In a recent Lifeway poll they found only 2% of churches in the USA teach Bible prophecy. This is an amazing latter-days stat for several reasons:
1- Roughly 30% of the Bible is prophetic. They’re ignoring almost 1/3 of the scriptures.
2- 100% accuracy in past prophecies fulfilled literally separates the Bible from every other book on the planet. It not only claims to be written by God, it proves it by predicting the future.
3- The entire Book of Revelation was prophetic when written. Today everything from Revelation 6 forward is still in the future and likely to be fulfilled within the next 7-14 years.
4- The Book of Revelation is the only book that promises Believers a special blessing for even trying to read and understand it.
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; Rev. 1:3a
I once read comments on Rev. 13:16-17 (Mark of the Beast) in a turn-of-the-19th-century commentary. The writer explained that each bank could have a person standing inside with a list of those forbidden to bank, and unless you got the OK-nod from him, they wouldn’t let you transact business.
The Book of Revelation is a critical source to understand prophecy today. It’s sort of an organized outline of most of the major Old Testament prophecies of the latter days. Plus it adds critical info that helps make more sense of the 2600-year-old prophecies.
The word “Revelation” in the Greek is “Apocalupsis.” This is why it is often referred to as “The Apocalypse,” which is from the verb “Apocalupto” which means “to unveil” and the word “Kalumma,” which is “a veil.”
In the Book of Daniel, it says to “seal up” the words until the end of the Times of the Gentiles. In the Book of Revelation, which dovetails with Daniel, John is told to “seal NOT the words for the time is at hand”… meaning the Church Age.
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” Deut. 29:29
This explains that the Book of Revelation is Jesus revealing His wrath and purpose while shedding light on the time at hand.
This is why the Book of Revelation means so much for Believers today. Jesus gave this book to all Believers, but the most important group to study would be those alive at the very end of the Church Age with spiritual discernment.
Avoiding teaching Bible prophecy is probably why so many churches today are dead as a doornail and/or woke. Good grief, we’re privileged to be living at the time of a huge dispensational change—the end of the Church Age and the beginning of the Tribulation. And most Christians have no clue.
An average reader can read the whole Bible (Genesis to Revelation) in 1 year at a rate of 15 minutes/day. The only reason people don’t is because they choose to make it a non-priority.
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