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Prophecy vs. The
Salvation Process
How many of you out there would like to know, right now, the
following facts:
1) The date the Great Tribulation is to begin?
2) The identity and present location of the man who will be the Beast?
3) The identity and present location of the man who will be the False
Prophet?
4) The identity and present location of the Two Witnesses?
5) The complete details and date when the Abomination of Desolation will
take place?
6) The present location of the Ark of the Covenant?
7) The date and complete details when the US will be attacked?
I suspect that 10 out of 10 individuals reading this would dearly love
to know all of the above, myself included. The question is, when
does our desire for this information become a spiritual liability?
When does it become a stumbling block or blockade to our very Salvation?
What should we know? What is the true design of prophecy and why
does God include it in the Bible?
Following is the question I offer to those I suspect are becoming a
little [if not overly] obsessed with wanting to know the answers to the
above questions or who feel they absolutely know the answer to one or
more of them.
Question: What would you say
if I told you I had the definitive book on prophecy? In it are all
of the yet to be fulfilled prophecies along with every bit of
information a person could possibly want including...
a) Date and time the prophecy will take place.
b) Specific location or locations prophecy will take place.
c) A list of every human that will be involved in the prophetic event.
Included would be the names and number of anyone killed.
d) A complete, minute-by-minute timeline and full description of what is
to happen.
Questions:
1]
What good would this book do one in the Salvation Process?
2] Does
knowing all this information insure anyone's Salvation?
3] Is any of
it required for Salvation?
4] Could I even use it to save my physical
life?
5] Would I be justified before God to use this book to attempt
to save my life? [note:
I have no such
book on prophecy]
The answer to question one is NONE. The answer to the
remaining four questions is a resounding NO! Whereas prophecy has a specific
purpose for firstfruits everywhere, it has very little, if any, impact
or bearing on one's Salvation Process. Let me read from our
doctrine on
Prophecy as I make a few comments
--"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret
unto His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). Thus God has not left man
totally in the dark about the general course of future world events.
God is telling us that He will reveal what it is He is going to do.
No codes or puzzles to decipher. Whether God uses the prophecies
of the Bible or wishes to express more information in the end time, He
will make things known to us. Prophecy is designed to make sense
AS IT HAPPENS and He gives us no instruction about "breaking codes" or
figuring out the prophecy before the fact.
--"No prophecy is an end to itself. Any prophecy only has lasting
importance in the final analysis, because it adds to our knowledge of
Christ, His family, His way of life, His return, His coming Kingdom, and
the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the setting up of that
Kingdom. If one forgets this simple truth, he may find himself wandering
from obscure prophecy to obscure prophecy, restricted to learning about
relatively unimportant technicalities while missing the overall thrust
and importance of the basic prophecies of Christ's second coming."
Sadly I have seen some fixated on one or more prophecies. They
tout thirty to fifty-page papers proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that
the Beast is this man or that man over there. They spend vast
amounts of time distributing this information, erecting web sites and
filling all their conversations with the special knowledge. Our
doctrine is correct; no prophecy is an end to itself. They add to
our knowledge of Christ and the Plan of God. Notice that they do
this without us having all the minute details of just how they will
unfold.
--It is paradoxical that often the more uncertain points of prophecy
tend to receive the most attention. It sometimes seems that these
hard-to-decipher prophecies attract interest in direct proportion to how
little about them is overtly stated in the Bible. There is nothing wrong
with the study of obscure prophecies—indeed, it is quite understandable
–so long as the relative importance of prophecies is kept clear, and the
prophecies about Jesus Christ are kept clearest. God designed the human
mind to enjoy the intellectual "high" which the probing of prophetic
secrets affords. "It is the glory of God to conceal things: but the
glory of kings to search things out" (Proverbs. 25:2).
Yes, the more obscure the prophecy, the more attention they receive.
The more obscure they are, the more time that is needed to decipher
them. Fact is, we have little time and we must allocate most of it
to the Salvation-related issues and not lose ourselves [literally] in
obscure prophecies or attempting to identify who the Beast or Witnesses
are. There is nothing wrong in searching things out as long as we
do it in balance and take steps to insure we spend as much time in
Salvation Process-related issues.
--Thus, while one may look at the contemporary scene and make
identifications which seem plausible, there is no guarantee that one's
speculations are perfectly on target. After all, many of the "prophecy
charts," time schemes, reconstructions and the like of the past two
millennia have been internally consistent and externally cogent. There
was only one real flaw: they were wrong. So. the only worthwhile test of
any prophetic presentation is ultimately quite obvious—will it, or will
it not, actually occur in reality?
This is key. Most of the speculations
and charts and papers that have been written over the years by
individuals in and outside the Body of Christ have mostly proved to be
in error. There is a message here that is ringing loud and clear.
That message is telling us not to put too much time or too much stock in
these things. I saw a paper just the other day with all kinds of
purported evidence that Prince Charles is the prophesied Beast to come.
There is nothing wrong with the authoring of the paper. There is
nothing wrong with someone distributing the paper. There is also
nothing wrong with a member of the church attempting to determine who
the Beast might be. There is a problem when this same member is
spending all their spiritual time on prophecy and not the weightier
issues of Salvation.
--Although enormous numbers of incredibly detailed prophetic schemes
have been deduced from the Bible, the success record of correctly
predicting future events and dates has been rather meager. Hindsight has
always been more successful than foresight in determining the reality of
prophecy.
That's it!! Hindsight is always
better. This shows us that witnessing the prophecy unfold in front
of your eyes is always better that attempting to guess it before hand.
Someone believes Prince Charles is the prophesied Beast. Fine, I
will keep watch on him along with half a dozen other prime candidates
for which others have written those thirty and fifty-page papers.
The biblical command is to Watch as our doctrine is about to say.
--Certainly the injunction to "watch at all times" (Luke. 21:36) must be
heeded, but the Bible does not give any major examples of people
acquiring specific predictive knowledge of the future from the written
prophecies alone.
Our doctrinal admonition here is my admonition to us all. The
Bible does not give us a mandate to acquire specific predictive
knowledge of some future event. In spreading the gospel, the
church makes predictions about where certain breaking news events seem
to be leading in light of Bible prophecy. We do this under the
heading of "Watching." We are not publishing specific ideas, as if
they were facts. We can, in no way print that this man is the
Beast or that man one of the Two Witnesses. Prophecy is often a
general outline of how things will unfold in the end time. Our
predictions regarding the news are also rather general and rarely get
very specific. The gospel-spreader's aim is to give people the
good news of the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His
kingdom. Predictions are made about movement of news events. [see
my Notebook piece, "Prophecy vs.
Prediction"]
--Though prophecy has always been intriguing and exciting to human
beings who have constantly sought to know the future, Paul's strong
admonition is that "if I have prophetic powers, and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians
13:2). Love, then, is the essential characteristic of the Christian—It
is the clearest stamp of God's Spirit in action. Interestingly enough,
Paul continues his contrast of love and prophecy in this chapter. "Love
never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away (fail, KJV) ....For
our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the
perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away" (1 Corinthians 13:8-10).
Paul is essentially pointing out that the Salvation Process is more
important than knowledge of prophecy. "Love" is a chief element of
the Salvation Process. Paul makes it clear the Salvation Process
is stronger than prophecy. Prophecies can fail and ultimately with
their fulfillment they are completed and done. Salvation, on the
other hand is eternal. The Salvation Process brings perfection.
Pure knowledge of prophecy [knowing all dates and identifications] does
not.
--The study of prophecy can be an interesting and rewarding experience.
It is indeed placed in scripture to be analyzed and appreciated in a
Christian's relationship to God. However, it is yet unfolding and we
must be careful to let events in the real world guide our understanding
of the times and seasons, rather than leaping ahead with speculations
not grounded on events.
Another key point: Let the unfolding
world events guide our understanding of prophecy. This is much
preferable over deciphering a Bible prophecy and hoping that world
events will match it. Indeed, God designed prophecy to make sense
as it unfolds. He wants our eyes on His prophecies, but He wants
our hearts and souls in the Salvation Process.
So study and analyze prophecy as you will, but keep yourself in balance
and give the greater amount of your time and effort to the Salvation
Process...which is eternal.
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