Notes for Reader:
1 This work presupposes the Scriptures’ inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility:Balaam: “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent” (Numbers 23:19).Samuel: “…The Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind” (1 Samuel 15:29).Jesus: “…The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).All Scripture is inspired by God {cf. Romans 15:4} (2 Timothy 3:16)…God…cannot lie… (Titus 1:2)…It is impossible for God to lie… (Hebrews 6:18)
2 The hermeneutic tool called “now-but-not-yet” at times needs to be considered when interpreting a series of events:Jesus: “If you had known in this day (the ‘not yet’), even you, the things which make for peace! But now (the ‘now but’) they have been hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:42).Jesus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming (the “not-yet”) and now is (the “now-but”), when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live” (John 5:25).Peter to the people at the portico of Solomon: “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence (the “now-but”) of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until (the “not-yet”) the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.” (Acts 3:19–21)The human mind’s linear thought-process can be challenged in determining chronological order, particularly when there are no verb tenses—no past, no future, just “the present:”…Yahweh “said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today