Christian-Related Prophecy
There is today a proliferation of Bible "prophecy" leading to widespread confusion about what is true and what is false. This is especially seen on the Internet. A lot of this confusion is due to a lack of understanding of definitions and what constitutes Biblical prophecy. Let us briefly examine Biblical prophecy in the Old and New Testament and then critically apply these insights to one recent example of a so-called "prophetic utterance" to God's people which was given by a well-known Bible teacher. The prophets of the Old Testament were brought forward by the God of Israel to speak to His people warning them of their departure from His Law and His ways. As God's model nation, Israel was to set the example for the rest of the world of what a Holy People would look like to outsiders.
What Bible Prophecy is Not!
Why cloak Bible prophecies in Symbols? Luke 8 :10 And He said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that 'Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand.' Many of the apocalyptic prophecies were given while the prophets were in a hostile foreign land. One reason God cloaked the prophecies in symbols was to protect the messages. Animals and their Parts
Bible Prophecy Truth > Topics > Keys to Bible Symbols
Signs that we are in the End Times
The Bible gives many examples of signs that should warn us of the coming end of the age. Six such signs are given by Jesus, two characteristics are given by Paul, and eleven other occurrences are given by the prophets to occur prior to or soon after the end of the age. While we are also told we will not know the time of the End, God obviously wanted us to know when that time was getting closer. As the Christian church is increasingly drawn into the interfaith movement, and as more and more churches go into isolation, preparing to sleep through the growing attacks on their faith, perhaps God knew it would take a few signs to wake us up and remind us that we have work to do.
Bible prophecy or biblical prophecy is typically the prediction of future events based on the action, function, or faculty of a prophet . [ 1 ] Such passages are widely distributed throughout the Bible , but those most often cited are from Ezekiel , Daniel , Matthew 24 , Matthew 25 , and Revelation . Believers in biblical prophecy engage in exegesis and hermeneutics of scriptures which they believe contain descriptions of global politics , natural disasters , the future of the nation of Israel , the coming of a Messiah and a Messianic Kingdom , and the ultimate destiny of humankind . Some prophecies in the Bible are conditional, with either the conditions implicitly assumed or explicitly stated. [ 2 ] Some prophetic passages are depicted as direct statements from God while other statements are expressed as the privileged perspective of the biblical author considered to be a prophet [ citation needed ] .
