Prophetic Connections vs. Prophetic Confusion

Why did God lead four disciples to record the ministry of Jesus? Why does the book of Revelation start with a quick overview of end-time events before revealing different camera angles in the mini-visions? It’s because an important, multi-scene story cannot be contained in one view.  Either the big picture gets lost in the plethora of details or important details get overlooked in the big story line.
 
No one book and no one prophecy has it all. This is why the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, inspired the biblical writers to use specific wording and phrases so that we could notice the commonalities and therefore the scriptural connections. We are meant to follow the connections all the way through until we see the complete picture.
 
It’s much like putting together a section of a jigsaw puzzle. The more pieces you connect together for that area of the puzzle picture, the clearer that scene becomes. As we saw in a previous blog, instead of matching colors and shapes, we use phrases and key words. The connecting phrases signal that passages are talking about the same event. One passage will have some things that are not in the other passage. Together they expand our understanding about the prophetic event.
 
That’s how the Holy Spirit designed it so we can understand end-time prophecy. It’s not open to anyone’s private interpretation. Once we follow enough connections, we see that the Bible actually interprets itself. It begins to confirm everything. If we ignore the connections or don’t follow them through to the end, then we end up with misconceptions and unbiblical views.
 
If we follow the connections, they will build the case, and it will have no gaping holes and no contradictions. No passage will need to be conveniently ignored because it doesn’t fit the scene or event. If someone else comes up with a different interpretation, it’s easily disproven because it won’t connect anywhere. It will break the Spirit-inspired linkage. We must exhaust all the connections to see the complete picture.
 
Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him. He’s given us His revealed Word. If we don’t see it clearly, its just because we haven’t followed the connections in the whole counsel of His Word. Or to put it another way, we haven’t had eyes that see. We haven’t been alert, watching for the telltale wording and pursuing the divine connections.
 
This is what Peter was talking about when he warned us not to forget the one thing we need to know about God’s prophetic plan: with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8).
 
Making these connections from the Word is how we could show you the vital and foundational connection between the rapture and the Day of the Lord in an earlier blog (5/12/22). In the weeks ahead, we will continue building upon that connection so you can see how our understanding of the end-times expands quite quickly, using the common element that forms the connection, seeing the added element, discovering more truths by extension, and accumulating the confirmations. 
 
This is why you don’t have to take our word for it. But you do have to take the Scripture’s word for it. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).