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    An Introduction to Bible Prophecy
    An Introduction to Bible Prophecy
    An Introduction to Bible Prophecy
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    An Introduction to Bible Prophecy

    By Grace Communion International

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    About this ebook

    Prophecy is one of the most interesting topics in the Bible. It may also be the most controversial, with the most mistakes - often bringing shame on the church. How can we avoid mistakes in understanding what the biblical authors were trying to convey? We present here a cautious approach. We do not always know, nor do we need to know, what they were saying.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGrace Communion International
    Release dateJun 7, 2016
    ISBN9781310638930
    An Introduction to Bible Prophecy
    Author

    Grace Communion International

    Grace Communion International is a Christian denomination with about 30,000 members, worshiping in about 550 congregations in almost 70 nations and territories. We began in 1934 and our main office is in North Carolina. In the United States, we are members of the National Association of Evangelicals and similar organizations in other nations. We welcome you to visit our website at www.gci.org.

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      Book preview

      An Introduction to Bible Prophecy - Grace Communion International

      An Introduction to Bible Prophecy

      Copyright 2016 Grace Communion International

      Thank you for downloading this e-book. It is the copyrighted property of Grace Communion International, and it may not be reproduced, copied or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy. Thank you for your support.

      Scripture quotations, unless noted, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

      Cover art copyright Grace Communion International.

      Table of Contents

      How to Interpret Prophecy

      A Balanced Approach to Bible Prophecy

      What About Bible Prophecy?

      The Prophetic Meaning of Daniel 2 and 7

      What Matthew 24 Tells Us About the End

      What About the Rapture?

      Who Is the Antichrist and Man of Sin?

      Only One Name

      Will Humans Become Gods?

      About the Authors…

      About the Publisher…

      Grace Communion Seminary

      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

      How to Interpret Prophecy

      There are many difficulties involved in interpreting prophecy, but if we take the Bible seriously, we need to study prophecy, because prophecy is a large part of the literature God has inspired to be written and preserved in the Christian canon. Since prophecy encourages us to know God and do his will, it is important for us to study it, even if it is difficult.

      Prophecy has a spiritual message, and readers need the help of the Holy Spirit to be able to understand it. But even people who have the Holy Spirit can make errors, and people with the Holy Spirit may disagree with each other. All sorts of erroneous interpretations have been taught by people claiming to have God’s Spirit and claiming to have the inspired interpretation. Therefore, as a practical matter, we cannot convince people of our interpretation if we are using special insight they don’t have access to. If we did that, we would be asking them to have faith in us.

      We need to base our understanding, our arguments, and our teaching on what the scriptures say and on what people can see for themselves, in the translations that are commonly available. We have to use an understandable method of interpretation, one that makes sense historically, linguistically and theologically. We need to examine the words, the grammar, the paragraph flow, the type of literature we are dealing with, and with the overall message of the Bible.

      Prophecy was not inspired to satisfy our curiosity about the future – it has always had a theological purpose. It tells us something about what God is doing with humanity, and it is given to help motivate people to do something in the present. Prophecy is not an end in itself — it supports a more important goal. God’s primary purpose in dealing with humanity is to reconcile us to him, to give us salvation through Christ – and prophecy serves that larger purpose. It tells us something about what God is doing, and it may also tell us something about what we should be doing. Prophecy should lead us toward God, so that we know him, have faith in him, and seek him through Jesus Christ.

      Poetic language

      We need to understand the type of literature we are dealing with, because this is where many of the difficulties arise. Prophecy is not written in the same way as history is. Prophecy is often poetic, and ancient poetry, like modern poetry, uses words in a metaphorical or symbolic sense more often than history does. Psalm 23 is a familiar example of poetic metaphors, with pastoral imagery. The Lord is my shepherd; he leads me beside still waters; my cup runs over. These are metaphors drawn from different aspects of life.

      Psalm 18 is a good illustration. It tells us in verse 1 that it is about when the Lord delivered David from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. Saul tried to kill David, but David kept escaping.

      The psalm begins with some common metaphors:

      The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. (verses 1-3)

      David uses a variety of images to describe God as a place of safety – a defensive and passive role. He adds even more images when he writes,

      The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. (verses 4-6)

      From images of the underworld, David now turns to images of heaven, and he puts the matter in cosmic terminology:

      The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him — the dark rain clouds of the sky. (verses 7-11)

      David is using some of the same language that Canaanite myths use. He is speaking of earthquakes and thunderstorms. Is this the way that God rescued David from Saul? No, that is not in the history – David is speaking in imaginative, poetic terms.

      We see more as we go on:

      Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them. (verses 12-14)

      So far, we have mostly thunderstorm imagery. But then David adds something that was surely not involved in his escapes from Saul:

      The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. (verses 15-18)

      In this psalm, we can see how poetic language can be applied to a historical event. It would be a mistake for us to take this literally – and we must be equally cautious about taking the language of prophecy literally, because it is also poetry.

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