The study of Revelation frequently brings out people who are interested in having their curiosity satisfied, people who just want to know about the future, people who want to be somehow stimulated by a study of what is happening in the Middle East, in the world, and how current events fit into biblical prophecy. This is a major error and a common misconception, that somehow current events fit into biblical prophecy.
There are basically three different ways to interpret prophecy that are prevalent today and we have to understand these because of their popularity. The first view is called the Preterist view.
We don’t know who the Antichrist will be, he is not revealed, according to 2 Thessalonians chapter two, until after the restrainer is removed. The restrainer is the Holy Spirit, so as long as church age believers are present on the planet and the Holy Spirit is indwelling believers, then the Antichrist is not going to be revealed. We may guess, but we will not know if our guess is right until after we have been raptured. So Christians don’t need to be speculating about who the Antichrist is. We are not supposed to be looking for the Antichrist, we are supposed to be looking for the return of Jesus Christ for the church at the Rapture, and that is the next thing on the prophetic scenario. Many people are caught up on speculating on how we fit into biblical prophecy, and we don’t know. As we will see as we get into the prophetic aspects of the book of Revelation there is a time lapse between the end of the present church age, the Rapture, and the beginning of the Tribulation.
The seven-year period of the Tribulation, which is also known as the time of Jacob’s trouble, is known as Daniel’s seventieth week — Daniel 9:24ff. It begins when the Antichrist signs a peace treaty or covenant with the nation Israel. That is what kicks off the Tribulation.
When the Rapture occurs that is the next event prophetically, but that is not saying the same thing as saying that no prophecy is fulfilled in the church age. The next thing that happens on God’s prophetic timetable is the Rapture. There is no prophecy that has to be fulfilled before the Rapture. However, if time goes by and certain things that are going to take place in the Tribulation are set up at the end of the church age then there may be prophetic fulfillment during the last few years of the church age. But this doesn’t have anything to do with the church, it doesn’t have anything to do with the spiritual life, it doesn’t have anything to do with the timing of the Rapture. It does set things up so that once the Rapture occurs then various things that are going to take at place at the beginning of the Tribulation can take place. For example, before the Tribulation can start there has to be a nation Israel. What starts the Tribulation? The Antichrist signs a peace treaty with the nation Israel. The conclusion is that a nation has to exist known as Israel, not a regenerate nation but an unregenerate nation. It is clear from the Old Testament that there are two returns of Jews to the land that are prophesied. One is the return in unbelief and the other is the return in belief. We are seeing the return in unbelief, and this has been going on for the last 100 years. Jews are returning to the land and they have established a nation. That means that that nation is going to play a prominent role once the Rapture occurs. This is a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies in Ezekiel 34 and 35 and other passages that there will be a return to the land. There must be a return in unbelief before the Tribulation can begin.
Why is it important that we should study prophecy? According to the Bible it is a valid and important dimension to our spiritual life today. Twenty-eight per cent of the Bible was prophetic when it was revealed. Fifteen per cent of the Bible is still unfulfilled prophecy. To say that we really shouldn’t study prophecy or that it is not that important because that is what is going to happen in the future is to say that one seventh of the Scripture is not important, and that is in contradiction to the clear statement of 1 Timothy 3:16, 17, “All scripture is God-breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
Eighteen per cent of the New Testament epistles (one out of every five verses) is unfulfilled prophecy. The New Testament epistles are written to church age believers. One in twelve verses in the New Testament refer to the second coming of Jesus Christ. One in ten verses in the epistles refer to the second coming of Christ. The interpretation of sixty per cent of verses in the New Testament is affected by eschatology issues in order for them to be properly understood. In other words, there must be a correct view of prophecy or sixty per cent of the verses in the New Testament will be misinterpreted. That tells us that prophecy is important. Prophecy builds on every other dimension of theology. Other areas of theology all have to be understood before we are going to properly understand a lot of eschatology.
We must understand that the study of prophecy is not about solving questions related to human curiosity about the future. It is a normal thing for us to be curious about what is going to happen in the future. Jesus gave the discourse in Matthew 24, called the Olivet Discourse, in order to answer the disciples’ question about the future. Not only that, but God reveals a tremendous amount of information about future things in Daniel and many of the Minor Prophets, and the New testament was not going to be considered complete and therefore the Scripture not sufficient until it was capped off by the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the final book in the New Testament.
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