The Role of Prophecy

As one reads the developments as to Iran's nuclear program, it is tempting to turn to the Bible for confirmation as to whether "this is it"--an identifiable step toward Armageddon and the Second Coming.  Certainly, my first thoughts turned to Ezekiel 38 and 39, concerning the war of Gog and Magog, where Persia (i.e., Iran) figures prominently.

In going through the exercise of comparing Ezekiel's prophecy versus the potential crises facing the Middle East, I also reflected on the role of prophecy. My impression (which may be wrong) is that most people think of prophecy fulfilling a predictive role. That is, not only telling of what will occur in the future, but also when. However, most prophecy does not attempt to fix a date or time. In fact, the only example of a fixed time that I can think of is Daniel's Seventy Weeks, which sets out the year in which the Lord would present himself as the Messiah. The Lord's discussion of the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 24 also sets a time frame, but even there, it was before the then-current generation passed away, which is not very specific. Most end-time prophecy is simply "in the last days," or the "day of the Lord." There is no time frame fixed, and in fact the Lord cautioned in Matthew 24 that no one knew the specific time of the Second Coming save God, the Father. The promise is that, for those who are true believers, they will know it when it happens. The flip side of this is that those who are not believers will not know or understand the significance of the events unfolding around them. There is also the danger of reading too much significance into events. This can lead to spreading false doctrine or beliefs, or loss of faith.

These are my own thoughts on the matter, but I view prophecy as primarily providing a filter--a means of discerning significant events (in a prophetic sense) from the background noise. Let's face it: there is always some crises or series of crises going on. Some are very significant historically, but have no or limited impact in a prophetic sense. (For instance, for all of the importance of the Black Death in shaping our modern world, there is not a single reference to it in Biblical prophecy). So, the challenge facing us is not to fit events into prophecy, but examine the events in light of Biblical prophecy to see if it is a sign or prophesied event.

So, as we look at events unfolding in the Middle-East, the impending collapse of the European Union, or the growing influence and power of China, instead of twisting the facts to fit a particular prophecy, we need to instead step back and prayerfully consider whether the events fit the description in the prophecy. We may think (or hope) that we are in the last months or years before the Second Coming, but it may also be tens or hundreds of years in the future. Just because an event is, or may be "earth-shattering," it does not mean that it is the beginning of the tribulation, or that the Lord will return tomorrow.