Twenty
years ago I use to see the prophetic clock five minutes till midnight, today as I
view world events in light of Biblical prophecy it is abundantly clear
that
prophetic time has advanced.
In today's world there is a growing interest in Biblical Prophecy among God's people, especially in
light of current world events with Israel in particular, the rise of the European Union, Iran, Russia, the
rapid move to economic globalization, increase in the severity of natural and man made disasters, the increase
of apostasy within the professing Christian church, societal violence, etc.
Unfortunately
biblical teaching about prophecy is another one of those areas that is
typically not taught today in many number
of churches.
Some have even discourage the study of Biblical prophecy by saying that
Jesus discourage the study of prophecy. Others are saying that prophecy
is obscure and no one can be sure as to its fulfillment. While others have relegated
prophecy as irrelevant.
Yet scripture is
approximately 27%-30% prophecy. According to
Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy, the late
Professor J. Barton Payne stated that the Bible contains 1,817
prophecies which encompasses 8,352 predictive verses.
Now what Bible student
would want to ignore that much of the Bible.
The Bible says the following in 2 Tim
3:16-17:
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in
righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate,
equipped for every good work.
Since all scripture is inspired by God
and man should live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God
the church has a command from God to teach all of scripture this
includes prophecy.
I don't believe we
need to try and equate every news headline as the fulfillment of a
particular Biblical verse or start setting dates as to when certain
Biblical events will occur. We may very well continue to experience more volatile
times such as what we are experiencing today for quite some time, only time will tell.
But like all passed
prophetic events, there were "foreshadowing
events"
that where
directly
tied to the ultimate fulfillment of Biblical prophecies.
It
is quite clear from events that are occurring in the world today, we are
witnessing “foreshadowing events”, that are tied to prophecies that deal
with the end times.
In the following I will convey a panoramic
Biblical prophetic view giving a general picture of
where we are on God's prophetic time table in
relationship to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my
conviction that and awareness in these areas will enable the believer to
be alert and sober as to the time of the return of Christ (1 Thess 5:4-6)
So that no one misunderstands, this is by no means an attempt to set any dates only to show in a general way of where we are on God's prophetic agenda based on his prophetic word.
God has announced his prophetic plans in advance as the following verses indicates, and gives us the surety of its fulfillment through already fulfilled prophecies. By doing so it is clear that he meant for the prophetic scriptures to be understood by his people.
Point of note, regardless of which eschatological view you may hold, world events are shaping up in a way that point to a literal fulfillment of the prophetic scriptures.
|
||||||||