Prophecy — Proof That God Is Real: “Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you [idols] are gods; yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and see it together.” Isaiah 41:23 Why do Bible-believing saints love prophecy? The precise timing and exact fulfillment of prophecy proves that God is the living Faithful and True God. Consider these wonderful proofs from the book of Isaiah alone: Only God accurately knows the future. In Isaiah 41:23 (see above) God is challenging man-made idols to perform as He has done. Prophecy proves that God is real. In the following verses, God the Father is prophetically speaking to His Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah: “‘I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison. . . . I am the Lord, . . . and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them’” (Isaiah 42:6–9). Prophecy proves that God is reliable. We see this in His fulfilled prophecies as well as His other mighty works: “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure’” (Isaiah 46:9–10). Prophecy reveals the God we can trust. Everything that our all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present God predicted for past history came to pass exactly as He said it would: “Even from the beginning I have declared it to you; before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my carved image and my molded image have commanded them’ ” (Isaiah 48:5; see also Isaiah 48:12–13). Trusting God determines our eternal destiny: “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer . . . : ‘I am the LORD your God . . . who leads you by the way you should go. Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. . . . There is no peace,’ says the LORD, ‘for the wicked’” (Isaiah 48:17–18, 22). If you are a believer, are you letting your Redeemer lead you in the way you should go? Are you heeding His commandments? Do you have peace like a river and Christ’s abundant righteousness in your life? If you do not yet know Christ as Lord and Savior, I pray that you will make a choice to live in hope. Transfer your trust to Christ alone for your eternal salvation! Prophecy — The Key to Understanding the Future: “I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, . . . things that are not yet done.” —Isaiah 46:9–10 Almost one-third of the Bible is prophetic. Of the 8,352 verses that J. Barton Payne has identified as being prophetic, is there one that particularly explains the end of the world? Here is a real eye-opener: “Daniel, . . . seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Daniel 12:4). Although “The Sign of Global Travel” and “The Sign of a Global Explosion of Knowledge” were both discussed last week, I will be expanding those points a bit further today and tomorrow. “Many shall run to and fro”: Running “to and fro” speaks of traveling. Much of the world remained the same from Daniel’s day until our great-grandparents’ time, but the pace of change in just the last hundred years is incredible. Consider this timeline: 3,000 Years Ago—David hired wooden boats, powered by wind, to help bring special wood for the temple. His son, Solomon, actually built and operated a fleet of wooden ships that sailed by wind power to carry on extensive trade with Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia. And 2,800 years ago, Jonah walked by foot to a port in Israel to sail to what is today Spain. 2,000 Years Ago—The apostle Paul traveled around the Roman world on mapped-out highways by foot, by horse and chariot, or aboard a wooden ship moved along by wind power caught in the sails. 500 Years Ago—Christopher Columbus embarked on a journey across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a sea route to China. He also probably went to the dock on foot, and boarded a wooden ship, not unlike those used by David, Solomon, Jonah, and Paul. 200 Years Ago—Benjamin Franklin walked to a dock in America to board a wooden sailing vessel for his trip to France. 100 Years Ago—President Theodore Roosevelt traveled by steamship from place to place, often taking a week to get there. With the advent of steam, man was no longer tied to animal power and wind power. The steamship, locomotive, automobile, and airplane changed the entire world in just generations! Today—Scheduled flights of airliners routinely make the trip from any of the six inhabited continents to another continent in only a few hours. No one in the history of this planet ever traveled like we can today. This is a sign of end times—that the end of the world is getting close! With all the advances in travel, it does not take long to reach any place in the world. Even so, as much as one might want to flee to safety, there is nowhere on earth where a person can hide to escape God’s wrath during the Tribulation: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:7–10). For the Christian, that Psalm 139 passage is a comfort because God has promised to both lead and uphold us by His power! This is a part of two days of devotional studies from Week 4 of my Biblical Commentary on the entire Book of Revelation: amazon/Living-Hope-End-Days-Revelation-ebook/dp/B000ZHZOA4/ref=la_B001K8Y0SE_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420816826&sr=1-1
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 15:29:46 +0000
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