As we begin to study prophecy, our studies will change in nature from presenting exact detail to examining scriptural possibilities. Because many of the events that we are studying are yet to happen and may at the most have several verses of scripture relating to them, we cannot always be completely sure of the details of their fulfillment. There are, however, some major events that are described in excruciating detail in the Bible and the amount of time that the writers devoted to them make it clear that God wants us to understand them even in detail. Many Christians are not interested or have been taught to not be interested in studying prophecy. When one realizes that almost one-third of the Bible is prophecy and we are commanded to teach ALL of the word of God (II Timothy 3:16, Revelation 22:19), then we must study prophecy and teach it. Again, the fact that God allowed the prophecies to be written proves that He desires for them to be studied and understood. In Revelation 10:4, John was commanded to not write down the events of the seven thunders which he had just witnessed. God obviously did not want us today to understand those events, and so, in the same way, it follows that what He did allow John to write, He wants us to understand. Many great men of God have erred in their interpretations of prophetic events, and this in itself has caused many people to shy away from eschatological (the study of end-time events) study. Before we begin to look at the scriptures, let's look at some common misconceptions and lay some groundwork and basic principles of study for our course. This is very important because most eschatological works err through not understanding these basic concepts.

1. Scripture must be interpreted through the truth of Apostolic doctrine. The scriptures declare the Oneness of God and the essentiality of repentance, water baptism in Jesus' name, the infilling of the Holy Ghost as on the Day of Pentecost, and the living of a holy and separated life in order to be "saved" in the Dispensation of Grace. For documentation see "The Dispensation Bible Study Parts I and II." It follows that when we interpret scriptures dealing with the close of the "time of the Gentiles," the judgments, the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the punishment of sin that we must do so through a basic understanding of the Apostolic doctrine. For example, any view of prophecy that has Gentiles being saved before the Millennial reign by any other way than obeying the commandments of Acts 2:38 is false and errant. Likewise, we must view "traditional" views of prophecy that were established by men who did not fully understand Apostolic truths with great care and make sure that they are scripturally sound. To believe something about the Bible just because "it's what I've always been taught" is not a proper way to study scriptures about any subject, and unfortunately many Christians who would shudder at accepting traditional views about salvation and the Godhead over scripture, often do so when it comes to prophecy. The three most common-held theories about prophecy -- pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, and post-tribulation -- were all formulated and originated by men who were Trinitarians, and who did not see the necessity of water baptism or receiving the Holy Ghost. All three views have an element of truth to them, but, as we will see, I believe that all three also make serious scriptural errors. Part of this is because most of the men who developed them did not interpret scriptures in light of the great Apostolic truths.

2. Scripture must interpret scripture. A key to understanding any subject in scripture is that the scriptures do NOT contradict themselves in any way. If I want to learn what God's view of water baptism is, then I must take ALL the scriptures that teach the concepts of water baptism and interpret them in such a way that they all harmonize. The correct interpretation is the one that does not contradict any scripture. This concept is derived from the following scriptures:

"All scripture" includes those that deal with end-time events! It is very obvious that God wants us to understand prophecy. But we must also take ALL of the scriptures on a subject to understand it. Not all of what God's Word has to say about any one subject is found in one place. In fact the prophet Isaiah said that it would be "here a little, and there a little" (Isaiah 28:10). So the first step in studying any subject in God's Word is to gather every possible verse that we can find about the subject or event and view them all together.

One of the first things that we must understand in studying prophecy is that it is of no private interpretation. In other words, you cannot believe what you want to believe and I believe what I want to believe and we both be correct. Even though our subject of disagreement may not be a "heaven or hell issue," there is only one correct interpretation of any verse of scripture. That is not to say that a verse cannot be viewed at different levels of application, and we will discuss that in a moment, but it is to say that God's view of the scripture can be found by taking all of the scriptures on a subject and interpreting them in such a way that they all harmonize. By doing so, we have allowed scripture to interpret scripture; truth to interpret truth. Frankly, it is quite amazing at how many Christians will follow these concepts in studying salvational and doctrinal issues but abandon them for tradition when it comes to prophecy. Remember: scripture must interpret scripture. If I can find an Old Testament passage that gives more detail about a prophesied event in the New Testament, then I can better understand it. As you will see, this will be a key to studying prophecy.

3. We must remember that the Law of Spiritual Application does not annul the Literal Interpretation. All scriptures can be viewed in two different ways: the literal natural meaning and a spiritual principle or truth that can be taught from the passage. Every scripture was written within a specific context and time period with a specific audience. Yet, people in all situations and eras can learn from the timeless principles of the Word of God, but that does not mean that the literal meaning of the passage is null and void. There are literally millions of examples in the Bible of this principle, but I will only mention two for the sake of explanation.

At Jesus' crucifixion, the land became dark for about three hours (Matthew 27:45). That literally happened that day. There is also a spiritual lesson to be learned from that time period, though, because just as the time before Jesus' flesh died was a period of darkness, so is the period of time before we die to our flesh in repentance a period of spiritual darkness. That is why Peter said that we are a chosen people that He has called "out of darkness into His marvelous light" (compare I Peter 2:9). But just because we can learn a spiritual lesson from the darkness on the day of Jesus' crucifixion does not mean that the literal three hours of darkness did not exist.

Another good example is when Gideon "fleeced" the Lord by asking for a sign that he should obey God's commandment to stand for truth and fight his enemies (Judges 6:37-40). Gideon first placed the piece of fleece out on the floor and said that if in the morning the fleece was wet with dew and the ground was dry around it, that he would know that God would deliver Israel. After God obliged, Gideon still was not convinced, however, and placed the fleece out again this time asking for the exact opposite to happen: that the ground around the fleece would be soaked and yet the fleece dry. It was only after the next morning that Gideon found the fleece and ground just as he had requested that he was convinced that God would give him the victory.

There is also a tremendous spiritual lesson to be learned from this story. For thousands of years, the nation of Israel was God's only blessed people and it was to the nation of Israel that God "showered" with great blessings, anointings, and promises. Spiritually, the nation of Israel was "soaked with God's blessings" while the lands around them were dry. Sadly, that first sign failed to convince them that God had come to deliver them so they rejected their deliverer, Jesus Christ. Now God has chosen to pour out his blessings upon "whosoever will" which includes the Gentile nations. At the same time, the majority of Israel, with their rabbinic traditions and self-righteousness, have dried up spiritually. It can be said that the land around Israel is drenched with the blessing of God and the Holy Ghost, while Israel is spiritually dry! And that better be all the sign that we need to know that God can deliver us even today! What a tremendous lesson, but just because there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from Gideon's fleece does not mean that it did not actually happen to a literal fleece. That is, just because we can understand the spiritual principle being taught, it does not replace or become "more correct" than the literal interpretation.

You may be wondering why I am spending so much time and effort to point out this principle when we are supposed to be studying prophecy. In actuality, many errors are made by people in prophecy by ONLY interpreting the scripture in the spiritual sense and discarding the literal meaning. One of the most common is understanding that the Apostolic church is now the "spiritual Israel." That is, we have replaced the Jewish covenants and literal seed of Abraham as the children of God. Because of this, we can read passages of scripture in the Old Testament and learn spiritual principles for our walk with God today. A good example of this is the often misquoted scripture, "God inhabits the praises of his people." That verse in that exact form is not anywhere in the Bible! The verse that is being misquoted is Psalms 22:3:

At the time the scripture was written, the nation of Israel were the ones who were in a covenant relationship with God. The spiritual principle that can be learned from this verse is thus "God inhabits the praises of those who are in a covenant relationship with Him." That is why when a church body gathers together and begins to praise God, the presence of God moves into that building and can be literally felt! God has inhabited the praises of the people who are in a covenant relationship with Him. When Israel was in such a relationship with God, He inhabited their praises as well. The point here is that after the "time of the Gentiles be fulfilled" God will one day return to the literal seed of Abraham, the Jewish people. We know this from many scriptures that we will study in detail in these lessons (Romans chapters 9-11 and Zechariah chapters 12-14 for example). Yet many people believe that God has completely rejected Israel and will never turn again to them despite the many, many scriptures that contradict that belief. This view is called "preterism" and is a result of not realizing that the spiritual interpretation of a verse does not negate the literal meaning!

One other area in prophecy that people err by not understanding this principle is in studying chapter 21 of the book of Revelation. In it we find a description of the "New Jerusalem" and the city is referred to as the "bride, the Lamb's wife" (Revelation 21:9). Some teach that this is not a literal city but a spiritual view of the bride of Christ, the church. While these verses can by used to learn spiritual principles about the bride of Christ, they also describe a literal city because it is literally measured in verses 15-17. To believe that the city is a literal city with streets of gold is the literal interpretation of the verse and to believe that we can learn spiritual principles about the church from studying the description of the city is also true. But one does not erase the other. That is, we cannot allow the spiritual to negate the literal meaning of these verses.

4. There is a Law of Double Fulfillment of Prophecy in Scripture. This is probably one of the most important principles to understand. It states that for every prophecy in the scriptures, there is an immediate fulfillment and a distant fulfillment. A couple of examples will better explain this concept. Let's start with a popular scripture in Isaiah:

The prophet Isaiah lived in the time of Israel immediately before the captivity. Immediately after this prophecy, the Assyrian army invaded the northern 10 tribes of Israel and took them captive. Scholars say that the Assyrian language was full of short, guttural sounds that almost sounded like they were stuttering. This prophecy then was immediately fulfilled by the Assyrian people.

Anyone who has ever seen someone get the Holy Ghost just like the Day of Pentecost knows that God causes them to speak in "other tongues" or in a language that is unknown or foreign to them. Stammering lips are often a sign that precede the actual breakthrough into the infilling of the Spirit! The Holy Ghost is the distant fulfillment of the prophecy. Both are very important and both are true. The immediate fulfillment of this prophecy was before the first coming of Jesus Christ and the second fulfillment is before the second coming of Jesus Christ!

Another good example of the double fulfillment of prophecy is Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost. Standing with the disciples, Peter preached that the events of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost was a fulfillment of the prophecies of Joel chapter 2 and even quoted the prophet:

We cannot argue with Peter as he was anointed of God with the "keys to the kingdom" and thus his interpretation of this scripture must be correct! But read verses 18-21 again! Did the sun literally turn to darkness on the Day of Pentecost? Did the moon turn to blood? What literal wonders in the heavens were present? A careful comparison of this passage of scripture and those that describe the wrath of God (we will study this in detail later) will show that Joel's prophecy can also be interpreted to refer to the visions later predicted by John the Revelator (The Day of Pentecost occurred in A.D. 30 and the Book of Revelation was written in ~A.D. 90-100). Who was correct in their interpretation, Peter or John? The truth is that they were both correct. The prophecies in Joel chapter 2 were fulfilled in a spiritual way immediately after Jesus' first coming. They will be literally fulfilled again after Jesus' second coming. The Day of Pentecost was the immediate fulfillment of these prophecies and the coming Day of the Lord will be the second fulfillment!

So we can see that most prophecies have an immediate fulfillment and a distant fulfillment. Usually, the immediate happens in conjunction with Jesus Christ's first coming, (the one recorded in the Gospels) and the distant fulfillment correlates with His second coming (not to be confused with the Rapture of the church as we will see). In fact, not understanding this principle of double fulfillment was the main reason that the scribes and Pharisees rejected and crucified Jesus Christ the first time. The scribes and Pharisees' main scriptural argument against Jesus Christ being the Messiah was the last prophecy found in the Old Testament. Let's look at this prophecy of Malachi:

The prophet Malachi prophesied that Elijah would come again to Israel before the "day of the Lord." The biggest argument that the scribes and Pharisees had against Jesus Christ was "if He is the Messiah, then where is Elijah?" This argument obviously won some of Jesus' disciples away from Him and even caused some doubts to enter into the minds of Peter, James, and John for we find that the experience of the Mount of Transfiguration was a rebuttal to this question. Let's "fast forward" to the Mount of Transifguration:

Jesus took the three "inner" disciples upon the mountain and to their astonishment, they saw Jesus talking face to face with Moses and Elijah! Notice that Moses and Elijah are the two prophets mentioned in the prophecy of Malachi that was being used against Jesus!

Peter, as he usually did, began to babble on and was interrupted by an audible voice from heaven which commanded them to listen to what Jesus was saying! Every time in scripture that an audible voice came down from heaven, it was so that the audience would listen and believe what the man of God was saying (compare the stories of Jesus' baptism, the Greeks at the feast, and Saul/Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus)! Immediately after the voice, Jesus led the three disciples down from the mountain. Notice what question was on their mind:

The question that had been bugging the disciples the entire time was finally asked! "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" Realizing that doubt was entering the minds of His chosen leaders, Jesus had taken them to the mountain top where they had witnessed Him talking to the very ones mentioned in the scripture, and they had heard a voice from God telling them to listen to His teachings! The doubt was now gone, but the disciples still wanted their question clarified. Here is how Jesus answered them:

Jesus said that Elijah WILL come one day, but unto them He said "Elijah has come already!" The disciples then realized that John the Baptist was the "Elijah" for Jesus Christ's first coming. This explains why when the angel told John the Baptist's father that he was to be born, that it also said that the prophet would be "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17)! What the scribes and Pharisees did not understand was that Jesus Christ, their Messiah was coming TWICE, once to die as a sacrifice, and again as the reigning King of Kings! Elijah will still come one day before Jesus Christ's second coming and we will study him in more detail when we get to the two witnesses of Revelation chapter 11, but John the Baptist was the Elijah for Jesus Christ's first coming.

The point here is that the scribes and Pharisees missed their "time of visitation" because they did not understand the Law of the Double Fulfillment of Scriptures! We who live immediately before Christ's second coming cannot afford to make the same mistake! Every prophecy has an immediate fulfillment and a distant fulfillment! Many people today look at prophecy and how that many of them were fulfilled before Jesus Christ's first coming and say that all prophecy has been fulfilled and that it cannot apply to future events, but they are forgetting about the distant fulfillment! We must take both!

A major example of this is studying the animals that represent nations and kingdoms in Daniel chapter 7. Many people scoff at the notion that these animals can represent modern nations saying that they were completely fulfilled by the ancient nations of Babylon, Persia, and the Grecians. Yes, those were the immediate fulfillment of those scriptures, yet hundreds of years after the immediate fulfillment of those prophecies, John the Revelator saw the same beasts! Obviously there are distant fulfillments of these prophecies as well. The Book of Daniel must be viewed through the principle of the Law of Double Fullfillment to be understood. In these lessons, I will take a slightly different course from most prophecy teachings in that I will try to present BOTH the immediate fulfillment of the prophecy and the distant fulfillment where possible.

Before we move on to our actual lessons on prophecy, let's pause a moment and clarify some common misconceptions and beliefs that are frequently taught. I thought twice about presenting my views in a study because many people get very upset when you contradict their eschatoligical views. I do not want to present these studies in an apologetic mode so I will deal with some common fallacies here in the introduction. I absolutely refuse to get in heated discussions about prophecy or scripture in general. I have learned that "if you have to raise your voice, you should reinforce your argument." Here are some common misteachings:

1. All prophecy has been fulfilled. Instead of spending much time in refuting this argument, I will let these lessons as a whole speak for themselves. One quick look around you should be enough to convince you that you are not living in "heaven on earth."

2. The Book of Revelation is written in chronological order. Again, our studies will conclusively prove this to be false and most people who claim this have never really studied the book in depth. The Book of Revelation is a series of visions that were revealed to John the Revelator on the Isle of Patmos. They read more like a newspaper than a novel. For instance there are two different accounts of the fall of Babylon, one in Revelation 14:8 and another in 18:2. If the book of Revelation is in chronological order from front to back, then how many times does the city of Babylon fall? Is it rebuilt between these two chapters? The truth is John sees part of the vision in chapter 14, and is revealed other things before he is brought back to the original vision in chapter 18.

Also, our study will reveal that the events of the sixth seal, the seventh trumpet, all of the vials, and the wrath of God are the same event! For instance, if the chronological view of Revelation is believed then there are five different earthquakes prophesied (6:12; 8:5; 11:13; 11:19; 16:18) and the wrath of God is begun to be poured out seven different times (6:17; 11:18; 14:9-10; 14:19; 15:1; 16:1; 19:15). A chronological view of Revelation also has a rough time explaining the "lamb that was slain" (which is a portrait of Calvary) in chapters 4-5 and the birth of Christ which is presented in the vision of Revelation chapter 12.

The truth is that the various visions within Revelation are in chronological order with themselves. For instance, the seven trumpets are in their correct order and that is why they are numbered. The vision of the woman in chapter 12 is in chronological order from the beginning of the chapter to the end. But, like a newspaper tells of different stories that happened on the same day, the various visions are sometimes happening silmultaneously!

3. Revelation 4:1-2 is the Rapture of the Church. I do not believe this because it finds no support in any other scriptures. This concept has been presented by those who believe "pre-tribulation" because to hold to that view you must believe that this passage of scripture is the Rapture of the Church. Before I give you why I do not believe that it is so, let's read the scriptures:

After receiving revelations for the existing churches of his day, John was called into heaven in the spirit and began to see the visions of the future events beginning with a portrait of heaven. Let me point out the following reasons why I do not buy the spiritualization of this verse to represent the Rapture theory:

1. To believe this is to believe that the Book of Revelation is in perfect chronological order. That is not true for the reasons that we just discussed.

2. If this is the Rapture of the Church then John, who was male, symbolically represents the church, the bride of Christ. Time and time again the church is rightfully portrayed as a "bride." God is always presented in the male gender. NOWHERE in scripture is a man used to represent the collective Bride of Christ. If John was a representation of the bride of Christ, then symbolically speaking God is homosexual. That certainly contradicts scriptural principles! Sure John who was filled with the Holy Ghost was a part of the collective Bride of Christ, but to say that he singly represents the bride of Christ is to produce symbolism of which there are no other examples found in scripture.

3. John heard a voice "as it were of a trumpet." That is he did not hear a literal trumpet but a voice with a booming timbre. I Corinthians 15:52 says that the Rapture of the church will take place at the "last trump." It does not say at the voice that sounds "as it were of a trumpet."

4. This is not the last time that John heard a voice "as it were of a trumpet." He also heard the voice like the trumpet in Revelation 1:10 so why not make that the Rapture? In Revelation 10:8, the "voice that I heard from heaven spake" unto John "again." If the voice "as it were of a trumpet" is the trumpet spoken of in I Corinthians 15:52 that accompanies the Rapture, then technically the voice in Revelation 10:8 is the "last trump." Why not make that the Rapture?

To believe that Revelatoin 4:1 is the Rapture of the church is to not only contradict other scriptures but ignore the other "voices like as it were of a trumpet" in Revelation.

4. The Church is not mentioned again in Revelation after Revelation 4:1. This is another fanciful theory to help establish the errant belief of #3 above. It simply is not true. Here are some places that the Church is mentioned in Revelation after the fourth chapter: 8:3-4; 6:10-11; 7:9-17; 11:18; 12:17; 13:7; 14:12; 14:15-16; 15:3; 16:6; 17:6; 18:24; 19:1-10; 20:4-5; 20:9; 21:1-22:21.

Many names are used such as righteous, saints, those washed in the blood of the Lamb, those in white linen, those having the testimony of Jesus, etc... but all refer to the church. The nation of Israel is never referred to as "saints" in the book of Revelation.

Having laid some basic foundational principles for our study of prophecy, let's read two scriptures before moving on to the actual lessons.

If we are truly living in the end of time, then we MUST study prophecy and understand these scriptures! We cannot afford to ignore the teachings of the scriptures in these areas. Many people have been taught that studying prophecy is "dangerous" because some people have not followed sound theological principles when studying it. Actually we are commanded to study and understand prophecy! It is the characteristic of the wicked to not understand!

God has concealed some things in His Word until the end of time. Yet only those who have a "kingly" manner will search them out! As we study we will find that that the church is to be "kings and priests" unto God! In the words of Proverbs, let's behave like our calling and "search out" the matters concerning the future events. You will find that an understanding of end-time events will lead to a greater understanding of God's purpose in your life and will lend you an urgency to reach more people with this glorious Apostolic truth!