Muslim "Messianic" Expectations Align with Antichrist and False Prophet - Bible vs. Islamic Prophecy - Part 9 -- Plus Easter Moments Countdown Days 19 & 18

End Times Eyewitness:
Israel, Islam and the Unfolding
Signs of Messiah's Return

In this final post in this 9-part series on comparing and contrasting Islamic prophecies and End Times prophecies of the Bible, Joel Richardson said this:

[Joel Richardson narrating on the DVD]: "Many other similarities could be listed, but the point is clear: the expectations of many Muslims throughout the earth concerning the Mahdi, and their version of Jesus, bears a striking resemblance to what the Bible describes concerning the Antichrist and the False Prophet. Though as unusual as much of this information may be to Christians, many Muslims believe that their Mahdi is already here on the earth." 

[Joel Richard interviewing Adnar Oktar on the TV program's set:] "We're living in the time of the Mahdi right now?" 

[Adnar Oktar, Turkish Muslim Leader, Television Host [translated and captioned on DVD]: "Yes. We believe that Mahdi is come and is busy with preparation. We believe that he appeared in Istanbul. That is how it is related in the Jewish Scriptures. This is how it is related in Islamic accounts as well. The Shia accounts also state that he will appear in Istanbul. The prominent religious leaders in Iran also state that he will appear in Istanbul. There is no other time for this than now." 

[Joel Richardson summing up in narration on the DVD:] "Simply stated, in light of the many startling ways in which the Islamic Mahdi and the Muslim Jesus align with the Biblical expectations concerning the Antichrist and the False Prophet, discerning Christians would do well to be aware of the rise of Messianic expectations throughout the Islamic world, particularly in light of Jesus' warnings that the last days would be marked by the appearance of "false prophets [who] will arise and mislead many."

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.  Matthew 24:11

This concludes this series. Stay tuned for posts on the soon coming solar eclipse on the mid-point day of this Shemitah year: March 20th. We'll get ready for that eclipse next week. Please join the Facebook Event now here:

• #SolarEclipse Virtual Watch Party! - 1st #DarkSun of 2015

Please Tweet these Tweetables:

Expectations of Muslims' Mahdi and their version of #Jesus bears resembles #Bible's Antichrist and False Prophet! (Tweet that!)

As unusual as this may be to #Christians many Muslims believe their Mahdi is already here on earth #JoelRichardson (Tweet that!)

Discerning #Christians should be aware of rise of #Messianic expectations thru-out Islamic world. #JoelRichardson  (Tweet that!)

#Jesus warned the last days would be marked by appearance of "false prophets [who] will arise and mislead many." (Tweet that!)

Related Articles:

• Amazing Bible and Islamic Prophecy Parallels - Part 1
• Muslims' Teach the Lie that Jesus Will Deny the Cross! -Bible vs. Islamic Prophecy - Part 2
• All Inhabitants of the Earth Will Worship the Beast - Bible vs. Islamic Prophecy - Part 3
• Peace, When There is No Peace - Bible vs. Islamic Prophecy -Part 4
• Sacrifices Being Performed at the Rebuilt Jewish Temple - Bible vs. Islamic Prophecy - Part 5
• Will the Muslim Caliph Rule from the Temple Mount? - Bible vs. Islamic Prophecy - Part 6
• Muslim Mahdi Will Rule with Help of Djinn Demons - Bible vs. Islamic Prophecy - Part 7
• Muslims Claim the Mahdi Will Rule for Seven Years - Bible vs. Islamic Prophecy - Part 8

Easter Moments:

• Countdown Day 19: Jesus' Life was Poured Out Like a Drink Offering

• Countdown Day 18: My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

(Tweet that!)

What the Coming of Jesus will Look Like

Morguefile.com

We've talked about false Christs and false prophets before on this blog (see Related Articles below). We've talked about how these false Christian teachers will appear and that we need to not only be aware of this but on our guard watching for them. In his speech, Jesus again circles around to repeat this topic (so it must be important!).

Here is what Jesus said in Matthew 24:23-28 (ESV):

23 Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If they say, 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Jesus concludes his thought with two images:

• lightning flashing in the sky and
• vultures circling in the sky.

Both of these images reveal something that can be seen by people from great distances. In other words, when Jesus comes, you and everyone else will be able to see him. It seems clear this means everyone in the world will be able to see him, no matter where you are.

He won't be hiding in the desert. He won't be concealed by a privileged few in some inner room in a remote location. When you hear of such things, remember that Jesus himself said there would be lies like this being promoted, so you can confidently dismiss them. (Tweet that!)

When Jesus comes, he'll come in a way where everyone in the world can see him. There will be no mistaking what's happening! (Tweet that!)

Denial? Yeah maybe. Especially since the false Christs and false prophets will have already come and performed great signs and miracles. Be careful what you believe based on what you see. (Tweet that!)

Think of what we see on TV and in movies that is not real but looks real because of special effects. Jesus said those who do these things will do this for the very purpose of deceiving people. And they will be very good at it, because Jesus said they will be able "to deceive even the elect—if that were possible." (Which kind of implies it's not possible, don't you think?)

(Also, there's a lot of discussion of who the "elect" are. I think it's fair to say they are the true followers of Jesus.)

But for those who are willing to look and see the truth, the coming of Jesus will be unmistakable. (Tweet that!)

Related Articles:

• Jesus' First Warning: Don't be Deceived by False Christs
• Jesus Gives Further Warnings about False Christs
• Many False Prophets Will Appear and Deceive Many People

Many False Prophets Will Appear and Deceive Many People

Morguefile.com

As we continue our look at the prophecies Jesus gave in Matthew 24 of what our world would be like in the end times, He said:

…And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people (Matthew 24:11).

We have already talked about false prophets in several posts in this blog. To find them, you can go to the list of Labels in the right sidebar and click on the label "false prophets" and a list of all the posts labeled with that tag will come up.

Today, we need to carefully think about what false prophets might look like in our age. (Tweet that!) For me, I can think of two kinds of false prophets right away (Tweet that!):

• leaders of false religions. A false religion is any religion that is not based on the truth of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible. 
• And false prophets or leaders who claim to be within the true religion of Christianity but are not teaching truth.

Frankly I see many of each of these today.

In the United States, this once-Christian nation was founded on Christian principles by men and women of the Christian faith. Yes, I said the Christian faith (not "deists" like some try to claim today). Our freedom of religion allowed all faiths to be represented, but also allowed us to talk about our faith and, through reasoning and peaceful conversation, we could convince others of the truths of our faith. (Tweet that!) Today, however, Christians are hushed and bullied while other faiths are promoted and protected.

Also, I see many within the Christian church teaching and promoting principles that are not in line with true Christianity. (Tweet that!) For example, homosexuality is wrong, however many churches are not only accepting homosexuality as another "life style" but are ordaining church leaders who are openly homosexuals! God will not allow this for long.

However this is nothing new. And homosexuality is not the only sin God abhors, of course. The apostle Paul wrote about sin his letter to the Romans. Notice the list of different sins toward the end of the passage. Also notice the spiral downward with the three-time repeated phrase that "God abandoned them…":

18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 

21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. 

28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.32 They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too (Romans 1:18-32).

In the United States homosexuality and same-sex marriage has been "normalized" and is now promoted as good and right. Those of us who speak out against it are slammed and bullied into silence. This can only happen because so many people are deceived.

These are only a couple of examples of how many false prophets are appearing and deceiving many people.

Jesus Gives Further Warnings about False Christs

Jesus talked about deceptive people who claim to be the Christ in verses 4-5 of Matthew 24. Then he talked about many other topics which ended up circling around to talk about "false Christs" again in verses 23-28:

Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many…" 

"At that time if anyone say to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. 

"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather" (Matthew 24:4-5 and 23-28, NIV 1985).

Again, Jesus warns us that many people will claim to be him or will claim to speak for him but they are not and do not. (Tweet that!) 

If you hear someone say "Here he is!" or "There he is!" you don't need to believe them or even wonder if they might be right because when Jesus comes, when you see him, there will be no doubt it is him! You will recognize him immediately! (Tweet that!) 

When Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples were watching. They saw him go! And his last spoken words were about the "End Times" we are talking about right here and of his second coming. Here is what he said:

Then they gathered around him and asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:6-11).

"In the same way you saw him go!" He went up in a cloud where all could see him. He will come again in the same way. (Tweet that!) 

Matthew recorded that Jesus' return would be visible like lightning in the east is visible in the west. Matthew said it would be like vultures circling overhead – you simply know that's where a carcass lies because that's what vultures do.

So if you hear anyone saying Jesus has arrived and is in the desert, don't go out there to look for him. It's not him. And if someone tells you he is hiding in an inner room somewhere, don't believe it. That's a lie. When Jesus comes, he won't hide. He will want everyone to see him and know him.

But you don't have to wait to know him. You can know him now. And then you won't be deceived by people claiming to see him or know where he is because you will recognize him when he comes.

Jesus also said these false Christs and false prophets would perform "great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible."

In our current age of movies with special effects that can make it look like anything can happen, and of machines like airplanes, space shuttles, computers, cells phones, and tablet computers that can seemingly do just about anything, I wonder what these "great signs and miracles" will look like. What will these people do that will so wow us that many will be deceived? It's hard to know at this point, but it is enough to know about it. Then we'll recognize it when we see it.

And one more point: in verse 25 of Matthew 24 Jesus says, "See, I have told you ahead of time." Jesus foretells what will happen – this is prophecy – so that when it happens we can know God is behind it, this is not a surprise to Him, and He has everything under control. (Tweet that!) 

For more on why God gives us prophecies see the related articles below.

When we know Jesus, we can trust him, whatever comes our way, and so we do not need to be afraid.

Related Articles:

• April 24, 2014: Why Did God Give Us Prophecies? Part 1
• April 26, 2014: Why Did God Give Us Prophecies? Part 2

Jesus' First Warning: Don't be Deceived by False Christs

When the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, "When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?," his first comment was this:

Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many" (Matthew 24:4-5, NIV 1985).

The very first thing Jesus warned us about is deception. He said many people would be deceived.  (Tweet that!) He didn't say it was possible that many would be deceived. He said many will be deceived.

I have to wonder, what would those doing the deceiving look like? This Scripture verse says many will come in Jesus' name "claiming, 'I am the Christ.'"

So I wonder, does someone have to actually say "I am the Christ" to fulfill this prophecy or do more subtle expressions meet that requirement? And will someone or several … or "many" … actually say "I am the Christ"? Well it appears to me Jesus was saying yes, that would happen. I also think the more subtle deceptions will be going on.

So we would be wise to ask who today is saying "I am the Christ"? Anyone?

The word "Christ" is the Greek translation of the same word that in Hebrew is "Messiah." The literal translation means "anointed one" and refers to the person God promised to send. (You can read more about that in the April 26, 2014, post.)

So according to Jesus' prophecy, in the "End Times" many will be claiming they are the Anointed One that God promised to send. Do you see anyone like that today?

We know in the future the Antichrist will claim to be the Christ, but that, of course, will be a lie. But the real question is, who will recognize that lie? If you don't know the truth and who the true Christ is, wouldn't it be easy to be deceived?

In the more subtler realm, I think those who preach, teach, and believe the message that "all paths lead to heaven" or all religions are the same and all lead to salvation are claiming they know the way. (Tweet that!) But Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father except through me."

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me..." (John 14:6).

Here's another helpful Bible verse:

Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NLT).

What does “come in my name” mean, and are we seeing that now? I believe those Christian (or perhaps not-so-Christian anymore) denominations and churches that are preaching something other than what the Bible says are fulfilling this prophecy. (Tweet that!) This includes those that are teaching that homosexuality, adultery, premarital sex, abortion, and a list of other sins are not a sin.

This also includes those who are promoting combining religions, such as "Chrislam." (Tweet that!) There's a lot of information out there about this movement. This article seems helpful and has a lot of links for additional information if you want to learn more about that: Rick Warren Addresses Chrislam Controversy. 

Jesus tells us "Watch out that no one deceives you." But that begs the question, how do we do that? (Tweet that!) The answer is to know the Truth. If you know the Truth and hold on to that, then no one can deceive you. How do we know the Truth? Look again at John 14:6 above. Jesus said, "I am … the truth." Jesus is the Truth personified. If you know him, you know the Truth. (Tweet that!) If you're not sure what the truth is in any given situation, you can ask him and he will answer you and help you to know the truth.

Borrowing from a popular bumper-sticker theology we could say:

Know Jesus, know Truth. No Jesus, no truth.

We'll talk about "false Christs" performing great signs and miracles in the next post.

Where did they get that? - The Antichrist

In the book of Revelation there are three main characters who take center stage. They are:

- the Dragon,
- the Beast,
- and the False Prophet.

These three are a mockery of the Holy Trinity, which is the full expression of the one true God, revealed and existing in the:

- Father
- Son (Jesus)
- and Holy Spirit.

Satan cannot create anything on his own. He is not the creator. The best he can do is copy and corrupt what God has created. (Tweet that!) 

There is a lot of discussion about the book of Revelation, a lot of opinions of how to interpret it, and many different interpretations. Interestingly, we are not called to understand it. We are instructed to read it and we are told we will be "blessed" if we do and if we take it to heart. (Tweet that!) At the beginning of the book, read what John, the personal friend of Jesus Christ, wrote:

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. (Revelation 1:3, NIV)

Nevertheless, it is good for us to interpret and understand as much of this book as we can. And I firmly believe we will understand more, and more will be divinely revealed by God, as the fulfillment of these prophecies comes closer. (Tweet that!) 

Here are the identities of the three main players in Revelation:

• The Dragon:

The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (Revelation 12:9) 

• The Beast:

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea.It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. (Revelation 13:1)

Compare this description to Daniel's vision in Daniel 7:2-7.

It seems most people believe The Beast is the Antichrist, a human (or evil entity in the form of a human) who will rule the entire earth during the End Times.

According to Revelation 13:3 (also verses 12 and 14) this Beast receives a fatal wound but it does not die, which really "wows" many of the inhabitants of the earth causing them to follow and worship him. Here is the verse:

One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. (Revelation 13:3)

• The False Prophet:

He shows up in Revelation 16:13:

Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

 And he meets his end in Revelation 19:20.

But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

Notice only those whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life get the Mark of the Beast, according to Revelation 13:8:

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

Those written in this Lamb's Book of Life are Christians - only those who believe Jesus is the Christ. The "Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world" of course is Jesus (see John 1:35-36).

All the other people living at this future time receive the Mark of the Beast.

If you have been taught, or have come to believe, that nothing is black and white, true or false, right or wrong - we're talking "relativism" - notice that there are only two ways to go here. Is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? (Tweet that!) If not, here's how to get your name recorded there:

Accept the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. Your sins deserved death. Jesus took your death for you and is willing to give you eternal life in its place if you take this exceedingly incredible gift from him.

If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12)

Scripture verses in this post are from the New International Version.

Related Articles:

• June 10: Where did they get that? - Why Christians are Concerned about Privacy
• June 12: Where did they get that? - The Mark of the Beast and the Number 666

How to Tell a True Prophet or Prophecy from a False One

Thanks Morguefile.com 

As I mentioned in the very first post for this blog on March 2, 2014, I'm a prophecy geek. I've loved prophecy since I first heard of it, or discovered it, or however you say that. I remember when I was a kid, maybe even before I was a teenager, I heard of prophecies in the Bible and they fascinated me. Someone actually said what was going to happen in the future?! And then…did it come true? (Tweet that!)

Of course we have many people through history and even today saying they can predict the future. But the trick is: do they get it right? (Tweet that!) 

True prophecy comes true. I've learned that true prophecy only comes from God and that any prophecy that comes from the One True God comes true. (Tweet that!)  It has to. God cannot get it wrong. If God gave a prophecy and it did not come true in every detail, that would mean either God cannot see the future or He made a mistake or He lied. God alone can see the future. God cannot make mistakes. And He cannot lie. Prophecies that come from the one true God must come true.

That does not mean all of them have been fulfilled already. Some are in the future and have yet to be fulfilled. But I believe we are very close to seeing them fulfilled. I also believe we are seeing some fulfilled right before our very eyes in these very days. (Tweet that!) 

Exploring all these things is what this blog is about.

So how do we know whether a person is a true prophet speaking truth from the one and only true God? (Tweet that!) Deuteronomy 18:19-22 (New Living Translation) gives us this guidance. This is God speaking through the prophet:

19 "'I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf. 20 But any prophet who falsely claims to speak in my name or who speaks in the name of another god must die.' 

21 "But you may wonder, 'How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?' 22 If the prophet speaks in the Lord's name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.

That's what God says. Now I don't know about you, but I find that a bit tricky because in order to see if the message is from God, we have to wait to see if it happens!

For some prophecies, we have been waiting for thousands of years. So should we keep waiting? Or declare them false?

Even though many prophecies have not yet happened, we can be sure they will come true because of the track record of the prophets in the Bible. Enough prophecies by the same prophets have been fulfilled to assure us they are true prophets. The rest of the prophecies will come true.

Believing this is called "faith." Seeing the prophecies that have already come true and believing the rest will also be fulfilled based on that is called strengthening our faith. (Tweet that!) How strong is your faith?

What is Prophecy? - Two Definitions

Thanks Morguefile.com 

Since we are talking about prophecy on this blog, it's only fair to define what prophecy is.

There are at least two definitions of "prophecy" (Tweet that!):

• To predict the future 
• To speak forth God's Truth

When I first started studying this subject years ago, I thought prophecy meant foretelling the future, and it does. (Tweet that!) This is what God did through the prophets of old in the Old Testament, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, and Zechariah.

But I have since learned that prophecy also has another meaning, and that is speaking forth God's truth. Whenever a man or woman of God speaks forth the truth of God, this too is prophecy. Are you a prophet in this sense? (Tweet that!) 

In this blog my aim also two-fold:

My aim is to show you places in God's Word, which is the Bible (Old and New Testaments), where His prophets predicted future events. And then also show where those events were perfectly fulfilled, if they have been fulfilled in the past. (Tweet that!) 

Then secondly I want to show places in God's Word, the Bible, where His prophets predicted events that are future to us, prophecies that have not yet come to pass. (Tweet that!) With these we are looking at what is happening in the world today that could be a fulfillment of that prophecy or could be leading up to or setting things up for its fulfillment. (Tweet that!) 

Sometimes when we talk about prophecy on the internet or elsewhere, we can sound, ranting about things like "the mark of the beast" and other important topics. But what's neglected is what comes before that, questions like "what is the mark of the beast?" and "where do they get that?" I can almost hear many people asking where does come from? If it's in the Bible, where does it say that? And just what does the Bible say about that?

In this blog it's my aim to answer these questions as best as I can, especially "Where do they get that?" (Tweet that!)

Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus
by Dianne E.  Butts

There can be other meanings of prophecy also, including the "prophetic pictures" God painted in the Bible of His kingdom or His Messiah, including the prophetic pictures painted in the Tabernacle/Temple and the seven Feasts of the LORD, which we will look at occasionally here, including next week. I discussed these very topics in my newest book, Prophecies Fulfilled in the Life of Jesus, so you if you'd like to learn more about these you may like to get that book. (Tweet that!)

Prophecy can also mean interpretation, such as when Daniel was called in to interpret the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2) and interpret the handwriting on the wall for King Belshazzar (Daniel 5). When Daniel interpreted these signs from God, Daniel was also speaking prophecy or prophesying. 

Another vitally important issue is, how can we tell a true prophet from a false one? And how can we determine which prophecies are truly from God and which are not? In the next post we'll look at how to tell a true prophet and true prophecies from false ones.

Meanwhile, I hope you've found this discussion of "What is prophecy?" and these definitions helpful.