"A MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY!" (2Pe.1:19) GP 1611 Comp.3/83
--WHY the "BOOK OF THE FUTURE"! BOF Part 1
(Compiled by Apollos from the writings of Father David.)
1. SO MANY PEOPLE TODAY ARE WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE, WONDERING WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. Most of today's youth seem to almost instinctively realise that they are living on borrowed time.--After all, we are the first generation that has had to live with the knowledge that we could completely destroy ourselves! So people want to know what to do about it, or if there is any way to avoid it or prepare for it, survive it.
2. PSYCHOLOGISTS TELL US THAT UNCERTAINTY & THE FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN IS THE WORST FEAR OF ALL!--Not knowing what's going to happen. It's sad that so few people realise that they can know the future, that they can know what's going to happen!--Accurately & in detail!--Even the exact number of years, months & days of parts of it--exactly what's going to happen! Think of that!
3. HOW COULD THIS BE?--BY WHAT MEANS CAN MORTAL MAN POSSIBLY TRANSCEND THE BOUNDS OF TIME & PEER INTO THE FUTURE?--By tuning into God & His wonderful Word, the Bible! For He alone is the great "I AM", Who dwells in the Eternal Now where there is no past nor future & "time shall be no more", as Einstein proved. (Re.10:6) In the spirit it's like the past, present & future are all one! It all looks the same to God, & He can easily reveal to His prophets & seers the mysteries of the future: "For surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets!" (Amos 3:7)
4. "FOR THUS SAITH THE HIGH & LOFTY ONE THAT INHABITETH ETERNITY, WHOSE NAME IS HOLY: Behold, the former things are come to pass, & new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them! For I am the Lord: I will speak, & the Word that I shall speak shall come to pass; for I say the Word, & will perform it, saith the Lord God!" (Is.57:15; 42:9; Ez.12:25)
5. "SEEK YE OUT OF THE BOOK OF THE LORD, & READ: NO ONE OF THESE SHALL FAIL, NONE SHALL WANT HER MATE: for My mouth it hath commanded them!" (Is.34:16)--And the mate of every prophecy is its fulfilment! God's Word finds its mate in fulfilled Bible Prophecy, & the ones which have already occurred & been fulfilled, foretold hundreds of years in advance, have been fulfilled down to the most intricate detail!--Every prophecy the Bible has ever uttered has been fulfilled except the ones that are yet to come, & they'll be fulfilled just as surely as the ones that have been fulfilled in the past!
6. BUT IN THIS LESSON WE ARE NOT DEALING WITH THE PROPHECIES OF THE PAST WHICH HAVE ALREADY BEEN FULFILLED.--It's a marvellous, thrilling study to deal with fulfilled prophecies, & it encourages your faith to know that those regarding the future will also be fulfilled just as accurately & just as perfectly & just as surely as every prophecy of the past.--But we are particularly interested in the events that are soon to transpire. We're particularly interested in those which are yet to be fulfilled & especially those that are soon to be fulfilled.
7. YOU'LL FIND THAT GOD'S WORD IS SPECIFIC! GOD'S WORD IS VERY CLEAR! Its prophecies are very plain & tell you exactly who & where & even when! So if you've been wondering, "Where am I?--Where are we? What's going on here, anyhow? Where did we come from? Where are we going? What's happening?"--This is what we're going to share with you, as the wonderful Book, the Bible, tells you all about it, exactly what's going to happen! You don't have to worry about it, you don't have to fear, you don't have to guess at it!--It's all here just as plain as can be!
8. "FOR THAT THAT IS DETERMINED SHALL BE DONE!" (Da.11:36) What God's determined & prophesied, He's going to do! Whatever God has said He's going to do, He is going to do! Not one shall lack her mate, not one prophecy shall be without fulfilment, every single one shall be fulfilled!
9. "WE HAVE ALSO A MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, & the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost!" (2Pe.1:19-21)
10. "AND NOW I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE IT COME TO PASS, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe!--Heaven & Earth shall pass away, but My Words shall not pass away!" (Jn.14:29; Mt.24:35)
"PEARLS OF GREAT PRICE!" (Mt.13:45,46)
11. WE MUST BEGIN OUR LOOK INTO THE FUTURE WITH THE FACT THAT GOD HAS WARNED US TIME & AGAIN almost since the beginning of man & certainly throughout the Bible, that there's coming an end to things as far as man's rule on this Earth is concerned, & that his governments are going to eventually end so that God can set up His Heavenly Kingdom of peace on Earth!
12. GOD HAS GIVEN MAN 6,000 YEARS TO TRY TO SOLVE HIS OWN PROBLEMS & RUN THE WORLD & BRING PEACE & HAPPINESS, & HE HAS BROUGHT NOTHING BUT WAR & MISERY! God has given man his chance & he has done nothing but make a mess of the World!--And now, finally, man is ready to destroy it! And if God did not step in & intervene in this last hour of History, man would completely destroy it & totally annihilate himself!
13. IF GOD DIDN'T STEP IN, MANKIND WOULD COMMIT SUICIDE!--We'd either blow ourselves up with the bomb or we'd gradually kill ourselves with famine or over-population or air-pollution or water-pollution or something!--Let's face it, man is destroying himself! He's killing himself with his filthiness & with his pollution & with his wickedness & with his destructive nature, & if God didn't step in within the next few years & stop it, man would wipe himself off the map! This is why Jesus prophesied of the Last Days, "Except those days be shortened (or cut off), there should no flesh be saved!" (Mt.24:22)
14. AND ALTHOUGH I'M NOT A MILITARY AUTHORITY, NOR AM I NECESSARILY A POLITICAL AUTHORITY, I DO KNOW GOD'S WORD & IT'S AN AUTHORITY ON EVERYTHING!--And we know from what God's Word says that another great World War is coming. And if you don't believe me or the Bible or the Prophecies that God has given, just take a good look around you & read the newspaper & watch the news on television or listen to it on the radio.--You don't have to be a prophet to see that the World is tottering on the brink of a full-scale Nuclear Holocaust!--A threat which will soon compel the nations to unite in temporary peace under an Antichrist One-World government!
15. FOR THE BIBLE PREDICTS THAT IN THE LAST DAYS OF MAN-MADE REGIMES ON EARTH, A TOTALLY GODLESS, ANTI-CHRIST WORLD GOVERNMENT WILL ARISE, LED BY A DEVIL-POSSESSED DICTATOR, SATAN INCARNATE, who will bring a temporary false peace on Earth & a counterfeit utopia, & its price will be enforced worship of himself as the imitation Messiah! All of his subjects will be branded with a credit number in order to buy or sell or obtain food or employment, & all others who refuse to cooperate will be hunted, persecuted & slaughtered by his commandment!--A time of Great Tribulation!
16. THIS ANTI-CHRIST GOVERNMENT OF ANTI-CHRIST FORCES UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ANTICHRIST HIMSELF, this superhuman World dictator of man's last one-World godless government, will then set up its headquarters in Jerusalem, his capital, & unite all the religions of the World into a one-World worship of this Demon-Demagogue & his Magical Image which can speak!
17. THESE STARTLING EVENTS WILL IMMEDIATELY PRECEDE THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS CHRIST, which is the major Endtime event, the Grand Climax, as the Lord Himself returns & wipes out the fiendish bestial Antichrist & his followers & sets up the last & most lasting & only perfect government the World has ever known, & "the meek shall inherit the Earth"!
18. NOW MOST CHRISTIANS SEEM TO HAVE RIGHTLY GATHERED FROM READING THEIR BIBLES & HEARING VARIOUS PREACHERS, THAT IN THE LAST DAYS TIMES ARE GOING TO WAX WORSE & WORSE, & NOT GET BETTER. And a lot of them believe that the End is going to be a time of very bad trouble & tribulation. And of course, all real Bible-believing Christians believe that Jesus is coming again--the Second Advent as it's technically called. They have also gathered the fundamental idea that there's going to be a Heavenly time on Earth at some time or other.--But a lot of them have got it pretty well screwed up & mixed up & they don't know how, where or when these events will take place!
19. THEY'VE GOT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THESE EVENTS & THESE PRICELESS TRUTHS LIKE A HANDFUL OF PEARLS IN THEIR HAND, but they don't really realise exactly how they ought to be strung, in what order & in what sequence, to make them a beautiful string of pearls in proper order to, you might say, wear around their neck of knowledge. They don't realise the chronological sequence, the time order, which is necessary to really understand what's going to happen, how it's going to happen, when it's going to happen, how often it's going to happen, etc.
20. AND ANY CHRISTIAN WHO IS IGNORANT OF THE FUTURE & exactly what's going to happen--perhaps not every little detail but all the basic events & the basic characters--any Christian who is ignorant of those things is a pretty ignorant Christian & is a sad, poor witness to others who are hungry to know the future, people who are confused & misled & misguided by others & misinterpretations of their own churches or denominations or in complete ignorance of these things entirely!
21. TRUE, THE BIBLE ADMONISHES US NOT TO FRET FOR TOMORROW, which means we're not to worry about tomorrow, but the Lord sure has had a lot to say about tomorrow, so He certainly must want us to be informed about tomorrow!--That's the whole point of prophecy: To let you know what's going to happen so you won't worry about it. You'll know what's going to happen!
22. TO BE FOREWARNED IS TO BE FOREARMED! To understand what's going to occur is to be prepared to face it & take it as it comes & hopefully survive it!--At least certainly to understand what you're going through & to know what's happening! You may not understand it all in advance, you may not know everything that's going to happen.--I don't either, not everything, not every detail.
23. BUT WE CAN KNOW ENOUGH FROM GOD'S WORD & from what He's shown us that we can know the major events & their characteristics, the major characters in these events, & in some cases exactly when they're going to happen, the exact time periods predicted in the Bible, so that when the time comes you'll know exactly when certain events are going to take place, because God has already said so in His Word, plain as day!
24. IT'S WONDERFUL TO BE ABLE TO READ A NEWSPAPER THAT TELLS YOU WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!--Not just what's already happened, anybody can tell you what's already happened.--But the Bible tells you what's going to happen! Whereas the newspapers are not really newspapers, they're history papers. They tell you what's already happened.--Just past news. But God has given us a lot of later news about today, the time in which we're living right now, & what's going to happen next! So the Bible is not just a history book, it's a news book! It not only tells you about yesterday, it also tells you about tomorrow!
TO KNOW, OR NOT TO KNOW "THE TIMES & THE SEASONS!"
25. ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAH, DANIEL, EZEKIEL, ISAIAH, JOHN, JESUS, ETC., THERE ARE COUNTLESS SPECIFIC DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF THE LAST DAYS ON EARTH BEFORE CHRIST'S SECOND COMING. Has the Lord given us these signs for a reason? Does He want us to know about the soon coming of His Kingdom? Does He want us to be prepared for it? Does He want us to have that knowledge & be able to teach others so?--Well, if He doesn't, He's sure wasting an awful lot of time throughout both the Old & New Testament telling us all the signs of His Coming!
26. IN FACT, IN ONE OF THE MOST DESCRIPTIVE ENDTIME PROPHECY BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, the Lord told Daniel to close up the book & seal up the prophecy until the End: "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the Words, & seal the book, even to the time of the End: many shall run to & fro, & knowledge shall be increased. For the Words are closed up & sealed till the time of the End. And none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand!" (Dan.12:4,9,10)
27. IT'S BEEN ALMOST 2,500 YEARS THAT THE BOOK OF DANIEL HAS BEEN VIRTUALLY A SEALED BOOK, & IT'S ONLY VERY RECENTLY THAT MEN HAVE BEGUN TO OPEN THE BOOK, break the seals & understand the prophecies & what Daniel was saying! Although they had the Bible for so many thousands of years, they still didn't understand Endtime Bible Prophecy. But now we're supposed to open the book, break the seals & read it & understand it!--Because we live in the Time of the End!
28. BUT EVEN DURING THE ENDTIME, HE SAYS THE WICKED WON'T UNDERSTAND!--The Truth-rejecting unbelievers don't understand the Bible at all! They don't understand the simplest things, much less the complicated prophecies which God said He wouldn't let anybody understand till the End.--But now we do understand them because God's Word said we would understand in the Last Days, "when many shall run to & fro & knowledge is increased"!--Today!
29. GOD'S WORD SAYS, "BLESSED IS HE THAT READETH & THEY THAT HEAR THE WORDS OF THIS PROPHECY"! (Re.1:3) It takes an effort, it's work to try to understand Bible prophecy & to "study to shew thyself approved unto God, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." (2Ti.2:15) But you'll find that "the entrance of Thy Word giveth light" & wisdom & understanding! (Ps.119:130) When we delve into God's Word, we "bring forth treasures, both new & old"! (Mt.13:52) You'll discover how wonderfully the Lord can weave His Word together like a beautiful tapestry, filling in the whole picture to give you His vision of His plans! "For where there is no vision, the people perish!" (Pr.29:18)
30. OF COURSE, SOME DEAR OLD BIBLE PROFESSORS & STUDENTS & KNOW-IT-ALLS ARE GOING TO SAY, "Ah, but Jesus told His disciples that 'no man knoweth the day or the hour when the Son of Man cometh, not even the angels in Heaven'. And 'it's not for you to know the times or the seasons'." (Mt.24:36; Ac.1:7) Well no, it wasn't for those to whom He was speaking then to know, because they didn't have to know! They've already been dead now for nearly 2,000 years!--They weren't going to go through the Great Tribulation & Jesus wasn't about to come back, He hadn't even gone yet! But now that His Word is being fulfilled in our generation, it is His Will for us to know it, to perceive it, & to understand it!
31. HE DIDN'T SAY WE WOULDN'T KNOW THE DAY OR THE HOUR, HE SAID THEY WOULDN'T KNOW THE DAY OR THE HOUR! That's why you have to compare Scripture with Scripture.--You've gotta think about who He's talking to. That Scripture has absolutely nothing to do with you & me today in this Endtime, these Last Days! When all the dramatic, climactic, final events of World History begin to unfold, let me tell you, you're going to need to know, you are going to want to know & you are going to know, because God promised it in His Word!
32. IF THE LORD DID NOT INTEND FOR US TO KNOW THE TIMES & THE SEASONS, THEN WHY DID HE GIVE US Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, John 14, Acts 1, 1Thessalonians 4 & 5, 2Thessalonians 2, 1Timothy 4, 2Timothy 3, 2Peter 1 & 3, & the whole Book of Revelation, as well as multitudes of prophecies in the Old Testament, including many in the Historical Books, as well as the Poetical Books, & 17 Books of the Prophets which were almost nothing but prophecies & specific predictions of the future! If God didn't want His Children to know anything specific about the future, then He wasted half the Bible talking about it, & we ought to throw that half away!
33. BUT HE DOES WANT US TO KNOW, & throughout the entire Bible He continues to give us multitudes, thousands of literal, specific predictions of the future & what its times & seasons will be like! In fact, the Lord makes it extremely explicit many times in many places regarding the exact number of years & months, & even days, during the soon-coming crucial last Seven Years of the Endtime!
34. IN MATTHEW CHAPTER 24 & LUKE CHAPTER 21, JESUS HIMSELF GIVES ONE OF THE MOST DESCRIPTIVE & SPECIFIC OF ALL RESUMES OF FUTURE ENDTIME EVENTS OF ANY PROPHET IN THE BIBLE, (which we will study in detail later in the next chapter of this book). After giving a long list of predictions & coming signs of the times, He tells us, "When you see these things, or these signs come to pass, look up, your redemption draweth nigh"!--"The generation that sees these things come to pass is not going to pass away until the End comes, & all things are fulfilled!" (Lk.21:28; Mt.24:34)--So obviously, He wants us to "see" & "look" at the Signs of His Coming being fulfilled before He returns so that we can "discern the Signs of the Times"! (Mt.16:3)
35. "FOR AS THE DAYS OF NOAH WERE, SO SHALL ALSO THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN BE! For as in the days that were before the Flood they were eating & drinking, marrying & giving in marriage"--going on, business as usual--"until the day that Noah entered into the ark, & they knew not until the flood came & swept them all away!--So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be"! (Mt.24:37-39) Who knew not?--The wicked! Who knew?--Noah! He knew what was going to happen, he was expecting it! He wasn't one of those who knew not!--He knew!
36. AND GOD WANTS YOU TO KNOW!--You are here, now, & the End is near! And as we look into Bible Prophecy, you will see that it's obvious things are getting closer & closer to the End!--Every sign points to it & there is every indication that you're going to be living through these very days of the Endtime! Now is the Endtime of which all the prophets spake! You are the generation--the Last Generation--of whom all the prophets spoke, & they dreamed of your day!
37. "NOW IS THE HOUR COME OF WHICH ALL PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN! Thou art upon the threshold of the door of these things of which I have already told thee." PTL! TYJ! "There is nothing that I will do but what I have already told My prophets." PTL! "For unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to others it is not given, because they seeing, see not; & hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: & your ears, for they hear! For verily I say unto you, many prophets & righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, & have not seen them; & to hear those things which ye hear, & have not heard them!" (Mt.13:11-17)
38. "FOR YE, BRETHREN," THE APOSTLE PAUL TELLS US, "ARE NOT IN DARKNESS, THAT THAT DAY (OF CHRIST'S SECOND COMING) SHOULD OVERTAKE YOU AS A THIEF!" In other words, it shouldn't take you by surprise! "Ye are all the children of light, the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness." We're not in the dark, Beloved! We're not in the dark on this question. We know Jesus is coming, & from His Word we know how He's going to come! The Bible tells us plainly!--It couldn't be any plainer! (1Th.5:1-5)
39. "THEREFORE LET US NOT SLEEP, AS DO OTHERS; BUT LET US WATCH & BE SOBER!" What does he say? He says, "You're not children of the night. You're not supposed to be sleepy & asleep when it happens. You're the children of the day, children of light! You're supposed to be wide awake & have the light on these things!" (1Th.5:6)
40. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING & WHEN THEY'RE GOING TO HAPPEN! God's children are not supposed to be in the dark about all these Bible prophecies! You're not supposed to be in the dark about the things that are going to happen! If you know His Word, you won't be surprised when you hear about the soon-coming pact or covenant between the Arabs & Russia, the invasion & conquest of Israel by the Reds, the Rise of a new powerful World leader & One-World government, the new credit-only computerised economic system & the dramatic ending of man's governments on Earth with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! (See our coverage of these Bible predictions & their fulfilments later in this book!)
41. TO BE FORETOLD IS TO BE FOREWARNED!--And we who know His Word & His prophecies & promises for the future will never be surprised with a "mighty widening of the eyes" like those who have not discerned the signs of the times! For we will be prepared! PTL!
42. WE DON'T HAVE TO BE IN DOUBT & CONFUSION & IN DARKNESS, WONDERING WHAT'S GOING ON like the rest of the World, "men's hearts failing them for fear, for looking after those things which are coming on the Earth." (Lk.21:26) We can know exactly what's going to happen, exactly the way things are going to go.--We may not like it & it may look pretty bad, but, praise God, we know the happy ending & all is well that ends well!
43. THANK GOD WE HAVE THE PREPARATION THAT PREPARES US FOR ANYTHING that's going to happen, & that's Salvation, knowing Jesus & knowing that we're saved.--Then no matter what happens, even sudden death is sudden glory! No matter what anyone does to you, even if they kill you, "after they've killed the body, they have no more that they can do" (Lk.12:4,5), because God will take you into His Spirit World with Him until we return to rule & reign here on this Earth with Jesus!
44. ARE YOU PREPARED?--HAVE YOU PERSONALLY RECEIVED JESUS INTO YOUR HEART?--I hope you've accepted Him, I hope you've received Him so that you can look forward to these marvellous future events that we're going to cover now, not with fear & trembling, but with hope & faith & assurance that God's going to see you through, He's going to save you & rescue you out of it all & take you to be with Him, to live with Him forever!--Have you received Jesus?
45. YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW THE FUTURE & ALL THE MARVELLOUS DETAILS OF ENDTIME PROPHECY.--They'll happen whether you know'm or not, don't worry! But it's a very good thing to know & to understand these things so that you'll be able to know what's going on & what's happening, as well as be able to teach & warn others. But the main thing you need to know is summed up in one little verse, John 3:16: "For God so loved the World, that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus), that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!"
46. SO RECEIVE SALVATION NOW, THEN YOU'LL REALLY BE READY FOR THE REVELATION OF THE FUTURE!--Otherwise knowing the future wouldn't make much difference to you, because your future will be bad, all bad news! You probably won't even want to hear about what's going to happen if you're not saved! But if you are saved, then God has got some marvellous, wonderful, encouraging, thrilling revelations of the future in store for you!
47. KNOWING HIM & HIS WORD, THAT'S WHAT'S GOING TO CARRY YOU THROUGH!--The vision of what's coming will give you the faith to believe God & the courage to launch out & march victoriously through the plagues of this World, through Great Tribulation, & right on through to the Coming of Jesus Christ & our loving reign with Him forever! PTL!
References
The paragraph numbers of the "A More Sure Word of Prophecy!" Compilation are listed below, giving the original ML or RD references where their contents may be found, many as yet unpublished!
1. 1503:3; 1498:74; 77
2. 1347:4
3. 306:43; 279:3; 1187:6
5. 1502:5
6. 1507:6; 1508:2
7. 1503:74; 1178:11
8. 1497:85
11. 1241:12
12. 1506:36,37
13. RDBP9:1
14. 1244:3-5
15. 172:77
16. 277:142
17. 1241:24
18. RD103:12,13
19, 20. 1498:51,73
21. 1347:2
22, 23. 1498:62,63
24. 1503:6; 1182:79; RD232:77, 78
25. RD43:11; RDBP7:10
27. 1491:35,34,40
28. 1499:71
29. RD885:6; 1500:1; 96:23
30. 1497:41,46; 156:30
31. 1491:118; RDBP7:12; 1497:47
32, 33. 156:31, 32,34
34. RDBP7:8,14
35. 1508:72
36. 156:36; 937:127; 767:47
37. 1343:3
38. 1515:26
39. 1508:69
40. 1508:70; 305:Intro
41. 1343:4
42. RDBP1:4
43. 1498:75
44. 1176:54
45. 1497:104
46,47. 1176:12,13,18
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family