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YOU
CAN UNDERSTAND·
PROPHECY!
by
Ronald
,o.
Kelly
If we are living in the end time, we need to know it.
Y
ou'vE H EARD
them a ll :
Arm agedd on. Th e
Second Coming. The
beast. The number 666. The
G reat Tribulation. The Day
of the Lord.
What do t hese seemi ngly
strange biblical symbols mean ?
ls it possible to know? Ts it real –
ly possible to understand Bible
prophecy?
Unfortunately , when most
people think of Bible prophecy they
think of the ominous phrase "the
end of the world." But what the
Bible means by "cnd of the world"
is not what mos t pcople think it
is!
One Third of the Blble ls Prophec y
Have you ever stopped to think that
approximately one third of the
Bible is prophecy? Page after page
of God's revealed Word has to do
with the time immediately ahead of
us. In fact, almost 90 percent of the
events prophesied to happen in t he
Bible have not yet occurred.
Whole books of the Bible are
devoted to prophecy. Ancient writ–
ers such as Isaiah, Jeremiah or Eze–
kiel wrote t heir messages hundreds
of years before Jesus was born.
Their writ ings have been preserved
in the Bible. Many of their prophe–
cies, however, were not intended to
come to pass in their time- but in
thc "time of the end."
For example, the prophet Eze–
kicl was among the Jewish captives
carried into captivity by Nebuchad–
nezzar, king of ancient Babylon.
The prophet said in Ezekiel
1:
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May 1983
" ... as 1 was among the captivcs
by the river of C hebar, that t he
heavens were opened, and
I
saw
visions of God." In chapter two,
God gavc Ezekicl his commission:
"And he said unto me, Son of man,
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send thee to thc children of I srael,
to a rebellious nation that hath
rcbelled against me.. .. And they,
whether they wi ll hcar, or whether
they will forbear, ( for they are a
rebellious house,) yet shall know
that there hath been a prophet
among them."
Ezekiel had
a
message to the
house of Israel. This was, however,
more than 125 years after the cap–
tivity of the ten northern tribcs of
the house of Israel.
Ezekiel remained a captive and
never
took his mcssage to the housc
of Israel. The prophecy was not
intended for Ezekiel 's day- but for
a time far into thc future. That book
has been carefully preserved through
the centuries. lts message lo warn
the modern descendants of the so–
called lost ten tribcs of Israel has
been written and preserved for us.
For the " Time of the End"
In Amos 3:7 God reveals a most
important prophetic principie:
' 'Surely the Lord God will do noth–
ing, but he revealeth his secre t unto
bis servants the prophets."
God has promised he will not
personally intervene in the affairs
of mankind to bring about proph–
ecy unless he has fi rst had his ser–
vants proclaim that message. Over
the past near 6,000 years of human
history, God has allowed man to
govern himself and to t ry bis own
ways. When God has intervened in
the affairs of man, he has not done
so unless he had first made it
known through his prophets. Those
prophets, as we have ment ioned,
often wrote not only of events for
their time, but for the prophesied
"time of the end." T hat time is now
nearer tha n world leaders think.
Another important key in under–
standing prophecy is revealed in the
book of Daniel: Let's notice it in
Daniel 12:4: " But thou, O Daniel ,
shut up the words, and seal the book,
even to the time of the end:
many
shall run to and fro, and knowledge
shall be increased." And again in
verse 13 God said to Daniel, " But go
thou thy way ti ll the end be: for thou
shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the
end of the days. ' '
Strange as it may seem, many of
the events God revealed to Daniel
could not be understood by anyone
in Daniel's day- including Daniel
himself. Significant parts of the
book were indeed shut up, sealed
till the time of the end. Now major
parts of those prophecies can be
understood. But we first need to
know what modern nations a re
affected.
Modern Natlons ldentified
Think of it. Could the Bible focus
attention in prophecy on sucb com–
parat ively small nations as Egypt,
Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, J ordan
and the modern nation of Israel,
and not even mention the populous
nations of the world tod ay?
What about the great nat ions in
today's world such as the United
States, Bri tain, Canada, Germany,
France and the other democracies
of northwestern Europe? Wh at
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