Bible Answers to Listeners' Questions
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About this ebook
The Search For Truth team always enjoys receiving correspondence from listeners, especially when they have Bible questions. This book is devoted to answers to just a few of them, questions that have puzzled many people for many years. Is there such a thing as purgatory? What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Why were humans given freewill? Are there different resurrections? Can we really be sure of salvation? In this book, Brian Johnston provides the Bible’s answers to these and other tricky questions.
Brian Johnston
Born and educated in Scotland, Brian worked as a government scientist until God called him into full-time Christian ministry on behalf of the Churches of God (www.churchesofgod.info). His voice has been heard on Search For Truth radio broadcasts for over 30 years (visit www.searchfortruth.podbean.com) during which time he has been an itinerant Bible teacher throughout the UK and Canada. His evangelical and missionary work outside the UK is primarily in Belgium and The Philippines. He is married to Rosemary, with a son and daughter.
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Bible Answers to Listeners' Questions - Brian Johnston
CHAPTER ONE: ARE THERE DIFFERENT RESURRECTIONS?
Some time back, Isobel wrote to us at Search For Truth, to ask if we agreed with Dr Vernon McGee’s notes on the specific point where he states that faithful Old Testament characters will be raised after the future time known biblically as the time of great distress or tribulation and – more particularly – that this resurrection will be prior to the Millennial or thousand-year reign of Christ. Let’s look at the relevant Bible passages first:
"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, thenrecognize that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst ofthe city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enterthe city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon theland and wrath to this people; and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:20-28).
I said to him,
My lord, you know. And he said to me,
These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14).
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years
(Revelation 20:1-6).
This question contains terms used by Bible scholars, but which are essentially drawn from the biblical text itself. And, in particular, they are used by Bible students who favour a particular way of understanding the Bible’s teaching concerning future events. It’s well-known that there are different ways of attempting to understand the Book of Revelation and other related prophecies, and it has to be said that the subject has generated a lot of controversy over the centuries which continues to this day.
Basically, there have been four different views regarding the book of Revelation. The ‘idealist’ view teaches that Revelation describes in symbolic language the battle throughout the ages between God and Satan and good against evil. The ‘preterist’ view teaches that the events recorded in the book of Revelation were largely fulfilled early on - and certainly by A.D. 70 with the fall of the Jerusalem Temple. (The unusual word ‘preterist’ comes from an old term signifying what is past). The ‘historicist’ view teaches that the book of Revelation is a symbolic presentation of Christian history beginning in the first century A.D. and continuing through to the end of the age. The prophecies of Revelation are seen by those who favour this view as being fulfilled in various historic events such as the fall of the Roman Empire, the Protestant Reformation, and even the French Revolution.
The ‘futurist’ view, as its name suggests, teaches that the book of Revelation prophesies events that will take place in the future. These events include the so-called rapture of the church, seven years of tribulation for those left behind on earth, and then a one-thousand year reign of Christ upon the earth. Futurist beliefs usually have a close association with terms like Premillennialism
and Dispensationalism
. Premillennialism basically teaches that Christ will return prior to setting up his literal one-thousand-year rule over this world from Jerusalem. And Dispensationalism teaches that God has managed the world in different ways in different time periods, as in the Age of the Law
and the Church Age
. It’s based on a literal approach to the interpretation of the Bible and is the approach which maintains a distinction between Israel and the Church and God’s respective purposes for each.
The view that Isobel heard endorsed in our program was the futurist, premillennial understanding of the Book of Revelation, and the other prophetic passages of the Bible. Such a view requires there to be various distinct resurrections and is based