The Mileses

Paul and Olena Miles with Grace Abroad Ministries

hermeneutics

The Kingdom, a word study, and a story about King Darius running away from Ukrainians

This post is extracted from some research I’m doing related to the kingdom.

φθάνω (Matt 12:28; Luke 11:20)

A host of clear biblical passages teach that the kingdom is literal and earthly. Two obscure passages that have become key to overthrowing the plain meaning of the text are Matt 12:28 and Luke 11:20, both of which record Jesus telling unbelievers that the kingdom ἔφθασεν ἐφ᾿ ὑμᾶς, which the KJV translates, “is come unto you” in Matthew and “is come upon you” in Luke. To the assertion that Jesus made it plain that the kingdom had already come, Millar Burrows responds:[Read More]

Reconsidering the Talmudic Definition of “Day”

I’ve recently had the privilege of being able to edit Robert Courtney’s article on the day when Christ died. This is a huge topic in apologetics. Mark and Luke record Jesus’ tomb being empty on Sunday, the first day of the week, the day after the Sabbath (Mark 16:1–2; Luke 24:1) and Matthew records Jesus saying:[Read More]

Book excerpt from “What is Dispensationalism?”

Grace Abroad Ministries is pleased to announce that our upcoming book, What is Dispensationalism? is on track to being in print next month (Nov 2018)! It has been an absolute joy to work alongside 25 fellow dispensationalists to get this thing cranked out. It has been a lot of work, but we look forward to seeing how God will use this book as we translate it into other languages around the world.[Read More]

A Tale of Two Houstons

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was the 1960s, a time which ushered in what sociologists would identify as “The Consciousness Revolution.” America was due for an awakening. Just as 80 years prior had been the “Third Great Awakening,” which followed the “Second Great Awakening,” decades prior and the first “Great Awakening” of the 1720s-30s which eventually formed the basis of the American Revolution. Every generation of Americans goes through some kind of an awakening. Perhaps this trend began with the “Puritan Awakening,” which itself came from the previous generation’s “Protestant Reformation” in Europe.

For centuries before and after the American Revolution, these awakenings seemed to revolve around the Christian worldview. When I look at the Reformers, Puritans, and missionaries who came out of the previous awakenings, I recognize that, on many issues, we aren’t on the same page, but at least we are all generally reading from the same book. This is not true of the Consciousness Revolution of the 1960s. For some reason, America was breaking its long held tradition of Biblicism and we are paying that price today.[Read More]

No, Jesus did not tell Nicodemus to repent to be born again

Jesus taught Sola Fide (by faith alone) salvation to Nicodemus. Jesus did not teach him Fide et Paenitentiae (by faith and repentance) salvation. There are folks who say things like:

Repentance is woven into the very fabric of the Gospel of John, though the word itself is never employed. In the account of Nicodemus, for example, repentance was clearly suggested in Jesus’ command to be “born again” (John 3:3-7). 1

Russian proponents of this theology rightly call the position, “Salvation through Lordship,” because it means that faith and repentance are necessary for eternal life. According to this view, the readers should read “repentance” into the text. When we push an idea like this into a text, we call it eisegesis (eis means “into” and egesis kinda means “lead or guide”). We want instead to practice exegesis (ex means “out of” or “from”), which is when we derive ideas from the text.
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The Time I was in a Jewish Prison Gang

Our friends at Dispensational Publishing House have recently posted my testimony about why I am a dispensationalist. It’s a short story that follows my journey from church to apostasy to war to prison to conversion to seminary to today. I glossed over some details for the sake of brevity in that article, but today, I am going to zoom in on my prison story a bit.

I was a notorious vegetable smuggler in a Jewish prison gang! In a federal prison, no less. Sounds pretty tough, right? I assure you it is not.[Read More]