Written by Cornelis P. Venema |
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
The risen and ascended Christ has “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). People from every tribe, tongue, and nation are being redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The risen Christ will reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet, including the last enemy, death itself (1 Corinthians 15:25–26). As the Gospels remind us, Christ came to bind and plunder the strong man’s house (Matthew 12:29; see Luke 10:17–18). In the words of Christ Himself, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:31–32).

The topic of the millennial reign of Christ often provokes intense debate among contemporary Christians. When the subject is broached, it doesn’t take long for the debate to degenerate into arguments about the three predominant views: premillennialism (in both its historic and dispensational forms), amillennialism, and postmillennialism. The unfortunate feature of these debates is that they fixate on questions regarding the exact timing of the millennium. Does the millennium occur before or after the second coming of Christ at the end of the present age in redemptive history? Does the resurrection of believers occur before or after the millennium? Though these questions are important, they can easily detract from the main point of the vision in Revelation 20. They also tend to encourage an interpretation of Revelation 20 that is isolated from the testimony of the New Testament as a whole.
Yet when we approach the vision of the millennium of Revelation 20 within the framework of the book of Revelation in particular and the New Testament in general, we are able to capture the grand theme that Christ’s reign has already commenced and will ultimately triumph when Christ comes to receive His bride, the church, in its glorified state (Rev. 21–22). To borrow the title of Dennis Johnson’s fine commentary on the book of Revelation, the present and future aspects of the story of redemption involve nothing less than the triumph of the Lamb of God, who is also the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5–6).
To appreciate the significance of the vision of the millennium in Revelation 20, it is important to remember the purpose and structure of the book of Revelation as a whole. Revelation’s purpose is to comfort and encourage the seven churches of Asia Minor (Rev. 2–3), its original recipients, and all the churches of Jesus Christ throughout subsequent history whom these churches represent. This means that all the visions of the book, including the vision of the millennium, should be viewed from the standpoint of this question: How would this vision encourage the original recipients of the book?
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Written by Dr. Benjamin Mabry |
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
If Christianity does not authentically inform your entire worldview, including the criteria by which you judge the most important things of this world, then how can you say that you’re any different than the unbeliever? 

“Hi, my name is Dr. Benjamin L. Mabry, and I’m a Critical Theorist.” It sounds to many ears like the kind of thing I should be confessing to a pastor or therapist, but in fact there’s nothing anti-Christian about Critical Theory. It is probably the lack of Critical Theory that is more problematic than its presence. The reason most people resist this conclusion is that they’re used to people using Critical Theory to push divisive, racist blame rhetoric, and therefore associate an important science with race-baiting and political opportunism. Critical Theory is one of the core sciences of philosophy, and the neglect of critical theory leads only to confusion about the most important issues facing orthodox and faithful Christians today.
Let’s start with the most basic question. What is Critical Theory? Critical Theory is so basic to philosophy that it doesn’t need to be named in most of the Western tradition. It is the science of criteria for judgment. Critical Theory became important in the 19th Century as the fundamental questions about the criteria of definitions were questioned by scientific worldviews that tried to reduce reality to physical bodies or sense perceptions. Philosophers struggled over the fundamental question of Critical Theory: how to define a thing, and on what basis can a judgment be called true or false. Before the members of the “Frankfurt School” were ever born, philosophers like Edmund Husserl wrote volumes over the questions of justifying their definitions for the basic elements of reality. Catholic philosopher Max Scheler argued for a return to the basic sciences of Man, ethics, and virtue, which built on Husserl’s principles to clarify and sometimes correct the definitions inherited from the Christian medieval tradition. The modern-day dispute over the definition of a human being, of Man and Woman, is not unique to our decadent generation.
Why do criteria matter? Let me use an example. When “deconstructionists” criticize the Word of God on the basis of so-called justice or love, their thought process is to judge the Word on the basis of their pre-existing definitions of justice and love. Where do they get their definitions of justice or love, however? They get their definitions of those things from the culture in which they grew up. The criteria they use to define those words are the culturally contingent assumptions, prejudices, and stereotypes of the society, time, and culture of the present day. Deconstructionist arguments basically begin with a set of modernist prejudices, which they use as criteria to define justice and love, which they the use as criteria to judge the Word of God as false. It rests on the assumption that the ideological fashions and opinions of the current time are the final word on the ultimate questions of life, and not merely the fickle and silly vacillations of popular opinion and elite interests in the moment. Is it not absurd to try to judge God and his timeless, ageless, universal Word by the unserious, erratic, temporary fashions of the present age? Isn’t it more rational to define justice and love based on something eternal like the Word of God, and then judge this shifting sands culture against the Solid Rock?
Critical Theory gets its dirty reputation primarily from the dominant “Frankfurt School” of the post-World War period. Herbert Marcuse, most famously, used the techniques of Critical Theory to weaponize the definitions of words for the benefit of his Communist agenda. Whereas Max Scheler attempted to derive objective meanings for value-words like justice, nobility, and utility, Marcuse invented the notion of “transvaluation,” in which the definitions of value-words were inverted in order to pervert the moral order of society.
Why do high-school television dramas make the athletic, beautiful, or congenial characters into moral monsters, and only ascribe moral goodness to unattractive, unathletic, and socially maladapt characters? This association of natural gifts with moral depravity is a “revenge” that TV writers play on the people whom they envied in high school. By tracing the criteria that they use to judge their characters, they reveal key characteristics of their worldview. The typical writer of such a show was probably middle class but felt poor in relation to the popular kids. They envied the kinds of people they demonize in their stories but were probably ignored rather than tormented. The characteristics which they pretend to have are transferred to the heroes: intelligence, disdain for conformity, a secret hero complex or for females a secret beauty complex. However, the key tell is the way their negative attributes, like abrasiveness or antisociality, are transvalued into a false virtue of honesty or resistance to injustice.
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While warning the world of sin and judgment, the Lord in His infinite mercy and grace does not leave you with the pronouncement of death for all your perversions. Yes, He tells you that by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight (Romans 3:20). Yes, He says sodomites and homosexuals and boasters in the flesh and haters of God will not inherit eternal life. But He does not stop there. That is where we in our sin – apart from Christ. But then the glory is revealed. But now… You, who cannot find life or salvation on your own, have this glorious message revealed, life and salvation come to you. By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight… But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed…even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. Romans 3:20-22 NKJV

Do not be proud, for the LORD has spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God before He causes darkness.
Jeremiah 13:15-16 NKJV
More than 2,000 years ago a king named Herod made a speech at the occasion of a peace treaty. Those that heard him speak said that his voice was that of a god and not of a man. Rather than giving glory to God, King Herod took the praise for himself. In his pride, an angel of the Lord struck him, and he was eaten by worms and died (Acts 12:20-24).
Pride – a great sin among the nations throughout history is a sin that afflicts us today. Pride was involved when Eve in the garden listened to the serpent and gave the fruit to Adam so that he sinned against God. (Genesis 3:1-19). With all our advances in technology and understanding of the creation, we have not humbled ourselves before the Creator who is blessed forever, but we worship and serve the creature who is passing away.
Sodom, that infamous city of Canaan was notorious for its sin of pride. She was a city full of wealth, idleness, and in her pride she committed abominations before God. Therefore, God took her away through fire and brimstone from Heaven (Ezekiel 16:49-50).
Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of Babylon, the conqueror of Judah, the destroyer of Egypt, was full of pride. When he was repented, he made this confession of God, His “works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down” (Daniel 4:37).
Nebuchadnezzar’s son repeated his father’s sin. Full of pride, relishing in his wives, treasures, and friends, the Lord brought the Medes and the Persians into Babylon and destroyed Belshazzar and his kingdom in a single night. For the Lord said, you have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting (Daniel 6:27). For [Babylon] has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel…the most proud shall stumble and fall… I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all around him” (Jeremiah 50:29-32).
The empires of the ancient world, from the Greeks and Carthaginians to the Romans whose emperors were supposed to be gods, all were full of pride and were destroyed. Modern history is much the same. The 1,000-year Reich of Nazi Germany lasted less than 15 years. The glory of Mussolini’s Italy ended with his body defiled. All the proud have been brought low by the God they denied, while His Word which they hated has endured.
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble
James 4:6
Many major cities around the world celebrates the great evil of pride. Rather than confessing we are but men who are here for a moment and perish, they act like they will live forever, delighting in evil, and condemning good. And yet the Lord cries out a warning that the day of the LORD of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up – and it shall be brought low (Isaiah 2:12).
The world’s prophets tell you not to worry about pride, rather, celebrate it. Your friends and family members celebrate your pride with you. Though all the world join with you in pride, the Lord will still be against you. For this reason, we do not come to you today telling you Peace, Peace when there is no peace and you are on the path to destruction. Rather, we come to you crying Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand!
The Lord will destroy the house of the proud
Proverbs 15:25
The matter of destruction ought to possess your greatest attention. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in one night were destroyed by God with fire and brimstone. The judgment of the Lord is coming again and is being revealed now as a warning to the living. Death has come and is coming upon you and all people, for all have sinned (Romans 5:12).
The judgment that is coming on the proud is a place of great terror and torment. It is the place Jesus refers to as Hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:44).
We plead with you… Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:19).
The Bible on PRIDE
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.
Mark 7:21-23 NKJV
Hear and give ear: Do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God before He causes darkness.
Jeremiah 13:15-16 NKJV
The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure.
Psalm 101:5 NKJV
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18 NKJV
When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.
Proverbs 11:2 NKJV
A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.
Proverbs 29:23 NKJV
These six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood.
Proverbs 6:16-17 NKJV
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.
Proverbs 8:13 NKJV
For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
I John 2:16-17 NKJV
Homosexuality: God Gave Them Up
What is good? You are living in a time where the answer to that question is generally, “whatever you say it is.” When it comes to a mother murdering her child, the world tells her, “Your choice is the right choice,” and “Your body your choice.” When it comes to sexuality and identity the world tells you, “You are how you feel” and “love is love.”
A problem with these slogans is that the underlying truth they present is “you” and you are always changing. Therefore, what is good is not stable but is constantly in motion, always changing, never certain, and will eventually die.
God who is good has not left you to determine good according to your own ideas but has rather shown you, O man, what is good: And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).
If you love God, you will humble yourself before Him and seek to keep His commandments. If you hate God you will walk in pride, not only sinning against God but approving of those who do the same (Romans 1:32).
You know God today because you are made in His image. But do you glorify God as God? For much of the world the answer is “no.” Professing themselves to be wise, the world has exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like corruptible man and worshipped the creature instead of the Creator who is blessed forever, Amen.
For this reason, exchanging the truth of God for a lie, God said He gave them up to vile passions, men and women practicing homosexuality, given over to pride, haters of God, and similar sins.
These acts, activities, and lifestyles that you may engage in or celebrate as an ally are perverted pursuits. The word perverted is not meant as a slur but rather a statement meaning to turn aside or away from what is good and morally right.
Leaving what is good, that which is from God, you have become perverted in your ways. God refers to this perversion as a reprobate mind and is His judgment against a wicked people.
In similar manner God speaks concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. It is from Sodom of course that the name “sodomite” and “sodomy” are derived. Of these cities, God said, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire (Jude 1:7).
Sodom and Gomorrah gave themselves over to sin and God gave them up to their sin. This is the reality of homosexuality and LGBTQ+ culture, God has given over to perversion those who have given themselves over to sin.
It is not the goal of this short pamphlet to convince you of your sin and misery in this perverted and sinful condition. Rather, this condition is known to you. Those who were in homosexuality before you and have been born again of the Spirit and saved by the blood of the Lamb of God have had this testimony – that they heard the Word of God from faithful witnesses and knew their own sin but for some time, perhaps years, they suppressed the truth, crying out louder against it and blocking their ears from it until God by His Word and Spirit convinced them of their sin and misery enlightened their minds to the knowledge of Christ and renewed their wills so that they could  embrace Jesus Christ who is freely offered to us in the Gospel.
The arm of the Lord is stretched out today toward you sinner by His Word. He has shown you what is good. Will you listen to Him who is good, hear the call of God today, and heed His call?
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