Friday Night Message: How Do You Keep Prophecy?

April 19, 2024

Good evening brethren,

My wife and I had a very good time visiting friends and family in DFW. We had a lot of family time and talked with dozens of brethren in both the Dallas and Ft Worth congregations. But we are happy to be home now, and have missed our LEX brothers and sisters in Christ.

There is a very interesting verse in the introduction to the book of Revelation:

Rev. 1:3 - Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

But what does it mean to keep prophecy? I thought prophecy was predictive material in scripture, not moral teaching in nature. What are we to do when we read prophecy? Is it just for curiosity, or is there something much more important that we need to consider?

The general epistle of James admonishes us to be obedient doers, not just hearers, of the Word.

Jam. 1:22 – But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

One implication of James' comment is clear: When it comes to prophecy, we are to obey the commands so often embedded in the prophetic word. James' command to act, rather than just to hear, is echoed in Luke’s gospel:

Luke 11:28 - … Jesus said More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and
keep it.

Again, Revelation 1:3: reads "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words [ logos]
of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near."

The "and" in this verse is very important. God does not say that we are blessed simply if we
hear and if we read. This is not to suggest that we should not study God's prophetic word;
of course, we should. All Scripture is given for our edification and our inspiration ( II Timothy 3:16). It is all inspired for that purpose.

What do we keep? Do we keep predictions about horsemen and beasts? How does one do that? What we are to keep are those commands that are liberally sprinkled throughout the word of prophecy—in the book of Revelation and in the prophetic sections of the gospels and epistles, as well as in the prophecies of the Old Testament. For instance, the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 contain several commands to repent and repeated commands to overcome.

The prophetic word is not just a collection of mind puzzles and symbols and predictions that we are somehow supposed to unravel. God's prophecies are not that at all, but they are calls for change. They are calls for our growth. They are calls for repentance. Remember, the blessing comes to those who keep, who do what God commands whether or not we understand the details of the prophecy itself.

God is faithful. A Christian reading this passage a thousand years ago, who had no idea of what we know of history or of the technology that we understand now, could receive the blessing through obedience, just as we can today. Again, knowing is not the main issue, but obedience is.

The word "keep" is a command that appears about ten times in the book of Revelation. It is
the same word that is translated in the gospel according to John.

John 14:15 - If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Let’s notice just a few of its occurrences. The first three are written to three of the seven churches: Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia, respectively:

   • Revelation 2:26: ". . . keeps My works until the end. . . ."
   • Revelation 3:3: ". . . hold fast and repent. . . ." [Here, "hold fast" is the same Greek
     word as "to keep" in the other examples.]
   • Revelation 3:8: ". . . have kept My word. . . ."
   • Revelation 12:17: ". . . who keep the commandments of God. . . ." [This is written to
     the remnant of the seed, that is, to God's elect.]

As we can see, God has sprinkled this command to "keep" throughout the prophecies of Revelation. And that is how we answer the question “How do you keep prophecy?”

Looking forward to seeing you at Passover.

Have a wonderful Sabbath,
Fred