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Prophecy

A Short Background...

In their excellent book, How Now Shall We Live, authors Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey make the strong point that followers of Christ need a sound and complete Biblical worldview. We are commanded to do this by the Bible itself when we are told to always be ready to give a reason for our hope, to divide the Word correctly, and to watch our doctrine closely. Paul told Timothy the Scripture was all that was needed for a man to be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

This, however, is not what Christians usually do today. While a lot of people go to church, it seems few know the Bible and fewer still take following Christ seriously. Secularized, or "Country-Club Christianity" has watered down both the truth and the impact of God's Word and its meaning. As a result, there is deep division and confusion concerning many sections of the Bible.

In reading the Bible, the clear, literal sense of the Word is always to be preferred. Allegories and parables are clearly presented as such, symbols used in one section are explained in others, and poetry is clearly marked. God is a master teacher. Even children can understand the basic message. When allegory, parable, or symbolic material is presented it is clear from the context and from similar passages elsewhere in Scripture how we are to proceed with interpretation. God means what He says and says what He means; He announces, or prophesied the future and then acts accordingly. God announces what He is going to do in advance, then He acts and does exactly what He has said He would do.

In the writings of the early church fathers we can see how they wrestled with various issues. Some important issues were, however, never widely resolved. The second and third centuries saw a move towards treating the Bible as completely allegorical that need not be taken as literal, historic truth. In due time this view of the Bible as allegory was rejected as heresy, but damage had been done.

The Roman Catholic Church was led into the same theology concerning Biblical prophecy. Catholicism became "amillennial" - denying the coming thousand year reign of Christ on earth spoken of in Revelation 20 and referred to many times in Isaiah. In the process another twist appeared known as "replacement theology." This view claims that the church has replaced Israel in the plan of God. (Clear refutation of this heresy is presented in Isaiah 48-52, among other places. The entire book of Hosea ought to be enough to settle the issue of God's enduring commitment to Israel in spite or her spiritual adultery). In addition to amillenialism, another system of thought that is making a comeback today is preterism. Preterist theology states that the prophetic statements referring to the endtimes as presented in Revelation were fulfilled in the first century of Christendom. Preterists feel this wrapped up God's plan for Israel and that the church has now inherited all that God promised Israel. This of course, is untrue, but some prominent theologians have bought into this erroneous view.

Although Martin Luther and the other Protestant reformers of the 16th century brought Christianity enormous strides back to accepting the Bible's full authority, these leaders did not try to deal with, or reform, their eschatology. Today, as a result, few who call themselves Christian consider the Bible literally true and historically accurate. And when men consider the Bible's history as allegorical, what happens to prophecy is not hard to predict.

The late Dr. John F. Walvoord in his book Every Prophecy of the Bible has taken the time to examine a thousand individual Bible verses and to analyze 500 specific prophesies from both the Old and New Testaments. His work is meticulous and reverent. He notes that fully half the examined prophecies have been fulfilled in minute detail in history so far. Should we then not expect God to continue in that same way, fulfilling His prophecies literally, accurately, and historically?

Not many Christians look at Revelation and understand or believe what it says. But the symbols are explained by the prophets of the Old Testament. The entire Bible is not only relevant for today, it is completely indispensable as we move towards the final act of the human drama. The events in Revelation are what wrap up ALL of human history, not just history to 70 A.D. Knowing this we can take comfort that God is completely in control and we can trust Him. It takes humility to turn away from pride and our natural human reasoning when trying to "make sense" of the parts of God's Word we don't understand. But it is that humility God looks for in His people, as God tells Isaiah in 66:2 - "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word."

Next Steps

It is not possible to read the book of Revelation and gain a comprehensive view of future events. That is because prophecy does not begin in Revelation; it begins in Genesis - Genesis 3:15 to be specific. A complete understanding of prophecy therefore necessitates a complete understanding of God's Word.

The question as to what the future holds is answered in the Bible. But to find the answer, the Bible must be read - not in bits and pieces, but cover to cover. One cannot look up "key" verses and find doctrine and explanations.

The Bible is the book where answers are given. But the Bible is not an encyclopedia or a handy reference guide. It opens its secrets only to the humble and pure in heart. Its treasures escape the arrogant, the proud and the self-righteous. The Bible teaches truth "here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept." This means we can only understand a given subject well if we first know the whole Book. Truth on any subject in the Bible unfolds gradually chapter by chapter in an always-consistent manner.

What's next?  Click here Revelation to find out!

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