Tag: Prophecy

Jesus vs. Nostradamus

Nostradamus has never impressed me. His so-called prophecies are vague, obscure and he doesn’t say when they will come to pass.  Jesus is the real deal.

The year is 30 A.D.  Jesus is walking away from the temple, a magnificant structure built by Herod the Great, when one of His disciples points out the temple buildings to Him.

Jesus says, “Do you not see all these things?  Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”  (Matt. 24:1-2).

Now, no building stands forever.  So, if Jesus had stopped there, I would say that his prediction wasn’t too risky.  But later, His disciples ask him, “when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” Jesus then answers the questions.

Jesus tells them there will be a number of signs.  He even quotes prophetic language of judgment from Isaiah and Ezekiel that the “sun will be darkened” and “the moon will not give its light.” (cf. Matt. 24:29, Isaiah 13:10, Ezek. 32:7-8).  In other words, Jesus is going to come back and turn out the lights on Jerusalem and the Jewish sacrificial system.

Jesus tells the disicples that when they see Jerusalem surrounded to get out of dodge.  (Luke 21:20).  He is also very specific about the timing: “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matt. 24:34).  A generation, by Jewish reckoning is 40 years.

In 70 A.D., the Roman army led by its general, Titus, surrounded the City of Jerusalem.  The Christians, remembering Jesus’ words, left Jerusalem, eventually settling in a city north of Jerusalem called Pella.  The Romans sacked Jerusalem, entered the temple, where no Gentile was permitted to go, stole its treasures, then destroyed the temple.  The temple has never been rebuilt.

Within a generation, Jesus returned in judgment, the temple was destroyed, just as Jesus predicted, bringing an end to the age of the Jewish sacrificial system.  Jesus called it, and dated it.  That’s real prophecy. GS

Isaiah 2

I was reading Isaiah chapter 2 earlier this week, a chapter that always excites me about the destiny of the kingdom of God. In the first three chapters of Isaiah, the Lord rebukes Israel for abandoning Him and forewarns them of the judgment He is about to bring on them from the Assyrians. But nestled in the beginning of chapter 2, seemingly out of place against the backdrop of rebuke and judgment, is a promise about the Kingdom Age:

“Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.” (Isaiah 2:2-4).

Here’s three quick points from this passage as it relates to the kingdom of God:

1. As the kingdom of God advances on the earth, the Church will become preeminent in the earth. The Church–the body of true believers, not the institution–will be established as the “chief of the mountains” (v.2). There will still be opposition, but the Church will ascend to a position of clear preeminence.

2. As the kingdom of God advances on the earth, the world will look to Christians for leadership. Isaiah describes it as non-Christians persuading one another to “go up to the mountain of God” so they can learn His ways and be subjected to His earthly justice (vv.3-4).  Earthly justice is a repeating theme and indicia of the kingdom of God, but I will save that topic for a future post.

3. As the kingdom advances, commerce will replace warfare. As the kingdom of God brings economic prosperity, the traditional reasons for war will lose their appeal. The tools of commerce will replace the tools of warfare, people will become more productive and less destructive (“they will hammer their swords into plowshares”), and as people prosper war will become a thing of the past. (v. 4).

There are good things ahead for the kingdom of God, it’s citizens and the world. GS

Psalm 22

Psalm 22 is a well-known messianic Psalm: v1 (“My God, my God was hast Thou forsaken me?”); v.16 (“They pierced my hands and my feet.”); v. 17 (“I can count all my bones.”); v18 (“And for my clothing they cast lots.”).  But as often as these verses are cited and discussed, the prophetic verses in the later half of the psalm are ignored.  Here are the verses to which I am referring:

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations will worship before Thee.
For the kingdom is the Lord’s
And He rules over the nations.”

Psalm 22:27-29.  My question is, “How did David expect that all the earth would turn to the Lord and worship Him?”   At the time David spoke these words, Israel occupied a modest portion of the Middle East.  King David knew the Philistines, the Moabites and the Egyptians didn’t yet worship the Lord.

I suspect when David spoke these words, he was looking down the road thinking his kingdom or his descendants’ kingdom would continue to expand and bring the knowledge of the Lord to the ends of the earth.  Of course, a prophet needn’t understand fully the meaning of his prophecy, and I believe that was the case here.  Here, I believe David was prophesying of the coming kingdom of God.  He was speaking of the kingdom, whose ruler is not a man, but the Lord, “For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over nations.” (v. 28).

Anyway, that’s how it reads to me.  Your thoughts? GS