Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. (3 May 1950) is a Reformed theologian, and an ordained minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly. He is particularly known for his support for and publication on the topics of orthodox preterism and postmillennialism in Christian eschatology, as well as for theonomy and Young Earth creationism. He holds that each of these theological distinctives are logical and theological extensions of his foundational theology.
Biography
Gentry was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is married (since July 1971) and has three children and six grandchildren.
He received his B.A. in Biblical Studies from Tennessee Temple University (1973, cum laude). After graduating he enrolled at Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. After two years at Grace Seminary (1973–1975) he left dispensationalism, having become convinced of a covenant and Reformed theology. He transferred to Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi (1975–1977). Upon completing studies at Reformed Theological Seminary he was awarded the M.Div. in 1977. After several years of pastoral ministry, he earned a Th.M. (1986) and a Th.D. (1987, magna cum laude) from Whitefield Theological Seminary, both in the field of New Testament.
While at Reformed Theological Seminary he studied under Greg L. Bahnsen, a leading presuppositional apologist. Though Gentry initially resisted the distinctive ethical and eschatological views of Bahnsen, he was eventually persuaded of both theonomic ethics and postmillennial eschatology and became a staunch co-defender of them with Bahnsen. Over the years he developed a close friendship with Bahnsen, often lecturing with him in conferences, co-writing a book with him (House Divided: The Break-up of Dispensational Theology), eventually joining the staff of Bahnsen's Southern California Center for Christian Studies, and finally contributing to the festschrift in honor of Bahnsen, titled: The Standard Bearer.
Gentry retired from full-time pastoral ministry in 2016 after serving more than thirty-five years in three conservative and Reformed denominations: The Presbyterian Church in America, The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and The Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Assembly. He is the Director of GoodBirth Ministries, a non-profit religious educational ministry, "committed to sponsoring, subsidizing, and advancing serious Christian scholarship and education".
Writings
Gentry is the leading contemporary theological expositor of the early-date of Revelation (prior to A.D. 70) by the Apostle John. The partial preterist paradigm is a different eschatology than that held by most American Dispensationalist Christians, who maintain that the Great Tribulation hasn't yet occurred.
Kenneth Gentry's works The Beast of Revelation and He Shall Have Dominion attempt to explain the identity of the Beast and what God's true redemptive plan for humanity are. Gentry's work is considered by his followers to be important for soteriological reasons.
Gentry's work enfilades the error of much contemporary Christian pre-trib eschatology, also serving to argue that incorrect interpretation of the Bible is possible even by sincere experts.
Gentry is perhaps best known for his book Before Jerusalem Fell, which argues that the Book of Revelation was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. He holds that many of the dramatic events in Revelation correspond to the persecution of Christians under the Roman imperium as well as to the Jewish War against Rome which resulted in the destruction of Jewish temple. This book is the published version of his doctoral dissertation in 1986 under the title "The Dating of the Book of Revelation: An Exegetical, Theological and Historical Argument for a Pre-A.D. 70 Composition."
Revelation commentary
Gentry has completed a two-volume academic commentary on Revelation titled: The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation. It is currently being proofed and typeset by Tolle Lege Press and is scheduled for release by September 2023. According to preliminary studies he has released ("The Wrath of God and Israel", Fountain Inn, SC: 2007), he will be presenting evidence that "Babylon" () is a metaphor for 1st century Jerusalem, and that the book's author John is following the pattern of the Old Testament prophets in denouncing Jerusalem's unfaithfulness by such images (see especially and ).