The Importance of Bible Prophecy (A Bible Prophecy & Current Events Series Book 1)

Bible prophecy

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See the accompanying chart for the seven seals and the story flow of the book of Revelation. The Olivet prophecy highlights a summary of world events from a. You should read all of Matthew While you keep in mind what you just read in Matthew 24, there is another key you must understand to truly grasp what Jesus Christ is telling us in these verses and in the book of Revelation.

The very first condition Jesus foretells is that of false preachers , misleading and deceiving, not the few, but the many! The Apostle Paul wrote of it, and said this spirit of iniquity was already working, even as he wrote! And it has never relaxed or ceased, but rather has developed in intensity, until the whole world, as distinctly prophesied, has become deceived and misled as to these Bible truths of God! Armstrong was referring to the prophecy in Matthew The first seal is this plague of false teachers and prophets. The second event or condition to set in is war climaxing in intensity today in world war.

We are now in the lull between World Wars ii and iii Matthew The third and fourth seals—famine and pestilence—are also included at the end of this verse. What is the next major prophetic event that will rock this world to its foundations? In verses , Jesus discussed the fifth seal, or the Great Tribulation. Dozens of prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments describe this horrific event. To fully explain the Great Tribulation would take more than one article. However, you can know that religious teachers purporting to understand it are woefully ignorant about what this fifth seal truly means.

Here is a short description: You can read more about this in our article on page The Tribulation has not yet occurred. However, current world events show that it is at our doorstep! Only after that modern holocaust occurs will we arrive at the next major prophetic event described in Revelation. Jesus Christ discussed the sixth seal, or the heavenly signs, in Matthew This is the same event the Prophet Joel spoke about in his prophecy Joel 2: For all those willing to listen, here is the Bible answer to the question: Is this current tetrad the heavenly signs discussed in Joel 2: Jesus Christ tells you, No!

Take the time to carefully study verse 29 with Revelation 6: The heavenly signs—where the sun grows dark and the moon becomes as blood—do not take place until after the Great Tribulation. This event introduces the time period known as the Day of the Lord, which is the seventh seal. This is a separate event from the Great Tribulation. During this one-year period, God unleashes His wrath on a sinful world in the form of the seven trumpet plagues discussed in Revelation 8, 9 and It is His way of showing all mankind left living that they need to repent of their wicked ways and turn to Him.

Understand that God has a great purpose behind the heavenly signs discussed in Joel 2: But God is a God of mercy and compassion. He will yet warn this world once again— by supernatural signs, in the sun, the moon and the stars. Notice, the signs in the sun and the moon will be supernatural signs, meaning they will be outside the natural order of things. The current tetrad is a natural event occurring because of the natural, organized movement of the Earth, moon and sun.

The tetrad will be seen mainly in the United States. Revelation 6 shows that all men on Earth will be able to see the dramatic heavenly signs that God will display verses However, work hard to understand what the Bible truly says about prophetic events that will dramatically affect your life.

You can put your full trust in what the Bible records about the soon-coming climactic world events. This world is growing darker each day. Evils are increasing at lightning speed. At the same time, many are growing more confused by what is happening in our world, what it all means and where it is leading. You can know what is happening— and why. Even more, you can know that a new and wonderful day is about to dawn for all mankind! It is a historical fact that God has always worked through a human being to tell people what He was going to do on Earth.

God is faithful to reveal His secrets to those people truly serving Him Amos 3: He then requires those people to share that message with anyone willing to listen verse 8. It would also be strange not to have a multitude of false prophets around. The major sects of organized Christianity cannot help you understand prophecy. Few even believe in the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age. That is the main reason you will not hear sermons on prophecy in the great cathedrals and churches of the Western world.

Those scattered voices that do focus on prophecy do not agree on what specific prophecies mean. He challenges you to find out whom He is using—who is interpreting the prophecies of the Bible using the Bible. Be careful what you read prophetically. Believe God and His Word, rather than giving heed to some man who thinks he knows.

What does the Bible really say? From the July Trumpet Print Edition. Why Blood Moons Science-oriented Internet sites were inundated with questions about prophecy related to blood moons. This includes the claim that God will make Egypt so weak that it will never again rule over other nations.

There is some uncertainty among modern scholars regarding when and by whom various portions of the Book of Ezekiel were written, [57] making the timing of prophecies difficult to unravel see Book of Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt around BC. However, the armies of Pharaoh Amasis II defeated the Babylonians though the author did not elaborate and there are no known detailed accounts of this invasion. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Moffatt puts it "before the Son of man arrives" as if Jesus referred to this special tour of Galilee.

Jesus could overtake them. Possibly so, but it is by no means clear. Some refer it to the Transfiguration , others to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost , others to the Second Coming. Some hold that Matthew has put the saying in the wrong context. Others bluntly say that Jesus was mistaken, a very serious charge to make in his instructions to these preachers. Preterist scholars explain this verse as referring to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 AD with the phrase "before the Son of Man comes" meaning before judgment comes upon the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem for rejecting Jesus Christ as The Messiah.

They reject to refer Matthew Such a view completely divorces the passage from its immediate and localized context, such as the fact that this was an admonition to the apostles — and not directed to a generation several millennia removed from the first century. In the similar context of Mt Hence, the "coming of the Son of man" is probably eschatological here also. This would have been more readily understood by the disciples, who would hardly have thought to equate this "coming" with the destruction of Jerusalem in A. It is customary for eastern nations to count part of a day as a whole hour day.

For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. A crux interpretum in reality. Does Jesus refer to the transfiguration, the resurrection of Jesus, the great day of Pentecost, the destruction of Jerusalem, the second coming and judgment?

We do not know, only that Jesus was certain of his final victory which would be typified and symbolized in various ways. Preterists respond that Jesus did not mean His second coming but a demonstration of His might when He says "coming in his kingdom". In this view, this was accomplished by the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 AD when some of the Apostles were still living and thus fulfilling the word of Jesus that only some will not have died.

This coming of the Son of Man in his kingdom is explained by some as the destruction of Jerusalem and by others as the beginning of the Church.

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But referring it to the Transfiguration meets the requirements of the context all Synoptists follow this statement with the Transfiguration, Mk 9: Furthermore, Peter, who was one of those standing here, referred to the Transfiguration in the same words II Pet 1: Chafer calls the Transfiguration a "preview of the coming kingdom on earth" L. Chafer, Systematic Theology, V, Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Jesus meant that the Jews, and not just the high priest, will see his coming. Christians argue that the first cock-crow is simply missing from Matthew, Luke, and John. In Matthew Matthew Christians argue that Matthew, Luke, and John removed the first cock-crow and diminished Luke even eliminated the partial exit by Peter after the first denial which Mark reports. Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. Preterists claim these verses are metaphorical. Some stones were left on others e.

The parts of the wall Jesus refers to in the verse may not have included the wailing wall. Recent archaeological evidence suggest that the wailing wall part of the temple complex was not completed until an uncertain date in or after 16 A. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

The famines part of this verse has often been associated with the third seal of Revelation Rev.

There are also instances of erroneous, or untraceable, quotations from the prophets cited by the early Christians:. Christian writers have given several responses. First is that the use of Jeremiah is meant to refer to all the books of prophecy. Second is that although Jeremiah said this, any record has not survived. Third is this was the result of a scribal error because of the single letter difference in the abridged versions of the names. Christians have given several responses. First is that this prophecy has not survived to the present day. Second is the Greek word nazaret does not mean Nazarene but is related to the Hebrew word netzer which can be translated as 'branch'.

Third is that the verse is not a prophetic saying but simply reflects an Old Testament requirement for the Messiah to be held in contempt, Psalm Some scholars respond that this is because the Malachi reference was just an introduction, [82] which made it significantly less important than Isaiah Other reasons given are Isaiah's authority was considered higher than Malachi and the Isaiah text was better known.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Christians argue that Paul speaks about his own presence at the last day only hypothetically. There are different attempts to explain the term "to take his seat in the temple of God".

Some understand it as a divine attribute which the man of lawlessness arrogates to himself and hence no conclusion can be drawn for time and place. The Church fathers such as John Chrysostom who lived at the time of Gnostics , the Marcionites , the Encratites , the Manicheans —who rejected Christian marriage and the eating of because they believed that all flesh was from an evil principle—asserted this text referred to such sects and that they were therefore "in the latter times". Some Christian scholars believe the verses 11—14 refer to the era of salvation beginning with Christ's resurrection [93] and its coming fulfillment on the last day.

The word "soon" other translations use "shortly" or "quickly" does not have to be understood in the sense of close future. The Norwegian scholar Thorleif Boman explained that the Israelites, unlike Europeans or people in the West, did not understand time as something measurable or calculable according to Hebrew thinking but as something qualitative:.

We have examined the ideas underlying the expression of calculable time and more than once have found that the Israelites understood time as something qualitative, because for them time is determined by its content. The quantity of duration completely recedes behind the characteristic feature that enters with time or advances in it. Johannes Pedersen comes to the same conclusion when he distinguishes sharply between the Semitic understanding of time and ours.

According to him, time is for us an abstraction since we distinguish time from the events that occur in time. The ancient Semites did not do this; for them time is determined by its content. The following are the scriptural requirements in Judaism concerning the Messiah, his actions, and his reign. Jewish sources insist that the Messiah will fulfill the prophecies outright. Some Christians maintain that some of these prophecies are associated with a putative second coming while Jewish scholars state there is no concept of a second coming in the Hebrew Bible.

The gospels of Mark , Luke , and John state Jesus sent his disciples after only one animal. A response is that the text allows for Jesus to have ridden on a colt that was accompanied by a donkey, perhaps its mother. Rashi , a 10th century French rabbi, gave the following commentaries regarding Bible prophecies: These passages have been interpreted by some Muslim scholars as prophetic references to Muhammad. This claim has always been unacceptable to most Bible scholars. All the following are Muslim scholars' interpretations of various Biblical passages.

Mormons believe that the following biblical passages prophesy or otherwise support the provenance of the Book of Mormon:. Biblical prophecy is believed to be literally true by a number of conservative Christians, such as Norman Geisler and Young Earth Creationists. Interpreters uphold this principle by providing details of prophecies that have been fulfilled. Taylor, for example, believed the Bible prophecies were too remarkable and detailed to occur by chance.

Custance maintained that the Ezekiel Tyre prophecy Ezek. These interpretive issues are related to the more general idea of how passages should be read or interpreted—a concept known as Biblical hermeneutics. Bible prophecy is an area which is often discussed in regard to Christian apologetics. Traditional Jewish readings of the Bible do not generally reflect the same attention to the details of prophecies.

Maimonides stated that Moses was the greatest of the prophets and only he experienced direct revelation. According to Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed the prophets used metaphors and analogies and, except for Moses, their words are not to be taken literally. According to the Talmud , prophecy ceased in Israel following the rebuilding of the second temple. Nonetheless Maimonides held that a prophet can be identified if his or her predictions come true. Many scholarly and popular interpreters have argued that a prophecy may have a dual fulfillment; others have argued for the possibility of multiple fulfillments.

In some senses this has been occasionally referred to as an apotelesmatic interpretation of specific prophecies. In Christian eschatology , the idea of at least a dual fulfillment is usually applied to passages in the apocalyptic books of Daniel or Revelation, and to the apocalyptic discourse of Jesus in the synoptic gospels Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21 , especially in interpretations that predict a future tribulation and a future Antichrist figure.

Futurists and Historicists usually hold to variations of this view, while Preterists see the same passages as applying only to events and persecutions from the time of Daniel through the first century CE. Some who believe in multiple fulfillment tend to restrict the idea to a view of history where ancient events reflecting Israel and first-century Judaism and Christianity are predictors of larger future events to happen on a global scale at a point in time, while others tend to include symbolic applications of prophecies to multiple entities and events throughout history. Henry Kett suggested multiple fulfillments in his book History the Interpreter of Prophecy , in which he outlined numerous fulfillments for Antichrist prophecies, with chapters on the "Papal power", "Mahometanism" and "Infidelity" as parts of a long series of fulfillments of the prophecies.

Samuel Horsley stated "The application of the prophecy to any one of these events bears all the characteristics of a true interpretation". Moses Stuart — differentiated the idea that a prophetic passage has an inherent dual sense or double meaning from the idea of a later application of the prophecy in subsequent events, separate from the original prophecy: But there may be an apotelesmatic view or sense of a passage in the ancient Scriptures; and this is the case whenever a proceeding or a principle is reillustrated or reconfirmed.

This makes out no double sense, but a fuller and more complete exhibition of the one and simple meaning of the original. Other interpreters have referred to an apotelesmatic meaning of prophecy as a collapsing of perspective of "near" and "far" or "inaugurated" and "consummated" fulfillments, where from the viewpoint of the ancient Israelite prophet local events affecting Israel are merged with end-time cosmic events relating to the kingdom of God.

Keil — suggested in an influential commentary "this uniting together of the two events is not to be explained only from the perspective and apotelesmatic character of the prophecy, but has its foundation in the very nature of the thing itself. The prophetic perspective, by virtue of which the inward eye of the seer beholds only the elevated summits of historical events as they unfold themselves, and not the valleys of the common incidents of history which lie between these heights, is indeed peculiar to prophecy in general, and accounts for the circumstance that the prophecies as a rule give no fixed dates, and apotelesmatically bind together the points of history which open the way to the end, with the end itself.

Seventh-day Adventist theologian Desmond Ford Historicist termed this belief the apotelesmatic principle and stated "The ultimate fulfillment is the most comprehensive in scope, though details of the original forecast may be limited to the first fulfillment. On the other hand, Dispensational Futurist theologian Randall Price applies the term "apotelesmatic" primarily to the sense of "prophetic postponement" or "an interruption in fulfillment" that dispensationalists hold occurs between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks of the seventy weeks prophecy of Daniel 9: With the prefix apo , which basically has the connotation of 'separation from something,' the idea is of a delay or interruption in the completion of the prophetic program.

Therefore, apotelesmatic interpretation recognizes that in Old Testament texts that present the messianic program as a single event, a near and far historical fulfillment is intended, separated by an indeterminate period of time. Dispensational writers have referred to this as an 'intercalation' or a 'gap. Halley's Bible Handbook , the Scofield Reference Bible and many other Bible commentaries hold that the "little horn" of Daniel 8 is fulfilled both with Antiochus Epiphanes reigned BC and with a future Antichrist. Henry Kett, taking the writings of Sir Isaac Newton, advanced to identifying three fulfillments: Antiochus Epiphanes, the Romans, and a future Antichrist.

Too, because of the double, triple and quadruple applications of this prophecy to world events, an enormous amount of history is involved in the cryptogrammic language of the vision. Among most Christian denominations , the prophecy that Jesus will return to Earth is a major doctrine, which can be seen by its inclusion in the Nicene Creed. Many specific timeframes for this prediction have been declared by individuals and groups, although many of these dates have expired without the occurrences predicted.

Biblical references claimed to prophesy the end times include: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Recommended Books on Bible Prophecy

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Authorship Dating Hebrew canon. Pauline epistles Petrine epistles. Hermeneutics Pesher Midrash Pardes. Prophets in Judaism , Jewish eschatology , and Jewish messianism. Covenant of the pieces and Greater Israel. Davidic dynasty in Bible prophecy. Abomination of desolation , Olivet Discourse , and Second Coming. Oxford English Dictionary 3rd ed. Subscription or UK public library membership required. An instance of divinely inspired speech or writing; a revelation from God or a god; a prophetic text. Also as a mass noun: Bruce, Israel and the Nations , Michigan, [], page

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