One third of the Bible is PROPHECY! Why was it written? Why is it
so mysterious? Why does almost no one understand it? Here are the Bible
answers!
PROPHECY ?
One third of the
Bible is PROPHECY! Why was it written? Why is it so mysterious? Why
does almost no one understand it? Here are the Bible answers!
BIBLE prophecy
has perplexed millions ! Many hundreds of volumes have been written -
articles, leaflets, tracts printed - thousands of sermons have been
preached - all about Biblical prophecy!
And yet - look at all the confusion!
Many believe ALL
the prophecies have been fulfilled. Others believe the prophecies were
merely the pronouncements of wild-eyed fanatics carried away with
visions of doom. Still others believe the prophecies are confined to
the Old Testament, and are all done away.
Still others preach that MOST Biblical prophecy is for our day - now!
What is the truth?
What Is Prophecy?
The Hebrew word
for prophet, nabi, means "one who announces or brings a message from
God." The word "prophet" in the English language means essentially the
same thing - "one who speaks by divine inspiration as the interpreter
or spokesman of God," whether it be a message of duty and warning, or a
prediction of future events.
A
prophet is one who
speaks for God; hence, the prefix pro (from the Greek language -
from which our word prophet is derived) which means "{or" and "before."
So that a prophet is one who speaks for God, or one who tells before -
one who predicts, foretells, prophesies.
Common Misconceptions
Many people
falsely assume all prophecies are merely dire foretellings of
catastrophic events, of the wrathful vengeance of a harsh God who is
about to descend with terrible fury upon His hapless subjects here
below!
This is FAR from
the truth! Many of the prophecies foretell a time of peace, of
happiness, of restoration, of joy, of great prosperity and physical
wealth for those who are serving God.
Many prophecies
merely foretell, in advance, certain events which are to happen, the
rise and fall of nations, the course of world affairs!
Prophecy is a
chronicle of the great PLAN God is working out here below! It describes
this plan in detail, showing how God knew it would work out,
according to human
nature, together
with other special interventions of God. Prophecy is HISTORY written in advance!
Who Were the Prophets?
The prophets
were not a special hierarchy, a guild, or a certain "class" of men!
Many of them were chosen from various of the twelve tribes of Israel,
and, unlike those of the tribe of Levi, were not born into their office.
". . . The
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:21).
Daniel was a
Jew, of the tribe of Judah, one of the princes of the nation, with whom
God began to deal - revealing the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams,
and causing Daniel to write many prophecies which he, himself, did not
understand! (Dan. 12:8-9.)
Jeremiah was one
"of the priests" (Jer. 1:1), who argued he was too young to become a
prophet of God! Hosea was apparently of Zebulun, Jonah ran from the
call of God, Isaiah claimed he was a man of unclean lips,
and didn't want
to prophesy, and Zephaniah was one
of the princes of Judah, possibly of the descendants of Hezekiah.
As the Holy
Spirit inspired Peter to write, God called His prophets - sent them
with a message as divinely commissioned messengers. On many occasions,
they had to be made willing to carry the message of God. These men WERE
NOT SEEKING for some kind of a "spiritual experience," they were not
earnestly desiring the office of a "prophet," they were chosen of God!
Notice the way God called Amos!
"The words of
Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw" (Amos 1:1).
Amos was going about his daily life, among the herd-men, minding his
own business, and God expressly REVEALED a certain message to him.
Later, when Amos was approached by Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, who
told Amos not to prophesy, but to go into another country, Amos
answered, ". . . I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I
was an herd-man, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit [margin - wild figs]:
and the Eternal took me as I followed the flock, and the Eternal said
unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel" (Amos 7:14-15).
Amos was herding sheep - NOT "looking" for some kind of religious "experience" - and God CALLED him.'
Who were the
prophets? They were princes, sheepherders, farmers, fishermen, or
priests. They came from many different tribes, and God called them at
many different times.
Your Bible says
that they were "holy men of old"! And on these men, together with the
New Testament apostles, is based the very Church of God! "Now therefore
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and PROPHETS, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
cornerstone" (Eph. 2:19-20).
Why Was Prophecy Written?
God selected
Jonah as a prophet and, after making him willing to carry the message
of God, commissioned him to go to the great city of Nineveh. Jonah
finally went. Jonah prophesied, lifting up his voice in loud warning as
he traversed the great, sprawling city of Nineveh!
Finally, the
word came to the king. The king realized the seriousness of the
prophecy, and ". . . arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from
him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it
to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the
king and his nobles saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock,
taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and
beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God. . . . And
God saw their works that they turned from their evil way; and God
repented of the evil, that He had said that He would do unto them; and
He did it not" (Jonah 3:6-10).
Notice it! Jonah
fulfilled his commission! Jonah's job of orally shouting the warning
was over! Jonah had been made willing, had carried the message to
Nineveh, and Nineveh had actually REPENTED!
Then - if the
prophecy had served its purpose, if the warning had been heeded, if
Jonah's commission was over, why the need of writing the prophecy?
Jonah WROTE the whole thing, and it forms a part of your Bible today!
Again, notice the 36th chapter of Jeremiah.
"And it came to
pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah,
that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Eternal, saying, Take thee a
roll of a book [a scroll], and write therein all the words that I have
spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the
nations. ... It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil
which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from
his evil way. . . . Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and
Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Eternal,
which He had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book" (Jer. 36:1-4).
After the
writing of this dire warning toward Israel and Judah, notice what
happened! "Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I
am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the Lord: therefore go thou,
and READ in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words
of the Eternal in the ears of the people in the Eternal's house upon
the fasting day. ... It may be they will present their supplication
before the Eternal, and will return every one from his evil way. .. .
And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the
prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the Eternal in
the Eternal's house" (Jer. 36:5-8).
The people heard
it, and also one of the princes who was present. He carried the message
to other princes, whereupon they sent Jehudi (verse 14) to tell Baruch
to come to them. He arose, took the scroll in his hand and began to
read it to them. They then told the king (verse 20).
Now notice what
happened! "So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it
out of Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of
the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the
king. Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there
was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that
when Jehudi had read three or four leaves [columns] he [the king] cut
it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth,
until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth"
(verses 21-23). The king then commanded (verse 26) that Baruch and
Jeremiah be seized. However, they escaped, being hidden of God.
Stop and think
for a moment. God had revealed a message to Jeremiah. Jeremiah had
caused the message to be WRITTEN. The message had then reached all the
people. Then all the princes heard it. Finally, it reached the KING! On
this occasion, unlike Nineveh, neither the king, the princes, nor the
people repented!
However, the
purpose of the prophecy was fulfilled - wasn't it? Everyone had HEARD,
orally, the exact words of this amazing prophecy read in their own ears!
But - IF the
whole purpose of this prophecy had already been fulfilled, and if there
were not a DUAL application - if there were not yet a FUTURE
fulfillment of this prophecy - THEN WHY DID GOD CAUSE EVERY WORD TO BE
WRITTEN THE SECOND TIME?
"Then the word
of the Eternal came to Jeremiah, AFTER that the king had burned the
roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah,
saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it ALL THE FORMER
WORDS that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah
hath burned" (Jer. 36:27-28).
Do you see? God
caused every single word and other words besides to be WRITTEN the
second time! He caused Jonah to write the prophecy even though the city
repented. God wanted these words preserved! God wanted them to come
right on down to our time - now!
Written for OUR DAY!
The very PURPOSE
for writing one single word of prophecy is to preserve the prophecies
for future generations! God saw to it, even by intervening in a divine
miracle, that His sacred words were to be preserved to all generations.
Here's part of
the reason: "Now these things were our examples, to the intent we
should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted" (I Cor. 10:6).
God caused these prophecies to be written for our examples, today! "Now
all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are WRITTEN
for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come" (I Cor.
10:11).
God caused the
prophecies to be written to SHOW His servants how world conditions
would work out. "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto
Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass;
and He sent and signified it by His angels unto His servant John" (Rev.
1:1).
Why? So His
servants in this modern age can come to understand the prophecies,
preaching and publishing them to the modern nations for whom they were
intended ! Read Ezekiel 33 !
God makes an
ironclad promise that He will NOT cause any major world condition to
occur, that He will not intervene in world affairs, unless His servants
- those who are members of the very body of Jesus Christ - know about
it first! "Surely the Eternal God will do nothing but He REVEALETH His
secret unto His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7).
One full third of the Bible is prophecy - and about 90% of all that prophecy still pertains to OUR DAY - right now!
The Amazing Prophecy of Ezekiel
Notice what
happened to Ezekiel! "... I was among the captives by the River of
Chebar. . . and I saw visions of God" (Ezek. 1:1). Read the first
chapter of Ezekiel! Here is a picture of the very throne of the One who
later became Jesus Christ! Ezekiel saw a great whirlwind (verse 4) in
the midst of which were four living creatures (verse 5), carrying, over
their heads, an expanse of translucent material (verse 22) the color of
glass, or crystal. On this expanse of beautiful, crystal-like material,
was a throne! (Verse 26.)
Seated on the
throne was One "as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as
the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it,
from the appearance of His loins even upward {compare with Rev.
1:13-16] and from the appearance of His loins even downward, I saw as
it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. . .
. THIS WAS the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the
Lord"! (Ezek. 1:26-28.)
Ezekiel then
heard a voice (chapter 1:28) and the voice said, "Son of man, stand
upon thy feet, and / will speak unto thee. And He said unto me, Son of
man ... I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, THUS
SAITH THE LORD ETERNAL" (Ezek. 2:1, 3,4,).
Ezekiel was being sent with a message by the Eternal, the Lord of the Old Testament - who is Jesus Christ of the New Testament!
But Ezekiel was
in captivity. He was sent to the House of Israel! He was also given
prophecies against the Ammonites (25:2), against Moab (25:8), against
Edom (25:12), against the Philistines (25:15), against Tyre (26:2-3),
against Egypt
(29:2); and against other nations,
a great distance from his location in Babylon.
But Ezekiel was
in captivity. The word of the Eternal came to him, giving him these
messages - commissioning him to warn these specific nations!
But Ezekiel was never released to GO to these nations!
A Captive Jew
Imagine it!
Picture, if you can, a young Jewish lad in a concentration camp in
Germany, during World War II. Let's suppose Almighty God reveals to him
startling visions, symbolizing what is to happen to Egypt, Japan, Great
Britain and the United States! God tells him to "get you unto Egypt,
Japan, Britain and the United States."
Are his German
captors going to believe he has received such a message? Even if they
DID - is it feasible they would let him go, in order to travel all
about the world during a time of warfare, reaching the leaders of these
nations? Even if he COULD feasibly travel from place to place, is it
possible anyone with such a message, claiming to be a prophet sent from
God, would be ushered right into the White House of the President of
the United States, into the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, or to No. 10
Downing Street in London?
Of course not!
Ezekie! never reached these nations!
Instead, he WROTE the prophecies!
Do you realize
that Ezekiel, a young captive Jew, in a veritable "concentration camp"
in Babylon, was given prophecies toward Israel over 120 years after
Israel had already gone into a captivity? And that He never reached the
Israelites with the message?
Ezekiel saw
visions of impending destruction upon Israel "in the fifth day of the
month, which was the fifth year of King fehoiachin's captivity" (Ezek.
1:2-3). Jehoiachin went into captivity in 596 B.C. The fifth year
brings us to about 592 B.C., or over 125 years after the removal of the
last of the remaining northern tribes, 721-718 B.C.
If you have not
yet seen the startling identity of the lost ten tribes of Israel
PROVED, write immediately for Mr. Armstrong's book The United States
and British Commonwealth in Prophecy!
Ezekiel's
prophecy never, in all his-glory until NOW, reached the ears of
the nations, peoples, or kings for whom the messages were intended!
Rather, Ezekiel WROTE these amazing prophecies! He wrote them because God was intending to PRESERVE THEM for our day!
Prophecy is DUAL
! Notice the theme of duality running throughout the Bible. There was
the first man Adam, and the second Adam, who was Christ (I Cor.
15:45-47). There is the Old Testament, and the New Testament. There was
the old Jerusalem and a new heavenly Jerusalem. Study Matthew 24! Here,
Jesus answered the questions of the disciples about the end of the age,
and His imminent return! Many believe Matthew 24 was totally FULFILLED
in 70 A.D. at the destruction of Jerusalem. This is entirely baseless!
They must believe, by this assumption, that Jesus was a liar! But
Christ did not lie - what happened in part in 70 A.D. was merely a
forerunner, a former type of the REAL FULFILLMENT of ALL the prophecies
of Matthew 24 !
Ezekiel's
prophecies are also DUAL ! And the real, LITERAL fulfillment of the
prophecies of Ezekiel are right ahead of us - NOW !
HOW to Understand Prophecy!
There are
definite keys to the understanding of Biblical prophecy. Most have
never understood what those keys are! The keys to prophecy have become
lost!
Of great importance is the modern identity of the nations mentioned in Bible prophecy.
Also, in ancient
times, when a prophet of God came to a king (such as the king of
Nineveh) the message was sometimes believed, and a great REFORM
effected. From time to time, as God sent judges and prophets, there
were certain reforms carried out in Israel. At least SOME kings of
Israel recognized these prophets spoke, not according to their own
cleverly devised human reasoning, but according to the divinely
inspired irords of God! Notice how totally DIFFERENT we are today!
You know
national leaders today would look upon preaching the
prophecies of what God
says is going to happen as mere
fanaticism. They would spurn, scorn, ridicule and scoff at any mention
of "Biblical prophecy."
Today, prophecy
seems to be a weird, fanatical sort of "religious ax-grinding," having
no bearing on actual fact or present-day world conditions.
What a SHOCK lies ahead for world leaders!
You CAN
understand Biblical prophecy. Here's how: God told Daniel the words
which he had received were closed and sealed - but only UNTIL a certain
time. Read it! "And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are
closed up and sealed TILL the time of the end. Many shall be purified,
and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none
of the wicked shall understand; but the WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND" (Dan.
12: 9-10).
Who are the
"wise" ? God says, "the fear of the Eternal is the BEGINNING of wisdom"
(Prov. 9:10). Wisdom comes from God! "For the Eternal giveth wisdom,
out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding" (Prov. 2:6).
The way to get
wisdom - to come to understand the Bible prophecies - is to FEAR (be in
awe of) Almighty God! "Thus saith the Eternal, The heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto
me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Eternal: but to
this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite
spirit, and TREMBLETH at my word!" (Isa. 66:1, 2).
The mere
BEGINNING of wisdom is to fear God. Next, one must learn to respect, to
fear, to TREMBLE before the divinely inspired word of God!
Today people
say, "Well, I know the Bible says that - but here's the way I look at
it!" People do not seem to really fear to misapply, to misinterpret,
wrest, distort and twist the sacred word of God! People do not really
RESPECT the divinely inspired words of Almighty God!
That's why
people don't understand the Bible! You can come to understand the
Bible, and Biblical prophecy, ONLY when you begin to really FEAR and
RESPECT what the Bible says!
The Apostle Paul
said, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: NEITHER CAN HE KNOW THEM, because
they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor. 2:14). The disciples of Jesus
Christ couldn't even understand the simplest parables which Jesus
taught them privately! However, AFTER they had been converted, after
they had received the Holy Spirit of God, then they UNDERSTOOD!
It is only when
one has truly come to fear God, to OBEY God, has REPENTED, and received
God's Holy Spirit, that true understanding of the prophecies of God can
come.
What Prophecy Means to You!
Jesus Christ
commissioned His Church to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God to
all the world as a WITNESS (Matt. 28:18-20, Matt. 24:14). The Gospel is
prophetic! It has to do with present-day world news, and the FUTURE of
this whole earth!
The whole
meaning of the Gospel is PROPHETIC. Jesus Christ said, "Watch ye
therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape
all these things that shall come to pass, (that are prophesied - that
are to happen in the FUTURE] and to stand before the Son of Man!" (Luke
21:36).
You need to come
to UNDERSTAND prophecy! Only by understanding the prophecies of the
Bible can you intelligently WATCH - and Jesus meant watch world news.
When you KNOW, in advance, what is GOING to happen - then you can be a
real watchman of Almighty God! That's uhy God caused the prophecies to
be recorded - to warn the world NOW!
Keep reading The
PLAIN TRUTH and TOMORROW'S WORLD! Don't miss a single WORLD TOMORROW
program! Write for the booklets, The Book of Revelation Unveiled At
Last and The Key to the Book of Revelation. STUDY YOUR BIBLE - PRAY for
God to give you an obedient, humble, submissive mind - giving you more
and more a deep, respectful AWE of the word of God! You can't afford
NOT to - your very life- your FUTURE is at stake!
February 1970 Tomorrow's World Magazine articel by Garner Ted Armstrong
