Adam Knowlden
10-28-2002, 08:32 PM
Understanding Bible Prophecy
Before this series begins, I want to convey for you the importance of Bible Prophecy.
The church is filled with questions concerning bible prophecy, particularly end time prophecy. Since close to 40% of the Bible is prophetic scripture, we need to have an understanding as believers of the Lord. Our faith is based on all of Gods word, not just favorite verses or passages. It is my belief that prophecy is just as important to the believer as the rest of the bible.
Where prophecy comes from;
2 Peter 1: 20-21
"For no prophecy recorded in scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messages from God."
Why are the prophetic events of the bible important?
1. They are part of God's word.
2. All scripture is from God and profitable (2 Timothy 3:16)
3. Our faith must operate on the whole word of God and be supported by it. (Romans 10:17)
4. They inform us of Israel's historical value, especially how God dealt with His original chosen people.
5. They reveal God's plan and timetable- knowledge which the church must have.
Setting the Stage Part I- Israel the Nation that will not go away!
Over the next several weeks, I am going to be discussing biblical prophecy of the end times with you. However before we get into the serious stuff, I'm going to talk a little about Israel first. Israel has played a huge role in God's plan for Salvation! Without understanding the background behind Israel you can't fully understand the prophetic events that are unfolding in the news paper every day! When you sit down and look at the Bible, it is amazing how the Bible literally predicted thousands of years ago what is happening this very day! You can't go one day without reading about Israel and its conflicts in the Middle East in the newspaper. In fact Israel is the key reason why terrorists hate us so much and why we are involved in terrorism this day! I'll get more into why Israel's enemies hate them so much and what the Bible says about them and the future of Israel next week. The accuracy of the Bible and the history of Israel which it predicts is very awe inspiring!
Here are the 4 basic concepts that God set up concerning Israel:
1. Israel is the Geographical center of the World:
"Thus says the Lord God,This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the
Nations and the countries all around her."Ezekiel 5:5
2. Israel is the religious center of the World:
All three major world religions are centered in Jerusalem. Islam, who follows the
Prophet Muhammad. Judaism who adheres to the Old Testament of the Bible.
And Christianity, which follows the teachings of Jesus Christ.
3. Israel is the political center of the World:
Israel is literally the cause of all the chaos in the Middle East. The bible says in
Psalms 122:6, to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" This is because without peace
In Jerusalem there can be no peace for the world!!!
4. Israel is the prophetical center of the World.
Gods plan for Israel is well established in the Bible. From its conception to the
New Jerusalem that God will build.
I. Israel's History
The Jewish nation is the only nation whose origin can be traced with total accuracy. No one knows for sure who the first Englishman was, or the first Swede, or the first German, or the first Chinese was. But the entire world knows that Abraham was the first Hebrew (Jew).
A. God made an Everlasting covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 7:7 " And I will establish My Covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, too be God to you and your descendents after you."
You can't understand God's plan for the nation of Israel, nor the role that she will play in history, until you understand both the concept and the covenant of the promise that God made with Abraham, and therefore the Jewish nation.
B. The history of Israel begins with a literal miracle.
When God established this covenant and told Abraham (100 years old) that he would have a son by his wife Sarah who was very old (90 years old), Sarah laughed and said to herself, how can I have a son at this old age? And God replied, "Why does Sarah laugh...Is anything too hard for the Lord?"
It was with that the eternal covenant was established! And Israel was born!
God gave Israel four things:
1. A land
2. A law(the ten commandments)
3. A language(Hebrew)
4. A Lord(Israel's king)
2. Israel's heritage
1. A heritage of defection. Deut. 28:15, 25, 37, 63, 64
"If you do not obey the Lord your God, I will curse you"
"The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies"
"The Lord will scatter you among the nations, from one end of the earth to the other."
However, no matter how much Israel defied God he has always kept his covenant with Abraham. And if you've read the Bible you know the countless time Israel defied God and was given over to captivity by its enemies.
2. A heritage of Correction
Psalms 89:28-37
"My mercy will I keep for him forever. And my covenant shall stand firm with him." The descendents of Abraham.
Perhaps no other group of people has endured as much persecution as have the Jews during the past 4000 years. The persecutions included 400 years of slavery in Egypt, near-total destruction of their homeland by the Assyrians and Babylonians more than 2500 years ago and near-total destruction of their homeland again by the Romans about 1900 years ago. During the past 1900 years, Jews were scattered worldwide and persecuted worldwide. Adolph Hitler tried to kill all Jews during the Second World War. Before that era, entire villages of Jews were burned to the ground, along with Jewish men, women and children. Jews were banned from living in several European countries. The Bible told the Jews that they would face worldwide persecutions, and they did. And the Bible also told the Jews that God will never allow people to completely destroy the Jews, and the Bible has kept that promise too.
In Amos 9:14-15, the prophet said that there would come a time when the Jews would again have Israel as their own land and that they would never be uprooted again. Amos delivered this prophecy about 2700 years ago, shortly before the kingdom of Israel lost its independence to the Assyrian Empire.
The most important date in the 20th century was May 14, 1948, and on that day the most important even in our time took place. A nation was reborn in one day. A nation that lay dead for 2,000 years was raised to life. Within hours of declaring independence in 1948, the surrounding countries attacked tiny Israel. But Israel prevailed and was able to expand Israel's borders.
This within itself is a huge miracle. The Jews which had nothing re-conquered their land! They were vastly outnumbered and were attacked form all sides. There are so many miracle battles that took place during this time it boggles the mind! In one instance 400 Jews captured 20,000 Arabs! The re-establishment of Israel is the greatest miracles in our time. In Amos 7:14 and 15 God said, "I will bring back the captives of my people Israel. They will build the waste cities and inhabit them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the Land that I have given them." This is also backed up by the vision of the valley of Dry bones.
Humanly speaking, there is no way that tiny nation should have survived any one of the wars waged against them by their Arab neighbors of the Middle East;let alone four of them between 1948 and 1973! The 1948 war for independence pitted some 45 million Arabs against approximately 64,000 Jews,yet, when the dust settled about two years later, Israel had won an astounding victory. They were outnumbered militarily 40 to1, by population 100 to1, by equipment 1000 to1 and in land area 5,000 to1, but they came out on top.
In the Sinai War, Israel did not wait to be attacked and on October 29, 1956 launched her own preemptive strike. By the time the action ceased on November 5, the Arabs had lost between 2-3 thousand men killed and 5,600 taken prisoner. Israel lost 171 dead, 600 wounded, and only 4 taken prisoner.
The "Six Day War" began on June 5, 1967 and ended June 10th. In only six days, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were defeated,with Egypt taking the brunt of it. Russia had poured multiplied billions of dollars worth of military hardware into these countries and backed them with their own technicians, but Israel all but completely destroyed their combined air forces on the first day! Then in the days that followed, they systematically humiliated not only the enemies surrounding them, but Russia as well in that their technology was proven inferior. Egypt suffered huge losses with seven divisions totaling between 80,000 to100,000 men being completely routed or killed. Their entire force of 600-700 tanks supplied by the Soviets was destroyed, but Israel lost only 679 killed and 2,563 wounded.
The "Yom Kippur" War of 1973 was, in many respects, the most astounding of all in that Israel was caught totally off-guard and came closer to defeat than had been the case in any of the other wars. On Saturday (The Jewish Sabbath ,and in this case the holiest day of the year the Day of Atonement, in which observant Jews fasted for a full 24 hours), Israel was simultaneously attacked by Egypt from the South and Syria from the North in what turned out to be the largest conventional war in terms of armored forces since WWII. Some 5000 tanks were employed on both sides,a force larger than Hitler had used in invading Russia and more than the total numbers owned by Britain and France combined! Over a million men entered the fight! 838,000 Arabs against 275,000 Jews. But even though Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel at the time, feared during those dark days that they would be defeated, when it was all over Israel had once again snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat. But they paid a much higher price in terms of lives, losing over 4,000 soldiers in battles that cost their enemies over 15,000 casualties
Imagine the impact this prophecy had on believers in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th century. Believers had to wonder how a dead nation could be revived. But God said it would happen. And after it happened they would never be taken from them again. That is the key here. Israel will never be destroyed again. The next battle to happen is the Battle of Armageddon. And all I can say is thank God for sparing us as Christians during the times of Tribulation (more on that time in a future post) God also revived the language of Hebrew. The only time in history that a dead language had been completely restored and acknowledged as an official language by the world.
What will it take to destroy Israel this time?
Jeremiah 31: 35-36 says that only when the sun, moon, and stars are destroyed will God's covenant with Israel be destroyed.
3. Israel's hope
Jer. 31: 31-34 and Romans 11:26
Jesus was Israel's hope and the hope of the world!
These are the keys to understanding the prophecies of the Bible and what the future holds for Israel and the world.
One final point I would like to bring up is the question as to why Israel was chosen to be the promised people.
Let me answer this with a bit of history as to why God formed Israel...
After mankind began to disperse out across the earth, they began to forsake God. Two great empires established themselves. The Babylonian empire and the Egyptian empire.
In the Genesis account of the dispersion from the plains of Shinar the bible says the population began to increase in the region again and the rebuilding of the city continued (it was stopped for awhile after the tower of Babel) and formed into the greatest city of the times-Babylon. The center and capitol of the first "World Empire".
The great builder Nimrod, who laid the foundation of the kingdom, migrated to Assyria, there to build the city of Nineveh. Among others to leave Shinar, at the time of the dispersion, was a son of Ham named Mizraim, the ancestor of a number of people including the Philistines. Migrating south, Mizraim, with his people settled along the banks of the Nile River, and started the Egyptian empire. In Psalm 105:23, Egypt (Mizraim) is referred to as "The land of Ham", i.e. the descendents of Ham (a son of Noah).
With the phenomenal progress in culture, literature, art, material wealth both in Babylon and Egypt there was rapid decline in moral standards and religious life in the sense that they had forsaken the true God and worshiped new gods. God said there were no gods before him or will there ever be any after him. He is the only God.
To meet this new crisis, God chose to separate one family from all the families of the earth. Through that family God would preserve the knowledge and worship of the only true God. The man chose to start that nation was the man Abram (who would later be called Abraham). He was from the Chaldean city of Ur.
Abraham was called to be an instrument of God to be the founder of a great nation, separate and distinct form all other peoples of the earth.
1. A nation to be a witness to the one true living God, in the midst of universal idolatry.
Isaiah 43:10.
"You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he; before me there was no god formed, neither will there be after me."
2. To receive, protect, and preserve divine revelation.
Romans 3:2. "...unto them were committed the oracles of God."
3. To bring forth the promised Redeemer for all the earth.
Mathew 1:1," ...Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham". Gen. 3:15 and Luke 1:31.
4. To be a living testimony of the Wisdom and blessing of serving a living God who hears and answers the prayers of his people.
Deuteronomy 4:5-8.
So, God established Israel as his witness to the world, and chose Abraham to be the father of this great nation.
"Look now toward the heavens, and count the star if you can...so will be the number of your descendents." Genesis 15:5-6.
God continues to make the country and the people his witness. Not that they are somehow better than the rest of us. But as his testimony and his fulfillment of his everlasting covenant with Abraham and the world to bring a redeemer.
God has given their entire history, past, present and future in the bible. And everything he said has come to pass.
Even the resurrection of Israel, which God said would be a sign that the end was near.
Before this series begins, I want to convey for you the importance of Bible Prophecy.
The church is filled with questions concerning bible prophecy, particularly end time prophecy. Since close to 40% of the Bible is prophetic scripture, we need to have an understanding as believers of the Lord. Our faith is based on all of Gods word, not just favorite verses or passages. It is my belief that prophecy is just as important to the believer as the rest of the bible.
Where prophecy comes from;
2 Peter 1: 20-21
"For no prophecy recorded in scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messages from God."
Why are the prophetic events of the bible important?
1. They are part of God's word.
2. All scripture is from God and profitable (2 Timothy 3:16)
3. Our faith must operate on the whole word of God and be supported by it. (Romans 10:17)
4. They inform us of Israel's historical value, especially how God dealt with His original chosen people.
5. They reveal God's plan and timetable- knowledge which the church must have.
Setting the Stage Part I- Israel the Nation that will not go away!
Over the next several weeks, I am going to be discussing biblical prophecy of the end times with you. However before we get into the serious stuff, I'm going to talk a little about Israel first. Israel has played a huge role in God's plan for Salvation! Without understanding the background behind Israel you can't fully understand the prophetic events that are unfolding in the news paper every day! When you sit down and look at the Bible, it is amazing how the Bible literally predicted thousands of years ago what is happening this very day! You can't go one day without reading about Israel and its conflicts in the Middle East in the newspaper. In fact Israel is the key reason why terrorists hate us so much and why we are involved in terrorism this day! I'll get more into why Israel's enemies hate them so much and what the Bible says about them and the future of Israel next week. The accuracy of the Bible and the history of Israel which it predicts is very awe inspiring!
Here are the 4 basic concepts that God set up concerning Israel:
1. Israel is the Geographical center of the World:
"Thus says the Lord God,This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the
Nations and the countries all around her."Ezekiel 5:5
2. Israel is the religious center of the World:
All three major world religions are centered in Jerusalem. Islam, who follows the
Prophet Muhammad. Judaism who adheres to the Old Testament of the Bible.
And Christianity, which follows the teachings of Jesus Christ.
3. Israel is the political center of the World:
Israel is literally the cause of all the chaos in the Middle East. The bible says in
Psalms 122:6, to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" This is because without peace
In Jerusalem there can be no peace for the world!!!
4. Israel is the prophetical center of the World.
Gods plan for Israel is well established in the Bible. From its conception to the
New Jerusalem that God will build.
I. Israel's History
The Jewish nation is the only nation whose origin can be traced with total accuracy. No one knows for sure who the first Englishman was, or the first Swede, or the first German, or the first Chinese was. But the entire world knows that Abraham was the first Hebrew (Jew).
A. God made an Everlasting covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 7:7 " And I will establish My Covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, too be God to you and your descendents after you."
You can't understand God's plan for the nation of Israel, nor the role that she will play in history, until you understand both the concept and the covenant of the promise that God made with Abraham, and therefore the Jewish nation.
B. The history of Israel begins with a literal miracle.
When God established this covenant and told Abraham (100 years old) that he would have a son by his wife Sarah who was very old (90 years old), Sarah laughed and said to herself, how can I have a son at this old age? And God replied, "Why does Sarah laugh...Is anything too hard for the Lord?"
It was with that the eternal covenant was established! And Israel was born!
God gave Israel four things:
1. A land
2. A law(the ten commandments)
3. A language(Hebrew)
4. A Lord(Israel's king)
2. Israel's heritage
1. A heritage of defection. Deut. 28:15, 25, 37, 63, 64
"If you do not obey the Lord your God, I will curse you"
"The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies"
"The Lord will scatter you among the nations, from one end of the earth to the other."
However, no matter how much Israel defied God he has always kept his covenant with Abraham. And if you've read the Bible you know the countless time Israel defied God and was given over to captivity by its enemies.
2. A heritage of Correction
Psalms 89:28-37
"My mercy will I keep for him forever. And my covenant shall stand firm with him." The descendents of Abraham.
Perhaps no other group of people has endured as much persecution as have the Jews during the past 4000 years. The persecutions included 400 years of slavery in Egypt, near-total destruction of their homeland by the Assyrians and Babylonians more than 2500 years ago and near-total destruction of their homeland again by the Romans about 1900 years ago. During the past 1900 years, Jews were scattered worldwide and persecuted worldwide. Adolph Hitler tried to kill all Jews during the Second World War. Before that era, entire villages of Jews were burned to the ground, along with Jewish men, women and children. Jews were banned from living in several European countries. The Bible told the Jews that they would face worldwide persecutions, and they did. And the Bible also told the Jews that God will never allow people to completely destroy the Jews, and the Bible has kept that promise too.
In Amos 9:14-15, the prophet said that there would come a time when the Jews would again have Israel as their own land and that they would never be uprooted again. Amos delivered this prophecy about 2700 years ago, shortly before the kingdom of Israel lost its independence to the Assyrian Empire.
The most important date in the 20th century was May 14, 1948, and on that day the most important even in our time took place. A nation was reborn in one day. A nation that lay dead for 2,000 years was raised to life. Within hours of declaring independence in 1948, the surrounding countries attacked tiny Israel. But Israel prevailed and was able to expand Israel's borders.
This within itself is a huge miracle. The Jews which had nothing re-conquered their land! They were vastly outnumbered and were attacked form all sides. There are so many miracle battles that took place during this time it boggles the mind! In one instance 400 Jews captured 20,000 Arabs! The re-establishment of Israel is the greatest miracles in our time. In Amos 7:14 and 15 God said, "I will bring back the captives of my people Israel. They will build the waste cities and inhabit them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the Land that I have given them." This is also backed up by the vision of the valley of Dry bones.
Humanly speaking, there is no way that tiny nation should have survived any one of the wars waged against them by their Arab neighbors of the Middle East;let alone four of them between 1948 and 1973! The 1948 war for independence pitted some 45 million Arabs against approximately 64,000 Jews,yet, when the dust settled about two years later, Israel had won an astounding victory. They were outnumbered militarily 40 to1, by population 100 to1, by equipment 1000 to1 and in land area 5,000 to1, but they came out on top.
In the Sinai War, Israel did not wait to be attacked and on October 29, 1956 launched her own preemptive strike. By the time the action ceased on November 5, the Arabs had lost between 2-3 thousand men killed and 5,600 taken prisoner. Israel lost 171 dead, 600 wounded, and only 4 taken prisoner.
The "Six Day War" began on June 5, 1967 and ended June 10th. In only six days, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were defeated,with Egypt taking the brunt of it. Russia had poured multiplied billions of dollars worth of military hardware into these countries and backed them with their own technicians, but Israel all but completely destroyed their combined air forces on the first day! Then in the days that followed, they systematically humiliated not only the enemies surrounding them, but Russia as well in that their technology was proven inferior. Egypt suffered huge losses with seven divisions totaling between 80,000 to100,000 men being completely routed or killed. Their entire force of 600-700 tanks supplied by the Soviets was destroyed, but Israel lost only 679 killed and 2,563 wounded.
The "Yom Kippur" War of 1973 was, in many respects, the most astounding of all in that Israel was caught totally off-guard and came closer to defeat than had been the case in any of the other wars. On Saturday (The Jewish Sabbath ,and in this case the holiest day of the year the Day of Atonement, in which observant Jews fasted for a full 24 hours), Israel was simultaneously attacked by Egypt from the South and Syria from the North in what turned out to be the largest conventional war in terms of armored forces since WWII. Some 5000 tanks were employed on both sides,a force larger than Hitler had used in invading Russia and more than the total numbers owned by Britain and France combined! Over a million men entered the fight! 838,000 Arabs against 275,000 Jews. But even though Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel at the time, feared during those dark days that they would be defeated, when it was all over Israel had once again snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat. But they paid a much higher price in terms of lives, losing over 4,000 soldiers in battles that cost their enemies over 15,000 casualties
Imagine the impact this prophecy had on believers in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th century. Believers had to wonder how a dead nation could be revived. But God said it would happen. And after it happened they would never be taken from them again. That is the key here. Israel will never be destroyed again. The next battle to happen is the Battle of Armageddon. And all I can say is thank God for sparing us as Christians during the times of Tribulation (more on that time in a future post) God also revived the language of Hebrew. The only time in history that a dead language had been completely restored and acknowledged as an official language by the world.
What will it take to destroy Israel this time?
Jeremiah 31: 35-36 says that only when the sun, moon, and stars are destroyed will God's covenant with Israel be destroyed.
3. Israel's hope
Jer. 31: 31-34 and Romans 11:26
Jesus was Israel's hope and the hope of the world!
These are the keys to understanding the prophecies of the Bible and what the future holds for Israel and the world.
One final point I would like to bring up is the question as to why Israel was chosen to be the promised people.
Let me answer this with a bit of history as to why God formed Israel...
After mankind began to disperse out across the earth, they began to forsake God. Two great empires established themselves. The Babylonian empire and the Egyptian empire.
In the Genesis account of the dispersion from the plains of Shinar the bible says the population began to increase in the region again and the rebuilding of the city continued (it was stopped for awhile after the tower of Babel) and formed into the greatest city of the times-Babylon. The center and capitol of the first "World Empire".
The great builder Nimrod, who laid the foundation of the kingdom, migrated to Assyria, there to build the city of Nineveh. Among others to leave Shinar, at the time of the dispersion, was a son of Ham named Mizraim, the ancestor of a number of people including the Philistines. Migrating south, Mizraim, with his people settled along the banks of the Nile River, and started the Egyptian empire. In Psalm 105:23, Egypt (Mizraim) is referred to as "The land of Ham", i.e. the descendents of Ham (a son of Noah).
With the phenomenal progress in culture, literature, art, material wealth both in Babylon and Egypt there was rapid decline in moral standards and religious life in the sense that they had forsaken the true God and worshiped new gods. God said there were no gods before him or will there ever be any after him. He is the only God.
To meet this new crisis, God chose to separate one family from all the families of the earth. Through that family God would preserve the knowledge and worship of the only true God. The man chose to start that nation was the man Abram (who would later be called Abraham). He was from the Chaldean city of Ur.
Abraham was called to be an instrument of God to be the founder of a great nation, separate and distinct form all other peoples of the earth.
1. A nation to be a witness to the one true living God, in the midst of universal idolatry.
Isaiah 43:10.
"You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he; before me there was no god formed, neither will there be after me."
2. To receive, protect, and preserve divine revelation.
Romans 3:2. "...unto them were committed the oracles of God."
3. To bring forth the promised Redeemer for all the earth.
Mathew 1:1," ...Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham". Gen. 3:15 and Luke 1:31.
4. To be a living testimony of the Wisdom and blessing of serving a living God who hears and answers the prayers of his people.
Deuteronomy 4:5-8.
So, God established Israel as his witness to the world, and chose Abraham to be the father of this great nation.
"Look now toward the heavens, and count the star if you can...so will be the number of your descendents." Genesis 15:5-6.
God continues to make the country and the people his witness. Not that they are somehow better than the rest of us. But as his testimony and his fulfillment of his everlasting covenant with Abraham and the world to bring a redeemer.
God has given their entire history, past, present and future in the bible. And everything he said has come to pass.
Even the resurrection of Israel, which God said would be a sign that the end was near.