was bidden by the Lord Jesus to write this great prophetic work. His instruc tion is found in the first chapter where we read, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be here after” (verse 17). The prophetic name of the Lord Je sus Christ is “The First and the Last.” In another passage He refers to Him self as the Alpha and the Omega. Here he says, “That is, when the beginning began, I was; when the end ends, I still shall be.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the only One who has ever died and then lived again to tell of His experi ence. Here we have a division of prophecy into three great periods: the things which were, the things which are, and the things which are about to be. He refers to the things which are happen ing at this present moment. Pure pro phecy concerns itself with the last divi sion, “the things which are about •to be.” You and I, as believers, are to know the mind of Almighty God. Another reason why we should be interested in Bible prophecy is that it verifies God’s own Word. Daniel told the king, “but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that reveal eth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass ” The prophet, in exile, has been carried away into cap tivity. He tells the monarch that even as he has been carried into exile, so God had carried his thoughts into His exile. Another study will deal with the contents of this dream or vision. The course of Gentile history and the suc- 14
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by Dr. Ralph L. Keiper S ome people have asked me, know ing my interest in the subject of end time truth, “Why is it necessary to be interested in prophetic signs?” Perhaps you have asked yourself this very question. First of all such a study enlightens the mind of the believer. Not only have we been delivered from the darkness of sin but also we are giv en light to illumine the pathway which previously had been black and mys tifying. The last book of the Bible illustrates this in a wonderful way. The Revela tion is the apocalypse which literally means “to uncover,” “to unveil,” “to bring to the surface that which has been hidden.” The entire purpose of the last book of the Bible is to reveal the mys tery of God’s will as far as this world’s coming history is concerned. Actually, Bible prophecy is nothing more or less than pre-written history from God’s point of view. John, the human author of this divine record,
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