gary <a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/the-esther-connection-to-gog-and-mogog" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">interviews</a> Bob Cruickshank, Jr. and Daniel Harden about Ezekiel 38-39 and how the book of Esther connects to it.</em></p> <p>The Gog and Magog prophecy was an ancient battle fought with ancient weapons — horses, chariots, bows and arrows, swords, clubs, and shields — and has nothing to do with our time. There is no mention of Iraq, Iran, Russia, or any other modern-day nation. It’s true that “Gog and Magog” are mentioned in Revelation 20:8. This can’t be the battle that modern-day prophecy writers claim refers to modern-day Russia and current nations in the Middle East since in their view the “Gog and Magog” battle don’t appear until 1000 years after their version of the Great Tribulation. Greg Laurie and others believe the Gog and Magog alliance of Ezekiel 38 and 39 is very near to our time, not more than 1000 years in the future.</p> <p>The careful reader of the book of Revelation will note that there are many references to the Old Testament. Jerusalem is described as “Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11:8). Jezebel (2:20), Sodom, Egypt, Babylon (Rev. 17:4-6), and Gog and Magog are used as symbols of judgment because Israel had become like them and would be judged as they were judged. In the way that God judged these unbelieving cities, people, and nations, God would do the same to Jerusalem because of its unbelief and conspiring with the Roman Empire and declaring, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15).</p> <p>The New Testament does not predict the end of the world (<em>kosmos</em>); only the end of the old covenant order (1 Cor. 10:11; Heb. 9:26) otherwise Peter’s statement that “the end of all things has come near” to them (1 Pet. 4:7) and John’s assurance to his readers that “it is the last hour” (1 John 2:18) don’t make sense.</p> <div class="product_card"> <div class="product_image"> <img src="https://store.americanvision.org/cdn/shop/products/gog_front_large.jpg?v=1453287902" alt="The Gog and Magog End-Time Alliance"> </div> <div class="product_info"> <h3>The Gog and Magog End-Time Alliance</h3> <p>Countless authors attempt to make the case that the events predicted in Ezekiel 38 and 39 are on our prophetic horizon, and it seems that each month new books and articles appear insisting that “given the current world situation, nuclear war is inevitable” based on what we read in Ezekiel’s prophecy. What if we read Ezekiel 38 and 39 literally? Is it possible that the Gog and Magog alliance that was designed “to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children” has already taken place? That’s exactly what The Gog and Magog End-Time Alliance attempts to show.</p> <a class="button" href="https://store.americanvision.org/products/the-gog-and-magog-end-time-alliance-israel-russia-and-syria-in-bible-prophecy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buy Now</a> </div> </div> <p>Gary interviews Bob Cruickshank, Jr. and Daniel Harden about Ezekiel 38-39 and how the book of Esther connects to it. Most Bible commentators make Esther stand alone, without any connection to the rest of the Bible. Gary, Bob, and Dan point out how seamlessly it describes the fulfillment of Gog and Magog and how the Messianic bloodline is kept intact, despite Haman&rsquo;s futile attempts to eradicate it.</p> <p><a href="https://garydemar.libsyn.com/the-esther-connection-to-gog-and-mogog" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for today’s episode</a></p> <p><a href="https://americanvision.org/categories/microscope/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="external">Click here for all episodes of Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope</a></p>