Isaiah 14 is Not About Satan

The traditions of men of the last 2,000 years, using an old typology which many Christians still follow, wrongly claim that Isaiah 14 describes the fall of Satan.

CONTEXT. Remember that word.

Prof. Gentry, in this outstanding video, gives us rock solid exegesis of Isaiah 14. For an equally outstanding exposition of Isaiah 14, in print, see John Oswalt‘s magnum opus, Isaiah, in The New International Commentary on the Old Testament series (NICOT).

Franz Delitzsch, Isaiah (1890), quotes Luther on this tradition of Isaiah 14:12 referring to Satan, as “insignis error totius papatus” i.e. “a noteworthy error of the papacy” … Calvin’s commentary also repudiates this error as “arising from ignorance.”

What the expositors rejected during the Reformation, had a comeback with the publication of the Schofield Bible in 1908, which took up the old typology. The tradition of men lives on.

Strongs: “the morning star”
lucifer (note NOT capitalized in Strongs) is simply the Latin translation (Jerome, 4th Century A.D.)

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (free online) They give just one sentence under the entry for lucifer: “lu’-si-fer, loo’-si-fer: The morning star, an epithet of the planet Venus.”

From the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Harris, Archer, Waltke (pub by Moody Press) “Our root represents the giving off of light by celestial bodies [i.e. planets, stars]”


“It is natural for a heathen king to boast that he would exalt himself above the gods or above the mountain where he believed the gods assembled.”
“sapon (Isa 14:13) is well known in Ugaritic as the mountain of the gods. The God of Israel is not enthroned on Saphon; he reigns from heaven itself (cf. hekal).”

The Latin, lucifer (morning star) is the translation (4th Century A.D. in [Latin] Vulgate) of the Greek heosphoros (Venus, ὁ ἑωσφόρος) used in the LXX –(the Greek translation of the Old Testament made by Jews in the 3rd Century B.C.)– to translate the Hebrew, heylel

Kevin Sorbo Movie, Rise of the Antichrist


“Beam me up, SCOTTY!”

That stands as an iconic line from a TV movie series that we all know.

“Before those empty clothes hit the ground”

That from a narrator, gives us a cringe line that stands out in one of the Left Behind movies, Rise of the Antichrist (2023) directed by and starring Kevin Sorbo.

At 30,000 feet, Captain Ray (Sorbo) turns to the co-pilot, only to see his crumpled uniform lying on the right seat. And half the passengers have disappeared.

Later in the movie, Ray’s daughter goes to the cemetery with a shovel and digs up her grandmother’s coffin. Looking for confirmation of her growing belief in the Rapture, she opens the coffin to find only a nice dress and a cross necklace.

A narrator opens the movie with these lines:

“With God, all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26…now, for the first time, I know it’s true. You see, , six months ago, something impossible happened down there. In one instant of time, millions of people just disappeared without a trace. POOF. Gone…

Sorbo’s movie gives us clean entertainment with a clear intent to evangelize non-believers. The movie ends with Captain Ray (Sorbo), his daughter, and a pastor barely escaping the antichrist thugs who are trying to kill them. As Sorbo circles his single engine plane over the city, they ‘bomb’ the streets with Christian tracts explaining the “Rapture.”

The movie tells us that “there were plenty of warnings [about the Rapture]…but there were plenty of closed minds, and we all know that a closed mind is not an easy thing to open…those people just vanish into thin air…most people still had no interest in the fact that all of it was written down thousands of years ago in that dusty old book…”

In a video left behind by his wife’s pastor, Captain Ray Steel (Kevin Sorbo) hears the message that “false teachers” did not believe. And Ray had also failed to believe. His wife, “Irene had told him what would happen, and it did.”

The movie focuses on the extra-biblical teaching of the “Rapture,” NOT on Christ’s death on the cross and the Resurrection and His Second Coming. The movie message “trust the Bible” leads to this question by Chloe, Ray’s daughter (whose mom and brother had disappeared): “What about all those people who claim the Rapture is not in the Bible?”

The movie gives us an immediate answer: “First Thessalonians Four.”


But as any honest New Testament scholar will tell us, 1st Thessalonians 4 gives its readers assurance about the parousia, the Second Coming of Christ. Verse 13 gives us the key context, the concern of some in Thessalonica that fellow Christians who had already died might be at some disadvantage when Christ returned. Verse 15 references the Parousia, the Second Coming.

As Prof. N. T. Wright wrote, “the rapture is an American obsession.” And the Left Behinders seem oblivious to the hard fact that the overwhelming majority of their fellow members of the Body of Christ, believe only the New Testament’s teaching about the Second Coming, not the extra-biblical Rapture teaching. That Rapture belief is confined mostly to a segment of American Evangelicals, and those to whom they sent missionaries with their Schofield Bibles [like those in the Corrie Ten Boom Quote Below] . But standard Evangelical reference works and commentaries do not teach that. See such noted New Testament scholars as F. F. Bruce, I. Howard Marshall, Leon Morris, etc.

The ‘Rapture’ business is a billion dollar industry which had sold over 60 million copies, by 2016, of just the Left Behind fiction series of books. And every popular Rapture teacher has his own books for sale. Think Hal Lindsey, back in the big beginning of this business. And then we see the list of many movies, including this one with Kevin Sorbo, and another with Nicholas Cage. The advertising budget is BIG. (Take that you New Testament scholars!).

The thrilling plot of “Rise of the Anitchrist” pushes the world towards “the great re-set,” a one world government, and a single electronic currency with all the trimmings. Terrified people and families watch murders and suicides all around them as they grapple with the disappearance of friends or loved ones in this world where the salt and light all went “poof” and vanished.

In the film we are told that the Rapture is “Jesus taking his church [true believers] to heaven to protect them.” [Never mind believers come lately like Kevin Sorbo and his daughter.]

This is a key point of the Left Behind teaching, [ “God did not appoint us to wrath”–1 Thessalonians 5:9a, ripped from CONTEXT] and its greatest irony. God will not leave those true, seasoned Christians here to go through the Great Tribulation, but He will leave these NEW Christians who are converted after the Rapture, during the tribulation, to do so, all by themselves!

Corrie Ten Boom noted: “There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this….

“In China, the Christians were told, ‘Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated — raptured.’ Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly,

‘We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes — to stand and not faint.’”

Paul, the Parousia & his Epistles

READ the Exposition of the texts in the LINKS above. Put behind you the cardinal sins of sloth and hubris. BE a true disciple, a learner.(LINK) “diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
–-2 Timothy 2:15

“Love is Love.” Replaced with “Forgive”


Albert Mohler writes, “The Scandal of Biblical Illiteracy: It’s Our Problem.”

And never has it been a bigger problem than, today, with American Evangelicals on “Forgiveness.”

The latest example (of many from Christian social media and radio) of this illiteracy is given to us by Tim Challies, whose blog links us to a PCA Women’s Ministry article, “Forgive.” In the wake of what has been labeled Therapeutic Deism, this corollary might be called Therapeutic Forgiveness. It focuses on “me.”

That article begins by noting that “Matt. 18:21-35” requires forgiveness. (No verses in Matthew are quoted.) Verse 21 is Peter’s famous question, “Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?”

Jesus famous answer: “seventy times seven.”

[Let us note not to confuse unlimited forgiveness with unconditional forgiveness.]

BUT the context begins at verse 15. with Jesus’ teaching: “If your brother sins against you, go to him and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”

And the next steps in verses 16 and onward, involve the church.

Luke 17:3f makes Jesus’ condition clear, “Take heed to yourself, if your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents forgive him.”

“If.”

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states: “Jesus recognized that there are conditions to be fulfilled before forgiveness can be granted. Forgiveness is part of a mutual relationship; the other part is the repentance of the offender. God does not forgive without repentance, nor is it required of mankind.”

(Some will exclaim , “Father forgive them for they know not what they do…”–from an extreme circumstance, the Crucifixion, never to be repeated, which does not negate Jesus’ clear teaching and command about forgiving.)

[For a fuller exposition on this “relationship” see Chapter Three, Forgiveness and Repentance.]

Let us pause, here, and note that Jesus does not command us to forgive our enemies. He commands us to love them. That is what he did for us. Romans 5 declares, “…Christ died for us….when we were enemies…”

Now, back to “Matt. 18:21-35” cited at the beginning of the article, which few, if any, will take up their Bibles and read, let alone in context. In response to Peter’s famous question, after Jesus’ exhortation to forgive “seventy times seven” times, Jesus gives us a parable.

A king calls in a servant to account for a large debt that is owed. (An impossible debt to pay. Fuller exposition here.) The servant pleads [repents] for mercy, and the king pardons him, erasing the debt [forgiveness}.

Then, this same servant goes to a fellow servant and demands payment of a much smaller debt to himself. The fellow servant begs for mercy but receives none. The forgiven servant has his fellow servant thrown into prison. This first servant’s position is now worse than at the beginning as the king deals with him.

Two servants—each pleads for mercy, i.e. each repents. That point seems hidden behind the cloud of the cultural moment of our day. (That ever present cloud of Biblical Illiteracy.)

All of this is missing from the article. It makes forgiveness a solitary, individualistic act performed for self “healing.” Therapy, not reconciliation (as in Mat. 18:15) is the intention of this new ‘forgiveness’ awash in the philosophy of our day.

We display a sloppy and lazy use of words in our day. Just look at “love.” We have lost whole Christian denominations to the “love is love” mantra.

Evangelicals display a similar slothfulness, giving us an unholy distortion in today’s use of “forgive.”

“For those steeped in Scripture it is hardly possible to think of forgiveness without also thinking of repentance.”

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer proclaimed long ago, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance….”

Paul, the Parousia & his Epistles

Pastor Robert Jeffress, one of a few good Bible teachers who promote “the Rapture” on Christian radio, made a clear, insightful point of exegesis: Jesus did not speak of the “Rapture.” But rather, of the Second Coming.

[But Pastor Jeffress does think that Paul did– For Jeffress, the “Rapture” being a distinct, separate event from the Second Coming/Advent]

In Matthew 24, Jesus teaches about “the coming [parousia] of the Son of Man” v. 27, that “all the nations…will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

“…He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect…”

[His elect that were already gathered at a previous ‘Rapture’ ?!]

In 1 Thessalonians, Paul greets his converts with the praise that they “turned to God from idols to server the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven…” (1:10)

These Thessalonians are his hope and joy, to be fulfilled “in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming [parousia].” (2:19)…with the trumpet of God (4:15).”

Paul was clearly drawing on Jesus’ teaching.

F. F. Bruce: “What is called the ‘day of Christ’ in Phil. 2:16 is referred to here as Christ’s Advent [parousia]. This is the earliest occurrence in literature of παρουσία [parousia] in its distinctive Christian sense of the advent of Christ in glory.”

“This Christian sense of παρουσία occurs six times in the Thessalonian letters…” and in 1 Cor. 15:23.

“It occurs four times in… (Matthew’s) discourse (Mat. 24:3, 27, 37, 39).”

“That the Thessalonians had been taught to expect this great event is plain from [1 Thess.] 1:10.” ***

The KEY CONTEXT, of 1 Thessalonians 4:

v.13f But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming [parousia] of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Chapter 5:  Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night *….whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another…

* “…the night the thief was coming…”–Jesus, Matthew 24

Exposition of 1 Thess. 4, Here (LINK)

Give it an honest reading.

***F. F. Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Word Biblical Commentary, 1982. {Rapturists are oblivious to the fact that Evangelical New Testament scholars and reference works do NOT espouse the Rapture. Not in this noted commentary, nor in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, nor The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, etc.}

Like those Christians who believe in Purgatory, nothing this side of Heaven is apt to convince Left Behinders to truly take the Bible in context on this subject. What we can do is help keep others from being misled as we share God’s word in context.

Parousia. In the NT, parousia, with reference to Christ, refers to Christ’s Second Advent, his Second Coming, “…the coming of Christ at the end-time for the general resurrection, last judgment and the creation of the new heaven and earth.”--The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, s.v. “present” (II:899ff).

N. T. Wright: “Rapture is an American Obsession.” It is not found in the New Testament

There are real consequences to mistaken beliefs. Corrie Ten Boom pointed out one very sad example (the result of American missionaries with their Scofield Bibles):

Romans, the Sword, and the Bane of Memory Verse Theology

“Romans 13”-Quoting-Christians do so oblivious to the key context of the that text: it is addressed to Christians who are called to fear the sword of God-instituted government.

“But if you do wrong, [Christians], be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.”

Paul has just asked these Roman Christians:

“Would you have no fear of the one in authority? Then do what is good…”

The key backdrop, standing behind these verses, involves the Zealots, the 1st Century insurrectionists who picked up the sword against Roman soldiers whenever they found an opportune moment. They sought to overthrow their occupiers, their Roman enemy, and they would bring down the house with the Jewish War which would begin in A.D. 66.*

Paul writes to the Roman Christians in the Year of Our Lord 57, three years after the Jews began their return to Rome following the death of Claudius, who had expelled the Jews from Rome c. A.D. 49, following the insurrections of A.D. 46-48, and the execution of the sons of Judas the Galilean.

Judas had led an insurrection (Acts 5:37) in A.D. 6 when Judea became a Roman Province. Varus crushed that revolt with the sword, and crucified 2,000 Jews around Jerusalem (see Josephus).

In this pain-filled milieu, Paul writes to the Roman Christians, Jew and Gentile:

“Do not be conformed to this world…Bless those who persecute you…Do not repay anyone evil for evil…Do not take revenge…If your enemy is hungry, feed him…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities…”

*A fuller , annotated timeline and text, here.

Amen! I Want to Be Left Behind

I want to be Left Behind

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.  Matthew 24

[Text highlighted to show the parallels: came…coming…took…taken…]

The flood ‘came’ and ‘took’ them.  “So also” The Son of Man comes and one will be ‘taken’…clear parallels. W. F. Albright, Matthew, AB, notes on v. 31: “…this saying refers to the final judgment.” This section, “looks to a final judgement and triumph when the reign of the Messiah will be finally declared and made open.”

[The other clear parallel between the days of Noah and the days of the coming of the Son of Man: people will be going about their normal business.]

As NICOT, Genesis, notes regarding Noah: “He is saved because he is left behind.”

New Testament scholars see the “taken” as being “to judgment.”  Robert H. Mounce (New International Biblical Commentary), sees this “taken” as parallel with the ‘”taken away” by the flood’ (v. 39). Others think it is ‘left for judgment (e.g. NICNT) [But this seems to be based on some presupposition rather than on the context which seems to be blatantly ignored]. Context makes clear the parallels.  But here is the key point–“The coming of Jesus marks a complete and permanent division” (Leon Morris) “. . . the decisive moment.”

“The sayings emphasize the completely unexpected nature of the Man’s coming” (AB).

THIS is the Parousia, “the coming of the Son of Man,” the Second Advent, the final judgment, (vv. 27, 29-31, 44), not some secret “beam me up Scotty!” fiction. This context leaves “Left Behind” out in the cold. [The enigmatic saying about the vultures receives a variety of educated guesses.  HERE is the best exposition that I have read.] And the context of the primary passage (which is distorted to fit the modern “Rapture” doctrine) also leaves the fiction behind. See the clear context of 1 Thessalonians– https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/second-coming-rapture-vs-scripture-christian/

The Rapture Teaching vs. The New Testament

The Rapture Teaching vs. The New Testament

Revelation 4. No Rapture of the Church

Revelation

4 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.

Three Faithful Witnesses, Called teachers of the Church

A Commentary on the Book of Revelation, by George Eldon Ladd:

After the first vision of the exalted Christ caring for and protecting his churches, the revelation of “what must take place after this,“ i.e the coming of God’s Kingdom, begins. This revelation will include the destruction of the powers of evil, of Satan, and death, but before these evil powers are destroyed, they will break forth in a final desperate effort to frustrate the purposes of God by destroying the people of God. However, the terrible conflict that takes place on earth, between the church and the demonic powers embodied in an apostate civilization…are in reality expressions in historical form of a fearful conflict in the spiritual world between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.

John is caught up in a vision to heaven at 4:1…

Verse 2. John heard the voice which had already spoken to him (1:10), summoning him to come up hither to receive further revelations of future events. At once he was in the Spirit;…

There is no reference in 4:1 to the rapture of the church, the language is addressed exclusively to John and refers only to his reception of the revelation of this book.

“Straight way I was in the Spirit.”

The idea of prophetic rapture is widespread in Jewish literature. Micaiah told the king of Israel, “I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, and all the host of heaven…” Amos reports that God does nothing “without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). John views himself as a prophet (1:1), and being “in the Spirit”...There is no basis for discovering a rapture of the church…

—The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Book of Revelation by Robert H. Mounce

The supposed rapture of the church is to be found nowhere, here, in The New International Greek Testament Commentary, The Book of Revelation, A Commentary on the Greek Text, by G. K. Beale

This invention of the human mind about the “church” not being on earth after Revelation 4:1 is based on a false, supposed ‘exegesis’ of that verse, and on a nonsensical point about the “trumpet” and an argument from silence leaning on the fact that the word ekklesia (church) is not used again until 22:16. But the saints are there throughout (e.g. 6:1; 7:3, 14, 17; 13:7f; 14:12f).

Addendum: From The New International Greek Testament Commentary, “The tribulations of 8:6-12 are executed…at all times during the church age..”

G. E. Ladd, noted evangelical Prof. of NT and Exegesis, Revelation: “…chapter seven pictured the fate of the church in this fearful period….the two multitudes, which picture the fate of the church in the time of tribulation….the plagues of divine wrath fall upon the rebellious…but…the church, which has been sealed with the protective seal of God, is somehow spared from the sufferings of those plagues.” [Think, the blood on the doorposts in Egypt.] “But the church in the tribulation will be the victim of persecution and martyrdom as she has been throughout her entire history.”

Against today’s subjectivism (‘what this verse means to me’), we must clearly declare, “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20). READ (link)

We Christians need to maintain our integrity. Cast off sloth and hubris. Study and know God’s word in context: https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/of-ponds-and-pitfalls/

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“God did not appoint us to wrath”

Left Behind enthusiasts, when told that First Thessalonians does not teach their Left Behind scenario, quickly respond with half of a verse taken from its whole context which they left behind:

“God did not appoint us to wrath”–1 Thessalonians 5:9a.

But here is the context! –This is The Day of the Lord when he comes to bring his wrath on the unbeliever and salvation for his people.

Paul began this letter with the affirmation that we “await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead–Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath”–1 Thess. 1:10. This is “the second coming” (NICNT)*…”The Advent (Parousia) of Christ” (F. F. Bruce).** This is “the day of Christ’s revelation in glory, when he comes to vindicate his people and judge the world in righteousness (cf. Acts 17:31)”–Bruce. There lies the ground of our “hope.”

Matthew 24

And here is the context of 1 Thess. 5:9a, quoted at the start, above. “Paul proceeds to speak of salvation negatively and positively. God’s purpose for us is not wrath…On the contrary, he purposed that they should obtain salvation…” (NICNT)

8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation. 9 For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.…

Rahab let down the red cord and her house was saved in the midst of the judgment on Jericho which fell.

God’s people in Egypt put blood on their doorposts and were saved from the judgment on their neighbors brought by the angel of death.

We have the blood of the Lamb on our doorposts.

Paul ends this section as he began it. Reassuring those Christians that:

“whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.…”

He began, at 1 Thess. 4:13, by addressing a concern of those Christians at Thessalonica:

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope…”

The exposition continues here (link). https://textsincontext.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/second-coming-rapture-vs-scripture-christian/

*New International Commentary on the New Testament, Leon Morris, 1991.

**Word Biblical Commentary, F. F. Bruce, 1982.