Advent and Prophecies

In this season, as we prepare for the celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ, it is a wondrous thing to consider the hundreds of prophecies concerning His arrival and life



Telescoping prophecy

This week in New Testament studies, we concentrated our discussion on the book of Revelation, which contains a great deal of prophetic and apocalyptic content. The Old and New Testament both contain prophetical writings. A very useful concept introduced in OT500, is helpful when examining apocalyptic/prophetical literature. When we were studying the difficulty in deciphering the prophetic parts of Daniel, we discovered this useful idea. Telescoping prophecy is nothing more than understanding that a prophet writes something under the inspiration (and revelation) given to him from God, writes it to pertain to his intended audience, but due to divine intentions, the prophecy “telescopes” through history and becomes applicable to other audiences in future venues. Indeed, the prophecy isn’t totally fulfilled in one single generation sometimes, but rather takes many generations for all elements to present themselves. This concept applies very well to studying Revelation, as well as Daniel. This also explains why many concepts appear partially fulfilled during certain phases of history, but not in entirety. Examples of telescoping prophecies are those concerning the incarnation, life, death, and eternal reign of the Messiah, which are excellent meditations for Advent, too.

Happy Advent,
George