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What Is Next?

(Part 1)

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Dear Mr. Wilson:

 

What does Bible prophecy predict will happen next? One Internet site says one thing and another says something else. Because I am not a Bible scholar and honestly, I don’t have much confidence in my pastor, I don’t know who or what to believe. From a secular point of view) politically, economically, ecologically, militarily, religiously, etc.), there is a great deal of uncertainty. I am guessing there is going to be a global implosion of some kind and I cannot figure out what I should do. Would you break this down for me? I would like to know what is coming next?

 

John

Dear John:

 

Yes, it seems as though there is a new crisis roiling the world every month or so, but if recorded history proves anything, it proves bad news does not mean that the end of the world is at hand. I do believe that the end of the world is near, but on the same basis of what we read or hear in the media. God has given all of us something far better than media driven eschatology to indicate the nearness of Christ’s return. It is called, “Bible prophecy!”

 

The books of Daniel and Revelation are different than the other books in the Bible. The book of Daniel was written around 600 B.C. and God put a seal on this book until the time of the end. (See Daniel 12:4,9.) This indicates that God has something to reveal to the final generation that He had not revealed before. The book of Revelation was written around A.D. 100 and even though it was not sealed up like the book of Daniel, Revelation depends on the unsealing of Daniel to make sense.

 

God embedded two amazing elements within the book of Daniel and Revelation for the benefit of the last generation who would live on Earth. First. He put a chronological sequence of prophetic events in these books. These events began to unfold about 6—B.C. and the sequence will continue without interruption until the world of sin is purified – 1,000 years after the Second Coming. Second, God puts eighteen spans of time within each sequence of events so that we can determine the overall duration of God’s plan.

 

Once we understand how the prophetic sequences of Daniel and Revelation align with each other, we can determine our chronological position within God’s plan. With a little training, an ordinary person can determine the previous prophetic event and the next prophetic event for himself because the Bible speaks for itself. This feature of apocalyptic prophecy is the basis for any assertion that the book of Daniel has been unsealed and that Christ’s return is very near.

 

Why Experts Disagree

When its comes to interpreting the Bible prophecy, it is true that one expert says on thing and another expert says something else. Prophetic expositors arrive at different conclusions because there are as many different methods of interpretation as there are people. Methods of Interpretation is a phrase that defines a controlling set of ideas or views that a person has in mind before he or she actually begins to interpret prophecy.  Doctrinal beliefs, presuppositions, assumptions, concepts about the role and authority of Scripture, the use of external authority, and church traditions produce controlling ideas. Notice how they work: A Catholic Scholar will interpret prophecy so that his Catholic doctrines and his prophetic conclusions harmoniously align; a Baptist scholar will do the same thing. In other words, two scholars can study the same passages of Scripture and arrive at different conclusions because everyone approaches Bible prophecy with some kind of baggage. This baggage is called “methods of interpretation,” “presuppositions,” rules of interpretation,” or hermeneutics.  Perhaps the following parable will illustrate the controlling power that comes from baggage.

 

The Parable of the Math Teacher

Once upon a time, there was a math teacher who was invited to teach math in a college in a distant city called Overspent. During the first week of college algebra, the teacher discovered a puzzling situation. His students could not solve a single math problem correctly. In fact, all of the students gave identical answers for each math problem that he gave them. He asked the students to explain how they had entered college – given the fact they did not have the skills necessary to resolve basic math problems. The students said their high school teachers did not require them to work through math problems because highly educated and spiritually guided math teachers long ago had solved all math problems and all they needed to do was to memorize the answers. The teacher was shocked.

 

The next day, the teacher set out to remedy the problem. He put this equation on the board: 3c + 5 = 20. He asked the students to solve for c. All of the students reported that c was equal to 3. The teacher could not believe his ears. He demonstrated on the chalkboard how c was solved, and he proved that c = 5 in the equation using rules of substitution. The students became angry. They were insulted by this “outsider” because he showed no respect for their high school elders and their traditional way of solving math problems.

 

The student s told the teacher that if he had written 3e + 5 = 20, their answer would have been 5 because “e” always equals 5. They had always been taught that “a” always = 1, “b” always = 2, “c” always = 3, etc. The teacher responded by saying that in math, a variable’s name does not determine its value. It does not matter whether a variable is called “e” or “c” or “x.” When it comes to resolving a math problem, the process must conform to the valid rules of substitution or the answer will be erroneous. The students could not bear to hear any more of this heresy, so they rose up as one man and stormed out of the class. The math teacher was stunned. He wondered how he could help these students. They knew nothing about working through math problems or that math is controlled by four self-evident rules of addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division. He thought to himself, “They think they have been properly informed and they are afraid to consider answers that are contrary to traditions of their elders.” Perplexed by their hostility, he wondered what he could do to get the students to put aside their traditions so that they could consider the truth.

 

The next day, the teacher plainly said to his students: “Please hear me out. You have been misled. Your knowledge of math is worthless. Memorizing the answer to a math problem is not to be confused with properly working a legitimate process to find the correct answer. If you follow the four rules that govern math, you can test the validity of your answers because accurate math solutions are not a matter of opinion, they are a matter of fact. Accurate solutions are true because they can be proven true by self-evident rules!” Immediately, the students became hostile. The teacher had condemned their traditions and their beloved elders. He had insulted them and their exalted high school teachers. They threw desks and chairs at the teacher and in a riotous frenzy, they beat him to death.

 

When the bell rang, the students went away happy. They were relieved that the offending teacher had been silenced. They petitioned the dean of the college to provide a math teacher who would teach according to their elders and their wish was granted. Years later, many of these students graduated from Overspent City College and some of them went to work for the elders of the city. Later, the city faced an enormous financial crisis and all of the elders and college graduates could not stop the city from going bankrupt. When the auditors showed up, no one in the accounting department could figure out what went wrong – literally.

 

There are four lessons to be learned from this silly parable. First, for most of us, traditions are more important than truth. Traditions are familiar and predictable, whereas the truth can be disruptive, humiliating and socially divisive. Second, it is impossible to be “a defender of the faith” and at the same time, be “a seeker of truth.” These two mindsets stand in opposition to each other. Third, if someone exposes the folly of a tradition, he or she will surely suffer for it. Last, if we reject or ignore the truth, failure cannot be avoided. We may arrogantly defend our ignorance, but ignorance will not save us from the results that truth demands. 

 

 

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