Читать книгу Field Guide to the Wild World of Religion: 2011 Edition - Pamela J.D. Dewey - Страница 39

A biblical prophet is an individual who speaks on behalf of God, to deliver a message from Him to an individual or a group. Although the common use of the word prophecy in modern English implies a “prediction about the future,” this is not technically what the message of a prophet is all about. The prophets of the Bible gave many messages to others that were not specific predictions of what was absolutely going to happen. They were, instead, warnings, chastisement, or encouragement from God. Sometimes those messages would include information about the future, but that was not the essence of the prophecy. In many instances, even the predictions about the future were conditional. The people of the ancient nation of Israel at Mount Sinai were given a message from God through Moses. It told what would happen to them if they obeyed, and what would happen to them if they disobeyed. Moses was functioning as a prophet to declare the word of the Lord to them.

What most people commonly consider Bible prophecy—the dogmatic, unconditional prediction of coming events—is technically termed apocalypse. The word means a revealing, and the implication is that these things being revealed are predestined to come to pass no matter what mankind does or doesn’t do. Much of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament is apocalypse, as is the book of Revelation. (The Greek word translated revelation in the book of Revelation is apokalupsis.) In this type of prophecy in the Bible, the future is most often outlined in shadowy metaphors of symbolic beasts and other startling symbolic phenomena. The over-arching, primary purpose of these passages seems to be to reassure the servants of God that, even though evil times are to come upon the earth, the ultimate outcome will be the victory of the forces of God and good over the forces of the Devil and evil.

Thus, in general:

An apocalyptic message is not given by a prophet

to sinners to call them to repentance—

it is given to saints to give them hope.

While apocalypse is a kind of prophecy,

most prophecy in the Bible is not apocalyptic.

As noted in this overview, apocalypse is the kind of prophecy that is not “conditional” upon the actions and attitude of specific people or nations. It is straight “looking into the future.” And thus End Times Prophecy pundits are convinced that, if they just peer hard enough into the apocalyptic passages, they will be able see a crystal clear view of the future. Unfortunately for their listeners and supporters, this view is all too often not crystal clear quality, but crystal ball quality! For the apocalyptic messages as delivered from God to the biblical prophets were almost all couched in metaphorical terms, employing highly symbolic images, full of fantastic beasts and strange terrestrial and heavenly phenomena.

When ancient King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a strange, symbolic dream, he turned to the Jewish prophet Daniel, whose people were in exile in Babylon at the time, for an interpretation. What did Daniel do in order to understand the meaning of those strange symbols? Did he return to his Babylonian dorm room and get out his scrolls of the scriptures, his concordance scrolls, his history scrolls, his lexicon scrolls, and other research materials ... and try to “figure out” the dream that way? No. He returned to his Jewish companions and asked them to pray with him that God would give him the interpretation. And He did.

But what do most End Times prophecy pundits do with material in the book of Revelation—and those portions of the book of Daniel that were not explained to Daniel—in order to understand the future? They get out their Bible translations, their Interlinear Greek/Hebrew/English Bibles, their Greek and Hebrew lexicons, their history books, their newspapers, and their calculators. And they try to humanly crack the code of the meaning of the shadowy types and strange symbolism.

A thing that strikes one who browses around in the vast literature that has grown up about the book of Revelation is the UTTER DOGMATISM with which so many put forth their opinions, not as opinions, but in categorical statements, as to the meaning of the most mysterious passages, as if they know all about it, and their say so settles the matter. We think a spirit of reverent humility, and openness of mind, would be more becoming in those seeking to interpret a book like this. (Henry Halley, Halley’s Bible Handbook, 24th ed., p. 684)

Wise counsel! Why has it been so widely ignored among modern commentators? One possible answer: With a limited audience among which to garner supporters for evangelistic ministries, the most dogmatic and bombastic teachers are often the most successful at gathering around themselves the most enthusiastic—and financially generous—followers.

The desire for security mentioned in the introduction to this profile is so strong that many teachers are even able to hedge their prophetic interpretations, sprinkling them with the very occasional use of words like “possibly,” “probably,” and “maybe.” Yet most of their followers filter out these words and hear only “thus sayeth the Lord.” The dogmatic and bombastic style of speaking and writing of the teacher in the sections before and after the “hedge words” is so loud that those feeble words are overpowered and forgotten.

This type of teacher has been extant for almost 1900 years now. Each was sure that the events of Revelation and the other apocalyptic passages in the Bible would play out in his own lifetime. Each contrived elaborate proofs that his speculation wasn’t just speculation, but trustworthy biblical exposition. Each gathered a following based not on his spiritual maturity as a leader, or the fruits of his service to others, or the soundness of his biblical teaching regarding the Gospel message. He gathered a following based on the enthusiasm engendered by his prophetic speculations.

Most Bible students who become enamored of the speculations of a particular prophecy teacher in our time have no clue that scenarios very similar to that of their teacher may have been dogmatically and bombastically proclaimed to be “imminent” ... decades or a century or more ago. Those earlier teachers may have used some of the same calculations and reasoning regarding Bible passages, and yet arrived at a certainty that the events were just about to happen in 1844, or 1914, or 1972.

Perhaps you have been intrigued by the speculations of a radio or TV prophecy expert, and have been fascinated by what appears to be his incredible ability to interpret obscure passages of prophecy and apocalypse. Maybe you are tempted to begin investing in more and more of this teacher’s materials, to drive long distances to hear him speak at a seminar or convention, and even to become involved in fellowship groups that are forming around his teachings. Or perhaps a friend or family member appears about to become deeply involved in a group led by a prophecy pundit. Maybe he or she is even ready to make some drastic life choices that will be hard to “undo,” based on the teachings of this guru. If so, you may find the Examination section below, which includes an overview of the history of End Times prophetic speculation, of assistance in evaluating the wisdom of your plans, or in dissuading a friend or family member from making foolish choices. And if you would like information on specific End Times Prophecy teachers, see the Who’s Who Digest.

You may also find it helpful to read the When Prophecy Fails chapter that follows, which explains what often happens to followers of self-proclaimed prophets and prophecy interpreters when their prophecies or interpretations are proven false.