Episode 17: The End of the World

Theopologetics

In this episode of the Theopologetics Podcast I interview Dee Dee Warren on the claim made by skeptics of Christianity that Jesus was a false prophet, discussing how a proper biblical understanding of the “end times” turns the claim on its head. The interview spanned nearly 2 hours, so I’ve split it up into two parts. This episode contains the first half of the interview; see episode 18 for the second half.

Music

• R.E.M., It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), from the Document album, 1987

Promoted Resources

• Ligonier Ministries, with Dr. R.C. Sproul
  • Subscribe to the Renewing Your Mind podcast for free
• The Preterist Podcast, with Dee Dee Warren.
  • Check out the episode I guest-hosted, “Kicking Some Left Behind Pt. 5–Jesus, the Not-So Master Communicator.”
  • I am also a guest author Dee Dee’s The Preterist Blog, and she has a ton of eschatological study material available at The Preterist Site.
• Books
  • The Great Tribulation: Past or Future? by Thomas Ice and Kenneth L. Gentry Jr.
  • The Last Days According to Jesus by R.C. Sproul
  • The Apocalypse Code by Hank Hannegraaff

Terminology

• Eschatology: a part of theology and philosophy concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history.
• Millennium: a “thousand years” seen by John in his vision, recorded in Revelation 20.
• Premillennialism: the view which holds that the Second Coming of Christ will usher in the millennium, a period of exactly 1,000 years, during which Christ and His saints will reign physically on earth.
• Postmillennialism: the view which holds that the Second Coming of Christ will follow a very long period of time, not necessarily exactly 1,000 years, a “Golden Age” or era of Christian prosperity dominance.
• Amillennialism: the view which holds that the millennium is symbolic, either of a very long period of time after which Christ returns, or of no period of time at all.
• Tribulation: the “great tribulation” Jesus speaks of in Matthew 24 after which He is to “come” in some sense, which He appears to have promised his contemporaries would experience.
• Rapture: a belief held by dispensational premillennialists that before, during or after the tribulation, Christ will come to remove Christians from the world, and will bring them back after the tribulation to reign with Him during the millennium.
• Pretribulationalism: the view which holds that the rapture will take place at the beginning of the tribulation.
• Mid-tribulationalism: the view which holds that the rapture will take place halfway into the tribulation.
• Futurism: the view which holds that most eschatological Bible prophecy remains to be fulfilled in our future.
• Preterism: the view which holds that most of the biblical prophecies concerning the so-called “end times” were fulfilled in our past.
• Historicism: the view which holds that Revelation does not foretell events which occur primarily in the first century or at the Second Coming, but symbolically foretells the Church’s experiences throughout history.
• Idealism: the view which holds that Revelation does not foretell a chronological series of events at all.
• Hyperpreterism: the heretical view that all biblical prophecies were fulfilled in our past including the Second Coming and resurrection.

More Show Notes Coming Soon…