Keys to Prophecy

We must learn from the way God talks to us
Understanding that God speaks to us through his Word and that he does and says things in particular ways that we often do not notice. These things are keys to understanding in His Word especially in the area of prophecy
Notice the key that we have placed on this Bible to the left. There are keys to understanding God. One of these keys is that God repeats many events over and over again in order to teach us new and different things about those events. For example the 4 Gospels are about the same story but by different writers to teach us different views of the same events. 1st and 2nd Kings are repeated by 1st and 2nd Chronicles telling the same stories over again but from a different perspective. The book of Isaiah and Revelation do the same thing within the very same book.
One of the other things that God does is use synecdoches in order to make a powerful impact on what he is telling us.

Using Synecdoches
Now you know that if I said that I went to town and saw everyone that I knew. No one would have to explain what I meant by this term because it is commonly used. You would realize that I didn't see everyone that I ever knew in my life in town. You would understand that I simply saw a lot of folks that I knew while I was there. It is an expression, not intended as a lie but a synecdoche, a form of speech. The Bible uses synecdoches in several places especially when addressing nations and powers. Such as the old empires of the world and the coming Antichrist. Notice what God says to Nebuchadnezzar about himself and the nations that would follow.

Daniel explains more about this dream to Nebuchadnezzar the king.
Daniel 2: 38: And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
39: And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
Notice that he said that he would bear rule over all the earth.

The Bible almost always gives us two witnesses of the same truth.
In Jeremiah we get a second report on this same promise said in a different way, but meaning the same thing. This says that all nations would serve not only him but his sons as well. Once again we see the Lord himself speaking to us using a part for a whole. Because there were many nations that never served Babylon. The Medes and Persians were off stage preparing to destroy and take over Babylon. There were other nations such as Chinese dynasties, nations in the area of India, Japan, Indonesia and other places that had never heard of Nebuchadnezzar.

Over All the Earth
Notice that it says that these following kingdoms would rule over all the earth. Of course we know that they didn’t rule all the earth because of history itself. There is another thing to consider using the word all. I have noticed that the word majority is not found in the Bible, not in the Hebrew or the Greek. I have often wondered if the word “all” was used to define “majority” for lack of a better word. But other teachers believe that the word “all” was used as a synecdoche.

The Inferior Kingdom
The kingdom that was inferior to Babylon became strong enough not to be inferior any longer and took over the Babylonian empire along with many other countries as well. But, it seems that in world conquest we always have a tendency to raise up enemies who want to destroy us if we become too big of a threat. Notice that the nation of Greece (Macedonia) was sitting to the west. Alexander would come from there and would ally Macedonia, Syria, Egypt and Thrace against the Persians.

The Kingdom of Brass
Alexander’s four kingdoms would take over a much larger area than the Medes and Persian empire. Theirs would extend to the Far East as far as parts of India. But there were still nations that they did not conquer to the east and to the west. One of these countries was the Romans who would fear this great power and become strong enough to defeat them.

To Subdue All Things
The Roman empire was formed by the conquering of Alexander and eventually conquering many more nations as well. Theirs would be the largest that was to ever form in that part of the world up until the time of the Ottoman Turks. But Rome would not last as the world power until then. There were many nations around them that would eventually destroy them as a major power. The Gauls, Germanians, Sermatians, Persians and Arabians would still be out of their grasp of power. The barbarians from Germania and their allies would devastate the city of Rome at one time. So they only subdued those that they were able to subdue. Again this word all does not mean everyone.

The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire would eventually become a religious empire. It’s influence over the nations would gradually loose it’s power. The Huns and Turks would become very strong. The Mongolians would become a devastating force in the part of the World. As we can see by these examples that no matter how strong nations become there is always someone is going to challenge that strength.

John the Baptist
John the Baptist is another example of the word “all” being used as a part instead of a whole. In Mark 1:5 The Scriptures seem to imply that everyone in the land of Judea including the city of Jerusalem were all baptized by John in the river of Jordan. However we know for sure that this was not the case seeing that most of the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees and Saducess hated John the Baptists because he accused them of being vipers and false teachers. He would eventually lose his head to people from Judea that was certainly not baptized by him. Again we see that the word all just doesn’t quite fit the picture. It simply is used for a part of the people, not all of the people.

Every Nation under Heaven
In the 2^nd chapter of Acts: 5-11 the Scriptures say that there were devout men from out of “every nation under heaven” gathered in Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost. However when they explain where they all came from you will see that this only included people from around Judea, the Mediterranean Sea and some of the Islands as well. They were described as the following. 9: Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10: Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11: Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. Again we see “every nation under heaven” being used as a part for a whole instead of every literal nation under God’s Heaven.

A Part for a Whole
When a phrase is used as a synecdoche a part for a whole means "some” instead of “all." Since this seems to be the case all the way through the Bible it is very unlikely that our description of "everyone or all" in our view today would be very accurate considering the evidence that is found in Scripture. In Zechariah 14:2 it says that God is going to gather "all nations" against Jerusalem to battle.” This is speaking of only those nations who hate and despise Israel, in fact we are looking at most of them today in the Muslim countries of the World. God will allow them to come against Jerusalem at the time of the end in order to gather them in one location in order to destroy them at the battle of Armageddon.