BIB443 Daniel/Revelation                                                         Name: __________________

Study Questions for Barrs’ Critique                                           Box #: ____________

 

 

PRELIMINARY ISSUES:

 

1.         What views on the end times and the Book of Revelation are the most popular and widely held views in the church today?

 

 

 

2.         Do the Left Behind books clearly present the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

 

 

 

3.         What do the Left Behind books claim about their approach to the Book of Revelation (and to biblical prophecy and to the end of the age)?

 

 

 

 

4.         What is the basic assumption or “beginning point” of the whole Left Behind series?

 

 

 

5.         What events are the whole of the Book of Revelation after the first three chapters describing? Why is it that chapters 4-22 are of no immediate relevance to us today or to believers throughout church history?

 

 

 

 

FIRST SET OF PROBLEMS REGARDING THE IDEA OF A SECRET RAPTURE:

 

1.         Nowhere in Revelation is the pre-tribulation rapture of the church clearly described or taught. Where in Revelation has it sometimes been located and why is this problematic?

 

 

 

 

 

2.a.      Was the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture well known in church history? When and how did it first arise?

 

 

 

2.b.      What key assumption or view regarding Israel and the Gentile Christians (the Church) lies behind the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture?

 

 

 

 

3.         How does the idea of a secret pre-tribulation rapture differ from Scripture over the matter of believers facing tribulation and persecution?

 

 

 

 

4.         If one of the main purposes of the secret pre-tribulation rapture is to keep believers away from tribulation, how does this purpose conflict with what happens to enormous numbers of believers (possibly millions) during the tribulation?

 

 

 

 

SECOND SET OF PROBLEMS REGARDING BASIC  PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION (HERMENEUTICS):

 

1.         As a rule, authors write with the intention of being understood by their original audiences. How do the Left Behind books treat this principle and what is the result?

 

 

 

 

2.a.      What is the second major principle of interpretation that the Left Behind books ignore?

 

 

 

2.b.      What does the Book of Revelation contain more of than another book of the NT?

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.c.      The Book of Revelation refers to a temple. How does the rest of the NT (the apostolic writings) interpret the temple? How do the Left Behind books interpret the temple?

 

 

 

 

3.         Identify one feature of the original historical setting (context) that is important to understand the Book of Revelation but that is ignored by the Left Behind books?

 

 

 

 

 

THIRD SET OF PROBLEMS WITH THE LEFT BEHIND SERIES:

 

1.         What factor outside of Scripture has strongly influenced or governed the interpretations in the Left Behind series?

 

 

 

 

2.         Why can we not know exactly when the world will end or when the Lord Jesus will return?

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may stop listening at this point (approx. 48 minutes). You do not need to listen to the Question and Answer session after the main lecture.