Prophets and Prophecy: 101B

Continuing on the subject of prophecy, I want to talk about the nature and complexities of prophecies, and the difficulties in interpreting them.

An important aspect of prophecy is understanding the symbology of the Bible.  In John 3:14, Jesus says “As Moses lifted up a snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man shall be lifted up”.  This was in reference to an event in Numbers 21:7-9.  It went something like this:

Israelites: Moses! We’re getting bit by snakes and dying, can you talk to God about that?

Moses: Fine, I’ll see what I can do. [To God] So God, what should we do?

God: Make a bronze snake, put it on a stick, and then when people get bit, lift the snake up.  When they look on it they will be healed.

A snake is commonly seen as a symbol of sin in the Bible, and bronze is known by biblical scholars as the “metal of judgment”.  So, people become poisoned by a snake (sin), and then they look at “the judgment of sin” on “a piece of wood”, to be healed.  Sound familiar?

Many people are familiar with the symbolic representation of numbers in prophecy.  Ten, for example, is known poetically as “many”.  Ten tens (100), would be seen as a great many, and ten ten tens (1,000), would be a great-great many.  There are also twelve tribes that contained the whole of Israel, and Jesus had twelve apostles sent out to save the world.  Twelve, then, could be seen as representative of the whole of a nation.

Now let’s look at the number of people saved from each tribe of Israel in Revelation 7:5-8.  It wasn’t just 12 (thus symbolizing the whole of an nation), and it wasn’t 1,000 (a great-great-great many).  It was 12,000—everyone, a great-great-great-many.  Combined with the fact that John makes sure to name every tribe in this passage, we can say that the totality of the people saved is then doubled.  Everyone-everyone gets saved, a great-great-great many.  Cool huh?

We can play these numbers and symbols games ad infinitum, but the trouble we face with interpreting prophecies in the Bible is the same problems we face when interpreting poetry in any other form of writing: a symbol can mean more than one thing.

The Bible isn’t just a set of laws or a recorded history of one ethnic group’s relationship to the supernatural, its also a book of poetry.  Because of this, some of the meaning can get muddled not only through translation, but through personal prejuidices and experiences.  Fire, for example, is seen as a symbol of purifying, but it is also a symbol of passion.  Does this mean that when John said Jesus will come and baptized people with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16), that people will be immersed in purification, or passion?  It would probably be fair to say both.  But what about the fallen angels in the lake of fire?  The people who entered Hell?  Are they being purified, or impassioned?  I think it would be fair to say neither; they will never be purified, they will always be condemned.

Prophecy, then, is tricky business.  I personally think that we should stick to some of the prophecies that have already come to pass (the ones about Jesus), moreso than what will happen in the end times.  Logically speaking, even if I knew everything that would happen from studying Jesus’s prophecies in the gospels and the visions contained in Revelations, could I stop any of it?  Not really.  Would knowing the exact order of events, down to the second, help me prepare?  Not really, all I need to know to prepare for Christ’s coming is explained (more clearly) in every other book besides Revelations.

So, I couldn’t change anything even if I knew, and my best preparation isn’t in studying prophecies—it’s in the rest of the Bible.

Don’t get me wrong, I think many prophecies can help show the different aspects of God’s character and His plans for our lives, but I think we need to be serious and sober-minded when it comes to the predictions of doomsday that we hear, and that we have to have an attitude of respect and humility when it comes to trying to understand prophecy, and the entirety of the Bible.

Next week I’ll (hopefully) talk about the Baltimore Riots. See you there.

Prophets and Prophecy 101

This week I want to talk about prophecy.

My final comment on last week's post said that I would examine a prophecy of Daniel, but the more I thought about it (and after listening to some feedback from facebook) I decided that I need to talk about prophecy and what it means for Christians today.

The first thing I want to point out is that prophecy doesn't necessarily mean "a prediction from the future".  In John 4:16-19, Jesus asks a woman to get her husband, and the woman replies that she has no husband.  Jesus then points out that she’s telling the truth—she has no husbands, but she has been married five times, and the dude she’s currently with isn’t her husband.  When Jesus reveals this knowledge about her, she says: “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.”

The woman declares Jesus’s prophet-hood not because he told the future, but because he knew something about her past.  In other portions of scriptures, Pharisees say that if Jesus was truly a prophet, he would know that he was in the company of sinners (Luke 7:39), again demonstrating that a prophet should be aware of a person’s past as well as making predictions of the future.

This idea that a prophet’s knowledge is not limited to the past is exascerbated by the fact that when Jesus was being struck on the face after being tried by the Pharisees, they mock him, saying: “Prophecy! Who hit you?”  My assumption is that they wouldn’t ask this question unless information of the present would also be available to a prophet.

Past, present, future.  The power of prophecy doesn’t seem to be limited to just the future, and the power doesn’t seem to be limited for good, either.

Deuteronomy 13:1-4 states that a prophet shows their authority from God by performing a sign or wonder, but they can still announce that the Israelites should follow other gods.  Obviously, God didn’t want the Israelites to follow other gods, and this scripture is followed by an ordinance saying that if this happens then God is testing them to see if they will follow other gods (and other people), or if they will continue to follow the one true god.

While he have exemplary models for dedication to God from various prophets (Isaiah had to be naked for three years (Isaiah 20:3), and Ezekiel was initially told to eat bread baked from human execrement (Ezekiel 4:12), but God relented (Ezekiel 4:13-15)), we also have the not so great example of Jonah, who decided to go against God’s will and not preach to Ninevah as he was told (Jonah 1:1-3).  From this I think it is fair to assume that just because you have the gift of prophecy doesn’t mean you’ll use the power for good; just that the information revealed to you is true.

What does this mean for the modern Christian?  Just that we need to be sober-minded when it comes to someone’s claim to prophet-hood in our era.  If someone says that they have the gift of prophecy, but they only make claims to the future, be alert.  Same thing if they start saying stuff that isn’t aligned with God’s will (remember Deuteronomy 13:1-4?) Or if they can’t accomplish other “signs and wonders” (Elijah and Elisha were able to part water in 2 Kings 2:8 and 2:14, similar to Moses parting the Red Sea). So, while most of the prophets did amazing things (especially Jesus), that doesn’t mean that ALL prophets are good.

A final note:  I personally don’t believe that people have the power of prophecy today.  I believe that prayer produces miracles and that sometimes God may reveal to people certain goals or missions for their lives, but I highly doubt that people have the power to know information that should remain hidden to most.

I’m going to continue talking about prophecy next week.  The week after I think I might tackle some political issues that Christians are facing today.