Our philosophy on studying Bible Prophecy could be summed up in two words:  Believe God.

We believe that this "believing God" is the "seed of the mustard" that grows into a mighty plant.  Faith does NOT come from just hearing what God wants us to know and understand.  Faith happens when you take the firm position that you will "Believe God" no matter HOW outrageous it sounds. 

Hopefully, you will be wise enough to ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand any truth that is here in this future series of books or any other teachings you are exposed to.  Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to the truth!,  When you study, notice where the “light goes on" in your heart.  Notice where you feel uncomfortable with something you have just read.  Make sure you check it out with other Scriptures!  

Notice when your heart wants to hear some more!

Let us try not to make the same mistake that the Apostles did concerning the end of Christ's 1st Coming.  Remember that Jesus Christ told His Disciples/Apostles that He would die and be raised from the dead. He told them at least five times what was going to happen to Him, and they refused to believe it because they had a “pet theory.”  Scripture records them saying, “I wonder what He meant by that?” and their assumption was that His statements must be symbolic in some way.  Of course, He meant exactly what He said!

This has been my approach in studying prophecy.  I read it and I just believe it.  I am suggesting that you do the same.

Since I started seriously studying prophecy I have always been frightened that I would get it “wrong.”  My prayer from the beginning of these studies was that God would teach me the truth and show me my error all along the path.  I believe He keeps answering that prayer as I continue to march forward.  As he has revealed more, my positions keep changing!

None of us should take a change of position as a weakness.  When a change of position is based upon further Bible Study we are doing exactly what God wants us to do.

Throughout this process, when the Holy Spirit made me feel uncomfortable, I came to a halt in my writing.  I kept studying until I understood what was wrong.  Many times the uncomfortable feeling came because of some question or comment that was made by a member in the classes we have been holding on these subjects. I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit uses the entire class to learn the truth.

We should all recognize that God uses other believers to help us open a dialogue that seeks further truth.  If you know your Bible, you know that several times an Apostle raised a question that got everyone thinking.  They would all get “uncomfortable” and begin to search for a more perfect truth.

I also believe He uses the least knowledgeable people in the class to say something that will touch us all. Don’t be afraid to speak up.  God may be speaking to you because He wants to speak to us.

When God made me feel uncomfortable for whatever reason, most of the time I didn’t even know what I was looking for.  I just knew that something wasn’t right.  Some puzzle piece did not fit, or I found several puzzle pieces that I had not seen before.  Sometimes I have had to pray for several days or weeks to resolve some matter and the answer might come in the middle of the night or driving down the road or listening to the Scripture in my headphones or car sound system.

In closing, let me share with you an excerpt of an email I sent to the leadership of my church.  It illustrates something I feel is the most important part of studying prophecy.  PROPHECY REVEALS GOD to us.  We get to know Him in a very intimate way as we see His character and actions revealed to us over and over.

The email: 

On another note, we currently have 6 girls from the age of 9 to 11 in our small group Bible Prophecy class in (small town)...  All of these girls have been very active in the Introduction to Bible Prophecy class…a class well above them (?) by all modern standards.  These are the kinds of questions they have been asking.  I thought I would share them.

I want to say again that I believe that the study of Bible Prophecy (done correctly) brings people to a closer walk with the Lord and increases their faith.  Here is the list that I asked my friend Rene to accumulate for me:

(email from Rene)

In no particular order, these are the questions from kids on our block that we could remember. These questions were asked during the past few weeks of Wednesday Night Bible Study, which also prompted some new ones in the car ride home tonight:
- Who did God tell to write the Bible?
- How were the Books named?
- Who created God?
- Whose day is "Our Day"
- What does Holy mean?
- Why is Israel capitalized and earth is not?
- Where exactly is Israel on a map?
- Is He capitalized because it means God?
- Will God live forever?
- Why don't we live forever?
- If God created us, why don't we live forever?
- What does henceforth mean?
- Why did God create Satan in the first place?
- What was God's intention for Satan?
- How long did it take God to write his Plan?
- How did Jesus get to resurrect?
- Where did he go to resurrect as he was not in the tomb when they went to look for him?
- Why didn't anyone see him leave the tomb?

- Why do we have to forgive?  Why should I if I really don't like what someone has done to me or someone else?

- Why does God make some places so hard to live in?  Sahara desert

- Why did God invent sickness?

- Or did Satan invent sickness?

- Is Jesus God and how is God Jesus? (in short, explain the Trinity for me!)

- How and why did God chose Mary and not some other woman? 

- What did God see in Mary?

- Why did God create gamblers? (as we drove past the casino)

- How did God name things?

Aren’t these great questions?  Don’t you wish you understood them all or don’t you wish your children would be asking these kinds of questions instead of spending all of their time discussing some idol of theirs that is living an ungodly, unproductive, and dysfunctional life?

Study prophecy.  Study Scripture.  This entire series is made for a classroom setting.  These books are text books for small groups or bible studies.  Bring the family.  Don’t be afraid to bring the kids.  Don’t be afraid to wrestle with God’s truth because it might be the most important thing you have ever done.

Please!  Study yourself and set up come classes for others to join you.