{"id":11704,"date":"2016-08-17T01:30:30","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/the-importance-of-prophecy\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:30:30","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T06:30:30","slug":"the-importance-of-prophecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/the-importance-of-prophecy\/","title":{"rendered":"THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPHECY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>MARK 13:1\u201323<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'><i>(Mark 13:23)<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>In theology, the study of future things prophesied in the Bible is called <i>eschatology.<\/i> Both Thessalonian epistles show us that the early church was interested in prophecy, and Paul was as well. Today we have a problem with the subject of prophecy\u2014two problems, really. Among conservative Christians, some brethren have focussed so heavily on prophecy that they have become an embarrassment to the rest of the church. The Rapture has been dated over and over again, and has never yet happened. Thus, many Christians are sick and tired of hearing about prophecy.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>The second problem Christians have with prophecy or eschatology stems from the liberalism of the nineteenth century. Liberal theologians were committed to the ideals of the enlightenment\u2014eighteenth-century rationalism. In the interest of \u201creason,\u201d they sought to eliminate everything miraculous from the Christian religion. Seeking for the \u201ccore\u201d meaning of Christianity, they thought to find it in the idea of Jesus as \u201cthe supreme moral teacher.\u201d They focussed on the Sermon on the Mount, isolating it from its biblical context and turning it into a set of moralistic ideals.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>A scholar named Albert Schweitzer attacked liberalism. Schweitzer demonstrated that Jesus\u2019 claim to be the Messiah, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, was inseparable from His teachings and life. He also showed that it is impossible to isolate Jesus\u2019 moral teachings from His predictions about His forthcoming Kingship over the whole earth. However, Schweitzer also said that Jesus was wrong, and died in despair on the cross crying out to God. Schweitzer himself adopted a kind of Eastern pantheism and left Europe to became a humanistic medical missionary in Africa.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Two groups answered Schweitzer. Neo-orthodoxy decided that history is not important. Jesus\u2019 claims and His resurrection are only symbols of God\u2019s \u201cencounter\u201d with man. Conservative, orthodox Christian theologians insisted that the historic Christian faith is correct. History, they said, is very important. Jesus\u2019 predictions did indeed come true in the first century. He did become King, as was shown positively on Pentecost and negatively at the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b>CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>2 Samuel 7\u20138<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;   text-align:center;line-height:normal'>Luke 19:1\u201327<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:   18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Prophecy is important. It shows God\u2019s control over   history, in that what He predicts does come to pass. Take care not to \u201cthrow   the baby out with the bath water\u201d when rightly rejecting the fantasies of   some prophecy teachers today.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:   normal'><i>For   further study: 2 Peter 3:1\u201318 \u2022 1 Corinthians 10:1\u201312<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>friday<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center;line-height:normal'>april<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MARK 13:1\u201323 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time (Mark 13:23). In theology, the study of future things prophesied in the Bible is called eschatology. Both Thessalonian epistles show us that the early church was interested in prophecy, and Paul was as well. Today we have a problem with &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/the-importance-of-prophecy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPHECY&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}