Prophecy in the Bible

The Bible is a prophetic book, and it expresses that all prophetic content is accurate and inspired by God: "All Scripture is breathed of God, and profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to give wisdom in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, and wholly fit for every good work."  (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Many prophecies in the Old Testament relate to the history of Israel.  They are based on God's covenant with Abraham in which He promised to become the father of a great nation, with descendants  as numerous as the stars in the sky who would inherit the land of Cannan (Genesis 15) and Moses ' covenant with the people of Israel when they received the Torah. If the  people kept the Torah, they would be blessed and fruitful and protected from enemies, but if they did not obey and worship idols, they would be punished.  The final judgment for disobedience would be their removal from the land (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28). Even though they are scattered throughout the world because of the covenant with Abraham, they will return to the land someday.

Other prophecies are very specific. Isaiah prophesied the captivity of Israel in Babylon a century and a half before it happened, and he also prophesied that the king of Persia Cyrus would conquer Babylon and decree the return of the Jewish people to Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem. "I say of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and he will do all my will; he will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be built again," and of the Temple, "Let its foundations be laid."  (Isaiah 44:28).

The book of Ezra begins with Cyrus' decree for the Israelites to return to Jerusalem from Babylon and to rebuild the Temple. Jeremiah prophesied that the exile would last 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10).  The exile began in the fourth year of the reign of King Joachim (605-04 BC) and ended with the decree of Cyrus in 536/5 BC.

Daniel (himself one of the Jews captive in  Babylon) received a prophecy about the rebuilding of the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem in a time of great tribulation. The prophecy related that the Messiah would come at the time of the Second Temple (e.g., the Temple was to be rebuilt on the site of the first Temple that had been built in the time of Solomon). He will be cut off (suffer a violent death) not for Himself (not because of His sins but for the sins of others) before the destruction of the Temple: After these sixty-two weeks, the Anointed One will be cut off, and He will have nothing. The people of a lord who is coming will destroy the city and the Holy Place, and its end will be as by a flood; it is decided that the war will endure to the end, and with it, the desolations. (Daniel 9:26)

 At God's appointed time, Jesus came as the Messiah and died a violent death (he was "cut off") for the sins of mankind. After 40 years, as He Himself had prophesied, the Romans came and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. He prophesied about the Temple in Jerusalem: When Jesus came near the city and saw it, he wept for it and said, "If only you had known, even in this day, the things that could give you peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. Days will come upon you, when your enemies will surround you with ditches, and will surround you, and will gather you on all sides: they will make you one with the earth, you and your children in your midst; and they will not leave stone upon stone in you, because you did not know the time when you were examined."  (Luke 19:41-44).

When Jesus related the knowledge of the time of inquiry, He was speaking of the knowledge that He was the Messiah who searched His people. The most important prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) refer to the Messiah. These are divided into two sets of prophecies – one about the Man of Sorrow who will die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and one about the King of Kings who will judge the world with justice and rule Israel and the lands of Jerusalem during a period of peace and justice known as the Millennium or Messianic Kingdom.

The two sets of prophecies are fulfilled in one person, the Messiah Jesus. He once came in humility as Savior, died for our sins, and rose from the dead. Because of His sacrifice, those who repent and believe in Him now receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  The same Lord Jesus will return with great power as the King of kings and the Lord of lords to judge the world justly.  Those who receive Him as Savior will be saved, those who reject Him will be lost.

The prophecies about the Man of Pain accustomed to suffering have already been fulfilled in Jesus Christ (the Messiah). Jesus was born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) in the form of a man and at the same time was God Almighty (Isaiah 9:6-7). He preached the good news with signs and wonders (Isaiah 61:1), taught in parables (Psalm 78:2), and was a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6). He entered Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9) and like Hosanna - Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord (Psalm 118:26-6). He was rejected by the high priest and the rulers of Israel (Isaiah 53:3) and betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13). He was tried and judged unjustly (Isaiah 53:7-8), crucified to death, and bore the sins of the whole world (Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 53:4-6). He was buried in the tomb of a rich man (Isaiah 53:9) and rose from the dead (Psalm 16:10-11, Isaiah 53:8-10). He ascended into heaven (Psalm 68:18). His disciples who will carry His message to the ends of the world (Isaiah 45:22-23).

The prophecies about the reigning King will be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus returns to judge the world and reigns over the nations in the Messianic Kingdom. Then he will put an end to wars and the reign of the wicked. Satan will be bound and will not be able to deceive  until the end of the 1000-year period (Revelation 20:2-3). Jesus will rule the world from the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and peace will reign even in the animal kingdom. (Isaiah 2:1-4, 11-12; Zechariah 14). As the prophecies of the Man of Sorrow accustomed to suffering were fulfilled at the first coming of the Lord, so the prophecies of the reigning king will be fulfilled at the second coming of the Lord.

Jesus promised to return. He said to the disciples, "And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will return and take you with me, so that where I am, you also may be. You know where I'm going, and you know the way there."   (John 14:3-4). When Jesus ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives, two angels said to the disciples,  "Men of Galilee, why do you stand and look up to heaven? This Jesus, who ascended into heaven from among you, will come in the same way as you saw Him go to heaven." (Acts 1:11). 

Regarding His return, Jesus was saying that people would mind their ordinary business when, suddenly, He would come and take to Himself those who believe in His death and resurrection. Those who will live then will be taken from the earth to the Lord.  This event will happen at a time when people will go about their lives, in their ordinary daily routine, eat, drink, buy and sell, plant and build.(Matthew 24:38-44 and Luke 17:26-37).

Paul described this event known as the Rapture of the Church in the First  Epistle to the Thessalonians.  The word "rapture" derives from the Latin form of the Greek word "harpazo" used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 for "uprooted." "For the Lord Himself, with a cry, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and first those who are dead in Christ will rise again.  Then we who are alive, who will have remained, will all be caught up with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will always be with the Lord.  Comfort one another, therefore, with these words."  (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). 

The Bible relates that the Rapture will come suddenly, like a thief in the night, at a time when mankind will cry out for peace and safety. "As for times and sisters, you need not be written to you, brethren. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, "Peace and quiet," then an unexpected abyss will come upon them, like the pains of childbirth upon a pregnant woman; and there will be no escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, lest that day may catch you like a thief."  (1 Thessalonians 5:1-4). 

 "Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The trumpet will sound, the dead will rise unyielding, and we will be changed. For this body, subject to corruption, must put on incorruption, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this corrupt body puts on incorruption, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the word that is written will be fulfilled, "Death was swallowed up of victory." (1 Corinthians 15:51-54). So those taken to the Rapture will receive new bodies of glory that will no longer be subject to decay or death. In other words , they will never grow old, get sick, or die again. These new bodies of glory will live in the glorified state in which we will always be with the Lord. Those who have already died in Christ will be resurrected and united with those taken into the Rapture. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

 We will come before Christ's judgment seat to be judged for what we have done with our lives (2 Corinthians 5:10). We will be taken to the Marriage of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-10) and then follow Jesus to His return to earth as lord of lords and king of kings to destroy the armies of the Beast (Revelation 19:11-21).  We will join Him in the Messianic Kingdom from where the Lord will rule all the countries of the world. (Isaiah 2:1-4, 11-12; Zechariah 14; Revelation 20).

The bad news is, that these times will end in a time of tribulation that will come upon the earth. For then there will be such great tribulation, such as has never been since the beginning of the world until now, nor will it ever be again.  And if those days had not been shortened, no one would escape; but, because of the elect, those days will be shortened." (Matthew 24:21-22).   It is clear that the text does not speak of the past (e.g., the fall of the Temple in 70 A.D.) because Jesus states that it will end with " the Son of Man will come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." 

            The Great Tribulation is prophesied in detail in the Book of Revelation, chapters 6-19. It is a period of 7 years that is also described in the Book of Daniel. During that period the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will bring false peace, war, famine, and death. As a result, a quarter of the world's population will be killed. Judgment will fall upon the earth in the form of 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 bowls. Another quarter of the world's population will perish as a result of the catastrophes that will strike the earth in the judgments of the seventrumpets. Looking at the total population of the world today, it results that 3 billion people will be killed by these judgments alone.

            Satan will place his man, the Beast/Antichrist, at the helm of the world. He will also have an accomplice, the False Prophet, who will launch the system with the mark of the beast in which people will be given a number and a sign without which they will not be able to buy or sell. In the end, countries will unite for the last battle, Armageddon. Then the Lord Jesus will return with great power and glory and defeat the armies of the beast and the false prophet, bind Satan and cast him into the abyss, and reign over the earth during the 1000-year period known as the Millennium (Revelation 19-20). This is  the  event prophesied in Isaiah 2:1-4 where the Messiah will rule from Jerusalem and the earth is restored to peace and harmony.

What will come first—the rapture or the great tribulation? We believe that the Scriptural best way to place the Rapture before the great tribulation, and there are some significant differences between the Rapture and the Second Coming. The following table compares these differences:

 The most obvious difference is that at the rapture believers will be raptured to heaven to meet Jesus, while at His glorious return to earth Jesus will return with the saints. In other words, at the Rapture Jesus receives into Himself the true believers in the Lord Jesus.

This event will be unexpected, like "a thief in the night". The rapture can be "unexpected" only if  it takes place before the Great Tribulation. At the end of this period it will be evident that Jesus will return to earth when the armies gather at Armageddon three and a half years after the Antichrist and the False Prophet launch the system with the mark of the Beast. No one will say "Peace and security" after the horrors of the great tribulation. Life will no longer follow its normal course.

            Since we do not know the day or hour when the Lord will come, nor the hour of our death, we must always be ready for the encounter with the Lord.  Through repentance of sin and by believing in the death of the Lord Jesus for our sins and in His resurrection, we are born again in the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is done to cleanse us from sin and change the person we were before we knew the Lord.

       John wrote of the coming of the Lord: "Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. But we know that when He appears, we will be like Him; because we will see Him as He is. Whoever has this hope in Him is cleansed, as He is clean." (1 John 3:2-3). If we know that Jesus can come to us at any time and we can die at any time, it means that we want to be found by Him doing what pleases Him and not what is bad in His eyes.

            To be saved from the judgment that will come upon the world, we must receive salvation now, through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for our sins on the cross and received the punishment we deserved. He rose from the dead and gave eternal life to all who receive Him as Lord and Savior.