JD: I’ve been discussing with our broadcast partners top stories prophetically speaking in 2019. I wanted to give some perspective about handling the prophetic scriptures especially when thinking about current events.
DJ: You and I have both heard a lot of prophecy teachers some very good and some not so good and probably too many who try to be sensationalistic. You know when I was a kid I always loved to get connect the dot books for Christmas and you would just connect all the dots in the right order to get a big picture. But unfortunately I think too many people try to do something similar by connecting dots from today’s headlines to whatever they think might be the right dots in the word of God. And if those dots aren’t intended to be connected by God then the prophetic picture or timeline or whatever usually ends up being a mess and little resembles what we find in the Bible.
JD: What are some of the steps that believers should take to avoid the kinds of mistakes in Bible study that lead to these wrong interpretations?
DJ: For those who have been listening to us for any length of time they can probably already guess many of the things I’m going to mention but it never hurts to be reminded. The first is that we accepted the Bible as the aspired word of God. In that being the case it needs to be taken seriously and it can be expected to communicate truth and with clarity about the past, present and the future. Further more God is both eternal and sovereign. Meaning that he’s in complete control and what He says will come to pass and it will happen with certainty and precision. In other words prophecy will always be fulfilled literally even when described figuratively and exactly according to the timetable that God has set forth in His mind.
We must consistently use standard principles of
communication and interpretation. In other words we must carefully study the literary
context which means looking at the grammar, vocabulary of the Biblical text
while taking into account the historical context such as the geo political
situation at the time of the writing, the economic and cultural situation and
other historical factors that were understood by both the writer and his recipients.
JD: David James Bible in hand explaining the right way to study
Bible prophecy.
We report this information because it is setting the stage
for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
The explanation of how to study Bible prophecy is key to our
understanding of God’s plan for the future. The times in which we are living
makes it essential for us to rightly divide the word of God. All scripture is
inspired by the Lord, II Timothy 3:16. And the apostle Peter wrote that he had a
more sure word of prophecy than even an eyewitness account, that’s II Peter
chapter 1. Remember you don’t study current events first but the prophetic
passages of God’s word which is an absolute word.
