1: The Importance of Prophecy

Is it just pie in the sky?

Although prophecy constitutes almost one-third of the Bible, its importance is constantly downplayed by those who dismiss it as having no practical significance or by those who object to it on the grounds that it is a “fad” that takes people’s eyes off Jesus.

Revelation 19:10 says that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Thus, if prophecy is properly taught, there is no reason for it to divert anyone’s attention away from Jesus. In fact, it should serve to emphasize the centrality of Jesus.

Is prophecy practical? Consider that all the New Testament writers testify to the fact that the study of prophecy will motivate holy living (1 John 2:1-3). What could be more practical than that?

Prophecy does not have to be either faddish, other-worldly or impractical if taught properly. Nor does it have to be a playground for fanatics. It can and should be green pastures for disciples.

Reasons for Study

 1) Quantity — Between one-fourth and one-third of the Bible is prophetic in nature. When thinking of prophetic literature, most people consider only the Major and Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. But there is much more than that. For example, the Psalms are saturated with prophecies, and there are prophecies scattered throughout the historical books of the Old Testament.

In the New Testament, one out of every twenty-five verses relate to the Lord’s return. There are lengthy passages of end-time prophecy, like Matthew 24 and 2 Peter 3. Additionally, there are entire books devoted to prophecy, like 1 & 2 Thessalonians and Revelation. The bottom line is that if you are going to ignore Bible prophecy, then you are going to deprive yourself of a significant portion of God’s Word.

 2) Uniqueness — The Bible is the only book in the world that contains detailed, specific prophecies that have been fulfilled in history. There are no fulfilled prophecies in the sayings of Buddha or Confucius. Nor are there any fulfilled prophecies in the Hindu Vedas, the Qu’ran or the Book of Mormon.

In contrast, the Bible is filled with both spiritual and secular prophecies that have been fulfilled in history. A good example is the one I mentioned in the introduction — namely, the closing of the Eastern Gate which is prophesied in Ezekiel 44.

3) Validator of Scripture —Fulfilled prophecy is one of the best evidences I know of that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. The Bible contains hundreds of fulfilled secular prophecies pertaining to cities, nations, empires and individuals.

Jeremiah predicted the Babylonian captivity would last 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12). Isaiah stated that the children of Israel would be sent home from Babylon by a man named Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28 and Ezra 1:1). Daniel predicted the precise order of four great Gentile empires (Daniel 2 and 7). The destruction of Babylon was foretold by a number of the Hebrew prophets (Isaiah 13).

3) Validator of Scripture —Fulfilled prophecy is one of the best evidences I know of that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. The Bible contains hundreds of fulfilled secular prophecies pertaining to cities, nations, empires and individuals.

Jeremiah predicted the Babylonian captivity would last 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12). Isaiah stated that the children of Israel would be sent home from Babylon by a man named Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28 and Ezra 1:1). Daniel predicted the precise order of four great Gentile empires (Daniel 2 and 7). The destruction of Babylon was foretold by a number of the Hebrew prophets (Isaiah 13).

In the New Testament, Jesus predicted the complete destruction of Jerusalem 40 years before it actually occurred (Luke 21:6).

4) Validator of Jesus — The Bible contains more than 300 prophecies about the First Coming of Jesus. Many of these are repetitious. When the duplicates are removed, the total number of prophecies which Jesus fulfilled is 109 — all of which were literally fulfilled. (For a detailed listing, see my book, The Christ in Prophecy Study Guide.)

Every aspect of the life of Jesus was prophesied — the place of His birth, the nature of His birth, the quality of His ministry, the purpose of His life and the agony of His death. Consider, for example, the prophecy in Psalm 22:16 that the Messiah’s hands and feet would be pierced. That prophecy was written by David about a thousand years before the birth of Jesus. It was written 700 years before the Romans perfected crucifixion as a form of execution.

The literal fulfillment of so many prophecies in the life of one individual transcends any mere coincidence and serves to validate that Jesus was who He said He was — the divine Son of God.

 5) Revealer of the Future — Prophecy serves to tell us some things that God wants us to know about the future (Deuteronomy 29:29 and Amos 3:7). God does not want us to know everything about the future, but there are some things we must know if we are to have a dynamic hope.

Thus, prophecy assures us that Jesus is coming back, that He will resurrect us and that He will take us to live forever with Him and God the Father. In this regard, Peter likens prophecy to “a lamp shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19). Paul makes the same point in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He begins by observing that “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has the mind of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” But in the next verse Paul says those things have been revealed to us by God through His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

6) Tool of Evangelism — Prophecy can be used as a very effective tool of evangelism, as illustrated in the story of Philip and the Eunuch (Acts 8:26ff). Philip used Isaiah’s great suffering lamb passage (Isaiah 53) to teach that Jesus is the lamb who was slain for the sins of the world.

Matthew and Peter both used fulfilled prophecy in the life of Jesus as one of their basic evangelistic tools. In fact, Peter referred to prophecy constantly in his first gospel sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-39). He preached that Jesus had been crucified and resurrected in fulfillment of Hebrew prophecies. Later, Peter referred to fulfilled prophecy as one of the greatest evidences that Jesus was truly the Son of God (2 Peter 1:16-19).

7) Tool of Moral Teaching — People often overlook the fact that the Hebrew prophets were forthtellers as well as foretellers. In fact, the prophets spent most of their time spotlighting societal problems. They called their listeners to repentance, true worship, social justice and personal holiness.

One of the great recurring themes of the prophets is that “obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22 and Hosea 6:6). That statement means that in God’s eyes, obedience to His commands is more important than outward religious practices such as offering sacrifices or paying tithes.

Prophecy is thus a great repository of moral teaching, and those moral principles are still relevant today (Amos 5:21-24, Micah 6:8 and Isaiah 58:3-9).

8) Generator of Spiritual Growth — Prophetic knowledge encourages patient waiting (James 5:7-8), provokes earnest watching (Matthew 24:36,42), inspires dedicated work (2 Timothy 4:7-8) and enhances our hope (Titus 2:11-14). The result is holy living.

Paul exhorts us to “behave properly as in the day,” because the time is at hand when the Lord will return (Romans 13:12-13). Likewise, Peter calls us to gird up our minds and be sober and holy as we look forward to the revelation of Jesus (1 Peter 1:13-15).

Advice and Counsel

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul writes that all of God’s Word is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.” That includes God’s Prophetic Word. In 1 Thessalonians 5:20 the Apostle Paul pleads with us to treat prophecy with respect.

Peter warns us in his second epistle, that one of the signs of the end-times will be the appearance of “scoffers” who will cast scorn and ridicule on the promise of our Lord’s return (2 Peter 3:3ff). The great tragedy of our day is that many of the loudest scoffers are religious leaders who profess to follow Christ. Similar leaders were responsible for crucifying Jesus the first time He came. They now scoff at His promise to return.

A good example of what I’m talking about is the “Jesus Seminar” that operated throughout the 1990s. It was composed of forty New Testament “scholars” from a great variety of Christian seminaries in America. The seminar met every six months to vote on the sayings of Jesus as recorded in the four gospels. Their purpose was to produce a new version of the gospels in which the sayings of Jesus would be color-coded: red, if He said it; pink, if He may have said it; grey, if He probably did not say it and black, if He definitely did not say it.

When they voted on the sayings of Jesus regarding His Second Coming, they voted that all the sayings were spurious and had probably been “made up” by His disciples. What apostasy!

Spiritual Food

God’s Prophetic Word is food for our spiritual growth. We need to take it off the shelf. We need to open it up and feast upon it, and we need to do so with believing hearts.

The book of Revelation promises blessings to those who read it (or hear it read) and who obey it (Revelation 1:3). It is the only book of the Bible to promise such a specific blessing, but all of God’s Word is designed to bless us spiritually (Psalm 119), and that includes the Prophetic Word.

Key Scriptures about Prophecy

Before we get to the meat of our study, let’s remind ourselves what the Word of God itself says about the value of prophecy. In this way, we can be assured that the effort we expend in looking at the prophetic Scriptures will be time extremely well spent.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever . . .” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

“I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done . . . I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it” (Isaiah 46:9-11).

“Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

“[Jesus said] ‘Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill’” (Matthew 5:17).

“[Jesus] said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled’” (Luke 24:44).

“Of Him [Jesus] all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins” (Acts 10:43).

“. . . the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow” (1 Peter 1:10-11).

“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:20-21).

“. . . the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10).

As these passages clearly indicate, Bible prophecy is to be held in high esteem and is to be taken seriously. But, as we shall see, it has been terribly abused.

2: The Abuse of Prophecy

Does it deserve the contempt it receives?

Let’s face it — Bible prophecy is held in contempt by most people. Non-Christians scoff at the very idea of supernatural knowledge about the future. The ironic thing is that in doing so they fulfill a prophecy of Peter: “. . . in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming?’” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

The Apostates

The real tragedy concerning God’s Prophetic Word is that so many professing Christians share this same scoffing attitude. Apostate Christian seminaries have pretty well rejected the whole concept of prophecy. Most now teach that prophecy is really history written after the fact but written like prophecy to make it more interesting.

This rejection of prophecy on the part of apostate Christians is a natural outgrowth of their worship at the man-made altar of what theologians call "A historical criticism.”

This despicable methodology rejects the Bible as God’s revelation to Man, arguing instead that it represents Man’s faltering search for God. Its proponents have concluded that the Bible is full of myth, legend and superstition.

Since they have rejected the supernatural, these people cannot accept the idea of prophecy as revealed pre-knowledge of history. This is the reason the book of Daniel has been a focus of their scorn and ridicule. It is not at all unusual to hear one of their scholars say, the book of Daniel is just too accurate. It had to be written after the events it claims to prophesy.” This is nothing but blatant unbelief which calls into question our Lord’s own acceptance of Daniel as authentic (Matthew 24:15).

This attitude is also a fulfillment of prophecy, for Jesus said that in the end-times there will be a great apostasy within the professing Church (Matthew 24:10-12). As Paul put it, the end-times will be marked by men holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).

The Spiritualizers

Prophecy has also suffered abuse at the hands of those who have specialized in spiritualizing it. Liberals and conservatives both have been guilty of this practice.

When I speak of “spiritualizing,” I am referring to the methodology which holds that prophecy does not mean what it says. In practice this always leads to a symbolic interpretation. The plain sense meaning of prophecy is denied, and prophetic books like Revelation are treated like they are adult Alice in Wonderland stories with a vague, general message but no specific meaning.

This spiritualization of prophecy on the part of liberals is easy to understand. It is a natural extension of their tendency to spiritualize all of Scripture. They have spiritualized the miracles of God in the Old Testament and the miracles of Jesus in the New Testament, so why should they accept the plain sense meaning of prophecy, especially when it teaches a supernatural consummation of history?

It’s the conservative spiritualizers who are such a perplexing mystery to me. They accept the Bible as the Word of God. They agree that the Bible contains supernatural revelations about the future. They interpret virtually all non-prophetic passages literally. They even interpret the First Coming prophecies literally. But they insist upon spiritualizing all the Bible’s prophecies concerning the Second Coming!

Thus, they deny the coming reality of the Tribulation, the Millennial Reign and the New Earth. They take a passage like Zechariah 14, which says Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives and reign on the earth, and they spiritualize it to mean that when you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, He comes into your heart (the Mount of Olives) and begins to reign in your life (the reign on earth). Such people should be granted Ph.D.s in imagination!

If the prophecies concerning the First Coming of Jesus were all fulfilled in some literal way in their plain sense meaning, then why shouldn’t the Second Coming prophecies be fulfilled the same way?

The Fanatics

Even some of the friends of Bible prophecy have been guilty of abusing it. I have in mind the fanatics who use it as a playground for their fanciful speculations.

They usually are obsessed with date setting or speculating about whether or not a person like Bill Gates is the Antichrist.

They are often rumor mongers who spread wild stories about planetary alignments causing earthquakes, Belgian computers taking over the world, the Jews collecting building blocks for the Temple, the Social Security Administration stamping numbers on people’s hands and any President they hate having a name that is the numerical equivalent of 666!

The Apathetic

Finally, there are those Christians who are simply apathetic about prophecy. They couldn’t care less.

Many of these Christians think prophecy has no practical relevance to their daily lives, so they ignore it. They have never read the Major Prophets. They couldn’t even find the Minor Prophets. And they certainly aren’t going to waste their time with that “Chinese puzzle” called the Book of Revelation.

My own church heritage fits this description. Our apathetic attitude was motivated by the peculiar belief that all Old Testament prophecy had been fulfilled and therefore the study of prophecy was a waste of time.

“It’s too complicated.”

Some Christians have washed their hands of prophecy because they contend it is too complex. “You have to have a doctorate in hermeneutics to understand it,” they exclaim.

This attitude is often prompted by the specialized vocabulary of prophecy. When people hear technical terms like “premillennial,” “postmillennial” and “amillennial,” their eyes usually roll back in their heads and they space out, concluding that prophecy is a field of study for experts only. But that, of course, is not true. As we shall see in this book, what is necessary for the understanding of Bible prophecy is the in-dwelling power of the Holy Spirit, the willingness to study and a conviction that prophecy can be understood.

“It’s too ethereal.”

Others ignore Bible prophecy because they consider it to be too “other-worldly.” A lot of pastors have this attitude. “It’s all pie-in-the-sky,” they argue. And they usually add, “It just has no relevance to the present.”

As we shall see, this contention is false. Bible prophecy has the power to transform lives here and now by calling us to holiness and motivating us to evangelism.

Satan used to defeat me all the time by constantly reminding me of my past sins. But my study of Bible prophecy has given me a new weapon to fight Satan with. Now, every time he reminds me of my past, I remind him of his future! He responds by sulking away in defeat.

“It’s too contentious.”

Some pastors ignore Bible prophecy because they consider it to be divisive. This is a legitimate concern because it can be, if it is not taught properly.

Many prophecy teachers seem intent on trying to prove that everyone else is wrong. They come across as attack dogs, and in the process, they alienate and divide. But if Bible prophecy is presented with a loving attitude and with the focus on Jesus, it can only be edifying.

“It’s too gruesome.”

And then there are those who consider Bible prophecy to be scary. As a person put it to me in a letter, “I don’t like prophecy because it’s all about blood and gore and beasts and things that go bump in the dark!” Again, there is some truth in this statement. There is a lot of bad news in Bible prophecy, but it is all for unbelievers. For those who have put their trust in Jesus, there is only good news.

Consider Malachi 4:1-2. In verse one the prophet speaks of how unbelievers will be burned like chaff at the Lord’s Second Coming. But in verse two, he says that believers will rejoice and be blessed when they see the Son returning. In fact, he says they will be so joyful that they “will go forth and skip about” like calves released from a stall!

A Satanic Conspiracy

I believe that Satan himself has inspired all this abuse of God’s Prophetic Word. Satan does not want anyone studying prophecy, because prophecy contains the revelation of Satan’s ultimate and total defeat. The message of prophecy is that “Believers win in the end!” Satan does not want anyone to know that message.

The book of Revelation begins with the words, “The revelation of Jesus Christ.” The book of Revelation, like the rest of prophecy, is meant to reveal the future. It is meant to be understood. God wants to build our hope in the midst of a dark and troubled world by revealing to us the great victories that lie ahead in His master plan.

I exhort you to stand firm against Satan in his attempt to convince you that God’s Prophetic Word is not to be taken seriously. Do not abuse it. Do not ignore it. The Apostle Paul commanded us to respect prophecy (1 Thessalonians 5:20). The Apostle Peter likewise urged us “to pay attention” to prophecy “as to a lamp shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19).

3: The Range of Prophecy

What are the varieties?

Hebrews 1:1 says that God spoke through the prophets “in many portions and in many ways.” Have you ever stopped to think about the variety of people and ways which God used?

Writing Prophets

Of course, the method that immediately comes to mind is the written form. The prophets who wrote down their messages are the ones we know best — people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the so-called “Minor Prophets” like Habakkuk and Zephaniah. In the New Testament the writing prophets include Peter, Paul, John, James and Jude.

But to lump all these writing prophets together into one broad category is misleading, for there is a great variety of people and styles among them.

As to people, the variety is astounding. The prophets range from uneducated farmers like Amos to sophisticated poets like Isaiah, from reluctant spokesmen like Jonah to men of great courage like Daniel, from the little known like Joel to the famous like King David.

There is an equal variety in the styles of writing. Some, like Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai and the New Testament prophets, primarily used a prose style. Others, like David, Isaiah, Joel and Micah, expressed their ideas in poetic form. Jonah wrote an autobiography. Habakkuk reads like a dramatic play. And then there are the preachers whose books are mainly collections of sermons — prophets like Jeremiah, Amos and Zechariah.

Most were given direct revelations — “Thus says the Lord.” Others received their insight through dreams and visions. Some, like Hosea and Jonah, simply recorded their experiences.

Speaking Prophets

Some of the most important prophets wrote nothing at all, at least nothing that has been preserved. We know about them because others wrote about their revelations, pronouncements and exploits. Elijah and his successor, Elisha, fall into this category.

So does the greatest prophet who ever lived — the Prophet foretold by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-18). I’m speaking, of course, of Jesus Christ (Matthew 21:11). The only writings of Jesus that we have are His seven letters to the seven churches of Asia, recorded by John in Revelation 2 and 3. The bulk of Jesus’ prophecies, like His Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21), were written by His disciples. Jesus was an oral prophet.

Most of the oral prophets are not well known. Only a few are mentioned in the New Testament — like the four daughters of Philip (Acts 21:9) and Agabus, the prophet who counseled Paul (Acts 21: 10).

But the Old Testament is full of oral prophets. There is Nathan, who confronted David (2 Samuel 12); Micaiah, who saw the Lord sitting on His throne (1 Kings 22); Ahijah, who condemned Jeroboam (1 Kings 14); Hananiah, the false prophet who spoke against Jeremiah (Jeremiah 28) and

many nameless prophets like the “man of God from Judah” who prophesied the birth of Josiah (1 Kings 13).

Acting Prophets

My favorites are the prophets who were called upon by God to act out prophecies. Some were writing prophets; some were oral. The point is that God would tell them from time to time to stop writing or speaking and start acting.

God often used drama to get people’s attention. For example, He told Isaiah to go barefoot and naked for three years (Isaiah 20:2ff). Yes, Isaiah was the original streaker! He used an unconventional method to get people’s attention. The message was graphic and clear: Repent or be stripped naked like Isaiah.

Jeremiah was told to wear an oxen yoke on his neck to emphasize God’s message that King Zedekiah of Judah should submit to Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 27).

Ezekiel was called on to act many times. On one occasion the Lord told him to pack all his bags and carry them around Jerusalem in the sight of the people as a sign that if they did not repent, God would send them into exile (Ezekiel 12). On another occasion God ordered Ezekiel to play in a sand pile! God told him to label a brick, “Jerusalem,” and to build dirt ramps around the brick to illustrate the coming siege of the city, if the people did not repent (Ezekiel 4).

The Prophetic Oscar

The greatest actor of all, the one who will undoubtedly win the prophetic Oscar for best performance, was the prophet Hosea.

God told him to find a prostitute and marry her. It must have been one of the hardest things God ever asked a righteous man to do. Hosea obeyed, and God told him to preach the message of his action.

The message was that Israel was like that prostitute when God selected the nation as His Chosen People. They were not selected for their beauty or wisdom or righteousness. They had no merit of their own. They were selected by grace.

This was an insulting message for the Jews. They did not understand what being “chosen” meant. They thought they were better than other peoples, and in their spiritual arrogance, they refused to listen to God’s prophets who were calling for repentance.

When Hosea returned home from his preaching tour, he discovered that his wife had succumbed to her old passions. She had left the dignity and honor of his home and had returned to the streets, selling herself to the highest bidder. Hosea’s heart was broken. God told him to preach the message of her action. The message was that — like Hosea’s wife — Israel had been unfaithful to God, chasing after foreign gods. And like Hosea, God’s heart was broken.

When Hosea returned home, God spoke to him again and asked him to do something incredible. God told him to swallow all his pride and go to the city square and bid for his wife when she offered herself for sale. He was instructed to pay all he had, if necessary, to redeem her from harlotry.

She didn’t deserve it. She had not repented. But Hosea obeyed. He paid the price, and she was redeemed.

In this manner, God used an acting prophet to act out the story of what He would do for us at the Cross when He paid the price of His Son to redeem us from our unfaithfulness.

Symbolic Prophecy

A fourth type of prophecy is symbolic prophecy, or what is often referred to as “prophecy in type.” ​

An understanding of prophetic types is essential to understanding the Old Testament. Jesus can be found on almost every page of the Old Testament, if you know how to look for Him. He is there symbolically in types. Looking for Him and finding Him in these types causes the Old Testament to come alive. I’m convinced that this is the kind of special teaching that Jesus gave His disciples during the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension (Luke 24:45).

There are three kinds of prophetic types: individual lives, historical events and inanimate objects.

Persons as Types

Almost all the major persons in the Old Testament are types of Christ in the sense that some events in their lives prophesied things that would happen to Jesus.

Take Joseph for example. He was rejected by his brothers. He was left for dead but was “resurrected” from the pit into which he had been cast. He took a Gentile bride and then redeemed his brothers from their famine.

Likewise, Jesus was rejected by his brethren (the Jews), experienced death and resurrection, is now taking a Gentile Bride (the Church), and will soon return to save a remnant of His brethren from their spiritual famine.

Symbolic Events

Prophecies about Jesus are also symbolized in major historical events.

The seven feasts of Israel are a good example. Jesus was crucified on the Feast of Passover. He became our “unleavened bread” as His sinless body rested in the ground on that feast day. He arose from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits, and the Church was established on the Feast of Pentecost.

The three unfulfilled feasts in the Fall of the year — Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles — must, in like manner, point to events that are yet to occur. These events are most likely the Rapture, the Second Coming and the Millennial Reign of Jesus.

The history of the Jewish nation is the story of Jesus in prophetic type. The Children of Israel were born in Canaan, migrated to Egypt, came through the Red Sea (the baptism of Moses), endured testing in the wilderness and then entered the Promised Land.

Likewise, Jesus was born in Canaan, was taken to Egypt, emerged publicly at His baptism, endured the wilderness temptations and led the way to Heaven.

The Significance of Objects

Even inanimate objects like the Tabernacle and the robe of the High Priest are prophetic types pointing to Jesus.

Consider the Ark of the Covenant. Everything about it was symbolic of the Messiah. It was made of wood, indicating the Messiah would be human. It was overlaid with gold, signifying the Messiah would be divine. It contained three objects — the tablets of stone, a pot of manna and Aaron’s rod that budded. The tablets signified that the Messiah would have the law of God in His heart. The manna meant the Messiah would be the Bread of Life. The rod with blooms was a prophecy that the Messiah would arise from the dead.

The lid of the Ark was called the Mercy Seat. It had a golden angel at each end. The angels faced each other and their wings hovered over the lid. Once a year the High Priest sprinkled blood on the Mercy Seat and communed with the Shekinah glory of God which hovered above the angels.

The Mercy Seat pointed to the fact that through the work of the Messiah the mercy of God would cover the Law. The blood foreshadowed the fact that the Messiah would have to shed His own blood to atone for our sins.

Jesus fulfilled every prophetic type of the Ark. He was God in the flesh (John 10:30). He had the Law in His heart (Matthew 5: 17). He declared Himself to be the “Bread of Life” (John 6). He shed His blood on the Cross and was resurrected in power, atoning for our sins and covering the Law with Grace (Romans 3:21-26).

Mary saw the fulfillment of the Ark when she went to the tomb and discovered the body of Jesus missing. John 20:11-12 says she looked into the tomb and “beheld two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying.” Do you understand what she saw? She saw the “mercy seat” where the blood had been spilled, with an angel at each end — exactly like the Mercy Seat that covered the Ark!

An Exhortation

As you can see, prophetic types bring the Old Testament alive and give us deep insight into New Testament events.

I encourage you to read the Bible with an attitude of always looking for Jesus. He is there on every page, waiting for you to discover Him in the symbols and types.

Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit as you read, and remember Revelation 19:10 — “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

4: The Interpretation of Prophecy

Do you need imagination or common sense?

When I was about 12 years old, I stumbled across Zechariah 14. It was an amazing discovery.

You see, I grew up in a church where we were told over and over that “there is not one verse in the Bible that even implies that Jesus will ever set His feet on this earth again.”

Simple Language

Well, Zechariah 14 not only implies that the Lord is coming back to this earth again, it says so point-blank! It says that the Lord will return to this earth at a time when the Jews are back in the land of Israel and their capital city, Jerusalem, is under siege. Just as the city is about to fall, the Lord will return to the Mount of Olives.

When His feet touch the ground, the mount will split in half. The remnant of Jews left in the city will take refuge in the cleavage of the mountain. The Lord will then speak a supernatural word, and the armies surrounding Jerusalem will be destroyed in an instant.

Verse 9 of Zechariah 14 declares that on that day “the Lord will be king over all the earth.”

Muddled Interpretations

When I first discovered this passage, I took it to my minister and asked him what it meant. I will never forget his response. He thought for a moment, and then He said, “Son I don’t know what it means, but I’ll guarantee you one thing: it doesn’t mean what it says!”

For years after that, I would show Zechariah 14 to every visiting evangelist who came preaching that Jesus would never return to this earth. I always received the same response: “It doesn’t mean what it says.” I couldn’t buy that answer.

Finally, I ran across an evangelist who was a seminary graduate, and he gave me the answer I could live with. “Nothing in Zechariah means what it says,” he explained, “because the whole book is apocalyptic.”

Now, I didn’t have the slightest idea what “apocalyptic” meant. I didn’t know if it was a disease or a philosophy. But it sounded sophisticated, and, after all, the fellow was a seminary graduate, so he should know.

A Discovery Experience

When I began to preach, I parroted what I had heard from the pulpit all my life. When I spoke on prophecy, I would always make the point that Jesus will never return to this earth. Occasionally, people would come up after the sermon and ask, “What about Zechariah 14?” I would snap back at them with one word: “APOCALYPTIC!” They would usually run for the door in fright. They didn’t know what I was talking about (and neither did I).

Then one day I sat down and read the whole book of Zechariah. And guess what? My entire argument went down the drain!

I discovered that the book contains many prophecies about the First Coming of Jesus, and it was evident that all those prophecies meant what they said. It suddenly occurred to me that if Zechariah’s First Coming prophecies meant what they said, then why shouldn’t his Second Coming promises mean what they say?

The Plain Sense Rule

That was the day that I stopped playing games with God’s Prophetic Word. I started accepting it for its plain sense meaning. I decided that if the plain sense makes sense, I would look for no other sense, lest I end up with nonsense.

A good example of the nonsense approach is one I found several years ago in a book on the Millennium. The author spiritualized all of Zechariah 14. He argued that the Mount of Olives is symbolic of the human heart surrounded by evil. When a person accepts Jesus as Savior, Jesus comes into the person’s life and stands on his “Mount of Olives” (his heart). The person’s heart breaks in contrition (the cleaving of the mountain), and Jesus then defeats the enemy forces in the person’s life.

Hard to believe, isn’t it? When people insist on spiritualizing the Scriptures like this, the Scriptures end up meaning whatever they want them to mean.

Keys to Understanding

I believe God knows how to communicate. I believe He says what He means and means what He says. I don’t believe you have to have a doctorate in hermeneutics to understand the Bible. The essentials, instead, are an honest heart and the in-dwelling of God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).

One crucial key is to approach the Scriptures with childlike faith. Dr. Henry Morris addresses this issue in his great commentary on Revelation, called The Revelation Record. He says, “Revelation is not difficult to understand. It is difficult to believe. If you will believe it, you will understand it.”

For example, in Revelation 7 it says that at the start of the Tribulation God is going to seal a great host of Jews to serve as His special “bond-servants.” The text specifies that the number will be 144,000, and that 12,000 will be selected from each of the 12 Jewish tribes.

Now, I ask you: What would God have to do to convince us that He intends to set aside 144,000 Jews for special service during the Tribulation? The text is crystal clear. Yet, hundreds of commentators have denied the clear meaning and have spiritualized the passage to make it refer to the Church! This is reckless handling of God’s Word, and it produces nothing but confusion.

The Meaning of Symbols

“But what about symbols?” some ask. Another crucial key is to keep in mind that a symbol stands for something, otherwise it would not be a symbol. There is always a literal reality or plain sense meaning behind every symbol.

The Messiah is referred to in the Song of Solomon 2:1 as “the rose of Sharon.” He is not referred to as the tumbleweed of Texas.” The image that a rose conjures up is something beautiful; a tumbleweed is ugly.

The Bible is its own best interpreter as to the meaning of the symbols which it uses. Sometimes the symbols are clearly explained, as when God revealed to Ezekiel the meaning of the symbols in his vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:11-14). In like manner, the Apostle John was told the meaning of certain symbols which he saw in his Patmos vision of the glorified Lord (Revelation 1:20).

At other times, a simple search of the Scriptures will reveal the meaning of a symbol. Consider the statement in Revelation 12:14 where it says that the Jewish remnant will escape from the Antichrist into the wilderness “on the two wings of the great eagle.”

Is this a literal eagle? Or, is it an air lift provided by the United States whose national symbol is an eagle?

A concordance search will show that the same symbolism is used in Exodus 19:4 to describe the flight of the children of Israel as they escaped from Egypt. The symbol, as Exodus 19 makes clear, is a poetic reference to the loving care of God.

The Importance of Context

Another key to understanding prophecy is one that applies to the interpretation of all Scripture. It is the principle that the meaning of words is determined by their context.

I ran across a good example of this problem recently in a book in which the author was trying to prove that Jesus is never coming back to reign upon this earth. Such a position, of course, required him to spiritualize Revelation chapter 20 where it says six times that there will be a reign of the Lord that will last one thousand years.

In this author’s desperate attempt to explain away the thousand years, he referred to Psalm 50:10 where it says that God owns “the cattle on a thousand hills.” He then asked, “Are there only one thousand hills in the world?” He answered his question, “Of course not!” He then proceeded to explain that the term is used figuratively. But then he made a quantum leap in logic by proclaiming, “therefore, the term, ‘one thousand,’ is always used symbolically.”

Not so. It depends on context. In Psalm 50 the term is clearly symbolic. But in Revelation 20, it is not so. Again, the thousand years is mentioned six times. What would the Lord have to do to convince us that He means a thousand years? Put it in the sky in neon lights? Pay attention to context!

Reconciling Passages

An additional key to understanding prophecy is one that applies to all Scripture. It is the principle of searching out everything that the Bible has to say on a particular point.

Avoid hanging a doctrine on one isolated verse. All verses on a particular topic must be searched out, compared and then reconciled.

Let me give you a prophetic example. Second Peter 3:10 says that when the Lord returns, “the heavens will pass away with a roar . . . and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Now, if this were the only verse in the Bible about the Second Coming, we could confidently conclude that the heavens and earth will be burned up on the day that Jesus returns.

But, there are many other verses in both the Old and New Testaments, which make it abundantly clear that the Lord will reign over all the earth before it is consumed with fire. Those verses must be considered together with the passage in 2 Peter 3 in order to get the correct overall view.

Special Problems

There are some special problems related to prophetic interpretation. One is that prophecy is often prefilled in symbolic type before it is completely fulfilled.

In this regard, I feel certain that the Jewish people must have felt that Antiochus Epiphanes (215 - 164 BC) fulfilled Daniel’s prophecies about a tyrannical leader who would severely persecute the Jews. But 200 years after Antiochus, Jesus referred to those prophecies of Daniel and told His disciples they were yet to be fulfilled.

Another example is the sign which Isaiah gave to King Ahaz to assure him that the city of Jerusalem would not fall to the Syrians who had it under siege. The sign was that a young woman would give birth to a son whose name would be called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:1-19). The passage certainly implies that such a boy was born at that time.

But hundreds of years later, Matthew, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, reached back to Isaiah’s prophecy and proclaimed that its ultimate fulfillment was to be found in the virgin birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:22-23).

Compressed Time

Another peculiar feature of prophetic literature is called “telescoping.” This occurs when a prophet compresses the time interval between two prophetic events. This phenomenon is very common.

The reason for it has to do with the perspective of the prophet. As he looks into the future and sees a series of prophetic events, they appear to him as if they are in immediate sequence.

It is like looking down a mountain range and viewing three peaks, one behind the other, each sequentially higher than the one in front of it. The peaks look like they are right up against each other because the person viewing them cannot see the valleys that separate them.

In Zechariah 9:9-10 there is a passage with three prophecies which are compressed into two verses but are widely separated in time. Verse 9 says the Messiah will come humbly on a donkey. The first part of verse 10 says the Jewish people will be set aside. The second part of verse 10 says the Messiah will reign over all the nations.

These three events — the First Coming, the setting aside of Israel and the reign of Christ — appear to occur in quick succession, but in reality, there were 70 years between the first two events, and there have been almost 2,000 years thus far between the second and third events.

Prophetic Gaps

Another way of viewing the phenomenon of telescoping is to focus on what are called “prophetic gaps.” These are the time periods between the mountain peak prophetic events.

Because the Old Testament rabbis could not see the gap between the First and Second Comings of the Messiah, some theorized that there would be two Messiahs — a “Messiah ben Joseph” who would suffer and a “Messiah ben David” who would conquer.

From our New Testament perspective we can see that the Old Testament prophets were speaking of one Messiah who would come twice. We can see the gap between the two comings.

A Challenge

I ask you: How do you treat Zechariah 14 — as fact or fiction? Are you guilty of playing games with God’s Word in order to justify sacred traditions and doctrines of men?

I challenge you to interpret God’s Word — all of it — for its plain sense meaning. As you do so, you are very likely to find yourself challenged to discard old doctrines and to adopt new ones. This will be a painful process, but it will be a fruitful one, for you will be blessed with the truth of God’s Word.

“If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” — John 8:31-32

5: The Messiah in Prophecy

Does prophecy validate Jesus?

Was Jesus who He said He was? Was He really God in the flesh? Bible prophecy offers some of the strongest proof I know of that Jesus truly was divine.

Hundreds of Prophecies

The Old Testament contains more than 300 prophecies concerning the First Coming of Jesus. Some of these are repetitious, but when the repetition is accounted for, we are still left with at least 109 separate and distinct prophecies.

In addition to these specific texts, there are many more symbolic prophecies which point to various aspects of the First Coming.

Take the book of Ruth for an example. It does not contain any specific Messianic prophecies. Yet, the book’s story contains a beautiful prophetic type of Jesus. One of the central characters, Boaz, is a kinsman-redeemer who takes a Gentile bride — just as Jesus came as a redeemer to His people, the Jews, and is now taking a Gentile bride, the Church.

The lives of Joshua, Jeremiah and Daniel all give us insights about the faith, courage and righteousness of the Messiah. Joshua and Jesus even had the same name, Yeshua, meaning “the salvation of God.”

The life of Moses is a preview of many aspects of the life of Jesus. Moses tried to deliver his people from captivity and was rejected. In like manner, Jesus came to deliver His people from their spiritual bondage and was rejected by them. After his rejection, Moses took a Gentile bride. He then returned and was received by his people as a deliverer. Jesus is now taking a Gentile bride, the Church, and when He has completed that task, He will return and be received as Messiah by His own people, the Jews (Zechariah 12:10).

Every aspect of the life of Jesus was prophesied hundreds of years before He was born — the nature and place of His ministry, the nature of His death and the triumph of His resurrection.

The very first prophecy in the Bible predicts that the Messiah will be born to a virgin. In Genesis 3:15 God says that the seed of the serpent (Satan) will be defeated by the seed of a woman (Jesus).

Genealogy in Prophecy

The entire lineage of the Messiah is prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures. The prophets said the Savior would be born of the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 12:3), the heritage of Isaac (Genesis 17:21), the children of Jacob (Genesis 28:14), the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:8), the family of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1) and the house of David (Jeremiah 23:5).

That’s why the Gospel of Matthew begins with such a long listing of Jesus’ family tree. Matthew is trying to show his Jewish readers that the lineage of Jesus fulfills the predictions of the prophets.

Prophecy or Coincidence?

Some people shrug their shoulders at all these prophecies and say, “It’s all a coincidence.” Coincidence? The fulfillment of more than 100 specific prophecies?

“Well, He purposefully fulfilled them,” says another. It is true that Jesus could have consciously fulfilled some of the prophecies about the Messiah. In fact, on one occasion it appears that Jesus did just that when He requested a donkey for His final ride into Jerusalem. Matthew says this was done to fulfill Zechariah’s prophecy that the Messiah would come humbly, riding a donkey (Matthew 21:1-7).

But can a man purposefully fulfill prophecies concerning both his birth and death?

Micah prophesied 700 years before Jesus that the Messiah would be born in the little town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Isaiah foretold that He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). And Hosea said the Messiah would come out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1), the exact place the parents of Jesus took Him to after His birth.

Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. The prophet Zechariah made that precise prophecy 500 years before Jesus was born! (See Zechariah 11:13.) David foresaw that the Messiah would be crucified (Psalms 22:16), and that was one thousand years before the birth of Jesus and 700 years before the extensive use of crucifixion by the Romans.

How could Jesus fulfill these prophecies purposefully? And could their fulfillment be just a “coincidence?”

Prophecy and Mathematics

Peter Stoner in his book, Science Speaks, has calculated the odds that just eight of the prophecies concerning Jesus could have been fulfilled accidently in the life of one man. The odds are one in ten to the seventeenth power! That’s the number one with 17 zeros after it — 100,000,000,000,000,000 (one hundred quadrillion.)

To illustrate these mathematical odds, Stoner asks us to imagine filling the state of Texas knee-deep with silver dollars. A plane flies over and one silver dollar is dropped with a black checkmark on it. Thousands of bulldozers move in and mix the silver dollars thoroughly for several years. A man is then blindfolded and turned loose in this sea of silver dollars.

The odds that he would reach down and pick up the marked silver dollar on the first draw are the same as eight of the Bible’s prophecies about the Messiah being fulfilled in the life of one man accidentally. You might as well argue that a Boeing 747 could be the accidental product of a tornado blowing through a junk yard!

Prophecy as Proof

The powerful testimony of fulfilled prophecy in the life of Jesus is the reason that the gospel writers constantly appeal to it in their writings to prove that Jesus was the promised Messiah. It is the reason Jesus appealed to it in His teachings to the masses (Matthew 5:17-18). It’s also the reason Jesus emphasized it in His post-resurrection teachings to His disciples (Luke 24:25ff).

Likewise, the Apostles constantly cited prophetic fulfillment in their sermons to verify the identity of Jesus. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter focused his remarks in that first gospel sermon on the prophecies of David which Jesus had fulfilled (Acts 2:24-36). Peter utilized prophecy again in his second sermon at the Temple (Acts 3:12-26) and in his sermon to Cornelius and his household (Acts 10).

In his first epistle, Peter refers to three cardinal evidences of the deity of Jesus. He first mentions that he was an “eyewitness of His majesty” — a reference to the Transfiguration. Then he mentions that he heard an “utterance from Heaven” in which God the Father proclaimed Jesus as His “beloved Son.” Finally, he appeals to the testimony of prophecy, pointing to its fulfillment in the life of Jesus (2 Peter 1:16-19).

Philip used a prophecy from Isaiah to convert the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8). Paul also referred constantly to fulfilled prophecy in his preaching of the Gospel (Acts 17:2-3). In fact, when Paul wrote his famous definition of the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, he stressed that all the major events in the life of Jesus had happened “according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4).

Some Questions

How do you feel about the evidence of Bible prophecy? Are you going to try to explain it away? Are you going to flippantly write it off to “coincidence”? Are you simply going to ignore it?

God is not calling you to a blind faith that is based upon no evidence. Prophecy is evidence. It is evidence that demands a verdict. What is your verdict?

The Last Prophecy

I believe fulfilled prophecy proves that Jesus was who He said He was — namely, God in the flesh (John 10:30).

Fulfilled prophecy also proves that the last prophecy of the Bible, a prophecy yet to be fulfilled, is one that we can rely upon. It is contained in Revelation 22:20, and it was spoken by Jesus Himself: “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

6: Prophecy and Evolution

How do they relate?

During the first 30 years of my life, I didn’t understand all the fuss over evolution. I couldn’t see what difference it made whether God created instantly in a matter of a few days or gradually over millions of years. I was a theistic evolutionist — one who believes in evolution, but believes that it was God directed.

One of my problems was that I had grown up in a church that focused its study of the Bible almost exclusively on the New Testament. I had never really read and studied all of God’s Word. When I did, I immediately dropped my flirtation with evolution.

A Matter of Integrity

The first reason I did so is because I discovered the integrity of God’s Word is at stake on this issue. People dismiss the Genesis account of creation rather flippantly by saying, “The Bible is not a book of science.”

But think for a moment: if we cannot trust what the Bible tells us about the creation of mankind and the universe, then what part of the Bible can we believe? Was there really a worldwide flood? Did a man named Abraham really exist? Did Jesus die on the Cross for our sins? If you start picking and choosing what part of the Bible you are going to believe, how are you going to determine what is true and what is false?

Symbolic Language?

I tried to deal with the Bible’s creation account by arguing that it used symbolic language. But there is no basis for drawing that conclusion.

Adam and Eve are never dealt with as mythical figures by later biblical writers. And there is a passage in the book of Exodus that makes it very clear that the “days” of Genesis 1 and 2 are literal, 24 hour days (Exodus 20:8-11):

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor . . . but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work . . . For in six days the LORD made the heavens and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day . . .

Good or Evil Creation?

Another problem I found with theistic evolution is that it demeans the character of God. The Bible says God created instantly and majestically and that the creation was “good.”

Theistic evolution presents an entirely different picture. It holds that God used a very vicious and violent method of creation — “the survival of the fittest.” In other words, creation occurred in a dog-eat-dog atmosphere that was anything but good.

The Origin of Death

Theistic evolution also makes a lie of what the Bible teaches about sin and its consequences. According to the Bible, sin came into the world through the rebellion of Adam and Eve against God’s will. One of the results was physical death. Another was the curse which God placed upon nature.

Theistic evolution turns the biblical picture upside down, for it portrays all of creation as being involved in a death struggle before the evolutionary appearance of Man — and thus before Man could ever have sinned. Did death exist from the beginning of life, or was it the consequence of Man’s sin, as God’s Word says?

Tough Questions

When I decided to believe God’s Word, I had to junk evolution in any form — both the theistic and scientific forms. That raised new and tough questions for me. Is the earth only six to seven thousand years old? What about the fossil record? What about stars that are so far away that it has taken millions of years for their light to reach the earth?

Fortunately for me, as I began to wrestle with these tough questions, I ran across the voluminous publications of the Institute for Creation Research, an organization of scientists who are Christians and who accept the Genesis account as literal. Through their writings I began to find answers to my new questions.

For example, they point out a simple but often overlooked truth: special creation always carries with it the appearance of age. Think about it. If I were to instantly create an adult man and then present him to you as my miraculous creation, you would respond by saying, “But, David, this man is 30 years old!”

The same would be true of a full grown tree. If I created it supernaturally in an instant, I would have a tough time trying to convince you that it did not grow from a seed.

The same is true of our universe. When God created it, He created it in maturity. The light from the most distant stars did not have to travel hundreds of millions of miles over millions of years to reach the earth. The stars were created with their light already reaching the earth.

More Tough Questions

But what about the dating techniques that indicate a very ancient age for the earth? To begin with, the fact is that all of them are based upon evolutionary assumptions, and thus they produce highly distorted, untruthful results that conform to their built-in evolutionary bias.

What about the fossil record? The truth is that evolutionists themselves do not like to talk about the fossil record any more. The reason is that despite the discovery of millions of fossils, they have not yet found even one that represents a transition form in the theorized evolutionary process. Dogs are still dogs in the fossil record. Cats are still cats. No one has yet found a “Dat.”

Scientific Denial

One of the strangest things about the modern theory of evolution is that it denies one of the fundamental axioms of science! Consult any physics book and you will find what is called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It holds that everything in the universe is running down — that everything is moving from order to disorder.

This law of physics is nothing but an expression of common sense. If you don’t believe it, just look in a mirror! Your body is aging, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. You can camouflage it, but you can’t stop it! It is the reason we have to have maintenance programs for cars and buildings. If we don’t maintain them, they will stop running or fall down.

Now, the point is this: evolution contends that all living things in the universe are moving in exactly the opposite direction — from disorder to order, from simplicity to greater complexity. Evolution contradicts one of the fundamental laws of science!

Logical Denial

Evolution also contradicts common sense. The complexity of the universe demands a designer. How could the human eye have developed by chance? To say it did is equivalent to saying that the faces on Mt. Rushmore are the accidental product of natural erosion.

Scientists tell us that the whole universe came into existence as the result of a “big bang.” Again, this contradicts common sense. How many explosions have you ever witnessed that produced order instead of chaos?

Prophetic Fulfillment

The development of the theory of evolution is prophesied in Scripture as one of the signs of the end-times. The prophecy is found in 2 Peter 3:3-7. It says that “scoffers will arise in the last days” and that they will mock the promised return of the Lord by saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.” Peter says that these people will deliberately ignore the fact that God created the world and then destroyed it with water.

The scientific principle prophesied in this passage is what is called uniformitarianism. It is one of the cornerstones of evolution. It is the idea that things have always been essentially the same, changing only minutely over billions of years.

This idea denies what the Bible teaches about special creation out of nothing. It also denies the Bible’s historical record of a worldwide flood and the Bible’s promise that one day God will destroy the earth again with fire.

Courting God’s Wrath

The Bible says that God pours out His wrath on nations that “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). We are doing that today in America. Our public schools are not allowed to teach children the true origin of the universe. Only the lie of evolution can be taught.

The same passage in the Bible says God’s wrath is also poured out upon those nations whose people “serve the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). The teaching of the theory of evolution has led this nation to the point where we are now worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. Our god is “Mother Earth,” not Father God.

The Relationship

So, what is the relationship between Bible prophecy and evolution? Many Christian leaders today, even some Evangelicals, have adopted some form of theistic evolution. In doing so they have to spiritualize the biblical account of creation, arguing that it is not literal and therefore the six days of creation really represent hundreds of millions of years.

And that is exactly what the majority of Christendom has done with Bible prophecy. It has been spiritualized into meaninglessness. They argue that we are in the Millennium now, even though the Bible says that during the Millennium the earth will be flooded with peace, righteousness and justice, as the waters cover the seas. They claim that Jesus is ruling now even though all the nations of the world are in rebellion against God and His Word. They claim that Satan is now bound even though he continues to prowl about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

When you start spiritualizing God’s Word, you can make it mean whatever you desire. In the process, you become your own god.

To understand either the beginning or the end of history, we must accept the plain sense teaching of God’s Word. Are you willing to do that?

7: Prophecy and Salvation

Is millennial belief essential?

What is the relationship of prophetic doctrine to salvation? Is it possible to be saved and yet reject the biblical teaching that the Lord is going to return to reign over all the world for a thousand years?

I raise this issue because differences in prophetic doctrine have been used by many denominational groups to draw lines of fellowship between Christians. Some have even gone so far as to make prophetic doctrine a condition of salvation!

A Personal Experience

I speak from painful personal experience regarding this point. I grew up in a denomination that was Amillennial in its prophetic viewpoint. That means we rejected completely the idea that Jesus would ever return to this earth to reign.

Our church leaders felt so strongly about this issue that they made it a test of fellowship and a condition of salvation. Any person among us who developed a Premillennial view (that Jesus would return to reign for a thousand years) was labeled “heretical” and was sooner or later (usually sooner) given the left foot of fellowship. They would then write off that person as one who had “fallen from grace.”

Needless to say, I eventually became one of those brothers who was condemned and shunned because my study of the Word led me to adopt a Premillennial interpretation of prophecy.

The Problem

The fundamental problem here has nothing whatsoever to do with prophecy. The problem is the erroneous concept of salvation.

Those who draw lines of fellowship over matters like prophetic interpretation are people who believe in salvation by perfected knowledge; that is, they believe that salvation is dependent upon being right about every doctrine.

I can still vividly recall a classic expression of this attitude several years ago at a prophecy conference I helped put together. We tried to arrange to have a speaker representing each of the major prophetic viewpoints.

The person who presented the Amillennial view, a preacher from my childhood denomination, was asked after his presentation whether or not a Premillennialist could be saved. His response was, “I couldn’t be saved if I were a Premillennialist, because I know it’s wrong.” I wanted to jump up and stop the discussion on prophecy and spend the rest of the day discussing the real issue of salvation.

Are we saved by being right about prophecy? Can I really lose my salvation if I am wrong about my belief that Jesus is coming back to reign upon the earth?

If you and I can be lost by being wrong about prophecy, then we can be lost by being wrong about anything — such as the frequency of communion or the role of women in the Church. That means we really have no hope of salvation because none of us is right about everything.

The Certainty of Salvation

And yet the Bible says we can be confident of our salvation. Consider these words of the Apostle John:

“We know that we have passed out of death into life” (1 John 3:14).

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). “We know that we are of God” (1 John 5:19).

Over and over John says we can know that we are saved. But how can we ever have such assurance if our salvation depends upon our being right about everything? The answer is that we can’t. And that is precisely why some conservative churches are filled with souls who seem sure of everything except the most important thing of all — namely, their salvation!

You can know with absolute certainty that you are saved, because Paul said you are saved by the grace of God, “as a gift” (Romans 3:24). You can also be certain about your salvation, because if you are saved, then you know your Savior, and you know He is trustworthy and that He meant it when He said: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies” (John 11:25).

Our confidence is also assured by Paul’s glorious proclamation, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The Essence of Salvation

This means that you and I can be wrong about a lot of things, but if we are right about one thing — Jesus Christ — then we can claim the promise of eternal salvation. It also means that although all truth is important, it is not all equally important.

Accordingly, whatever the truth may be about such things as instrumental music or communion or prophecy, these truths are as nothing compared to the truth that Jesus is Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3). That’s why Paul wrote, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

The essence of salvation is not doctrinal perfection. Rather, it is a relationship with a person. Jesus put it this way: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

Does this mean that what you believe about prophecy is irrelevant? Not at all! It just means that it has nothing to do with your justification — that is, with your judicial standing before God. We are justified by our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior (Romans 3:21-26).

The Process of Salvation

Much of the problem here is due to the fact that many churches have never distinguished between justification, sanctification and glorification. The result is that many Christians are ignorant of the fact that salvation is a process.

Justification is the starting point. It occurs when you put your faith in Jesus.

The salvation process continues with your sanctification. This is a lifelong process of dying to self and living more and more for Christ.

The process consummates in your glorification, when you are resurrected and given an immortal body. It is then that you will stand face-to-face with the Lord and be fully conformed to His image (Romans 8:29-30).

Justification results in your being born again spiritually. When you are justified, you put on the righteousness of Christ, and you stand guiltless before the judgment bar of God, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb (1 Corinthians 1:30). You receive the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit as the guarantee of your eternal inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14), and you begin your walk with the Lord.

The Meaning of Sanctification

It is true that you are sanctified when you are justified, because you are washed clean of your sins and are set apart from the world as God’s sacred possession (1 Corinthians 6:11 and Hebrews 10:10). But the process of sanctification continues as you begin walking with the Lord.

Through the process of sanctification, God shapes your soul (your will, emotions and personality) into the image of Christ. This takes place as you learn more and more about the Lord and His Word through Bible study, prayer, worship and fellowship. This does not mean that sanctification is something you earn. Like justification, sanctification is a gift of God’s grace through the power of His Holy Spirit working within you.

But whereas you are justified by responding to the truth of the Gospel (the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus — 1 Corinthians 15:1-4), you are sanctified by responding to the truths of Christian doctrine. This means that the quality of your walk with the Lord will be substantially affected by what you believe about such things as the Holy Spirit, the Church, discipleship, stewardship, miracles, prayer and prophecy.

The Impact of Prophecy

To use another personal example: Before I came to a Premillennial understanding of prophecy, I had little enthusiasm for the return of Jesus. I certainly was not watchful for His return, and I felt that the only impact of His return on world history would be to bring it to an end.

Now I have a whole new perspective that has drawn me closer to the Lord and has strengthened my faith, deepened my love and enhanced my hope.

I now look for the return of Christ with fervent expectancy as my “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). My watchfulness has become a powerful motivator for holy living (Romans 13:11-14). I thrill to the thought of the triumph of Jesus over Satan (Revelation 20:1-2, 10). I look forward with joy to the establishment of the Lord’s reign of perfect peace and righteousness here on earth (Micah 4:1-7). I rejoice that Jesus will soon be fully vindicated in history, just as He was humiliated in history (Isaiah 24:21-23).

I have been brought to the awe-inspiring realization that one of the greatest miracles of history is occurring before my very eyes — the regathering of the Jews to their homeland (Jeremiah 16:14-15). Scripture passages concerning the Jews which never had any meaning at all to me have suddenly come alive (Jeremiah 23:5-8, Ezekiel 36 and 37 and Amos 9:14-15).

For the first time, I understand the meaning of Paul’s writings in Romans 9-11 where he talks of God’s grace for the Jewish people. I rejoice that a remnant of the Jews will come to know their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10, Romans 9:27 and Romans 11:25-27) and that they will be established as the prime nation of the world through whom all the nations will be blessed (Isaiah 60-62).

I praise God for the redemption that Jesus will bring to all the creation (Romans 8:18-23). And I look forward with great anticipation to an eternity in the presence of God upon this earth after it has been purged of its corruption and renovated to its previous glory (2 Peter 3:1-13 and Revelation 21:1-4).

I have a grasp of God’s master plan of history that I never had before, and that has given me a sense of comfort and peace that serves as a sturdy anchor in such perilous times as these. I now know with certainty that God’s Word is sure, that His promises are certain, that He is alive and well, that He still cares intensely about His creation and that He still intervenes in marvelous and miraculous ways to direct and comfort His people while He orchestrates the evil deeds of Man to a climax that will bring eternal honor and glory to His holy name (Psalm 2).

A Call to Love

As you can see, what we believe about prophecy does make a difference in the quality of our Christian lives. That’s why I always get a little annoyed when I hear a Christian saying, “I don’t know anything about Bible prophecy, and I don’t care, because what you believe about prophecy makes no difference.” Not so. It makes a lot of difference.

But it should make no difference at all as to our attitude toward each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. I have Christian brothers and sisters who are Premillennialists and Amillennialists and Postmillennialists, and I have some relatives in Christ who don’t know the difference in a millennium and a millipede! I will spend eternity with some who have never even read the book of Revelation.

We need to stop playing God by drawing lines of fellowship which we have no right to draw over matters of opinion, and we need to start loving each other because we share a belief in the fundamental fact of history — namely, that Jesus is Lord.