The first one is from people that are in churches where their pastor never preaches on prophecy.
In fact, some of their leaders have said it's not important to speak on prophecy; don't
study it; don't teach it in the Sunday school class; don't worry about it.
What would you say to them, Ed?
Dr. Ed Hindson: Well, one fourth of the Bible is prophetic in nature.
If we're going to preach the whole counsel of God, you have to deal with Bible prophecy.
I'm always amazed; the apostle Paul in the book of Acts went to the town of Thessalonica.
There were no Christians there.
He only spent three weeks in Thessalonica.
He preached the gospel, people were saved, he planted a church, and he taught them Bible
doctrine, including prophecy.
Because he said in his second letter to them, in 2 Thessalonians 2:5, "Don't you remember
when I was with you I taught you all these things?"
And in the context he's talking about Bible prophecy.
If it was important enough for Paul in three weeks to teach them about salvation and the
doctrine of Christ and the doctrines of God, etc., and salvation and prophecy, then it's
part of what we need to be teaching as well.
In the Bible there are 23,000 verses in the Old Testament, for example, over 6,000 of
them contain prophetic material; almost 8,000 verses in the New Testament, 1700 of them
contain prophetic material.
Of the entire Bible, almost 28% of it is prophecy.
You can't avoid that and still preach the whole counsel of God.
Ankerberg: Yes.
Ron?
Dr. Ron Rhodes: Let me just say that, on a personal note, prophecy also has a tremendous
evangelistic value.
You see, I became a Christian because for the first time in my life I was educated on
Bible prophecy.
So it's not just a matter of understanding the future, it's life-changing as well.
Now, one of the things that we learn from the Bible is that prophecy involves direct
revelation from God.
Allow me to share a verse with you from 2 Peter 1:20-21.
Prophets didn't originate the message, God did.
And the verse says, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came
about by the prophet's own interpretation.
For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were
carried along by the Holy Spirit."
And, John, that word "carried along" in the Greek is very forceful.
You might recall in Acts 27 where Paul was on a ship and the ship was headed for a shipwreck
because the wind was so strong.
The men on board were doing everything they could to control that ship, but ultimately
it was the wind that was controlling the direction of the ship.
That's the word "borne along"; the ship was borne along.
And in the same way the writers of Scripture were forcefully borne along by the Holy Spirit.
So yes, men were involved, like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but because they were
borne along by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit guaranteed no errors in their writings.
And again, on a personal note, it was the first time I understood that the Bible was
the word of God—after understanding Bible prophecy.
Ankerberg: Yes.
You know, Mark, 1800 verses in the Bible deal with the second coming of Christ.
In the New Testament 318 verses deal with the second coming.
That means every 25th Bible verse in the New Testament refers to the second coming of Christ.
I can't see anybody saying to God, "This is not important, this stuff that you gave
to us."
Dr. Mark Hitchcock: God tells us it's important.
He, really He commands it, "Study."
Bible prophecy proves who God is.
Really it's the main proof of the truth of the Bible, because only someone who's
outside of time and space and someone who's sovereign over this world can predict the
future.
Now Isaiah 45:21-23 says, "Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant
past?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no god apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.
Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked:…"
In Isaiah 46:9, "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like
me.
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'"
So what God prophesies He brings to pass.
The apostle Peter in 2 Peter 1:19 says we have the word of the prophets made more certain
and you'd do well to pay attention "as to a light shining in a dark place."
So what he's saying is you need to study prophecy and pay attention to these things.
Our world's a dark place, and prophecy is the ray of light that shines in.
One other thing I think is fascinating.
Prophets in the Old Testament studied prophecy.
The prophet Daniel tells us in Daniel 9 that he was reading the prophet Jeremiah.
So we have the example of the saints of old who studied prophecy, and we should follow
their example.
Ankerberg: Absolutely.
Rhodes: You know, one of the great things in Isaiah is that Isaiah portrays God as having
a contest with the false deities of paganism.
And the God of the Bible challenges them, "Let me see you tell the future like I can."
And that kind of sets the context for the verses that Mark just read.
God is the only true God; there is no other.
He tells the future from the beginning.
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