BI171 Problems in Bible Interpretation: Why Do Christians Disagree about End Times?
Overview
Why do Christians disagree over interpretations of the end times? If you have ever wondered this, or if you are struggling to understand a fellow Christian’s point-of-view, this course will give you the insight you desire. Scripture addressing the end times include a number of difficult passages, which Dr. Heiser unpacks with faithfulness and wisdom. He guides you through assumptions inherent in various interpretations of end-times events and introduces you to several options for interpreting each passage. Dr. Heiser focuses on the importance of being able to understand various points of view and gives you tools to support why you believe what you believe.
Top Highlights
“First off, did the kingdom of God become a reality at Jesus’ first coming?” (source)
“It seems pretty clear that possession of the land—when it comes to Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites—possession of the land was tied to Israel’s faithfulness. Since the ot is clear that Israel was unfaithful and was sent into exile—basically it did all the things that, we just read, they weren’t supposed to do—many Christians, for that reason, believed the land promises were forfeited, paving the way for the new people of God to be the kingdom, a worldwide kingdom that we associate with the church.” (source)
“Christians make interpretive decisions that are really important before ever really even going to a certain passage. We make assumptions; we have presumptions in our mind and our heart about how the Bible should be read, how it should be interpreted before we even open it up. Those decisions, those assumptions, result in various positions on end times topics. They lead us to conclusions that someone else might not get to because they have a different set of assumptions, different set of presuppositions.” (source)
“If you are postmillennial, you believe that Jesus will return following the one-thousand-year kingdom that is begun and maintained by the church, by His people, by the people of God, His followers. If you are premillennial, you believe that the second coming will happen to commence or start the one-thousand-year literal kingdom on earth.” (source)
“We are going to talk about the nature of the kingdom of God. We are going to talk about the rapture, whether there is one. Is there a rapture and a second coming? Are there two events instead of one? We will talk about the seventieth week of Daniel—all seventy weeks but, in particular, that seventieth week. Does that factor into prophecy? Has the church replaced Israel?” (source)
- Title: BI171 Problems in Bible Interpretation: Why Do Christians Disagree about End Times?
- Author: Michael S. Heiser
- Series: Logos Mobile Education
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Logos Release Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Courseware
- Subjects: Education › Eschatology; Education › Rapture (Christian eschatology); Eschatology; Rapture (Christian eschatology)
- Resource ID: LLS:BI171HEISER
- Resource Type: Courseware Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2019-06-20T22:32:54Z
Dr. Michael S. Heiser was a former Scholar-in-Residence for Faithlife Corporation, the makers of Logos Bible Software. He then served as the Executive Director of the Awakening School of Theology and Ministry. His varied academic background enabled him to operate in the realm of critical scholarship and the wider Christian community. His experience in teaching at the undergraduate level and writing for the layperson both directly contributed to Logos’ goal of adapting scholarly tools for nonspecialists.
Dr. Heiser earned his PhD in Hebrew Bible and Semitic languages and holds an MA in ancient history and Hebrew studies. He was the coeditor of Old Testament Greek Pseudepigrapha with Morphology and Semitic Inscriptions: Analyzed Texts and English Translations, and he was able to do translation work in roughly a dozen ancient languages, including Biblical Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Ugaritic cuneiform. He specialized in Israelite religion (especially Israel’s divine council), contextualizing biblical theology with Israelite and ancient Near Eastern religion, Jewish binitarianism, biblical languages, ancient Semitic languages, textual criticism, comparative philology, and Second Temple period Jewish literature. In 2007 he was named the Pacific Northwest Regional Scholar by the Society of Biblical Literature.