How Much of Bible is Prophecy? Pt 2 - Ep. 7421

0:00How much of the Bible is prophecy? Well nearly one out of every four verses contain predictive prophecy, but prophecy is about far more than the end times, and it runs from Genesis to Revelation. Why did God give us so much prophecy? And what does it mean for us today? Well we're going to continue our study in part two right here on the End Time Show. Good afternoon everybody, I'm Dave Robbins with End Time Ministries. I do thank you for joining me on this edition of The End Time Show. And you know, there's so much prophecy in the Bible. It is such an integral part of that that it's taken me two programs to cover the entire topic, and honestly I'm not getting to everything,

1:03but I'm giving you an overall view here of prophecy in the Bible. In part one, we ask a remarkable question, how much of the Bible is prophecy? When a lot of people when they're asked that question, they just go strictly to End Time Bible prophecy, but it's much more than that. One extensive study by Jay Barton Payne identified 1817 predictions contained in 8352 verses. With, there's just over 31,000 verses in the Bible, that means roughly 27% of scripture contains what we call predictive prophecy or nearly one out of every four verses, but prophecy is much broader than the study of End Time. Again, biblical prophecy includes God's warnings, certainly his promises, things that would promises that would come in the future,

2:06or promises like the prophecy of a modern day nation of Israel. That's a 4,000 year old promise, but it's also a prophecy given to Abraham, right? And then of course the judgments and covenant declarations, messianic predictions and revelations about the future, all of that ties in, so you can see it's just a lot of God's word is prophetic. The prophets not only foretold events, but they proclaimed God's word to their own generation. And again, prophecy begins all the way back in Genesis. So God established the heavenly bodies as signs. Genesis chapter 1, he foretold the conflict between the serpent and the seed of the woman. He promised Abraham that through his seed all the nations would be blessed. And the prophetic promises they continue through Israel, Judah, David, and ultimately pointed to

3:12the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, and his kingdom that he would establish here on the earth at up on his second return. And then of course from there, the prophetic thread runs through the entire Bible, and the Psalms speaks of the coming king. Isaiah reveals the suffering Messiah and the coming righteous ruler. Jeremiah and Ezekiel speak of Israel's restoration after she'd been scattered all over the world and in Babylonian captivity. Daniel reveals the rise of and fall of kingdoms. And dead be what Daniel chapter 2. And then of course in Daniel 244, the final kingdom that will come. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands rolls down, hits the image on the feet of iron mingle with clay, becomes great and fills the whole earth. Daniel 244 says in the days of these kings, would the God of heaven establish a kingdom that would never pass away and never be destroyed.

4:17And then of course the son of man, the time of trouble and the resurrection. Zacharias speaks of the coming king and the Lord's return to the Mount of Olives. Zachariah chapter 14, he will plant his feet on the Mount of Olives when he comes to fight on behalf of Israel at the Battle of Army Gettin. Then Jesus of course gives the Olivet discourse describing, you know, take heed that no man to see view. Many will come in my name and deceive many persecution, wars and rumors of wars, the abomination of desolation, the great tribulation. And then again, heavenly signs immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened. Muncha, not give a light, stars will fall from heaven. The powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then of course the rapture and the second coming of Jesus Christ. Well, of course then Paul, Peter, John, many of them, they continue that prophetic revelation culminating in the book

5:21of Revelation with the final world system, the world governing body in Revelation 13. The judgments of God with the wrath of God in Revelation 16. The wrath of God is mentioned in Revelation 6, Revelation 11, Revelation 14. And then those are all accounts of the vials of the wrath of God in Revelation 16. And then over into 19, which culminates with the Battle of Army Gettin. And then Christ, of course Christ returned the millennial reign, the final judgment, Revelation chapter 20, the great white throne judgment. And then of course the symbolic view of the church or the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. And then often to our eternal existence. Now, no single book contains the entire prophetic picture. That's why a lot of people have said, well, Dave, I want to understand

6:23Bible prophecy, man, I've been really studying Revelation. And I'm like, stop. First, you have to go to Jeremiah and understand why they, why the Babylonian captivity. Because Daniel during the book of Daniel, Daniel is amongst the first wave that went down into Babylonian captivity. And he writes the book of Daniel while he's in Babylonian captivity. You got to go to the book of Jeremiah first to understand that. And then the, during the book of Daniel, there's the transition from Daniel being under the reign of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, Belchezer, and Belchezer. And then it changes to the night of Belchezer's impious feast where he has the handwriting on the wall, meaning, meaning, teacle, you're farsin. That's when the meads and the Persians invade that night and the kingdom is taking from the Babylonians and they conquer the kingdom and now it transitions to the

7:25meads and the Persians, which with the king of King Darius and King Cyrus, all of that takes place in the book of Daniel. And so to really understand Bible prophecy, you got to go to Jeremiah, then Daniel, and then go to Revelation. And then it will help you understand. And a lot of the other prophecies in the Bible, a lot of it comes from Daniel. And of course, a lot of people have said over the years, man, what's the point in studying Bible prophecy? Nobody can understand all of this stuff. But the fact is Daniel, Jesus, the Apostle Paul, John, all said that you, we will be able to understand these things. Daniel 1132 and 33 during the time of the Antichrist, they that do know their God shall be strong into explanation. They that understand among the people shall instruct many. Well, if we can't understand the prophecies, why did he say that? So the prophecies pretty important in the in the Bible, isn't it? So but again, you can't go just

8:28to Revelation and get the entire picture. There's not one book that contains the entire prophetic picture, scripture interprets scripture. That's why it's so cool to go to Daniel and then go to do Revelation 13 and say, wow, how did the how do their books correlate so perfectly? It's because there's one author to the entire book. The Bible is God's word in written form. God gave all the writers things to write and they simply wrote it down. The Bible tells us that. So Genesis introduces themes that Revelation completes. Daniel provides prophetic detail that Jesus and John developed further. If you remember in Daniel 927, it talks about an abomination that would be set up in the midst of the final seven year period. Well, if you go to the book of, if you go to Matthew

9:29chapter 24, the out of a discourse, Jesus said in verse 15, Matthew 24, 15, when you see the abomination of desolation occur, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, who so readeth let him understand. So they, it's told that you got to get the entire scope of prophecy to understand the whole thing. And so each book adds another piece to the picture or it's like a giant puzzle and God wrote it that way on purpose. He designed it perfectly. So if you get the entire scope, then you can say, oh man, I finally understand this. That's why you just don't want to go to one verse in Revelation and say, well, I'm going to hang all of my prophetic beliefs on this one know because you got to understand what the entire scope, for instance, let me just give you an example here. The Bible says in Revelation 13 that all the world would wonder after the beast.

10:30He will be given power over all people, kinders, tongues and nations. And so you think, well hold on right there. There, there it says every nation. But it's speaking in generalities. If you go to other portions of the Bible, it tells you about nations that will not come under the reign of the Antichrist and that the Antichrist will be facing resistance all the way to the end. But if you just hang your hat on one, run passage or prophecy, then you're going to miss it. You got to understand the entire scope and that's given throughout the Bible. So you've got to understand the difference between prophecy and eschatology. There's a big difference there. Prophecy is the broader category. Eschatology is specifically the study of last things. Much biblical prophecy has already been fulfilled concerning ancient kingdoms.

11:34Certainly Israel's history, the coming of the Messiah, all of those Messianic prophecies, the Old Testament is full of Messianic prophecies concerning the first and second coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And of course many people just want to choose, pick and choose which ones. Hey, I want to believe the ones about the first coming and the suffering servant. But most of the Jews, they choose to believe the ones about the coming conquering king that's going to come and bring peace to Israel. And so that's why there's a lot of confusion today. Some of the Jews believe in Jesus Christ. I know many of them and that he came the first time to purchase a plan of salvation so we could be to go to be with him at his soon return. So it just depends on who you're working with here and who you're trying to convince. But really it's what it doesn't really matter what I believe it matters what the Bible says.

12:37That's the end all. The Bible says like, God be true, let every man be a liar. So if somebody is teaching something that's diametrically opposed to the Word of God, they need to probably go back and do a little more study, research a little better, and then change what they teach because the Word of God is always true. That never changes. The history books are constantly being rewritten. But the Word of God, the Bible says that word, oh Lord, is forever settled in heaven. So there are other prophecies though that are still unfolding. Much of them have already been fulfilled, but there are some that are unfolding. There are once and done prophecies like the third trumpet, their Chernobyl nuclear accident. That happened April 26, 1986, and now it's done. But there are some that will be ongoing all the way to the second coming in Jesus Christ, the ongoing establishment of the world religion, the world government that certainly precursors to the mark of the beast, but it's not the mark of the beast yet because that's not going to

13:41happen until the beast comes on the scene, three and one half years prior to the second coming in Jesus Christ. And so this distinction here is very, very critical. Not every prophecy is ongoing, but some are. And we should not call every modern event a fulfillment of prophecy. This is very, very important. Some people try to make everything prophecy to sensationalize things, to sell books and videos and to get likes and subscriptions on a YouTube channel. Okay, that's not the goal. The goal is to build the kingdom of God. And so to sensationalize things, that's not a good thing because prophecy is sensational enough, right? The events that are transpiring today that were prophesied about 2,025 years ago, that's, I don't have to sensationalize

14:42anything to show you the truth of the Word of God and help prepare you for the soon return of Jesus Christ. But to sensationalize things and make every every event that happens in the world, a Bible prophecy, that's simply not a wise thing to do. So technology may create capabilities that resemble things that, you know, the world described in Revelation. But similarity is not a fulfillment. This is very, very critical because with AI coming and all of these images that they can put out and a lot of different things, they can make things seem real that never even happened. And so you got to be very, very careful. Make sure I was talking to my wife last night and I told her I said, Jan, the, it's very hard anymore to find a true news source that can give you everything

15:50you need without trying to doctor it up and trying to give a little bit of a spin or point you in a certain direction. Just tell me the truth. That's all I want to know. And certainly living in the media world, I see agenda driven news sources and they want to push your narrative that their narrative that gets you to believe this or that and it's a agenda driven. It's not just telling you the truth of what happened. And there are some news sources out there that will absolutely or just non-bias say, tell you the truth, but you got to be very, very careful because similarity is not fulfillment. Very important. A diplomatic agreement involving Israel should not automatically be identified as the peace agreement that starts the final seven years to the Battle of Armageddon. A lot of people when the Abraham Accords was signed, they contacted us here at Endtime and said, oh, there's the final seven years, send the magazine to Israel and,

16:54here we are and we're like, no, that doesn't have the five biblical characteristics to that. And they said, oh, no, you guys are missing the boat. You got to go ahead and send the magazine to Israel. I mean, we've entered the final seven years. But the thing is, if you understand the prophecies in the Bible, then you realize that there will be a peace agreement in the near future. And it might be the culmination of the Abraham Accords. It just might be. But until those five biblical characteristics are included in a peace agreement, then we cannot say we've started the final seven years. Even if it's similar to it, until it meets all the criteria given in the Bible, then we can't make that announcement. But thank God that he's given us the criteria very clearly in the Bible to help us identify that final seven years. And so there have been people that have already claimed the final seven years had begun because of things that have happened recently.

17:55But it's, I look at that and I think, man, that doesn't have the characteristics, the biblical characteristics. And those are what we're going to go by. So we must let scripture interpret scripture. And that brings us to part two of our lesson here is that now that we understand how extensive prophecy is and why it matters, then we're going to focus on the, kind of like the prophetic passages concerning the future and examine how they fit together into one biblical timeline from the advanced leading toward the final seven years through the great tribulation, the coming of Jesus Christ to Armageddon, the millennium, the final judgment and eternity. Because it's nice to know things that happened 2,000 years ago. You know, how can I glean from that? How can I apply those things to my life? Scripturally. But I think most of us are really

18:58concerned or interested in what's the future hold? And how do I navigate through the short period of time we have left through the prophetic events that are going to happen? How do I, you know, what do I do with my money? The banking system, the how are we going to survive during the final seven years and all this other stuff? Because the Bible teaches we're going to be here through all of that. And then so that's what we're, I think most people probably would be interested in. So the Bible's prophetic message is not a collection of some kind of disconnected predictions. It is one story and Jesus Christ is at the very center of it all. Everything centers around Jesus Christ. Think of it. There are two main events in the Bible. The first coming of Jesus Christ where he came to restore sonship and purchase a plan of salvation. Sonship that was lost from with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were originally sons of God.

19:58But that was lost in the human race once they sinned. And so everybody went into the law, once they sinned, everybody went into the law of sin and death. The soul that sins has got to die until Jesus Christ. So the law was a schoolmaster bringing us to Jesus Christ. And now we walk in, we're in the grace dispensation, you're born again, and those sins are erased by the blood of Jesus Christ that he shed on Calvary. Those sins are paid for. And so it's very important that, and so Jesus came to purchase that on Calvary. And then that's the first event and then the second event, which is this second coming where he comes to collective church, the bride of Christ unto him. And those that have been saved throughout all the, through certainly during the born again, plan of salvation, but also during the different dispensations, those who obeyed the plan of salvation, they will rise in the rapture as well.

20:59And then the Lord will come back as the plan is feed upon the Mount of Olives, decimate the armies at the Battle of Army getting and establish his kingdom here on the earth. The antichrist and the false prophet, the Bible says they will be cast alive into the lake of fire. And the saints will rule and reign as kings and priests with him in his kingdom on the earth for a thousand years. Now those are the two main events in the Bible. And it's of utmost importance. Everything centers around Jesus Christ. And so let's continue them. But so speculation begins when people move beyond the text and present assumptions as certainty. And this is why when we write a book, or put out a video, or do radio and television programs and everything here at end time, we will say, here's what the Bible says and here's what's going on. Boom, boom, boom. If we don't

21:59understand, then we tell what we do know. And myself, Doug, Vince, Brian, all of us will say, this is my opinion, or I'm speculating here, because we do not present assumptions as certainty. Some things we simply don't know yet. Now I know that, you know, when people ask a question, when I've got on interview, a lot of people expect you to know everything about Bible prophecy. And I've read other people's books and different things where they tried to write it like they knew everything and they didn't. And I've seen them try to write things and I thought, but there's so many holes in that. And so the fact is, if you don't know, just say, I don't know. And because in other words, the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the third trumpet,

23:00there's no way anybody on the planet, unless God just miraculously showed somebody, there's no way anybody could have known that was going to be the Chernobyl nuclear accident April 26, 1986. We had to live through that for God to say, okay, Irvin Baxter, that look back, study that. And the, you know, the word Chernobyl is, means wormwood in a Ukrainian, in Russia, in Ukraine, and things like that. And so, but until April 26, 1986, there's Chernobyl nuclear accident happened. There's no way anybody could know that. So we don't know everything about Bible prophecy. Some things we won't know until we live through it and then come look back and say, okay, that was it. Some things we may not know until the return of Jesus Christ and then we can ask Him, what did that really mean? We may not understand everything. The Bible says, now we look through a glass darkly, much of it we can understand, but we may not

24:04understand every little single, every single little nuance. And so certainly we don't want to present and say, oh, here's what we do know this dot it out and we simply don't. We're assuming so we don't do that. It's very, very important. There's nothing wrong with saying, I don't know because you can lose your credibility very, very quickly by presenting assumptions as certainty. Just tell me, if you don't know something, tell people you don't know. We may know in the future, maybe God will reveal us to us at a certain time, but right now we simply don't know. So scripture gives enough information to recognize the major prophetic framework though, but it does not answer every question that people may ask and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that at all. I'm writing on the book of Daniel right now. I'm asking God to help me. There's three things I don't know in the book of Daniel right now. I'm asking God to show me those things as we go, as we move forward, but he may not. And if he doesn't, that's fine. In the book,

25:11I'll write what we do know and then just keep on trucking because I'm not going to present something as a certainty that I'm assuming or speculating on. I'll simply tell people, here's what I know, we don't know fully and then move on down the line. And I think that adds to the credibility of a ministry or writer when you do that. Faithful prophecy teaching must state clearly what the Bible says and carefully explain what it appears to be developing. And honestly, acknowledged where scripture is silent. Let me give you another example. The mark of the beast. I can show you, so I know the overall scope. He's going to give everybody a mark in their right hand and their forehead without which nobody's going to be able to buy or sell. Now, I know that's the Bible. That's the mark of the mark of the beast. What that's going to look like specifically, all I can do now is show the precursors to that

26:13and how a global economic sanctioning system is being established. And they're going to use that to sanction people into compliance to the world government and the edicts of the Antichrist. But is that a chip in the hand? Is it an invisible tattoo that they can use for a scanner? Is it a retinal scan in your forehead? At this point, I don't know for sure. At some point, we will know I can come on the radio or television and say, Hey, here's what we, this is it. But at this point, I can't. And so I've got to say I don't know at this point. I can see all the precursors and I know exactly what's going to happen. But specifically what it looks like, we simply don't know yet. Nobody knows because we're at least three and a half years from there. Look at how much technology is changing so fast. So there's no way that we'll be able to predict what that's going to be pretty close, but not necessarily at this time. So we certainly don't, we want to make sure that we're being totally honest about everything that we're teaching.

27:15It's very, very important to protect your credibility and that so people know exactly what you're saying is true because we're talking about the Word of God here and we want to make sure that we get it right. Look how much of the Bible is is prophecy. Are you ready for an extraordinary journey to the region that is the focus of more in time Bible prophecy than any of them? Well, look no further. Join us on an unforgettable journey to Israel. Our adventure begins down in Jerusalem where we will teach on the Mount of Olives. Seeing at the Garden of Gethsemane, walk down through the Kidron Valley, then we'll make our way north, have a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee while visiting Joppa, Mount Carmel, baptized in the Jordan River, and so much more. Don't miss out on this incredible trip to Israel. Spaces are limited. Book your tour today.

28:16Visit ntime.com slash tour or call us at 1-800-N time. Join us for an experience that you will never forget. What if you could understand Bible prophecy? Dave Robinson's The Host of the N Time shows TV and radio programs as holding a free prophecy conference near you. Game piece of understanding about what the Bible says concerning ntime prophecy. Call 1-800-N time or go to ntime.com slash advance to see when Dave will be in a location where he will be in the world. Welcome back everybody. We're talking about the amount of prophecy in the Bible. I mean, it's almost

29:17overwhelming. Why would God tell us so much? I mean, the quantity of prophecy, it raises a deeper question. Why did God devote so much of Scripture? The only book God has ever written. Why did He devote so much of that to prophetic proclamation? Well, of course, one of the things, John 1429, I tell you these things before they come to pass, that you might believe prophecy builds your faith in the Word of God. But prophecy also reveals his sovereignty. The Lord declared, remember the former things of old, for I am God. And there is none else. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, that's Isaiah 46, 9-10. So human beings can make forecast, sure. But God declares His purposes and brings them to pass. You can, if the, if a prophecy is given in the Bible, I'm telling you, it doesn't matter how

30:19the political landscape looks, if we're in war, what happens? That prophecy is going to come to pass. If two nations are at war right now, and the Bible says they're in alliance in the end time, that's exactly what's going, the Bible says Russia will be in alliance with Europe in the end. Look at how they're about ready to go to World War III right now, just about looks seems like right. But they're going to be in alliance, the body of the leopard, feet of the bear in Revelation 13. The, the world, the beast or the bear will be in alliance with Europe in the end time. Also prophecy confirms the trustworthiness of Scripture. Again, Jesus said, now I've told you it's come to pass before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you might believe. Fulfilled prophecy is not merely some kind of an impressive religious claim. It demonstrates that history is moving according to a divine plan. The fulfillment of prophecy concerning Christ's first coming gives believers confidence in the promise that he

31:24is going to return a second time. Prophecy also calls to repentance. I mean warnings of judgment are expressions of mercy. God warns before He acts, right? And Nineveh told us that, you know, the destruction was approaching and of course the city repented. Jeremiah warned Judah before Jerusalem fell. Jesus warned His followers to watch, pray and remain faithful. I mean, prophecy's not intended to produce panic or fear. Think about that. A lot of people think, oh no, a prophecy conference. That's not what we're doing at prophecy conferences. We're building your faith. We're, it's a means of God dispensing grace and faith to people. It's not intended to produce, it's not well, it's also intended to, it's not intended to produce fear. It's intended to produce preparation, not just physical preparation, but spiritual preparation for the times ahead. And prophecy also gives hope that the prophets did not merely announce judgment.

32:30They looked beyond judgment to restoration. Isaiah saw nations coming to Jerusalem. Jeremiah saw Israel planted securely in her land, right? Ezekiel saw life return to dry bones in her land beyond the exile. Daniel saw the saints receive the kingdom. John saw death, sorrow, crying and pain, finally removed. And the prophetic message insists that evil will not win. Jesus wins in the end. The Bible says in Revelation 17 that we will crown him king of kings and lord of lords when he defeats the armies of the antichrist. And so Jesus wins in the end and so will those who trust him. So how much of the Bible should we study? Well, of course, all of it. I mean, if more than,

33:31how much of, when we look at prophecy, if more than one fourth of the scripture was predictive when written, ignoring prophecy means neglecting a substantial portion of God's word. Some people said, I've heard people say, I don't care about the mark of the beast. Who cares? Well, I mean, it's in the word of God. And if it's in the word of God, I want to study it and I want to understand it. And so studying prophecy does not mean reading only Daniel in a revelation, though. As you can tell, we talked about the prophetic framework begins all the way back in Genesis and develops through the covenants appears in Psalms, expands through the prophets, is confirmed by Jesus, explained by the apostles and completed in Revelation. It's all the way through the Bible. And readers who approach prophecy only through current events, they'll often become confused. And this is why many times during the holiday season, Christmas season, we will write on articles about Jesus being the Messiah

34:38and his birth and what that means. And we talk about the crucifixion and we talk about a lot of different things. Now, in time, ministries is mainly devoted to end time Bible prophecy, but that's not all we cover. We've written articles on all of the Messianic prophecies, many of the prophets at prophetic narratives throughout the Bible. And headlines change quickly, but scripture doesn't. And so we want to talk about all the prophecies and we may do more programming in the future. We got it, we got to focus on end time because we're right here, we're the end time generation. And this is why we focus mainly on that. But we'll do some programming here in the near future about some of the other types of prophecies in the Bible because we're building your faith in the word of God, right? Current events, they may illustrate why a prophecy is possible or how conditions could be developing, but the Bible must remain the foundation. And the proper of order of scripture,

35:42first interpretation, second contemporary application. And so it's very, very important that we keep all those things in line. Prophecy should also be, it produced more, more than information. Jesus repeatedly connected knowledge of his return with watchfulness, faithfulness, endurance, and readiness. So it becomes a heart thing at that point. I mean, at least it should. The person who studies prophecy, but refuses its moral demands on the person, they've missed its purpose. In other words, Jesus Christ has come you back soon. Watch you that Jesus would say in Matthew 24, watch you therefore for in such an hour as you think, not your Lord comes. Prepare yourself. Be born again. Jesus told Nicodemus, except I'm going to be born again. He doesn't enter, he can't enter, see the kingdom of God. Well, we know the kingdom of God is coming before very long. But the way Nicodemus, when he died, the way his heart was and was he born again, was he saved. That's how

36:45he's going to meet the Lord at the time of the rapture. And so for every generation, man, they had a sense of urgency upon them. So it was more than just their Chernobyl nuclear accident in April 26, 1986. Prophecy is so much more than that. The Bible talks about a second coming of Jesus Christ when he would establish his kingdom here on the earth. And it's all about preparing you for that event. And so there's in time prophetic events and current events and then there's preparation and building your faith in the Word of God and a lot of different things. You know, although the written Word of God is settled and cannot be added to, the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy itself. And thus prophecy could very well land within us today and flow through us into the lives of others through the gifts of the spirit. Revelation 1910, 1 Corinthians 14,

37:511 Romans 12, 6. So Peter asked, what kind of people believers should be in the light of the coming day of the Lord? His answer was not only watch, which of course we should do, or that we should become obsessed with mirror speculation, but he wrote of holy conversation or lifestyle or and godliness while believers look for the fulfillment of God's promise. That's 2 Peter 3 verse 11 through 13. So prophecies meant to change how we live as we watch and anticipate the soon return of the Lord when the Bible says in Revelation 17, every eye shall be hold him. The percentage of prophecy is only the beginning. I mean, the most detailed publish account, again, identified 8,352 predictive verses. That's only about 27% of scripture. Well, that makes the

38:54familiar statement that more than 1 fourth of the Bible was prophetic when written, it is reasonable and you can't support that, but the key phrases here is predictive verses. A lot of people have asked me in interviews and different things and we've talked different conversations. How much of the Bible is prophecy? Well, now you'll know to say, well, are you talking about predictive prophecy or about prophecy as a whole because there's a difference. Prophecy in its first biblical sense is larger than a statistical category. It is the voice of God confronting rebellion, defending truth, warning nations, promising redemption, revealing the Messiah, restoring Israel, judging evil and announcing the kingdom to come. And God, he certainly could have given us a Bible containing only commandments, right? Doos and doles, this is it. Boom. But he could have given us

40:00a Bible containing only history and instead, Almighty God gave us scripture in which history, covenant, doctrine, poetry, promise, certainly warning and prophecy work, together reveal his purposes. I mean, folks, the word of God, the Bible is a masterpiece. It's a living, it's the living word of God. And I'm telling you, if you know, I've heard my father-in-law say people that he went to many backsliders years ago, people that had fallen away from God and talked to them and he asked them, why did you, why did you move away from God? Why did you quit church? Why did you backslide? And there was a, like a common denominator in every

41:02individual, they didn't like Bible study. Think about that. The David said, I will hide thy words in my heart, O Lord, that I might not sin against thee. And you got to study your, get the word of God ingrained in your heart into the fiber of your being. Because I'm telling you the word of God, the most, the most awesome book ever written by far. It's sold more books than any other book by far in history. Why? It's, it tells us about the first coming of Jesus Christ when he purchased a plan of salvation, preparing us for the second coming of Jesus Christ when he would establish his kingdom here on the earth. It's a living word that you can't go to the Quran, you can't go to the Chinese Proverbs, any other book on the planet. And showing you in use current events to show how prophecies written 2000 to 2500 years ago are coming to pass right now, it's impossible. There's no other book. And so every fulfilled prophecy reminds us that God

42:11keeps his word. Every prophecy still awaiting fulfillment reminds us that God is not finished. The same God who announced the Messiah's first coming has promised that Jesus will return. That the same God who announced the Messiah's first coming has promised that Jesus will return. The same Lord who scattered Israel promised restoration. And the same scripture that foretold suffering also promises resurrection. The same prophetic message that warns of tribulation ends with Christ reigning and his people dwelling with him. So again, I want to say this prophecy is not designed to create fear. We don't teach prophecy to scare people. Why? Because God's in control. God knows the end from the beginning. How do we have all these prophecies? They're thousands of

43:13years old, but they're coming to pass right now. The predictive prophecies. How do we have that? Because God is in control of it all. He knows what's coming and he's shown us ways to navigate these events. So you don't have to be afraid. Now, if the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, if you're not ready to meet the Lord, then yes, you should have an element of fear. That should be the only fear though. I don't fear the end of Christ. I'm not afraid of the the world government. I'm not afraid of any of that stuff because I know I'm serving God. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. Grader's he that's in me than he that's in the world. For we know that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. I'm not afraid of any of that. The only thing I would be afraid of is if I didn't wasn't ready to meet the Lord when he comes. Now, I would certainly be concerned about that and we need to answer that question. And of course, Jesus told Nicodemus, except of man's born again, can't enter and see the kingdom of God. So certainly, if you've not been

44:18born again, go to ntime.com slash reborn, read everything it talks about salvation wise. And then if you need to do something, do it. This is the day of salvation the Bible says. So where are we at here? So prophecy. It's not included in the Bible just to tell us, you know, what's going to happen? There's so much more to it than that. I mean, it tells us who controls what will happen. History does not belong to kings and governments and doesn't the Bible say in that the the Lord puts up kings and takes them down. It's not history's not doesn't belong to armies or financial systems or international institutions. It belongs to the God who declares the end from the beginning. Almighty God's already seen this whole thing play out. That's why I say many times nothing comes as a surprise to God. Nothing. Nothing that has ever happened to you, me. Nothing that happens behind closed doors in these international institutions preparing for a world government.

45:26None of that. Nothing is comes as a surprise to God. So you shouldn't fear. Bob says he'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. And so God is certainly the one you want to have on your side, right? A lot of people, when you go into times of crisis, they go out of their mind because they think, what am I going to do in this? Now, no, go to God. And so it belongs to God who declares the end for the beginning. For that reason, believers do not study prophecy with fear. We don't teach prophecy with fear. We study it with confidence. We watch. We watch the prophecies in the in the times of head with discernment. We live in urgency. I live my life in a sense of urgency that I'm not promised tomorrow morning. Now, I'm not scared, but I'm not promised tomorrow morning. Once you've got your calling and election sure, it takes the fear of dying away. Oh, death. Where is thy sting? Oh,

46:35grave. Where is thy victory? And so while there's time, we proclaim the gospel. And we lift our heads because the return of Jesus Christ is not a religious fantasy or a human prediction. It is the promise of a God who has never failed to keep his word. And so it used right here at the end to close this out. What's the final percentage count? I mean, that's the answer. How much of the Bible is prophecy? Well, the answer depends on almost entirely on how prophecy is being defined. Again, the famous 27% figure is not an inspired or universally accepted number. However, it is a scholarly estimate given based on a particular methodology and a broader definition of prophecy could indeed produce a higher percentage. I mean, so how let's look at how of the each of those scholarly sources noted approach it. So Jay Barton Pains back in 1980, the 27% figure,

47:43that's the source that most people quote, Pains methodology was actually quite conservative. Pain counted direct predictive prophecy, Messianic prophecies, Eschatological prophecy, nation judgments, promises of restoration, prophetic predictions already fulfilled, prophecy still awaiting fulfillment. And then his famous statistics are again, 1817 individual predictions, 8352 predictive verses or about roughly 27% of the Bible verses. But I want you to notice the wording here. These are predictive verses. Pain was primarily measuring foretelling rather than every aspect of prophetic literature. He was not attempting to count every verse spoken by a prophet. Okay. And that's why I say when somebody asks you a question, how much of the Bible is prophecy? I want you to be able to understand predictive roughly 27%. Woolverd, likewise focused

48:53on predictive prophecy. When he says nearly one-fourth of scripture was prophetic when written, he's referring to scripture that contained genuine predictive revelation. And his work surveys over a thousand major prophecies, but he's not trying to count every prophetic speech, the oracle, sermon covenant lawsuits or symbolic action. And this is a fairly conservative approach as well. If you look at the guy named, it was Bullock. Well, Bullocks are actually making almost the opposite point. He repeatedly argues that we should not reduce prophecy to merely prediction. And he didn't give a percentage estimation. Old Testament prophecy includes covenant preaching, ethical calls, repentance, judgment, hope, restoration, constant lawsuits. I mean, theological interpretation of history. And he emphasizes that prediction is only one function of the prophets. So in other words, Bullock might say that pain statistics describe only one

49:56dimension of prophetic literature. And then there was Kaiser and Kaiser focuses on primarily on the unfolding of the messianic promise. And so his concern is tracing redemption through scripture rather than calculating percentages. So his work does, however, it demonstrates that prophecy extends far beyond isolated predictions because the messianic theme develops progressively throughout the Old Testament. So what did pain not fully count in the 27% that he came up with? Well, if the definition of prophecies understood to expand beyond predictive statements, numerous additional categories become relevant. Now, listen at this list of prophetic genre that is not just foretelling. There is also prophetic preaching, which is fourth telling. There is covenant

51:02lawsuit oracles. There is wisdom delivered through the prophets, prophetic symbolism. There are sign acts, Jeremiah joke, or like Ezekiel lying on a side, prophetic visions, dream reports, the throne room visions, apocalyptic sections, prophetic prayers, divine courtroom scenes, prophetic poetic prophetic literature, restoration oracles, lament oracles, salvation oracles, covenant renewal speeches. Didn't know all this was prophecy did you? prophetic sermons, commissioning narratives, call narratives, prophetic dialogue, symbolic action, angelic predictions, prophetic blessings, prophetic curses, prophetic hymns, prophetic, I should say a messianic typology, chiastic structures, IE the entire book of Revelation as someone suggests, and there's many more. So many of these contained little or no prediction and yet nearly every Old Testament scholar

52:06still classifies them as prophetic literature. And I certainly would classify them all within the context of prophecy. For without prophecy they would each fail to operate and function as intended. So could the percentage be higher? Could the percentage be higher than pain suggested or that 27 percent figure? Well, absolutely. It depends on the definition of the word prophecy. For example, if you define only predictive verses then it would be about 25 to 27 percent according to pain, about one fourth. If you define entire prophetic books counted as prophetic literature, then the result would be considerably higher about maybe 33 percent on the low end. If you define all prophetic genres, including forth telling predictive passages, covenant lawsuits, prophetic sermons, symbolic acts, visions, apocalyptic material, and much more,

53:12rather than it would be higher still, but it would be almost 50 some would say 50 percent of the Bible would be prophecy. Now there is there no major scholar has yet produced and across the board fully accepted statistical count using this broader definition because it becomes increasingly subjective and you know there there is merit to moving beyond predictive in terms of what prophecy truth is. Bible prophecy is far more expansive than more predictive text. If someone were to ask me well how much of the Bible is prophecy, not predictive prophecy but prophecy in general, I might shock them and predict somewhere between 33 and 50 percent. Now again, that's all the prophetic genres put together. And so while the predictive percentage reign is only an

54:15estimation, the long and exhaustive scope of prophetic genre list that I just talked about, that should not that can't be ignored. The huge reach plays a big role in the rich prophetic material that's woven through the Bible's overall story. So in other words, Bible prophecy includes far more than most people, even scholars often realize. At the end of the day, there's probably not one answer for how much of the Bible is prophecy. There are more than three answers actually. I mean academically proven while only considering predictive prophecies about 27 percent. Move beyond mere predictive into the vastness in the grand door of prophecy could be at least 33 percent and then in the realm of possibility, inclusive of all prophetic genres, including in God's word, you could become upwards of maybe 50 percent, maybe more. And so this is a three pronged response

55:25while it's yet and still an estimation is about as close as probably as we're going to get to answering the question, how much of the Bible is prophecy? And so what you said, well, what does all this prophecy mean for us? Well, after examining how extensively prophecy is woven throughout Scripture, the most important question is not simply how much of the Bible's prophecy, the greater question is what does God want us to do with it? Well, the Bible itself gives us the answer. Prophecy proves that God is sovereign and he is a sovereign God and he declares that he knows the future and controls the outcome. Isaiah 4610 says declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done. Daniel 221, he removed with kings and seteth up kings. The rise and fall of the kingdoms are not outside God's knowledge or authority. So you don't have to you don't have to fear the next president coming in or you don't have to fear the world government or the antichrist. I'm concerned about these things. We talk about them,

56:29we reveal what God's word says about them, but it's not to put us in a state of fear. Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 are revelation. They all demonstrate that human kingdoms ultimately give away to the kingdom of God. The Bible says in Daniel chapter 11 at the time of the seventh Trump, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. So again, prophecy proves that God keeps his word, right? The first coming of Jesus Christ, the second coming of Jesus Christ, all of the messianic prophecies. It's just over and over. All of the current events that we can use today show how those prophecies are coming to pass right now. The Bible is the only book that I can do that with on the planet. And so God's word is such a living word and prophecy helps us to show that. Doesn't revelation 19 say the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy? Well, this is God's word that's coming out, right?

57:34God's word and written form the Bible. So awesome prophecy from Genesis to Revelation. And probably you could say the vast majority if not the entirety of the book is Bible prophecy because it's showing us a narrative all the way through from the beginning to the end. It's just so awesome, isn't it? God bless.