The Importance of Bible Prophecy

Revelation 19:10b, “The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.”

1. God placed 18 books of prophecy in the Bible: 5 major prophets in the OT; 12 minor prophets in the OT; Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel; the entire book of Revelation; and chapters in Matthew (24&25), Luke (21), and Mark (13); and various other places like Genesis.
2. Almost 1/3 of the Bible was originally unfulfilled prophecy when written
3. The OT records over 300 prophecies about Jesus’ First Coming (if we look at only 48 of these, fulfilling these by Jesus would be one chance in 10 to the 127^th power which is a number with more zeroes after it than there are atoms in the universe (10 to the 80^th) – a trillion has but 12 zeroes)
4. Biblical prophecy is always 100% correct or it is not from God – Deuteronomy 18:20
5. Reasons to study Bible prophecy:
   1. Teaches accountability – Hebrews 9:27
   2. Changes lives – 1 John 3:2,3
   3. Reward – II Timothy 4:8
   4. The lost will be cast into a furnace of fire – Matthew 13:40-42
   5. The “end” is coming – Matthew 24:14
   6. It pleases God – I Chronicles 12:32, 2^nd Coming mentioned in 23 of the 27 NT books, 2^nd Coming is in 1 out of every 30 NT verses
   7. Jesus IS coming again! Soon!

6. Biblical signs of the Last Days or End Times:

• It is not generally known that the great apostasy of the church is the single most spoken of sign of the end times in the Bible. Apostasy is mentioned in more books of the Bible and more times than any other sign. (2 Timothy 4:3-5)
• Re-establishment of Israel on May 14th 1948. (Isaiah 66:7-8)
• Reclamation of the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 36:34-35)
• Revival of Biblical Hebrew. After centuries of slumber where it was strictly a liturgical and written language, Hebrew was literally reborn nearly a century ago in its original birthplace. Eliezar Ben Yehuda led the rebirth of Hebrew as a spoken language. (Zephaniah 3:9; Jeremiah 31:23)
• The opening up of the Bible and the understanding of Bible prophecy. (Daniel 12:8-9)
• Regathering of the Jews. (Isaiah 11:10-12)
• Re-occupation of Jerusalem. (Luke 21:24)
• Resurgence of the Israeli military. (Zechariah 12:6)
• Re-focusing of world politics on Israel. (Zechariah 12:3)
• Arab threat to Israel. (Ezekiel 35 and 36)
• Increasing instability of nature. Weather patterns are changing rapidly. (Matthew 24:7 & Luke 21:11)
• Increasing lawlessness and violence. (Matthew 24:12)
• Increasing immorality. (Matthew 24:37)
• Increasing materialism. (2 Timothy 3:2)
• Increasing Hedonism. (2 Timothy 3:4)
• Increasing influence of Humanism. (2 Timothy 3:2)
• Depraved entertainment. (2 Timothy 3:4)
• Calling evil good and good evil. (2 Timothy 3:3 & Isaiah 5:20)
• Increasing use of drugs. (2 Timothy 3:3)
• Increasing blasphemy. (2 Timothy 3:2)
• Increasing paganism. (Wicca etc.) (2 Timothy 3:1-4)
• Increasing despair. (2 Timothy 3:1)
• Signs in the heavens. (Luke 21:11,25)
• Increasing knowledge, internet, (Daniel 12:4)
• Computer technology. (Revelation 13:7)
• Increasing travel. (Daniel 12:4)
• The explosion of cults. (Matthew 24:11)
• Increasing occultism. (1 Timothy 4:1)
• The proliferation of false christs. (Matthew 24:5)
• Increasing attacks on Jesus the Bible and Christianity. (Romans 1:18-19)
• Increasing persecution of Christians particularly in the east and Middle East. (Matthew 24:9)
• Wars and rumors of wars. (Matthew 24:6)
• Weapons of mass destruction. (Luke 21:26)
• Increasing famine. (Luke 21:11)
• Increasing pestilence and new diseases. (Luke 21:11)
• (Revelation 11:8-9)
• Satellite technology. (Revelation 11:8-9)
• Unification of Europe. (Daniel 2 & 7)
• Far Eastern military powers or Kings of the East. (Revelation 9:16 & 16:12)
• Movement toward world government and one world monetary system. (Daniel 7:23-26)
• Move towards a cashless society. (Revelation 13:16-17)
• Denial of the Rapture and Second Coming. (2 Peter 3:3-4)
• Denial of creation by God. (Romans 1:18-22)
• Translation of the Bible into many languages. (Matthew 24:14)
• Obviously this list could be expanded, but the examples above should be sufficient to show that we are living in the season of the Lord’s return.