James McBride: 'The future's not ours to see' goes the song. Yet that thought doesn't stop most of the human race wondering about it. What's the value of Bible prophecy?
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Remarkable Bible Prophecies There are some 300 Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah. Dr. Peter W. Stoner ...calculates that the chance of Jesus fulfilling just 48 of these 300 prophecies as 1 in 10 to the power 157. He calculates that if you were to count at 250 per minute it would take 190 million years to count a line of electrons one inch long. A cubic inch would take 190m x 190m x 190m years to count. Stoner says that if we took one electron, marked it and stirred it into that one cubic inch, then ask a blind person to find it - his chance of success would be the same as any one man fulfilling even 48 of the 300 Old Testament Messianic prophecies! The fact of Jesus' Messiahship is "proved perhaps more absolutely than other fact in the world" he says. [Science Speaks, 1958] Numerous other Bible prophecies have been equally accurate. |
For millions the first section of the daily paper turned to is their horoscope. Christians diligently pore over the Bible prophecies. Others comb through the Mayan prophecies or those of St. Malachy or Nostradamus or Muhammad.
The uncertainty of our brief lives naturally drives us to wonder about what lies around the corner - tomorrow, next year, even the far future.
Yet the writings of the prophets secular or religious - are notoriously difficult to interpret. Nostradamus has as many varying interpretations as the Biblical prophets. Within Christianity, particular views of prophecy have given rise to entire denominations. Prophesied dates have come and gone, events misconstrued - yet frequent failures merely spawn further date-setting and another sect, another guru!
Is there, then, any point to prophecy? If everyone gets it wrong why bother?
Bible Prophecy
Yet the Bible prophecies claim to be divinely inspired. Literally hundreds have already been accurately fulfilled, powerful evidence for the authority and accuracy of the Scriptures. Many others, however, predict events yet to come. They refer to `the time of the end', the period that precedes and includes the return of Jesus. Indeed Jesus himself had much to say about that time - and at least three quarters of an entire book of the New Testament is dedicated to that time.
Many have sought to pin-point the date of this event, so far all unsuccessfully! This highlights the much ignored fact that the prophecies have a vital, and usually misunderstood, purpose.
Prophecy, perhaps surprisingly, is not `so we can know the future'! Bible prophecies are not given by God just to satisfy human curiosity. God is certainly concerned about what will happen to you tomorrow. But only rarely does He tell us about it.
Besides, if you knew for certain, by prophecy - or by a DNA test - that you would, say, be permanently disabled in ten years, would you want to know? Could you live with that knowledge?
Some four and a half millennia ago mankind had sunk into such depravity that God was just about sorry He had created us. For over a century through the prophetic preaching and example of Noah He warned the world of impending judgment. Only one family heeded - and the rest perished (Genesis 6).
Another example. Ancient Israel was a model nation. That is, it was established by the Eternal God as the template for success - or for failure - of all mankind.
The united kingdom of David and Solomon was divided into two kingdoms around 900 B.C. The northern Ten Tribes immediately sank into idolatrous worship. The king introduced `the way of the nations', substituting sun-worship practice the days of Baal for the annual and weekly holy days revealed for all mankind by God.
For the next two centuries God sent prophet after prophet to warn them to return to His worship. They didn't. Having abandoned true worship they became morally corrupt.
A Happy Outcome
On another occasion a prophet delivered God's message to a corrupt Gentile nation, this time with a happier outcome. He commissioned the prophet Jonah to call upon the violent nation-state of Nineveh to cease from its wickedness - or else be toppled from its position of political power.
The outcome? `So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them .... [The king] covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes and he caused it to be proclaimed throughout Nineveh saying, `Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. Yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands" (Jonah 3:6-9).
That Gentile nation heeded, and was saved from God's righteous judgment.
Why Prophecy?
Within the record of these historical events lies a key to understanding the reason for divine prophecy.
Mankind is not simply flotsam and jetsam floating on an evolutionary sea. We are created by the hand of God, and for a purpose that transcends the highest utopian dreams of our greatest philosophers. Mankind was created perfect - but with the freedom to choose. Our chosen path, though, is one of disregard for the `instruction manual' - those immutable `laws of life' which are perfectly tailored to human need and by which alone we can make life work for us personally, nationally and for all mankind.
The Creator loves His creation. Through the millennia He has made sure mankind is aware of the effects of ignoring `the manual'. That's what prophecy is for.
It is a warning that we must change.
Israel didn't listen. The result? It and later Judah in its turn - was invaded, suffered famine and disease and the sword. And all but a tiny remnant deported to foreign lands, most never to return.
History Re-lived
The message is unchanged. The world of Century Twenty-one - and especially those nations which are rooted in the faith of the Bible faces the same call to change, to repent, as did ancient Israel. Everywhere the people cry out for change - witness the `red card' revolution in the recent Zimbabwean election.
Were the standards from `God's Book of Life' to be applied globally man's troubles would be about over! [See the lead article in this issue of New Horizons] Given our acquired nature - our inclination to `sin' - the application of God's remedies as clearly outlined in the Scriptures would curb our lawless ways. But that's not how government works! Rather, every effort is made to innovate solutions - almost always contrary to divine law.
Prophecy is a call to repentance. It is not to be taken lightly! It is addressed to our leaders and to our peoples. The king of Nineveh led his nation to repentance - by example. When will ours do the same? Will our leaders - not for their own sake but for the sake of their people - themselves turn to the God of the Bible? Will they call for a change of heart, for national repentance? Without it we, too, will experience the same awful fate as did ancient Israel and Judah.
And Baal? We still worship him!
Only Two Gods
How and when we worship identifies the God we worship. Yet there are but two 'Gods'. There's the God of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures - Jehovah, YHVH, the Eternal.
Then there's 'the god of this world' - a god who has a different code, a different agenda (II Corinthians 4:4). And he cares not how or when you worship or how you behave - as long as it isn't what the Eternal One requires.
Israel and modern Christendom - us - abandoned the God of Scripture, while still calling our religious practice by His Name. Woven into our national fabric are those same practices - now known as Easter, Christmas, Sunday, All Souls. It's a religion - a false religion - propagated by virtually ever church that wears the Christian label.
And with a different god we have turned to different standards, abandoning the revealed moral code of the Creator. If the first four of the Ten Commandments - which define the true God - are thought to be obsolete then why bother with the others!
Failing Leadership
Writes the influential American Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, J. S. Spong: "Within that familiar and honored code are found elements and attitudes that would be dismissed by most people today as unworthy of obedience... Indeed some aspects of the Ten Commandments need to be exposed immediately as immoral and to be removed from the ethical guidelines that any of us today would seek to follow".
Immoral? And we wonder why the church - and our nations - are in such a parlous state! Which of the 'Terrible Ten' is immoral? Perjury? Honoring of parents? Theft? Adultery, maybe? If not these perhaps murder is acceptable to the bishop. Or is it that he has abandoned the first four?
As long as the 'top people' in our nations dally with demonic spirits through seances and the like - divine judgement is inevitable. While the religious leaders water down the basic divinely-revealed principles for an orderly society the edge of the abyss draws ever closer. And unless the people turn to the true Creator God judgment is unavoidable.
Prophetic Warning
King Solomon, at the dedication of the First Temple in Jerusalem, had a unique encounter with the Author of the same Ten Commandments so derided by the Bishop. Solomon's requests were for justice, for mercy - and for national repentance from the sin that resulted in defeat in war, in drought, in famine, in disease, and in foreign invasion.
In a prophetic warning he saw the ultimate end of a sinful nation - one that discarded the Commandments. That 'end' was invasion and ignominious national deportation to nations afar. He said: "...then they think it over in the land where they have been taken as prisoners, repent and implore your favor in the land of their captors saying 'we have sinned, done wrong, and transgressed - repenting with all their heart and soul"' (I Kings 8).
Prophecy isn't a game. It's a warning to nations and to individuals to return to the faith of the Bible and to change their ways.
To comment on this article or request more information, please contact James McBride by e-mail at the comment form below.
For PDF or mailed copy, see CGOM. Excerpt from New Horizons Issue 23, September/October 2000. Edited by James McBride of the Churches of God, United Kingdom.
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