What is Prophecy?

Blessings to Israel presents, Discerning the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Now in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's program.

Welcome to the program. So glad to be with you once again today as we come together to discern the times by viewing life through the lens of the Bible. Well, today we're going to look at one of my favorite topics that I am very passionate about. And I have a guest who is a frequent one of ours that so many of you are familiar with, and he has a heart and passion for it as well.

And I am referring to Bible prophecy. So I want to welcome Dr. Bruce Logan to the program once again. Doc, so good to be with you. Thank you for coming on to speak with us. Thanks for having me.

And it's always a pleasure. So we love getting together to talk about Bible prophecy and to discern the times that we are living in. It's just a time that, you know, it's just fascinating. I listen to so many programs and you hear and see what is happening and you look at the Bible and it's such a relevant topic. But unfortunately, a lot of churches, as we've talked about so many times before, they ignore it. But it's almost as if now preachers and pastors that have maybe ignored the topic for many years, they're almost being forced now to look at it because of the things that are happening in the world. So so we're going to talk today about the question of what is prophecy?

We're going to answer this, just that basic question. But what we really want to to do is for those who may not be as familiar with the topic so that you can understand what prophecy is and and how you too can understand it. So so to get us going, Dr. Logan, simply put Bible prophecy, explain to us what it is as far as it being prewritten in history.

Put it into your own terms for us. Well, first of all, again, I want to thank you for having me on the show once again and and for this particular topic, because as fundamental as it may seem, this actual question of what is prophecy is actually the key or the key to getting people interested in the study of Bible prophecy. I feel like we need to spend more time addressing this particular question just to arouse people about the importance of prophecy in general. And just to put it in a short, succinct sentence, prophecy is prewritten history or history written in advance. Now, to put it another way, to get it from a prophetic standpoint or biblical standpoint, history is, I like to use the term, his story. In other words, his history, his story, its history or his story or God's story written in advance. And that may seem like a simplistic answer or response, but Bible prophecy is basically joined at the hip with world history because God has been providential.

And I'm sure we're going to get into that more in the course of the program. But God has been providential in orchestrating human affairs, and God has written down things that were going to occur hundreds and sometimes thousands of years in advance. Because the thing we have to understand is that we serve a God that is able to see the end from the beginning, a God who exists outside of our human understanding of space and time. In other words, in Isaiah 46 and 10, God says that I am He who sees the end from the beginning, talking about the course of human history. And he has been providentially orchestrating human events in order to bring to pass his ultimate goal, which is ultimately will be the ultimate redemption of humanity after the fall and fulfillment of the promise that he made in Genesis 3 15.

All right. And looking at an article that you had written on this topic concerning prophecy, you gave some numbers to let us know really how prevalent prophecy is in the Bible. So share with us what you wrote as far as how many prophecies there are in the Bible and how often it's found in each of the testaments.

It's really amazing when you start to think about it. And when you look at these numbers and consider how marginalized the topic of prophecy is in the Bible in most churches, it is somewhat edge-scratching. Because just to give you an example, and I could go have a long list of numbers, but I'm just going to summarize that it's approximately 2500 prophecies that appear in the pages of the Bible. 20% of those have already been fulfilled to the very letter in minute detail without any errors whatsoever, which means there remains about 500 or so prophecies which remain to be fulfilled at some point in the future. And just to take that another step further, 20% of the Bible is actually prophetic, which means that prophecy is all through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. There are some 1817 prophecies of some nature in the Bible by the time we got to the New Testament. And prophecy also consists of, as I think I said, one fourth to one third of the Bible, and it is one of the most distinctive features in the Bible. So to make a long story short, the subject of Bible prophecy runs like a strand that runs throughout the Bible beginning in the book of Genesis. And just to make one last point, I was listening to a podcast earlier today, as a matter of fact, and a pastor was talking to one of his members and the member said, Pastor, can you just stop preaching about prophecy and just take a book of the Bible and just talk about the book of the Bible? And so the pastor asked this congregant, he said, well, what book would that be?

Exactly. What book would that be? And as it turns out, only the book of 3 John, in other words, the book of 3 John is the only book in the New Testament that does not either directly or indirectly mention something prophetic.

Wow. So really, in order to avoid talking about Bible prophecy as a preacher, you pretty much have to intentionally skip over it, because if you go through those scriptures, because it's so common, it's there, you're going to cover prophecy. So yeah, that's really eye opening. You also, you know, when talking about prophecy and looking at what you had written, when you look at Bible prophecy is really, I think, a good evangelistic tool, because there are some people that have a perspective of, well, all you're doing is talking about predicting the future and trying to know the future. But as you stated about the number of prophets that have already been fulfilled and you can show that it has been fulfilled exactly to the letter as you stated. So really, it is a great tool for evangelism, I think, in terms of the fact that God has proven to us who he is and that his word is true.

What he says is going to come to pass, has came to pass and will come to pass. That is 100% accurate, because prophecy is so prevalent in the Bible that the New Testament is basically centered around prophecy, because you've got to remember the main focus of Bible prophecy in the Old Testament was Jesus Christ himself, who existed among men in the New Testament, in which he himself was a fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies in the Bible. For an example, out of 216 chapters found in the entire New Testament, there are, now think about this, out of 216 chapters in the New Testament, there are 318 references to the second coming of Christ, and that's just in the New Testament, and that's not even including the references in the Old Testament.

And then think about this also. On the day that Jesus Christ was crucified, just on that one day alone, there were 33 Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled to the very letter. And so when you're trying to argue or debate someone who may be a skeptic, using these facts about prophecy and using these numbers is a great evangelistic tool, because it's not possible for any human being to have been able to predict this many prophecies with this level of precision and accuracy just within a human mind or human understanding.

It had to have been a supernatural God, and like I said earlier, who exists outside of our human comprehension of space and time, because what I mean by that is that we as humans, we're confined to this material world, and in this material world, we're kind of confined to the calendar and the clock and our understanding of space and time. But God exists outside of our understanding of space and time, which again, as the scripture says in Isaiah 46 and 10, He's able to see the end from the beginning, and that's a very, very powerful evangelistic tool that very often, and I'm sure we'll get into this later also, I often use one of my favorite evangelistic tools, as a matter of fact, especially when I'm speaking to skeptics, is the Book of Daniel. In other words, how do you explain, if you're a skeptic, the hundreds of prophecies that have been fulfilled to the letter in the Book of Daniel? And so to use it as a prophetic tool, but then let's take it another step further. Let's take it to the events and the things that we are experiencing in this world at this particular time. We're seeing so many Bible prophecies unfolding before our very eyes as it pertains to how the world will be established and set up in the form or the atmosphere or the climate, the spiritual and cultural climate that the world will be in just prior to the second coming of Christ. And I believe that things are happening in the world today that are setting the stage, that are establishing the groundwork prophetically for the Book of Revelation events to unfold in our time.

And when I say in our time, I don't want anybody to take that wrong. That's not me predicting when Christ comes because no man knows the time nor the hour. But I do believe that we could very well be living, based upon the signs, that we could very well be living in the season that we could easily or possibly, I should say, see the return of the Lord.

Absolutely. Yeah, I agree with you totally because Jesus said, yeah, we cannot know the day of the hour, he said, but we can know the season. And like you said, I believe that we are living in that season of our Lord's return. So we're talking today about the topic of what is prophecy being joined by a guest, Dr. Bruce Logan.

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Box 266, Knightdale, North Carolina, two seven five four five. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's program. Welcome back to the program. Today, we are discussing the topic, what is prophecy being joined by guest Dr. Bruce Logan. And, you know, Dr. Logan, I was thinking as we were talking about Bible prophecy and you write about the fact that Jesus Christ and him giving Bible study. And I, I give Bible studies and I've sort of jokingly told people that I look forward to the day when I'm in the Lord's presence and he can sit down with me and he can say, OK, here's where you got it right.

And here's where you got it wrong. And he's just going to give the best Bible studies that I've ever heard. But you talk about in the article that you wrote of what you say is to the greatest Bible studies ever given by our Lord. So speak to those, if you will.

Yeah, that's just to say that I just think that that was very powerful. When you think about just in general, what you just said about being able to sit down with the Lord and have a Bible study with them. Well, imagine that our disciples actually got a chance to experience that because on two different occasions. And there's a twofold relevance to this also, by the way, I want to just point out before I share this is because this is involving how important Bible prophecy is. Because the very last I think about this now, the very last lesson that Jesus gave just prior to the day before his crucifixion was the great Olivet Discourse, which is Matthew 24 and 25. Matthew devotes two entire chapters to the Olivet Discourse, which was all about future events.

And I think about that. But then fast-forwarding three days, or well, it would have been four days. The very first, think of this, the very last before his crucifixion was a lesson on Bible prophecy. And the very first lesson that he shared after he rose was also on Bible prophecy. And this was the example that I pointed out as being maybe one of the greatest Bible studies of all time was because think about this. If your listeners are paying attention, maybe turn to Luke chapter 24 and verses 44 through 48.

I just want to just read that little brief portion. Now, this is when they were walking down the Emmaus road and remember at first they didn't recognize who he was. And this is what Luke shares in chapter 24 and verses 44 through 48. And this gives me chills every time I read it. And I've read this so many times and I've taught it many times, but each time it gives me chills. Because when you think about the setting, you had the Messiah himself sharing this Bible study.

And listen to what Luke records. He says, And he said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you. Now get this, that all things must be fulfilled that were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.

Now just take that part right there. That just gives me chills just thinking about that being in the presence of the Lord. So in other words, Jesus started in the book of Genesis when you think about it.

All right. And he began to walk them through because you got to remember there at this particular moment, there was no New Testament yet. All they had as a reference was the Old Testament. So he was walking them through and notice what it says through the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. So first of all, that should tell you that in the first five books of the Bible, which was the law of Moses, that all of those books contain some references to Jesus Christ, point number one. And then it says in the prophets, and of course they had all references to Jesus Christ, but then he also said, and in the Psalms had references to Jesus Christ. So he walked them through the Old Testament pointing out all the different parts of the Old Testament that had references to him.

Now that's just very, very powerful. Then in verse 45, he says, And then he opened their understanding, and this is just awesome. He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behold Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses to these things.

That's Luke chapter 24 and verse 48. I mean, that's just when you stop to think about how powerful is that and how would it have been to have been a fly on the wall at that Bible study? I mean, how much could we have learned or that we often teach and that we ourselves who pride ourselves on being Bible prophecy students and scholars, how much have we missed?

You know, because I believe incorporated in there is all the different aspects of prophecy, including typology. I mean, I imagine that he was going through all the different references about the tabernacle and everything was just is just unbelievable to when you think about that particular scene. But yeah, I just thought that was just extremely awesome and also gives indication or gives further evidence of how important prophecy is, because if God had that level of prophecy, I mean, that level of interest and concern and put that much emphasis on prophecy, then how much emphasis should we put on it?

And then one last quick point I want to make is that those were the two lessons. But when you think about when you fast forward to the Book of Acts, that the very last thing that the disciples heard as Jesus was ascending into heaven was two angels that stood by and said, Ye men of Galilee, why are you staring and why are you gazing up into the sky? This same Jesus that you see going up into heaven, here's another prophecy, will one day come back and like matter as you saw him go up into heaven. So there's another powerful reference in the last days of Christ that the emphasis was placed on something prophetic.

Wow. Yeah, that that is amazing and powerful, because as you said, I never had thought of it that way until you pointed out that, yes, Jesus, the last thing that he spoke on that he taught on before the crucifixion was prophecy. And then the first thing he taught on after the resurrection was prophecy. And so, yeah, that shows the importance that our Lord puts on it. And it's truly amazing because when you look in the scriptures, you know, the entire Bible, as you said, Jesus was there. He's always been there. Jesus is God.

And that's something that I stress a lot when I teach, because I know growing up, it wasn't stressed to me. It wasn't something that I didn't realize until I got a bit older that that, yes, Jesus is is God in the flesh. And he had a plan. Prophecy is all tied up in the redemptive plan of God for mankind, for us as fallen sinners. So so what do you have to say about God's plan and the plan of redemption and how prophecy is tied into it now? That's also a very good question. I'm glad you asked, because often I think about this now when I just think, you know, because God, when he created man, he created the world, he created the universe, he looked at his creation and he said it was all good.

And then on the next occasion, he says not only is it good, but he said it was very good. But something entered into the equation that kind of threw everything out of whack. And that was the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Now, when you think about this now, God could have made the decision, you know, because of man's rebellion and disobedience. God could have made because he's God. He could have made the decision to just destroy, just kill off Adam and Eve, you know, just and scratch and scratch everything off and start all over again from scratch.

I mean, he easily could have done that, no problem. But he chose not to do it that way. He chose to institute a plan of redemption that began with the seed of the woman in Genesis 3.15. And from that point, he decided to providentially work through history in order to bring about man's ultimate redemption. Now, you might say, or some listeners might think, well, why did he take so long? You know, remember, because it's been over 6,000 years, 7,000 years, depending on who you listen to.

So why did he take so long? But you've got to remember, as I said previously, we are viewing time from our human perspective. But God does not view time from our perspective because in God's timing, one day is 1,000 years and 1,000 years is like a day.

Why? Because he exists in a dimension outside of our human understanding of space and time. And that's something that's difficult for us to live in this material world to really wrap our minds around. But I'm sure that when we get to heaven, we'll have a much clearer perspective on that particular aspect. But God chose to work providentially through human history in order to bring about man's ultimate redemption.

And of course, that plan that he first announced in Genesis 3 and 15 was officially launched, officially implemented with the call of Abraham and the giving of the Abrahamic Covenant, which of course, as time progressed, brought about the nation of Israel and who through which the Messiah was birthed. All right. So in the last minute, I mentioned in the opening how I am passionate as well as you are about prophecy. But you and I also both know that there are people out there that ignore it. They neglected some even just express a downright disdain or contempt for the subject. So what do you have to say to those people considering the prevalence of prophecy in the Bible?

What do you have to say to those people who just brush it off as irrelevant, unimportant? Well, I recall just because I love reading history and there was somebody or event that happened that I always make reference to. Many of you may be familiar with who Thomas Jefferson was.

And I'm kind of just making this a comparison because this is what many people do today. Thomas Jefferson was somewhat of, he considered himself a believer, but he did not believe everything in the Bible. So what he literally did was take a pair of scissors and he cut out the pieces or the passages in the Bible that he did not agree with. And he took it and formulated what he called the Jefferson Bible. And actually you can probably find it online right now, which he literally took out passages that he did not agree with. And in essence, that's what we do today when we ignore Bible prophecy. And we literally cut out or literally eliminate passages that concern or involve Bible prophecy.

And when you think about it, that if you were to take and take the Jefferson model and cut out all the passages that reference Bible prophecy, you wouldn't have you would have very, very little of the Bible left over. Right. It wouldn't be much.

It wouldn't be much left over. I mean, and that's not even an exaggeration by any means. So prophecy is important. And again, as you mentioned earlier, it's a tool for evangelism. But if no other reason, if all of us have been impacted by the past two or three years in one way or one form or another, and these events have happened over the past few years and it's currently happening right now. None of it has been by accident.

That's right. It has not been by accident. There's been orchestrated.

There's been a plan. And you can trace it in the Bible. Things that are happening right now, you can predict. Because I could just go on and on on this topic. But just to summarize, what is literally happening is that the world is literally being conditioned to be able to accept the Antichrist rule when he eventually at some point comes on the scene.

And I could go in more into detail into that, you know, maybe in another broadcast. But that's literally what's going on right now. The world is being conditioned. Because if you just think about how the world reacted to the COVID-19 shutdown, lockdowns. I mean, the world, I mean, all around the world, people just gave in to whatever they were told by the media, by the governments. They shut their businesses down and they closed the schools, closed many of the churches closed, most churches closed. And even pastors who should have at least been asking questions just complied without even questioning the efficacy of locking down their churches. Now think about that. No questions were asked.

They just complied without even bothering to ask questions. And that was a form of conditioning. So even in the church, we're being conditioned. And that's prophetic when you study Bible prophecy and the events centered around the end times. And one of the things we didn't get to talk about, maybe we can touch on next time, is that in that same article that you referenced, I talked about the two main components of Bible prophecy, which is prophetic milestones and prophetic stepping stones. Just to get on it real quick, a prophetic milestone is a major fulfillment of a Bible prophecy. And we, of course, the biggest one that we've experienced in human history was the birth, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And that's first and foremost. But that didn't just happen in a vacuum. There was a series of historical stepping stones that led up to that fulfillment. And this is the same thing that we are experiencing now because there is a series of historical events that are happening right now that are setting the stage for the coming Antichrist. And that was just like the briefest of explanations.

Yeah. And folks, and Jesus said in the scriptures, he said, when you see all these things begin to happen, to look up and watch because your redemption draws near. And that is the reason why we have this program discerning the times, because we want people to to understand what is taking place. And even if you can't figure out all the ins and outs of prophecy, you may say some things or or just too difficult for you to understand. I do encourage you, though, that the Holy Spirit will reveal these things to you. But don't be discouraged by that if you don't understand at all. Just know that our Lord is coming again.

And so we need to get ready and get excited about it. So, Dr. Logan, it is always a blessing to talk with you. How can the listeners contact you find out more about you and read this article and all the things that you have for your ministry? You can just follow me at BruceLoganTeachingMinistry.com and then you can follow me on my Facebook page at D.R. BruceLogan1, D.R.

BruceLogan1 on Facebook and you can and reach all of or read all of those articles. And you can also join my Facebook group that I just started here recently and you can link to that off of my Bruce Logan Ministries Facebook Facebook page. All right. Well, again, it is a blessing to speak with you and I pray that God will continue to strengthen, encourage you as you go forward and doing the work for the kingdom. So thanks again. And we'll be in touch real soon. God bless.

All right. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Please come back and join us again next week as we continue to discern the times by viewing life through the lens of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. And to the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. Thank you for tuning in to 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.