Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps The Words Of The Prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, "See that you don't! I am a fellow servant of you and of Your Brothers The Prophets and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!" And he said to me, "Do not seal up The Words Of The Prophecy of this book, for the time is near." Rev. 22:7-10.

Prophets are making a comeback in today's world. The tabloids are full of them. Perhaps you've heard of Nostradamus, the sixteenth-century French physicain and chef of Jewish heritage. Born to a father forced to convert to Catholicism around 1501, Nostradamus became renowned because of predictions that seemed to come true a short time after he made them. He laid out his predictions in 1,000 four-line poems divided into "centuries" of 100 each. THe most famous of Nostradamus' dated predictions was the one for the year 1999:

"The year 1999, seven months,
From the sky will come a great King of terror,
To resuscitate the great king of Angoulmois;
Before, after, Mars will reign by good luck."

This language is clearly ambiguous, Many looked for its fulfillment in terms of a meteor shower or some other heavenly event. Most of them also anticipated that some significant conflict would break out during the year, if not in the month of july itself. But the date came and went, and no one observed anything of the sort.

In the mid-1960s another alleged prophet named Jeane Dixon caught the public imagination. I made note of two verifiable predictions on her part. One of them was that the unpopular views of Barry Gold water, who lost the presidential race in 1964, would be vindicated within the next decade. The other was that the scrapping of a miniature missile prodject would prove to be a huge mistake by the end of the 1970s. Neither prediction ever came true as far as I know. The concept of prophets is something we're used to. But the concept of successful prophets is another matter.

The book of Revelation claims to be a written prophecy (Rev. 1:3 and 22:10). Unlike the works of Nostradamus and Jeane Dixon, this book bears the clear evidence of God's hand. As we study those prophecies already fulfilled, we learn how to interpret those that haven't yet come to pass.

Lord, open my eyes to see more clearly the purpose You had in giving these visions to John. May I direct my true worship to You alone.

Worldliness usurped the place of God and religion in the soul. So it is now. Avaricious greed for wealth exerts such a fascinating, bewitching influence over the life that it results in perverting the nobility and corrupting the humanity of men until they are drowned in perdition. The service of Satan is full of care, perplexity, and wearing labor, and the treasure men toil to accumulate on earth is only for a season. Jesus said, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."(TFMB 89).