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What Does the Bible Say About..Prophecy?

What do you have to say about Bible prophecy?

Answer

I will answer your question about prophecy in the terms most people use the word today. In the Bible, prophecy was any time a person spoke directly the words of God, whether or not it foretold future events. Today most people think of prophecy as foretelling rather than forth-telling.

The Bible is full of prophecy. Almost half of the Old Testament is prophetic books, and there is prophecy in books that are otherwise not prophetic. The New Testament has less prophecy, but it does have some. All, or very nearly all, the prophecies of the Old Testament have been fulfilled. Almost all the prophecies of the New Testament have been fulfilled. Jesus said a few things about the end of the world, and that there would be no signs of that end. Paul spoke about the dead and the living all rising together to meet Jesus in the air. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) Peter said the world will be destroyed by burning. (2 Peter 3:10). Beyond those, all the prophecies of the New Testament have been fulfilled.

Some people would now ask, but what about the Revelation? The book of the Revelation has been fulfilled. Either that, or God is a liar. At least four times in the book, John is told that the things he is seeing will happen soon. The book is primarily about the conflict between the church and the Roman Government. Its message is that the Christians will be persecuted, but will be victorious. With few, if any, exceptions, the book was fulfilled in the first and second centuries after Jesus. While some people think the last two chapters are a picture of heaven, others point out that a careful reading of the symbols in the book indicate that it may be a picture of the church on earth.

So the only prophecy we have to worry about now is that the world will end without warning and all will be judged. The message Jesus (and Paul) gave was that we should be ready, because there is no prophecy about when it will happen.