Literal or Poetic?

Dr. Couch, I understand that some take Matthew 27:51-53 as poetic and not as a literal statement. They say the holy ones who came out of the grave was just a poetic idea and not to be taken literally.

ANSWER: Yes, I heard that this was true. Some of the most respected Bible teachers have gone this way. This is a crack in the wall that shows a sure sign of liberalism. I understand that one of the key professors at Liberty (where Dr. Lacy Couch graduated with her MA) now take that position. And, some teachers at dear old Wheaton (where I received my MA) also now take that view.

Schools are crumbling doctrinally speaking to my amazement! But this is the way liberalism has always won the day, by creeping in to good schools. I do not know how they can take that position since the same thing happened to Lazarus in John 11. Lazarus and the saints in Matthew 27 had clearly died. One of the men who take this "poetic" view had written for me in one of my books but that will never happen again. I will not allow one who changes such an important view to write for me again.

By the way I hear horror stories as to how Liberty has changed. There is no longer a dress code and the school is riding on sports, sports, and more sports in order to attract students and money, money, money! It is now virtually a secular university. It has departed from its Christian stance and even has driven off many good teachers from its staff.

The Bible department is drying up like a prune. Many of the students now attending do not know that it has a Christian base to it, and, it virtually does not!

Satan is winning the war of apostasy. We should not be surprised. Paul says that in the last days apostasy will come up before us and destroy so many Christian institutions.

Thanks for asking.
--Dr. Mal Couch (3/12)

The Magi

Dr. Couch, who were the magi? Were they "three kings of Orient"? Were they three races, as sometimes pictured?

ANSWER: We have really fouled up the magi story! First of all, we do not know that they were "three" in number; that idea comes from the fact that they brought three precious items to the baby Jesus—gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt. 2:11). (This is a fascinating story in itself!) If anything in regard to their race, they would have been Babylonian for that is where we get the idea for the magi.

The Greek word magos in the text is plural—magoi. The word means "the great ones." The term is related to the words "majestic, magnanimous." It is referring to the astronomers, astrologers of Babylon. They probably came from Shushan, the royal city of Babylon, or, possibly from Ur.

How did they know they were seeking the King of Israel, and what was the star they saw, while they were residing in the east? More than likely they had read the cryptic prophecy in Numbers 24:17 which says: "I see him, but not right now, I behold him, but he is not near. A star shall come forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise from Israel, and shall crush the head of Moab." (The people of Moab were the most violent enemies of Israel at that time.)

From their vantage point, looking west, they saw the star standing over Israel. This was a miracle star that God put in the heavens to announce the arrival of His Messiah, the anointed Ruler of the world!

How did the magi find this passage? We must remember that they were astronomer/astrologers who belonged to that school in Babylon. We must also remember that Daniel (over 400 years before) was made the dean of that university when he was ruling in Babylon. We read, "King Nebuchadnezzar … promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and … over all the wise men of Babylon" (Dan. 2:48). More than likely then, Daniel placed in their library the Torah scrolls of Moses. Since these men saw the star over the vicinity of Israel, they went into the library and found the Jewish scrolls and began to read through them. When they found the passage, and put together the vision of the star, they calculated that the Messiah (the King) was born. I believe they continued to read and discovered that the One being born was the Son of God. They truly believed in Him and came to worship Him with a genuine faith and trust, not simply doing a political homage to the birth of a politician.

On Numbers 24:17 Unger writes: "The 'Scepter' envisions the Lord coming to rule the earth as absolute King and Lord (Rev. 19:16). The 'Scepter' is owned first in Zion and extends to the ends of the earth when Shiloh comes (Gen. 49:10)."

Jesus did not come to reign in our hearts! He will someday be the King ruling over Israel and over the entire world in a literal, historic way, not in some allegorical, "spiritualized" way, as the covenant guys see it. King Herod got it right. He knew that the Messiah could replace him as ruler. Even a pagan king understood literal language over what some allegorical theologians wrongly teach today!

Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch

Do Reformed Theologians Take the Bible in a Literal, Grammatical, Historical Sense?

Dr Couch, I have always been told that the Reformed theologians took the Bible in a literal, grammatical, historical sense. They even claim they do in the areas of Bible prophecy. Is this true? 

 

    ANSWER:  Unfortunately, they often speak with forked-tongue and even with a tinge of dishonesty. Read Louis Berkhof’s section on prophecy in his book Principles of Biblical Interpretation (Baker, 1990), pages 148-154. I went "wow" when I first read it; Berkhof has it right, I thought! I can agree with almost all he says about interpreting prophecy. Then I found the statements where he tries to fool his readers. He writes the prophets in their prophecies "always centered in the Kingdom of God, or the work of redemption through Christ" (p. 149). 

    Gotcha! Berkhof just revealed his narrow and limited view of prophecy as all the Reformed guys do! The Kingdom of God is always about the millennial reign of Christ as so often mentioned in the Gospels. And that Kingdom is not simply about spiritual redemption, as important as that is. The Kingdom of God is about the one thousand years reign of Christ on the Davidic throne in the Holy Land! But of course Christ is the Redeemer who has the right to rule because He was obedient all the way to the death on the cross. 

    While Berkhof does not say so in his section of interpreting prophecy, he allegorized and "spiritualized" away the literal meaning of the Kingdom of God. This is sorry and deceptive interpretation. I wish I could believe that Berkhof was ignorant of what he did, but I am afraid that the Reformed and Covenant writers know exactly what they are doing when they re-write the literalness of the actual and historical second coming of Christ. But at the same time, claiming they take all of the Bible in a literal sense. They do not! Their (often) hidden allegorical interpretation is a satanic ploy to get rid of Christ’s return, in both the rapture and in His coming to restore the kingdom to Israel. 

    Thanks for asking.

    Dr. Mal Couch

Is The Figure of "Two Hundred Million" Horses and Horsemen of Revelation 9:16 Literal or Figurative?

Dr. Couch, is the figure of "two hundred million" horses and horsemen of Revelation 9:16 literal or figurative? 

 

    ANSWER: One of the key rules of hermeneutics is that one assumes something is literal unless proven or shown to be otherwise. At first glance there is no reason to believe that the figure is anything but literal. 

    In chapter 9 John has already set the precedence that these creatures coming forth from the pit, and from the area of the Euphrates river (v. 14), are demonic. However John uses illustrative language and what is called "comparative language" in the section, to say that the creatures "are something like ..." He had trouble describing the terrible-ness of these being. But indeed they are actual, literal, and certainly real. John is not simply giving to us some big "allegory" that is wayout from what is here taking place during the tribulation. 

    To show this comparative language John uses continually "like, as, as it were." He uses the two Greek words homoios and hos. Here in chapter 9 he uses these Greek words THIRTEEN TIMES! This is enough to tell us that what is happening is real but very hard for the apostle to describe because what he is seeing is so foreign to him! 

    Yet still, the figure two hundred million remains literal. This is the number of the demonic beings that come forth from the region of the Euphrates to torment men o­n earth during the tribulation. The text reads "And the arithmetic (Gk. arithmos) is diamuriades muriadon." 

    Thomas says on the number: "An exact number of two hundred million is intended." Seiss, the great Lutheran scholar who saw the light and became a premillennialist, says: "There are such things as supernatural horses. And here John beholds troops of horses of like unearthly order, but pertaining to an opposite realm, the infernal cavalry. As there are infernal locusts, so there are infernal horses; and as the former were let forth to overrun the world, in the tribulation that is coming, with their torments ..., so the latter are let forth to overrun the world with still more terrible inflictions." 

    Thanks for asking.

    Dr. Mal Couch

Are Dispensationalists Judaizing The Prophecies By Taking Them Literally?

Dr. Couch, I hear some Reformed folks criticize dispensationalists and say that they are but Judaizing the prophecies by taking them literally, as the orthodox Jews did. How do we answer? 

 

    The orthodox and pious Jews, along with Christ and the disciples, took all the words of the OT prophets in a literal manner. They looked for the Messiah to both die for the sins of the people, but also to reign and rule on the throne of David over Israel and the entire world. Christ’s first coming was literal and historic, and His second coming will be literal and historic. The NT confirms this in so many places but it also “assumes” this fact from the OT, and therefore does not have to continually repeat over and over again all the details of His second coming. 

    Take for example the following in the NT: 

      “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, He will sit on His glorious throne” (Matt. 25:31). 

       God will “send Jesus the Christ appointed for you (Israel), whom heaven must receive until the  period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient times” (Acts 3:20-21).

       “Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many, SHALL APPEAR A

  SECOND TIME for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him”

       (Heb. 9:28). 

    The orthodox Jews believe everything dispensationalists believe except they do not believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah. They believe in a worldwide tribulation, an antichrist, a regathering of repenting and believing Israel, a judgment of the nations, the reign of the Messiah in restored Israel. Dispensationalists are in good “interpretative” company. It is the Reformed guys who use pagan Greek allegory to rewrite what the Bible says in the OT about the earthly reign of the Messiah! They replace the promises to Israel with the church. The church becomes the “new” Israel and God is through with the Jews!

   Thanks for asking,

   Dr. Mal Couch