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Prophecy Is Easy To Understand

What lies in our future? Will the earth be destroyed or made uninhabitable by nuclear, biological, or asteroid forces. Is the future one of destruction or will humans live here in a better environment for millions of years? We all search for the answers to these questions. It is quite natural to turn to the Bible and inquire as to whether there are prophecies concerning our times. What does the Bible say, or not say, about our future?

Prophecy is easy to understand. Yes, you can understand prophecy with its great blessings. Too often people say, "I can’t understand prophecy." "It is too confusing for me." "It just doesn’t make sense." It is unfortunate that so many people have given up in frustration. God intended for us to understand his words.

What is the problem? Is it that the Bible is written in such advanced grammar that we can not comprehend it? No, according to researchers, it is written at an eighth grade reading comprehension level. Did God intend for prophecy to be a mystery? Not hardly when, by its very nature, it often revealed situations and events that were about to happen. Why then does it seem so difficult? It may be that we need to reconsider some preconceived ideas and traditions. Are many of the passages that difficult? Not really, many are so clear that they require special effort to misunderstand them. Did God mean for us to understand prophecy? Yes, we can understand biblical prophecy with its great blessings and rewards.

Who is a prophet? A prophet is a spokesman for another. For example, Aaron was Moses’ prophet (Ex. 7:1). Moses tried to be excused from being the leader of the people during the exodus on the basis of being a poor speaker. Therefore God gave him Aaron to be his spokesman.

The term prophet is defined in many similar ways. A prophet is one who is divinely inspired to communicate God’s will to his people and to disclose the future to them. "The prophet is a speaker of or for God"2 "The prophet spoke as guided by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20, 21). How do you tell if a prophet is of God? "If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken" (Deut. 18:22).

What is prophecy? It is "a foretelling."3 It is "a divinely inspired utterance, revelation, or writing."4 Prophecy is from the Greek word meaning "to set forth matter of divine teaching by special faculty."5

His message was according to the needs of the people. "When God so willed, the prophet not only told God’s will to the prophet’s generations, but he also foretold certain things which were to come. He spoke to his day, also of days in the future."6 Some prophecies were "long term," such as those concerning Christ. However, most prophecies were "short term," as in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the writings of the New Testament. These dealt with their current day conditions and events.

What is inspiration? Inspiration is the process of God speaking to man through man. Inspiration was a vehicle to transfer the mind of God to the mind of man. God conveyed truths but used the individual’s common language to convey these truths. The word "inspiration" is defined as "God breathed."

What about the texts? New Testament documents were written for specific occasions, certain people, or communities, and were addressing issues of common concern. We need to see the text in its historical setting. For example, the New Testament needs to be viewed in its first century environment.

We need to view each verse and paragraph within its context. For example, a preacher who, years ago, preached against women putting their hair up in a top knot, used the verse, "He who is on the house top not come down." By lifting "top knot come down" out of the context makes this a total misapplication of the passage. To gain the meaning of a passage, one must "read" the passage. Often, we read what we have previously been taught and not necessarily what is written.

The observance of time statements is critical to understanding the text. The meaning will probably be completely changed if a passage is placed in an incorrect time period. This, again, goes back to "reading" the text.

Also ask, "Is this literal or symbolic?" The Jewish apocalyptic writing was much more picturesque than the writing of our time. Often, word pictures portrayed something that the readers could not comprehend such as the "wolf lying down with the lamb." This signified that the Jew and Gentile would become one in Christ, something that the Jewish mind could not comprehend. Word pictures were often used to denote spiritual items, which the physical mind can not easily grasp.

God’s word to mankind is so magnificent and he revealed many events through his word. He intends for us to understand prophecy with its great blessings.

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If Christopher Columbus told his men in 1492 that they were about to discover the new world, would anyone now who reads that account be expecting the discovery to occur today, more than 500 years later? Why is it, then, that when Jesus and the apostles told their followers that events were about to occur, would anyone be expecting the events to occur 2000 years later? Yet, this is a common way of mishandling the time lines of the Bible.

How can there be such a total ignoring of the time statements of the Bible? The most common procedure is to quote the verse where Peter says, "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day" (1 Peter 3:8). Was this verse intended to be used to destroy all time references in the Bible? Rather, Peter used this verse to show that God keeps his promises as and when he promised them. God is, indeed, a timeless being. Therefore if time statements are used, they must be in man’s time frame because mankind is time bound. God speaks to man in man’s time. Something was extremely wrong if God did not communicate with man in understandable language.

Is God slow in keeping his promises? Does he postpone the fulfilling of his promises? Peter says in the next verse, "The Lord is not slow about keeping his promise..." (1 Peter 3:9). Yet many teach that what the Lord promised in the lifetime of the first century disciples has not yet occurred nearly 2000 years later. Did God really mislead mankind by telling them things were "at hand" and "near," when they were really thousands of years away?

"If God does not keep the WHEN part of his promises, he has not kept his promise! The inspiration of the scriptures demands complete fulfillment of every aspect of God’s promises."7

Time statements were used by God when he spoke to mankind, either to warn or to encourage. "Does the Lord hold out a carrot stick of imminent blessings to his hurting creation, while knowing all the time he is not REALLY going to bring the promises soon?"8

What did the time statements "long time", "at hand", "near", and "soon" mean in the Old Testament? Did God communicate time statements to old covenant Israel? Consider the use of the following time statements.

Balaam prophesied concerning Christ, "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near" (Numbers 24:17). He was speaking 1400 years before Christ and he stated that this event was "not near."

Daniel was told in a vision (530 BC) about the death of Antiochus (165 BC), "but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future" (Daniel 8:26). This prophecy was fulfilled 365 years later and Daniel was told that it concerned "the distant future."

Jeremiah told the captives in Babylon that "it will be a long time" (Jer. 29:10, 28). He was speaking of the duration of their captivity that lasted 70 years (606 B.C. to 536 B.C.). Jeremiah, as God’s spokesman, told the people that it was a long time when its duration was 70 years.

If 1400 years is "not near", 365 years is in "the distant future", and 70 years is a "long time" then what does "at hand", "near", and "soon" mean? These statements of immediacy are used repeatedly in the New Testament. Anything that is not within the present generation is a long time. If something is not at least within the lifetime of the individual, it is not near.

How did Christ use the word "near"? He related, "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened" (Mt. 24:32-34). The events Jesus described were near and would occur in the first century during the lifetime of some who were standing there.

Jesus, immediately before he was crucified instructed, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house" (Mt. 26:18). Jesus was in the last week before his crucifixion.

The night before he was crucified, he returned to the disciples and asked to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners" (Mt. 26:45). The word "near" was used to denote a short period of time in that first century generation.

Was God unwilling or unable to keep his promises to these first century people? If God specified to bring events to pass within a specified time frame and he failed to bring it to past as promised, then his divinity is in question as well as the inspiration of the scriptures.

"It is one thing for God to promise something and not give any indication as to when he would fulfill the promise, for then mankind has no indication of when to expect fulfillment. It is an entirely different thing for God to indicate a time frame for fulfillment and not bring the promise to fulfillment in that indicated time frame! This involves a basic attribute of the nature of God."9

Observing time statements is critical to the understanding of prophecy. If we observe the time statements and place the prophecy where it is supposed to be, it fits neatly in fulfillment. However if we take these verses, without observing their time statements, and try to place their fulfillment nearly 2000 years later in our future to a time period of which they were never intended, then they don’t make sense and are all confusing. They don’t fit our future and they never will. It is so sad that most people simply give up and say it is just too hard to understand. If we will put these events back in their first century historical setting, when Jesus and the apostles affirmed that the events would occur, they make perfect sense.

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Gene Fadeley, author of Revelation: Kingdoms in Conflict and Hebrews: Covenants in Contrast , has written a wonderful new, foundational book on the consistent or full preterist view of Bible prophecy. His earlier books were characterized by clear, concise, and to- the-point studies on the Bible. This new book gives the reader, who is not familiar with the preterist view, a brief, simple and understandable introduction that will answer those lingering questions that have been raised by many Christian people who have studied prophecy from a traditional viewpoint. Gene is a good theologian and a good writer besides. This combination makes for a very satisfying study in the basics of the fast growing preterist movement of our day. Author Fadeley believes that Bible prophecy is much easier to understand than many Bible teachers would have us believe. In fifteen brief chapters, he covers the whole panorama of topics relating to prophecy and concludes with a chapter entitled: What About Us? in which he provides a sweeping summary of the earlier chapters and establishes a realistic biblical world view that will encourage us all to dig deeper into the challenging discipline of preterist eschatology. I will be recommending Mr. Fadeley’s new book to Christians who are looking for better understanding in their overall biblical studies. The chosen title: Prophecy: The Year 2000 and Beyond ? is timely and will be met with interest and enthusiasm.

Walter C. Hibbard, Chairman
Great Christian Books, Inc.

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