In Bible study my first love has always been prophecy. It’s what drew me to the Bible in the first place. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible is filled with prophecy. The Bible is one third prophecy. The word prophecy is from the Greek and means to speak forth the mind and counsel of God. Predictive prophecy points to a future fulfillment and is of divine origin. God had two purposes for predictive prophecy. The main purpose is to affect the conduct of those who hear the prophecy. God wants us to know what will happen so we’ll be ready. The second purpose of prophecy is to prove God is who He says He is. As the author of history only Almighty God knows the end from the beginning.
Principle #1 – The prophets did not always indicate intervals of time between events, nor did they always write their prophecies in chronological order.
Principle #2 – Always approach a prophecy as literal unless it’s clearly figurative language or a literal interpretation violates common sense or is contrary to the Scriptures.
Principle #3 – When a prophetic passage cannot be taken literally, look for what the author is trying to convey through his figurative or symbolic language.
Principle #4 – Remember that often when a prophet refers to future events, he does not use the future tense.
Principle #5 – When you interpret Scripture, consider the historical context of that writing, remembering that God was delivering His prophecy to a particular people at a particular time.
Principle #6 – Remember that the meaning of a specific prophecy could not always be understood by the prophet or by the people who heard the message.
Principle #7 – Remember that many New Testament prophecies include Old Testament quotations and allusions (use cross-references).
Principle #8 – When you study prophecy, watch for phrases that indicate periods of time (i.e. “in the last days” or “at the end of the age.”).
Witnessing for Christ