Prophecy

Thanatos

Valerie Cullers 23 Comments

The other day I was asking the Lord about the things that were happening in the world. The world seems like it is in a desperate state at the moment. I was laying in bed that evening about to go to sleep when I heard the word Thanatos. I knew the word was probably Greek and so I looked it up on the internet. Ancient Greeks believed that Thanatos was the bodily incarnation of Death. “Hm-m-m,” I thought. The next morning I looked up Thanatos in my New Testament Greek dictionary and it was the word Death.

I thought about it for a moment and looked in Revelation 6, 7-8. “When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name on him who sat on it was Death (Thanatos), and Hades followed him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.”

Many believers don’t believe the four horsemen of the Apocalypse will be released until the church has been taken to heaven in the Rapture. They believe that the seal judgments will not start until after that event. For me, I don’t know.

Could the horsemen be riding now? I have thought about it this past week. When I look around the world what do I see in Mariupol, Shanghai, Chicago, New York, Yemen, Africa, etc.? I see Thanatos. Is he riding on his pale horse or just walking the streets? That’s for you to decide. For me, I can see him riding through the world bringing death and destruction. Perhaps it is later than we think on the prophetic timeline.

Painting by Gustave Dore

Predictive Prophecy

Valerie Cullers 26 Comments

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Anyone who has gone through the University system has met many a professor who does not believe in a Supreme Being. They can be quick to denigrate the Bible and tell you that it is just an old ancient book that has no relevance in today’s society. When they say that, you may go back to your dorm room and look at your Bible and think, “Is that really true? Does it indeed not have any relevance for today?”

So what makes the Bible unique? What makes it different from any other book that has been written? How can it stand the test of time and still come out as a best-seller even in modern times? Why can we indeed depend on it as a source of truth and inspiration? Two words…predictive prophecy. The Bible claims to be the very words of God. What authenticates it and has authenticated it through centuries past? Predictive prophecy; that is what makes it different from any other source of wisdom and verifies the authority of its words.

What is predictive prophecy? Throughout the Bible, there are hundreds of prophecies about Jesus, Israel, the nations, and specific people. Hundreds of these prophecies have already been fulfilled accurately. They are so accurate in their fulfillment that they cannot be denied. For example, there are hundreds of prophecies about Jesus, the Messiah. During the course of his birth, life and death, he fulfilled over two hundred of them. The odds of that happening are astronomical, to say the least. We know that if these were fulfilled at his first coming, that the remaining prophecies will be fulfilled during his second coming and reign.

The nation Israel strayed from God and there were many prophecies predicting its judgment. Over and over, these prophecies were fulfilled. They were scattered among the nations and the prophecies concerning their regathering are happening right to this very day. Even the prophecy in Isaiah 66:8, “Can a nation be born in a day?” was accomplished on May 14, 1948. 

The ruler, Cyrus the Great, was named in the book of Isaiah one hundred and fifty years before he came into power. Is that some sort of coincidence? I don’t think so. In the book of Daniel, the eleventh chapter encompasses a brief history of the wars and ensuing intrigues between the Seleucids of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt. It is so accurate that historical scholars have a hard time believing it was written hundreds of years before the events took place.  

These are just a few of the examples of predictive prophecy in the Bible, there are many more within its pages, too numerous to count. One thing we can be sure of is this; if the previous prophecies were fulfilled, the future prophecies will be also. How could this happen? I believe that God sits outside of time and sees the end from the beginning. He inspired the prophets of old to write things that they themselves did not see or understand, things that would come to pass in the future. We can rely on the truth of the Bible, and know that its predictive prophecy is the proof of it.