Study Resources

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Recommended Books

Here are well researched books that are helpful for understanding each time period.

 

30-70AD Recommended Books

Before Jerusalem Fell
by Kenneth Gentry

Revelation is one of the most misunderstood books of the Bible. Much of this misunderstanding is due to the confusion regarding the time it was written. The dating of the book is central to understanding its purpose and audience. Dr. Gentry proves that the book was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The evidence for this conclusion is found within the pages of Scripture itself. We do not have to depend on writings from a hundred years or more after the fact to get the accurate story. God's own Word sets the record straight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Beast of Revelation Identified
by Dr. Kenneth L. Gentry and Eric Holmberg

 

Numerous candidates for the Beast have been advanced throughout the years. They have included Pope Leo X, Napoleon, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, and even Bill Gates. Predictions about who the Beast is and what he will do are so varied – and dissimilar – that one could almost be forgiven for thinking that the answer to the riddle is unknowable to all but God. And yet the Bible clearly challenges us to gain understanding so that we can decipher his identity. By placing the book of Revelation in the context of the time it was written and letting Scripture (rather than current events) interpret Scripture, a plausible candidate for the Beat of Revelation has been identified – or, more properly re-identified. The Beast of Revelation Identified is divided into three sections that are easily adaptable for Sunday School or personal Bible study. Historical footage, graphics and a compelling introduction by Eric Holmberg help amplify the material you are about to consider. A one hour Q&A session addresses many of the speculations and objections presented by the modern-day self proclaimed “prophecy experts."
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beast of Revelation
by Kenneth Gentry

Kenneth L. Gentry's scholarly skills are evidenced in this fascinating book. Who is the mysterious person behind the number 666? Who is the Beast who has perplexed and evaded prophecy students for 2,000 years? The reader will quickly learn that the Bible does interpret itself. Gentry employs this method throughout the book and exhibits its rational and illuminating effects page after page. If you are weary of the hype over the identity of the Beast and the plethora of theories that border on the nonsensical, then you are in for a most refreshing read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Days of Vengeance
by David Chilton

Good news for those of you who have wanted a copy of David Chilton's extraordinary verse-by-verse exposition of Revelation. After being out of print for five years and only available at exorbitant prices in used book stores, Days of Vengeance is back! Going where no commentary has dared to go before, this work shuts the mouths of end-times doomsayers with their pessimistic view of the future. A bibilical and scholarly exposition of Revelation is laid out for readers to soak up and begin to view the world with renewed hope and optimism. Chilton skillfully shows in detail that Christians will overcome all opposition thourgh the work of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation is not about the antichrist, the devil, microchips or bar codes. It is, as the very first verse says, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." If this book isn't in your library, it should be.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Last Days According to Jesus
by R.C. Sproul

 

 
Dispensationalism is dead. Unfortunately, Christians continue to purchase dispensational products and keep the position alive even though the prophetic pronouncements never come to pass.. R.C. Sproul takes on the dispensational establishment and presents a biblical case for preterism. While he rehearses the arguments of others–DeMar and Gentry included–Sproul deals with issues generally not covered by preterist and futurist authors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Last Days Madness (Fourth Edition)
by Gary DeMar

 

 
In his book, Last Days Madness, Gary DeMar sheds light on the most difficult and studied prophetic passages in the Bible, including Daniel 7:13-14; 9:24-27; Matt. 16:27-28; 24-25; Thess. 2; 2 Peter 3:3-13, and many more. Gary identifies the Beast, the Antichrist, and the Man of Lawlessness and clears the haze regarding Armageddon, the abomination of desolation, the rebuilding of the temple, and the meaning of 666. This is the most thoroughly documented and comprehensive study of Bible prophecy ever written! Last Days Madness will be your survival guide and spiritual compass to insure you escape the paralysis of last days madness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

70AD Recommended Books

Parousia
by James Stuart Russell

This book written in 1878, is the most popular introduction to and defense of the preterist view of Bible prophecy in print today. Most theologians in Europe a century ago took a preterist approach, so it is not surprising to read some of Russell's well-known contemporaries say nice things about his book. Charles H. Spurgeon, who did not hold to the preterist view, stated that the book "...throws so much new light upon obscure portions of the Scriptures, and is accompanied with so much critical research and close reasoning that it can be injurious to none and may be profitable to all." Dr. R.C. Sproul (Ligonier Ministries) states, "I believe that Rusell's work is one of the most important treatments on Biblical eschatology that is availbable to the church today." Gary DeMar says that Russell's book is a breath of fresh air in a room filled with smoke and mirror hermeneutics.
http://www.americanvision.org/store/pc-114-9-parousia.aspx (Paperback, 570 pages)

 

 

 

 

Expectations Demand a First Century Rapture

 

Expectations Demand a First Century Rapture
by Ed Stevens

The first book from a Preterist in this generation teaching a literal rapture of all true Christians at the time of the Parousia in AD 66-70. Five scholars a century ago (J. S. Russell, Milton S. Terry, Richard Weymouth, William S. Urmy, and Ernest Hampden-Cook) took a similar view. This book takes their somewhat sketchy theory and fully develops it. Includes answers to all the major objections and a phrase-by-phrase grammatical analysis of the rapture text (1 Thess. 4:13-18). Ground-breaking new work. The "next wave" in Preterism! Walt Hibbard, Arthur Melanson, and many others join with Stevens in offering this theory for your consideration.
http://www.preterist.org/preteristbookstore.asp (158 pages, paperback)

 

 

 
 
 
 
Taken To Heaven in A.D. 70! A Preterist Study of the Eschatological Blessings Expected by the First Christians at the Parousia of Christ circa AD 70
Taken to Heaven in A.D. 70
by Ian D. Harding
 

Harding examines every NT text that says anything about what the first century Christians EXPECTED to experience at the Parousia. He exhaustively proves from scripture that those saints not only expected to KNOW when Jesus returned, but to see, hear, and experience it in a literally TRANSFORMING way (by being "changed" and "caught up" into the air to meet with Jesus at His descent from heaven at the Parousia). If you are looking for a book which argues the case for a literal rapture in AD 70 strictly from Scripture, this is it! This will be one of the defining books of the Preterist Reformation for all generations to come. A "must read" for all preterists!
http://www.preterist.org/preteristbookstore.asp (335 pages, paperback)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bible Tools

The following is a list of online Bible programs & Bible tools to assist you in your study of the Scriptures.

Bible Tools

biblegateway.com - Multiple translations

blueletterbible.org - With Strong's Concordance, Lexicons, & commentaries.

Audio Bible - Listen to any passage of the Bible (KJV Only)

Picture Bible - Good for small children, multiple languages

Historical Context

Edersheim's Bible History - Extensively cross-linked commentary

History of the English Bible Translations - With great timeline

Thrones of Blood, A History of the Times of Jesus - by Josephus (Abridged AUDIO DOWNLOAD via Audible.com)

The Jewish War by Josephus - (Unabridged AUDIO CD narrated by Charlton Griffin via Amazon.com)

Audio

Audio Bible - Listen to any passage of the Bible (KJV Only)

Thrones of Blood, A History of the Times of Jesus - by Josephus (Abridged AUDIO DOWNLOAD via Audible.com)

The Jewish War by Josephus - (Unabridged AUDIO CD narrated by Charlton Griffin via Amazon.com)

History Study: "The Western Tradition" - FREE streaming videos

The Western Tradition - by UCLA university professor Eugene Webber

Follow this link to live stream any of these 52 half-hour history lessons on video that is often broadcast on public television as part of accredited course in humanities. Also available on DVD.

http://learner.org/resources/series58.html

This is a fantastic resource for getting an overview of human history from a historian's perspective. It is richly illustrated with art works from each of the periods surveyed herein. All is done with a view that is respectful of Christianity and of academia. Very entertaining eye-opener that allows one to grasp the bigger picture of human history and thereby gain a better understanding of how good God has worked through the ages to bring us to the blessings we enjoy today.

Please do not stumble over his presentation of pre-historic times in program 1 "The Dawn of History," with the requisite exaggeration of dates affected by academic evolutionary theory. Let that serve to show that this series is from a viewpoint independent of religion and, therefore, non-sectarian. Let us remember that Moses was educated in all the manner of the Egyptians, (and of the Midianites via Jethro his father-in-law), prior to being discipled by God Himself. The prophet Daniel and his friends, also, were educated both by God and by the Babylonians.  With this in mind, let us find here a worthwhile overview of world history from a perspective with no thought towards promoting one eschatological view over another.

Scrolling down the page at http://learner.org/resources/series58.html  one will find a summary of the course, a timeline of sorts outlining the history of the world, with an icon on the right that leads to the live video stream for each 30-minute program. When the video starts, right-click on the video to reveal a menu, hover your mouse pointer over "Zoom" and choose "Full Screen" or other zoom level. Enjoy!  Half-hour a day and one can review the whole of human history in less than two months.  This is my all time favorite TV show!  http://learner.org/resources/series58.html 

The Apostolic Bible Polyglot & the New Orthodox Study Bible

I am looking forward to the New Orthodox Study Bible that is due for delivery early 2008. Its Old Testament is primarily based upon the Greek Old Testament LXX for reasons the Orthodox have always understood: the extant Greek Old Testament manuscripts date to 200BC, that is, about 1,000 years older than the Hebrew Masoretic Old Testament texts, brought forth 2 centuries before anybody had a motive to alter the Bible to counter teachings of Jesus, the Apostles, & the New Testament. The link to th is here: http://www.lxx.org/##

But if you want a complete, printed, Greek-English INTERLINEAR Bible based entirely upon the Greek Texts, Old and New, there is only one place to go:

Printed Edition, First (a sure Collectors' item):
http://store.septuagint-interlinear-greek-bible.com/apbipo.html

This is the closest thing we have to the Bible that Paul carried on his missionary journeys. This is a great Septuagint LXX Interlinear (Greek-English) with Strong's numbers. Its actually a whole Bible and helps make the connections between Old and New Testaments by their common Greek vocabulary. FREE downloads!

Why Septuagint LXX? Look at this:
Well, below here is the contact info for the interlinear Bible I'm talking about. It is comprised of the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint LXX) mated to the New Testament with the English words below each of the Greek all in a traditional printed Bible format, suitable for taking to church, reading, etc. This is important for me because so much more of the New Testament's citations of the Old are from the Greek Old Testament than any other. And the Hebrew texts of today date back to the 800's AD after having been handled by Christ-spurning Masoretic Rabbinical scholars for the first 800 years of Christ's Gospel era. Even the Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls) manuscripts of Hebrew Old Testament texts actually date to the time of Simon Bar Cochba, circa 132AD, granting certainly enough time for the Christ-spurning scholarly community within Judaism to alter Texts in response to Christian preaching. The oldest Greek Old Testament manuscripts date back 1,000 years older to circa 200BC, before anyone had a motive to alter Texts to undercut Jesus & His Gospel message. I say this because the Hebrew Scriptures as we have received them do not support key positions of the Apostles' message. When one looks to today's Hebrew Scriptures to see how the Apostles quoted from them, we find a tortured discrepancy, discrepancy at key points that gut the New Testament's message & credibility. This discrepancy is often cited by followers of Judaism for their rejecting the New Testament as altogether unfaithful to the Bible of the Hebrews. Here is a link and a quote:

The Septuagint in the New Testament

http://www.geocities.com/r_grant_jones/Rick/Septuagint/spexecsum.htm

An excerpt: "And even if the Septuagint is thick with mistranslation, its errors are frequently sanctioned by the New Testament. For instance, if the word “virgin (parthenos in Greek)” in Isaiah 7.14 is a mistranslation of the Hebrew word almah, Matthew has given his assent to this error. In fact, those of us who believe the New Testament to be inspired by God are required to believe that many “errors” of the Septuagint are inspired also, because they are incorporated into the New Testament directly. If the errors that are quoted have Divine sanction, on what basis can we reject the errors that are not quoted? Or, consider what we imply if we say that the Masoretic text alone can lay claim to being the genuine Old Testament. The clear implication is that the authors of the New Testament were benighted and, ignorant of the truth, used an inferior text. The theological implications they drew when they quoted from “mistranslations” in the Septuagint should be rejected. Thus, the logical corollaries to the proposition that the Masoretic text alone is worthy to be considered the Old Testament include: Christ was not born of a virgin, the angels do not worship the Son, Christ did not come to restore sight to the blind, the behavior of the Jews was not cause for God’s name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles, etc. In short, we are forced to conclude that the New Testament is not inspired."