Director's Letter: Ambivalence to Prophecy?
/Jeff Risk, Global Cross Director
Even as a fellow believer you might remark, “God will take care of the future. I don’t need to know anything about it; I just need to live my life for His glory now.” To that I would ask, “What glorifies God? Does ignoring His Word glorify Him?” I think not!
In speaking of the end times, Peter encourages us to be learning about the end times and looking for the things about which we have learned. He describes a loud and violent end in which the earth and all things in it will be burned up in intense heat (2 Pet. 3:10).
The doctrine of inerrancy is useful. Christ is the fulfillment (already) of so many verifiable, acutely detailed prophecies, such that it can only be supernatural (so statistically improbable that to think otherwise is both humorous and tragic). Given this fact (as well as the other proofs of inerrancy), it follows that Scripture is what it says it is: the Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 4:12) – which cannot have error because it is rooted in the nature of God Himself – and it does what it says it does (teaches, reproves, corrects, trains in righteousness, equips for good works, pierces the soul and spirit judging our thoughts and intentions).
Therefore, we should read the prophecies and maintain a posture of anticipation as we gain the knowledge within them for our own benefit (cf. 2 Pet. 3:9-18).
- Learning and being aware of what is to come promotes holy conduct as we anticipate the wrath that sits on those without the righteousness of Christ.
- By inference of Peter’s passage, knowing that these things are coming should motivate us to tell others (loved ones first, and others throughout the earth), with a specific sense of urgency because God is being patient wishing that all would come to repentance (cf. verse 9). It is a pressing motivation to carry out the Great Commission.
- By knowing the doctrines and coming events expounded by God, we equip ourselves and are delivered from the mouths of wolves (false teachers; cf. verse 17).
As if the foregoing is not enough, God even promises us happiness if we study these things. Revelation 1:3 says, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.”
Will it be today?
