For most of professing Christianity, the Old Testament is useful only as a source of religious  history.  This means that approximately 80% of God’s inspired Word to modern man has little, if any relevance in the day-to-day life of the New Testament Church.  Nothing could be further from the expressed will of the Almighty.  Recall that Jesus, the Source from Whom the prophets and apostles received God’s Word directly, said that His saints would live (conduct their lives) by EVERY WORD THAT PROCEDES FROM GOD’S MOUTH (Mat. 4:4).  He spoke God’s Words to the Jews in person.  His Words were then recorded by the apostles.  The Apostle John collected His Words and codified them into what is called the New Testament.  His apostles took His Words to the 10 Israelite tribes scattered abroad and to those Gentiles who would become spiritual Israelites.  As I wrote in the previous posting, God spoke, the Holy Spirit relayed His Words to Jesus Who spoke them to the prophets and apostles.  As He tells us in John 12:44-50, all of mankind will be judged by every Word God spoke.  “Every Word” refers to both the Old and New Testaments.

The vast majority of church people view the Old Testament as history only and is therefore not important in their lives.  Therefore, they also believe that prophecy–the foretelling of future events–plays any part in their lives.  To show the importance prophecy, the Prophet Amos said that the Lord did NOTHING unless He first told “His servants, the prophets” (3:7).  It has been noted that approximately 90% of the Old Testament is prophecy, most of which concerns the time in which we are living today.  The reason for churchman’s dismissive attitude toward Old Testament prophecy is that much of it is dual in nature, having both a present and a future application as I pointed out in the previous series.  The “Beyond Babylon” prophecy dealt with the Lord’s warning to Israel because of her involvement with Babylonian religious practices. That prophecy had both a physical and a spiritual fulfillment.  It is only through the Holy Spirit that one can understand the second fulfillment of that prophecy.  The Scriptures vividly describe the first fulfillment–Israel’s military defeat, enslavement and scattering throughout the world as the result of her rebellion against God.  Religious people are not aware of the prophecy’s second fulfillment–the fact that Israel’s end-time descendants (primarily the U.S., Britain and the Middle East Jews) will also be defeated, enslaved and scattered throughout the world because of her rebellion against God.  I contend that there are three types of learners: “go learners,” “slow learners” and “no learners.”  Modern Israel is at the top of the third category list, as were her ancient ancestors.

Let us now read the fine print in the New Testament to determine what its authors, including Jesus of Nazareth, had to say about the Old Testament and its significance in today’s world.  In the 24th chapter of Luke’s Gospel we find Jesus, Who had been recently resurrected from the dead, joining Himself to two men who were walking along the road that connected Jerusalem and Emmaus.  He pretended not to know that the men had been discussing what had happened at the tomb of a man they had thought was the Lord’s Messiah.  The man’s name was Jesus from the city of Nazareth.  His tomb, they had found, was empty.  Not only that, but some female visitors had seen a vision of angels who told them the man named Jesus was in fact alive.  Upon joining the men Jesus asked them what they were talking about.  They explained their experience at the tomb and remarked that they did not understand what had happened.  Jesus said to them: “O FOOLS AND SLOW OF HEART TO BELIEVE ALL THAT THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN.”  Jesus called them “fools” because they did not believe ALL THAT THE PROPHETS HAD WRITTEN ABOUT HIM.  Then Luke continued: “Beginning with Moses and ALL the (Old Testament) prophets, He (Jesus) explained to them ALL of the (Old Testament) Scriptures that concerned Himself” (24:24-31).  Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible–the Hebrew Tora.  In John 5:46 Jesus said that Moses wrote about Him.  Jesus was chastising the two men on the road to Emmaus because they did not know ALL of the writings of ALL of the prophets.  These men probably became part of the New Testament Church which He would establish a few days later on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2.

On the road to Emmaus Jesus was telling the two men that if they had believed the prophets they would known that the Messiah would make two appearances on earth, which He would bring about by being killed, then rising from the tomb.  Jesus often quoted the prophets when teaching those who would become the New Testament Church.  For example, Matthew 4:4 was a verbatim quote of Deuteronomy 8:3.

Jesus specifically named the prophet Moses in His teachings.  In Genesis 49:1 Moses wrote concerning the patriarch Jacob, whom God renamed Israel: “And Jacob called unto his sons and said, ‘Gather yourselves together so that I can tell you WHAT SHALL HAPPEN TO YOU (THEIR DESCENDANTS) IN THE LAST DAYS (of the world).'”  Though Israel speaking to his sons constitutes history, what he spoke to them became prophecy for the times in which we now live.  The prophecies made by the prophets are vitally important to us who are living in the final days of this age.  The Book of Revelation foretells in detail what we are now experiencing and will experience in the near future.  Do you believe that the Old Testament is prophecy about what the modern world will experience?  Do you believe what Moses wrote about Adam and Eve? about the two choices they were given relative to the two trees in the Garden of Eden? about what happened to them when they made the wrong choice?  Do you believe that the Eden experience is tied directly to today’s world in general and its churches in particular?  Do you believe ALL THINGS WRITTEN BY MOSES AND ALL OF THE OTHER PROPHETS?  Jesus did.  And so do His true disciples.  To do otherwise would make us fools.  We know this is true because Jesus proclaimed it.

According to the Lord, history becomes prophecy when it refers to a later time.  The Book of Revelation was codified in approximately 100 A.D.  The actual creation of the Book is indeed history.  But the message it contained was prophecy concerning what would happen to modern day Israel and the world in which she exists.  We are about to see prophecy fulfilled as what is written in the book takes place around us.  Some of the prophecy has already happened.  For example, the Great Whore and her daughters have risen to power and now cover the entire earth with their spiritual disease called “church doctrine”  The Beast is forming in Western Europe and is in its final stage of development.  The nations of Israel are rotting from within and are failing rapidly.  The Great Tribulation is about to engulf them and the rest of the world.  Nations have enough nuclear power to destroy all life on earth.  Foreigners are invading Israel in order to partake of what she has worked for.  Women and children are taking charge of the nation.  These are prophecies from ancient times that are coming true today.  Gird your loins, this is merely the “beginning of sorrows” (Mat. 24:8).  L.J.