Lesson #12

Course in Biblical Doctrine
Lesson #12

Bible Prophecy

• Prophecy and the Bible
• Prophecy makes up a large part of the Bible.
• 1/4 of the books in the Bible are prophecy
• 1 verse in 5 is prophecy.
• There are some Christians who avoid Biblical prophecy because they find it so confusing or incomprehensible. If you are in that category, you are missing the knowledge and excitement of a great part of the Bible.
• What is a prophet?
• The role of a prophet of God consisted of two parts:
• Foretelling (to speak before the event) = prediction
• Forthtelling (to declare the words of God) = not prediction.
• It was not necessary to predict the future to be a prophet.
• However, prediction is often a vital part of the prophet’s message.
• The role of a prophet also consisted of using his lifestyle as a part of his message. It was not just a 9 a.m.– 5 p.m. job. When God called men to be prophets, the calling demanded the surrender of one’s whole life, one’s whole self, and everything in one’s life.
• If prophesy is so difficult, there must be some guidelines for interpreting prophecy.

What are the laws of predictive prophecy?

• =1= Man is the agent of fulfillment
• The prediction comes true only if man persists in his evil ways.
• Many times the prophecy does not say, “Repent or this terrible event will occur!”
• However, there is always this inherent part in the prophet’s message, “Repent or judgment comes.”
• Prediction does not create the event. All prophecy is conditional. In other words, the idea was that if man repented, the prophecy would not take place.
• However, because man’s heart is incurably sinful, eventually the prophecy will come to pass. For example: Jon 3:4,10 Nah 2
• People repented and God delayed the destruction of Nineveh
• However, repentance did not last and the city fell about 150 years later in 612 BC according to the details in Nahum 2.
• Therefore, man’s persistent sin causes the fulfillment of prophecy to occur.
• =2= The predictions of God are 100% accurate

• Because God is outside of time and space, He sees the beginning and the end all at the same time.
• This unique characteristic of God gives Him a perspective that man cannot have.
• It is for this reason that God’s predictions are 100% accurate.
• Read Deu 18:22
• Predictions occur in prophecy to validate the Word of God and to validate the prophet as a true prophet of God.
• Because the predictions occur with 100% accuracy, we can know they come from God and His unique perspective.
• Because the predictions are accurate, we can know that the prophet that speaks them has a close relationship with God and speaks God’s words.
• Examples:
• The Babylonian captivity lasted from 606-536 BC. This captivity was predicted 150 years before it happened in 2Kin 20:14-18
• Jer 25:9-12 predicted that the captivity would last for 70 years.
• The fall of the Babylonian empire to the Medes and the Persians was predicted in Isa 13:17
• Cyrus was named by the prophet 150 years before Cyrus was born.
• =3= Predictions must be beyond the power of human foresight

• The prophecy must have enough time to pass to prevent the prophet from becoming the fulfilling agent.
• This is why many prophecies are in the far distant future.
• The true prophet of God does not fulfill the prophecies that come from his own mouth.
• =4= Prophecy must have enough detail to prevent guesswork and chance happening.

• This is the mathematical phenomenon of compound probability.
• Every time you add a detail, your prophecy is less and less likely to come to pass.
• For example: Prophecies of the Messiah give 333 details about the coming of Christ.
• That makes it a probability of 1 chance in 840 (with 97 zeros after it) that it will come to pass.
• =5= The law of double reference

• An understanding of this law is essential to an understanding of Bible prophecy, and yet most Christians have never heard of it.
• The definition of “double reference” = a prophecy partially fulfilled at one point in time to be completely fulfilled at a later point in time. There are two fulfillments.
• For example: the first and second coming of Christ
• One of the reasons why the Jews missed seeing Jesus as the Messiah was because of a lack of understanding regarding double reference.
• There are many Bible prophecies that talk about the first coming and the second coming of Christ all within one verse. The Jews failed to separate the two comings.
• Read Dan 7:2-8
• Verse 7 was first fulfilled by the Roman Empire.
• However, verse 8 has not yet been fulfilled.
• Because of their failure to understand this law of double reference, many Jews looked for two Messiahs
• One Messiah was called Ben-Joseph (son of Joseph). He would be the Messiah that would suffer unjustly the way Joseph suffered in Genesis.
• Another Messiah was called Ben-David (son of David). He would be the Messiah that would reign as a king like David.
• From where does this principle come and why does God use double reference?
• God established this principle with the Jews. A rabbinic rule of scripture interpretation said that if a future event was mentioned more than once, it would have a dual or double fulfillment.
• God used this principle because the prophet had a message for his own day as well as a message for the future in order to fulfill God’s plan.
• History repeats itself. Because the sin nature of man is predictably evil, warnings for one generation are valid for another generation. Human nature has not changed since the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3.
• God has placed in history partial fulfillments so man would know what to look for at the end of time.
• The first fulfillment would be an assurance of the second fulfillment to come.
• If man sees that God completes the first fulfillment, he will know that without a doubt God will complete the second fulfillment.
• The first fulfillment is a validation of the prophet as a true prophet of God. Therefore the first fulfillment must occur sometime within the prophet’s lifetime so his immediate audience would recognize that the message came from God.
• What was not fulfilled in the first fulfillment must apply to the second fulfillment. What has been fulfilled is often considered as typical or an example of what remains to be accomplished.

• =6= Much of Bible prophecy is given in symbolic form

• Prophecy in the Old Testament is written in the past or the present tense simply because the Hebrew language had no future tense.
• The prophet sees it as a completed event in space and time very much the way God views it from outside of time and space in which we live.

• What are the problems in interpreting prophecy

?

• Read Heb 1:1
• The methods of prophetic revelation. God reveals himself and His plan for man through::
• Types (prefigures)
• Symbols
• Parables
• Dreams or visions
• Why is prophecy so difficult?
• One reason that prophecy is so difficult is that people lack knowledge of the whole Bible.
• God does not contradict Himself in scripture.
• Therefore, if your interpretation of scripture contradicts something else that is clearly explained in another place in the Bible, your interpretation is wrong.
• The limited vision of the prophet is one reason why prophecy is so difficult.
• One prophet never sees the whole picture. God only gives him a small part of the whole. It is as though the prophet is standing in a field and looking at the horizon. He sees some of the mountains of events in the distance, but he does not see all of them. Behind one large mountain there may be other smaller mountains of prophetic events that he does not see.
• Therefore there is a jigsaw aspect of fitting prophetic pieces together. This is the problem of the timing of events.
• The problem of the timing of events is man’s unique problem because man lives inside of time and space while God is outside of time and space.
• Because prophecy is like a jigsaw puzzle, what may seem to fit in one point in time may not be the accurate placement of that particular event.
• The closer we get to the fulfillment of the prophecy, the pieces fall more easily into place.
• Natural assumption determines some of the placement (logic)
• For example: Daniel tells us that in the tribulation period, the Jews will again offer animal sacrifice.
• Therefore, we can presume by logic that the Jewish temple will be rebuilt some time before that happens because the Jews cannot do animal sacrifice without a temple.
• Scripture determines some of the placement of events
• For example: Rev 13 the Antichrist and the False Prophet occur together and interact together so we know they are associated in the same time span.
• Sometimes a time sequence is given in scripture
• Daniel’s 70 weeks
• Read Dan 9:24-27
• Read Dan 12:11-12
• Read Dan 8:14
• How do we arrive at an interpretation for Bible prophecy?
• You can’t take symbols literally.
• One must come up with a meaning for the symbols.
• We arrive at the interpretation of symbols by comparing scripture with scripture.
• This is the comparison of the context of one passage where the event occurs with the context of another passage where the same event occurs.
• We must keep the meaning of symbols consistent through all of scripture.
• For example: the symbol of “leaven”.
• If we compare Exo 12:15 Mat 16:6 and 1Cor 5:7-8, we see that leaven in all cases is something evil that must be avoided. Therefore, leaven represents sin.
• Principles for prophetic / symbolic interpretation
• Determine an accurate knowledge of the symbol’s nature.
• For example, the symbol leaven: Leaven puffs up with air and sin puffs up man’s pride falsely.
• Leaven changes the whole lump of dough, and in the same way sin changes all of man’s life and affects others around him.
• Determine Old Testament Mosaic symbols and their meanings in context with Mosaic truth.
• The import of each separate symbol is to be sought in the first place from its name.
• For example: The symbol “rock” is something hard and difficult to penetrate.
• For example: The symbol “lamb” is a docile animal.
• Each symbol has but one meaning however different the connection in which they may occur.
• Each symbol has always the same fundamental meaning through all of scripture.
• Determine if each symbol is a primary symbol of importance or simply a symbol of secondary importance.
• Of what value is Bible prophecy?
• The primary value is a confirmation that the Word of God is truly inspired by a God who knows the end from the beginning.
• The Word is consistent throughout and does not contradict itself.
• The prophecies in the Word of God validate Jesus Christ, who He is and what He came to do.
• Because Bible prophecy has a double fulfillment, Bible prophecy tells us what to look for in the future by looking back to the past to see how God fulfilled His Word the first time.
• Where are the major misinterpretations of Bible prophecy?
• =1= Israel failed to discern the coming of the Messiah because they put aside the law of double reference.
• The Jews still look for the first coming of their Messiah. Even though the law of double reference is part of their traditional writings, they disregarded it to reject Jesus Christ and to crucify Him.
• They will not see their misinterpretation until the second coming of Christ. (Zec 12:10-11)
• =2= Misapplication of the recipient of prophecy.
• Many teachers and preachers apply Bible prophecy to the United States or some other gentile nation when it was intended by God for Israel. (This is called Replacement Theology and is a popular common false doctrine today.)
• The attempt to remove Israel from Scripture occurs for three reasons:
• =a= Prejudice against everything that is Jewish which falls into the apostasy of the last days. (2Th 2:3)
• =b= An attempt to punish the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by removing them from the love of God.
• This has been a popular viewpoint historically and periodically throughout Christianity.
• The reason for this is a misunderstanding of the sovereignty of God that planned the crucifixion before the foundation of the world. (Heb 9:26 1Pe 1:20 Rev 13:8)
• The reason of this popularity is a misunderstanding of the crucifixion. It was sin that nailed Jesus to the cross, not the Jews and not the Gentiles.
• =c= Ignorance of the total weight of scripture that Israel is the recipient of prophecy and the recipient of prophetic fulfillment.
• God spoke the prophecies to Jewish people with the intention of fulfilling those promises for the Jews.
• In God’s sovereignty, He knew when He made the prophetic promises that Israel would fail, but God is faithful to fulfill His part even though man fails.
• Through all the covenants of the Bible, we see God’s faithfulness contrasted with man’s failure.
• Prophecy is not different from the covenants.
• An egocentric perspective of pride (I and my people are the most important) replaces Israel with nations that did not exist in historic time.
• This lack of parameters for interpretation means that any interpretation is valid.
• God’s truth is based on prescribed standards that do not change.
• Many teachers and preachers fail to see God’s intention in choosing Israel and therefore, miss the whole message of the Bible.
• Israel is God’s earthly model.
• The Israelites were to demonstrate how God works with people.
• They were to model the blessings of God as a recompense for personal faithfulness.
• They were to model the curses of God because of a lack of personal faithfulness.
• Israel was to demonstrate how God works with nations.
• Israel proved that God will judge His own people, Israel, if they did not repent.
• In His sovereignty, God will even use pagan nations to chastise Israel.
• Israel exemplifies God’s timetable for prophecy.
• If Christians watch what God is doing with Israel, we can know the prophetic signs of the time.
• God will fulfill His prophetic calendar given in Lev 23 by means of Israel’s agricultural calendar.
• =1= The Passover (Lev 23:4-5) (the crucifixion of Christ)
• =2= The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:6-8) (Christ in the tomb)
• =3= The Feast of First fruits (Lev 23:9-14) (the resurrection of Christ)
• =4= The Feast of Pentecost (Lev 23:15-22) (the day of Pentecost)
• =5= The Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:23-25) (the rapture of the church)
• =6= The Day of Atonement (Lev 23:26-32) (the second coming of Christ)
• =7= The Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:33-36) (the millennial kingdom of Christ)
• To correct Replacement Theology, we need a good understanding of Rom 11.
• Read Rom 11:1-32
• God has not and will not abandon His people, the Jews. (1)
• God will maintain a remnant of believing Jews through History. (5-7)
• The reputation of God’s faithfulness depends on the survival of Israel. For that God will not permit the total destruction of the nation of Israel.
• This remnant of believing Jews are saved by faith in God’s grace and not by the works of the Law of Moses. (6)
• God will keep the majority of Jews in spiritual blindness until Christ comes at the Second Coming. (8)
• The spiritual blindness of the Jews nationally is maintained because the Jews will continue to stumble over the identity of Jesus Christ. (9)
• The spiritual blindness of the nation of Israel is only temporary. (11)
• God’s work with the Gentiles in this Age of Grace is to provoke the Jews to jealousy. (12)
• The temporary casting away of the Jews results in the saving of a great multitude of Gentiles.
• The temporary casting away of the Jews will end one day. Then God will work with the Jews again. (15)
• The temporary casting away of the Jews is a grafting in of the Gentiles. (17)
• Notice verse 17 says that along with Jews, the believing Gentiles partake of the blessings and promises of God.
• “…with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.”

(17) It does not say that the believing Gentiles replace the Jews.

• The purpose for temporarily setting aside the Jews was because of unbelief. (20)
• God will graft in the Jews again if they will believer. (23)
• Notice that the natural olive tree is Jewish. God gave them the Word of God. God sent the Messiah through them. (24)
• Jewish by inheritance of the promises of God
• Jewish by covenant that God made with Israel.
• Jewish by prophecy that God will fulfill His prophetic promises with Israel.
• The blindness of the Jews will end when God completes His work with the Gentiles. (25)
• The Rapture of the Church removes the believing Gentiles and the few believing Jews from this earth.
• In the Tribulation Period, God will work with the Jews again to bring them to faith at the event of the Second Coming of Christ.
• Israel as a nation will be saved. (26)
• Why will the Jews be saved? (27)
• Because God made the New Covenant in the blood of Christ with the Jews even though it is the covenant by which Gentiles are saved today. (27)
• How do we know that God has not removed the Jews permanently from His plans?

• ” For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

(Rom 11:29)

• God’s faithfulness is certain.
• God’s love is unconditional.
• In the same way as God’s mercy was extended to Gentiles in unbelief to bring them to salvation, God will extend to the Jews now in unbelief to bring them to salvation. (30-32)