Bible prophecy about the future is like a giant Jigsaw puzzle given to us by God.
When working on a jigsaw puzzle some parts
are easy to put in place, as the pattern on the pieces
is more obvious.
But it takes time and concentration, and sometimes some help
from a friend to find the less obvious pieces.
The same is true with Bible prophecy, the more we study the Bible,
"precept
upon precept, . . . line upon line, . . . Here a little, there a little." (Isaiah 28:10)
and with some help from others who have
studied it carefully, the picture becomes clearer. You will
find the pieces of the puzzle all through the Bible. It is intended to
be a bit of a mystery.
"For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains [the Holy Spirit]
will do so until
He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one [Antichrist] will be revealed".
(2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).
The apostle Paul
speaks of the Rapture as a mystery, "Behold I tell you a mystery;
We shall not all sleep, [die,] but we shall all be changed-in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye,"
(1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
I will try to help you fit some of the pieces of the puzzle together in
this web site.
All of the Bible is important. The basic teaching in God's word about how we can have our sins
forgiven and be
ready for heaven is so simple even a four year old child can understand it.
But God does not want us to neglect the more difficult
parts.
No book in the Bible is more difficult to understand than Revelation, so God offers us
special blessing for reading or
hearing it read.
"Blessed is he [or she] who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep
those things which are written
in it; for the time is near." (Revelation 1:3)
Literal or Figurative?
The first question we need to decide is if we are
to take the Bible literally or figuratively when
it comes to prophecy. As a general rule it is always best to take what the Word
of God says literally, unless it is fairly obvious that it is intended to be figurative.
Mistakes from the past have muddied
the waters. A bit of history may be helpful here!
It is clear from the writings of early church leaders that they took a literal view
of end time events.
Irenaeus lived AD 120-202 and was a disciple of Polycarp. Polycarp was a disciple of John, who wrote
the book of
Revelation, so we would expect the apostle John to have a much clearer understanding
of this question, and would pass his knowledge
on to Polycarp, and he to Irenaeus.
Irenaeus wrote in his book (Against Heresies), "But when this Antichrist shall have devastated
all
things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem;
and then the Lord
will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father,"
(Herald of Hope magazine, June 2007).
It is clear that Irenaeus believed
Antichrist to be a real person, in real time, and involve the true
nation of Israel.
So what happened to cause people to think
so much Scripture should be understood figuratively?
Early in church history there developed two different understandings of these
verses in
2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, "He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
And then the lawless one [Antichrist] will
be revealed,"
Some believed the one who restrains, or hinders, referred to the Holy Spirit, and when the spiritual miracles, and gifts
of healing, etc ceased, shortly after the passing of the last living apostle John, many assumed that the Holy Spirit had been "taken
out of the way" and therefore the Antichrist would
"be revealed".
The other misunderstanding was that some assumed the one to be "taken
out of the way", was the Roman Empire, so when the Roman Empire collapsed, they too were expecting the Antichrist to
"be revealed".
A
void was left in the understanding of both groups.
Augustine had originally held a literal view of Antichrist. It was the sacking
of Rome by the Goths
(AD 410) that caused him to adopt a figurative interpretation not only of prophecy, but of much of Scripture.
Probably more than anything else it was the influence of Augustine and his book
"The City of God" (AD 413-426) which gave a symbolic view
of Scripture, that has caused the
Amillennial (no literal Millennium) view to prosper in the minds of so many.
Those who
believed the one who restrains, or hinders to be the Holy Spirit were correct.
And Bible translations which render "He" in capital
(uppercase) H are accurate.
The Holy Spirit did not leave when the miraculous gifts that were present at the time the apostles
were
living ceased.
And those miracle gifts did cease! Shortly after the passing of the last living apostle, John.
Those gifts, which
among many other miracles even included raising the dead back to life,
(see Acts 9:36-42), were temporary gifts, given to the early
church only until the "perfect" Scriptures were completed. The last book to be completed was the Revelation, completed
by John
while he was in exile on the Isle of Patmos near the end of his life, (or possibly John's epistles).
When the church
at Corinth was arguing about who had the best gifts, the apostle Paul
reminded them that the gifts were only temporary, and that love
was the most important gift.
There is an important clue in 1 Corinthians 13:13,"now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but
the greatest of these is love." This verse cannot refer to when Jesus comes again because faith and hope will no longer be needed,
only love will be necessary. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
(Hebrews 11:1). Therefore this Scripture cannot refer to Christ' second coming, so it must refer to the temporary nature of the miracle
gifts given to the early church, which were "done away" when the "perfect" Scriptures were completed.
But faith, hope and love
must all remain till Jesus comes again!
"For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when
that which is perfect [complete] has come,
then that which is in part will be done away." (1 Corinthians 13:9-10).
The "perfect"
Paul is talking about is the completed Word of God, we call the Holy Bible.
The Holy Spirit is still here, and present in the
heart of every true believer in Jesus Christ.
It is He (the Holy Spirit), who restrains the coming of the Satan empowered Antichrist.
It
will come to pass in God's appointed time, not Satan's.
While it is true that the Bible sometimes uses figurative (symbolic)
language, it is also true that it very often explains its meaning. We will look at a few examples next, but let us keep in mind that
Jesus Himself and the apostles also gave a great deal of prophetic information which is very clearly
to be taken literally.
We will
look at some of those references further on!
The books of Daniel and Revelation both contain a lot of prophecy, and a lot of
symbolic language,
so we will look very briefly at a few examples to see how so often their meaning is explained.
In Daniel chapter
7, Daniel sees a vision from God.
He sees "Four great beasts come up from the sea" (verse 3), but the meaning is explained in verse
17, "Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth."
Other examples in Daniel:
Chapter 8: The vision
of a Ram and Goat.
The Ram had two horns,(verse 3), and the angel Gabriel interpreted the vision, (verse 16).
It represented
the combined kingdoms of Media and Persia, (verse 20).
The Goat represented the kingdom of Greece, (verse 21). This prophecy was fulfilled
in full
detail by Alexander the Great. It is interesting that Alexander the Great worshipped a goat god.
When Alexander died his kingdom
was divided between his four generals, fulfilling verse 22.
Now an example from Revelation.
Revelation is a little
more difficult, and I don't pretend to understand all its meaning, but just as
an example we will look at parts of the vision the
apostle John saw in chapter 17.
John said "he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a women sitting on a scarlet
beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." (verse 3).
The Meaning:
"The seven heads are seven
mountains on which the women sits". (verse 9).
"The ten horns . . . are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive
authority for one hour [a short time] with the beast" [Antichrist], (verse 12).
These are just a few examples as a guide
to the question "Literal or Figurative?"
and is not intended to give a full explanation of these passages.
Keep All Scripture
in its Context
This is probably the most important rule when studying any Scripture. Always read the verses, and
even the chapters,
before and after any verse or sentence to get the complete context.
We can so easily get into serious error by taking Scripture out
of its context.
Read EVERY word carefully
"Every word of God is pure; . . . Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you,
and you be found a liar."
(Proverbs 30:5-6)
Be careful to read every word carefully and ask yourself who, or what, is this verse or
passage
speaking to, or about?
A good example is in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. You will often hear it said, we cannot know when the
Second Coming of Christ is near because He will come as a thief in the night. And Jesus did say that!
But as a thief to who?
To those
who are not watching, and to unbelievers!
Thessalonians 5:3-4 says: "when they say "peace and safety!" then suddenly destruction
comes
on them, . . . But You, brethren are not in darkness, so that this Day should
overtake You as a thief." They, and Them, are unbelievers,
You, refers to believers
in Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
Read and Compare all Scriptures on the Subject
Remember
the Jigsaw puzzle? The pieces of the puzzle (MYSTERY) are scattered
throughout the Bible!
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