Bob's Lesson Notes: Future Prophetic Events

Post date: Jun 19, 2019 5:30:17 PM

1. Why the Study of Future Prophetic Events is Relevant for Believers Today

Prophecy is history spoken or written in advance. Isaiah 46:9-11 – The Lord determines what will happen in history and then He brings it to pass.

A. Studying future prophetic events is profitable

2 Timothy 3:16-17 - All or every Scripture certainly includes prophecy and is, therefore, profitable to each believer.

Matthew 4:4 All Scripture which includes prophecy is food for the soul i.e. soul food.

2 Peter 1:20 - 21 It seems that 2 Peter 1:20-21 parallels what 2 Timothy 1:20-21 except Peter is more specific. Peter speaks specifically about prophecy being from God. Therefore, we are urged to pay attention to it (verse 20).

B. Prophecy provides man with an outline of God’s program for the future.

Prophecy is God’s blueprint given to man concerning the future of Israel, for the Gentiles, and for the church.

C. Prophecy demonstrates or authenticates to the world that there is a God and that His’ Word is truth and reliable.

Prophecies from God that have been fulfilled were fulfilled 100 percent as they were given to the prophets. These are just a few of many, many examples.

1. God prophesied to Adam and Eve that if that ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would die. They ate and they died physically and spiritually.

2. God prophesied to the ten northern tribes called Israel through the prophets that that if they continued to sin against Him that He would send them into exile. He did just that in 722 BCE when He sent them into exile into Assyria. He also prophesied to the two southern tribes called Judah through the prophets that that if they continued to sin against Him that He would send them into exile. He did just that in 605 BCE when He sent them into exile into Babylonia. After they returned to Israel from Assyria and Babylonia, He prophesied to them that if they did not worship Him as the only God and keep His commandments that he would scatter them all over the world. In 70 CE He did just that when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and began to scatter them throughout the entire world.

3. God prophesied to Israel through the prophets that if He scattered them throughout the entire world that He would one day regather them back into their land. He began to do just that when Israel became a nation again on May 14. 1948.

The great Prussian Emperor Frederick often would test his chaplain with theological questions. Frederick, however, said he did not have time for long answers and explanations. He wanted simple answers that he could comprehend quickly. One day he asked his chaplain if he could provide simple and succinct evidence for the truth of the Bible. Frederick asked if the chaplain could provide the evidence in just one word. The wise chaplain responded that he could do just that. “What is this magical word?” Frederick asked. The chaplain replied, “Israel, your majesty. The people of Israel.”

You see the Jew and the nation of Israel demonstrates or authenticates that God word is true and reliable.

4. This is especially true as it relates to the dispersion into other countries and then the regathering of them back to their land.

5. There were over 100 prophecies about the coming of the Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus’s first coming. These prophesies prove that Jesus is the Messiah. Many are yet to be fulfilled. Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. He is the One to whom all prophecy has always pointed (Revelation 19:10)

All of the above fulfilled prophecies and many, many more were fulfilled exactly as they were prophesied, therefore, demonstrating and authenticating that the Bible is true and reliable. If past prophecies were fulfilled exactly as they were prophesied, then the future unfulfilled prophecies will be fulfilled exactly as they were prophesied. (Deuteronomy 18:22)

D. The study of prophecy prepares us to avoid deception of false prophets that are arising in our day.

E. Prophecy offers assured and confident hope in a hopeless age.

The world we live in has no hope for the future. As each day goes by things seem to be worsening and it leaves people with no hope. But as a believer in Jesus, we have assured and confident hope not just wishful thinking. (Titus 2:11-13) The gospel of grace affects one's present behavior by focusing on God's unmerited favor in the past. But the Gospel also promotes godly living by focusing on the future. Christians look forward to the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Believers who are familiar with future prophetic events are the only ones who are faced with what seems to be an uncertain future with peaceful confidence.

F. Prophecy helps us to understand present world tensions.

G. Prophecy helps us to understand the role of the Arabs in the Middle East. (Genesis 16:11-12)

H. Prophecy helps us to understand the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

I. Prophecy helps us to understand the present condition of the church.

J. Studying future prophetic events and obedience is a source of blessing from the Lord. (Revelation 1:3)

2. Why There So Many Different Prophetic Biblical Interpretations

The main reason there are so many prophetic biblical schemes is because of many methods of biblical interpretation. Most of these biblical interpretation methods are a hodgepodge and tend to spiritualize or allegorize prophecy rather than interpreting them literally.

Let me share with you the method of interpretation that I and other teachers in this class use. It is called the literal or normal method of interpretation. The literal or normal method of interpretation contains the following basic principles:

A. The Text must be interpreted literally unless the Text demands otherwise.

David L. Cooper, a Jewish believer in Jesus, is credited with the following quote, “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic (self-evident or unquestionable) and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.” This has been shortened to “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense, lest it result in nonsense.”

B. Scripture must be interpreted in context. Context, context, context!

C. Scripture must be interpreted by the accepted rules of grammar.

D. Scripture must be interpreted in the light of the historical and the geographical setting in which it was written.

E. Scripture must be interpreted in the light of the culture, the customs and the traditions of the day.

F. Scripture must be interpreted in the light of the literary form being studied. Legal, narrative, wisdom literature, poetry, the Gospels, and the epistlitory literature which are basically letters (Romans – Jude).