Role: Executive Director of The Pre-Trib Research Center |
Dr. Ice is Executive Director of The Pre-Trib Research Center. He founded The Center in 1994 with Dr. Tim LaHaye to research, teach, and defend the pre-tribulational rapture and related Bible prophecy doctrines.
Dr. Ice has co-authored about 30 books, written hundreds of articles, and is a frequent conference speaker. He has served as a pastor for 15 years. Dr. Ice has a B.A. from Howard Payne University, a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. from Tyndale Theological Seminary, and is a Doctoral Candidate at The University of Wales in Church History. Dr. Ice lives in Justin, Texas with his wife Janice and is a member of the Chafer Theological Seminary faculty.
As I continue with an exposition of verse 29, it is important to note that we have already seen the great impossibility that this passage could have been fulfilled about 2,000 years ago in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. So to what does the darkening of the sun and moon and other astronomical events refer? Is Christ’s description that of a real, physical event, or is He merely using symbolic language in which He describes something else? ...
I have noted that this passage contains four descriptive phrases. First, the darkening of the sun; second, the moon not reflecting its light; third, stars falling from the sky; fourth, a shaking of heaven powers. Previously we dealt with the darkening of the sun and saw that both Jesus and Isaiah (Isa. 13:10) intended their readers to understand that these were physical events, not symbolism denoting a non-physical event...
The final phrase of verse 29 says, "the powers of the heavens will be shaken." Is this phrase to be taken literally, like the three previous phrases, or should one apply speculative exegesis to say that it means something other than what it says? Do powers of the heavens refer to angelic entities or to the physical universe? ...
The second coming of Christ will be an event that has multiple aspects and phases to it. Jesus will not just appear in the sky and that is it, but there will be a multitude of specific events that will take place in the process of this advent. Christ, in Matthew 24:30 continues to note some of the sequencing that will take place at this time in history. One of the important events that will transpire will be "the sign of the Son of Man" that will appear in the sky...
In the previous installment I was providing reasons why the context argues in favor of the futurist interpretation that the sign is visible to the human eye in heaven, which is the sky. The following is the final reason for taking this view...