5. Prophetical Books.

The Importance of Prophecies.

The stream of time rushes the shuttle of our life to the infinite ocean of eternity. Neither people,

nor demons, nor angels, but only God knows what awaits each of us. Some people are trying to

unwrap  the mystery  of  the  future by  using  horoscopes,  fortune-telling,  witchcraft,  superstitious

tokens and other sinful and vain means, which are banned in the Holy Scripture (Lev. 19:31 and

20:6, Deut. 18:10-13, Jer. 27:9-10). However what is useful for us to know about our future has

already been revealed by God through His Only-Begotten Son, and through the mediation of His

selected people, the Prophets and the Apostles.

  To an extent, every book of the Holy Scripture contains prophecies. Some of the Biblical

books predominantly tell us about the future events, though; therefore they are called prophetical.

We can find sixteen prophetical books in the Old Testament  and  one, The Apocalypse,  in  the

New Testament. The Old Testament books of prophecies include the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah,

Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,  Zephaniah,

Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. The writers of the first four books (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and

Daniel) are called the Major Prophets, because their books are bigger in size than the books of

the other fourteen prophets, who are therefore called Minor. There are two more books that are

added to the Book of Jeremiah: The Lamentations of Jeremiah and the Book of Baruch. Some-

times the prophets wrote down their discourses themselves; sometimes their followers recorded

them. Many predictions from the prophetic books have already been fulfilled, namely those about

the fate of some ancient nations, the advent of the Messiah, and the New Testament times. The

prophecies about the Last Times of the world (the kingdom of the antichrist, the Second Coming

of Christ, the resurrection of all the dead and the Last Judgment) are yet to come true. However,

there are already some indications that these events of the end of mankind's history are approach-

ing. As well as the miracles, the prophecies bear the witness of God's selection of the prophets

and inspiration of their books.

  The Christian faith teaches us that the future of each person and the entire mankind is not a

result of a conjunction of incidental circumstances, or 'fate.' All events in the inanimate nature are

fully controlled by the Maker. As regards the acts of men, God has given us the freedom of doing

things that we wish, but He is assisting us in the implementation of our good intentions. All of

the Holy Scripture, the Lives of Saints, and an insight into our own lives would convince us that

God cares about the well-being of humans and directs their lives to salvation.

  If acts of a person are determined only by his or her own will, how then can God foresee

what exactly the person will decide to do? Answering this question, we must take it into account

that the past and the future are human concepts. God lives beyond and above the time; for Him,

everything is in the present. Everything to the tiniest detail is bare before His all-seeing eyes:

every big and small event in the life of each living being, secret thoughts and desires, all things

happening in the life of the human society in past, present and future, everything that is taking

place in the most remote ends of the Universe, in the world of angels and in hell.

  Why does God conceal from us some future events but reveals others? He does so for our

spiritual benefit. From that tragic moment when the first man listened to the tempter and broke

the commandment of God, the intense struggle over human soul has been going on, and the man

is in the very center of the fighting. The Lord, angels and the saints who achieved perfection are

his protectors and helpers, while demons and the people who took the evil part are his enemies.

In order to help a believer to gain a victory, God shows him what his certain acts lead to, what

snares the devil sets up, and what the Lord intends to do to help the faithful. On the other hand,

concealing certain things, like the day of death, from a human, God makes him keep up his good

effort at all times.

  When  circumstances require, the prophetic predictions can be very specific and detail the

events of the future, naming countries, cities, people and even giving timeframes. But more often

the prophecies combine in one panorama several events, divided by many centuries, yet akin in

spirit. Such juxtaposition of different events in one vision is possible because the isolated facts

are  not  equal  in  importance  to  the  spiritual processes that  run in the depths of human hearts.

That is why prophecies predominantly speak about the moral condition  of  people  and demon-

strate the relationship between this condition and future things. At that, the prophecies provide

the utmost clear manifestations of God's care for all humans, His guiding hand in the lives of in-

dividual people and countries and the entire world; His infinite love and long-suffering for those

who seek good, and the wrath of His justice to those persisting in their sins and cooperating with

the devil.

  The aim of our two brochures, dedicated to the prophetic books of the Old Testament, is to

familiarize the reader with the content of the prophetic books. In our previous brochure . .The

Old Testament Regarding the Messiah. . we gave examples of predictions about the advent of

the Messiah, His personality, acts and miracles. To avoid repetition, we will discuss other predic-

tions and sermons of the ancient prophets here.