The Importance of Studying Bible Prophecy

Welcome to the program. I want to thank you for joining us today as we continue to discern the times while viewing life through the window of the Bible. And well, just as our program is titled, we here are looking at life through the window of the Bible to discern the times and the way that we do that again, reading the scripture, and we put a heavy emphasis on Bible prophecy. So that is what we're going to talk about today, the importance of studying Bible prophecy. And for anyone who's not familiar with the topic, I don't want you to tune out. Please stay with us because you will see that it is so important to understand Bible prophecy when looking at the things that are going on in the world. And one of the things that I remember growing up as a child that I would hear people say things like, don't read that book. It will drive you crazy.

It will make you lose your mind. And they of course were referring to the book of Revelation. And I even heard a conversation with in which a pastor was telling another minister to stay away from the book of Revelation. And the minister that he was speaking to said, and Daniel, he responded by saying, and Daniel. And I was just blown away.

I was flabbergasted that here, these men would actually say, stay away from books of the Bible. So I have today joining me, my good friend and a colleague in the ministry, who's a frequent guest of ours, Dr. Bruce Logan, who's the founder of Dr. Bruce Logan ministries. And he's here to talk with us about this important topic of the importance of studying Bible prophecy. So doc, thank you for coming on to speak with us once again, this week. Thank you.

And again, it's always a pleasure. So, as I said, you know, when you look at this topic, I tell people what sense does it make that God, he loved us so much that he knew that we needed a Redeemer and the only way that mankind could be redeemed from sin was through a perfect sacrifice of a man, of a human being. And since there was no human being that could fulfill that, God said, I have to do it myself.

I have to go down and become one of them and be that sacrifice. And that is exactly what he did. He allowed himself to be tormented and to be, to be beaten and bruised and killed.

He suffered mightily so that we might have the opportunity for eternal life. And so I say to people, why would he do all of that? And then turn around and give us a book that would make us lose our minds.

It just doesn't make any sense. So again, we're going to talk about the importance and we're going to dispel some, some myths and some notions that are out there, even unfortunately within the church. So you wrote a write-up on your website about the importance of studying Bible prophecy.

You've been teaching this for decades. And one of the things you stated when you began is you said that Jesus himself declared that no man can know the time or the hour of his return. So there are people out there that when they read that, they say, well, what's the point then of studying Bible prophecy, Jesus said, we can't know the time or the hour of his return.

You started out by mentioning how your experiences, how you've had people say, you know, we should not study Bible prophecy. And I had a very similar experience very early on in my Christian walk. And I had a minister that told me that almost verbatim, stay away from the book of Revelation. And so I didn't really understand.

I'm literally only saved maybe a few weeks at the time, maybe a month. And so I just went home and I opened up the book of Revelation because I wanted to see what was so, you know, offhand or so scary about the book of Revelation. And I didn't get to three verses. I'm like at verse three and verse three said, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things which are written in it for the time is near. So, and I stopped right there in my reading.

I didn't know anything about Revelation at the time like I do now. And I just remember reading that verse. And so I'm thinking to myself, okay, here's a pastor telling me to stay away. But then when I go read it, it says, I'll be blessed if I read it. And I understand that kind of loop.

So that made me stop to think even further. Well, if God said, I will be blessed if I read it and if I understand it, then wouldn't he attend for me to be able to understand it? Or wouldn't there be some like principles or clues that I could like gather and learn so that I could understand it? And I always remember this story because I always connect this whenever I teach to talk about Revelation is that I remember and I had to take, I never took algebra or I think I took one course of algebra when I was in high school, one semester of algebra. And so when I got to college, you know, the first math class that I had signed up for, it was a, it says it was a college math one-on-one.

So I'm thinking, you know, it's going to be basically basic. We'll go back and just review the thing that, you know, we should have learned in high school. No, it was an all on, all out algebra class. So I'm sitting there and I'm like, oh my goodness. I could not, I mean, I was like, I was like a deer in the headlights.

I had no clue. And other students was going up on the board right now answers. And I lasted like maybe three days in that class. So I got to get out of here because it's an automatic F. So I went to the counselor and then put me into a remedial math class. And then, and basically in that remedial math class, they taught us that there were principles, you know, to learn and to understand how do you interpret or understand algebra. There were formulas that you, once you understood the formula, then you can pretty much solve any algebra problem.

And once I understood the formula, I was able to, when I turned around and took that math class over again, college math one-on-one, I think I got a B plus in the class as my final grade. So my point that I'm making that people who tend to shy away from Bible prophecy, one of the things I've always taught was that once you understand the principles and the formulas for understanding prophecy, then you can pretty much interpret almost any prophetic passage in the Bible. Yeah. So it's not too difficult for anyone to understand. You don't need a PhD in seminary to understand it. You, you just have to look at the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Right. And, and there are also people that, you know, when it comes to prophecy, they say, well, all these things that I have going on in my life, I'm preoccupied with my, my job. I have financial struggles.

My, my children are wayward. I don't, I don't have time to think about that stuff in the future. I need to, to pay attention to the here and now. So what is your response to those people?

Well, because the fact of the matter is that here you are being affected by what's happening in the here and now, regardless if you think it's interesting or that you need to know about it or not, for example, all of us have to drive up and pay nearly $5 a gallon for gas and some places over $5. All of us are being, whether we, whether we study prophecy or not, we're being impacted by inflation, by, by the supply chain issue, just to give you an example, by what's happening in the, in the culture wars, we're all being impacted by all of these things, whether we are discerning or not. Yeah.

Yeah. And you know, one of the things, uh, Dr. Logan is that with our ministry, when we started our parent ministry that presents this podcast is blessings to Israel. So discerning the times is presented by blessings to Israel. And we, we named it that because God put it on our hearts to put an emphasis on the importance of Israel, because growing up in the church, I didn't hear about Israel in terms of present day.

I, I heard about ancient Israel, what it was back in the old Testament. But when I started to, to get older and understand prophecy, and I began to see the importance of key prophetic events, like Israel becoming a nation again in 1948. And of course we could talk for hours and hours about the significance of that event, but, but what do you have to share to the listeners concerning Israel and 1948 and their role in Bible prophecy?

Couple of things. First of all, just in general, the nation of Israel is the epicenter of Bible prophecy. It looks like when you have an earthquake, there's that epicenter where everything is centered around the, uh, but by the same token, the, the tremor is often felt miles and miles away. But the fact that Israel has always been ever since Genesis 12 has been the epicenter of everything prophetic and my understanding what's happening in Israel, we can get a major clue into the times that we're living in. So absolutely understanding and being on top of what's going on in the nation of Israel and in the Middle East is very, very, um, important in this overall discussion of Bible prophecy.

Yeah. And we just, we love the nation of Israel. You know, we talk about Israel, we put a lot of emphasis on Israel and sometimes people, I think it kind of raises their eyebrows when they find out about the ministry saying, what is really this all about?

But we, again, want people to understand that is God's chosen nation and is there for a purpose. And again, it's the prophetic time clock, as you said, concerning the return of Christ. Another thing I want to read that you wrote in this article, you stated quote, but the one thing that has been most notably has been the increasing proliferation of a radical anti-Christian and anti-biblical cultural worldview agenda that's being encouraged and advocated for from every major institution of influence in America, including the highest elements of the government to the mainstream media, the courts, the public school systems, the entertainment industry, academia, and most alarming has even been infiltrated into many Christian churches.

Speak to that force, please. First of all, I just kind of want to go back to the previous point because the two actually, there's a connection between the two, the previous point and the point that you're bringing up now is the fact that when I first started studying prophecy is back in, this was in the early age, late 70s, like 79, 1980, 81. In those days, the number one or the main, there were several Bible prophecy teachers, but the one that was most familiar by most people was Hal Lindsey and his book, The Late Great Planet Earth.

And I remember reading, that was like when I got saved, the first book that I read from cover to cover was in fact, Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth. And one of the things that was most notable back then, mind you, this was what, 40 years ago or over 40 years ago, that the main focus that they placed is what you mentioned was Israel becoming a nation in 1948. Also a lot of emphasis was placed on the six day war and just those two events alone kind of set the main basis or was the main thesis for the entire argument that those Bible prophecy teachers would make.

But fast forward to today and again, we are experiencing things that I like to call the proliferation of birth pains, as you noted, that those early Bible prophecy teachers could not have even conceived of. Just kind of give you an example. Think about the cultural wars that we're facing in our time today. Think about the fact that we are literally taping this episode during pride month. Think about that. Okay. Just the fact that every cultural, what I mean by every cultural institution of influence is all about what's happening on, I mean, promoting the left, promoting leftism, promoting wokeism from the entertainment industry.

I mean, you cannot hardly watch anything. I'm seeing channels or commercials rather on TV where it's all about celebrating pride month. And get this, I walked, I was driving from running an errand. I don't even remember where I was coming from.

It was about two weeks ago. And I'm driving down one of the main streets in my city towards the street where I live. And before I get to that street, there's a middle, like a downtown square. And there was a pride celebration that I knew about, but I had forgotten existed. So they had that area blocked off. So I had to make a detour.

But long story short, there were several women who had children in their arms and walking hand to hand, little children, painted up and dressed up in pride colors, babies. It was mind boggling to watch. And you know how you can see some things and you kind of wish you could unsee.

I wish you could unsee, but I thought that was just demonic. But the fact of the matter is these cultural issues are being advocated for from the highest places of government. For an example, that our current president has appointed a transgendite to be, now get this, to be assistant health secretary.

Think about that. Literally during the campaign advocated that children as young as eight years old should have government funded transition procedures done with taxpayer funds. I mean, so we're entering into a level of evil in the culture wars that those early Bible prophecy teachers who correctly identified the times when they pointed out Israel becoming a nation, that was a very accurate observation. But when you add to everything that's going on right now, I mean, from the colleges, they're having transgender story time hour for kids as little as kindergarten, first grade.

And we're seeing all of these different type of say panic cultural issues that are happening during this particular time in history. And we have to be wondering if you're a discerning believer, how long is God going to allow this to go on? And the fact that people are losing their mind just over the fact that babies are now being saved as a result of the role ruling, it's all points to the fact that we're living in the last day. Yeah. Amen. Amen.

Yeah. We're definitely living in the last days and we need to be in prayer because you know, the wickedness is all around us, but folks, the answer is in Bible prophecy. If you really want to know how to navigate these times, look to Bible prophecy.

So we're going to pause for a brief announcement, but please don't go away. We'll be back with more on the other side of the break concerning the importance of studying Bible prophecy. You are tuned into discerning the times.

You are tuned into discerning the times. If you believe in what we stand for, would you consider partnering with us? Our partners program is based on Genesis 12, three. I will bless those who bless you for a recurring donation of $12 and three cents per month. You can help us share the message of discerning the time as we await our Lord's return to Israel.

For more information, please visit our website, lessons to Israel.com or write to us at lessons to Israel, Keobah's 266, Knightdale, North Carolina, 27545. Now let's return to the conclusion of today's program. Welcome back to the program. As we are today discussing the importance of studying Bible prophecy and being joined by phone by my guest, Dr. Bruce Logan, who is just so well versed on these topics.

And I wanted him to come on to, to share the great wisdom that he has in discussing this issue. So Dr. Logan, we, when we look in the world, there are people who say, I I'm just right now overwhelmed. There are people who were saying with all the dysfunction in society, the disillusion, people are getting discouraged.

They're getting confused and they're worried. And there are some who ask the question, they say, what, what does all of this mean? What is the answer that can be found in Bible prophecy?

I just want to just say, first of all, is that just to kind of piggyback on what you just said, one of the things that's true about the time that we're living in is that we're literally living in a Roman one world, a first Timothy four world, where many shall depart from the faith of second Timothy three, you know, it's a level of satanic evil. And into your question about what, you know, what will be the answer? I believe that God has given us the answer in his word.

God has given us the answer. And all we have to do is just study his word, study what Bible has to say about these events about Bible prophecy, because clearly everything that we're experiencing, God has foretold what happened. And it's happening precisely as God said that it would. So basically, I would say that as believers who are pastors, especially who may be listening, that if you have not taken an interest and taken your congregation through a journey of the study of Bible prophecy, that there's no better time than right now to begin placing an emphasis within your congregations and from your pulpit for the study of Bible prophecy.

I'm glad you mentioned that because I wanted to wrap up on that note, the fact that you and I have both experienced it, that there are so many pastors out there that really just ignore. They look at Bible prophecy as irrelevant, but to your point for the last several years, we've been dealing with COVID-19. We are having inflation that is at a record pace right now in our nation. There's now talk of a major food shortage coming. I mean, there are so many things to have people so distressed. And so people are asking questions. There are people who really want to know. They are reaching out to the ministry and saying, what does all of this mean?

Why is this happening? So, Dr. Logan, isn't that why pastors really need to embrace Bible prophecy to share with the people what the Bible has to say and how really to navigate these times that we're living in? That is a hundred percent true. You know, as again, I often say that most people just want to hear, you know, something good. Something's going to make them feel good.

Something's going to make them encourage, you know, how to live the abundant life. But whether you place an emphasis on prophecy or whether you just completely reject it outright, your congregation, your members are going to be impacted by what's happening in the world regardless if you place an emphasis on it or not. Because as you mentioned, all of us are impacted by the supply chain shortage.

All of us are impacted by the gas prices. All of us are impacted by the culture wars. All of us are influenced in one way or another, either positively or negatively by, you know, what's being taught to us through the media. And if the pastors don't address what's going on and be able to help their congregants to discern what is true and what is his error, then the congregation, more likely than not, is going to be influenced by what they see in the media. I just want to just give this one example that always jumps out to me, and that is this debate about global warming.

Unless you teach your congregation, you know, the truth about this issue, if the only voice they hear regarding this issue is from the mainstream media, then they're not going to have any other point of reference in order to compare whether or not or discern whether or not what they're being told about the subject is true or not. So, but when it comes to this subject, just give you this one quick analogy that I remember there was a, in 1968, there was a series of shows called In Search of, it was starring Leonard Nimoy of Mr. Spotts fame, and they did an episode in search of the coming ice age. Now think about this, this was in 1968. They said that in 10 years, that if we don't, you know, do something to curb greenhouse effect, then the earth is going to go through another ice age. Well, instead of going through another ice age, the earth start warming. So they switched the narrative to global warming. And there's the thing, when they said that, when they claimed that we have 10 years to, or we're going to go through another ice age, their solution was all the same by curbing carbon emissions and limiting carbon emissions so that we can protect the greenhouse. So that was their argument.

And we have to do that by raising taxes, by increasing regulations on businesses and so on and so forth. Fast-forwarding, Al Gore comes out with, it went from the coming ice age to global warming. Al Gore puts out the documentary, what was it? The Independent Truth or the, I can't think of the name of it, but something about, it was dealing with global warming.

And which he, by the way, made millions off of, by the way. But, and he projected all these 10-year projections. Now, fast-forward, this is now 20 years from when we only had 10 years from the coming ice age. So now it's 20 years, and now we got another 10 years to, we don't do anything to curb the environment or curb carbon emissions. Then the earth is going to, the ice age, I mean, the polar caps were going to melt. California was going to drop off into the sea and so on and so forth.

Well, none of that happened. In fact, the reverse started happening again. So 10 years later, beginning at the early part of the 2000s, they changed the narrative again and they changed the narrative to climate change. Because none of those projections came out, not only did they not come out to be true, they came out the opposite of what they said they were going to be. But whenever they came out with a solution, the solution was always the same, governmental regulation of the climate, basically of energy, of industry, and so forth.

And that was always their solution, no matter what. And that was, again, it was demonic. Because first of all, if you're an astute Bible student, you would know that God said that a greenhouse effect, a greenhouse effect is basically when the heat from the, when the sun penetrates the earth and warms the atmosphere, and then the heat rises back up, it stays within the atmosphere and keeps the earth basically warm. That's a cliff note version of what we mean by greenhouse effect. Well, when God created the earth, he created with a natural greenhouse effect, because he said he had a firmament around the earth. And what the firmament did was allowed the sun to penetrate the earth and allowed the heat, it served as like a blanket to keep the earth warm. And God said that this was good.

And then he turned around a few years later and said, not only is it good, but he said it's very good. But man is saying that the greenhouse effect is bad. So whose report are we going to believe? And I believe as believers, we need to believe the report of the Lord who says that the greenhouse effect is actually a good thing. So anyway, I'm just saying that this is just an example of why we as believers need to have discernment. And by the study of Bible prophecy will give us that level of discernment that we need to be able to discern whether or not we're being deceived or whether we're being told the truth. And I believe it's incumbent upon leaders to inform, to be informed themselves, first of all, but then to take that and inform their congregation so that we will be better equipped to be able to deal with the culture wars.

Yeah. And that is why we have this program, Discerning the Times, because one of the things when the disciples asked Jesus about what would be the signs of the end of the age, he, he said, do not be deceived. He started talking about deception. And it is so important when you look at Bible prophecy, it keeps you from being deceived to be able to discern the times that we're living in.

So, so we're out of time. We're going to end on that note, but Dr. Logan, I want to thank you for coming on again and talking with us. How can the listeners contact you and learn more about your ministry? Again, you can follow me.

I have two websites, brbrucelogan.com. And I have another one, Bruce Logan ministries.com. And you can follow me on my Facebook page at DBL ministry. And then you could reach me or follow me on Twitter at drbrucelogan1.

And you can email me, email me at br2logan at aol.com. And I also have a YouTube channel that you can just Google Bruce Logan teaching ministries on YouTube. All right. Well, you are definitely a warrior for Christ.

So keep doing what you're doing. Keep fighting the good fight. Your ministry is greatly needed during these times that we're living in. So many blessings to you. And once again, thank you for coming on. God bless you. Thank you for having me. And to our listeners, please come back and join us again next week, as we continue to encourage you to discern the times while viewing life through the window of the Bible until then remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. Thank you for tuning into discerning the times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible until next time. Remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God. Discerning the times is presented by blessings to Israel.