Tradition must give way to the clear statements of the Scripture

 The question respecting the time when the Apocalypse was written affects the interpretation     A majority of the older critics have been inclined to adopt the opinion of Irenaeus , viz., that it was written during the reign of Domitian, i.e. during the last part of the first century, or in A. D. 95 or 96. Most of the recent commentators and critics have called this opinion in question , and placed the composition of the book at an earlier period, viz. before the destruction of Jerusalem .  Better ground has another report, which may be here and there found among the ancients , viz., that John wrote the Apocalypse during banishment to Patmos under the reign of Nero. From A. D. 64 to the time of his death (in June A. D. 68), Nero carried on a furious persecution against Christians, and banishment was a very common thing under the Roman government. It might therefore have been inflicted upon John, the leading teacher of Christianity at Ephesus, the capital of As...

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.   After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father . “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Acts 1:1–5 Holy Spirit baptism was poured out once upon the apostles . Jesus promised the apostles that the Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot receive, John 14:17 / Luke 24:46-48, would ‘guide them into all truth’.   It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was confirmed for us by those who heard him , while God added his testimony b...

 “The First Resurrection” In the opening sentence of the article , Kline declared, “One of the critical points in the exegesis of Rev. 20 is the interpretation of prōtos in the phrase, “the first resurrection” (v. 5). Premillennarians understand prōtos in the purely sequential sense of first in a series of items of the same kind. Consequently, premillennarians interpret “the first resurrection” in Revelation 20:5 as a bodily resurrection , “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.  This is the first resurrection.” They also interpret the resurrection event described in Revelation 20:12–13 as a bodily resurrection , “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the...