Pastor Shaun Marksbury

A brother and fellow TMS alumnus by the name of Terrence Jones wrote a post that required reply.   I’ve seriously considered writing to him privately over this, but as his post is public and becoming more widely disseminated, I’m responding publicly.   Still, I hope he reads and accepts these words in the spirit of grace in which I offer them.   I also hope to provide others who are curious about the discussion with a different perspective. I’m far from perfect. I have made many mistakes in my life, both before and after Christ. If perfection is the requirement to sound an alarm then you should stop reading now. I have not met that standard. I stand only because of the grace of God and the perfect record of the spotless lamb, Jesus Christ, who died for my sins (past, present and future). I also want to affirm that I will never forget my time at The Master’s Seminary. The things I’m about to say, do not negate the reality that I was shaped and molded for four years of my life

·         Introduction: o    Scripture until this point seems to indicate that there’s one resurrection of both the righteous and unrighteous (Dn 12:2; Jn 5:28–29; Acts 24:15).   Remember, though, that we believe in progressive revelation; two events that can be linked in idea or time are expanded later (like the first coming of Christ and the end of the age).   With the book’s focus on the end, Revelation 20 demonstrates that this resurrection is divided into two stages. ·         The First Resurrection o    Rv 20:4–6—“Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.   The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were comple

The Little Horn of Daniel 8.    In this chapter, Daniel sees the vision of the ram, goat, and little horn.   While perhaps a challenging vision (enough to confuse Daniel and cause him to become sick—v. 27), it also clearly prophesies the coming of the Medo-Persian empire and its defeat by Greece (vv. 20–21).   If that is the case, then the little horn also predicts Antiochus Epiphanes (175–163 BC).    The Master’s Seminary Journal published a helpful article explaining this and a chart to help with the elements of the vision: [1] Specifically, the vision fits Antiochus because he persecuted God’s people (v. 24), he magnified himself (vv. 11, 25 [“Epiphanies” means “God manifest”]), he started from a place of insignificance (v. 9), he died of natural causes (v. 25), rose to power out of the ranks of Alexander the Great’s four generals (v. 9), experienced marginal victory in conquests south, east, and in Israel (v. 9), defiled the temple and interrupted the temple sacrifices

John 18:36—“My kingdom is not of this world.”  Here, we seem to have the silver bullet that slays the beast of premillenialism and its prophet, dispensationalism.  It appears that Jesus repudiates any idea establishing an earthly kingdom.  Perhaps everything we read in the Old Testament about land promises and Christ's reign on David's throne is recast in the New Testament as spiritual promises to the church?  That is one possible reading.  It is also possible that we're misreading this verse.  As such, let's briefly re-examine it.  The context here is the betrayal and subsequent trials of Jesus.  After hearings featuring false evidence, the Jews cart Him before Pontius Pilate for final judgment and crucifixion.  Jesus awaits Pilate in the Praetorium early in the morning (vv. 28-32).  Pilate then enters the Praetorium without the Jews to question Jesus (vv. 28, 33).    Pilate proceeds to asks Jesus, “Are You the King of the Jews?” (v. 33).  Consider the questi

Studying Premillennialism Hosea & Premillennialism Zechariah & Premillennialism God's glory & the theological basis for Premillennialism Gospels, Acts, & Romans 9-11 & Premillennialism Q&A on Premillennialism Answering Amillennial arguments on the Land Promise & "My Kingdom is Not of This World" The Coming King (Rev 19) and the Coming Kingdom (Rev 20)   All messages found: www.CFBCSTL.org

The common rebuttal of dispensationalism is that John Darby invented it a couple of centuries ago.   This counterargument rests on the assumptions that 1) no one or not many before him held to these beliefs and 2) everything novel in theology is likely wrong.   I’d be inclined to reject dispensationalism on this proposition except that the first assumption is wrong. For instance, it’s undebated that nearly early all the Church Fathers anticipated some king of a millennial reign of Christ.   Since the Reformation, several dispensational types exist: Anglican John Bale (1495-1563); Anglican Joseph Mede (1586-1638); American Puritans Richard, Increase, and Cotton Mather (1596-1728); Congregationalist Isaac Watts (1674-1748); Baptist John Gill (1679-1771); Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758); Baptist Morgan Edwards (1722-1792); and Reformed commentator Robert Haldane (1764-1842).   Of those, John Gill, a Calvinistic Baptist who pastored the same church as Spurgeon over a h

Over the past two or three decades, the Christian church has been blessed with a restoration of Reformed teaching to pulpits.  However, Satan always seeks to dampen a work of God, and the clouds of social justice seem to be a gathering threat.  In this 28-minute video, Todd Friel explains the issues in a simple-to-understand manner.