Chuck Missler - Prophecy 20/20: Bringing the Future into Focus Through the Lens of Scripture

Copyright 2006 by Dr. Chuck Missler

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotation marked LXX are the authors own English translation of the Septuagint.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Missler, Chuck.

Prophecy 20/20 : bringing the future into focus through the lens of Scripture / Chuck Missler.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 10: 0-7852-1889-0 (pbk.)

ISBN 13: 978-0-7852-1889-0 (pbk.)

1. BibleProphecies. 2. ProphecyChristianity. I. Title. II. Title: Prophecy twenty/twenty.

BS647.3.M56 2006

220.1'5dc22

2006019091

Printed in the United States of America

06 07 08 09 10 RRD 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

CONTENTS

PROPHECY PAST:
THE BIBLICAL TRACK RECORD

PROPHECY FUTURE:
THE CLASSICAL END-TIME SCENARIO

PROPHECY PRESENT:
WHERE ARE WE NOW?

PREFACE: BLINDFOLDING
OUR PREJUDICES

There is a principle which is a bar against all information,
which is proof against all argument,
and which cannot fail to keep man in everlasting ignorance.
That principle is condemnation before investigation.

Edmund Spencer

This book attempts to present a strategic global perspective from a Biblical prophecy point of view. This will seem strange to many, and for good reason.

Bible prophecy suffers as much from its enthusiasts as it does from its detractors. Too often, prophetic studies suffer from inadequate scholarship, fanciful conjectures, and contrived conclusions.

However, this particular review springs from two astonishing discoveries:

1. The collection of sixty-six books that we traditionally call the Bible, even though penned by more than forty authors over a period of several thousand years, is an integrated message system. More than just thematically, the various texts evidence a skillful craftsmanship, in which virtually every place, every name, every detail, even the hidden structures lying beneath the texts (the figures of speech, signs, and sememes used by the different writers), bear testimony to an overriding systematic design; a design that vastly transcends the insights of the individual contributors. This integrity of design yields the second discovery.

2. The source of this message system had to originate from outside the domain of time itself. We find history written before it happens. Allusions throughout the texts reveal an anticipation of pivotal events long before they are realized. And the very presence of these passages raises profound insights about the reality we live in.

Setting aside many controversial points of view, it appears that we are presently being plunged into a period of time that the Bible says more about than any other period of historyincluding the events of the New Testament.

Scientists today acknowledge that our physical universe consists of more than four dimensionsthree spatial dimensions and the dimension of time. Current estimates involve at least ten. And thanks to Dr. Einstein, we now recognize that time itself is a physical property and varies with mass, acceleration, and gravity. However, it is profoundly provocative that we are in possession of a comprehensive message system from outside our hyperspacefrom outside of the time dimension itself.

This outlandish proposition should prove demonstrable and certainly impacts our perceptions of virtually everything else. The principal challenge is to blindfold our prejudices and dismiss the baggage of our preconceptions and the masquerades of the past.

THE NATURE
OF PROPHECY

More than simple curiosity lies behind mans attempt to perceive the future. Practical business requires forecasts, and an understanding of what Peter Drucker calls the futurity of todays decisions. Forecasts underlie all decisions, whether they are market planning, inventory management, establishing cash flow requirements, or staffing an enterprise. Managers solve problems; executives anticipate them.

National security depends on threat assessmentsstrategic or tactical. Empires have been establishedor destroyedon the basis of anticipated implications of technology and other changes.

Our personal decisions about education, careers, raising a family, and buying a new home all rely on our perceptionsor more precisely, our presumptionsabout the future.

Banks dealing with loan decisions are, in effect, predicting both the anticipated experience for the lenders specific application and the anticipated credit climate that lies ahead.

But one of the problems is that we all make linear assumptions in a nonlinear world. We tend to assume linearity: that tomorrow will be like yesterday; that next week will resemble last week; next year be like last year, and so on. Linear extrapolations, however, can be blinders.

Natural nonlinearities can occur, such as an earthquake, a tornado, or a hurricane. Medical nonlinearities can include a stroke or a car accident. Financial nonlinearities can emerge from a bankruptcy, a lawsuit, or a wife visiting a shopping mall. Our most critical crises arise from nonlinearities.

Sound management requires a broader, long-term perspective; an accurate assessment of the environment; and an awareness of the potential impact, and likelihoods, of nonlinearities. It is disturbing to the informed that most crises could have been anticipated through diligence. Those who anticipate the nonlinearities survive them. Thats what the insurance industry is all about.

BIBLICAL PROPHECY:
MORE THAN CRYSTAL BALLS

We dont take prophecy seriously because it is in the Bible. We take the Bible seriously because of the track record of its prophecies. As we will see later in this book, the Bible lays out a detailed scenario of the final climax for mankind on Planet Earth. It also provides testable reference points to determine just where we are in that scenario.

But theres far more than just a few historical episodes involved. The Bible has anticipated our most advanced discoveries on the very frontiers of our sciences. It is astonishing to many to discover the technological perspectives in the Bible. There are many technology statements in the Bible that the average reader takes for granted: the idea that the earth is round (Isa. 40:22), the fact that the solar system migrates throughout the galaxy (Ps. 19:16), and the fact that space itself has proper-ties that transcend our three-dimensional understanding of reality. The Bible anticipated many of the recent insights of modern medicine that are in stark contrast to the myths and superstitions of the ancient cultures of the past.