Discerning "Interpretations" of Prophecy

So how do we know if an interpretation of prophecy…our OWN or someone else’s…is valid ?

Scripture says the Spirit ALONE, Who authors prophecy,  is able to interpret its meaning:

“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter

 of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of

 human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”  (I Peter 1:20,21)

Jesus gives us these guidelines for recognizing if an interpretation of prophecy is from the Spirit:

     “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth…

       and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He will glorify Me…”  (John 16:13-14a)

If an interpretation of prophecy is untrue, it is not from the Spirit.  (Under Moses' Law, the penalty was death for saying God prophesied something was going to happen, and it didn’t: Deuteronomy 18:20-22.  Such a law would certainly thin the ranks of today’s “interpreters of Biblical prophecy.")

Likewise, if an interpretation of prophecy glorifies man, man’s thoughts, man’s ways, or man’s works, it is not from the Spirit.   The Spirit will glorify Jesus: He will emphatically NOT glorify any “interpreter of Biblical prophecy.”  Nor will He glorify any nation of men, doctrine of men, culture of men, or political faction of men.

Many of today’s self-proclaimed “interpreters” tell us that Biblical prophecy says the “culture war” doctrines of a current political faction are the only way to “save” America.  The book I noted a few months ago, Letter to the American Church (authored by a “conservative”-media celebrity) is a prime example.

Let me say here, forcefully and firmly, that no such “interpretation” of prophecy is from the Spirit of God.

Amen, and amen !!

"Letter to the American Church," by Eric Metaxas

I recently read the book Letter to the American Church by "conservative" author and media-personality Eric Metaxas, and felt led to challenge his deceptive argument in this letter.

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Dear Mr. Metaxas:

                I’d hoped your Letter to the American Church might be a desperately-needed call for the American Church to repent.

                Those hopes were raised by the words of your introduction, that “…the monstrous evil that befell the civilized world precisely because of the German Church’s failure is likely a mere foretaste of what will befall the world if the American Church fails in a similar way at this hour.”

It was deeply disappointing that your call was for the American Church to repent its silence (as you claim) against the evils of “Marxist atheist philosophy…in economics or in any other sphere,” and sexual deviance.

                So it’s impossible to credit the prophetic parallel you purport to find between today’s American Church and German Christians of the 1930s.  Did German Christians need speak out against Marxism and homosexuality when their violently anti-Communist rulers, espousing traditional “German family values,” had silenced Marxists and homosexuals, and removed them from German society ?  Wasn’t German Christians’ sin rather their silence against the evil deeds of those rulers ?

                Jesus spoke of the enemy forces on earth as “children of the devil,” whose spiritual paternity is manifest in their doing satan’s desires, lies and murder (John 8:44).  You quote those words of Jesus (p. 77): and I have to think you’d agree that Germany’s rulers in Bonhoeffer’s time merited Jesus’ characterization.  Wasn’t the disastrous moral failure of German Christians their silent acquiescence, even collusion, in the lies and murder of the political faction that had seized power in their nation ?

                Jesus also categorically defined “murder” as violent words of contempt against others (Matthew 5:21-2).  You’re surely aware that a faction in America today has made such murder, and egregious lies, its chosen political identity.  Surely you're well aware that a great many American Christians silently acquiesce and collude in, even loudly proclaim, the doctrines of that faction.

                I’d urge you to consider that fact is the most-telling prophetic-parallel for American Christians in this day.  And urge that the desperately-needed call for the American Church’ repentance must be that it reclaim its identity in Christ, and turn back from being a slavish political “demographic” for today’s “children of the devil.”

 sincerely,  Steve Hicks