Bible prophecy is utterly real and many, many things
prophesied in the Old Testament have indeed 'come to pass' - but
are we misunderstanding anything when we seek to strike world
events off a 'checklist' as they become fulfillments of Bible
prophecy?
Since we have all seen that the Old Testament prophecies of the
coming of Christ, and then of the coming of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost have been clearly fulfilled many of us have paid little
attention to prophecy. Of course, we also know that the second
coming of Christ is prophesied, but we generally leave it at
that.
But there are an army of "prophecy specialists" out there not
only among adventists and in the cults and sects but, lamentably,
among evangelical Christians too - especially in the United
States. Many of these people are repeatedly making predictions
and repeatedly getting things wrong. What mistake are these
people making?
Should we really be viewing and treating Bible prophecy as though
it is our own source of clairvoyance, or as though it is the very
best astrology out there?
Are we misunderstanding something here?
I maintain that we should view Bible prophecy as the 'promises
of God' and should understand that these biblical promises
are quite different to predictions. I don't claim to be
the first to come upon this insight; the South African theologian
Adrio König said something very similar in a book which he
wrote around 15 years ago, and I believe that R.H. Gundry and
others have also drawn attention to this.
So how do promises and predictions differ?
If I stated that here in Wales, UK, there would be a tidal wave
on 23rd August, 2005, that would clearly be a one-off prediction.
If that did not occur (we just don't seem to get tidal waves
here, thank the Lord!), then people would say that my predictions
about the future are just unreliable trash! (Quite correct, of
course).
But divine promises are very different; they are just as
definite, yet rarely specific and could achieve fruition in
several ways, or even more than once. Bible prophecies are better
understood as the 'promises of God' rather than as one-off
predictions because it is absolutely plain that certain
prophecies have been fulfilled more than once! (Of course, there
are certainly a few prophecies which are specific, for instance,
the prediction of 1 Kings 11:29-39 was fulfilled in 1 King
12:15-20. But these are exceptions).
I maintain that some of the cults and sects as well as some
evangelicals are looking upon Bible prophecy too much as though
it is astrological prediction, rather than as the promises of
God, fulfilled among His people, and often only recognised by
them.
Another big indicator of how different Bible prophecy is, is that
much of it is written as poetry. Just quickly scan through Isaiah
and notice that the verses are set out a bit like the Psalms -
this is because this was written in poetic form; that was obvious
in the original Hebrew, but far less so to us until we notice how
the text is set out. So this is poetic prophecy, and great
truths lie within, yet not always in a truly clear fashion and
with many prophecies capable of more than one fulfillment.
Lets look at some examples of the broadness of Bible
prophecy:
1. EXODUS.
The promise of the exodus was obviously fulfilled when Moses led
the children of Israel out of Egypt, yet much later, Isaiah gives
a divine promise of a new and more glorious exodus in which
Israel are able to re-settle their own country after the
Babylonian captivity. See Isaiah 43:16-, 48:20-21, and 49:8-13,
for instance.
But even this is not the final end: there is a third fulfillment
when Jesus returns from Egypt. See Matthew 2:15. Many see the
Jewish resettling of Israel from 1948 as another exodus (they
left this world's societies in order to settle in Israel). And
some believe (not all agree) that there will yet be a fourth
exodus.
2.THE DAY OF THE LORD. Another great example of how the
promises of God are so very different to specific one-off
predictions is in the Bible approach to The Day of the
Lord. The prophecy of Amos (Amos 5:18-20), finds many, many
fulfillments, all perfectly valid!
Firstly, in the 586 BC fall of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 13:5;
Lamentations 1:12, 2:1,22), in the ministry of John the Baptist
(Mark 1:2; Malachi 3:1-2), in the ministry of Jesus (Luke
4:16-21; Isaiah 61:1-2), in the coming of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost (Acts 2:16-21; Joel 2:28-32), in the destruction of
Jerusalem in AD 70 (Matthew 24:2-15), and certainly in the second
coming of Christ (2 Peter 3:12; Rev 16:14).
A few would certainly add to this list; many Jews saw the
holocaust of the Second World War as their own 'Day of the
Lord' and a few even saw it as the climax of their punishment
for their rejection of Jesus. This is not very "politically
correct" language these days, but I simply quote what I have
heard some Jews say.
3. THE PROMISED LAND. We know that the land of Canaan was
repeatedly promised, in various fashions, from Genesis 12
onwards. The promise was fulfilled, of course, when Israel
entered the promised land under Joshua, but that was far from the
end of the matter! The promise is extended more than once,
eventually to include the entire earth (Ephesians 6:3). But this
prophecy just refuses to lie down in complete fulfillment and is
eventually extended to the New Heavens and the New Earth
(Matthew 5:5; Rev. 21-22).
But there are many more examples we could look at: the promise of
Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14) was fulfilled at the time of Ahaz (Isaiah
7:15-16), as well as at the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:22-23),
then there is the promise of Zechariah 12:10, fulfilled in the
crucifixion (John 19:37), and to be fulfilled again at Christ's
return (Matthew 24:30; Rev. 1:17). Joel 2:28-32 is fulfilled at
Pentecost (Acts 2:16-21), and will surely be fulfilled again in
the future. Isaiah 49:8 is fulfilled in the return from Babylon,
as well as in the preaching of the gospel (2 Cor. 6:2).
Yet even all of this does not cover all the examples which
clearly show that God's divine promise is a thing which cannot be
shut up in a box; God's promise is a dynamic spiritual matter!
Historical predictions just do not work in this manner; they
either come true or they do not! They are static, they are not a
living, dynamic matter as the promises of God
are!
Historical predictions are just calculations involved in time and
space; they have no power or meaning, of themselves. But the
promises of God - as a work of the Holy Spirit, inspire,
strengthen and illuminate the people of God.
God has mostly (but not entirely) clothed His great prophecies to
His people in either poetry, or apocalyptic language (Daniel and
Revelation use apocalyptic), this means that there always remains
an element of surprise in how God works out His purposes; poetry
uses the beauty of words and language in order to paint great
truths, but is it always literal? When Psalm 85:10-11 says,
'Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and truth
have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth...' is that literal? Or just very meaningful? When
Psalm 50:10 speaks of the 'cattle on a thousand hills' did
God count out exactly one thousand hills which He saw
cattle on, or does it mean, 'on many, many hills'?? I think we
know the answer - indeed, the word 'thousand' is never
used literally in the Bible.
For its part, Apocalyptic writing used heavy symbolism but
usually only had a few main points to get across, rather than
being something to be "interpreted" almost word for word (in the
style of many Bible prophecy enthusiasts). When Revelation talks
about a 'beast with seven heads and ten horns' emerging
from the sea, is that literal? Or highly symbolic? I think we all
know it is symbolic of other things! This is another reason why
it is sheer folly to view Bible prophecy as a series of world
events which can be ticked off a long checklist; indeed,
sometimes only hindsight will show God's own people that a
partial fulfillment of prophecy has taken place. But God has
normally only used His promises to address His own people, let us
not expect agnostic historians to recognise these things!
Adrio König speculated that prophecies cannot be
completely fulfilled in an imperfect world, but that
partial fulfillments might occur several times until the
restoration of all things. König also said this,
'No one can deduce from prophecy exactly what shape events
will take. In fact, it is not even possible to recognize
prophecy's fulfillment without faith in Christ. That is why the
Jews could not see Old Testament promises fulfilled in Jesus,
even though He fulfilled the entire complex of Old Testament
promises. Whoever does not accept Jesus in faith is simply unable
to recognize Him as the promised messiah.'
(Source at article ending).
So the conclusion of this whole matter is that Bible prophecy is
really nothing like predictions of events to occur in history,
fully 'recordable' by even atheistic historians. If we make the
mistake of viewing it in this limited and confined manner, we
will repeatedly fall into error and may bring real reproach and
shame on the solemn revelation contained within the Holy
Bible.
Indeed, I have noted with dismay that too many who set themselves
up as Bible prophecy guros do not even have a basic understanding
of the structure of the Book of Revelation (to mention just one
book), even though they continually scream out dire warnings
which, they claim, are based on this great book
(Revelation contains seven parallel sections all covering world
events between the first and second comings of Christ but from
differing viewpoints; this is quite clear and is recognised by
most serious Bible students even though apparently unnoticed by
scores of rather loud "Revelation experts").
Robin A. Brace
2004
(Quotation: 'The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology', Adrio
König , Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1989, page 185).
I freely acknowledge my gratitude to those great Bible writers
who helped recover my eschatology from the confusion of my
Armstrongist years. I speak of such great writers as Martyn
Lloyd-Jones, Hendriksen, König , Bavinck, Venema and
others.
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