Prophecy

“How God chooses to vindicate His prophecies is entirely in His own unsearchable mind. He intends for it to remain hidden, until at last He accomplishes it. When it is underway, we must consider and ask whether this (whatever “this” is) meets the promises God gave beforehand. No matter how it may vary from our predictions, when God’s purposes are underway they will look only how God planned them to look.”¹ “The process of developing understanding begins with the scriptures. No matter how much you believe you understand, the scriptures will always have language that can be adapted to set out the truth. The difference between seeing what is there and being blind to the words of prophecy consists primarily in how diligent you have been in preparing your mind through study of scripture.”²

“It is better to let the words of prophecy speak for themselves and not impose our own beliefs or traditions on them. We tend to see in the words meanings that are harmonious with our own preconceptions. It is better to abandon those preconceptions and see if the words give us any better or different explanation of what is to happen. That way we are not misinformed by the traditions of men, even if they come to us from very good men. We should not judge what others believe, explain or teach. They are entitled to their beliefs. But each of us is entitled to believe and take at face value the words of prophecy in scripture, even if they collide with some other notions. It is better to abandon the ideas which collide with scripture than it is to wrestle the scriptures to conform with the ideas.”³

”Prophecy is not given so you can anticipate the details beforehand. Prophecy is only given so that after the event takes place, you can then understand the scriptures’ meaning. Only after He has acted can you understand how the Lord intended to accomplish His will and fulfill His promise. Prophecy’s purpose is not to allow you beforehand to know the events with enough specificity so that God’s will could be anticipated, prevented, and frustrated. If you knew what He was up to, you could prevent it. But because you do not, when the prophecies are fulfilled, then you know the Lord has acted. God can use any means He chooses to accomplish His promises. Everything God is doing is not disclosed at the time it is underway. We all know and accept John the Baptist, because history tells us we ought to accept John the Baptist. But it was not until a revelation was given through the prophet Joseph Smith that we understood the greatness of the effort behind the scenes that were involved in bringing to pass the mission entrusted to John the Baptist.”⁴

“When you encounter in the New Testament an interpretation of a prophecy that came in the Old Testament, you don’t go to the Old Testament to decide whether or not that prophecy fit the events in the New Testament. You reverse that, and you say, ‘What does the New Testament tell us that the Old Testament means?’ And the Old Testament means whatever it is that the New Testament says it means. You arrive at your Biblical interpretation always by using the new to tell you what the old meant. Which is another way of saying that prophecy is so obscure that it requires it to be fulfilled, in order for you to understand what it was all about. When it is fulfilled, then the evidence of what was in the mind of God and the prophet, when it first got composed, is apparent. But it is not apparent until the events happen, which is why all of the people trying to date and foretell all of the events are always surprised, because they missed something.”⁵

“How God chooses to fulfill His promises in our day is as unsearchable and unpredictable as how Christ fulfilled prophecy in front of the learned members of the Sanhedrin while He went unrecognized….God’s meaning only becomes clear when we take enough thought to solemnly, carefully and through enough experience have allowed God’s meaning to become clear. Haste brings pestilence. Impatience is the enemy of understanding. When it comes to understanding scripture, obeying God, and parsing through prophecy nothing should be done abruptly… Finally, I would suggest that we all stay in our own lane. Rather than thinking we can interpret God’s will for others, our search should be to find God’s will for ourselves. If we think someone makes it look easy, that is only because you do not comprehend the price that must be paid in hard-won experience that precedes the results.”⁶