Do You Make These 5 Mistakes When You Study Prophecy?

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Before I explain the exact sequence of events that will happen at the end of this age, I want to share with you five mistakes many people make when they study the Bible.

The reason I need to share these mistakes now, is because if you make these mistakes, you probably won’t understand the remaining lessons in this challenge.

Mistake 1: Following the Ideas of Men

When Jesus explained the sequence of end-time events to His followers, the very first thing He said was, “Watch out so that no one misleads you” (Matthew 24:4).

There are lots of people teaching their own ideas about Bible prophecy. There are many false teachings about the Bible. You have to be careful about what you believe.

The Bible says, “Don’t despise prophecies. Test all things. Keep the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). You must check everything you hear in your Bible. If it matches what the Bible says, keep it. If it doesn’t match what the Bible says, reject it.

It is easy to just believe whatever makes sense when you hear it. But Jesus said, “Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Understanding the Bible takes effort.

If you don’t check the Bible and prove all things to yourself, you will be misled.

Mistake 2: Motivated Reasoning

Here is another common mistake that you may have made.

Often, when people are searching the scriptures, they aren’t actually looking for truth. They are looking to confirm the ideas they already have.

For example, in an upcoming lesson we will examine what the Bible says about a rapture. You almost certainly already have certain beliefs about whether there will be a rapture, and if so, when it will be, and who will be taken.

Perhaps you have already studied the Bible and found scriptures that support your beliefs. But here is my question for you: Did you really look to see what the Bible says about a rapture, or did you just look for scriptures to support your beliefs?

Most of the time, people aren’t really looking for the truth. They are just looking for scriptures that appear to support their ideas.

You know what? If you are looking for support in the Bible for an idea that you already have, you will find it. If you want to prove war is evil, you can find scriptures to support your belief. If you want to prove war is good, you can find scriptures to support your belief. Take any topic—abortion, homosexuality, speaking in tongues, baptism, alcohol, the rapture, or the meaning of prophecy—if you are just looking for scriptures that seem to support your view, you will find something that seems to support what you already believe.

That’s not the right way to study the Bible. That will only strengthen your own self-deception.

If you ask the wrong questions, you will get the wrong answers.

The only way to really find the truth is to ask the right questions. Stop looking for proof to support your ideas and start asking,

• What does the Bible really say?
• What are all the scriptures on this topic?
• How do all the scriptures fit together?

When you set aside your own ideas and beliefs, and start looking into the Bible to find out what it actually says, then you will start to see things you never saw before.

Yes, you will need to humble yourself and be willing to admit that you don’t have all of the answers. You will have to admit that you were wrong when you see that the Bible says something different than what you thought. But if you open yourself to accept God’s word, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32).

Mistake 3: Self-Reliance

Another common mistake is to try to understand the Bible by yourself, without help from God.

Notice that Jesus’s 12 disciples did not understand the prophecies in the Bible about Jesus Christ until Jesus gave them understanding. “Then He opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).

In fact, many parts of the Bible are written in a way that people cannot understand without help from God (Isaiah 28:13; John 12:39-41).

When Jesus Christ spoke in parables, it was not to help people understand. Notice Matthew 13:10-11:

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do you speak to them in riddles?” And He answered them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it hasn’t been given.”

Understanding is a gift from God.

You need to ask God to give you understanding. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

Have you done this yet?

“Ask, and it will be given you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who searches finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a snake? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11)

Whenever you sit down to study the Bible, ask God to help you understand.

Mistake 4: Hearing and Not Doing

One reason God spoke through prophets was to warn us to change. God told the prophet Ezekiel:

“I have made you a watchman…therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. … Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but [desire] that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die?’” (Ezekiel 33:7, 11)

God wants us to live the way that leads to life. Prophecy is one way He warns us to change before it is too late.

Those who hear the words of the prophets have an obligation to respond. We cannot just listen to find out what will happen, and then ignore the message of warning:

“Anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from Me, and sets up his idols in his heart and puts in front of him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the Eternal will answer him by Myself. I will set my face against that man…and I will cut him off from the middle of My people” (Ezekiel 14:7, 8).

When we ask God for understanding, we should plan to do what God reveals to us: “whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22).

Remember, God wants a relationship with you. If you respond to prophecy by praying, reading the Bible, and changing your life, God will bless you. But if you just study prophecy to learn about the future, and you don’t listen to the warnings, then the disasters described in prophecy will happen to you. Don’t make this mistake.

Mistake 5: Following the Crowd

Some people understand what God wants them to do, and they want to follow God, but they are afraid of what others will think. When Jesus preached on earth, “even many of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn’t be put out of the synagogue, because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:42, 43).

It can be hard to go a different direction than the crowd. But do you really want to be part of the crowd when God begins to punish the world?

I hope you will keep these tips in mind as you study the rest of the lessons.

Next Lesson: What Will Happen Before the Great Tribulation?

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