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Biblical Prophecy
The World of Prophecy - PR01-01© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1971)
This is a series of broad consideration of the areas of the prophetic Scriptures. Sometimes when
prophecy is studied in detail, we fail to clarify in our own minds
certain specific major features that are important for us to understand as background for today’s news.
Prophecy Today
For example,
where does the United States fit into the end picture? Is
there any significance to the terrific economic problems for this country today, particularly in reference to
the stability of the dollar on the world market and the news that we have had this past week concerning that?
What is the situation and what is the significance of the drug traffic within the
military services that you saw on the front pages of your Dallas Morning News
today?
What effect will the economic picture have on the
capabilities militarily of the United States now that the United States
is under a doctrine of a previous administration that we should slow down
and permit the Russians to catch up with us militarily so as to take away
their fears and to give them a sense of security? Where does this
put us today particularly in view of the fact that one
of the outstanding problems the Russians have with us today is our Polaris missiles. They have pretty
well countered everything else we have, both in our arsenal of defense and
attack, but the Polaris submarine is still a real problem. Is
there any significance to the tremendous upsurge in the development of the Russian navy and of its presence in the Mediterranean Sea?
What effect does student rebellion have? What
about the lawlessness? Is there any significance that in this
particular age we should have a tremendous outbreak of lawlessness? Is there any significance that the great university
town of Berkeley has now by legal ballot established a
Marxist-Leninist-oriented city government, and the plans that are afoot to make the drug culture
a way of life within the context of that municipality? What’s
the significance of such a move that in the United States of
America you can hear for the first time people singing the communist
international song as they are doing in Berkeley?
Do you have any real hope for thinking that this is a trend
that’s going to run its head of steam? Do you really sit
here and have any real grounds for thinking
that all of this is going to be reversed, or is it possible that
finally the thought will hit you with the hard cold hammer blow that it is that we
are not going to return; that the United States is not going to get better
economically; that things are going to get worse; that the problems of
our military are going to get worse; that the problems of our leadership of
the West are going to get worse? How can the
United States be the leader of the western world when it has to be the
antichrist, the man of sin, who is the leader of the western world? What
is he going to be the leader over? Is there any significance to the fact that
Britain is about ready to enter the Common Market, and that the Common
Market has now set as its goal a ten-nation union? Is that meaningful or not?
If you are hopeful that we’re going to have a return in this
country to a former era, I think you are gravely in error. I
think what we need to do is to know exactly where we stand in reference to these great world alliances that the
Bible predicts, and how they’re going to move. Then you and I
will have some idea as to exactly how we’re going to play
the game of life. It is pathetic that the Bible is the only book in the world that is capable of telling us
where history is going; 25% of it when it was first written was prophecy; and, no
worthy preacher and no worthy church would ignore God’s previews of history,
and yet most do. It’s pathetic from lack of insight concerning this which is taking place in our day, and nobody
can be more ignorant about the Bible than the professional minister.
Satan
Many years ago, before I was even pastor of this church,
there was a visiting evangelist, and after one of the services (I was a
Dallas Seminary student), somebody had come up and something in the service
had led people to think about Satan. A little
group had gathered around, they had turned to the Isaiah passage, and
they were asking me a couple of questions about this personality Satan and what
he was trying to do. The evangelist walked up
and said, “What are you talking about?” We said that we
were thinking about a question relative to Satan (and
the Isaiah passage) and what he’s doing today. A look of
contempt came across the evangelist’s face, and he said,
“Oh,” and he put his nose in the air and he moved by and shrugged his
(shoulders) as he went by. He couldn’t have been less interested in Satan. He was only
interested in how many numbers he could have to prove that he’d had a
successful revival in this particular church situation.
There is nothing more strategic than for you and me to
recognize that since Jesus Christ is in heaven, He is no longer the
target of Satan’s attack. During the ten days
between the ascension of Jesus Christ and the descent of the Holy
Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, all of the
forces of hell shifted gears to make you the direct target of Satan’s
attacks. You can’t survive in this age without Bible
doctrine information, and the consequent spiritual maturity of soul that you can build from that information.
Now prophecy is a major part of that information. So, don’t let some dumb benighted diluted
preacher, because he speaks to a large congregation, dissuade you from
enthusiastically seeking what God has chosen to take you into His
confidence in as a member of His family, just as He did to Abraham before He brought destruction upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
Astrology
Today there is, of course, a very huge interest indeed in the future and in the signs of good fortune. I noticed on a
magazine when I was in Alaska that a prominent entertainer had called two astrologers in to set the exact hour for his
most recent wedding. He’s very prominent. All of you know him. He wouldn’t think of doing this without their
guidance. Horoscopes are now read on radio. If you listen to your radio, there’s a computerized horoscope summary that you may read. You
ride along in your car and right away you hear that horoscope coming, and all of you are thinking, “Am
I a Libra, a Sagittarius, a Taurus, etc.,” and then you listen anxiously for what it tells you to do, and
it gives you some very specific directives. For example, “This would be a good day to get on with that job you had
in mind.” Now what could be wrong with that, especially if you were a Taurus bull or something like that?
Also, high government leaders are reported to be very interested in what the modern day seers and prophets have to say. Jeanne
Dixon, the famous Washington prophetess, was called in by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to get some direct
information during World War II on the conduct of his relationships with Russia. Interestingly
enough, she gave him advice that he didn’t follow. The nation would be better off had he followed her advice in not giving things
away to Russia. It was this same prophetess that warned the Kennedys that if he came to Dallas he would be assassinated.
The Bible
The sacred books of the religions of the world make no attempt whatsoever to authenticate themselves with predictions. Only
the Bible makes predictions about the future. Every prediction in the Bible is long-range, and it’s in detail in its content. Every
prediction that the Bible has ever made has been fulfilled literally. It is simply a copout for unbelievers and uninformed Christians to tell us
that we can’t really know what Bible prophecies mean, because we can.
In the Old Testament there was a specific proof of the prophet. What was required of the prophet?
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