Page 109 - Bible Doctrine Survey I - Student Textbook (3)

Study Section 16: The Doctrine of Future Things

16.1 Connect.

Most people would love to know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next? Knowing
the future would really help in making decisions today. The Bible has volumes of information
in it about what’s coming down the road. Sometimes it is confusing to figure it all out. So
let’s dive into it systematically and see if we can build a clear idea about what is coming, and
maybe very soon.

16.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to describe the principles to apply to properly interpreting
Biblical prophecy.

2. The student should be able to explain how a person’s view about all God’s promises to Israel
shades their view of Biblical prophecy.

3. The student should be able to explain the 70 weeks of Daniel.

16.3 Eschatology

Eschatology is the study of what the Bible says is going to happen in the end times. In other
words, it is a study of future things that the Bible predicts will happen. Many treat Eschatology as
an area of theology to be avoided. Of course, Eschatology is not as crucial as Christology (Who
Jesus Is) or Soteriology (Doctrine of Salvation). No matter what your eschatological views are, the
future will unfold according to God’s plan, whether you got it right or not! That does not mean,
though, that it is unimportant to a Biblical worldview. How we understand Eschatology has an
impact on how we should live our lives and what we are to expect to occur in God’s plan.

Many Christian have given up on studying prophecy because they become confused by the various
interpretations of eschatology. They say, “If God fulfills his promises in detail why are there so many
different and confusing views about what will happen yet in the future. Could God not have revealed
prophecy clearly enough so we wouldn’t have to sort through this confusion? They wonder if God does
not really want us to understand prophecy and therefore, we should not waste our time trying to study
it.”

Revelation 1:1–3 (NIV84)1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants
what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who
testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3
Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and
take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Approximately one-fourth of the Bible was prophetic when it was written. Some of it has been fulfilled
already. For example, Daniel foretold the kingdoms of Persia, Greece and Rome. David, Isaiah, Micah
and others predicted the birth, life and death of Christ, etc. Prophecy is obviously a major portion of
scripture and much of it remains unfulfilled as yet.

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