We Live in an Extraordinary Time

Why did the authors of the Bible write so much about this moment?

When I speak about Bible prophecy, I often ask audiences how much of the Bible they think applies to the future. What percentage of the Bible is prophecy?

Generally, people answer something like 5 or 10 percent. Maybe, they guess, around one in 20 verses is about foretelling the future.

They are almost always wrong. In fact, just slightly less than one-third of the verses in the Bible are prophecy. The actual numbers are between 27 and 30 percent. (The range exists because some verses can be interpreted dually, about historical events or future events, and sometimes both. As a result, the prophetic nature of a small percentage of verses is disputed by some theologians.)

Regardless, that percentage is incredible to me. If around one in three verses in the Bible are about our future, consider what that means. How important must it be to God that He would devote that much of the Bible to predicting our future. The vast majority of prophecy in the Bible is about events that are still to come and the times we are living in today.

I believe this moment—right now—is the most prophesied period of time in human history. Why did the authors of the Bible write so much about our days?

A time of terror

I believe one of the reasons the Bible speaks so much to our days is because these are the most evil, immoral and dangerous times in human history. Jesus spoke about this when teaching His disciples about the end times:

“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”—Luke 21:25-28

Signs in the sky. The “distress of nations.” Perplexity. Fearful hearts. Do any of those things sound familiar?

Jesus foretold the exact conditions we are living in. And He even prophesied domestic and worldwide terrorism when He said men’s hearts would be “failing them from fear.” The word translated “fear” in this passage comes from the Greek word phobos. That’s the root of our word “phobia.” It can also mean “terror.”

The worst part about terrorism, of course, is the expectation. We never know when it will occur, or how, or what targets a terrorist will hit next.

Saint or sinner?

But in this passage, Jesus does a lot more than describe the exact conditions that will exist on the earth during the last days. He also gives us hope. He tells us that, when the world seems to be at its worst, we should look up. We should lift up our heads.

Why? Because our total redemption is about to happen. The purpose of prophecy is twofold: It warns sinners and comforts saints. You can tell which one of those you are by your response to it.

Does hearing about the events of the last days make you fearful?

Or does it make you hopeful?

One of the reasons I love teaching on the subject of prophecy—in fact, one of the main reasons I started this community—is to help provide comfort. End-times prophecy brings comfort to people once they understand it. It helps us contextualize everything that is happening around us.

It gives order to the chaos. Without prophecy, all we see is a crazy, confused, uncertain world that is getting scarier by the day. But prophecy gives us a better set of lenses through which we can view the world. We see a culture and civilization God foretold thousands of years ago, in detail. We see a moment that is about to experience the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming of Christ.

Indisputable specificity

One of my favorite elements of Bible prophecy is its specificity. Prophecy is tangible and measurable. It’s not some esoteric mumbo-jumbo that could mean different things to different people. Because Bible prophecy is specific, it is very easy to prove or disprove.

For example, look at this very specific prophecy from Jesus. It has fully come true in our generation. There can be no dispute:

“But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”—Luke 21:23-24

Under the leadership of a general named Titus, the Romans Empire defeated the Jews in 70 A.D., killing many by the sword. Those who didn’t perish were led away as captives. The surviving Jewish people were scattered to the nations.

But in 1948, Israel became a nation in one day—May 14, 1948. That itself is a prophetic fulfillment of Isaiah 66:8.

Then in 1967 we saw the complete fulfillment of Jesus’s prophecy in Luke 21. Finally, Jerusalem came once again under Jewish control after the Six-Day War. After trampling over Jerusalem, the times of the Gentiles were indeed fulfilled.

The world’s most provable religion

If you ask me to prove to you that Heaven is real, I can’t. I haven’t been there. I haven’t seen it or experienced it, so it requires faith for me to believe in Heaven. But I can prove to you that Isaiah 66:8 is true, because history exists. And I can prove to you that Luke 21:23-24 is true, for the same reason. History confirms it.

That is why I believe in the rest of the Bible. The accuracy of prophecy proves the rest of the Bible to be true.

But if we accept that thesis, then we also should accept the inverse. If a prophecy is shown to be wrong—if one doesn’t come true—then that should also reflect negatively on the accuracy of God’s Word. But we haven’t seen any prophecies shown to be untrue!

For that reason, I often tell people that Christianity is the most provable faith on the earth.

No other religious book in human history predicts the future with accuracy. NONE! That’s because the only One who can predict the future accurately is the one who controls it. And since we have historical documentation of hundreds of fulfilled prophesies, we can prove that our God is the one true God. We can prove that our Bible is, in fact, God’s Holy Word. Once we have established the truth of the Bible, we also establish that it has authority and relevance in our lives.

Bible prophecy is a beautiful and precious gift from God. The more we understand it and believe in it, the more comfort it brings us and the more confidence we have in God and His Word. That is why I am so glad so many of you have subscribed to endtimes.com.

Every time I write one of these articles, know I am doing so not to scare you or worry you, but to comfort you. I want you to be informed and inspired.

I want you to be ready for His return.