If you look into your Bible, you will find a great deal of prophecy. In fact, one third of your Bible is prophecy! However, if you listen to preachers, televangelists and others talking about God, you hear very little about Bible prophecy. Why?

If you don’t understand Bible prophecy, you cannot really understand world events—and you certainly cannot know the future, along with many other things.

In several places in Scripture, God commands His people to prophesy. He gave those prophecies for important reasons, and He expects them to be proclaimed! And 90 percent of prophecy is for our time today.

But there is a tendency—also foretold in the Bible—for some of God’s people to run from that responsibility. I want to show you how this has happened in our day—at a time when many of the Bible’s prophecies are coming to pass and the need to publicize and explain them is greater than ever!

Most of God’s own people have a “prophesy not” message today and have rejected Bible prophecy. That is a serious problem. In fact, God says these people have become His enemy! And the primary reason is that they have rejected Bible prophecy!

This is why the Trumpet magazine has such a strong message of prophecy. Do you view Bible prophecy the way God does, the way He wants you to?

Christ’s Olivet Prophecy

Jesus Christ Himself prophesied when He was on Earth. He gave His greatest prophecy on the Mount of Olives, when His disciples came to Him and wanted to know what would be the sign of the coming of the end of the world. They wanted to know and understand prophecy.

Here is how Christ responded: “… Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ [in other words, they talk about the personality of Christ]; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5). He warned about people using Christ’s name but failing to teach His message.

Now, prophecy was a big part of Christ’s message! Yet most preachers today make it very clear that they are not into prophecy and don’t want to speak about it.

Christ goes on to warn about “wars and rumours of wars” and many other troubles. We see these already today. But He said, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (verse 8). This is only the beginning—conditions will get worse! What a potent warning!

“And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (verse 11). Yes, there are false prophets! Most of them are telling you that things are not as bad as you think! They have a message of peace—when Jesus Christ has a warning about war and many other crises in this world (e.g. Matthew 10:34).

In His Matthew 24 prophecy, Christ speaks of “the abomination of desolation” (verse 15)—a fearsome army that simply desolates its enemies. And verses 21 and 22 say that if Christ didn’t intervene, there would “no flesh be saved” alive on Earth! This is clearly describing our day, when nations are equipped with nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction!

What a deadly world we live in! But there is tremendous hope if we look to Christ and His message! He is going to ensure that mankind doesn’t exterminate itself!

So Jesus gave many signs that would precede His return. Then He said, “[W]hen ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors” (verse 33). What is near? His return! He is saying that in order to know when that great event is “at the doors,” you must understand prophecy!

He then said, “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods” (verses 46-47). If you obey God and do His work, He will give you rule—eventually, believe it not, over the whole universe! That is a promise and a prophecy from God, right out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. You can be certain it will come to pass.

That gives you an idea of how Christ Himself views prophecy and how He expects us to pay attention to it. We need to think the way Christ does about this subject.

That is why it is so deeply concerning when God’s people fail in this duty.

‘My People … an Enemy’

Micah is one of the prophets in the Old Testament, and his prophecy was intended for our day. Micah 2:4 and other verses describe events “in that day”; any time you see that phrase, it refers to this end time.

Notice this alarming scenario: “Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy …” (verse 6). Here are people saying, Stop prophesying!

These people say, “[O]ne should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us” (Revised Standard Version). They don’t believe God’s prophecies and warnings; they think they will be just fine. But they are sorely mistaken!

Who are the people making this grave error in this prophecy? It is actually God’s own people!

Look what God says in verse 8: “Even of late [or recently; all this is in the latter days] my people is risen up as an enemy ….” That is a serious accusation from God against His own people! What is wrong? They knew the truth and knew all about Bible prophecy, and they rejected it! So now they are God’s enemy, of all things!

Revelation 3:14-22 is a prophecy of the present era in God’s true Church. Tragically, 95 percent of God’s own people have turned away from Him! They have become spiritually lukewarm and don’t want to prophesy. They are saying prophesy not—much like the rest of the world. They think that “they shall not take shame”—but the truth is the opposite! There is grotesque shame and punishment coming upon God’s people who have rebelled against Him.

God’s condemnation in Micah 2:8 continues: “… ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.” This “garment” refers to our spiritual lives; God’s people are to be clothed in fine linen, the righteousness of the saints (Revelation 19:8). But these saints are spiritually naked (Revelation 3:14-17).

“Averse from war” means these people have become weak. They are not using the power of God, and they don’t want to fight for God and war against Satan the devil. Satan is the god of this world. He deceives the whole world because they don’t fight against him with the power of God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9).

The term “house of Jacob” in Micah 2:7 refers prophetically to the modern nations descended from ancient Israel, particularly America, Britain and the Jewish state in the Middle East. (Jacob was the patriarch’s name before God changed it to Israel—Genesis 32:28. In prophecy, Jacob refers specifically to the physical people of modern Israel. You can prove this truth in our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.) So this prophecy is dual: It is for physical people, but it is also for spiritual Israel, which is God’s Church. (Read our reprint article “Prophetic Duality” at theTrumpet.com/go/duality.)

Micah 3:1-3 describe a horrific scene: people eating others alive spiritually! That is what Satan is doing to people in God’s Church and in the world.

“Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him” (verse 5). Even though war is all around us, these false prophets preach peace! But man does not know the way of peace (Isaiah 59:8). They should, and they could, but they don’t—and it is leading to catastrophic war. God says these prophets are preparing war against God and what He says! Truly, they are risen up as God’s enemies!

Micah 3:6 continues: “Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.” God’s people who have rebelled against Him are in darkness. They are not in the light, they don’t know what’s going on, and they are ignorant of Bible prophecy. They lack vision, and where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18).

What a blistering warning: Prophesy—or become God’s enemy!

‘Who Can But Prophesy?’

There is a parallel prophecy in the book of Amos.

This is God speaking—read this carefully: “And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the Lord. But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not” (Amos 2:11-12). There it is again: Leaders within God’s Church commanding their own people, Prophesy not! You can’t prophesy here! God condemns them fiercely for that—it is a serious problem! These people commanded, and anyone who prophesied anyway was kicked out of the Church.

Verses 14-16 show how, when you turn away from God, you lose all your strength!

Amos 3:8 asks this penetrating question: “The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” God has spoken. How can you sit back and not prophesy? This is a matter of life and death! The Eternal God has spoken to try to warn people of the coming troubles. Who can but prophesy? All these prophecies are being fulfilled right before our eyes! God wants us to prophesy and tell this world what it all means and where it is leading!

This is why we prophesy. This is why this magazine you are reading exists. God has spoken, and we are compelled to share the understanding of His prophecies with a world that desperately needs them.

The Breaker—and the King

Micah’s prophecy includes some fascinating details about the ripple effects of God’s people turning away from their responsibility to prophesy. God says through this prophet, “I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them” (Micah 2:12-13).

I explain this prophecy in detail in my free booklet Micah: God’s People Have Risen Up as His Enemy. Who is this “breaker” who is leading a procession, and what are they breaking up? This is God’s response to the spiritual disaster happening in His own Church, which we read about in Micah 3. Verse 11 talks about these false prophets who believe “none evil can come upon us”—they reject what God says, including Bible prophecy—and God says to break out of that! That is exactly what we had to do in our Church. The leaders had turned away from God, and we had to get out—Christ had to raise up another Church. The rest of them—95 percent of God’s people—became the enemy of God!

God says, Look, if your own Church turns away from God, you leave and you continue to prophesy! This group continues to do God’s work. They are given special understanding, and they are proclaiming the many prophecies that are only for this end time.

Now, look closely at that passage, and you will notice an interesting detail: “their king shall pass before them.” Many people, and most commentaries, believe this “king” in Micah 2:13 is Jesus Christ. But that cannot be, because He is “the Lord on the head of them.” This is about God’s Church, and Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church (Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18). He is in charge. But there is also a king here—God’s man inside God’s own Church.

Lange’s Commentary states, “[T]heir king passes on before them, for no other than the king, out of the house of David, can be that breaker ….” This man comes from the house of David, and that is where David’s throne is. The truth is, this king is actually sitting on David’s throne.

How much do you know about David’s throne? If you really want to understand Bible prophecy, then this an important subject to study into.

Before Jesus Christ was born, an angel appeared to His mother. “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:30-33). This is an electrifying prophecy!

Way back in the time of King David, God promised that this man’s throne would always have a descendant of David sitting on it—all the way to the Second Coming! Read that in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. The throne of David will always be on this Earth—and then Jesus Christ Himself will inherit it and sit on it forever! Do you believe that? This prophecy is explained in detail in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong.

Where is the throne of David today? There is a great deal of scriptural evidence, like Micah 2:13, that God has placed that throne within His Church today, the people to whom He is revealing His prophecies. This is extremely important for you to prove. I have written an entire book on the subject, titled The New Throne of David. I would love to send you a free copy. You need to prove this doctrine from your own Bible.

The Good News

The Prophet Isaiah also has a related prophecy. Speaking of “the time to come” (Isaiah 30:8)—or the latter day that we now live in—he denounces “a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (verses 9-10).

This is the way human beings like it! They don’t want truth. They would rather hear deceit than the true prophecy of God! This is what human nature wants! They don’t want God’s way of life; they want to be lawless. And so they tell their own ministers: We don’t want God’s prophecies. We don’t want to hear any bad news. Just teach us smooth things. “Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us” (verse 11). These people pushed God Himself out of the Church! And He let it happen to expose their evil.

What these people don’t realize is that when they reject God’s prophecies, they also reject the great news that God has for all of us!

Yes, God’s prophecy includes many warnings of the terrible events that absolutely will happen if we do not repent. You see these conditions all around you right now, and they are getting worse. But God’s prophecy culminates in the wonderful, inspiring truth about the solutions that God has planned and which will be implemented once Christ returns—and even what He would do for us right now if we would turn to Him.

God commands those He calls into His Church before Christ’s Second Coming to publish His message, and prophesy for Him. He is going to give us a reward so wonderful it shatters the imagination—if we will work hard to let this world know what is coming and give them the opportunity to repent. God wants to save people from the suffering that is coming!

You can read one of those prophecies in Micah 4:1-5. This passage shows that God is going to stop all war. He will bring peace and joy and abundance into this world that people have never even imagined!