Issues in Bible Prophecy (2): The Gospel Proclaimed to All Nations, the End, and The Coming of the Son of Man
Introduction In my last post , I introduced the subject of Bible prophecy by emphasizing two critically important aspects of it: timing and historical context. With regard to timing, we said that if we want to understand the prophecies of the Bible correctly, we must pay close attention to time indicators or time texts. Often, the prophecies of the Bible contain information concerning when the prophecy in question will be fulfilled. Some are very specific: within a year (Isa. 21:16), a little more than a year (Isa. 32:10), in three years (Isa. 16:14), in 40 years (Ezek. 29:11, 13), in 65 years (Isa. 7:8), in 70 years (Jer. 25:11). There are also prophecies with time indicators that are less specific: “in just a little while” (Hos. 1:4); “before your eyes and in your days” (Jer. 16:9), “the days are near,” “In your days” (Ezek. 12:23, 25). These refer to prophesied events that were to take place soon after the prophecies were given. If we should take any of these prophecies...