Prophecy declared God's words for all time, and the prophets message had eternal force, which indicate the divine will for mankind on earth and in heaven. They often applied their messages to their day or the future. Prophet is a messenger of the Lord, a person who spoke for God in words and deeds, and who communicated God's messages courageously. Except for God's call, prophets had no special qualifications. They appeared from all walks of life and classes of society. The focus of all prophetic truth is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to them, 'You foolish men! So slow to believe the full message of the prophets! Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory?' Then starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself. - Luke 24:25-27 -

Now I know, brothers, that neither you nor your leaders had any idea what you were really doing; this was the way God carried out what he had foretold, when he said through all his prophets that his Christ would suffer. Now you must repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, and so that the Lord may send the time of comfort. Then he will send you the Christ he has predestined, that is Jesus, whom heaven must keep till the universal restoration comes which God proclaimed, speaking through his holy prophets.

Moses, for example, said: The Lord God will raise up a prophet like myself for you, from among your own brothers; you must listen to whatever he tells you. The man who does not listen to that prophet is to be cut off from the people. In fact, all the prophets that have ever spoken, from Samuel onward, have predicted these days.

You are the heirs of the prophets, the heirs of the covenant God made with our ancestors when he told Abraham; in your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed. It was for you in the first place that God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. - Acts 3:17-26 -

At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son, the Son that he has appointed to inherit everything and through whom he made everything there is. He is the radiant light of God's glory and the perfect copy of his nature, sustaining the universe by his powerful command; and now that he has destroyed the defilement of sin, he has gone to take his place in heaven at the right hand of divine Majesty. So he is now as far above the angels as the title which he has inherited is higher than their own name. - Heb. 1:1-4 -

The problem of understanding when a prophecy is fulfilled is compounded if the modern reader has a theological bias about who is to fulfill a prophecy. For example, premillennialists believe that a 1,000 year reign by Christ - Rev. 20:1-10 - will exalt the nation of Israel and the Jewish people in the future. - Rom. 11:24-26 - But amillennialists believe the promises to Israel in the Old Testament have been taken from Israel and transferred to the Universal Church. - Gal. 6:11-18 - Such a disagreement does not deny that Abraham's descendants will inherit Palestine from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates River. - Gen. 15:18-21 - The premillennialists looks for a future revival of Israel as a nation. - Ezek. 37:11-28 - while the amillennialists claims the promise of the land was fulfilled in the past in the days of Joshua - Josh. 21:43-45 - or Solomon 2Chr. 9:26 -

Prophecy presents volumes about the future, kingdom of God, particularly information about the "Messiah" and His chosen people, Israel. There are prophecy foretells the destiny of the nations and their relationship to the kingdom of God. The New Testament identifies Jesus as King - John 1:49 - who spends much of His ministry describing His kingdom and its establishment. - Matt. 13:24-25 -

The battleground is the world; and the arch-foe of Christ is Satan, whose intrigue in Eden gave him control of the nations. - Matt. 4:9 - Most prophecy is concerned with undoing Satan's work; it elaborates upon the initial promise of Genesis 3:15, which announced that Christ, the seed of the woman would crush the Serpent, the Devil. All prophecy testifies about Jesus Christ.

Now before we came of age we were as good as slaves to the elemental principles of this world, but when the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons. - Gal. 4:3-5 -

I only hope that you are also know wise in what is good, and innocent of what is bad. The God of peace will soon crush Satan beneath your feet. - Rom. 16:19-20 - Rev. 20:1-3 -

Then I knelt at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, 'Don't do that: I am a servant just like you and all your brothers who are witnesses to Jesus. It is God that you must worship. The witness Jesus gave is the same as the spirit of prophecy. - Rev. 19:10 -

There are over 300 prophecies in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible speak of Jesus Christ. Specific details given by these prophecies include His tribe. His birthplace, dates of His birth and death. Jesus forerunner John the Baptist, His career and ministry, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension, and His exaltation as a priest-king. The kingly magnificence of His second coming, His conquest and dominion over the nations. His kingdom is characterized in Psalm 72. Events leading up to and including the first and second advents of the prophet Zechariah. - Gen. 49:10; Mic. 5:2; Dan. 9:25-26; Mal. 3:1-5; Matt. 11:10; Is. 52:13-53:12; Ps. 16:8-11; Acts 2:25-28, 2:34, 13:33; Ps. 110; Zec. 9-14 -

God has used people in every age to fill the prophetic role of proclaiming His word. Noah was a 'preacher of righteousness' to his generation. - 2Pet. 2:5 - Abraham was considered a prophet. - Gen. 20:7 - So was his son Isaac - Ps. 105:9-15 - and his grandson Jacob. - Gen. 49 - Moses was eulogized as the greatest prophet of all, due to his major accomplishments as well as his many writings. - Deut. 34:10-12 - Moses, successor, Joshua, received the commission to continue Moses' work and so assumed the prophetic role also. - Deut. 34:9; Josh. 1:1-5 -

Following the Hebrew people into the land of Canaan, many prophets appeared throughout Israel's history to aid and protect the nation. The prophets mentioned in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible probably represent only a small portion of the total number of prophets. Most of the prophets remain obscure because they never wrote down their message. This indicates their task required face to face confrontations and a spoken rather than a written message. Most of the times the prophets stood alone and spoke to an unsympathetic or even antagonistic audience. Great courage and independence of God's spirit was required. The prophet was not a person of routine; he charted new paths for the people.

It is appropriate that the first prophet mentioned after Joshua is unnamed. - Judge 6:7-10 - Prophets were to exalt God's glory and not seek their own glory. This unnamed prophet appeared in the time of Gideon when Israel was falling back into idolatry. Rather than speak of the future, he called Israel to remember the Lord who delivered them from Egypt.

The next prophet was Samuel, whose vocation was apparent to all from his youth. Samuel's life was spent serving diligently as a judge, leading the army to victory, and establishing the religious and civil life of the nation. He both appointed and recalled the first king of Israel. Samuel provided an excellent model for other prophets to follow. - 1Sam. 3:19-20, 7:9-15, 10:25, 12:1, 15:26-28, 19:20 -

Sadly, there were false Christs who take their place in the long line of false prophets who have existed since Old Testament days. There are also Antichrist, and the work of Satan through the Antichrist is clearly rooted in the prophecies of Daniel. False Christs are persons who pretend to be Christ but who are actually representatives of all that Christ opposes. False Christ are similar to Antichrist and his prophets.

And Jesus answered them, 'Take care that no one deceives you; because many will come using my name and saying, "I am the Christ" and they will deceive many'. - Matt. 24:4-5 -

And if anyone says to you, "Look, here is the Christ" or "Look, he is there" do not believe it; for false prophets will arise and produce signs and portents to deceive the elect, if that were possible. You therefore must be on your guard. I have forewarned you of everything. - Mark 13:21-23 -

You study the scriptures,
believing that in them you have eternal life;
now these same scriptures testify to me,
and yet you refuse to come to me for life!
As for human approval, this means nothing to me.
Besides, I know you too well:
you have no love of God in you.
I have come in the name of my Father
and you refuse to accept me;
if someone else comes in his own name
you will accept him.
How can you believe,
since you look to one another for approval
and are not concerned
with the approval that comes from the one God? - John 5:39-44 - 1John 2:18-29 - 2John 7-10 -

The Antichrist's primary work is deception which also characterizes Satan in his attempts to undermine the work of God in the world. Satan's deception began in the Garden of Eden and will continue until the end of time. The Dragon or Serpent of Revelation 12 is Satan, the Serpent mentioned in Genesis 3. Thus, the thread of Satan's deceptive work may be traced from Genesis through Revelation. He will speak arrogantly, boastful words; and he will be aided by false prophets, who will make the entire earth worship him and receive his mark. The number of the beast, says Saint John, is 666 - a mysterious code name. - Rev. 13:11-18 -

Although Saint Paul does not use the term Antichrist, he surely had the Antichrist in mind when he wrote of the great apostasy or falling away, that would occur before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. - 2Thess. 2:1-12 - False prophets are those who falsely claim to utter revelations that comes from God, to foretell future events, to have God's power, and abusing it to produce miracles, signs, and wonders, not for the common good but only for self-glorification, for example, it can be a religious leader, a political leader, a world leader, or an individual leader, who betrayed the faith, who worshiped false gods and served idols, who falsely claimed to receive messages from God, who wandered from the truth and ceased to be a true prophets.

A recurring characteristic of the false prophets is that they are found in the employment of the powerful and that they are careful to speak pleasing, positive, and flattering words to their employers.

In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ said, "Alas for you when the world speaks well of you! This was the way their ancestors treated the false prophets." - Luke 6:26 -

Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruit. - Matt. 7:15-20 -

It is not those who say to me, "Lord, Lord" who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?" Then I shall tell them in their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!  

Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock. But everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. Rain came down, flood rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had! - Matt. 7:21-27 - James 2:14-16 -

Those who worship the Satan, Antichrist will experience doom through the wrath of God.

Then I saw the beast, with all the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to fight the rider and his army. But the beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophets who had worked miracles on the beast's behalf and by them had deceived all who had been branded with the mark of the beast and worshiped his statue. These two were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur. All the rest were killed by the sword of the rider, which came out of his mouth, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. - Rev. 19:19-21 -

When the thousand years was over, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive all the nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, and mobilise them for war. His armies will be as many as the sands of the sea; they will come swarming over the entire country and besiege the camp of the saints, which is the city that God loves. But fire will come down on them from heaven and consume them. Then the devil, who misled them, will be thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet are, and their torture will not stop, day or night, for ever and ever.

Then I saw a great white throne and the One who was sitting on it. In his presence, earth and sky vanished, leaving no trace. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing in front of his throne, while the book of life was opened, and other books opened which were the record of what they had done in their lives, by which the dead were judged.

The sea gave up all the dead who were in it; Death and Hades were emptied of the dead that were in them; and everyone was judged according to the way in which he had lived. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the burning lake. This burning lake is the second death; and anybody whose name could not be found written in the book of life was thrown into the burning lake. - Rev. 20:7-15 -

Do not delude yourself into thinking God can be cheated: where a man sows, there he reaps: if he sows in the field of self-indulgence he will get a harvest of corruption out of it; if he sows in the field of the Spirit the will get from it a harvest of eternal life. - Gal. 6:7-8 -


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Sunday, May 24, 2009

I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!

I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.

HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -