Eschatology Continued
The bible is full of prophecy. Approximately one third of the bible is made up of prophecy. The obvious conclusion is that prophecy is important. Yet prophecy is one of the topics in the bible that people know least about, that many people avoid, and that whole denominations largely won't touch in sunday morning teaching.
Why is this?
Well there are two big reasons. #1 Prophecy is very confusing and there is little certainty available for those who seek to interpet it. #2 Prophecied events are frightening and disconcerting.
A third reason many people toss out is that they don't think prophecy helps them with their daily living, or with reaching the lost. I personally think this is largely an excuse which is really covering the two reasons listed above.
Three reasons that prophecy is important. (I'm sure there are probably more)
#1 - God seems to think its important that we have an idea whats comming.
#2 - Prophecy shows forth the amazing glory and truth of God and his word
#3 - Prophecy is really testimony of Jesus Christ.
Enough of the introduction :) in this post I want to start looking at the basics of prophecy to give you a good foundational understanding to work from.
The first rule of prophecy is when the bible explains itself, listen. In MANY cases the bible offers interpetations of its own prophecies, either within or immediately following the prophecy. I have seen all too often, prophecy teachers blatantly ignore what the bible itself says in interpetation of its own prophecies in favor of their own 'revelation' on what it 'really' means.
The second thing to realize about prophecy is that the bible contains "redundant" prophecies. Now, they aren't really redundant in the sense of unnecessary repitition, however the bible frequently will tell about the same event from multiple perspectives. The reason this is done is to give a more complete picture, a more complete understanding. It looks at the same thing from different angles. This is the same reason that there are four gospels in the bible. Four accounts of Jesus' life. Each one of them provides us unique perspective and detail which helps complete the picture.
On this note, there are three great expositions in the bible dealing with the "end times". There are multiple prophecies on this topic scattered through the entire bible. There are three, however, which provide more compelte overviews.
#1 the book of Revelation (of course)
#2 the "Olivet discourse" (contained in each of the three synoptic gospels)
#3 the book of Daniel
Each of these three prophetic revelations cover generally the same topic (the end of days) but each one looks at it from a different perspective, showing somewhat different detail. One of the problems common among prophecy teaching is that the teachers have a tendancy to look at the prophecies in a somewhat disconnecte fashion. If these prophecies are all describing the same time period, and thus the same events, they must fit together like peices of a puzzle. That means we have to look at them together, not individually.
The approach most people take to interpeting prophecy is like taking each individual piece of a jigsaw puzzle and trying to guess what that piece is showing without the rest of the puzzle for context.
The next rule in our examination of prophecy is this. Prophecy frequently speaks in the languge of symbols. This is why prophecy is difficult to understand, and why there is such divergent opinion on what prophecy means. The first point here is that even symbols have literal meaning. Many people say that prophecy can't be taken literally because it speaks in symbols. This is the result of the modern mindset that confuses "spiritual" with "symbolic". It is often assumed that if something uses symbols, its not speaking of "real" physical events. There is, however, no reason to assume this when dealing with prophecy (or scripture in general). Second is the problem that many others take things too literally. They try to fit modern realities like tanks and helicopters into the fantastic and bizzare images seen by the prophets. This view is possible, but is largely, again, based on unjustified assumption.
While tecahing in the modern church in general has its share of bad exegesis, poor logic, and unjustified assumptions.. few areas of doctrine can match prophecy for the percentage of bad teaching available. Probably because there is always guess work involved in interpeting biblical prophecy, teachers of this topic frequently feel free to make huge leaps in logic, and rely upon unjustified assumptions in forming their views.
In most cases, however, the worst are those teachers who claim that their views were revealed to them by God. In some sense all wisdom is revealed by God because it is he who makes us wise and gives us the ability to understand. Yet those who claim special revelation on the meaning of prophecy, in my experience, usually contradict common sense, logical reasoning, and often the scripture itself.
I firmly believe that God gives wisdom to those who ask. I have tried to base my intellectual life on that promise. God, also, however desires us to seek. To delve into his word. To use the faculties he has given us. As the book of Revelation says "Here is for a mind which has wisdom".
The last note on prophecy is beware of dogmatic prophecy teachers. I have alot of ideas about prophetic interpetation, some are hypothesis (educated guess) others I'm pretty sure are right. A very few, I'm certain on. However, there are only two necessary dogma's of prophecy #1 Jesus is coming back physically, #2 There will be a physical resurrection of the dead. Christians must believe these two things. There is room for error on everything else.
Why is this?
Well there are two big reasons. #1 Prophecy is very confusing and there is little certainty available for those who seek to interpet it. #2 Prophecied events are frightening and disconcerting.
A third reason many people toss out is that they don't think prophecy helps them with their daily living, or with reaching the lost. I personally think this is largely an excuse which is really covering the two reasons listed above.
Three reasons that prophecy is important. (I'm sure there are probably more)
#1 - God seems to think its important that we have an idea whats comming.
#2 - Prophecy shows forth the amazing glory and truth of God and his word
#3 - Prophecy is really testimony of Jesus Christ.
Enough of the introduction :) in this post I want to start looking at the basics of prophecy to give you a good foundational understanding to work from.
The first rule of prophecy is when the bible explains itself, listen. In MANY cases the bible offers interpetations of its own prophecies, either within or immediately following the prophecy. I have seen all too often, prophecy teachers blatantly ignore what the bible itself says in interpetation of its own prophecies in favor of their own 'revelation' on what it 'really' means.
The second thing to realize about prophecy is that the bible contains "redundant" prophecies. Now, they aren't really redundant in the sense of unnecessary repitition, however the bible frequently will tell about the same event from multiple perspectives. The reason this is done is to give a more complete picture, a more complete understanding. It looks at the same thing from different angles. This is the same reason that there are four gospels in the bible. Four accounts of Jesus' life. Each one of them provides us unique perspective and detail which helps complete the picture.
On this note, there are three great expositions in the bible dealing with the "end times". There are multiple prophecies on this topic scattered through the entire bible. There are three, however, which provide more compelte overviews.
#1 the book of Revelation (of course)
#2 the "Olivet discourse" (contained in each of the three synoptic gospels)
#3 the book of Daniel
Each of these three prophetic revelations cover generally the same topic (the end of days) but each one looks at it from a different perspective, showing somewhat different detail. One of the problems common among prophecy teaching is that the teachers have a tendancy to look at the prophecies in a somewhat disconnecte fashion. If these prophecies are all describing the same time period, and thus the same events, they must fit together like peices of a puzzle. That means we have to look at them together, not individually.
The approach most people take to interpeting prophecy is like taking each individual piece of a jigsaw puzzle and trying to guess what that piece is showing without the rest of the puzzle for context.
The next rule in our examination of prophecy is this. Prophecy frequently speaks in the languge of symbols. This is why prophecy is difficult to understand, and why there is such divergent opinion on what prophecy means. The first point here is that even symbols have literal meaning. Many people say that prophecy can't be taken literally because it speaks in symbols. This is the result of the modern mindset that confuses "spiritual" with "symbolic". It is often assumed that if something uses symbols, its not speaking of "real" physical events. There is, however, no reason to assume this when dealing with prophecy (or scripture in general). Second is the problem that many others take things too literally. They try to fit modern realities like tanks and helicopters into the fantastic and bizzare images seen by the prophets. This view is possible, but is largely, again, based on unjustified assumption.
While tecahing in the modern church in general has its share of bad exegesis, poor logic, and unjustified assumptions.. few areas of doctrine can match prophecy for the percentage of bad teaching available. Probably because there is always guess work involved in interpeting biblical prophecy, teachers of this topic frequently feel free to make huge leaps in logic, and rely upon unjustified assumptions in forming their views.
In most cases, however, the worst are those teachers who claim that their views were revealed to them by God. In some sense all wisdom is revealed by God because it is he who makes us wise and gives us the ability to understand. Yet those who claim special revelation on the meaning of prophecy, in my experience, usually contradict common sense, logical reasoning, and often the scripture itself.
I firmly believe that God gives wisdom to those who ask. I have tried to base my intellectual life on that promise. God, also, however desires us to seek. To delve into his word. To use the faculties he has given us. As the book of Revelation says "Here is for a mind which has wisdom".
The last note on prophecy is beware of dogmatic prophecy teachers. I have alot of ideas about prophetic interpetation, some are hypothesis (educated guess) others I'm pretty sure are right. A very few, I'm certain on. However, there are only two necessary dogma's of prophecy #1 Jesus is coming back physically, #2 There will be a physical resurrection of the dead. Christians must believe these two things. There is room for error on everything else.
posted by Simon Templar | 3:12 PM
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