Concerning Bible Prophecy

by

Philip du Nard

The realm of Bible prophecy, especially as it relates to the end time, has often been a source of great contention among Christians. This has led some to conclude that its study is fruitless and that the only thing we need to concern ourselves with is the salvation message. After all, it is certainly true and it ought to be understood by all that our salvation is not dependent on our interpretation of Bible prophecy but faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Also, one might conclude that the best way to be "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace:" as St. Paul exhorts us in Eph. 4:3 is to avoid the topic altogether. But if our motivation is to be faithful to Christ and to thus receive the reward of faithfulness (and this is something more than salvation--that's a gift) we do not have the option to ignore the Scriptures. Remember, Christ is the Word made flesh according to John 1 and so the way to be faithful to Christ is to be faithful to the Word. We must strive to do both: that is, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and at the same time, not forsake the light and understanding we believe we have for the sake of peace. Only through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit is this possible.


I believe that the heightened interest among Christians regarding the end-time and the varied approaches was, itself, spoken of prophetically by the Lord in the parable of the ten virgins recorded in Matthew 25 (http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Mat/Mat025.html). I suppose the traditional view of this passage is that the wise and foolish virgins represent a contrast between the saved and the unsaved, the believer and unbeliever. But I do not think unbelievers would be referred to as virgins and the point to be made here is that both wise and foolish virgins trimmed their lamps (Lamps are symbolic of the Word of God- see Ps. 119:105) in response to the news that the bridegroom, that is, the Lord was soon to return. Both wise and foolish had "slumbered and slept" and both were aroused out of their sleep and tried to take appropriate action in response to the news that the hour was late and the time of Christ's return was near. That is, they both tried to get understanding from the Bible concerning the critical time period in which they were living. I do not think unbelievers would do this. But our understanding of the time in which we are living and how we respond must be of some importance as the foolish virgins did not have the same intimate relationship with the bridegroom upon His return as the wise. We must pray for this wisdom James 1:4. But is this not the phenomenon that we observe, that there is a general sense among many Christians that we may very well be living in the time of the end, that is, the cry has indeed gone out that "the bridegroom cometh" and so we have been aroused to trim our lamps and not everyone is going about this in the same way or with the same oil of understanding? I am referring to the different views on and responses to prophecy and related topics, not the differing ministries that may be of the same Spirit. The skeptic will regard this as one more example of the subjectivity of religious belief making Bible study an exercise in futility but the believer will rejoice to know that even this fits into God's plan and is a further confirmation of its truth.


Having said all this, I must confess to a minority viewpoint. The futuristic interpretation of prophecy and the book of Revelation is the more popular view and more recent than what is termed the historical interpretation. The futurists regard most of Revalation as something yet to be fulfilled and the historicists, of which I am one, believe that the events which the symbolic language in the Revelation represent have been in the process of fulfillment over the course of the past 2,000 years and that we are already moving up to Revelation 18. The futurists will say the deception lies in not recognizing the beast and his mark and at least some historicists will say the deception lies in not recognizing that the Babylonian financial system as described in chapter 18 is already upon us and not in the future and the command to come out of financial Babylon is national in scope and is not satisfied by a few individuals refusing a yet to be instituted microchip implantation while we ignore or even tolerate the evil of our present money system in which money is placed into circulation as a debt bearing interest and is a great burden that presses people into service to mammon.