Doom And Gloom: Apprehension Toward Bible Prophecy Is Built On A Profound Misunderstanding

The book of Revelation is the only book in the Bible where we are told twice: “Blessed are those who read this book.” If you want to be blessed, you should read and study the book of Revelation, because the Bible promises that if you do, you will be blessed. And I surely have. I’ve learned so much about God’s sovereignty and His wonderful promise to us through the study of the Word. I know that He’s still in charge even though everything else looks like it’s going south on us....

...Doom and gloom? That’s how many think of the book of Revelation. Oftentimes, Christians shy away from the study of prophecy because they believe it is too complex or irrelevant to spend time examining. But this is not true. Revelation gives us insight into things that will come to pass and helps us understand the things that are happening in our world. It gives us heavenly insight on what the future holds and changes our perspective as we go through our everyday lives. Understanding prophecy allows the Christian to live in hope regardless of the chaos that may be surrounding us in our culture today. Most of us have questions about the prophetic events found in the Bible. Prophecy can be confusing at times, but it is necessary to understanding the events that are to come. Here are a few benefits of delving into the study of Revelation:...

.Blessed Are Those Who Read This Book’

... The wonderful truth about prophecy is that it guarantees the integrity of the rest of the Bible. For instance, in the Old Testament there are over three hundred prophecies about the first coming of Christ—about his birthplace and what would happen to Him as a child. Now we have the perspective of history to go back and look at the prophecies and see where they were fulfilled just as they were promised hundreds of years before.

Now we have twice that many prophecies about the Second Coming of Christ. If He was accurate in the first coming, will He not be as accurate in the Second Coming? When you study prophecy, you get God’s blueprint of what’s going to happen in the future—and you begin to see things like the reemergence of Israel as a nation and the collection of nations in Europe. It’s like you have a heads up on what’s going on. The news is catching up with prophecy.

Something better coming

There are a lot of reasons to be discouraged, if you want to be discouraged. But you can’t be discouraged if you really understand prophecy. Because if you understand prophecy, you realize whatever you are experiencing right now is just for a short time and there is something better coming. As we find in the words of Jesus, “Look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).

It doesn’t say look down, bend your shoulders, walk stooped over, discouraged. No, it says look up, lift up your head, because your redemption is drawing near. Paul, who after teaching us about the coming of Christ at the end of his passage, says, “Comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18). With what words? That Jesus Christ is coming back.

The Future God has Planned

Everywhere I go, when people talk about the events that are happening in our world today, they say something like this: Dr. Jeremiah, where is this all going? And of course, that’s a good question, but if you know the Bible you know where it’s going. It goes to a good place. It ends with our hands up in victory. You don’t have to be afraid of the future if you know the future God has planned for you.

And God has given us this book so we can be confident about what is going to happen. The book of Revelation is a book that is filled with the mercy of God along with the judgment of God. Almost every place where you see God meting out judgment upon this earth, which is deserved, you don’t have to look very far before there is a parenthesis that shows His mercy and His grace.

Did you know that God never ever leaves Himself without a witness, no matter how dark things might be? Look at what’s happening in our world today. If we aren’t careful, we talk about all the bad things, but did you know that in the darkness of this world there are many places where the light is shining very brightly? And the darker the night the brighter the light, amen?

Only One Escape From Hell

Only one Truth saves. Only one Gospel brings eternal life. There is only one escape from hell. We need take the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ to men, women, and children and declare His love for them. The same Gospel that worked in your grandparents’ generation; that worked in your parents’ generation, is the Gospel that is working today. It is the power of God unto salvation. It is relevant forever. It still changes lives, and that’s a message every one of us needs to share. Don’t let the Gospel be changed. Don’t let the Gospel be rendered ineffective by taking away the message of the exclusivity of Christ. C. S. Lewis once said, “Every saved person this side of heaven owes the Gospel to every unsaved person this side of hell.

There isn’t any way for people to get to heaven except through Jesus Christ. You say, Dr. Jeremiah, are you sure about that? Absolutely certain. Jesus Christ said it this way, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” He didn’t give us any options. He didn’t say “I am one of the ways.” That’s the message we are hearing today—there are many ways to God. No there are not many ways to God. There is one way, and He is the way. We need to be unashamedly declaring that.

The Six Biggest Errors of Dispensationalism

1. CHURCH AGE. Dispensationalists would have us believe that the church age is but a parenthesis in history. In other words, the church age constituted an “interruption” in the fulfilment of the kingdom promises to Israel. This doctrine teaches that the gospel will ultimately fail, and Christ will have to return to set up a theocratic POLITICAL kingdom. “Jerusalem will be the center of a world government system, national Israel will be exalted, and the Gentile nations will be subordinated as Israel’s servants. This is the millennial situation as described by Dr. John F. Walvoord and Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost.” But, Christ and the gospel were not a side show. That idea is an abomination and an affront to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The kingdom of Christ (that is, the new covenant/Christian age) is in effect now (Matthew 16:19; Colossians 1:13). Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords NOW (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16). And contrary to dispensationalism, his kingdom has NO END. There are numerous passages which prove that: 2 Samuel 7:13; 1 Chronicles 17:11-12; Isaiah 9:7; Ezekiel 37:26; Daniel 2:44; 4:3, 34; 7:14, 18, 27; Luke 1:31-33; Ephesians 3:21; Hebrews 1:1-12; 5:6; 6:20; 7:16-28; 2 Peter 1:11; Revelation 1:6; 5:13; 11:15. Furthermore, the New Covenant and the gospel are eternal (Hebrews 12:28; 13:20; Revelation 14:6) and has universal application (John 3:16; Romans 1:16; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 1:21; Titus 2:11; 1 John 4:14; Revelation 5:9; 7:9). And remember, Christ’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, not a physical one (Luke 17:20-21; John 18:36).

2. DUALISM. John Hagee said: “Trying to convert Jews is a waste of time. . . Jews already have a covenant with God and that has never been replaced by Christianity.” Dispensationalists think that Israel is distinct from the church in both destiny and covenant―that Israel will re-emerge as pre-eminent among nations. They will again be God’s people in a unique sense. But, this conception was obliterated with the teachings of Paul that all distinctions between Jew and Gentile have been broken down (Ephesians 3:6) by the gospel (Galatians 3:28-29). Acts 2:36-39 is clear that in the New Covenant, the gospel is the same for both Jews and Gentiles through repentance and faith in Jesus (Acts 20:21-24; Romans 3:30). The New Testament declares that all of God’s covenant promises were fulfilled in Jesus (Luke 1:54-55, 69-75; 2 Corinthians 1:20), the ultimate offspring of Abraham (Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16).

The promises to Israel were contingent on obedience (Deuteronomy 28), but she failed the test (Matthew 23:29-24:3) and had a finite end (Mathew 21:18-19; Romans 11:11-24; Hebrews 8:13; 10:8-10; etc.). The kingdom was taken from the Jews and given to another group, namely the church (Matthew 21:33-45)―melding a remnant of faithful, believing Jews with believers in Christ into a single body (Romans 9:27; 11:1-24; Galatians 3:26-29; Ephesians 2:13-16; Colossians 3:11, 15). The new Israel of God is no longer fleshly, natural Israel, but rather are those who have faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13; 8:31-47; Romans 2:28-29; 9:6-8; Galatians 3:6-9, 25-29; 6:14-16; 1 Peter 2:4-10; etc.). The modern state of Israel is a secular state that has nothing to do with biblical Israel.

What about the eternal state after the millennium, according to dispensationalists? Gunn said, “The New Testament church is God’s heavenly people and millennial Israel is God’s earthly people. According to Dr. C. I. Scofield and Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, leading dispensationalists in an earlier generation, the earthly seed Israel is to spend eternity on the new earth, and the heavenly seed, the church, is to spend eternity in [the new] heaven. In other words, the dichotomy between Israel and the church even lasts throughout eternity. More recent dispensationalists have put the saints of all ages together on the new earth but maintaining this dualism throughout eternity by eternally excluding Old Testament saints, tribulation saints, and millennial saints from the Body and Bride of Christ.”

3. MISUNDERSTANDING THE LAST DAYS/END TIMES. There are 19 specific mentions of the last days or end times in the New Testament. Without exception, the writers of the New Testament declared that THEY were living in the last days (Acts 2:14-21; 1 Corinthians 7:19-21; 10:11; Hebrews 1:1-2; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; 4:7; 1 John 2:18; etc.) Indeed, certain of these texts declare the soon CULMINATION of the last days (Hebrews 3:14; 1 Peter 4:7; 1 John 2:17-18). Thus, the last days/end times marked the end of the old covenant order, not the end of time or the end of the Christian Age. The year 1948 did not mark the beginning of the biblical last days!

4. LITERALISM. Thomas Ice said, “In order to be a dispensationalist, one has to hold to a literal approach of interpreting the Bible.” Just some questions: Does God literally have hands and arms (Psalm 89:13; Isaiah 41:10; 48:13; 49:16 Luke 22:69)? Should we literally hate our mother and father so that we can be Jesus’ disciple (Luke 14:26)? If your eye causes you to sin, should you literally pluck it out (Mark 9:47)? Is it necessary to literally eat Christ’s body in order to have life (John 6:53)? Did the mountains and the hills really break into song and the trees clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12)? When God judged Babylon according to Isaiah’s prophecy, an event fulfilled in actual history in 539 BC, did the stars and sun literally stop giving their light (Isaiah 13:10) and the heavens literally tremble (Isaiah 13:13)? When God judged Edom in 583 BC, did the sky literally roll up like a scroll (Isaiah 34:4)? Why do you insist on a literal earthly kingdom when Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36)? Is the New Jerusalem literally a future city 1400 miles square that will hover over the Middle East like a space ship? Geeze. Especially this literal millennial stuff, if it wasn’t being taught in Christian churches, it would be considered science fiction! We should interpret the Bible as the author intended. Sometimes this is literal; sometimes it is metaphoric.

5. FUTURIZING DANIEL’S 70 WEEKS. Here are things that cannot be found in the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24-27: the Antichrist, a covenant being made with the Jews by Antichrist (then broken), a gap of 2,000 years between the 69th and 70th weeks, a post AD 70 rebuilt temple. If these things are not found in Daniel 9, dispensationalism crumbles. Daniel 9:27 is clear that the prophecy ended with the “end to sacrifice and offering” and the Abomination of Desolation (which Jesus told his first-century followers they would witness per Matthew 24:15). These things happened in real time in AD 70 when the temple was destroyed (Matthew 24:2, 34).

6. READING PRESUPPOSITIONS INTO THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. The New Testament speaks not a word about there being a need to fulfill the land promises, about a new temple, circumcision, animal sacrifices, a literal future throne of David, or the antichrist making a covenant with anyone. And there is not a single verse in the New Testament to support a pre-tribulation rapture.

Any one of these six points means the end of dispensationalism. It has failed on all six.

“The very idea of a God that planned and predicted the establishment of the kingdom, at a given time in history, and sent His Son to accomplish that, only to see him fail, is surely one of the most shameful theological concepts ever invented. . . . Are we supposed to believe that Jesus ‘did not envision’―the establishment of the church, even though he came to die to purchase it?” (Don K. Preston, Seal Up Vision and Prophecy, pgs. 93, 96)

“Dispensationalism is a theological house of cards. The main reason that it remains the eschatology of choice among fundamentalists is its sensationalism factor. With its parenthesis view of history and a return to the Old Covenant rites of circumcision and animal sacrifices, it is beyond me how anyone can claim that dispensationalism is orthodox Christianity.” (from 10 Popular Prophecy Myths Exposed and Answered by Gary Demar, pg. 102)

For more on dispensationalism, see my website www.ProphecyQuestions.com

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