How Does Biblical Prophecy Work? Ben Witherington

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How does prophecy work? Does it tell us in detail the timing of key future events? In this Seven Minute Seminary episode, Dr. Ben Witherington explains.
Biblical prophecy is about the telling of truth as God sees it, whether about the past, present, or future. This is why some helpfully characterize prophecy chiefly as "forth-telling," which is the proclamation of God's word. For example, Nathan's confrontation of David (2 Samuel 12) is an example of addressing sin in God's people and is part of the prophetic office.
Other times, biblical prophecy may include "foretelling," but most of the time it is in reference to the near future, such as in Isaiah 7. Many prophecies do take on fuller meanings later as they relate to Christ. Nonetheless, prophecy is not about God's people being able to predict future events. That's because God reveals enough about the future to give us hope, but not enough to not require faith in our every day lives.
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[@grindercap]

IMO a seemingly very accurate summation of the issue; we don't now know and when God fulfills the prophecies then we will know.

[@CityThatCannotBeCaptured]

Excellent. So true.

[@williambrewer]

Jesus gave the generation - his own.

[@geraldjohnson8871]

***WATCH, THEREFORE, FOR YE KNOW NOT THE HOUR DAY OR SEASON*** WATCH***

[@eugenejoseph7076]

The prophecy in the Bible is always about the future events that will take place. Some have already occured (Ezekiel 37, the state of Israel being re-created in May 1948) Some are still unfulfilled. God is not an author of confusion. His Word can be understood with prayer, seeking the illumination from the Holy Spirit and careful study. The Lord prophesied His first coming with signs that wise men looked for signs in the heavens. Why would it be any different regarding His second coming? The book of Revelation along side of Daniel, Ezekiel, Joel, Isaiah are filled with events that show the events that will take place in the future. Many of these have been a foreshadowing of future prophecies that will take place in the future.

[@donnakeizer1468]

I have been given visions and dreams as God promised us in Acts 2:17,18 and Joel 2,2:8,29 .... seen Jesus Christ 3 times, lady giants in a tunnel GEn. 6, an UFO EZEK. Look up Amber in Hebrew, ) a huge Jupiter almost on top of the earth, the earth had a square in it with many twinkling lights in it. rev. 21 New Jerusalem, new heavens new earth, new in Greek means rejuvenated, 2 Peter 3.10 only the elements ( rudiments will be burnt up over the evil, same old earth and in EZEK. 4O -48 a square, a red horse the war horse in Rev, 6,4 galloping, 2 weeks later Israel went to war. I posted this on U B Ready - on the Horizon...... yellow waves, chin, coming and most recent a huge Cup, the cup of Gods wrath will be poured out in Rev. 16 the 7 vials.....many more,

[@ernieclark]

Get a copy of my book, For Such A Time As This: Let My People Go, You End-Times Doomsday Sayers! It will shine the light of truth on fulfilled prophecy, as well as heresies amongst the believers today, and also faulty interpretations of the original language. Many atheists mock and scoff at the Bible(KJV) because it speaks of unicorns in about 9 accounts. None are encounters. They speak of the strength of unicorns, and such. Unicorns were born out of Greek mythology years after all of these supposed mentions of unicorns. I have seen where the first mention of unicorns came about around 400 BC. All mentions in the scripture were from over a thousand years prior to this, down to about 575-600 years prior to 400 BC. If you go to the original language that the KJV was translated from you will see that it actually states "wild-oxen", or "wild bulls." It is obvious that the KJV translators were stiped in Greek mythology. The word "hell" came from Greek mythology. Do your research and you will see that the original documents state "hades" and "sheol" more often than not when speaking of the grave. The KJV translators inserted the word "hell" into many instances where the scriptures mention the grave. Jesus never said the word "hell", not did His apostles. This is not the subject matter of my book, but I just point it out because it is a critical issue for the world today. The sources for the facts of this book are based only on scripture and historical documented facts and not the opinions of any man. The Late Great Planet Earth shall go on forever, so says the scripture. The Bible is loaded with cultural symbolic language with idioms, hyperboles, etc. When the sun, moon, and stars bowed down before Joseph, this was symbolic of the third and fourth generation of Israel. The sun failing to give its light in the latter days was symbolic of Israel in the last generation leading up to AD 70, the generation that killed Messiah. The nation of Israel was meant to be a light to the world for mankind, but they had played the harlot with the world. The moon turning to blood was just symbolic of the destruction of the antichrist Jews by the Roman forces. The stars falling from the skies was likewise. There were over 1.2 million Jews killed in the nation of Jews in the "last days." The "stars" surely fell from the skies! Actually, if they had been the light that God intended the destruction of the temple and nation of Jews never would have occurred. Tis time for the true believers to wise up and shine in this world! Jesus is the branch and His apostles and disciples were the branches. Well, Jesus is the Tree of Life in Revelation. The true believers are the leaves on the Tree of Life. The leaves are for the healing of the nations. If one is not for the healing of the nations, then he is not attached to the Tree of Life. There will be no nations in Heaven. God created nations to separate evil men. The healing of the nations is for the here and now. Tis obvious that most, if not all, have missed this mandate from God. The church today is for the hating of the nations, and not the healing. Tis time for the church to fess up that false teachings have abounded since the early 1800's that have filtered down to us today. I shall never go with the flow. No man is my superior on this earth. Jesus said to call no man on earth "father." Yet, the church has assigned the moniker "Early Church Fathers" to men that began many of the heresies in the world since the second century. I have done my own research and will not rely on any man for my knowledge. I will continue on allowing the Father to lead me in my life. Get a copy of my book @ Xulon Press, Barnes & Nobles, or Amazon Books.

[@HeroQuestFans]

KJV-Onlysim is a debunked conspiracy theory (calvinist preacher James White handily refuted Gail Riplinger and her disciples in "The King James Only Controversy"). but the idea that it was somehow a corruption of the bible itself by some weird pagans (an inversion of the claim made by the KJV-Onlyists that modern bible translators are "new age" which is also false) is simply unverified nonsense. Yes, we go back to the original languages, but the fundy atheist who thinks he's refuted the Christian faith because of some obsolete references in a 17th century TRANSLATION is just a looney-toon. I agree that Dispensationalism is late man-made invention, but to say that the Early Church Fathers were heretics is to get things precisely backwards. recognizing their authority is not a bad thing, it's a good thing and more Christians would do well to study them (and not just the modern men and women that founded their particular denominations). The Traditions (and that is not a bad word) they taught trace back to the earliest days of the Church, in the time of the apostles. Were they always right? No, there were controversies then as there are now, but there was no "great apostasy" in the early centuries, the Catholic and Orthodox faith began with the Apostles and continues to this day and will endure to Christ's return. no amount of self published conspiracy mongering from non-scholars will really ever change those facts. "Call no man on earth father" is just one of those hyperboles you mentioned. If you disagree, then you are sinning against Christ by using the title "Mr" which stands for "Master" (and is also "forbidden" just as much in this same passage as "father" Or "teacher"). a literal reading of this text would have been violated by Paul who called himself a spiritual father and also Abraham was called father. This is the old anti-Catholic trope again, where we take those passages literally (also the one about "those who forbid marriage" applying to celibate priests) but take other passages (about the Eucharist being the body and blood of the Lord) purely symbolically. I would rather look and see how the early Christians interpreted these passages down through the ages (not suddenly embracing whatever one group thought was right in 1300, or 1530, or 1689, or 1830 or any other time). Bless Dr. Witherington for bringing this to the attention of more people.

[@wendyleeconnelly2939]

couldn't find the book