Gary Shogren's Blog
Beware of those who are trying to resurrect David Wilkerson's The Vision, where in 1973 he supposedly predicted the plague that we now call Coronavirus. He did not, not by a long shot. What he ACTUALLY said was quite different. Most of his "vision" was utterly generic and rambling and could be true for any... Continue Reading →
I teach, and try to live, the fact that every Christian should live with a daily and hourly focus on the return of Christ and our appearance before his judgment seat. This is a given, and it is impossible to understand the faith in any other way. Nevertheless, false predictions pop up with alarming frequency;... Continue Reading →
There is a whole genre of exposé literature, interviews, videos that follow this familiar formula: “I am an ex-[whatever] and I am going to reveal the shocking inside secrets.” Ex-Communist. Ex-Janitor at Area 51. Ex-Catholic priest (Charles Chiniquy, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, 1885). Ex Guy-who-sprayed-chemtrails-from-my-jet (see below). Ex-Jesuit (Jack Chick's man, "Alberto,"... Continue Reading →
To download the entire article with footnotes click here: Shogren_1 Thess 2 Thess and the Olivet Discourse How can we sketch out the outline of Christian eschatology from the years AD 40-50s and earlier? The Thessalonian epistles provide the clearest, datable data. The Thessalonians learned their eschatology from Paul; the apostle added to or further developed... Continue Reading →
To my surprise, I just found out that Zondervan republished my Thessalonians commentary some months back! You can now buy three full commentaries in one eBook! Mine has a lot of Greek in it, but also much application and thoughts on how to preach the letters. The collection includes Holmes NIV Application Commentary (which I... Continue Reading →
Here is a snapshot of one and the same website, once in early September, once in early October. BEFORE AND AFTER STILL LATER - it still looks the same! "Currently offline!" These are not Photoshopped, by the way, except to blur out the website address. Which was a very gracious act on my part. By... Continue Reading →
Autumn [2017] swings around, and with it this year's harvest of Rapture Predictions. This year it’s September 23 (tomorrow!). And yes, I have looked over the “proofs”; given the late date, they are not worth the time it would take to overturn them. Each Rapture Prediction typically begins with a bang and ends with... Continue Reading →
Related essay: "False Apostles are Smacked Down by Hurricane Irma!" Human beings are wired to look for cause and effect. The car won’t start; that means the battery must be dead! That bell keeps ringing; there must be someone at the front door! But we don’t always get it right. If, for example, you are... Continue Reading →
I have written elsewhere: "set aside videos of cute kittens or adolescents cracking up their skateboards. Let's focus on those other things - political, social, religious, etc. - which get posted on social media and spread like wildfire!" I invite you to read the first two parts of this series before reading Part III: "I don't... Continue Reading →
Seminario ESEPA held a conference in 2014 on the topic of "Israel and Palestine." They asked me to be one of the participants; I offered the following thoughts, which I have updated a bit, with the warning that they come from a Bible student with only cursory knowledge of world affairs. Good evening, and thank... Continue Reading →
Open Our Eyes, Lord! 