Good morning on this Saturday, June 2nd. Tomorrow I begin the prophecy update messages for this year. As we prepare to receive these messages, it is important to remind ourselves of some important basic information.
(1) The Bible often uses durative language to teach prophetic truth. Concepts, descriptors and words must be general enough to be received by people of every generation. How would you explain an atomic bomb to someone living in Noah's day, Paul's day, or even 100 years ago?. The description in Ezekiel 38:20 of  a catastrophic earthquake shaking the land, killing the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the beasts of the field, and all the creeping things, as well as mountains thrown down, pathways collapsing, and every wall falling to the ground well describes a colossal atomic event with its tremendous explosive power and radiation poisoning. Most prophetic scholars teach Ezekiel 38:20 is a perfect description of the results of an atomic bomb, but people of yesterday could not understand such a concept because there was no such thing as an atomic bomb; hence the description offered by the Biblical author. Some prophecies can only be understood as events unfold because as Daniel explains, they were sealed by God until the future (Daniel 12:9).
(2) Biblical prophets were held to a high standard in their prophecies - 100% accuracy. Prophecies given throughout the Scripture regarding persons, places and events have been exactly fulfilled, providing us great confidence regarding the fulfillment of yet unfulfilled prophecies. Of the hundreds of prophecies given in Scripture, at least 75% have now been fulfilled with that standard of accuracy.
(3) Ethnology studies have traced the settlement and migration of peoples from the earliest times and throughout history. Ancient names are given for those nations in the Bible, but we know who they are in today's world. Persia is an ancient name for modern day Iran. When you plug that identity into Ezekiel 38 and 39 it make perfect sense. In fact Iran is sometimes referred to today as Persia.
(4) Certain current events may or may not have considerable prophetic significance. Time will tell if so. Many taught that Hitler was the Antichrist during World War II because of the holocaust and his near successful quest for world domination. This turned out to be false, but one person will be the Antichrist and it behooves us to watch and be intelligent observers of world events for possible prophetic significance.
(5) We must stick to prophetic facts and not stray to fanciful extrapolations. I personally heard a prophecy expert" say that our money would be worthless in 18 months. That was many years ago and I notice he is still asking for people to send those dollars he predicted would be worthless to his ministry today.
(6) It is a foolish game for people to set dates for the coming our our Lord. Nobody knows exactly when Christ will return because His coming is immanent. We may discern the prophetic seasons but not exact dates.
With these truths in mind let us press onward to better understand the "signs of the times."
Mel Brown