PROPH ECY

How to Understand

PROPH ECY

This bo okl et is not to be sold.

It is a free educational service in the pub lic intere st , published by

Ambassador College.

©1972 AmbassadorCollege All RightsReserved

Print ed in U.SA.

The major events that will headline tomor- row's news are already

pre-recorded. About one third of the Bible is prophecy, and most prophetic passages apply NOW - to our time - the world in which we live. Yet Biblical prophecy is a com- plete mystery to millions.

Why? Because certain vital keys are not understood. They have become lost.

It is now God's time to reveal these most important keys to Bib- lical understanding. Read of them in this timely booklet and really be- gin to understand Bible prophecy.

B

Andyet- look at allthe confusion!

Many believeALLthe prophecieswere merely the pro- nouncements of wild-eye d fanatics carried away with vi- sions of doom. Still othe rs believe the prophecies are confinedto the OldTest a men t,and are alldone away.

Still others preach that MOST Biblical prophecy is for ourday - now !

What is the truth?

What Is Prophecy?

The Hebrew word for prophet,naui,means "one who announces or brings a message from God." The word

"prophet" in the English language means essentially the same thing- "on e who speaks by divine inspiration as the interpreter or spokesman of God,"whether it be a message of duty and warning,or a prediction of future events.

A prophetisone who speaksforGod;hence, the prefix pro (from the Greek language - from which our word prop het is derived) which means "for" and "before." So that a prophetis one who speaksfor God,orone who tells before- one who predicts,foretells,prophesies.

Common Misconceptions

Many people falsely assume all prophecies are dire foretellings of catastrophic events, of the wrathful ven-

4 How to Understand PROPH ECY

gea nce of a harsh God who is about to descend with ter- rible furyupon His haplesssubjectshere below!

This is FAR from the tru t h! Many of the prophecies for etella time of peace,of happiness,of restoration ,of joy , of gre at prosperi t y and physi cal wea lth for th ose who are serving God. (Reque st our free booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow - What It Will Be Like for a detailed description of th ese remarkable prophecies of peace and prosperi t y .)

Many prophecies foret ell , in adv a nc e, cer t ain even t s which are to happen , the rise and fall of nations, the courseof wor ldaffairs!

Prophecyisachr on icle ofthegre at PLANGod is work- ing out here below! Itdescribes th is plan in detail, sho w- in g how God know s it will work out,according to human nature, toget he r withother special interv entionsof God.

ProphecyisHISTORYwritten in advance!

WhoWere the Prophets ?

To most pro fessing Christia ns the writ ingsof men like Daniel, Zech ariah, Joel an d Joh n (in Revela tion) are sh ro udedin myst er iou s sym bo lis m an d meaningless meta- phor.

So complete is this blindness th at some"higher crit- ics " ha ve even dared to propose thatsuc h prophetic writ- ings are mere ly the rantings of dru g-d riven hallucina t or s of antiquity.

But here is the truestory of these men of God.

The prophet s were not a special hierar ch y,a gui ld, or a certain "class" of men! Many of the m wer e ch ose n from various of the twelve tribes of Isra el,and,unlike those of the tribe of Levi,were not born intothe iroffice.They were princes, sheepherders, farmers, fisherme n, an d priest s.

They came from many differen t tribes , and God called the mat many differen t times.

Daniel was a Jew , of the tr ibe of Judah , one of the princesof the nation,with who m God bega n to deal - re- vealing the meaning of Nebuc hadnezzar's dreams, and

causin g Daniel to write many prophecies which he,him-

self,did not understand!(Dan.12:8-9.)

How to Unde rs tand PROPHECY 5

Jeremiah wa sone "of the priests" (Jer. 1:1), who ar- gued that he was too youngto become a proph et of God!

Jon ahran fr om the call of God, Isaiah claimed he was a man of un clean lips and didn't want to prophesy, and Zephaniahwas one of thepr in ces ofJuda h,possibly of the descend an t sof Hezekiah .

Noti ce the way God calle dAmos!

"T h e wordsof Amos,who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw .. ." (Amos 1:1). Amos was going about his daily life,amongtheherdsmen,minding his own busin ess, and God expressly REVEALED a certain message to him . Later, when Amos was approached by Amaziah, the pri est of Bethel , who told Amos not to prophesy, but to go into another country, Amos answered, "... I was no prophet , neither was I a pr ophet'sson; but I was an herd- man , and a gatherer of sycomore fruit [margin - wild figs]: and the LORD[Eternal] took me as I followed the {lock,and the Eternalsaid unt o me, Goprophesyunto my people Israel" (Amos 7:14-15).

Amos was herding sheep - NOT "looking" for some kind of religious "experience" - and GOD CALLED him.

As the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write, God called His prophets - sent them as divinely com m issioned mes- sengers. "...The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost [Spirit]" (II Peter 1:21).

Many had to be made willingto carry the message of God.These men WERE NOT SEEKING some kind of "spiri- tual experience," they were not earnestly desiringthe of- fice of a "prophet."They werechosenof God!

And on these men, together with the New Testament apostles,is based the very Church of God!"N ow therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the householdof God; andare built upon the foundation of the apostles andPROPHETS, Jesus Christhimself being the chief cornerstone" (Eph.2:19-20).

WhyWas Prophecy Written?

God inspired his Prophet Amos to tell us, "The Lord Eternal never does anything without telling his servants the prophets" (Amos3:7, Moffatt translation).

6 How to Und ers ta nd PROPHECY

BeforeGod intervenes in the affa irs ofa nation,or the worl d,Hefirst sends His servan ts to warn th ose who will be directl y affected by what Heintends to do. Why does Hedo this? To give the m a chance to CH ANG E th eir ways - to REPENT of their sins - so that the prophesied cala - mityneednot come to pass.

God isabsolutely fair ,just and righteou s.He sends a

WAR NIN G,andgives peopl eachancetorepent.

Thepurpose of prophecy, therefore, is threefold . First , it is give n in love to enco urage people to repen t of their sins sothey can escape punishmen t . Secon d, it isgiven for thosewho don't repe ntat first,so that when the ir punish- ment comes, they will the n acknowledge the irsins and re- pent toward the God who will the n deliver and rescue th em! (Deu t.4:25-31.) Third,it an no u nces in adv ancethe coming Kin gdom of God, the wonderfu l world tomorrow - a time of the restoration of this earth to a condition of prosperity,peaceand abundantwell-being.

Prophecies Preserved

God selected Jonah as a prophet and, aft er making him willi ng to ca rry the message of God, com missioned himto go to the great cityof Nineveh. Jonah fina lly went.

Jonah pr ophesied ,liftinguphis voice in loudwarning as he traversed the great,sprawlingcityof Nineveh.

Finally the word came to the king. The king realized the seriousness of the prophecy , an d " ...aro se from his th ro ne, and he la id his robe from him , and covered him with sackcloth, and sa t in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed an d pub lished through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobl es, sayin g, Let neither man nor beast,herd nor flock, tast e any th ing : let the m not feed , nor drink water: But let man an d beast be covered with sackcloth, an d cry mightily un t o God.... And God saw their toorhs, that theyturnedfro mtheirevilway ;an dGod repen ted of the evil, that he had said th at he would do unt o the m; and hedidit not " (Jo nah3:6-10).

Notice it ! Jonah fu lfilledhis commission! Jon ah 'sjob of orally sho uting the warning was over !Jonah had been

How to Understand PROPHECY 7

made willing, had carried the message to Nineveh, and Nineveh had act ually rep en t ed !

Then - if the proph ecy had served its purpose,if the warninghad been heeded , if Jonah'scom mission wasover , why theneed of writingthe prophecy?

Jonah WROTE thewho le th ing,and it forms a part of your Bible today!

Noti ce the 36th chapterof Jeremiah.

"And it came to passin the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king ofJudah,thatth is wordca me unto Jerem iah from the Eternal,saying, Take thee a roll of a book [scroll], and write therein all the words th a t I have spoken un t o thee against Isra el, and against Judah,and againstall the na t ions... .Itmay be that the house of Ju- dah will hear all theevil which I purposeto do unto them;

that they may return every man from his evil way ... . Then Jerem iah ca lled Bar u ch the son of Neriah: and Baru ch wrotefrom the mouthof Jeremiah allthe words of the Eternal,which hehad spoken unto him,upon a roll of a book" (J er. 36:1-4).

After the writingof this dire warning toward ancient Israel and Judah, notice whathap pened : "J eremia h com- manded Baruch , saying, Iam shutup; I cannot go into the hou se ofthe Lord:thereforego thou,andREAD in the roll, whichtho u hast written from my mouth,the words of the Eternal in the ears of the people in the Eternal's house upon thefasting day.. . .It may be they will present their su pplication before the Eternal,and will return everyone from his evil way ... . And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet com m a n ded him,rea ding in the book the words of the Eternal in the Et erna l'shouse" (Jer.36:5-8).

The people heard it,and also one of the princes who was presen t. He carried the message to other princes, whereu pon they sent Jeh udi (verse 14) to tell Baruch to cometo the m. He arose, tookthe scroll in hishand and be- ganto read it to them.Theythentold the king(verse 20).

Now notice what ha ppened ! "So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber . And Jehudi read it in the ears of the

8 How to Understand PRO P H ECY

king, and in the ears of all the princes whichstood beside the king. Now the kin g satin the winterho use in the ninth month:and there was a fire on the hea r th burningbefore him.And it came to pass, that whenJehudi had read three or four leaves [columns], he [the king]cu t it withthe pen- knife,and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth,unt il all the roll was consume d in the fire that was on the hearth " (verses 21-23). The king then com manded (ver se 26)that Baruchand Jeremiah beseized.However,they es- ca ped, beinghidden of God.

Stop and thin k for a moment. God had revealed a message to Jeremiah.Jeremiah had caused themessage to beWRITTEN.The messagehad then reachedall thepeop le.

Thenall theprincesheard it. Finally ,it reachedthe KING!

On this occasion , unlike Nineveh, neither the king, the princes ,nor the people repented!

However ,the purposeof the prophecy was fulfilled - wasn 'tit ?Everyonehad HEARD,orally ,theexact wordsof this am a zin g prophecyreadin theirown ears!

But - IF the whole purpose of this prophecy had al- readybeen fulfilled - if there were not yet a FUTURE ful- fillment of this prophecy - THEN WHY DID GOD CAUSE EVERY WORD TO BE WRITTEN THE SECONDTIME?

"T hen theword ofthe Et ernal came to Jer emiah,AF-

TER th at the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Tak e thee again another roll, and write in it ALL THE FORM ER WORDS th a t werein thefirst roll,whichJehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned " (Jer. 36:27-28).

Do you see? God ca usedevery sin gle word, and other words besides, to be WRITTENthe secon d time. Also, He caused Jonah to write the prophecy even tho u gh the city repe nted.God wanted these wordspreserved!God wanted the m to com e righ t on down to our time- now! You will begin tosee why as you conti n ue reading.

Writtenfor OUR DAY!

The very PURPOSE for writing on e sin gle word of proph ecy is to preserve the prophecies for future gen era- tions! God sa w to it , even by inter vening in a divine mir -

How to Understand PROPHECY 9

acle, that His sacred words were to be preserved to all generations.

Here'spartof the reason:"Now these things wereour examples, to the int en t we should not lust after evil things, as they also lu st ed" (ICor.10:6).God caused these propheciesto be written for our examples,today!"Nowall thesethings hap pened unto them for ensamples: and they are WRITTEN for our admonition,upon whom the ends of the world are come" (1 Cor.10:11).

And "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures migh t have hope" (Romans 15:4 ).

God cause dthe prophecies to be written to SHOW His servants how worl d con ditions would work out. "The Rev- elationof Jesu s Christ, which God gave unt ohim , to she w untohis serva n tsthings which must shortlycome to pass;

and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John " (Rev. 1:1).

Why ?So His servants in this modern age can come to understand the proph ecies, preaching and publishing them to the mod ern nationsfor whomtheywere intended!

Rea d Ezekiel33!

And, as we said before, God says He will NOT cause any major world condition to occur,that He will not inter- vene in world affairs,unless His servants- those who are members of the very body of Jesus Christ- know about it first! "S urely the Eternal God will do nothing, but he

REVEALETH his secret unto his servants the prophets"

(Amos 3:7).

One full th ird of the Bible is prophecy - and abou t 90%of all that prophecy still pertainsto OUR DAY- right now !

The Amazing Prophecy of Ezekiel

Noti ce what hap pened to Ezekiel! " ...1 was among thecap tives by the riverof Che ba r.. .and 1sawvisions of God"(E zek.1:1).Readthe first chapterof Ezekiel! Here is a pictur e of the very throne of the One who later became JesusChrist ! Ezekiel saw a great whirlwind(verse 4) in the

IO How to Understa nd PROPH ECY

midst of which were four living creatures (verse 5), ca r- rying, over their head s,an expanse of translucent material (verse 22) the color of glass, or cryst al. On this expa nse of beautifu l,crystal -like ma t eri al ,was a throne! (Verse26.)

Seated upon the throne was On e "as the appearance of a ma n aboveupon it.And Isaw as the colour ofam ber, as the appeara nce of fire rou nd abou t with in it ,fr om the appearance of his loin s even upwa rd [compare with Rev.

1:13-16], and from the appearance of his loins even down- ward, I saw as it wer e the appea rance of fire, and it had bri gh tness rou n d abou t....THIS WAS the appearance of the liken ess ofthe gloryof the Lord " ! (Ezek. 1:26-28.)

Ezekiel the n heard a voice (chapter 1:28) and the voice said, "Son of man , stand upon thy feet, an d I will speak unt o thee... .And he said unt o me, Son of man ...I do send thee unt o the m ; and th ou shalt say unto the m, THUS SAITH THELORD GOD"(Ezek.2:1, 3,4 ).

The ProphetEzekielwas given amessa geby the Eter- nal God. He was sent to the Hou se of Isr ael !He was also given prophec ies against the Ammonites (25:2), against Moab (25:8), against Edom (25:12),againstthe Philist in es (25:15), against Tyre (26 :2-3), against Egyp t (29:2), an d againstothe r nations , a gre at distance fro m hislocationin Babylo n.

But Ezekiel was in captivity. Yet the word of the Eternal ca m e to him, giving him these messages - com- missioninghim to warn these specificnations!

But Ezekiel was never released to GO to these nations!

A Jewish Capt ive

Imagineit ! Picture,ifyou can, a young Jewish lad in a concent r a t ion camp in Germany , during World War II.

Let's su ppose Alm ighty God reveals to him startling vi- sions, symbolizing what is to ha ppen in Egypt, Ja pa n , GreatBritain andthe Un itedStates!God tells him to "get youinto Egypt,Japan, Britainandthe UnitedStates."

Are his German captors going to believe he has re- ceived suc h a message? Even if they DID - is it feasible they would let him go, in order to travel all about the

How to Und ers tand PRO PHEC Y 11

world during a time of warfar e, reach in g the lead ers of thesenations?Even ifhe COULDfeas ibly travelfrom pla ce to pla ce,is it possible anyone with suc h a messa ge,claim- ingto be a prophetsent from God,wou ld be ushered right into the Whit e Hou se of the Presid ent of the United States, into the Imperia l Palace in Tokyo, or to No. 10 DowningStreetin London?

Ofcourse not!

Ezeki elneverrea chedthesenations!

Instead,he WROTE the prophecies !

Do you realize that Ezekiel, a you ng captive Jewish lad, in a veritable "concentration camp" in Babylon ,was given prophecies toward Israel over 120 years after Israel had already gone into a cap tivity?And that he never rea ched theanc ient Isr aeli t eswith the message?

Ezekiel saw visions ofimpending destructionupon Is- rael "in the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoia ch in's captivity " (Ezek. 1:2-3). Jehoia- chi n wen t into captivity in 596 B.C.The fifth year brings us to about592 B.C., or over 125 yearsafterthe removalof the last of the remaining nor t herntr ibes, 721-718 B.C.But moreabout the da t in gof the book of Ezekiel later in this bookl et.

Ifyou ha ve not yet seen the startlingidentity of the lost ten tribes ofIsrael PROVED,write immediately for our FREE, fu ll-color book The United States and British Com- mon wealth in Prophecy.Worldwide mailing addresses are on pa ge32.

Ezekiel 's pr oph ecy, never, in all history, until NOW, rea ch ed theears of the nations,peoples or kingsfor whom the messages were intended .

Ra ther , Ezekiel WROTE these amazing prophecies!He wrot e thembecauseGod was in tendingto PRESERVE THEM forour day !

Prophecy is DUAL! Noti ce the theme of dualit y ru n - ning th ro ug ho utthe Bible.There was thefirst man Adam, and the second Adam,who was Chr ist (I Cor. 15:4 5-47). There is the Old Testament, and th e New Testament. There was the old Jerusalem and a new heavenly Jerusa- lem. Study Matthew 24! Her e, Jesus ans wered the ques-

12 How to Understand PRO P H ECY

tions of the disciples about the end of the age, and His im mi ne nt ret urn ! Many beli eve Ma tthew 24 was tota lly FULFILLEDin 70A.D. at the destruction ofJerusal em.This is entire ly baseless! They must believe, by this assum p- tion, that Jesu s was a liar! But Ch rist did not lie. Wh at hap pened in part in 70 A.D . was mer ely a fore r u n ner, a type of the REAL FULFILLMENT of ALL the prophecies of Ma t t h ew 24!

Ezeki el 's prophecies are also DUAL! And the real , LITERAL fulfillm ent of th e prophecies of Ezeki el is right aheadof usNOW!

Prophetic Time Lapses

Anothercrucial aspectof the prophetic time factor is what we shall callprophetic timelapses.This ver y fa ctor has been a major stumbling block to many st ude nts of prophecy.Even learn ed com me ntators ha ve failedto gras p the pri nc iple of prophetic time lapses. This is espec ially tr ue in Isaiah,DanielandRevelation.

An exce llent exam ple of such a time lapse may be found in Isaiah 61:1-3. In the first three ver ses we find a sho rt prophecy conce rn ing Chr ist and His com m ission . (Actually the com plete prophecy con ti n ues to the end of the ch a pter, but the first three verses will su ffice to illus- tra te the point.) Jesus Himselfquoted this section from Isai ah when He had occasion to read in the synagogue in Nazareth.

Noti ce it in Luke4:16-20 :"An d he came to Nazareth, wherehehad been brought up: and,ashiscus t om was,he went into the synagogueon theSabbathday , andst ood up for to read. And therewas delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias [Greek for Isaiah]. And when he had opened the book , he found the place where it is writ t en, The spirit of th e Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preachthe gospel toth e poor: he hathsent metohea l the brokenhearted, to preachdeliver ance to the ca ptives an d therecovering of sight to the blind,to set at libert y th em that are bruised, to preach the acceptable yea r of theLord.AND HECLOSED THEBOOK.. .."

How to Under stand PRO P HE CY 13

Noti ce!Jesu s did notfinish quoting the rest of Isaiah 61:2! But why not ?

Sim ply because the first part of that prophecy con- cernedCh rist'searth ly minist ry fro m 27-31A.D.only! But the rest ofthe verse did not apply to the time of His first com mg .

Theremainder of the prophecy- starting in midverse - appliestoCh rist's secondcom ing - th at timekno wn as

"the day of the Lord" - or as Isaiah expressed it, "AND THEDA Y OF VEN GE A NC EofourGod.. . ."

Inother words,we see inone verseof Bibl eproph ecy a prophetictime lapseof almost2000 yea rs betw een the ful- fillmen t of the firstandsecon d partsofth atoneverse.

This principle is not uncommon in Isaiah 's writ ing and in other propheticbooksofth e Bible.

The longest single prophecy in the Bible (fou nd in Daniel 11) covers a time period fr om the Medo- Pers ia n Empireto thereturnofChrist in a mere45 verses.

In Revelation 12 we find a brief biography of Sa t a n the devil from his initial reb ell ion many millennia ago to the yea rs and months just ahead! And all in 7 sho rt ver ses!

Ther efore, we see th a t it is very import an t when study ing prophetic pas sages to get God 's guidance in un- ders tanding thetimeeleme n tinvo lve d .

Prophetic Symbolism

But understanding time factors alone is not eno ug h. We must add to this a knowledge of God's use of sym - bolism.To grasp propheticmeanings God often uses sym- bols, analogies, metaphors and allegori es in describing future events. It is crit ica l to understand when suc h de- vices are being used and when a word is to be taken liter- ally! Many have gone astray because they have failed to grasp the symbolicmeaning of a word as opposed to a lit- eralapplication .

Bible Self-interpreting

As a case in point,notice Revelation 1:20: "Themys- tery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right

14 How to Understand PROPHECY

hand,and the seven golde n can dlesticks. The seven stars are the ange ls of the seven ch urches: and the seven can- dlestickswhic hthousawest are thesevench urches."

Here we find stars being used as a sym bol for angels.

In fact, the name Lucifer (the great cheru b who becam e known as "Sa ta n" after his rebellion) mean s "S hining One" or"Morning Star" (Isaia h14:12).

Thus we find aprincip le of prophetic understa nding.

When a word is obvious ly used as asym bol, we mustlook elsewherein the Bible for the interpretation or meani ngof thatsym bol.

The sym bolfor an angelisoften a "star."

Other Common Symbols

God uses many symbols when describin g propheti c events.In Revelation 17we find two myst eri ou s symbols used in portraying events which arenot too far in the fu- ture. In verse one we read, "...I will shew unto you the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. "

Her e we must know the meaning of "m a ny waters"

and just who this "wh or e" is if we are to understand the prophecy.Verse 18of the samech a pt er gives us theanswer in part. "And the woman [whore] which tho u sawest IS THAT GREAT CITY, whic h reigneth over the kings of the earth." Ther efore, we under st and that the wom an , or whore, as GOD calls her, represen ts a city-centered entity which has influence over kings - tha t , in fact, has ruled and willruleover other rulers!

Verse15tells us what the "waters" represent. ".. .The waters which thou sa west, where the whore sittet h, are PEOPLES,and multitudes,and NATIONS,andtongues."

But to really unde rstand the symbolism of the

"wom a n" in this cha pt er , we need additiona linformation. We find that throughouttheBiblea woman often is used to signify aCHURCH. Thecongregation ofIsra el was called the"ch urch in the wilderness' accordingto Acts 7:38.And in describing how God brought Israel out of Egypt and madethem a grea t na tion , th e Bibleuses theanalogy of a