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Understanding Prophecy Part 1 4/6/2015 10:51:42 AM
God’s Prophecies
By Cody McGowan
We should not be surprised at this if we even remotely comprehend how powerful and omniscient God really is. Prophecy is the proof text for the Scriptures.
Only a God who knows the end from the beginning is able to tell us how it will all come out. It's a bit like being in an airplane and watching a parade down below.
From that vantage point, there really is no time constraint on that parade, because you would be in a position to see both the beginning and the end, all at once. From your lawn chair on the curb, you have to await each segment. God is not bound by time, yet His creation is.
First, let me say Prophecy is more than just a prediction of something far into the future; Prophecy in the Bible has a purpose, meaning and impossible to deny. Its not there by accident, for one thing it establishes God’s authenticity and purpose more humanity.
Bible Prophecies also allows the average person to give an account of the trust worthiness of the Bible, this comes in handy when people ask how do you know the Bible really is the inspiring word of God.
When God foretell something or predicts an event thousands of years before it happens so when it does happens then you have no chose but to acknowledge God words as divine.
It give you personally the ability to make a stand and authenticate the Bible without
going into an hour long argument usually after the first 5 minutes their bored and have already stopped listening; however say END TIME PROPHECY that effects them in the here and now, then you got them hooked.
According to the dictionary, prophecy is the foretelling or prediction of what is to come. Prophecy is that which is declared by a prophet, which is an inspired prediction (future) and instruction.
(Day to day living with God) Prophecy is simply history written in advance.
This is very important if we are to understand God’s Prophecies we must make sure we know the difference between the good Prophets or (Preachers) and the bad Prophets and (Preachers.)
True Prophets or men of God are divinely inspired by God; when they speak God’s words, it establishes God’s authenticity God’s true nature and God’s true power. Every word of God is an action word that will surely come to pass.
God’s track Record
One way to do this is to look at the fact that Biblical prophecy is proven by the fact that 44 of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, which is the first advent of the LORD Jesus Christ, (his first coming) were literally fulfilled and documented in the New Testament.
At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus Himself read a prophecy concerning Himself.
Luke 4:18-19 (ASV)
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Prophesied
Isaiah 61:1 (ASV)
1 The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
People at times always ask the question (how do you know the Bible is the inspirited word of God?) Here again the impotence of prophecies, Bible prophecy is the compelling evidence that vindicates the Bible's claim that it is the truly inspired Word of God. How do Biblical prophecies stand up next to secular history? The word of God declares
,
Isaiah 41:21-23 (ASV)
21 Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring forth, and declare unto us what shall happen: declare ye the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.
23 Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
Well there you go, God himself challenges anyone to proclaim something and then bring it to past. Who declares the future and that event comes to past is the one true God and he alone declares the future evens to bring his purpose and plain to pass.
Compelling Evidences
Among the many amazing evidences that confirm the Bible’s divine origin, surely the wealth of fulfilled prophecies is near the top. Just a few examples should suffice to dumbfound all but the most hardened critics.
Accurate predictions of future events that have virtually no probability of occurring by coincidence are spectacular precisely because they seem so superhuman. Popular prognosticators like Nostradamus have entertained generations with their elaborate fortune telling, despite their pitiful records of accomplishment, which is filled with inaccuracies.
However, I will, Admit Nostradamus is cool. I also admit his prediction has not been a 100% established, in other words many of his predictions are so vague that no matter what happens in the future you could say he predicted it. If you have 9 accurate predictions and 1 wrong then it’s not of God. God is always 100% accurate.
That means in my personal opinion he could not have gotten his information from God, in any event he never declared his predictions were from God anyway.
Thank about one basic Prophecy that God declared and see if you feel it is 100% accurate
Genesis 2:17 (KJV)
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Here God himself is the prophet, he tells Adam of an advent that has not happen yet this is a future prophecy that would accrue if cretin condition were not meet; mainly do not eat from the tree of (Knowledge). As you know Adam and Eve would in fact go on to do just that, now how accurate to you think God was. Genesis 5:5 (KJV)
5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
Most ever one reading this has been to a funeral at some point in their life and has seen the accuracy of God prophecies first hand.
Prophecies like these affects you first hand, the here and now, prophecies you can see, hear, feel and so on. Here is one more for good measures.
Genesis 3:16 (NKJV)
16 to the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."
Any women can tell you the pain of a natural delivery are one of the most painful experiences anyone person can go through, remember God for told this long before Eve had a child, so when Eve gave birth to Cain even she saw the accuracy of God’s Prophecies.
With impeccable accuracy, the Bible has consistently unveiled the future for centuries. However, biblical prophecy is different from all other predictions.
With incredible detail, forthright clarity, and impeccable accuracy, the Bible has consistently unveiled the future for centuries. Critics of the Bible, for instance, have squirmed over the prophetic insights of Daniel, the sixth-century BC Jewish prophet in Babylon.
With eye-opening precision, Daniel interpreted two sets of dreams, one by a pagan ruler (chapter 2) and the other by the prophet himself (chapter 7), thereby forecasting the entire course of Middle East history over the next five centuries.
Daniel describes the exact sequence of four empires from Babylon to Medo-Persia to Greece to Rome. He even foresaw the meteoric rise to power of the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great, as well as the final division of his Greek empire by four of his surviving generals (Daniel 7:6 /8:5-8/ 11:2-4).
Desperate to counter the implications of this prophetic phenomenon, nineteenth-century skeptics concocted dating schemes that placed the time of Daniel’s writing after the events.
Careful research by modern textual scholars, however, has validated the early origin of this prophecy, establishing Daniel as the authentic author. Daniel’s prophecy is a genuine “Wow,” which clearly gives evidence of the Bible’s divine nature.
Historical Prophecies
Yet the Bible is filled with other amazing, supernatural predictions, just like Daniel’s, that can be verified by historical records. Historical prophecies that spoke about the future at the time of writing but later came true are particularly effective as an evidence of Scripture’s trustworthiness.
Your ability to point to Ezekiel’s prophecy of the destruction of the Phoenician city Tyre (Ezekiel 26) or Isaiah’s amazing prediction concerning the coming reign of the Persian King Cyrus—two hundred years before his birth
(Isaiah 44:28)—will certainly give you an advantage in any discussion on the Bible’s authenticity as a divine book. Only the true God can so consistently predict such distant events, as God Himself asserts (Isaiah 41:21-23 /48:3-5)
Messianic Prophecies
Just as effective are Messianic prophecies that were validated in the New Testament. Even though the fulfillment of these predictions hundreds of years later is documented within the Bible itself rather than secular history, the impact is still impressive.
Sharing details about any one example should suffice to make your point.
Consider Micah, the seventh-century BC prophet who foretold that Christ would be born in Bethlehem Christ’s parents, Mary and Joseph, lived in Nazareth, which was nowhere near Bethlehem. So God used a Roman census for taxation to send Jesus’ earthly parents south on an arduous journey to the little town of His birth.
Yet Micah accurately predicted this event over six hundred years before it occurred. Jesus could not have manipulated these events, nor could Luke, the historian who recorded its fulfillment.
More than sixty fulfilled Messianic prophecies like this validate the Bible as the Word of God.
As you familiarize yourself with these categories of amazing biblical predictions, you will certainly be
equipped to give amazing evidences that the Bible is God’s impeccable truth for humanity.
Perhaps it will even add to your own excitement about your own future.
