Simon Pease in an 8- part series considers how understanding of prophecy ‘evolves’
Jesus – the reason for Bible prophecy
As fascinating as all these things may be, the central focus of the Bible is Jesus Christ. For Christians, our great hope is in His return to establish His kingdom on the earth. This hope is no recent matter. Jesus’ earliest followers, living nearly 2,000 years ago, were already looking expectantly forward to Him coming back. Many of them believed it would happen in their own lifetime, but they were clearly mistaken. The Christian message, however, did not emerge out of nowhere with Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection in Israel. Rather, Jesus and His disciples were all Jews, and most if not all of the Bible (the Tanakh and the New Testament) is written by Jews. The first words expressing the hope of God coming to restore our broken world appear as far back as in the first pages of the first book of the Jewish Bible – in Genesis.
Understanding this hope for humanity therefore requires us to work our way through the Bible, noting how God’s revelation of the coming Saviour and His purposes are gradually revealed in ever increasing detail throughout Jewish, and subsequently world history. This is the essential foundation on which all our understanding of Bible prophecy and the future must be based. That way we can really get to grips with the long-term narrative, helping us to place prophecy in its right and proper context. Many of the details will naturally fall more easily into place, although we must concede that our understanding of others will remain unclear until the events described actually take place. Nevertheless, having a clear insight into the signs of the times will prepare us for what is to come. This is exactly what Jesus told His disciples to do, when He explained what to look out for regarding His return and how they should respond. Let us now turn to the evolution of this larger Biblical narrative.
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Simon Pease is author of “Ruth – A Prophetic Parable”. Sub-titled “How does the story of Ruth relate to YOU today?” He teaches on the unity of Scripture and contributes to the UK magazine Sword.
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