PROPHECY

PROPHECY

I have been explaining the Christian faith at length to a Moroccan muslim, and I was surprised how much he knew about what our bible says, but he had many misinterpretations and misrepresentations given him, and so it is easy to understand why he would not believe in a religion that seemed to have flaws. As Christians we find there are many flaws to Islam.  Some things also mystified him. He asked me about prophecy, and I thought it would be a good subject to cover here; first, let's define it. A prophecy is a prediction, or the inspired utterance of a prophet, according to the American Heritage Dictionary. There are three kinds of prophecies: short range, long range, and Messianic. Let me elaborate.

MESSIANIC: Gen. 3:15 has the very first Messianic prophecy, written by Moses: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel." (Gen. 3:15) This verse prophesies Christ in that it means the woman's seed, Christ, will bruise Satan's head by going to the cross, while Satan will bruise Christ's heel in causing Him to need suffer. There are well over 100 Messianic prophecies. The last Old Testament Messianic prophecy is this one: " Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Mal. 4:5 - 6 ) Now one might wonder how this is relevent to the Messiah, and you have to go to the Gospel to get further explanation, and from Christ Himself, no less! "And Jesus answered and said unto them, 'Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.'" (Matt. 17:11 - 12) Here we have the rest of the cryptic prophecy of Christ. Christ explains that Elijah has come again in the person of John the Baptist, and was killed, and He prophecies His own death in this same passage. Now just as the Messianic prophecies are uttered in the Old Testament, so their fulfillment is written of in the New Testament. Remember how Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matt. 5:17) Destroying the prophets would be failing to fulfill their prophecies. Since God would not allow His own word to be destroyed, of course Jesus was on mission to fulfill every jot and tittle of what is written in the bible, that there should be no flaw found in it. Remeber that Gen. 3:15 prophecy I gave you at the beginning? Its fulfillment is written in Gal. 4:4. The prophecies of Christ are often cryptic in nature, yet describe some characteristic of Him or His life yet to come in the Gospels. Seed of a woman, of Abraham, of Jacob, of David, for example. A prophet like Moses, a priest like Melchizedek, meek and mild, the right arm of God, glorious Messiah, Messiah as king. The Psalms and Isaiah have the lion's share of Messianic prophecies, but there are other prophecies in the bible that are not Messianic in nature, yet they served important purpose throughout the bible, and some still do, as they are yet to be fulfilled!

SHORT-RANGE PROPHECIES: These are predictions with a short time until fulfillment. Short-range prophecies are those fulfilled in the lifetime of the prophet who utters them, or shortly after their death. While Joseph was never called a prophet, yet he foretold by way of dreams predictions of the future: "And he said unto them, 'Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.' And his brethren said to him, 'Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?' And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words." (Gen. 37:6 - 8) Though a dream, his short-range prediction reached fruition in his lifetime, and they indeed were at his mercy during a famine that came while Joseph was second only to Pharaoh himself! 1 Kings 13:11 - 32 tells the story of two prophets, and one has been instructed by the Lord not to turn back from where he is going. An old prophet sought him out on his way, and lied to him, to entice him to come to his house. As the old prophet sat with him while he ate and drank in disobedience to the Lord, the old prophet suddenly cried out. "And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, 'Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, "Eat no bread, and drink no water"; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.'" (1 Kings 13:21 - 22) And so when the prophet went on his way, the prophecy of the old prophet came to pass, because a lion killed the other prophet, and he ended up indeed not buried in his family sepulchre! There are many of these type of prophecies in scripture just like there are many of the Messianic type. But there are also many long-range prophecies, some which have as yet to reach fulfillment, but they were made in both the Old and New Testament, and these 2,000 years after Jesus crucifixion, they have yet to transpire, and yet, some have only recently done so!

LONG-RANGE PROPHECIES: These are predictions with a long passage of time before they will be fulfilled. For the Christian, the most exciting ones are the ones that have only recently transpired, and those that have not, but there is evidence in the signs of the times they are ready to happen! One long-range prophecy is from Isaiah, who made many prophecies in his day; "Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. 'Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?' saith the LORD: 'Shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb?' saith thy God." (Isa. 66:7 - 9) Indeed, Israel was declared a nation in 1948. From the Old Testament, a long-range prophecy came to fruition over 2,500 years from the day it was uttered. and there are many more! "So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land." (Joel 3:17 - 19) This has partially fulfilled, as Israel is indeed prospering on the production of non-alcoholic wine, and the fruitfulness of the land of the Jews is indeed coming to pass. The Golan Heights is literaly dripping with sweet wine, just as prophecied! Another long-range prophecy is from the book of Amos: "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My name, saith the LORD that doeth this." (Amos 9:11 - 12) This prophecy has yet to be fulfilled, but Christians are awaiting this day! Israel at one time was denuded of its forestry, but Isaiah prophecied the planting of a forest wilderness by God, and it is today so! "I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." (Isa. 41:19 - 20) What other religion has a holy book with so many prophecies that have come true, appear to be on the verge of reality, and because of the ones that have transpired, incite excitement at the prospect of the yet unfulfilled to take place? Okay, one last long-range prophecy that has taken place, and Jesus is He who said it: "Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not: 'Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.'" (Matt. 11:20 - 24) Sodom today indeed is better off than the other 3 cities which Jesus pronounced woe upon. Today, the 3 are desolate, and unihabited, while Sodom today is a place of chemical industry, which is better than desolation, truly! Okay, one last tidbit of long-range prophecy, yet unfulfilled. Everyone who has read the book of Revelation knows it has the prophecies of the antiChrist, and of the tribulation, and of Jesus' millenial reign, but when was the book of Revelation written? About 90 - 96 A.D.!

So in review we now see that there are three types of prophecy, and we know many of transpired, and many have as yet to come. And isn't it fascinating that so many should read this book who belong to other religions, and yet, despite not having a book in their religion with so many proofs in the fruition of so many prophecies, yet they remain blind in the false religions fo their choice? May our almighty true God remove their blindness, and cause them to realize the one true faith can only be Christianity, wherein our bible has so many proofs of it's validity!