Are You a Meteorologist?

Have you ever thought about Bible prophecy, got excited, expected something epic to happen, and nothing did? Well you wouldn’t be alone. Many Bible scholars, prophecy watchers, and good Bible students have noticed events that indicated prophecy was coming to be fulfilled have waited patiently only to be let down. Today I would like to take a moment and ask this question, are we as believers in Jesus Christ looking at Bible prophecy correctly? Today’s post is not about the legitimacy of Bible prophecy, nor is it about a specific prophecy given in the Bible; but rather regarding the practice of 21st Century believers reading scripture.

One quick note, Mill House Ministries not only believes in the inherency of the Bible, but that Bible Prophecy is a legitimate study and interwoven throughout the entire Bible and should be taken seriously.

However, I would ask you only one question. What is prophecy for? When we review the Bible we see that prophecy is given as instruction regarding an up and coming event. This is done so that those who are willing to listen are not caught off guard with God’s actions. Proverbs 14:8 states, “The naive inherit foolishness, But the sensible are crowned with knowledge.” Simply put, those who are paying attention will understand, and those who are seeking will find.

So what does this mean to us today? Well imagine that Bible Prophecy is a storm; God has revealed that the storm will have dark clouds, it will be fraught with lightning, thunder, and heavy rain. He warns us that we need to be aware of the storm for it is an indication of a specific action that God will do when the storm shows up.

Naturally, humans will fall into four camps. The first is the Meteorologist, they are the Bible Scholar, the Prophecy watcher. They are eagerly looking for signs of the storm that is coming. This group typically is well attuned to Bible prophecy and human theories regarding the interpretations of those events described in the Bible. They are watching all the subtle signs for a coming storm. When the barometric pressure changes, they get all excited and start telling everyone the storm is coming. They post articles, video clips, and might even make movies to get the word out. Causal observers just look and laugh, or might even look up at the sky and wonder what the meteorologist might mean when it looks like a beautiful day. This makes the meteorologist disheartened, or for the prophecy watcher they might become filled with doubt since the storm has not arrived.

The next group is the Bible student, they are not as keen as the meteorologist, but they like to cloud watch. They read the Bible and see the uniqueness without going into the pain staking detail of the prophecy watcher. When they see the clouds gathering and darkening they start to realize that the words spoken in the Bible are coming true. This might scare them or cause them to have fear knowing that the clouds are darkening. They do not understand the reasoning behind the storm, unlike the prophecy watcher, and so they are afraid.

The third group is the uneducated born again believer. This person is not paying attention to the Bible as they should and even less when Bible prophecy is involved. They only notice the storm when the lightning flashes in front of them, and the thunder crashes. For this group it appears that God has left them to the storm and they fall into despair.

The final group is the unbeliever. This person ignored the meteorologist proclamation of the storm coming when the barometric pressure changed. They ignored the Bible student when they pointed out the darkening storms. They even had the audacity to ignore the lightning and thunder and continued on their day. The unbeliever was there during the time of the other three groups, they no doubt saw the same signs but instead they ignored them. Now the storm has come and this will finally wake the unbeliever up, the unbeliever experiences the storm! The rain comes down and they are intimately involved and are witnesses to the awesome power of the storm, which is God’s might. There is no denying it, there is no pretending it isn’t happening, it is right in front of their faces. God is declaring what He had declared well before the storm occurred.

In retrospect, who first knew of God’s promise? The Prophecy watcher, they saw the early signs and knew what was coming. For them the challenge is trusting God’s timing not their own.

For the Bible Student, they understood secondly based on the apparent signs of the storm coming into proximity. For the Bible student their challenge is trusting God, that He knows what He is doing.

The uneducated believer only recognized the storm once God had to pull them away from what was distracting them in order to bring their focus on what He wanted them to see. For them the challenge is realizing God is trying to get their attention.

Nevertheless, the storm is ultimately there for the fourth and final person, the unbeliever. Did the storm help the prophecy watcher, the Bible student, and the uneducated believer with their own challenges? Of course! But the final applicable part of Bible prophecy is for the unbeliever to wake up and realize they are indeed in a storm. The unbeliever now realizes that they need to find shelter, they need to listen to the three that they had ignored and see how they can get out of the storm.

  By now I hope you are seeing where I am going with all of this, we are clearly seeing the days approaching of Bible prophecy being fulfilled. The barometric pressure is changing, the clouds are darkening, and in some cases we even have lightning and thunder. Yet are we in the storm? When we review Bible prophecy we need to take a moment and reflect on the subtle views we might be looking at it from. Are we the eager Prophecy watcher who is looking at every little calculation and seeing the slow development; but losing faith because it is not on their own timeline? Are we the Bible student who is scared to see the darkening clouds and doubt God’s greatness and sovereignty? Are we the uneducated believer who only notices prophecy when it is literally in front of us and we automatically believe God has forgotten us? Or are we the unbeliever who denies the coming storm all together?

We need to remember that Bible prophecy has a dual application for all types of people. We need to understand where we are in regards to that specific prophecy, and see what challenges are keeping us from seeing God for who He really is. If we would slow down and think of the big picture, we might see that God is working so that even the unbeliever has the opportunity to recognize what He has declared. We as believers need to recognize it is our duty to help those unbelievers understand that our only savior from the storm is none other than Jesus Christ.

So next time you hear of Bible prophecy, reflect on what category you might fall in and see the challenges of that group. But remember the blessings for those who are eagerly seeking to know God’s word. The meteorologist is blessed to know the storm is coming first, likewise the Prophecy watcher is the first to see God’s handiwork in action. Let us be eagerly watching, but recognize the challenges before us and understand where others might be.

Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming,

JL