WHAT DO THE PROPHETS SAY?

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Revelation 10:7

4-1-84    10:50 a.m.

In our great doctrinal series covering a period of about three years, we are in the section on the return of our Lord.  This message is entitled What Do the Prophets Say?  What do they predict about the end of the world and the return of our Savior?  A background text is in Revelation 10:7: “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as He hath declared to all His servants the prophets” [Revelation 10:7]. 

The mystery of God; there are ten thousand things that crowd upon our souls when we try to understand the presence of evil, and darkness, and violence, and sin, and death in the world, and why God allows such sorrow and suffering.  The Revelation calls it “the mystery of God” [Revelation 10:7].  And it shall be finished in the days of the voice of the seventh angel [Revelation 10:7]; at the denouement of the age, at the consummation of history, at the end of the world—at the coming of our Lord Christ.  Then we shall understand, God shall make it plain, and we will find the reason for all of the tears and heartaches, sin, death, the grave, when Jesus comes again. 

Now the apostle wrote in this text that this has been prophesied from the beginning by those who were sent as messengers from God with a word of encouragement and triumph for the world [Revelation 10:7].  The prophets of God: what do the prophets say?  And we are going to listen to their speaking to us both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.  I have divided the message, the study of the prophets, into five categories.  What do the prophets say? 

One: they speak of the second coming of Christ far more than they do of the first coming; many times more. 

Number two: they speak of the certainty of God’s interference in the affairs of human history, in the affairs of this world.  We sometimes are half persuaded by the infidels and the atheists that whoever made this world, or if it made itself, whoever did it has gone off and forgotten it.  Not so, say the prophets; God interferes, intervenes, interpolates, in the affairs of this world. 

Number three: what do the prophets say?  They speak of the nation Israel in unending love and warning, and they speak of their final salvation, when Jesus comes again. 

What do the prophets say?  Number four: they declare that the end time closes with war and desolations.  The end of history is in the blood.  It is in violence.  It is in tears and heartache and tragedy; it’s in darkness and trembling and fear. 

Number five: what do the prophets say?  They proclaim the victory of the Lord and the creation of a renewed heaven and earth.  And they declare a prospect and a promise of a new resurrected humanity. 

Now let us begin.  What do the prophets say?  First, they speak of the second coming of Christ far more than they do of the first coming.  This can be seen in the Scriptures as a whole.  The Bible starts off with the second coming of our Lord.  In Genesis 3:15, the Protevangelium, the gospel before the gospel, the Lord says the Seed of the woman shall crush Satan’s head.  This was fulfilled, is fulfilled, and is to be fulfilled in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of the Apocalypse, when Satan is cast into the bottomless pit [Revelation 20:1-3], and finally into the lake of fire [Revelation 20:10].  But the Bible begins with that, with the second coming of Christ [Genesis 3:15]. 

The second coming of our Lord is one of the three great events prophesied in Scripture. 

·         One: the Messiah is coming [Isaiah 9:6-7], and it was literally fulfilled [Matthew 1:20-25]. 

·         Number two: the Holy Spirit of God is coming [Joel 2:28-32], and that promise was literally fulfilled [Acts 2:1-4]. 

·         And number three: Jesus our Lord in triumph is coming again [Acts 1:11; Matthew 25:31]; and as the first two were literally fulfilled, we are persuaded the third will no less be actually realized. 

In the first chapter of the Book of Acts, the angel said: “This same Jesus—this same Jesus … shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven” [Acts 1:11].  Literally, Jesus is coming again. 

The second coming of our Lord is mentioned in connection with every fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith.  Our deliverance from sin unto eternal salvation is connected with the second coming of our Lord.  Hebrews 9:28 “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time apart from sin unto salvation.” 

The second coming of Christ is a doctrine connected with the sonship of believers.  In 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him: for we shall see Him as He is,” the second coming. 

It is connected with the resurrection of the dead.  First Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”  This is the second coming. The second coming is bound up with every practical exhortation to Christian life, every one of them. 

·         In Matthew 24:44, “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour that you think not the Son of Man cometh”—the second coming. 

·         In Titus 2:12-13: “… denying ungodly and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ”—the blessed hope!  

·         Hebrews 10:25: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.”  The reason for our assembling together: the day of the second coming of the Lord is near.

·         Second Peter 3:11-12: “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy living and godliness,  Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God.” 

·         First John 2:28: “Little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear … ye may not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” 

·         And in Revelation 2:18, 25: “And unto the angel of the church of Thyatira write … that which you have, hold fast till I come, till I come”—the second coming of our Lord. 

Number two: not only do the prophets speak of the second coming of our Lord far more than they do of the first coming, but they speak of the certainty of God’s interference, intervention, in the affairs of this world in human history.  Psalm 2 goes like this:

Why do the heathen, the nations, rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed… 

He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh: the Lord shall hold them in derision. 

Then shall He speak unto them in His anger, and vex them in His sore displeasure … 

Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling …

… Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.

[Psalm 2:1-12]. 

The great God who presides over the earth is not indifferent to history and to all of us who are living in it.  The whole Bible is that, the interference of God, the intervention of God in human history. 

·         It is the story of the Flood [Genesis 6:5-8, 17, 7:17-24]. 

·         It is the story of the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain [Genesis 19:24-29]. 

·         It is the story of the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt [Exodus 1-15]. 

·         It is the story of the prophetic warning and the final destruction of Israel in 722 BC [2 Kings 18:9-12]. 

·         It is the same prophetic warning and ultimate captivity of Judah in 587 BC [2 Kings 24-25]. 

·         It is our Lord’s warning to Israel and the destruction of the nation by the Romans in 70 AD [Matthew 24:2]. 

·         It is our Lord’s letter to the seven churches of Asia: “I have somewhat against thee … Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent” [Revelation 2:4-5]—the interference of God in human history. 

Number three, what do the prophets say?  They speak of the nation Israel in unending love and warning and of the final salvation of Israel at the coming—at the return of our Lord.  The love of God for Israel is unvaryingly expressed. 

·         Exodus 3:7-8: “And the Lord said: I have surely seen the affliction of My people … and have heard their cry … for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them.” 

·         Deuteronomy 32:9-10: “For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance … He kept him as the apple of His eye.” 

·          Zechariah 2:8: “… for he that toucheth Israel toucheth the apple of His eye.”   

Israel will be regathered in the land; so the prophets say.  They will go back home to Israel. 

·         Isaiah 54:7-8, 17: “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.  In a little wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee … No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.”  If you do not believe that, look at what happened to Nazi Germany—“This is the heritage of the Lord … and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” 

·         Ezekiel 37, the vision of the valley of the dry bones pictures Israel as a great people rising before God, where they are buried in the nations of the world [Ezekiel 37:1-23]. 

·         Jeremiah 32:37-38: “Behold, I will gather them out of all countries … and I will bring them again unto this place—Israel—and I will cause them to dwell safely: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” 

The prophets say that Israel will accept the Lord Christ, their Messiah, as their Savior at His second coming.  These are the words from the prophet Zechariah in the twelfth and thirteenth chapters:

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son…

[Zechariah 12:10]

In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness…

[Zechariah 13:1]

And one shall say … What are these wounds in thine hands?  Then he shall answer, Those are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends …

[Zechariah 13:6]

And they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

[Zechariah 13:9]

And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east …

[Zechariah 14:4]

And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem … And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.

[Zechariah 14:8-9]

That glorious conversion of Israel is also described in Romans 11:26: “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer … for they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes … For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance” [Romans 11:26-29].  God does not change [Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8].  And in Revelation 7 you have the story of the one hundred forty-four thousand Jewish Christian evangelists [Revelation 7:1-17], who convert the world to Christ in the most devastating time of the great tribulation [Revelation 7:14], so many multitudes won that John says, “I could not count them” [Revelation 7:9]. 

 I have to close this section, and I do it with a word from Mark Twain concerning the Jew:

 He could be vain of himself, and not be ashamed of it.  Yes, he could be excused for it.  The Egyptian, the Babylonian and the Persian arose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away.  The Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight, or have vanished altogether.  The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert aggressive mind.  All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains.  What is the secret of his immortality? 

[“Concerning the Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899]

What do the prophets say?  Number four: they declare that the end time closes with war and desolation:

·         Daniel 9:26: “… and the end shall be with a flood, and unto the end war desolations are determined.” 

·         Jeremiah calls it “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” Jeremiah 30:6-7: “Wherefore, do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?” [Jeremiah 30:6].  Like a woman giving birth, “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble” [Jeremiah 30:7].

·         Ezekiel calls it the consummation of the age, the end of God’s forbearance.  Ezekiel 7:5: “Thus saith the Lord God; An evil, an only evil, behold, it is come.  An evil has come, an evil has come”—he repeats it—“it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come [Ezekiel 7:6] … And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity” [Ezekiel 7:9]. 

·         That is in Isaiah also, in [Chapters]13 and 63.

·         Joel calls it the day of darkness and trembling. “For the day of the Lord cometh … A day of darkness and gloominess, there hath not come any like it, neither shall be any more after it” [Joel 2:1-2]. 

·         And so says Amos [Amos 5:18]. 

·         Zephaniah calls it a day of wrath.  The great day of the Lord is near …  That day is a day of wrath, a day of trembling and distress … and I will bring distress upon men, that they should walk like blind men” [Zephaniah 1:14-17]. 

·         And so says Malachi [Malachi 4:1]. 

·         Jesus calls it “the great tribulation” [Matthew 24:21]. 

·         The word is repeated, “The great tribulation” in the Apocalypse, chapter 7 [Revelation 7:14].   

·         Paul calls it “the wrath to come” in 1 Thessalonians 1:10. 

·         And he calls it a day of “sudden destruction” in 1 Thessalonians in 5:3.

·         “The Revelation calls it “the day of the wrath of the Lamb.”  Revelation 6:15-17: “… and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves … and said to the mountains and to the rocks: Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of His wrath has come and who shall be able to stand?” 

·         So terrible, men shall seek death, and shall not find it: Revelation 9:6 … they shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. 

·         The prophets declare that the earth is mined and a match has been set to the fuse.  The spark has fallen, and all civilization faces an ultimate and final destruction, a crashing down [Jeremiah 28:8]. 

·         Second Peter 3:10: in the day of the Lord “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 

This, the prophets declare, the end of the age, the end of the world is in war and in desolation. 

Last: the prophets proclaim the victory of the Lord, and the creation of a renewed heaven and earth [Isaiah 65:17, 66:22], and they speak of a resurrected humanity [Ezekiel 37:12-14; Daniel 12:2].  God will not leave His glorious Edenic creation in shambles.  God will not leave the least of His sainted dead forgotten in the grave.  God will not forget the suffering martyrs who laid down their lives in the great tribulation [Revelation 7:14].  There is victory and deliverance for the people of God.  There was a great deliverance for Israel at the Red Sea [Exodus 14:21-31], after which the saved of the Lord sang the song of Moses in Exodus 15 [Exodus 15:1-18].  There will be a greater deliverance when the saints of God overcome the last world antichrist and they sing the song of Moses and the Lamb in Revelation 15 [Revelation 15:3-4].  There was a great day of indescribable rejoicing when the Lord brought back the Babylonian captivities to the Promised Land, Psalm 126: 

 When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. 

Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing … 

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 

He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall surely come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

[Psalm 126:1-6] 

There will be a greater day of rejoicing when the elders and the angels behold those who have come out of the tribulation of this world, “having washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” [Revelation 7:14].

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple …

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more … 

For the Lamb which is in the midst of them, shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

[Revelation 7:15-17]

But the mystery of God shall be finished in the sounding of the trumpet of the seventh angel, as He prophesied through all of His servants [Revelation 10:7].  And when Jesus comes, there will be victory, and life, and resurrection, and a new heaven and a new earth, and our new beloved, beautiful Jerusalem home [Revelation 21:1-5].  Think of it!  As Paul exclaimed: “Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, nor hath even entered into the heart of a man, the marvelous, glorious things God hath prepared for those who love Him” [1 Corinthians 2:9].