

P
R
O
P
H
E
C
Y
Glorifying the Triune God by creatively declaring the relevancy and practicality of His timeless Word.
The Bible is both historical and factual. It’s pages contain no myths and legends. It’s characters were actual people who traveled through the theater of time. The places were just as real as the people. Rather than being the norm, miracles were the exception, happening only by Divine involvement in the affairs of men. They must be accepted as factual, even though they defied the natural laws and human explanation.
In every sense of the word, the Bible must be interpreted literally. It must be approached as the very words of God Himself, infallibly inspired and preserved by the Holy Spirit from the first chapter of Genesis to the twenty second chapter of Revelation. The Bible communicates exactly what God said and meant.
Understanding God’s prophetic Word requires -
(a) Adopting sound principles of Biblical interpretation.
(b) Distinguishing clearly between the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church.
(c) Recognizing the seven dispensations of time:
1) The Age of Innocence -Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
2) The Age of Conscience - From Eden to Noah’s Flood.
3) The Age of Human Government - From the Flood to the Tower of Babel.
4) The Age of Promise (Covenants) -From Abram to the Exodus.
5) The Age of Law - From the Exodus to Christ.
6) The Church Age - From Pentecost to the Rapture.
7) The Kingdom Age - From the Second Coming of Christ to the New Heaven and New Earth.
All symbols used in the Word of God must be understood within their context, allowing the meaning to become evident as Scripture is compared with Scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In the same way prophecy must be interpreted in its literal sense. There must be no confusion between Israel, the nations, and the Church. Promises to Israel as a nation will be fulfilled and must not be applied to the Church. Only confusion will result from failing to make a distinction between the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church.
God’s government is evident in seven separate dispensations of time, each one commencing with a new opportunity and concluding in absolute failure and earned judgment. We are now living in the last days of the sixth dispensation and are witnessing the conditions of a world that will soon experience the judgments of the Great Tribulation. When this last dispensation is concluded at the close of Christ’s millennial kingdom, then time will cease, and the redeemed of all ages will go into the eternal holiness of a new heaven and a new earth, “When all things are subjected to him,... that God may be all in all. (1 Cor.15:28).
All Scripture must be understood both in historical and textual context. It must be in agreement with other Scriptures of similar subject. Its meaning cannot be isolated, for God has established all truth in His Word with manifold witness. Being over 3,500 years old, the Bible is the oldest book in the world. There is nothing equal to it in the all records of antiquity. It was no small undertaking for Moses to compile a reliable, continuous genealogy from Adam to Christ, spanning 4,000 years. The only explanation for such a occurrence can be found in its source, the Bible which claims to be the very words of God prearranged by Divine inspiration (God breathed) as holy men of God were moved (borne along) by the Holy Spirit. For this reason the Bible can rightly claim to be the words of the Holy Ghost (Acts1:16; Acts 28:25), using the
mouths of the prophets. As a result the Bible is infallible, inerrant, and complete.
Proofs of the inerrancy of the Bible are countless. However, there is nowhere that it’s incredible Divine origins can be better confirmed than in its prophetic pronouncements. Foreknowledge is a unique attribute of God, who says, “remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,” (Isa.46:9-10 ESV).
A lot of Bible prophecies have already been fulfilled in extraordinary ways. On the day Christ died at least 33 prophecies were fulfilled. Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and, Persia, powerful empires were all establish and destroyed as foretold by the Bible. The cities of Tyre, Nineveh, Sodom, Babylon, and Jerusalem, were all destroyed in the exact way that the Bible said they would be! Because so many prophecies have been fulfilled already, it’s convincing enough to believe that others will just as certainly be fulfilled.