Approximately one/third of the Old Testament is prophecy, approximately 90% of which involves the final days of this age–the time in which we are living.  What is called the Old Testament contains prophecy beginning with the establishing of the Nation of Israel with Abraham, whom God chose because he would obey Him in the future.  The Old Testament foretells of a Messiah that would arrive on the scene Who would lead Israel to lead the Gentiles to the Lord.  The New Testament contains prophecy that laid out God’s plan of salvation for Israel and those who would join her in worship of and service to the Lord in the future, beginning on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D.   Both prophecies culminate in the Book of Revelation where Jesus shows the Apostle John what would happen to not only Israel, but the entire Gentile world during the final 3 1/2 years of the age, a time just ahead of us which will begin with the Great Tribulation and end with the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.  Only those who know their Holy Bible and hold it dear will survive the slaughter, defeat, enslavement of Israel and much of the rest of the world.  All of this was foretold many years ago by holy men of old who heard the “voice” of the Lord, then spoke and wrote what they heard.

This series has dual purposes.  First, I will speak to an attitudinal fault that most church people have toward Biblical prophecy.  Secondly, I will point out a few specific prophecies that anyone with a societal information source will recognize as coming to fruition at this time.  The observer can see that what is happening today is the direct and undeniable fulfillment of ancient prophecy as the machinations of the information age allow events taking place anywhere on earth to be broadcast globally in real time.

Most people, including church people, dismiss Bible prophecy as a relic of a bygone day.  Consensus holds that the spiritual foretelling of future events plays no part in today’s more enlightened, more man-centered, man-controlled religious systems.  As the following incident will attest, Jesus does not share their view.  I assume that most people who read this website are either affiliated with some religious organization that falls under the heading of “Christian,” or they are familiar with the religion.  Therefore I will proceed accordingly.

A true Christian is one who believes and obeys Jesus Christ, His prophets and apostles who wrote the books that became known as the Old and New Testaments.  As I have noted before, these testaments should be considered one book as they are historically and spiritually united.  Both Testaments, I have noted, were written to, for and about Israel and those Gentiles who choose to join the Israelites both physically and spiritually.  However, most people ignore the Old Testament.  This is a very dangerous error, as Jesus tells us in Luke 24:25-27.

In this episode Jesus has risen from the dead and has joined several Jews who did recognize who He was.  They were talking about the mighty works and teachings of a prophet named Jesus who had been crucified.  They were lamenting the fact that He had not risen up to save the nation of Israel from the Romans as they had hoped.  Obviously, they did not understand the true purpose of His first Coming and that it was not His intent to rule Israel until after His second Coming.  After listening to their conversation, Jesus spoke to them, saying: “O fools and slow of heart to BELIEVE ALL THAT THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN.”  He called them fools because they did not believe everything that the Old Testament prophets had spoken, written and preserved for their benefit.  Due to His earlier work with men He could trust, Jesus would later have the Apostle Peter to write: “Holy men of old spoke (and wrote) as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21).  This is the same Holy Spirit that lives inside and leads God’s true saints today.  The Apostle Paul speaks to this Truth in Romans 8:14: “They that are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”  True sons of God today are led and empowered by that same Spirit which enables them to resist Satan’s temptations and to perform miracles as did the firstborn of God–Jesus of Nazareth.  Like Him, true Christians will study the writings of the ancients, believe what they wrote and obey them.

The Jews Jesus was talking to obviously had not studied the Old Testament Scriptures.  He continues His rebuke of them in verse 24: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”  “And beginning with (the teachings of) Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (vs 27).  In verse 29 He expressed His displeasure at their laziness in Bible study and their subsequent lack of Bible knowledge.  In Matthew 24:4 He said that man must live by EVERY WORD spoken by God.  Combined with what He had already said, the message is clear: THE OLD TESTAMENT IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE NEW TESTAMENT.

In the next posting we will study several Scriptural passages that prove the above sentence to be true.  I have stated such Truth in the past but will do so again in order to drive home the Lord’s message: THE HOLY BIBLE IS ONE BOOK, HAVING ONE MESSAGE TO ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE.  ALL WHO WOULD SPEND ETERNITY WITH THE LORD MUST LEARN THE WAY OF GOD, BELIEVE IT AND OBEY IT.  IN DOING SO THEY BECOME TRUTH SAINTS, WHICH GOD CALLS HIS CHURCH, THE ISRAEL OF GOD (Gal.  6:16).   L.J.