Editorial – Understanding the Prophecies

Recently, I studied a theological presentation given by an Adventist minister, in which he attempted to destroy the foundation and central pillar on which the Adventist faith is built. Since this person was well-versed in Greek and Hebrew and religious history, he was able to make an interesting attempt to actually destroy the faith of which he claimed to be a part. As I was studying this and comparing his comments with my Hebrew Bible of the book of Daniel, I was wondering in my mind, how would a person that was not trained in theology deal with this. One of these days, all of God’s people, whether trained in theology or not, will have an opportunity to deal with these things, because “Every position of our faith will be searched into, and if we are not thorough Bible students, established, strengthened, settled, the wisdom of the world’s great men will be too much for us.” Selected Messages, Book 2, 386.

Are you getting ready to have a talk with one of the world’s great men about what you believe from the Bible about the times in which we live and what we are to do to be ready for the second coming of Christ?

Have you studied the prophecies in Daniel verse by verse and word by word until you know how each statement and phrase fits into every other statement and phrase in the prophecy? If what you believe is really the truth, every phrase and every clause in the prophecy will perfectly fit, and you will be able to explain what the main themes or subjects are; and you will be able to fit all the parenthetical statements into their appropriate place within the main subject.

Theologians today try to explain the Bible in what they suppose is the historical context, but Peter says that the Bible writers actually did not know and understand what they were writing about except as they attempted to search it out. (See I Peter 1:10, 11.)

Many years ago, an elderly minister gave some young men, of whom I was one, a quiz concerning what we believed from the book of Daniel and why we believed it. It was appalling how little we understood. Maybe you need to have some quizzes in your church to see whether you believe historical Adventist theology or whether you have a name that does not really describe what you believe.