Bible Question Emails and Ted’s Responses

Numerous people have emailed me with questions pertaining to topics about which I have written in my Bible Commentaries.  Click on the questions below to see my responses to them.

Rapture

• Is the Pre-tribulation view of the Rapture the correct view?

• How can believers go into the final seven years, if God has not appointed them to wrath?

• Can you give me a logical, sequential order of the Pre-wrath Rapture, and also explain why this negates the possibility of a Pre-tribulation Rapture?

• How can the Rapture be anything but Pre-trib, if it comes as a "thief in the night"?

• Do you feel that the Pre-tribulation view is the prevalent view of those who believe in a Rapture?

• How can you say that Matthew 24:30,31 is a description of the Rapture, when it is a picture of Jesus' second coming back to earth?

• What is the difference between the Pre-wrath Rapture view and the Post-tribulation Rapture view?

• Aren't the gathering of "elect believers" in Matthew 24:31 and the harvesting of "ripe grapes" in Revelation 14:16 the same event?

• Is it possible that Jesus' parable about the ten virgins could indicate that there will be a Mid-tribulation Rapture?

• If the "day and the hour" of Jesus' coming are unknown, how can we know when it will happen?

• Who is the so-called "restrainer" who is holding back the "man of lawlessnes" and who will be "taken out of the way"?

• Why are the "last trumpet" and the "seventh trumpet" not the same trumpet?

• How can you say the "last trumpet" and the "seventh trumpet" are not the same when they both are the last and final trumpet?

• Why do you believe that the Rapture will take place a year before the end of the 70th Week?

• Is it possible that there will be multiple Rapture events?

• Aren't you saying that shortening the Great Tribulation period is the same as shortening a 1,260-day period? How is that possible?

• How can you say there is a Rapture when that word doesn't even exist in the Bible?

• Have you connected Paul's words to the Thessalonians with John's teaching in Revelation concerning the First Resurrection of the dead?

• Could the rapture discussed in scripture actually be a miraculous death?

• Do you believe that the Rapture is near? When do you think the tribulation will begin?

• Does the Rapture view that people accept affect the way they live or have a bearing on their salvation?

• What if there is no Rapture and everybody has to go through the tribulation?

• Are the "mansions" Jesus is preparing for us actual buildings in which we will dwell while in heaven?

Revelation

• Doesn't God's wrath take place throughout the entire Tribulation or 70th Week period?

• Why do you believe that the majority of God's wrath will be poured out over the final year of the 70th Week and that the rapture will occur before that?

• Are the 1,260 days mentioned in Revelation a reference to the first half or to the second half of the 70th Week?

• Why are the two witnesses of Revelation 11:3,4 referred to as the "two olive trees" and the "two lampstands"?

• Are the Sixth Seal events at the very end of the 70th Week?

• How is it that Jesus' coming will be as a thief in the night if His coming is near the end of the 70th Week?

• Can the cosmic signs of the Sixth Seal be described by solar and lunar eclipses in 2014 or 2015?

• When does the period known as the "Day of the Lord" occur?

• Why do you believe that there will be a literal millennial period, of 1,000 years, after Jesus returns?

• Why has God planned a Millennium of Jesus' reign, rather than have Jesus make a new heavens and earth immediately when He returns?

• What have you got to say about temple sacrifices during the Millennium?

• Why are Dan and Ephraim not listed in the 144,000 of Revelation 7:4-8?

• Who is the "woman" described in Revelation 12:1-6?

• Could "Babylon the Great," described in Revelation, be the United States?

Endtimes

• When will God's covenant with Abraham be fulfilled, and how do we know that it is Israel who will receive the promised land?

• Do you think that forcing Israel to comply with a newly formed Palestinian "state" would be the equivalent of the Bible's "nations turning their backs on Israel"?

• What could cause the apostasy of 2 Thessalonians 2:3?

• Is "the Assyrian," mentioned by Isaiah and Micah, the Antichrist?

• In the Bible, what period of time do you think the term "in that day" is referring to?

• Will the Antichrist be Jewish? Are there any Bible references showing his nationality?

• How can you say that any part of the seventy weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27) has yet to take place when all of that prophecy was fulfilled in the first century A.D.?

• How do you know that Daniel's 70 weeks did not end in 33 A.D.?

• Doesn't the word "temple" in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and Revelation 11:1 indicate that the Third Temple will stand on the Temple Mount for the last 42 months of the final seven years?

• How can Moses be one of the two witnesses if he died long ago?

• How does Jesus' use of "generation" in Matthew 24:34 fit into end-time prophecy?

• Are the harvests described by Jesus in Matthew 13:24-30,36-46, and by John in Revelation 14:14-20, depictions of the same end-time harvest?

• What is your view on how or if we should make preparations for the coming tribulation?

• Does Islam hold the belief that Jesus will return again?

• Since your hypothesis about April 4, 2010, did not pan out, how do you look at things now?

Final Battles
Winepress of Gog/Magog vs. Battle of Armageddon

• When does the Gog/Magog battle, described in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, occur?

• When do the events of Ezekiel chapters 35-39 take place?

• Can you contrast the Winepress of Gog/Magog with the Battle of Armageddon?

• Doesn't Jesus' second advent back to earth take place after the Bowl Judgments rather than before them?

• How do you know that Gog and the Antichrist will not be the same person?

• When will the Gog/Magog battle begin, and when will Israel be living in safety?

• Isn't the Gog/Magog battle of Ezekiel 38 and 39 the same one that John wrote about in Revelation 20:7-10?

• Will Israel's "peace and safety," just prior to being attacked by the armies of Gog and Magog, be real or possibly a misperception on their part?

• Is Ezekiel 39:17-29 descriptive of what happens during and after the battle of Armageddon?

• What are the 30-day and 45-day periods following the end of the 70th Week?

Creation

• Didn't death in this world and decay in the universe begin when Eve and Adam sinned?

• How could death, decay, and imperfection possibly have been present on a perfect earth, prior to the disobedience and transgression of Adam and Eve?

• If the days of creation were 24 hours long, how is it possible that so many events took place on the sixth creation day?

• Why don't you believe God created the world in six days?

• If the days of creation were not actual solar days, why didn't God call them "long ages" instead of "days"?

• How will the appearance of the earth during the Millennium, and its appearance after the Millennium, be different?

• Could the destruction of the universe actually be simply its redemption and renewal?

• Could the fact that Jacob, Isaac's second-born, received the blessing of his first-born twin, Esau, foreshadow a greater purpose or principle that God had in mind?

Good Thursday
and Other Fulfillments by Jesus

• Wasn't Jesus in His tomb three full days and three full nights?

• What if Jesus rose on Saturday night rather than on Sunday, in which case He would have been crucified on Wednesday rather than on Thursday or Friday?

• I have read two articles that seem to point to a Wednesday crucifixion. What do you think?

• How can Aviv 14 be on a Thursday when a calendar converter indicates that it cannot?

• How do you know that Jesus, the Messiah, entered Jerusalem on a Sunday and not on some other day of the week?

• How is it that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish Spring and Fall feasts and holy days?

• How could Jesus and His disciples have eaten a Passover meal on Wednesday night? Do you think that lamb was eaten during their meal?

• During a Messianic Passover Seder, should children drink the third cup and eat the Afikoman, which parallel what is done in Holy Communion, if they have not yet professed their faith in Yeshua?

• Why did Jesus celebrate the Passover seder one night early?

• Should the weekly Sabbath observance be for 24 hours or only during daylight hours?

Was Jesus God?

• If Jesus was God, why did He say the Father was greater than He and knew things He didn't?

• How can you say that Jesus was God when the Bible clearly indicates that Jesus and God are two separate beings?

• If Jesus advocated baptism, then how can it not be essential for salvation?

• Why do you use the NIV, rather than the KJV, for the Bible references in all of your commentaries? Isn't the NIV negligent in showing whom Jesus really was?

• In John 3:16, isn't "only begotten" Son in the KJV the correct translation, whereas "one and only" Son in the NIV is an inaccurate translation?

• Is Jesus a descendant of both David and Solomon?

Who Is God?

• How can God be One and Three at the same time?

• Would a genuine, original, God function by himself and be independent of all others and contain all of the "God attributes" inherently within himself?

• Why did God create all of this the way He did it?

• Which do you feel is true: God's predestination or our free will?

• What was the main point of Jesus' suffering and sacrifice? What was in it for God?

• Who is responsible for evil? Does God know what He is going to do before He does it?

• Is it possible that all people ultimately could be reconciled back to God?

• Why did God ask Satan if he had considered His servant, Job? And did Satan choose to obey God in not killing Job?

• What did Jesus mean in Matthew 13:33 and in Matthew 13:52, portions of two of His parables?

• What do you think the thorn in Paul's side was?

• What is your "take" on the biblical book of Ecclesiastes?

• Do believers go to heaven when we die, or what happens?

• How do you know that people don't just fall asleep and become completely unconscious when they die?

• When does judgment happen, and how can anyone enter heaven without being judged first?

• Are the "birth pains" spoken of by Jesus the same as the "labor pains" described by Paul?

• Are Jesus and Lucifer the "morning stars" in Job 38:7?

• Is Jewish aliyah back to Israel something that Christians should encourage and support?

• How does the blood atonement of Passover differ from the blood atonement of Yom Kippur?

• How do you calculate the timing of Shavuot or Pentecost?

• Do you feel that your Bible and prophecy views and beliefs are "mainstream" or "extreme" or what, compared to those of other Christians?

• Do you actually think that nothing matters because our choices are already predetermined?

• Does Isaiah 19:2-4 describe the unrest in Egypt which led to the resignation of Hosni Mubarack as the Egyptian president, as well as events soon to come?

• What do you think about the views of Seventh Day Adventists in general, but especially on prophecy and Revelation, and particularly on the period known as the Millennium?

• Is the color of light determined by its frequency or its wavelength?