Friday, April 29, 2011

OneThousandYears: Genesage (Chapter 1:8) “"Devotion"

One Thousand Years

 

Genesage

"Devotion"

(chp1:8)

Jesus and Eben had spent some time by the lake praying.

 

As the light was rising behind the cloud cover, it was time for both men to go. Before they did Messiah produced some “bread.” Eben was never watching at the right time to see where Jesus got the bread from. But whatever Jesus needed, it was always there. It wasn’t a magic trick, it was just as there was a need, Jesus seemed to fulfill it.

 

If the bread had floated down from heaven like manna, he would not have been surprised. Or if angels hand delivered it like some ‘angel bread cake’ it would have been no shock.

Yet God was like that, full of surprises.

 

Eben meanwhile took a cup he always brought to the lake for such an occasion.

 

It was a gourd formed from the shell into a goblet. It appeared “grown” for just such a use. No tool marks or carving was upon it. It was “perfect” for this time. Matching need with production the gourd fit the occasion well. Eben always used it only for this time with Jesus storing it nearby; which with little to disrupt, seemed appropriate.

 

Taking the cup, he filled it with water from the lake. Standing both men raised their offering upward to the sky. Jesus the bread, Eben the Wine. Pausing,  there was a moment of silent awe and wonder. Both men standing there, arms outstretched high, waiting. A hesitation of stillness in the air, as if heaven waited to see what would happen. Maybe it did.

 

After a moment or two, each prayed according to a very familiar pattern from the Days of Oldbefore the Tribulation Period.  The stillness dissipated with a Blessing they shared. It was hard to say which was the more effective. The silent stillness or the Traditional Blessing.

 

To Eben they both had meaning.

 

Each gave one to the other as Jesus shared bread from the earth and Eben shared the wine. Passing the bread and the wine each day reminded Eben daily of His purpose in the Kingdom of God. It “set his day” in the right remembrance and recognition of why He was there.

 

In drinking the wine and sharing the cup Jesus said,               

 

“You’re getting good at water into wine, now if you could just walk on it”

 

Eben laughed,

 

The water or the wine,

 

he was about to say, but instead he said,      

 

“I had a good teacher.”

 

The day was set for good as Jesus made ready to leave.

 

Before Jesus left, Eben kissed the Son of God on his scarred cheek. He was always amazed that his lips felt those coarse scars so horrendous to see. It was a constant reminder to Eben of just what the Son had done for him in dying and rising again.

 

It was also true the proverb that said, Kiss the Son lest he be angry.  Seeing the face so scarred and marred, that was hard enough to do. It would be harder still to see that face angry when it had suffered so much for him.

 

Bread, wine, friendship, conversation, recognition and remembrance, the day was a good day when Eben started it with Jesus.

 

The Promise of the Kingdom had come.

 

The promised one was there, the Son of God,

The Son of Man.


 


 

OneThousandYears: Genesage (Chapter 1:7) “"Meetings"

 

One Thousand Years

Genesage

"Meetings"

(chp1:9)

Meetings were crucial for learning about the Kingdom. It was the only source of information distribution available. Survivors once they started to recover, they needed to be educated in the Ways of the Kingdom. After all so much had changed. They neede help to deal with grief and what Eben called PTTSD. Post Tribulation Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It was a fearful thing to fall inot the hands of a living God

 

The ‘meetings’ helped recovery. They also became a gathering time to eat a "community meal".  In these "meeting and meals" everyone could talk as well as learn.  

Each day one or more persons from each of the twelve houses that made up Bethleben came to the meetings. There they would listen or participate, passing on information to their homes. Some would have said gossip, but world of mouth was the common way to pass on news so going to the daily meeting was one of the best ways to keep informed. 

It became an "oral tradition" to send from each house the person who not only could remember best what was taught, but also could keep it short. Everyone knew Eben could get long winded when he started talking about Jesus and the Kingdom so not everyone in the Houses wanted to go after awhile. Being the "witness" or representative from the house meant not only did you have to listen, you still had to go home and repeat it.

The twelve separate households or "Houses"  collectively made up the community of Beth Eben; House of Eben or Bethleben (bethleben).  These houses served as homes for the refugees who lived there. Each house or home, seemed to represent different personalities and affiliations as people initially gathered together with those they were most familiar with.

Cheaper by the Dozen,

quipped Eben Abram.             

He was thinking about how he once had lived in a city of millions. Everyone packed in on top of each other. Human sardines compared to life now.  Many people in the old world didn’t have homes, so in apartments you literally lived on top of each other. It was "accepted" as nornal at that time.

Having come from America he knew what a rat race was. Or he thought he did till he found out Rats in the kingdom resented having their lifestyle compared to that of Humanity claiming rats were never that disorganized. After watching them for awhile Eben realized they had a point.

Mankind in the old days was a messy kind.

At any rate Eben cringed at the memory of no space and no place to call your own. It was so much better now. Everyone had a home. Each home had fruit trees and vines as well as a small garden growing vegetables. Even animals came to calling if you knew enough to wait and watch for them. Eben did. Trees were often planted and like a movie he once saw, Eben would indeed talk to the trees.

The Community was small. Each community was always started with twelve establishing houses. There could be a family or an individual or a group of people per house. It had varied initially on the Survivors condition when found. Sometimes in the beginning it was by groups of people, but by the time sixty-nine years had passed it was by choice. People picked who they wanted to live with.

Once they began to recover, everyone moved into different homes if they wanted to; but at first, no one did. As though God knew personally were and how to prepare a place for them to recover in. A place of refuge; A peaceful house they could remain if they chose to.

The original twelve houses per Refuge City had given way to the houses that now made up each refugee city. The Kingdom had designated Refuge Cities for refugees from the World War’s aftermath. Those Refuge Cities each started with only twelve houses that eventually grew.

The twelve houses were expected to grow. It had been planned to. So Bethleben had grown with children being born till everyone felt certain it was getting close to time to move out of the city. There was a certain expectancy of doing and even going in to something more.

With the children growing up, and with almost no death at all, it wasn’t long till Bethleben had grown a lot larger than the initial twelve houses that had formed the backbone of the Refuge City of refugees. The Community had grown. With recovery and now children, it was hard to think of it a refuge city or the residents as "refugees of Humanity."

Since the End of the World as most knew it, the “family” had been obliterated. Loved ones were lost, very few couples survived the Tribulation, and the last thing on anyone’s mind in the beginning was family. This made for challenges in the early days of the Kingdom, though often many were too shocked to care. A lot of houses formed on social, ethnic or religious affiliations as refugees looked for some semblance of familiarity in their lives.

America House was one of those early “home houses” that formed. Like home church’s and home schools, it was a halfway house in many ways. Since so much in the New World was foreign to them, they held to many ‘old traditional ways and names.' For lack of any real continuity the occupants wanted to preserve the “Idea” of America.

There was a rumor a few ex-presidents wound up there. The unofficial rumor was it was a "dead presidents” club, but that would have been stretching it.

It was said those "in house" voted when it had grown. Of course, instead of a "presidency" now they had residency. As time had progressed it would have taken an act of congress for any of those of the House of America to give up their name. If there was a congress…

Many had seen their spouses or children die in the World Wide Holocaust. It took time to heal. Took time to adapt to life again. It took years to develop relationships as well as time to forge stronger ties. As families began to form, children were born to the households. As the children grew becoming part of the community it was obvious a great hurdle had been achieved. One Generation was giving was to another generation.

Without the Refuge Cities there would not have been time or a place for the Survivors to recover. Eben thought often of the Children of Israel in the First Generation after slavery in Egypt as he helped his community to heal, learn and develop. He had no idea what Moses must have felt, but the next time he saw him, when he wasn’t busy, he was going to ask him. 

Of course he would have to take a number and get in line.

He knew one day the community would move out of the “Land that was Promised” to the Children of Israel. Move out into the rest of the One Land Mass, out into the world once called "terra firma" now simply called; Eretz. Land.

In this the “first stage” of adapting to the new surroundings, Eben felt like a Father. Father to those who were learning that the world that existed before was gone. The world as it was now they needed to learn about. They needed to adapt to it, or it was doubtful they would survive.

As they embraced the new life, Eben Abram who had no children, felt as though he birthed many.  Like Abraham his namesake he saw his Community one day being the birthplace of future nations. He being like a Father to them while they were here. He took his charge quite serious, and were he able to die, he would have laid down his life for them. As it was now, he laid down his freedom for them and served as leader of Bethleben.

Preparing them to fulfill their destiny in the New World.And it was good.


 

Prophecy Article Today: "Types of Prophecy and Prophecy in Types" -David R. Reagan

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Types of Prophecy and Prophecy in Types

Have you ever stopped to think about the
marvelous variety of Bible prophecy?

by Dr. David R. Reagan

Prophet Praying

Hebrews 1:1 says that God spoke through the prophets "in many portions and in many ways." Have you ever stopped to think about the variety of people and ways which God used?

Writing Prophets

Of course, the method that immediately comes to mind is the written form. The prophets who wrote their messages are the ones we know best — people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the so-called "Minor Prophets" like Habakkuk and Zephaniah. In theNew Testament the writing prophets include Paul, Peter, and John.

But to lump all these writing prophets together into one broad category is misleading, for there is a great variety of people and styles among them.

As to people, the variety is astounding. The prophets range from uneducated farmers like Amos to sophisticated poets like Isaiah, from cowards like Jonah to men of great courage like Daniel, from the little known like Joel to the famous like King David.

There is an equal variety in the styles of writing. Some, like Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, and the New Testament prophets, primarily used a prose style. Others, like David, Isaiah, Joel, and Micah, expressed their ideas in poetic form. And then there are the preachers whose books are mainly collections of sermons — prophets like Jeremiah, Amos, and Zechariah.

Most were given direct revelations — "Thus says the Lord." Others received their insight through dreams and visions. Some, like Hosea and Jonah, mainly recorded their experiences.

Amos Cartoon

Speaking Prophets

Some of the most important prophets wrote nothing at all, at least nothing that has been preserved. We know about them because others wrote about their revelations, pronouncements, and exploits. Elijah and his successor, Elisha, fall into this category, as does Samuel.

So does the greatest prophet who ever lived — the Prophet foretold by Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-18). I'm speaking, of course, of Jesus Christ (Matthew 21:11). The only writings of Jesus that we have are His seven letters to the seven churches of Asia, recorded by John in Revelation 2 & 3. The bulk of Jesus' prophecies, like His Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21), were written by His disciples. Jesus was an oral prophet.

Most of the oral prophets are not well known. Only a few are mentioned in the New Testament like the four daughters of Philip (Acts 21:9) and Agabus, the prophet who counseled Paul (Acts 21:10).

But the Old Testament is full of oral prophets. There is Nathan, who confronted David (2 Samuel 12); Micaiah, who saw the Lord sitting on His throne (1 Kings 22); Ahijah, who condemned Jeroboam (1Kings 14); Hananiah, the false prophet who spoke against Jeremiah (Jeremiah 28); and there are many nameless prophets like the "man of God from Judah" who prophesied the birth of Josiah (1 Kings 13).

Haggai Cartoon

Acting Prophets

My favorites are the prophets who were called upon by God to act out prophecies. Some were writing prophets; some were oral. The point is that God would tell them from time to time to stop writing or speaking and start acting.

God often used drama to get people's attention. For example, He told Isaiah to go barefoot and naked for three years (Isaiah 20:2). Yes, Isaiah was the original streaker! He used an unconventional method to get people's attention. The message was graphic and clear: repent or be stripped naked like Isaiah.

Jeremiah was told to wear a yoke on his neck to emphasize God's message that King Zedekiah should submit to Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 27).

Ezekiel was called on to act many times. On one occasion the Lord told him to pack all his bags and carry them around Jerusalem in the sight of the people as a sign that if they did not repent, God would send them into exile (Ezekiel 12).

Another time God told Ezekiel to lie down on the ground on his left side for 390 days, one day for each year of the iniquity of Israel. When he finished that ordeal, God told him to turn over and lie on his right side for 40 days, for the 40 years of Judah's iniquity (Ezekiel 4:4-8).

The Lord even ordered Ezekiel to play in a sand pile! God told him to label a brick, "Jerusalem," and to build dirt ramps around the brick to illustrate the coming siege of the city, if the people did not repent (Ezekiel 4:1-3).

Ezekiel's hardest acting assignment came when the Lord revealed that his wife would soon die. The Lord ordered him not to mourn or weep for her. He was to continue with his activities as if nothing had happened. When the people came to him and asked why he was not mourning, the Lord told him to say that if they did not repent, they would be overcome by a conqueror so rapidly that they would not have time to mourn or weep.

The Prophetic Oscar

The greatest actor of all, the one who will undoubtedly win the prophetic oscar for best performance, was the prophet Hosea.

God told him to find a prostitute and marry her. It must have been one of the hardest things God ever asked a righteous man to do. Hosea obeyed, and God told him to preach the message of his action.

The message was that Israel was like that prostitute when God selected them as His Chosen People. They were not selected for their beauty or wisdom or righteousness. They had no merit. They were selected by grace.

This was an insulting message for the Jews. They did not understand what being "Chosen" meant. They thought they were better than other peoples, and in their spiritual arrogance, they refuse to listen to God's prophets who were calling for repentance.

When Hosea returned home from his preaching tour, he discovered that his wife had succumbed to her old passions. She had left the dignity and honor of his home and had returned to the streets, selling herself to the highest bidder. Hosea's heart was broken. God told him to preach the message of her action. The message was, that like Hosea's wife, Israel had been unfaithful to God, chasing after foreign gods. And like Hosea, God's heart was broken.

When Hosea returned home, God spoke to him again and asked him to do something incredible. God told him to swallow all his pride and go to the city square and bid for his wife when she offered herself for sale. He was instructed to pay all he had, if necessary, to redeem her from harlotry.

She didn't deserve it. She had not repented. But Hosea obeyed. He paid the price, and she was redeemed.

Thus, God used an acting prophet to act out the story of what He would do for us at the Cross when He paid the price of His Son to redeem us from our unfaithfulness.

Symbolic Prophecy

A fourth type of prophecy is symbolic prophecy, or what is often referred to as "prophecy in type."

An understanding of prophetic types is essential to an understanding of the Old Testament. Jesus can be found on almost every page of the Old Testament, if you know how to look for Him. He is there symbolically in types.

Looking for Jesus and finding Him in these types causes the Old Testament to come alive. I'm convinced that this the kind of special teaching that Jesus gave His disciples during the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension (Luke 24:45).

There are three kinds of prophetic types:

  1. individual lives
  2. historical events
  3. inanimate objects

Persons

Almost every major person in the Old Testament is a type of Christ in the sense that some events in their lives were prophetic of things that would happen to Jesus.

Take Joseph for example. He was rejected by his brethren. He was left for dead but was "resurrected" from the pit into which he had been cast. He took a Gentile bride and then redeemed his brethren from their famine.

Likewise, Jesus was rejected by his brethren (the Jews), experienced death and resurrection, is now taking a Gentile Bride (the Church), and will soon return to save a remnant of His brethren from their spiritual famine.

Events

Prophecies about Jesus are also symbolized in major historical events.

Take the seven feasts of Israel for an example. Jesus was crucified on the feast of Passover. He became our "unleavened bread" as His body rested in the ground on that feast day. He arose from the dead on the feast of First Fruits. And the Church was established on the feast of Pentecost.

The three unfulfilled feasts (Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles) must, in like manner, point to events that are yet to occur most likely, the Rapture, the Second Coming, and the Millennial Reign of Jesus.

The history of the Jewish nation is the story of Jesus in prophetic type. The Children of Israel were born in Canaan, descended into Egypt, came through the Red Sea (the Baptism of Moses), endured testing in the wilderness, and then entered the Promised Land.

Likewise, Jesus was born in Canaan, descended in to Egypt, emerged publicly at His< baptism, endured the wilderness temptations, and led the way to Heaven.

Things

Even inanimate objects like the Tabernacle and the robe of the High Priest are prophetic types pointing to Jesus.

Consider the Ark of the Covenant. Everything about it was symbolic of the Messiah. It was made of wood, indicating the Messiah would be human. It was overlaid with gold, signifying the Messiah would be divine. It contained three objects — the tablets of stone, a pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. The tablets signified that the Messiah would have the law of God in His heart. The manna meant the Messiah would be the Bread of Life. The rod with blooms was a prophecy that the Messiah would arise from the dead.

The lid of the Ark was called the Mercy Seat. It had a golden angel at each end. The angels faced each other and their wings hovered over the lid. Once a year the High Priest sprinkled blood on the Mercy Seat and communed with the Shekinah glory of God which hovered above the angels.

The Mercy Seat pointed to the fact that through the work of the Messiah the mercy of God would cover the Law. The blood foreshadowed the fact that the Messiah would have to shed His own blood to atone for our sins.

Jesus fulfilled every prophetic type of the Ark. He was God in the flesh (John 10:30). He had the Law in His heart (Matthew 5:17). He declared Himself to be the "Bread of Life" (John 6). He shed His blood on the Cross and was resurrected in power, atoning for our sins and covering the Law with Grace (Romans 3:21-26).

Mary saw the fulfillment of the Ark when she went to the tomb and discovered the body of Jesus missing. In John 20:11-12 its says she looked into the tomb and "beheld two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying." Do you understand what she saw? She saw the "mercy seat" where the blood had been spilled, with an angel at each end exactly like the Mercy Seat that covered the Ark!

As you can see, prophetic types bring the Old Testament alive and give us deep insights into New Testament events.

 

 

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Prophecy Article Today: "The Interpretation of Prophecy" -David R. Reagan

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The Interpretation of Prophecy

An exercise in imagination or the application of plain sense?

by Dr. David R. Reagan

Interpreting Prophecy

When I was about 12 years old, I stumbled across Zechariah 14. It was an amazing discovery. You see, I grew up in a church where we were told over and over that "there is not one verse in the Bible that even implies that Jesus will ever set His feet on this earth again."

Simple Language

Well, Zechariah 14 not only implies that the Lord is coming back to this earth again, it says so point-blank! It says that the Lord will return to this earth at a time when the Jews are back in the land of Israel and their capital city, Jerusalem, is under siege. Just as the city is about to fall, the Lord will return to the Mount of Olives.

When His feet touch the ground, the mount will split in half. The remnant of Jews left in the city will take refuge in the cleavage of the mountain. The Lord will then speak a supernatural word, and the armies surrounding Jerusalem will be destroyed in an instant.

Verse 9 declares that on that day "the Lord will be king over all the earth."

Muddled Interpretations

When I first discovered this passage, I took it to my minister and asked him what it meant. I will never forget his response. He thought for a moment, and then He said, "Son I don't know what it means, but I'll guarantee you one thing: it doesn't mean what it says!"

For years after that, I would show Zechariah 14 to every visiting evangelist who came preaching that Jesus would never return to this earth. I always received the same response: "It doesn't mean what it says." I couldn't buy that answer.

Finally, I ran across a minister who was a seminary graduate, and he gave me the answer I could live with. "Nothing in Zechariah means what it says," he explained, "because the whole book is apocalyptic."

Now, I didn't have the slightest idea what "apocalyptic" meant. I didn't know if it was a disease or a philosophy. But it sounded sophisticated, and, after all, the fellow was a seminary graduate, so he should know.

A Discovery Experience

When I began to preach, I parroted what I had heard from the pulpit all my life. When I spoke on prophecy, I would always make the point that Jesus will never return to this earth. Occasionally, people would come up after the sermon and ask, "What about Zechariah 14?" I would snap back at them with one word: "APOCALYPTIC!" They would usually run for the door in fright. They didn't know what I was talking about (and neither did I).

Then one day I sat down and read the whole book of Zechariah. And guess what? My entire argument went down the drain!

I discovered that the book contains many prophecies about the First Coming of Jesus, and I discovered that all those prophecies meant what they said. It suddenly occurred to me that if Zechariah's First Coming prophecies meant what they said, then why shouldn't his Second Coming promises mean what they say?

The Plain Sense Rule

That was the day that I stopped playing games with God's Prophetic Word. I started accepting it for its plain sense meaning. I decided that:

"if the plain sense makes sense, I would look for no other sense, lest I end up with nonsense."

A good example of the nonsense approach is one I found several years ago in a book on the Millennium. The author spiritualized all of Zechariah 14. He argued that the Mount of Olives is symbolic of the human heart surrounded by evil. When a person accepts Jesus as Savior, Jesus comes into the person's life and stands on his "Mount of Olives" (his heart). The person's heart breaks in contrition (the cleaving of the mountain), and Jesus then defeats the enemy forces in the person's life.

Hard to believe, isn't it? When people insist on spiritualizing the Scriptures like this, the Scriptures end up meaning whatever they want them to mean.

Keys to Understanding

I believe God knows how to communicate. I believe He says what He means and means what He says. I don't believe you have to have a doctorate in hermeneutics to understand the Bible. The essentials, instead, are an honest heart and the filling of God's Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).

One crucial key is to approach the Scriptures with childlike faith. Dr. Henry Morris addresses this issue in his great commentary on Revelation, called The Revelation Record. He says, "Revelation is not difficult to understand. It is difficult to believe. If you will believe it, you will understand it."

For example, in Revelation 7 it says that at the start of the Tribulation God is going to seal a great host of Jews to serve as His special "bond-servants." The text specifies that the number will be 144,000, and that 12,000 will be selected from each of 12 specified tribes.

Now, I ask you: What would God have to do to convince us that He intends to set aside 144,000 Jews for special service during the Tribulation? The text is crystal clear. Yet, hundreds of commentators have denied the clear meaning and have spiritualized the passage to make it refer to the Church! This is reckless handling of God's Word, and it produces nothing but confusion.

The Meaning of Symbols

"But what about symbols?" some ask. Another crucial key is to keep in mind that a symbol stands for something, otherwise it would not be a symbol. There is always a literal reality or plain sense meaning behind every symbol.

Jesus is called "the rose of Sharon." He is not referred to as "the tumbleweed of Texas." The image that a rose conjures up is something beautiful; a tumbleweed is ugly.

The Bible is its own best interpreter as to the meaning of the symbols which it uses. Sometimes the symbols are clearly explained, as when God reveals to Ezekiel the meaning of the symbols in his vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:11-14). In like manner, the apostle John was told the meaning of certain symbols which he saw in his Patmos vision of the glorified Lord (Revelation 1:20).

At other times, a simple search of the Scriptures will reveal the meaning of a symbol. Consider the statement in Revelation 12:14 where it says that the Jewish remnant will escape from the Antichrist into the wilderness "on the two wings of the great eagle."

Is this a literal eagle? Is it an air lift provided by the U.S.A. whose national symbol is an eagle?

A concordance search will show that the same symbolism is used in Exodus 19:4 to describe the flight of the children of Israel as they escaped from Egypt. The symbol, as Exodus 19 makes clear, is a poetic reference to the loving care of God.

The Importance of Context

Another key to understanding prophecy is one that applies to the interpretation of all Scripture. It is the principle that the meaning of words is determined by their context.

I ran across a good example of this problem recently in a book in which the author was trying to prove that Jesus is never coming back to reign upon this earth. Such a position, of course, required him to spiritualize Revelation chapter 20 where it says six times that there will be a reign of the Lord that will last one thousand years.

In this author's desperate attempt to explain away the thousand years, he referred to Psalm 50:10where it says that God owns "the cattle on a thousand hills." He then asked, "Are there only one thousand hills in the world?" He answered his question, "Of course not!" He then proceeded to explain that the term is used figuratively. But then he made a quantum leap in logic by proclaiming, "therefore, the term, 'one thousand,' is always used symbolically."

Not so. It depends on context. In Psalm 50 the term is clearly symbolic. But in Revelation 20, it is not so. Again, the thousand years is mentioned six times. What would the Lord have to do to convince us that He means a thousand years? Put it in the sky in neon lights? Pay attention to context!

Reconciling Passages

An additional key to understanding prophecy is one that applies to all Scripture. It is the principle of searching out everything that the Bible has to say on a particular point.

Avoid hanging a doctrine on one isolated verse. All verses on a particular topic must be searched out, compared, and then reconciled.

Let me give you a prophetic example. Second Peter 3:10 says that when the Lord returns, "the heavens will pass away with a roar...and the earth and its works will be burned up." Now, if this were the only verse in the Bible about the Second Coming, we could confidently conclude that the heavens and earth will be burned up on the day that Jesus returns.

But, there are many other verses in both the Old and New Testaments, which make it abundantly clear that the Lord will reign over all the earth before it is consumed with fire. Those verses must be considered together with the passage in 2 Peter 3 in order to get the correct overall view.

Special Problems

There are some special problems related to prophetic interpretation. One is that prophecy is often prefilled in symbolic type before it is completely fulfilled.

In this regard, I feel certain that the Jewish people must have felt that Antiochus Epiphanes fulfilled Daniel's prophecies about a tyrannical leader who would severely persecute the Jews. But 200 years after Antiochus, Jesus took those prophecies of Daniel and told His disciples they were yet to be fulfilled.

Another example is the sign which Isaiah gave to King Ahaz to assure him that the city of Jerusalem would not fall to the Syrians who had it under siege. The sign was that a young woman would give birth to a son whose name would be called Immanuel (Isaiah 7:1-19). The passage certainly implies that such a boy was born at that time.

But hundreds of years later, Matthew, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, reached back to Isaiah's prophecy and proclaimed that its ultimate fulfillment was to be found in the virgin birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:22-23).

Compressed Time

Another peculiar feature of prophetic literature is called "telescoping." This occurs when a prophet compresses the time interval between two prophetic events. This phenomenon is very common.

The reason for it has to do with the perspective of the prophet. As he looks into the future and sees a series of prophetic events, they appear to him as if they are in immediate sequence.

It is like looking down a mountain range and viewing three peaks, one behind the other, each sequentially higher than the one in front of it. The peaks look like they are right up against each other because the person viewing them cannot see the valleys that separate them.

In Zechariah 9:9-10 there is a passage with three prophecies which are compressed into two verses but are widely separated in time. Verse 9 says the Messiah will come humbly on a donkey. The first part of verse 10 says the Jewish people will be set aside. The second part of verse 10 says the Messiah will reign over all the nations.

These three events — the First Coming, the setting aside of Israel, and the reign of Christ — appear to occur in quick succession, but in reality, there were 40 years between the first two events, and there have been over 1,900 years thus far between the second and third events.

Another way of viewing the phenomenon of telescoping is to focus on what are called "prophetic gaps." These are the time periods between the mountain peak prophetic events.

Because the Old Testament rabbis could not see the gap between the first and second comings of the Messiah, some theorized that there would be two Messiahs — a "Messiah ben Joseph" who would suffer and a "Messiah ben David" who would conquer. From our New Testament perspective we can see that the Old Testament prophets were speaking of one Messiah who would come twice. We can see the gap between the two comings.

A Challenge

I ask you: How do you treat Zechariah 14 — as fact or fiction? Are you guilty of playing games with God's Word in order to justify sacred traditions and doctrines of men?

I challenge you to interpret God's Word — all of it — for its plain sense meaning. As you do so, you are very likely to find yourself challenged to discard old doctrines and to adopt new ones. This will be a painful process, but it will be a fruitful one, for you will be blessed with the truth of God's Word.

"If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31-32).