Why Prophecy?
One of my published books is Leading in a Strange Land: A Study in Daniel and Leadership. Though I've sold few copies, I loved working on it. Daniel is an infinitely fascinating book, and he is a prototype of a believer working in a (very) secular environment and keeping all his ethics intact.
However, I did not touch the prophetic elements of Daniel. I'm not agnostic about prophecy, only standoffish. I was raised as a young believer on pure premillenialism--charts, mark of the beast, Israel as fig tree reblooming, the pseudo-date-setting, the whole nine yards. I've read every word of John McArthur's commentary on Revelation (I taught it last spring). I know all the arguments. And I haven't come to any firm conclusions except that I'll let God take care of it.
However, I'm supposed to teach life group next Sunday and, this being a Baptist church, the literature is about Daniel's prophecies. And I had a bit of a revelation myself.
I think prophecy's best audience is the truly persecuted, marginalized, and oppressed. Revelation was written to the persecuted under Domitian. A great deal of the prophecy in the Old Testament: Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah, to name three--was written during the Babylonian exile.
Perhaps we don't get or appreciate or embrace prophecy becasue our lives are too good here to be drawn to an everlasting kingdom that we can't imagine because a righteous king is outside our limited experience. Also, because we live in relative comfort under rule of law, our hearts aren't drawn to perfection. We Christians know this is not the best of all worlds, but heh, it will do, as long as my bills are paid, food is readily available, and my smartphone works.
But if we lived in North Korea. . . well, a righteous king would sound pretty appealing.
However, I did not touch the prophetic elements of Daniel. I'm not agnostic about prophecy, only standoffish. I was raised as a young believer on pure premillenialism--charts, mark of the beast, Israel as fig tree reblooming, the pseudo-date-setting, the whole nine yards. I've read every word of John McArthur's commentary on Revelation (I taught it last spring). I know all the arguments. And I haven't come to any firm conclusions except that I'll let God take care of it.
However, I'm supposed to teach life group next Sunday and, this being a Baptist church, the literature is about Daniel's prophecies. And I had a bit of a revelation myself.
I think prophecy's best audience is the truly persecuted, marginalized, and oppressed. Revelation was written to the persecuted under Domitian. A great deal of the prophecy in the Old Testament: Ezekiel, Daniel, Jeremiah, to name three--was written during the Babylonian exile.
Perhaps we don't get or appreciate or embrace prophecy becasue our lives are too good here to be drawn to an everlasting kingdom that we can't imagine because a righteous king is outside our limited experience. Also, because we live in relative comfort under rule of law, our hearts aren't drawn to perfection. We Christians know this is not the best of all worlds, but heh, it will do, as long as my bills are paid, food is readily available, and my smartphone works.
But if we lived in North Korea. . . well, a righteous king would sound pretty appealing.
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