AV Year in Review

The year 2023 was an interesting and productive year for me and American Vision. In December of 2022, I noticed a large lump nearly the size of my fist on my left calf. After numerous tests, I found out that it was a high-grade carcinoma. Cancer! After 25 sessions of radiation the tumor was removed in March. Every three months I get an MRI of my calf and a CT scan of my thoracic region because this type of cancer tends to migrate to the lungs. So far, praise God, the scans have been negative. I’ll have these scans every three months for another year or more.

Also, there was a theological controversy over questions I’ve been asking regarding eschatology going back 25 years. Friends and foes alike took exception. A letter was written to me signed by some friends and a few people I do not know demanding that I answer three questions. I refused to answer them because of their narrow focus. I answered as best I could in written form, but it turned out not to be enough for them. The goal was to get me to capitulate. Threats of bankrupting AV was the goal of some of them. 

As a result, AV was deplatformed by the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network and Canon Press and streaming service Canon+. They no longer carry my very orthodox books on eschatology that have been a mainstay of help for hundreds of thousands of people around the world for more than 30 years.

AV regularly gets attacked. In fact, just this past week we were attacked by media outlets in the Atlanta area because of our stand on homosexuality. This attack was very public. I wrote the article “Red Meat Journalism” to describe how today’s media work and sent it to a reporter from an Atlanta TV news network. The goal of these groups is to homosexualize children in our county’s public (government) schools and attack anyone who objects on moral grounds. This is why I wrote my book Why It Might be OK to Eat Your Neighbor?: If Atheism is Right Can Anything be Wrong?

Attacks are part of the job. I’m used to them. The work goes on. None of these events lessened AV’s output; we’ve had a very productive year.

·      As I mentioned, I completed my book Why It Might be OK to Eat Your Neighbor? If there is no God, then there are no moral absolutes. None! As Christians, our goal is to force people with contrary worldviews to assess their operating assumptions and force them to live consistently with them. They can’t do it. They must steal the concept of morality from God, redefine morality without any reference to God, and then manufacture a new worldview. That’s what we are experiencing today. My book is a game-changer when it comes to apologetics. All you need to do is point out where unbelieving thought takes us individually and nationally morally.

·      AV also reprinted Greg Bahnsen’s No Other Standard, a detailed critique of theonomic ethics. This debate still rages today. It’s one of the reasons the church is so ineffective. You don’t have to believe in every jot and tittle of theonomy to appreciate the reality of God’s law today.

·      One of my favorite works is the first three chapters of Theonomy: An Informed Response. These chapters detail how Reformed writers, including Francis Schaeffer, used the phrase a “comprehensive biblical worldview” and even mentioned God’s law yet were inconsistent in its application.

·      One of AV’s most popular books is my Wars and Rumors of Wars. I updated it to cover some additional exegetical issues. It covers the end of Matthew 23 and includes a full verse-by-verse commentary on Matthew 24:1-34. It also includes an appendix with a brief commentary on the same passages. Filmmaker Darren Doane said that this alone was worth the price of the book. It’s a great book to give to someone stuck in last days madness but not ready to read the much larger book.

·      Left Behind: Separating Fact from Fiction is an update of a previous edition. It includes a new Preface and five appendixes in response to a new Left Behind film released in early-2023 starring Kevin Sorbo.

·      Some years ago, AV’s friend John Bray (author of Matthew 24 Fulfilled), re-published two books that were originally written more than 200 years ago by Nehemiah Nisbett (died in 1807). These are classic works showing the preterist interpretation of Scripture. We have combined these two books into one with a new title: The Destruction of Jerusalem, the Mysterious Language of St. Paul’s Description of the Man of Sin, and the Day of the Lord. All the Greek words have been transliterated. Quoted and referenced Scripture passages have been added where Nisbett did not include them. The notes have been included as footnotes using standard numbering. Nisbett cites and quotes numerous obscure and long out-of-print theological authors and their works. When possible, the original source of a referenced or quoted work is included in the source reference as well as a link in a bracketed footnote. Likewise for the first names of authors and when they lived. Nisbett’s use of italic is preserved, and there is a lot of it. For the most part, Roman numerals were converted to Arabic numbers.

·      Robert Young’s Concise Critical Bible Commentary on the New Testament. Young is the author of the massive Young’s Concordance. You don’t need to know Greek to appreciate his New Testament commentary. It is truly a literal commentary on the New Testament in a compact size. It’s an important work for anyone’s library.

·      I’ve always wanted to do a coffee table hardback book illustrated in full color on America’s Christian heritage. The result is The Case for America’s Christian Heritage. It’s not enough to relive history; there’s much work before us to reset the foundation stones of a firm reliance on Divine Providence. We need to heed the words of Benjamin Franklin who quoted Psalm 127:1 during the drafting process of the Constitution: “except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it,” and “that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel.”

·      Our biggest project in 2023 was 25 podcast episodes with Kim Burgess on Covenant Hermeneutics. AV has turned these podcasts into two printed books. The first volume has been published and will be available this month. It’s around 300 pages. You will find much more material than what was in the podcasts. The second volume will be ready next year. The title is The Hope of Israel and the Nations: New Testament Eschatology Accomplished and Applied. I’ve known Kim for more than 40 years and he has been working on this topic the whole time. It’s taken a while to get this lifetime of work published, but it’s finally happening. And there’s more to come after the second volume is published. Note: The books are printed and on the truck to our warehouse. Volume One will be available for purchase as soon as we have them in stock.

·      I have been interviewed many times and as recently as two weeks ago. Parts of this 1.5-hour interview will be used for an upcoming documentary. I found out today that an interview I did with Rick Welch for the Burros of Berea in Chesapeake, VA, has more than 207,000 hits.

·      In addition, AV has produced 156 podcasts and 104 articles.

We have a lot planned for 2024. We appreciate all those who have supported us this year and we look forward to serving you for the upcoming year. Please consider our vital mission of teaching Christians to think and live biblically in your end-of-year giving. We are a lean operation with very little overhead and use your funds wisely and efficiently.

Thank you so much for your generosity, prayers, and kind words. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Gary DeMar
President, American Vision

American Vision’s mission is to Restore America to its Biblical Foundation—from Genesis to Revelation. American Vision (AV) has been at the heart of worldview study since 1978, providing resources to exhort Christian families and individuals to live by a Biblically based worldview. Visit www.AmericanVision.org for more information, content and resources