All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Living With Eternal Perspective
Just as fulfilled prophecy offers support to the thought that God wrote the Bible, a study of future prophecy helps us see life through a new lens. A lens that suddenly makes the amazing future prophetic events just as real and miraculous as Moses parting the Red Sea, Elijah calling fire down from the sky, or Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. The last days will look like that on steroids if we just take the time to study the supernatural events that will unfold in the last days. In studying Bible prophecy, we also must study Bible history. The truth about the past is connected to the truth about the future. It’s no wonder that reliability of scripture has come under such attack during the same time that the lie of evolution has come to permeate culture the past 150+ years. If the enemy can blur the truth of the past, he can blur the truth of the future. Understanding Biblical truth about the past and future gives us a solid biblical world view—a proper perspective about God’s activity and his soon return.
Here’s how that works on a practical level—and I share this from personal experience. Life pressures, petty distractions, and the temptations of the world carry less weight when you have this perspective. Serving others through everyday opportunities, volunteering at church, or through mission trips take on new meaning with this perspective. Loving and serving your spouse and honoring your relationship commitments take on a greater eternal value with this perspective. Facing the daily news and the insanity, lawlessness, and instability in the world doesn’t shake you when you have this perspective. It’s like having a secret pair of glasses that turns the chaos into order. Maintaining a sense of purpose and calling happens as a result of this perspective. Seeing God at work in your life and the world at large is an added blessing when you have this perspective. Gaining an increasing love and respect for God’s Word is a result of this perspective. Living by well-reasoned faith, not by sight, is a result of this perspective.
Practical Christianity
If you and I take on the important task of studying prophecy and end time events we will continue to grow deeper in our faith, reach more people for Christ, and experience a more abundant and fearless life as we gain a proper Biblical perspective. Those three components (covered in the last several posts) combine to give you and I a faith that is more relevant than we’ve ever had before. We also become watchmen and women on the wall. That’s “Christianese” for being able to warn others of the coming judgement and taking full advantage of the current wide-open door to invite people to rush into the arms of a loving Savior who died for them. As I have mentioned before, everyone is wondering what in the world is going on—and the Bible has the answers!
The bottom line is that Bible prophecy is extremely practical and God clearly wants us to study it as demonstrated by Revelation 1:3 at the beginning of this article. Don’t let the enemy’s plan of confusing the issue blind us to the amazing practical blessings that are discovered as we study Bible prophecy.
(Note: If you want to know more about what it means to believe on Jesus and receive him as your Savior, please contact me. I’d love to talk to you. Todd[at]Timbuktoons.com)