Role: Executive Director of The Pre-Trib Research Center |
Dr. Ice is Executive Director of The Pre-Trib Research Center. He founded The Center in 1994 with Dr. Tim LaHaye to research, teach, and defend the pre-tribulational rapture and related Bible prophecy doctrines.
Dr. Ice has co-authored about 30 books, written hundreds of articles, and is a frequent conference speaker. He has served as a pastor for 15 years. Dr. Ice has a B.A. from Howard Payne University, a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. from Tyndale Theological Seminary, and is a Doctoral Candidate at The University of Wales in Church History. Dr. Ice lives in Justin, Texas with his wife Janice and is a member of the Chafer Theological Seminary faculty.
Recently after speaking at a church on a prophecy topic a young college-age girl ask me a great question. She wanted to know “what is the greatest obstacle when talking with a fellow Christian who does not agree with our view of Bible prophecy?” Since we had been talking about hermeneutics, I told her, “Other than one’s approach to biblical interpretation, the thing that they who disagree with our views is that they do not factor in the role of the mystery doctrines taught by Jesus and Paul...
I am looking at the use of “mystery” in the Old Testament in preparation for looking at how it will be used in the New Testament. All but one use of “mystery” in the Old Testament is found in Daniel, at least based upon a search of the New American Standard translation of the Bible. Job in his reply to Zophar says, “He reveals mysteries from the darkness, and brings the deep darkness into light” (Job 12:22). This usage is similar to what we saw in Deuteronomy. The passage speaks of God as the one who reveals hidden or secret things. It is important that we see the paramount role that God’s revelation of Himself and His plan for history should play in the life of a believer...
The book of Daniel contains a great deal of emphasis upon the concept of mystery or secrets. To understand the significance mystery in Daniel, it is good to learn about the context in which God reveals mysteries to Daniel. Daniel is the first book in the Hebrew canon that provides wisdom for how a devout Jew should live outside the land. The previous books relate to living in the land. Daniel is unique among the prophets in that it is a mixture of wisdom stories and prophecy...
The book of Daniel contains mysteries about God’s plan for history that are revealed through Daniel. Daniel 2, one of the longest chapters in the Bible, contains an outline of Gentile history that has been given to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in a dream he could not understand. Daniel, one of his Jewish advisors, is able to pray to the Lord for insight into Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and God was pleased to reveal the meaning to Daniel who in turn explained the meaning of the dream to Nebuchadnezzar.
We have seen previously that the Old Testament includes some mysteries or secrets, usually associated with providing new revelation in relation to the progressively unfolding plan of God for history. In a sense, the Old Testament provides a baseline for the revelation of God’s plan for history in relation to the nation of Israel. This is in relation to the many Messianic prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus at His first coming, as well as many still awaiting His second advent...