The prophets were known for their “forth-telling” and their “foretelling.” “Forth-telling” involved warning, admonishing, advising, and encouraging. They called on their people to repent from their evil ways. They promised blessings that would result from repentance, and punishments that would result from sin and rebellion. “Foretelling” involved predicting or describing what would occur in the future—sometimes in the near future, sometimes much later.
Because in retrospect the fulfillment of prophecy can be striking, it is easy for people to assume that they can have the same clarity of vision about prophecy that hasn’t yet been fulfilled. This misunderstanding often has tragic results. Many times there has been widespread obsession with prophetic speculation along with outbreaks of fanaticism resulting from the conclusion that the endtime had arrived and that God was on the verge of supernaturally intervening in world events. When this happens, people become fatalistic and cultic. Rather than working constructively to face the problems of their day, they withdraw into fanatic enclaves of “true believers,” considering everyone outside their circle as unbelievers and enemies. In the worst cases, they give themselves over to violence. (See the ATQ article How Often Have People Misapplied Prophecy?)
It is easy to overlook how ambiguous prophecy appears before its fulfillment. A prime example would be the messianic expectations of first-century Judaism. Prophecy about the Messiah was not a sideline issue. It was of the greatest importance to the Jews. The advent of the Messiah was integral to the fulfillment of their hopes as a people. The greatest rabbis pored over passages considered to apply to the Messiah. From a Christian perspective, it is striking—and should be instructive—to see how poorly the Jews anticipated the manner of Messiah’s coming. All Jews, whether Jesus’ followers or His enemies, expected Messiah to be a miracle-working military hero who would establish Jewish authority over the world and inaugurate a universal reign of peace and justice. The idea of Messiah suffering and dying without achieving their expectations of national glory wasn’t considered. It would be inconceivable for Messiah to be killed by His enemies, much less nailed to a cross in shame. Jesus’ disciples held this view right up to His arrest and execution (when they fled in panic and disappointment). To unbelieving Jews (including Saul of Tarsus prior to his encounter with the risen Messiah on the Damascus road), the crucifixion of Jesus provided conclusive evidence that He was an imposter.
There have been many occasions in the history of Christianity when large groups boldly but mistakenly associated specific biblical prophecies with contemporary events in their world. Almost invariably they had good reasons for their associations. There were usually vivid parallels between the prophecies they cited and contemporary events. But they were ignoring Jesus’ pointed warnings against making prophetic speculation the basis for action (Matthew 24:36-39,50; Matthew 25:13; Luke 12:46; 21:8; Acts 1:6-8). There was good reason for Jesus’ warnings. He saw how easily the interpretation of prophecy could be directed by an unconscious agenda—just as His contemporary Jews used prophecy as a basis for taking up arms in nationalistic action against Rome.
Jesus in his teaching, and his challenge to Israel, aimed precisely at telling Israel to repent of her militaristic nationalism. Her aspirations for national liberation from Rome, to be won through a great actual battle, were themselves the telltale symptoms of her basic disease, and had to be rooted out. Jesus was offering a different way of liberation, a way which affirmed the humanness of the national enemy as well as the destiny of Israel, and hence also affirmed the destiny of Israel as the bringer of light to the world, not as the one who would crush the world with military zeal (N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, p. 450).
The tragedy of massive violence fueled by false prophetic interpretation has occurred many times since the Jewish Roman Wars of the first and second centuries. Today, as in other time periods, aspects of contemporary events are distinctive enough to be viewed by many as a basis for believing they know beyond a doubt that they are witnessing the final unfolding of endtime prophecy and that this unfolding requires their support of a number of political and military actions. This is tragic error, and plays exactly into the hands of the Evil One.
The ambiguity of Messianic prophecy prior to fulfillment illustrates vividly why we should beware of trying to circumvent Jesus’ words—“The Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matthew 24:44; Luke 12:40)—with ingenious interpretative schemes. Prophecy contains patterns, themes, and “types” that are present in every age, thus some people in every period of history conclude that they are living in the endtime. It is the nature of prophecy to be understood only after its fulfillment, and even then only by those who have “eyes to see,” that is, believers (Jeremiah 5:21; Ezekiel 12:2; Matthew 13:15-16; Romans 11:5-10). (See the ATQ article Why Aren’t Unbelievers Amazed by the Many Prophecies Jesus Fulfilled?)
It is true that there is potential today for the most powerful Antichrist and empire the world has ever seen (1 John 2:18). We have also witnessed the reestablishment of a powerful Jewish state in the ancestral homeland of Israel. However, to conclude that these circumstances prove we are entering the final stage of earthly history before the tribulation and millennium disregards Jesus’ warnings and makes us vulnerable to the same fanaticism that caused every apocalyptic disaster of the past 2,000 years.
We have no way of knowing whether the next Antichrist figure, however powerful, will be the last. We have no way of knowing whether the next empire, however great, will be the last. We have no way of knowing for sure that today’s Israel represents the final struggle for Jewish independence before endtime events unfold.
The Bible offers no reason to believe God will protect an unrepentant Israel as it attempts to secure by its own strength a Jewish homeland. The most advanced weapons systems will never bring peace and security to a nation established by force of arms and unwilling to heed the exhortations of its own prophets to seek justice and walk humbly with its God (1 Samuel 15:22; Proverbs 21:3;Isaiah 1:16-19;Jeremiah 7:3-6; Micah 6:8; Zephaniah 2:3).
Speculation about the “foretelling” aspect of prophecy should never outweigh the clear “forth-telling” aspect. Belief that a particular prophecy is perhaps being fulfilled never relieves us of the responsibility to act justly in the light of New Testament teaching. The prophets, Christ, and the apostles place the gospel above the law, character above “religiosity,” and justice above eschatological speculation. Christians today ought to avoid eschatological speculation and focus on issues of the heart in response to the gospel message.
