“For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.” ~Revelation 19:10
The purpose of all prophecy found in the Bible is to reveal Jesus to the world. It is also the intent of prophecy to inform, inspire, and encourage those who trust in Jesus to be diligent in living for Him. We don’t know the day or hour of Jesus’ return, but we should live our lives as though He could come for us at any moment.1 Paul said that living in constant expectation of Jesus’ return has a purifying effect on the true believer. If we really believe that Jesus could come for us at any time, we will be seeking to live in a way that glorifies Him and purify ourselves of sin at all times.
“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” ~1 John 3:2-3
John wrote these words to encourage those who love Jesus and to prepare us for times of trials that will be a part of the Last Days. The entire New Testament is filled with encouragement to be aware that we are living in the final days before Jesus comes again. The reason we study Eschatology is so that we will be encouraged to watch and wait for our Lord.
The writers of the New Testament narratives also warn us that while we are waiting for Jesus to come again, there will be many who will seek to discourage us from watching for Jesus:
Paul writes to Timothy: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” ~2 Timothy 3:1-5
The people Paul is describing in his letter to Timothy are people who claim to be believers in Jesus but live in opposition to their confession of faith. We see many today who claim to be Christian, but the way they speak and act is contrary to the way that a follower of Jesus should live their life.
Peter warned that as we get closer to the day of Jesus’ return, many scoffers will say that it has been too long since Jesus came the first time, and He will not come again. There are also a group of people who assert that Jesus has already come again:
“Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” ~2 Peter 3:3-4
Jesus made it clear that we should not become too busy with the things of this world and forget who we are. If we believe that Jesus could come for us at any moment, we will not be living in a way that would cause us to be ashamed when He does return: “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” ~1 John 3:2-3
This was the intent of John in writing his letter to first-century Christians: Live for Jesus today, because He can come at any moment. This hope will cause us to purify our life of sin and live righteously.
Today we understand that Jesus was not planning to return to earth immediately, but He still wanted every believer from every generation to live in constant expectation of His return.
Eschatology is the study of events that concern the Last Days
When did the last days begin? According to Peter in the New Testament, they began with the arrival of Jesus on Earth:
Peter’s Interpretation of Joel’s Prophecy
When the prophet Joel penned his prophecy of the last days in chapter 2 of his book, we were all surprised to learn today that this new Spirit-filled Peter declared that Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled on the first day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were present and Jesus’ church was born.
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. 29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” ~Joel 2:28-29
Peter not only attributed verses 28 and 29 of Joel Chapter 2 to the birth of the church, he also ascribed the entire text of Joel’s prophecy to the birth of the church:
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:17 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. 21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.”2
Verses 19-21 would appear to be applicable only to the seven-year Tribulation Period; Peter describes this verse as applicable to the birth of the church, in Acts Chapter 2.
Today we call the technique that Peter used in interpreting the Old Testament prophecies of Joel Chapter 2, in light of their New Testament fulfillment, a Pesher. This term comes from the Hebrew word, peser—meaning, interpretation.3 In the peser interpretation and application of an Old Testament prophecy, the importance is placed on the fulfillment, not on the exegesis of the prophecy’s technical points which it is interpreting.
It is this technique whereby we can rightly attribute Old Testament prophecies that do not, at first glance, seem to be attributable to the Messiah as applicable to Him. As we compare their text with the New Testament verses that appear to be a fulfillment of those Old Testament predictions, we learn that they have a valid application. The Pesher is a method of interpretation that I have made use of in several instances where I could not see the Messianic application of certain verses, which I included in these hundreds of prophecies, until after I gave further diligent study.
Once an Old Testament verse becomes a possible candidate for Messianic application, a search must be made to find whether there is a New Testament counterpart that can be rightly attributable to the Old Testament verse in question. In many of the Old Testament verses included in this book, it was this exegetical technique that I used. I came to the conclusion that these obscure verses did, in fact, have a New Testament Fulfillment; therefore, they must be a Messianic prophecy.
In Peter’s sermon in Acts Chapter 2, verse 17, the Apostle uses the phrase: “And it shall come to pass in the last days…”; whereas Joel actually said, (Joel 2:28) “And it shall come to pass afterward…”
By changing afterward to in the last days, Peter is using the Pesher formula to interpret Joel’s meaning of his prophecy. In the Septuagint manuscripts of MT and LXX, afterward is ahare ken, meta tauta. This is the same Greek phrase used in the Book of Revelation Chapter 4, where after speaking about the church and the things of the church, John states in chapter 4: “After these things…” (meta tauta—after the things of the church, John was Raptured to heaven to see the visions Jesus showed him).
Joel was prophesying regarding the last days and specifically events that would concern the coming of the Messiah, His ministry, and the events of His wrath as described in the Book of Revelation. These events will occur during the seven-year Tribulation Period.
We learn a great deal about the way the early Christian leaders interpreted Old Testament prophecy and the manner in which we should also interpret certain Old Testament prophecies when seeking their New Testament fulfillment. Peter understood that what Joel had predicted was what God had said. Although at times what God has said through the Old Testament prophet is quite mysterious and puzzling, when we also search for a possible New Testament fulfillment, as I have done, we see the deeper meaning and revealed mystery of these Old Testament Scriptures.
I realize that for many this will be a difficult concept to grasp or accept, but this is nevertheless the correct method for interpreting many of these prophecies of the Messiah, which are found in the Old Testament. I am in good company with Peter who, on the day of Pentecost, used this method in interpreting Joel’s prophecy, in applying what Joel said to the birth of the church and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
One thing is certain about what Peter interpreted from Joel’s prophecy: From the birth of the church, in Acts Chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit was given to each person who came into a saving relationship with the Messiah, these events began the Last Days that Joel is speaking of.
The days in which you and I are now living are the last of the Last Days. We are much closer to the return of Jesus for His church than we could possibly imagine. One of my constant thoughts in writing this book was that I may not finish it before the Lord comes for us at the Rapture. This is the reality that we live in today. The coming of the Lord was described as near 2,000 years ago. As I write, and you read these words today, how much closer we are to His coming—even at the door.4
How should we correctly interpret the prophetic texts of the Bible?
There are two primary ways we can examine and understand the prophecies of the Bible that concern the Messiah and the events of the Last Days: The Allegorical Method and the Literal Method.
- The Allegorical Method is a figurative, symbolic, or metaphorical way of interpreting a particular text of Biblical prophecy.
- The Literal Method is the simple, clear, and straightforward meaning of a particular verse or text.
Only when we interpret the Bible literally can we understand it accurately. The biggest problem with many modern interpretations of the Bible is that people tend to over-spiritualize a text that only requires a basic understanding.
There is also the certainty that only the Spirit of God can cause us to understand the texts of the Bible that concern the Last Days.
“It is God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them.” ~Proverbs 25:2
What Is Required To Understand The Bible?
According to academic scholars—many of which are atheists who don’t believe that God exists, or progressives who state that the Bible is not the Word of God—we must consult with them before we can understand what the Bible means.
Image the shock of those who penned the New Testament, that people would later assert that a scholar is needed to understand what they were writing. Preposterous!
There is no possibility that these men who penned the New Testament intended that so-called “experts” were required in order to comprehend what they recorded. When the books of the New Testament were first written, they were in the form of personal letters written to churches.
These letters were meant to be read to the congregation and understood in their plain meaning. The exception to this rule is that on some occasions, we must consult other texts within the Bible to correctly understand the texts we are seeking to understand. We should always use the Bible to confirm a particular text—not a scholar or commentator who comes along hundreds or thousands of years later.
Modern atheists and progressive scholars today seek to convince people that only they have the skills to understand the Bible. The truth is that Jesus and the writers of the New Testament said that only a person born again by the Spirit of God (John 3:3), who has been given the gift of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 13 and John 14), can correctly understand the texts of the Bible.
John 14:26: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
No one must be a scholar to understand the Bible, but they do have to be born again and have the Holy Spirit living inside them. In Matthew 13:11-16, Jesus taught these exact principles to His disciples.
Matthew 13:10-15: “His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables, (Jeremiah 5:21): For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.
This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 6:9-10 that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’”
Depending upon whom you ask, the Bible is classified as one-fourth to one-half prophecy. In the words of Jesus, it is likely that He intended that we interpret the Bible as predominantly prophetic because He said it is all about Him:
“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” ~John 5:39
There are some who assert that we can find Jesus on every page of the Bible in a parable, a metaphor, similitude, epigram, allegory, type, picture, or allusion.
- A parable (Gr. parabole) is a short story with a beginning, plot, and ending.
- A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. “You are the salt of the earth” is not a parable; it’s a metaphor.
- A similitude is the quality or state of being similar to something, or a comparison between two things. For example: yeast or leaven in flour.
- An epigram is a pithy saying or remark, expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way: Do people pick grapes from thornbushes?
- An allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically with a moral or political significance. An allegory is an extended metaphor that uses a story or event, even mythical or supernatural, to illustrate a point: Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory of the spiritual journey of those seeking God.
- A type is a person or thing that has the characteristics of something else that is similar in the Bible.
- A picture is a method of communication by illustration that allows us to see a biblical truth visually in our minds. When a human being thinks, he does so by the use of pictures, not words. Words communicate truth, but the mind conveys these truths to the heart through images. When truths are communicated by common objects that are familiar to us, we see a picture of these objects in our minds. It is then that we can ponder these representations and understand how they relate to the story that is being told.
- An allusion is an indirect reference to someone or something found somewhere else in the Bible, that helps us understand a term or principle.
These methods of teaching or revealing important principles found in the Bible assist us as we ponder these representations found in Scripture and help us understand how they relate to the story that is being told.
The Bible designates Jesus as the Creator of all that exists (Colossians 1:17). Therefore, His teaching originates from the source of all knowledge and contains the wisdom of eternity.
In an examination of Psalm 78, we find that these texts describe the Messiah in His use of parables as an effective method for conveying truth. These simple stories that use familiar illustrations reveal formerly hidden knowledge about the Kingdom of God and Heaven itself.
Jesus defined the purpose of His parables as a way to reveal spiritual truth to those who have a sincere heart for God. For those who are callous, uncaring, and uninterested in the things of God, the parables serve to conceal these truths.
In the same manner, the Prophecies of the Messiah are tools that the Holy Spirit uses to assist us in understanding all of the events of the Last Days. Eschatology is merely the formal method that we use to assemble all the Scriptures together so that the events are concise, clear, and easy to understand.
The Preceding Is From Rob’s New Book: “Eschatology: A Study In The Last Days,” Now Available At Amazon:
NOTES:
1 Matthew 24:36 “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.”
2 Acts 2:14-21
3 Pesher: From Strong’s Hebrew Concordance #6592, defined as a “translation” or “interpretation.”
4 Revelation 3:20, “Behold I stand at the door and knock,”
Categories: All Israel will be saved, Attack on Israel by Russia, Battle of Gog and Magog, Believers Removed before Tribulation, Believers saved during the Tribulation, Building the Third Temple, Eschatology, Eschatology: A Study In The Last Days, Forgetting the Rapture, Israel in the Last Days, Israel in the Last Days, Jews reject Jesus, Messianic Prophecies, One Way to Heaven, Palm Sunday, Pretend Believers, Religion vs. Relationship, Revelation 12 Signs, Robert Clifton Robinson, Salvation is a free gift, The Battle of Armageddon, The First Arrival of the Messiah, The prophecies of Isaiah 61, The Prophecy of Daniel 9, The Resurrection of Jesus, The Temple Mount, The Tribulation Period, Thousand Year Kingdom, Watching for Jesus return, We must repent, What happens after death?
Robert Clifton Robinson 
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