prophecy Archives - Redeeming God

In the opening paragraph to Understanding Prophecy, Alan Bandy and Benjamin Merkle say that “Prophecy is something with which most people are either obsessed ad nauseum or about which they feel so inadequate they avoid it altogether” (p. 17).

This has been my exact experience as well. People sometimes leave comments on my blog about prophecy, and almost without fail, these comments are thousands of words long, full of Scripture quotations and links to current events about Obama, Putin, Area 51, and chem trails. I usually delete these comments. These are the self-proclaimed prophecy experts who are not doing prophesy or Christianity any favors, and their obsession with prophecy makes the rest of us feel rather queasy.

Then there are those who try to read prophecy, such as the book of Revelation, and are so confused by what they read, they throw up their hands in frustration, and turn on ESPN. I understand this feeling. To be honest, that approach is probably better than if they had decided to persevere and opened up a few commentaries on the book of Revelation, for then they would have become really confused. Every commentator is so certain about their interpretation of Revelation, but every commentator contradicts each other on nearly every point. How can so many people be so certain about the interpretation of Revelation, but at the same time, so different? It is very confusing for the normal student of Scripture.

This is why a book like Understanding Prophecy by Alan Bandy and Benjamin Merkle is so important. Though they differ on some interpretations of prophecy, they have written a book to help you and I read and study prophecy for ourselves. The book does not so much explain the various prophetic texts in Scripture, as provide a framework to read and study it on our own.

It is sort of the “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime” approach to biblical prophecy.

Overall, I think that Alan Bandy and Benjamin Merkle did a fine job in the book. They point out that prophecy should be filtered through the lens and grid of the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ, and that prophecy is not so much about telling the future as it is about calling people back into faithfulness to their covenant relationship with God. They also point out the difference between conditional and unconditional prophecy, and how to know which is which.

My primary complaint about this book is that despite their desire to filter the interpretation of prophecy through the lens of Jesus Christ, they still believe in and hold to a violent, bloody, vengeful, and wrathful second coming of Jesus Christ. They say that although Jesus came with peace, love, and forgiveness in His first coming, the second coming will be with fire and blood and war (cf. p. 27), though to be fair, this position does not present itself much in the rest of the book.

The book takes the various sections of prophecy in Scripture and presents them in their literary and cultural contexts, providing a brief summary of the various views and interpretations that are available for each section. All in all, it is an excellent summary of how to understand and study biblical prophecy on your own, and I highly recommend it.

Get your copy today at Amazon or CBD.

Have you persecuted a prophet today?

By Jeremy Myers

6 Comments

Prophet Isaiah sawed in half — The Prophet Isaiah was allegedly sawed in half.

In Acts 7, Stephen presents his defense for why he is a follower of Jesus. At one point in his speech, he says this:

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? (Acts 7:52)

In other words, “Name me one prophet that our ancestors did not persecute, despise, and reject.”

What is Stephen saying? He is saying the same thing that Jesus said: “Prophets are never accepted in their hometown” (Luke 4:24). Yes, and maybe not in their home country, or even their home time era.

And “never accepted” is an understatement. Many of the prophets were hunted down, arrested, starved, tortured, and killed.

But let’s do a little thought experiment about prophets

Put yourself back at the time of Stephen. Imagine that you are standing there, listening to his speech.

As you imagine yourself there, on that day, as the mass presses upon him murderous rage, where do you picture yourself standing? What are you thinking? What are you doing?

Would you have been sticking up for what Stephen taught?

Or would you have been among those who picked up stones to kill him?

In the image below, where do you place yourself?

Yeah, me too. I imagine myself among those who stand up for Stephen.

But notice in Acts 7, that the only one standing up for Stephen on this day was Jesus Christ (Acts 7:56). Everybody else present had been caught up on the contagion of violence and picked up stones to kill him.

Hmm….

Well, maybe all his supporters were too scared. Or weren’t allowed in to the trial.

But if we had been there, we would have been on the side of the condemned! Right?

But would we have?

If you had been present at the stoning of Stephen, would you have protected him or stoned him?

Let’s try a simpler (or harder) scenario.

Imagine yourself living in Jerusalem during the days of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.

Where do you imagine yourself standing?

Do you imagine yourself standing at the foot of the cross, weeping for how they have crucified your Lord?

Or do you imagine yourself standing in the mob, chanting “Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

In the image below, where do you place yourself?

Again, I’m with you. I imagine myself as being among those who had forsaken all to follow Him.

I imagine myself as being among those who stood by Jesus’ side no matter what. I imagine myself being among His closest followers.

… Except …

Where were all of his closest followers during the trial of Jesus?

The only disciple nearby was Peter, and he was busy denying and cursing Jesus.

Well then, we definitely would have been there with Jesus when he was crucified. Right?

Umm … Maybe not.

According to the Gospel accounts, it appears that only John showed up at the crucifixion, along with the mother of Jesus and several other women (John 19:25-27).

But you and I? We definitely would have been there, right?

Let’s be honest … probably not.

If we consider the thousands of people who just a few days before were wanting to crown Jesus as king (Matthew 21), the fact that only a few of these showed up at the cross does not provide good odds that we ourselves would have been among those few.

Even if we narrow it down to the 72 disciples that Jesus sent out to minister in the countryside, the fact that less than 5 people stood by Jesus as the cross gives us a less than a 7% chance that you or I would have been there. Since most of these were women, if you are a man, your odds are less than 1.5%.

Even among the closest twelve followers of Jesus, one betrayed Him, one denied Him, nine ran away and hid, and only one showed up at the foot of the cross.

So if you had been present at the crucifixion of Jesus, would you have wept for His death or cried out for His blood?

What does this mean?

We who claim to follow God do not have a good track record of recognizing God’s messengers, and even when we do recognize them, we have an even worse track record of standing by them when trouble comes.

Statistically, traditionally, historically, and Scripturally, rather than listen to the messengers of God, we are far more likely to reject, despise, slander, condemn, rebuke, persecute, and even kill those whom God has sent to speak His truth to us.

“No! Not us!” we say. “If we had lived in the days of Jesus, we would have recognized Him and stood by His side.”

Yes, and that’s exactly what the people in the days of Jesus said about the prophets who came before Jesus … right before they turned around and killed Him (Matthew 23:30).

Do we honestly think that you and I would have done any better at recognizing and listening to Jesus (or any of the prophets) than did the vast majority of people in those days?

Most of those people likely knew the Bible better than we do. Most of them probably prayed more in one day than we do in a month. Most of them had vast portions of Scripture memorized. Most of them attended Torah study three or four times a week, and on Saturday they spent most of the day at the Synagogue (the Jewish church) in Scripture study and prayer.

Yet when prophets came, including the Messiah Himself, they didn’t recognized or heed any of these prophets, but instead, chased them out of town, made false accusations against them, had them arrested, tortured, starved, stoned, and crucified.

And we think we would have been different?

Honesty demands that we probably would have been among the crowd calling for the death of a the prophet.

Why am I saying this?

Here’s why:

If the people in the days of the prophets failed to recognize them as prophets, but instead condemned, accused, judged, criticized, and killed them, and if the people in the days of Jesus failed to recognize Him as the Messiah, but instead condemned, accused, judged, criticized, and killed him, then maybe … just maybe … the way to recognize a messenger of God to us is to look at who we Christians like to condemn, accuse, judge, criticize, and kill … and then consider that maybe … just maybe … these people are God’s messengers to us.

If we look at Scripture and history, we see that the reason God’s messengers get condemned and criticized and killed is because they never go with the religious status quo, but instead, call on the religious people to repent and change their ways, and abandon the foolish and empty chase after religious rituals and regulations.

The prophets, including Jesus, challenged the temple and its worship services, the sacrificial system to gain forgiveness, the priestly hierarchy to mediate God’s grace, the separation of people based on nationality, gender, and wealth, and basically, everything that religion requires to hold itself together.

This is why it typically was not the non-religious, secular “sinners” who reject and condemn the prophets, but the religious people who do so.

So who do you condemn? Who do you judge? Who do you label as a “sinner”? Who is it that seems to be attacking your way of reading Scripture and your understanding of how God “set things up”? Who is it that you accuse of undermining your traditions, of sacrificing your sacred cows?

Might it be possible that these people are really God’s messengers to you, that they might be God’s prophet?

Might it be possible that your enemy is your prophet and God wants you to listen to those you would rather ignore, and love those you would rather hate?

Have you persecuted a prophet today?

Don’t be too quick to answer “No.”

Your Enemy is Your Prophet

By Jeremy Myers

12 Comments

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to love our enemies (Matt 5:44).

Since love for enemies is one of the most unnatural things for a human to do, I believe that enemy-love is one of the clearest and most defining characteristics of a true follower of Jesus. Show me someone who truly understands the heart of God, and I will show you someone who loves his or her enemies.

In recent months, I have discovered that one reason we can love our enemies is because they, above all others, might tell us the truth about our actions and behavior.

Normally, we humans tend to gather around us the people who will affirm our beliefs and behavior, and tell us that everything we think, do, and say is correct and loving and godly.

Of course, it is true what Proverbs 27:6 says, that “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiples kisses,” but this principle can often be reversed as well, in that friends often overlook our faults and failures because they love us (and maybe because they have the same issues), whereas enemies see through our self-righteous attitudes and hypocritical charades and are more willing to criticize and call us out for our many failures.

Yet when they do this, we tend to ignore what they say, because we believe they are only saying such things from spite and anger. And maybe they are.

But might there also be truth to what they are saying? If so, could it be that the criticism from our enemy is actually the voice of God to us?

I am reminded of the prophet Micaiah in 1 Kings 22. King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat were planning on going to war against Ramoth in Gilead. So they call all the prophets together to tell them whether their war will be successful or not. They have a parade of prophets — 400 of them — who tell the two kings to go to war against Ramoth, “for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king” (1 Kings 22:6).

King Jehoshaphat finds this a little strange that all 400 prophets say the same thing (or maybe they were not all prophesying in the name of Yahweh), so he asks if there is not a prophet of Yahweh around to ask what they should do (1 Kings 22:7).

And I love what King Ahab says. He tells King Jehoshaphat, “Oh sure… there’s Micaiah. But I hate him because he never tells me anything good.”

In other words, King Ahab viewed Micaiah as his enemy. He hated Micaiah.

Nevertheless, they had Micaiah come in, and initially, he agreed with the other 400 prophets in telling the two kings to go to war, for they would be victorious. But King Ahab knows Micaiah better than this (and I imagine that Micaiah’s tone of voice of flippant and sarcastic), so King Ahab says, “Stop lying to me. Tell the truth!” (1 Kings 22:16).

And Micaiah does. And he is the only one who prophesied correctly.

The King’s enemy was the only one who prophesied truth to the King.

I think the same thing is happening today within Christianity.

We have gathered around ourselves teachers who tell us what our itching ears want to hear, and we ignore and silence the prophetic voices who tell us what we need to hear because these prophetic voices come from those many Christians love to hate.

Our enemy is our prophet, but we ignore what he says because he is our enemy.

Like who?

Who is our prophetic enemy?

How about atheists?

Christians love to hate atheists. We feel we do not have to listen to them, because “They don’t believe in God.” They live “secular” lives. They “live in sin.” They “don’t believe the Bible.”

Atheists are prophets for Christianity.

Atheists often point out real problems with Christian theology, Christian practice, and Christian hypocrisy. They often show us how our portrait of a loving God is not very loving, how a God who accepts everybody really doesn’t, and how the values and priorities of many Christian churches and organizations do nothing to help with the real problems in this world.

In my opinion, we Christians fail to listen to the prophetic word from atheists at our own peril.

How about Muslims? Especially Muslim terrorists.

I watch the angry Muslims on TV calling for the death of America and waving signs about “the Great Satan.”

I believe they are flat-out wrong, but at the same time, I have to ask myself, “Why are they saying these things? What have we done to make them think such things about us?”

It is too “easy” of an answer to say that they are just delusional or that they have been lied to about Americans. Certainly they hear lies about us, just as we hear lies about them. But at the same time, we must listen to the complaints they have about American values, American greed, American morality, and American intervention in foreign affairs and recognize that our Muslim “enemies” might be making some good points.

This is especially true when the Christians in American offer full and complete blessings on everything the United States does overseas, including the killing of Muslims and the bombing of cities. Why is it okay for Christian leaders to call for God to bless us in killing our “Muslim enemies” but it is not okay for Muslim leaders to call for Allah to bless them in killing their Christian enemies?

Whatever happened to Jesus instruction for us to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”?

How about the LGBTQ community?

When they tell us that we Christians have treated them with hate and contempt, our response is, “No, we haven’t! We’re just warning you about your sin! It is loving to do so. If you don’t repent and change, God will judge you and our nation!”

Their response is, “See? That right there was hurtful. We think our lifestyle is loving, not sinful. Furthermore, it is not right to blame us for all the ill that happens to our country.”

“Well, you’re trying to put Christians out of business!”

“That’s true. Some people are doing that. Just like you Christians have done to us for hundreds of years. Are you saying it’s wrong?”

“Well, it’s wrong when you do it, but not when we do it, because God is on our side. You’re on the side of the devil.”

“That right there was hateful also.”

And the conversation goes on from there. Or more likely it stops.

But I believe that in these sorts of situations, Christians need to stop and listen to the LGBTQ community and what they say about Christian hatred. In this case, they are prophets, bringing to us a revelation from God.

Listening to Our Enemies is One Way to Love Them

In his excellent book, Engaging the Powers (I HIGHLY recommend it!), Walter Wink talks bout the gift of our enemy. He says that our enemies bring us revelations of ourselves that we cannot get from any other source:

These “revelations” (and they are precisely that) need to be treasured, because that is the gift our enemy may be able to bring us: to see aspects of ourselves that we cannot discover any other way than through our enemies. Our friends seldom tell us these things; they are our friends precisely because they are able to overlook or ignore this part of us. The enemy is thus not merely a hurdle to be leaped on the way to God. The enemy can be the way to God (Engaging the Powers, 273).

Do you have someone you consider to be your enemy? Do you know of a group of people that are considered the “enemies” of Christianity? If so, do not seek to harm, discredit, or ignore them. Instead, listen to what they have to say, for their words may in fact be the very voice of God to you and to me.

If you want to hear the voice of God, start by listening to your enemies.

4 Shocking Reasons the Bible is Unique (Reason 3)

By Jeremy Myers

8 Comments

So far in this short series on why the Bible is unique among the spiritual writings of the world religions, we have seen that the Scriptures reveal human mimetic rivalry and the scapegoat mechanism, and that Jesus fulfills the Hebrew Scriptures (just as He fulfills other religious writings as well).

The question we concluded the previous post with, however, was that if Jesus fulfills the hopes and dreams and ideals of other religious writings as well, why did Jesus come specifically in fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. This post seeks to answer that question.

And here is the answer:

The Hebrew Scriptures are the Most Violent

The third reason the Hebrew Scriptures are unique among all religious writings in the world is that they are the most violent religious writings in history.

I do not say this lightly.

While I do not consider myself an expert on all the religious writings of all of the main religions in the world, I have read most of the main religious texts for most of the main world religions, and while it is not uncommon to find violent events being described in these other religious books, no other set of religious writings comes even close to describing the violence and bloodshed that one finds within the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures.

And I am not referring to simple descriptions of human violence, though there is a lot of that within the Bible. I am talking about direct commands from God for His people to go and commit violence. I am talking about commands from God for His people to engage in genocide. I am talking about descriptions of God intentionally setting plans in motion to wipe out entire groups of people (such as the Amalekites), and to kill through natural disasters millions (or maybe even billions) of people (as in the flood).

When taken as a whole, the Bible is the most violent religious text in all of history. Not even the violence of the Muslim Qu’ran comes close to describing and divinely sanctioning the violence that is found within the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures (see Jenkin’s book, Laying Down the Sword).

This certainly makes the Bible unique! Though it is not in a way most Christians are comfortable admitting.

And yet, there is a deep truth here we must not miss. I ended the previous post by asking why God would have Jesus come to fulfill the Hebrew Scriptures if Jesus can conceivably be the fulfillment of other religious Scriptures as well.

I believe that one of the reasons God chose to have Jesus fulfill the Hebrew Scriptures is because they are the most violent Scriptures.

Did God choose to do this because He Himself is utterly violent? No! Quite to the contrary, the God which Jesus reveals to us is completely non-violent.

The God revealed in Jesus Christ would rather die for the worst of His enemies than seek the death of any one of them.

Why then did God choose to send Jesus to specifically fulfill the most violent religious writings of all time? So that He could do what only God can do: So that He could redeem it.

God wants humanity to understand that nothing and nobody is beyond the scope of His redemptive purposes, and so by sending Jesus as the fulfillment of the most violent of religious texts, God not only revealed Himself by way of a stark contrast to that violence, but also showed how to reinterpret and understand those violent events in light of the self-sacrificial God dying on the cross for the sins of the whole world.

People rightly question how a good and loving God can allow violence in the world. God answered this vital question by sending His Son, Jesus, as the fulfillment of the most violent religious writings, to show us that He had nothing to do with the violence, but was instead dying along with us in the midst of the violence, taking our sin and suffering upon Himself, bearing our guilt and shame in His own being, all for the sake of those He loved.

Jesus fulfills the hopes and expectations of the violent Hebrew Scriptures by suffering instead of conquering, by serving instead of killing, and by dying so that others might live.

Though we may not always understand why and how sin and suffering enters into God’s world, one thing we can know through the crucifixion of Jesus is that God does not send sin and suffering, but rather, is a victim of it along with us.

With every shed tear and every cry of pain, God suffers. This is why God chose to have Jesus come in fulfillment of the most violent texts. He wanted to show us that God’s role in those violent religious texts is not in the inflicting of pain and suffering of others, but in receiving and suffering that pain along with us.

In Jesus, we see that God is not against us; God is with us.

Are you shocked yet? Well, it all comes together tomorrow with one last post about how the Bible is unique. We will see that, based on the first 3 shocking ways the Bible is unique, we have been reading the Old Testament wrong all along. Join us tomorrow for the conclusion of this study…

4 Shocking Reasons the Bible is Unique (Reason 2)

By Jeremy Myers

17 Comments

We are looking at 4 shocking reasons the Bible is unique among the world’s religious literature. Yesterday we saw the first reason, that the Bible reveals mankind’s destructive cycle of mimetic rivalry and the scapegoat mechanism by which we escape the cycle.

The second reason the Hebrew Scriptures can be considered unique is that they are the writings which Jesus explicitly claimed to fulfill and which He said pointed to Him (John 5:39-40). The Hebrew Scriptures not only contain prophecy about Jesus, but all the stories, hopes, and longings contained within the Old Testament also find their fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

You may think, “This is not shocking. Most Christians believe this.”

Yes, but read on. It is about to get shocking…

I would argue that one of the primary reasons Jesus said what He did in John 5:39-40 is because He was speaking to a Jewish audience who taught and believed the Hebrew Scriptures.

Based on my own detailed study of other religious beliefs, practices, and writings, I believe that Jesus could have made such a statement about any stream of religious writings.

Jesus Fulfills All Religious Writings

If Jesus had been born Chinese, He could have said of the Buddhist Sutras, “These are the Scriptures which speak of me.”

If He had been born a Norseman, He could have pointed to the Poetic Edda, “These are the Scriptures which speak of me.”

If Jesus had been born as a Native American, He could have pointed to their legends and stories passed down from generation to generation and said, “These are the traditions that speak of me.”

I know this is a challenging and shocking idea (some might call it heresy), and I hope to defend this idea in a book someday (I am already compiling notes), but such a claim is not as outrageous as it may initially sound.

Jesus Fulfills Movies and Myths

Have you ever noticed that nearly all great stories and movies have a common theme and common plot? Almost all great stories, novels, myths, and movies have as their core plot the idea of a person who sacrificially gives of himself for others, to rescue and deliver them from some calamity, and in so doing, suffers great personal loss, but ultimately rises into glory. Is it just pure coincidence that this is the basic storyline about Jesus Christ as well?

Critics of Scripture think so, but I beg to differ.

I think the common storyline which all people around the world and throughout history long for is the storyline which God has placed in our hearts, and which the Holy Spirit is unceasingly whispering into our hearts and minds so that, when we hear the story about Jesus, it rings true in our hearts, and our souls cry in recognition. Jesus is the “true myth” (with the emphasis on true) which proves the validity of many of the themes and longings of men’s hearts which are found in the pagan myths of other religions.

I am not at all saying that the stories about Jesus are myth. Quite to the contrary, the stories of Jesus are some of the truest stories in history. I call them “true myth” because they resemble so many of the pagan stories and myths, and yet, the stories of Jesus are true. This “true myth” idea comes from C. S. Lewis, who said that his realization of Jesus being the fulfillment of the pagan myths which Lewis had studied his whole life is the realization that led him to move from atheism into Christianity.

Jesus Fulfills Culture

But more than that, I believe that the Spirit of God moves even today upon the whole earth, whispering and drawing people of every tongue, tribe, and nation to follow in the wake of Jesus. I believe that the gravitational pull of Jesus is so strong, that He pulls all people after Him, whether they call themselves “Christian” or not (No, I am not a universalist).

I think this helps explain why the church often gets it cultural cues from the world.

Much to our shame, though the church should be leading the world in issues like the abolishment of slavery, women’s suffrage, affirmative action, income inequality, taking care of the poor and homeless, and human trafficking, it seems that far too often, the church resists such changes while the surrounding culture cries out for justice and equality.

It usually takes the church thirty or forty years to come around and see that the surrounding culture was right after all. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit was slow in speaking to the church, but that the church is slow to listen to the Spirit. And while the Holy Spirit waits for us to take the earplugs of tradition out of our ears, He goes to the rocks and the stars (often in the form of Rockstars) to have them cry out the message that He is whispering to the entire world.

“If God can speak to Balaam through an ass, God can speak to a Baptist through an atheist. The key is knowing how to listen for God’s voice” (Stark, The Human Faces of God, 237).

God is Not Silent

So God is not silent.

He is whispering His truth and His message to the world all the time. And sadly, those who claim to know God the best are often the ones who hear Him the worst.

But thankfully, our deafness does not mute God. God whispers His truth to all people, and this truth shines forth (though often dimly) through the writing of other religions, through literature and art, through music and movies, through shifting political winds, through the longings of men’s hearts and dreams, and through the cries of people for justice and equality (Stark, The Human Faces of God, 238).

The church that refuses to listen to such movements of God upon the face of the earth is the church that also fails to hear the whisperings of God to their own hearts and minds.

So if this is true, that the Spirit of God whispers the truth of God to all people everywhere so that religion, literature, music, art, politics, and cultural movement all contain echoes of what God wants done in the world, why is it that Jesus came to the Jews to be a fulfillment of their Scriptures? The answer to this question leads us to the next reason the Hebrew Scriptures are unique, which we will consider tomorrow.

Until then, do you think this idea magnifies or undermines the authority of Scripture? Do you think it magnifies or undermines God’s work in the world? Weigh in with your feedback in the comments below!

Now You Can Understand Prophecy

Have you persecuted a prophet today?

But let’s do a little thought experiment about prophets

Let’s try a simpler (or harder) scenario.

What does this mean?

Why am I saying this?

Your Enemy is Your Prophet

Who is our prophetic enemy?

Listening to Our Enemies is One Way to Love Them

4 Shocking Reasons the Bible is Unique (Reason 3)

The Hebrew Scriptures are the Most Violent

4 Shocking Reasons the Bible is Unique (Reason 2)

Jesus Fulfills All Religious Writings

Jesus Fulfills Movies and Myths

Jesus Fulfills Culture

God is Not Silent

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