Given the unease increasingly attendant present political and religious trends, experience would suggest the merit of the following before hitching our eschatological wagons to the next train of prophetic "expertise" - whatever its allegedly new or "greater" insight. (Ever wonder, for example, what became of the "countdown to the 'eighties" enthusiasm of some years back?)
1. Prophecy is not given to satisfy curiosity regarding the future. Jesus emphasized this point in Acts 1:6-7. The revealing of future realities is meant to serve the larger purposes of spiritual focus and/or sense of direction. Thus, while containing much predictive prophecy, the Revelation's role is, first and foremost, "the revelation of Jesus Christ" and is to be understood within that frame of reference (Rev. 1:1).
2. Prophetic fulfillment is not decipherable by human reason alone. This is by divine intent. Spiritual insight is rather perceived through revelation (Matt. 13:10-17). The religious scholars of Jesus' day had the prophetic agenda "figured out" missed his advent and its meaning entirely. The history of the Church is similarly replete with those seeking to understand predictive prophecy by the faculties of natural reason. Time and events have repeatedly refuted them.
3. Prophecy never presents the complete picture. What is given are reference points whereby fulfillment in its larger sense becomes not only identifiable but, as occasion requires, applicable in a practical sense.
Given such, present understanding is oftentimes analogous to one's possession of a limited number of jigsaw puzzle pieces. While contributing to the portrayal's overall sense of intent, the pieces do not enable one to comprehend the scene in final detail by means of speculation. They do, however, provide increasingly meaningful insight as the whole develops. Thus the Lord's words to the prophet Jeremiah: "In the last days [i.e., time of fulfillment] you will understand it clearly" (Jer. 23:20; 30:24).
To illustrate: It would have been impossible to understand beforehand all the contributing factors and implications attendant Jesus' prediction of Jerusalem's fall and destruction prior to that event's occurrence in A.D. 70. Undoubtedly, there had been much in the way of the assumptive and/or conjectural. Such is human nature. But, knowing what Jesus had said, even if the how was not fully grasped, gave meaningful direction when the event took place. The Judean Christian community was thus enabled to escape the carnage that otherwise cost an estimated million lives.
As the perceptive are well aware, recognition of the foregoing principles would have saved the evangelical community more than a littler error and confusion throughout the years - up to, and including, our own time and era.
It will pay us to remain both insightful and alert.
Burl Ratzsch
