Wednesday Night Bible Study

Kore Christianity - The purpose of this site is to guide Christians - and interested non-Christians as well - into a greater understanding of scripture and who God is. The intention is to help individuals shift their perception. The creator of the site wanted to share the knowledge he'd gained over decades of study, not only of the Bible but history, science, technology, etc. and how all these things come together to tell one cohesive story.

Friday, January 2, 2015

Prophetic Interpretation Page 1: Introduction

In the Year of Our Lord 2015

Written by Brother Korey, son of Robin

Dear Catechumen,

It has come to my attention that some of you have become rather fearful of the “End Times”. Because of this fear, you have become border-line obsessed with understanding future events. The evidence of this is your constant draw to watch or read stories about the world coming to an end, your frantic discussions and questions about events in Revelation, Daniel and other prophetic books. Some have even become interested in psychics and fortune tellers and even witchcraft, stating that you believe there is some truth in them. There are even some of you who waste your lives studying current events and how they might coincide with scripture.

Don’t get me wrong, studying scripture is not wrong. However, what I mean is that you frantically study it, trying to understand how the events in the prophetic scriptures might align with events today so that you can try to predict or guess what our future is. What’s more, some of you have even gone so far as to claim things you predict as if it is certain they will come to pass or that they have, in fact, come to pass already. This is dangerous!

Let me ask you, “What is the purpose of your studies? What is the purpose of your obsessions? Is it to give glory to Christ and to provide love and hope for the lost? Is it to bring peace in a time that is full of turmoil? Or is it that your studies are for yourself? Is it that you fear the future and are trying, as the world does, to do everything in your power to prepare for the future as if by knowing what the future is you can somehow prevent your own death? Or is it so that you can be right…so you can be the one who has finally deciphered the prophetic scriptures to the point that you can say with certainty what will happen? Is it pride? Is it fear? What motivates you?”

Prophetic Interpretation Page 2: Dangerous Interpretations

For example, it was reported to me that one of you had actually read current events and suddenly formed a theory about the “End Times”. It was stated, “We are currently living out the events of the book of Revelation. We are currently living at the time of the Black Horseman and are about to step right into the time of the Pale Horseman. Do you not see? The White Horseman is World War 2. The rider is Hitler. He went forth conquering and to conquer. The Red Horseman is the 911 attacks that took away peace from the world. The rider is Osama Bin Laden. The Black Horseman came so shortly after 911 that it would be easy to miss if you are not looking for it. The horse is the Enron Scandal of October 2001 and the horseman was Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow of Enron. And beware most of all! The beast in the book of Daniel that is the fourth beast is the United States of America and President Obama is the little horn, the Anti-Christ or Son of Perdition!”

Oh what terror and outrage immediately grips my own heart at the hearing of this! Is this stated to bring people peace or to bring them to a place of hysteria and hostility? After all, what comes next is the last horseman, the Pale Horseman. With him is Death and Hell! Some have even predicted that the horse is the US and Obama, who they are certain is the Anti-Christ, is the horseman and he is the harbinger of World War 3. They are convinced it will soon break out as tensions are rising in the east and world economic troubles drive people to revolt. They say Obama will begin to use this as his platform for his conquests and will persecute Christians in particular in the most terrible of ways.

Now I confess I can see some parallels between these things. The horsemen in Revelation appear to affect the world on a global scale. Events today appear to be happening on a global scale. The White Horseman could be symbolic of Hitler, for scripture says that he went about conquering and to conquer and Hitler certainly did that on a global scale. The Red Horseman is said to take away peace in the world, and certainly the 911 attacks affected the world, putting fear in the hearts of everyone around the world. The Enron Scandal does seem to have been a prelude to world economic troubles, including that of the US. I will even go so far as to admit that the argument about the fourth beast in the book of Daniel parallels the United States of America in some ways.

After all, is it not written in Daniel 7:23 “The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms.” Is not the US different from all other kingdoms? Is it not a melting pot of diversity? “And shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces.” Some nations feel that the US is a beast that tramples everyone in its path, that it interferes in affairs that are not its own. Further down it says, “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law.” This, of course, speaking of the actual king that would be the Anti-Christ. Could he be a US President? Is this symbolic of the entire country? After all, does not the majority of the US now “speak pompous words against the Most High?” Isn’t President Obama doing things that make it seem that he intends to “change times and law?” After all, has he not just recently issued the executive order to make legal a group of immigrants without forcing them to go through the standard channels to receive citizenship? Did he not just create “Obama-Care?” Is this not going against the traditional laws of the country?

Prophetic Interpretation Page 3: Results of Dangerous Interpretations

I speak now things I have heard others say, and I am appalled. Put yourself, for a moment, in the shoes of President Obama. He was baptized into the United Christian Church when he was a child and is a practicing Southern Baptist today. How would you view your fellow Christians if you heard them calling you the Anti-Christ? Would you not feel as though you were being slandered and betrayed? Would you not feel as though you were hated and despised by your own people? Would you now think that maybe Christians are just a bunch of crazy fanatics who easily go off the deep end? Would you not consider perhaps that you no longer belong to the faith…that maybe you should not be a Christian anymore? If you were the president and trying to do your hardest to make things better for your people only to have a group of Christians say “He is the epitome of all evil, the Anti-Christ, the embodiment of Satan”…how would you feel? Sure, I do not know if President Obama is trying his hardest or not to do what is best for the US, but neither do you know that he is not. Should we not rather give him the benefit of the doubt and show him love?

And what is the natural tendency for a non-believer to think when hearing these things? I’ll tell you what they would think. They would think the same thing that Obama would think. “These Christians are a bunch of crazy fanatics who easily go off the deep end. Christians are crazy, mean and nothing but slanderers.” Is this how Christ taught us to be? Is this how He wanted us to show people love?

It is one thing to say such things about something or someone if what we are saying is true and we know it to be true. If a man were indeed to prove to be the Anti-Christ then by all means we should call him what he is, and if the US is truly the fourth beast in the Daniel account we should call it what it is. However, is there enough evidence to actually make such statements or any of the statements about 911, Enron, Osama Bin Laden, Hitler and so forth that have been said? Can we say for a certainty that this is fulfillment of scripture? Do these individuals fulfill ALL that the scripture says in regards to this?

Prophetic Interpretation Page 4: Back to the Basics

This being said, let us go over some of the basics of what we had learned in our Hermeneutics discussions. Let us go back to the basics and start all over again. When we are finished, consider how Christ would truly want us to live. Consider how He would want us to study, to preach, to teach and to offer counsel in these dark times.

From this point on I will be referring to Chapter 11: Genres: Prophecy and Apocalyptic Literature of your BIB 121 Introduction to Hermeneutics course almost exclusively. Notice how in 11.1A, paragraph 1, it says, “Zechariahs sermon is easier to understand when the passage is read against the backdrop of history.” Always remember that the first step to understanding prophecy is that you must keep in mind who is writing the prophecy, to whom is he writing the prophecy, what are the circumstances around the time of the writing and what things might be meaningful to individuals of that time that may not be as meaningful to us today.

Next, you must remember what the point of the prophecies in the prophetic books is. The central point is that the “Prophets were the Protectors of the Covenant” (11.1B). “Although the prophets often spoke of social injustice, the fundamental theme of their preaching is far more profound. They called the people to remember their covenant with God.”

And what was this covenant? Again I take from the text:

1. If God’s people reject Him and turn to idols and sin God will punish them by taking them out of the land.

2. If God’s people repent God will remember His covenant and fulfill His promises to their forefathers.

Prophetic Interpretation Page 5: Jesus is the Fulfillment

Think about this! Did not Christ say “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”? Is not the very basics of Christianity summed up in this one concept…this covenant? If God’s people (mankind) reject Him and turn to idols and sin God will punish them by taking them out of the land (eternal paradise)? However, if God’s people (mankind) repent, God will remember His covenant (binding contract and promises) and fulfill His promises. So essentially, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is “If you accept Christ you will be given paradise. If you reject Christ you will be punished and removed from paradise.” Thus, Christ truly did indeed fulfill the Law and the Prophets because He provided the way by which all men might receive God’s covenant eternally. He fulfilled with his life, death and resurrection the very heart of the message the prophets preached.

So the heart of God was found even in the message of the prophets. It was not meant to beat people down but to build people up. It was meant to inspire righteous living. The point of telling what would happen to sinners was not so that people would dread the day of God’s judgment. It was so that people would wake up and realize that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The point of telling about the tragedies that would befall the people was to help them think about their lives and what they were doing. It was to help them reevaluate their actions so they would remember that God is also a just God. He will bring a day of reckoning upon those who refuse to accept His rule. It will come. You cannot live your life in rebellion forever. One day, a rebel will be brought to justice. It is only a matter of time. However, this message was always followed by a word about the grace of God. It was always followed by, “After repentance, the covenant promises made to the forefathers are restated” (11.1B table).

Prophetic Interpretation Page 6: Double Fulfillment and Prophecy

With this in mind let us delve deeper. Remember our lessons about Double Fulfillment found in 11.1E. Sometimes there are prophecies that have a short-range fulfillment but then they are also fulfilled later. For example, Solomon built the Temple of God in Jerusalem, but this was only a short-range fulfillment of the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7. The ultimate fulfillment of this scripture was that Jesus, the Son of David, would build His temple in us! He would build up a temple that would endure forever. Solomon fulfilled it in terms of the physical building in Jerusalem, but Jesus fulfilled it in terms of the spiritual building in our hearts. Solomon’s building was a partial fulfillment. Jesus’ building was a complete fulfillment.

So it is that many of the prophecies in the scriptures are fulfilled in part at one point in history but ar later fulfilled again in a more complete manner. For instance, some believe that the book of Revelation prophecies are already fulfilled. They believe that “The first half of Revelation teaches that Israel was defeated in A.D. 70, while the last half of Revalation is about God’s conquest of Rome in the fourth century when Constantine declared the Roman Empire Christian” (http://www.ldolphin.org/preterism-ice.html).

There may be some parallels between historical events that took place during the time of Rome and events in Revelation and other prophetic accounts. However, this fulfillment would only be a short-term fulfillment of prophecy at best. It would only be a partial fulfillment, like a foreshadowing of events to come. How do we know that these historical events are not the ultimate fulfillment? The short-range fulfillments do not satisfy all of the prophecy.

Let’s go back to the Solomon example. In 2 Samuel 7:12-14 it states, “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.”

The short-range fulfillment was that Solomon built the physical Temple of God. He did so after David had died. He was David’s “seed”, his son. God established his kingdom. Solomon built the temple for God’s name. However, God did not establish Solomon’s kingdom forever at that time. Solomon did not always do things the way God wanted him to. He was not truly like a son to God nor was God truly like a father to Solomon. When Solomon sinned against God, God did not punish him with the rod of men. In fact, Solomon escaped God’s punishment, if you think about it. He was never beaten. He did not war against anyone. The kingdom was not divided during his time. He did not fulfill this scripture completely.

Only Jesus, our beloved Lord, fulfilled completely this prophecy. He came after David had died. He was David’s “seed”, his descendant. God established his kingdom, for all who accept His sacrifice are His kingdom. God established it through Christ’s death and resurrection. Christ built the temple for God’s name within us. God established Christ’s kingdom forever. Christ did everything the way God wanted Him to. God said that Jesus was his “beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus called God His Father. And, on top of it all, Jesus committed no sin, but instead took the sins of all mankind upon Himself. Because He took upon the sins of the world, Jesus took upon Himself all iniquity and God chastened Him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men, which was His crucifixion.