“Things are not gonna get better. Yes, I have the gift of encouragement. But I will tell you, you’ve seen nothing yet. And I say that just so you understand that you must stay in the Word, and you must hold on to the promises that we have and remember that He who promised is faithful. He cannot change. Even if we are faithless, He is faithful because He cannot deny Himself. That’s the God we serve. God is not waiting for your approval. Will you allow me to do this or that? No. I always tell people that we live in a world where things have been already seen by God. And, thankfully, He sends us an email with an attachment telling us exactly what is going to happen by His grace. Isaiah 46:9-10 says, ‘I am God, there is no other; I am God, there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.’ God is never taken by surprise.”

A wonderful pastor and friend, Chuck Smith, used to equate our view of the world with watching a parade. We are seated on the curb and can only see what is passing by in front of us. God, however, is seated in majesty on high and can see the whole parade from beginning to end. There are multiple things we can glean from this wonderful word picture.

The first is that if God has seen it and said it, it is going to happen just as He said. This is one of the most crucial parts of understanding and applying Biblical prophecy. Prophecy is not predictions, it is the revelation of information that God has already seen that we cannot observe from our perspective on the curb. In other words, if God has already seen it and had His prophets record it, then nothing is going to change it. We cannot change things we have already seen happen, and God, from His seat on high, has already seen the future and revealed His response to the actions of man and Satan.

The second thing for us to consider about Bible prophecy is that while there is figurative language used to describe situations and events in order that all generations may understand them, the only way to interpret them is literally, not allegorically:

Revelation 9:7-11 – “The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.”

John repeatedly inserts the preposition “like” to inform us he is doing his best to describe what he is seeing in terms we can all understand, no matter what point in the “parade” we are living. There are, during the tribulation, going to be a swarm of locust-like creatures who look like battle horses, with human-looking faces, hair like a woman, and teeth like lions, and when they fly their wings will make a sound similar to the thundering hoofs of many horses pulling chariots behind them into battle. Their king is the Destroyer who rules the bottomless pit. (Abaddon and Apollyon mean “Destroyer”.)

Maybe now would be a good time to pause and remind us all that the church – born again believers – will not be here to see and experience this! But it is going to happen as the Bible says. This is why it is important to understand what prophecy actually is as it relates to the last days. It is God revealing what is going to happen in the future with the same clarity we would report on something that has happened in the past. Some have described prophecy as “history in advance”.

Isaiah 46:9-10 – “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.’”

What an incredible concept to consider that we know and serve a God who sits on high and can talk about tomorrow with the same certainty as we can talk about yesterday. He knows how things began because He began them, and He knows how things will end for He will end them. He has also told us where things are going and we can believe with certainty that it is where they are going.

So do we just sit back and watch them unfold because they are inevitable? To do so would deny our roles as being salt and light. So what do we do? Consider another word picture: imagine you had a near brush with death and barely missed going off a bridge that had been washed out. It would have meant certain death, as your car would have plunged into the raging flood waters below. You have information about this bridge that others don’t have and there is no question more vehicles are headed the same way.

Since you know what lies ahead, you cannot just sit back and bask in the glow of your own escape. You must try to stop others from meeting the fate you avoided. God has told us the future for a reason and it is not just so we can only rejoice over what we missed. It is so we can tell others how to miss certain death by changing their direction in life.

Jude 20-23 – “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.”

God has told us through His word what the last days will be like – perilous, loveless, truth-less, filled with deceptions and delusions that cause people to live like the bridge is not out up ahead. But the bridge is out and we need to warn them, pulling them out of the fire.

Tell someone today about the hope you have in Jesus and warn them that the bridge is out up ahead and the only way to avoid certain death is through Him.

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus