Bible Prophecy In Today’s World

Presented by Mr Raymond Clark

      Knowledge of Bible Prophecy is urgently needed in today’s world because we are surely living in the last days. Prophecy, concerning the last days, is being fulfilled before our very eyes today but people are so caught up in their everyday lives that so many of them have not a clue that we are indeed approaching an apocalyptic era in which the headlines are filled with prophecy in fulfillment.

       With everything which is happening in the Middle East, we must recognize that  we are, without a doubt, coming up against end times events which are going to greatly impact our lives.  There are none among us who will not be affected thereby, but more importantly, these events will impact our eternal destiny  depending upon how we respond and, without knowledge, the Bible tells us. “…My people perish…”

       The book of Revelation is perhaps, the most important prophecy book in the Bible, however, before one can truly grasp the full impact of the Book of Revelation a thorough understand of the Book of Daniel of the Old Testament should be considered. The Book of Daniel gives support and interpretation to the prophecies found in the Book of Revelation. When I first embarked upon this “intense study” of end time events, I found the Book of Daniel to be, what I would consider, the most exciting material which I had ever read.

       Having been brought up in the “Old Time Methodist Church” long before they went the way of the liberal movement, I became a very strong believer in the Bible. If anyone challenged the reality of Almighty God, I was quick to take exception. Without going into great detail about my spiritual life, early in my twenties as I moved into my college years, I began to doubt the very existence of God.   I came to believe that perhaps God did not exist as the subtle challenge came against my faith. It is a sad thing to say, but if one is not strongly rooted in the Word of God prior to entering the colleges and universities today, he is very likely to come out of these institutions as a non-believer because these institutions are teaching their students  and our children that there is no God.

       Permit me to digress for a moment to give you a personal example about that of which I speak. Through the ever so subtle attack on my faith during my college years, evolution began to sound more and more believable. The more I pondered the issue the more reasonable evolution sounded. How can there possibly be life after death I reasoned? Having earned a degree in Biology, Christianity became less and less appealing to me as I began to dwell on the possibilities of evolution. It was presented in such a subtle, matter-of-fact way without a direct challenge to my faith. As a result my defenses were not sharply attuned as doubts began to flood my mind. I made the mistake that so many college students make today. I started depending more and more upon man’s knowledge and less upon spiritual knowledge.  When we allow that to happen to us, Satan will gain  control and we become pawns in his hands. That is the reason so many college students begin to doubt the reality of God. After four or five years of this kind of indoctrination many students lose whatever faith they may have had when they entered the college or university system. To be sure there are exceptions but I can tell you from first hand experience that the colleges and universities, even some of the so called Christian schools, will challenge the very foundations of ones faith. Today this anti-godly attack is reaching into our elementary and secondary schools and we are beginning to experience devastating results. Schools are being required by our government to teach evolution and even the mentioning of creationism is often forbidden, which, in effect, means that our children are being taught that there is no God under an edict from our government. Evolution is totally and completely incompatible with our Christian principles. No man can be a true Christian and believe in or accept evolution. Evolution gives rise to humanism and humanism gives rise to many other evils in our society. For example, humanism completely dominates public education today.  Humanism also gives rise to the evils of abortion as evidenced by the slaughter of innocent children in the abortion mills of this nation with the full approval and support of our government.  If evolution is acceptable then abortion can easily be justified, for man is nothing more than an accident of nature and is no different from any other animal.  How can any nation long last when they give support to the deliberate destruction of innocent life? Evolution  is an impossibility and the “father of abortion”, but the ministers in the pulpits today remain silent on this issue!  They refuse to challenge what is happening in the public schools across the nation. 

       I also began to study about other religions through the history classes and came to believe that perhaps all religions were nothing more than man-made religions. Some of my college professors even suggested that religion was little more than the elite’s attempt to control the masses and as I pondered that statement it even began to make sense to my carnal mind.  Unfortunately, the little spiritual knowledge left lacked the strength to  rise up to challenge these  carnal thoughts to which I had come to depend and I was left to the mercy of my own carnal mind.  Do you see how these college students can so easily be misguided by these professors who potentially holds their careers in their hands?  Keep in mind that these subtle attacks were in the late fifties and early sixties. The attack in the colleges and universities today are not nearly so subtle as many college and university professors literally scoff at the very existence  of Almighty God and sadly many of our Christian colleges and universities are employing non- believing professors and are not unlike many of our secular schools. Parents, be warned that today’s colleges and universities will destroy whatever faith your children might have possessed when they enter therein. I currently hold that the majority of all colleges and universities in this nation and around the world are not only un-Christian but even un-American and this nation would literally be better off without them. But the worst part of this entire scenario is that they are they ones who are teaching the teachers of our elementary and secondary children thereby pushing their godless ideas into our elementary and secondary schools. This is the reason we see our society becoming more and more secularized and God is being banished from our educational systems throughout the nation. This situation has deteriorated today to the point that I personally hold that public education has become the “tool of Satan” and has, in my opinion, lost its privilege of teaching the youth of this nation. We would be better off without public education today.  We are beginning to see some resistance to public education as evidenced by a growing home schooling movement, but this movement is being fought strongly by the liberal forces and in particular by the National Education Association. Now I realize that that statement will require much thought but I served my entire life in public education and I know what they are doing to our children and ultimately our nation and it is not good!

       In my late thirties or early forties something else happened in my life. I did not realize exactly what it was at the time, but now I know that the Holy Spirit had  begun to move in my life to cause me to re-examine my priorities in life.  One unshakeable question was planted in my spirit by the Holy Spirit- ”But what if it is true?” Once that thought was planted in my spirit I was never able to shake it. What if God is for real? What if Jesus Christ is for real? What if there is life after death? Is eternal life a possibility? What if hell is a reality?  I knew that if these things were true I was in big trouble.These types of questions began to flood my spirit and I started searching for truth. (Notice I said “flood my spirit” because my mind would automatically reject them.) We need to be aware that our spirit can act independently of the carnal mind.

 God speaks to us through the spirit realm and Satan deals with us through the carnal mind and, as a result, Satan can very easily lead us astray if we are not very discerning and most college aged students seldom differentiate between the two. One of the problems with our colleges and universities and even public education is that they teach us to develop only the carnal mind and, as we move in that direction, we are “operating in Satan’s camp almost entirely.  Remember what God told Adam and Eve in Genesis?  He warned them about eating from the tree of “knowledge of good and evil”.  Knowledge, in the absence of Godly wisdom, is a very dangerous thing and we are warned not to participate therein.  Our colleges and universities participate only in the carnal realm and that is the reason they have almost succeeded in bringing this nation down.  The real problem is that they have not a clue as to what they have done and neither do most people in our society including the most Christians.  Think about it!  That thought will occupy your mind for a while.

 By this time my career, and I might add a highly successful one by man‘s standards, was well under way?  I had previously come to believe that the “right kind of education would resolve all of man’s problems. After a period of time it slowly but surely  dawned upon me that what we were doing in education was certainly not causing things to get better in our enlightened society, rather things were going from bad to worse.  I realized then and there that something was wrong but I could not “put my finger on the problem.  It was not long thereafter that I came to understand that man’s knowledge without the wisdom of God was insufficient.  That is the reason that, while we may have a highly educated society today, our nation is going to “hell in a handbasket”

       My search for the “reality of God’s Word” was underway but I had drifted so far from God that I had real difficulty accepting the truths of God’s word. I had reached the point that I truly wanted to believe, but had much difficulty accepting the reality of God’s Word. I recalled one scripture from my youth which stated, “…seek and ye shall find…” but did not remember the full context of the scripture or where it was located in the scriptures. I knew that if any part of the Bible was true this one scripture would hold the key and I started  a search for the “truth” about God’s word.  A year or so later I came to realize the reality of God’s word and re-dedicatied my live to Jesus Christ, although I still had many questions. I continued my study of the Bible but was somewhat bored with it. I began to pick and choose those parts of the scripture which made sense to me but I was quickly checked by the Holy Spirit as I realized that to pick and choose those scriptures that I wanted to believe and ignore the rest was equivalent to establishing my own religion. We have many cults today who have fallen into this trap of the evil one because they were operating in the absence of Godly wisdom while picking and choosing that which they wanted to accept from God’s word.  Such movements usually contain a touch of truth  tempered with man’s wisdom rather than God’s wisdom.  It is a very dangerous mistake to ignore parts of God’s word while accepting other parts.  At that point I made an arbitrary decision that I would study the Bible as though every word was absolute “truth” even though I still had some doubt in my mind. It was at that point in time that God’s word came alive to me and the Bible became the most exciting book that I had ever read.  My priorities in life started changing.  Things which I had previously considered important ceased to be of importance and things which had previously been unimportant to me became overwhelming in my life.  Life took on an entirely different meaning.  God’s word began to make sense to me and I was spending from four to eight hours per day studying God’s word and was never bored with it.

       From this point the Spirit of God moved me into an intense study of Bible Prophecy. As I studied prophecy I realized that many things which I knew from my study of secular history were literally prophesied in God’s Word hundreds of years, even thousands of years, previously. I further reasoned that if the prophetic events of the past  had actually come to pass then who was I to question future Bible Prophecy.

       Spiritually, God met me at my spiritual level and led me step by step to an unquestioned faith which I continue to hold today. He will likewise meet you at your present level of faith, and move you to a state of total belief and commitment if you will get into His word and sincerely seek the truth. Bible Prophecy erased any further doubts I may have had about God’s word.  Who, besides an omnipotent God could possibly inspire the prophets of old to literally write history in advance? If you will study Bible Prophecy and study your secular history you can see for yourself that Almighty God is for sure, a reality. 

       This study of prophecy erased any further doubts from my mind as to the reliability of God’s word.   I would, therefore, like to share some of what I have learned with others who may be experiencing similar doubts that I experienced.  Now, if you are not interested in knowing about the “truth of God‘s word” there is no need to pursue this matter further because you will not accept it anyway.   In the next article in this series I will begin a study of the Book of Daniel, one of the most exciting books of the Bible.            

When you understand this book it will answer many questions for you which will help greatly with further study, especially the Book of Revelation. Another thing about which I would caution you is that many “Bible prophecy experts” differ in their interpretation of various scriptures, therefore, you cannot rely solely on what even the so called experts  may tell you. You must be prepared to go to the scriptures for yourself and ask God to help you to understand them.   In other words the Bible (preferably the KJV) must be your source of authority. There is enough information in the scriptures that we can know some things for a certainty, while there may be other things upon which you may need further study and meditation as you seek guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is alright to study what others have to say and that may even be helpful, but in the final analysis the Bible must be your ultimate authority.   Always check out what men may say, including what I may say by  what God’s word has to say about the topic.