Introduction to Prophecy - Church of God - NEO

',e up the struggle. Agricul·collap e. The oceans will die.ill vanish. There will be too;>eople-and not enough of any·., e. Life may once again become aggle for survival-ifwe still ex·ist. The gloomiest of thedoomsayers think that wemay destroy ourselves be-oderno 09Y hasade thephets' wordsccessible toeveryone.fore we even make it tothe next century.Who's right? The opti·mist or the pessimist? Wehope it is the optimist be·cause most of us are atheart also optimists. But aquick glance through thedaily newspaper oftenswings the odds in favorof the pessimist. Doesanyone know for sure?The prophets of theBible did. They were a special breed ofoptimists-in spite of their rather grimreputation. But they were realistic opti·mists. They saw what was wrong-andthey saw how it could be put right. Mostof them wrote at a time when their nationswere floundering in moral and spiroitual darkness, and they tried to shine alight into that darkness.Preserved for TodayThe prophets knew they were inspiredby God, who had said, "There is nonelike Me, declaring the end from thebeginning, and from ancient timesthings that are not yet done .... "(Isaiah 46:9·10) .Their immediate concern was theirpresent-and the problems of their time.But they realized their message was big·ger than that-some of their wordsseemed to reach out across time-to gen·erations yet unborn. The prophets be·lieved passionately in their mission-andthat fervor kept them going in the face ofridicule, rejection, and martyrdom. Otherstreasured their words, lovingly preserving,stoutly defending, laboriouslycopying and recopying them by hand onfragile scrolls, or (in translation) in thegreat chained Bibles of the Middle Ages.Because of this labor of love and faith, westill have the words of the prophets today.Modern technology has now madethose words available-in millions ofBibles-in all the major and most of theminor languages of mankind. No longerare the words of Isaiah, Jeremiah andDaniel hidden away in desert caves ormonastery libraries.But they might as well be! Most of usknow very little about the prophets ortheir messages.Do you have a copy of the Bible handy?Take a look at it. The books of prophecymake up about 200 pages. Do they look asif they have been used much?But then, to behonest, do theylook very usable?Reading a book ofprophecy can be afrustrating, bewil·dering experience.It seems to be fullof strange antics,visions and confus·ing and convolutedlanguage. What is ittalking about? Youmean to say this isimportant to menow?Yes, that is whatwe are saying.We want to showwhy this apparentlyobscure subject isi m po rt a nt - t oyou- n o w. W ewant you to see thatit is not so obscure.Proph ecy ca n beunde rstood . Oh,you have to knowsome basics-it'srather like a foreignla n g u age . Wh e nyo u first see it, itseems a total mys·tery. But once youAs Yol BeginThis booklet is designed to be"user friendly"-to quote a mod·ern expression. We will need torefer to the Bible frequently-youcan't write about prophecy withoutdoing that. On first reading you maynot want to stop from time to time tofind the scripture in what may beunfamiliar parts of the Bible. So wewill print all essential scriptures infull, right in the text.Other less essential referenceswill be listed, but not quoted. It isnot necessary to check every one ofthese references as you first readthis brochure. We hope you will findthis brochure interesting, and willwant to go back and read some ofthe chapters again. That is the timeto look up these scriptures. By thenyou will have gained an overview,and you will be surprised to see howapparently obscure parts of theBible become full of meaning. Allscriptures quoted in this booklet arefrom the New King James Version ofthe Bible.have learned a few rules of grammar andsome vocabulary, you can begin to makesense of it. Prophecy is like that.So let's see if those bewildering wordsof Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and company,have anything to do with us today. Let'slook at them more closely. To do this, wemust make a quick survey of the "rags· toriches-to·ruin" story of ancient Israel.3