sermonette: Prophecy Fails

Keeping Prophecy in the Proper Perspective
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 05-Apr-03; Sermon #604s; 18 minutes

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Prophecy has always been a major part of the teaching of the Church of God. At least in this past century. For many of us, prophecy was the vehicle that God used to get our attention. He actually made prophecy a part of our calling. And for most people it was that they would listen to Mr. Herbert Armstrong. On the radio or see him on the television and he spoke on prophecy a lot. You know whether it was the beast, whether it was the false prophet, whether it was the various Visions that Daniel had all the book of Revelation, the Sermon on the Mount, not sermon on the Mount necessarily, but the all of that prophecy, different mount. Um. The parables that had prophetic importance to us and all of that sort of thing, not to mention all the prophecies that are in the Old Testament that he would go to. And in kind of parallel to that, the church's booklets on prophecy were always The most popular and the most requested in the church's inventory from US and BC and prophecy to who is the beast. And the book of Revelation unveiled at last, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and those sorts. So, prophecy has always been an important part of the work. Herbert Armstrong would remind us that prophecy is 30% of God's word, which testifies to its importance fully one, almost 1/3 of the Bible is prophecy. And it is really very important to us as proof of God's sovereignty. And his involvement in the affairs of men. Because when God speaks a word, let's say a prophetic word of whatever it is that he wants to come to pass, it goes forth, and he says in Isaiah 55 there that it doesn't come back to him empty. That means it's fulfilled by the time it comes back to him. And so we see in the fulfillment of prophecy that God is working. And when he says something will happen, we can be sure of that, and we can see him working in the affairs of men. Because he has said it and it gets done. So we see prophecy then as a proof of God's sovereignty. It's a proof that God does, but he says what he will do, slightly different from the last point. It simply means that he fulfills his promises, and we can have faith in that. Because we have seen that what he says come to pass, comes to pass, we know that if he says something else will happen, we can have faith that it will. So it's a bulwark to our faith. It also helps to motivate us. To spur us on, to be prepared for Christ's return. And It's by the prophecies that we see in God's word, as Christ says, that when you see these things happen, know that it's very near, so we can see from the prophecies and comparing it with things that are happening in the world that we know that time is short. And so this motivates us. To do the things we need to do to be prepared for Jesus Christ's return and our jobs in God's kingdom. All that said though, Prophecy is not the most important part of God's word. It is definitely to us the most stimulating. It's the most exciting part of God's word, the most intriguing. There are puzzles to be solved. There are things to watch for. There is graphic images of beasts and whatnot that run through the pages of the Bible, and that's, you know, really interesting and stimulates the mind, gets us thinking about things. We get to compare it with history. We get to compare it with current events. And all these things are, you know, we can really get into them. But it is far from the most important thing that we can take out of God's word. And it's my estimation, looking at it from my angle that too many of us place too much emphasis on prophecy and not enough on what is truly important, which is the doctrine. And the Christian living. That comes out of God's word. It's these two things, doctrine and Christian living, where the rubber meets the road. That's where God's judgment on us will fall. Do you think Hypothetically speaking, in the judgment, God says, Do you know who the false prophet is? Or does he say, did you love your neighbor as yourself? Where is God's judgment going to fall on our knowledge of prophecy and how well we can put it together or on how we are applying what it is that He said that we should do? So in the next minute or two, I'd look, I'd like to look at a few cautionary scriptures in God's word. To help us reprioritize prophecy. Now before I go any further, let me say that I think we need to preach on prophecy. We need to write on prophecy. We need to think about prophecy. We need to study prophecy. However, and this is a big however. We must do these things with the firm knowledge that our teaching on prophecy, our studying on prophecy, our thinking on prophecy. Except where prophecy has already been fulfilled is highly speculative and subject to change. That's very important. I know every time we speak on prophecy we do not say what I'm going to say now is my interpretation, or this is what I've speculated on how this will come about, but believe me when I tell you that is what we are thinking. Unless we know from the scriptures and from history that something has already occurred, we can't speak dogmatically about anything. Except the firm things that Jesus Christ and the apostles and the prophets have told us will happen. But only in the context of what the Bible says about it, not in the context of how we think they may happen. So I'm even going to utter this heresy right now that even Herbert W. Armstrong's understanding of prophecy is not the gospel truth. He was a man as we are. And he had God's spirit, and I'm sure he got the framework. Of prophecy correct. At least most of it But we know that many of his prognostications have not come to pass, and the timing he placed on things is way late. He would always say 5 years, 10 years, 20 years down the road, it's been 17 years already since he's died. And so we need to look at things in terms of the change of the times. Things are very much different now than they were when Mr. Armstrong died. The world has changed dramatically in that time. And so he got the skeleton right, I'm sure of it, but where we hang current events. is where we need to be careful. And we need to understand that even his prognostications, his predictions, the way he thought things would turn out, are merely expert opinion. Not Revelation. He knew of which he spoke. But we can't treat it with the same. Uh, definite Revelation revelatory character that the actual words of God's Bible, God's word Spell them out So we have a responsibility to rethink these matters in light of what we know today. And if we doggedly hang on to the every word, comma, and period of Mr. Armstrong's writings, we are going eventually to go the way of the Amish and the Mennonites. People Whom the times have passed by, and they are stuck in 16th or 17th century modes of thinking. So they wear black all the time. They will not use machinery. They will not even drive automobiles. God doesn't say anything about that in his words, but they are stuck. Uh, with the teachings of someone back several 100 years, and they, they are failing to apply God's word properly. So I, I just want to caution us that Christ tells us to watch. So that we will stay current. If we stop watching and say we've already figured out, we are going to miss it. So we need to stay current. OK, let's go here to 2 Peter. The first chapter and I want to enlighten you about this one particular scripture because it's very important. And I think that in the past we have misused this somewhat. By by implying that the church's interpretations of prophecies are right. Let's start in verse 19. II Peter 1:19, we have also, we also have the prophetic word made more sure which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this first, this is the scripture. That no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Now I'd like you to do something very violent. You can do it in your own way. Rip that word interpretation out of there. I'm not saying let's do this literally. But it is a very poor translation of this word. The Greek word that is here does not mean interpretation. It's actually on the entire other end of the spectrum. You know what this word means? Literally it means impulse. And its usage here should probably be the word as it is in my New King James origin. Source Let's read that put that in, knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private origin. And if you want a quick interpretation, pardon the use of the word, of this verse, you simply go to the next verse. Verse 21 interprets verse 20. It's saying the exact same thing. Verse 21 says, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So what does verse 20 say? It says that the prophecies that we find in God's words have their source in God, and so they are more sure. Than anything else that we've ever come across on this earth. It has nothing to do with our interpretation of prophecy. It is simply saying that the source of God's prophetic word is God Himself, and though God used prophets. Its credibility doesn't hang on them. God's words credibility hangs on God. And we could be super sure that what he says will happen, will happen. This doesn't mean that you cannot look into the Bible and have an opinion about how it's going to come about. But that opinion better be based on God's word because the source is in God. And so Peter's caution here is that we need to take heed to the scriptures more than what men say. Because the scriptures have the backing of God Himself. And the men have the backing of God only in the in the sense that they have been inspired by God. And are subject to failure. To not heeding the inspiration of God or what what have you, but the word itself, that is sure. You might want to jot down Luke 24 versus 44 to 49. This is where Christ explains the scriptures about Himself to His apostles and says that he will give them the Holy Spirit so that they can understand these things, and that is how we come to understand the truth. By God's inspiration. And that's how we come to understand prophecy. But prophecy itself is deliberately vague and couched in symbolic language to obscure the meaning. As it says in Matthew 13:10 to 17. So that those who do not know the mysteries of the kingdom of God will not understand. And for my sermon from last week, even we ourselves will not know the timing of things. Specifically the timing of his coming. So I was going to go into I Corinthians 13, which was my whole point, but I've gotten gone too long, but I do want to go go there and just pick up one. One verse. Or maybe 2I Corinthians 13, of course, this is the love chapter. Verse 8 Love never fails, it says, but whether there are prophecies, they will fail. Paul is very Specific here, very positive. Prophecies will fail. He says the same things about tongues. Tongues will seet. Knowledge will vanish away, he says. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. What does that tell you? What is the most important thing? That we are supposed to be doing right now. We are supposed to be getting back to love, and love is that big term under which fits you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then it is further broken down into the 1st 4 commandments and the last 6 commandments. And then it is further refined again and again and again throughout God's word in very more specific instances. That is the important thing. Verse 10. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things, for now we see in a mirror dimly. But then face to face, now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. So we do not know everything right now. Not even the apostle Paul knew everything then. And who was he compared to us? So do not expect us always to be right. Don't expect Herbert Armstrong always to be right. We all know in part and we are coming into a greater understanding. But let's remember what the apostle Paul here says. In this whole section we will just encapsulate it in verse 13 and now abide faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. At the end of the chapter 12, he said, I'm going to show you a more excellent way, and that more excellent way is the way of love. That's where our hearts and minds should be. I'm not meant to be offensive to anybody, but I've been seeing this fixation with prophecy crop up too much, not to say anything. Focusing on prophecy can be an artful dodging of our more important responsibilities. So as we approach the Passover, Less than 2 weeks away, It may be a good idea if we take a look at our own approach to these matters and resolve. To put more emphasis where it belongs. Which is growing in God's character, which is love.