In the church mail box came a mailer with the following message: “Inside: Two bombshell events the Bible says are dead ahead!” On the back was a chart that grossly misinterpreted some of the prophecies in Daniel as if they would be fulfilled in our day. They will NOT!
Yet again, an end-of-time/‘rapture’ forecaster has interpreted biblical prophecies to point to a time in his present day. I have never once heard one of these prognosticators shout to their generation: “Warn your great-grandchildren; in yet 100 years the prophecy will be fulfilled.” I have never heard one of them prophesy to another nation about things 200 or 300 years future. Never. It is always going to happen in the near present...and time and time again, the predictions have failed.
The Good
The good thing is that we can read the Bible and apply simple principles of interpretation to discover the divinely revealed truth. We can know the audience to which God’s prophecies were directed. In addition, we can determine either when or what kinds of conditions would make the fulfillment of the prophecy recognizable.
As for the prophecies in the book of Daniel, God actually named three of the four nations (all world empires) that would receive divine judgment: Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The fourth nation to receive God’s judgment would follow Greece, so, obviously, Rome. God also revealed a rather startling message to Daniel about his own people, the Jews. God told Daniel that the Jews would be judged. God judged the nation of the Jews in dramatic fashion in 70 A.D.
The overall message of the prophecies in Daniel is encapsulated in Daniel 2:44-45. The prophecy was about a future kingdom that was not of this world, in other words, the kingdom of God. The simple message: There would come a time when the people of God would no longer be ruled by men and the kingdoms of men. All of that is now history. Fulfillment of the new kingdom prophecy is described in Acts 2. It is a spiritual kingdom, not of this earth, just as Jesus said.
The Bad
The misapplication of biblical prophecy may give some people false hope. Taken at face value, those who teach that there will be a rapture before the final end of the world give false hope. Those who have no interest in God recognize that they will probably be spared and given yet another chance. So why turn to God now!?
At the same time, it scares some people. In the mailer that I received, warnings were given that included the use of digital currency, travel restrictions, worldwide vaccines. One must use a wide brush with broad strokes of biblical interpretation to paint conclusions such as those. Again, they are human interpretations!
The Ugly
At least as bad, perhaps worse, these kinds of predictions undermine the true message of Scripture when the modern-day prophets get it wrong. A watching world, concludes, “Here we go again! It’s another one of those Bible-believing quacks.” It gives Christianity a black eye and for those who already have a healthy skepticism, they lose interest in the Bible.
And by the way, the mailer gave a phone number and Internet address for a product catalog. Millions will be missing! Billions will die! But get your product catalog today! (Eye roll.)
The Bible says...
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.—2 Peter 1:20-21
Mark Stinnett
January 5, 2024
