Is Prophecy Fate?
by Stephen Ferguson | 20 March 2025 |
In the blockbuster 1991 movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, about robots sent back in time to either kill or protect a human child destined to lead a resistance against future artificial intelligence who takes over the world, a key theme is a question of destiny. In one particularly dramatic scene, the good robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger is instructed to repeat a line given to him from the future, to be repeated to those he has been sent back into the past to protect:
“The future has not been written. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”
What follows in the movie is a series of actions aimed at preventing the very chain of events that leads to the rise of thinking machines. Core to the characters’ understanding is that freewill demands a belief that nothing that has yet happened necessarily must happen. The future is not set in stone.
The rest of the franchise is sadly a bit lacking. Yet the movies have this value: they can help us explore the question of to what extent prophecy, with certain inevitable key events, still can be fulfilled in ways we don’t ever quite expect, and perhaps Adventists could do with a rewatch of this ’90s classic. It teaches us that the means are not determined, even if the end is inevitable.
Awaiting our judgment day
I think it is fair to say that the world is not in good shape, and is facing some fairly significant shifts. From climate change, to rising authoritarianism, to loss of faith in our institutions and sources of news, to the greatest conventional military conflict since World War II, to a fertility crisis, to the first fall in average life expectancy, to genuine fears about the rise of our own thinking machines through AI.
What concerns me most is how Adventists are responding. Some of us shut ourselves away from the world and pretend nothing is happening. That was the approach of Dark Age Christians, who increasingly locked themselves away in new monasteries, which started to bloom as European and Mediterranean society started to collapse.
At other times it seems Adventists are doubling down and just pretending none of these things are happening. We demand that the future adopt our preconceived pictures. We continue to consult our charts and hand out 19th-century predictions for the world, even as they struggle to cope with 21st-century developments. We fail to realize that predictions made two hundred years ago that might have been true and even God-led at that time, may no longer chart the future course of divine history.
Worse still, some Adventists even seem to be welcoming disaster. These are like Jews’ voting for Hitler, or Judas’ betraying Jesus in the hope this will somehow force God’s hand. They welcome and, in some cases, actively help bring about destruction in the hope it will somehow quicken the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ.
The common thread underpinning all of these approaches is a reliance on biblical prophecy. Didn’t Jesus say there would be wars and rumors of wars before the end would come? Haven’t Adventists unlocked the code of Daniel and Revelation, and parsed what events must occur in what order at what time before Jesus comes again? Isn’t it all set in stone, with nothing for us to do until it all comes about?
Is biblical prophecy fate?
I assert respectfully that behind many of these maladaptive Adventist strategies lies the assumption that prophecy is fate. It seems we have forgotten some pretty foundational principles in interpreting the Bible, such as the following:
- Prophecy is not fortune-telling, but in fact often the opposite. It is focused on looking backwards—not forwards (Matt. 24:33; Mark 13:29; Luke 21:28).
- Even when prophecy looks forward, it is primarily an exhortation to watch (Luke 21:26), to get prepared (Matt 25:2-4), and to take action (Matt. 24:14-16), not map out in exact detail impending events.
- Sometimes a prophecy doesn’t come true, not because it was false, but because, as Jonah found, the prophecy was actually a warning, not a declaration of unchangeable fate (Jonah 3:4,10).
- While God remains committed to fulfilling a particular eschatological (end time) outcome, there remain many alternative pathways to that exact fulfillment, something Moses discovered when God threatened to wipe out all of Israel and start again through him alone (Ex. 32:10).
- Sometimes a prophecy may not come true because, as the Children of Israel at the edge of the Promised Land discovered, we human beings do affect outcomes—we either hasten or delay events (2 Pet. 3:12).
- Often a prophecy has multiple applications, such as whether the disciples were living in the last generation (Matt. 24:34), or whether the letter of Revelation was written to seven actual churches in Asia Minor or represented seven symbolic periods of history (Rev. 1:11).
- Finally, even when a prophecy is broadly understood, it can be fulfilled in a way people didn’t expect, such as John the Baptist’s being the fulfillment of Elijah (Mal. 4:5-6; Matt. 11:13-15).
The interpretive models
To be fair to us, much of the rest of Christianity isn’t doing much better. Most Christians seem to pigeonhole themselves to one of the following methods of biblical prophecy:
- Preterism teaches all or most Bible prophecies were already fulfilled in the 1st century. For example, a preterist would say the beast power of Revelation was Roman emperor Nero, and 666 a reference to his name. Preterists are often considered optimists, as they expect Christianity to become the dominant religion of the world, with Jesus’ returning when the world is akin to heaven on earth.
- Futurism is where nothing has yet been fulfilled. Futurists might say the beast power is some literal charismatic figure who attempts to take over the world. Futurists also often believe in the rapture, where the godly elect are zapped up into heaven before a great tribulation occurs on earth. Often considered pessimists, they usually see the world as heading towards near doom before Jesus’ return.
- Idealism refers to the view that everything in biblical prophecy is largely metaphor. An idealist might say the beast power does not represent anyone or anything in particular but is simply a timeless idea. An idealist might deny Jesus’ literal return at all.
- Historicism, which says that some things have been fulfilled and some things have not yet been fulfilled. Once a traditional approach amongst Protestants, our church is one of the few groups who still hold this methodology. Nonetheless, critics claim the attempt to nail every event in biblical prophecy to a particular historical event is itself fraught with difficulty and danger.
So which is the correct approach? While I honestly think historicism is the most balanced, it seems obvious to me that it could be any of them, or none of them, or some of them in part. Any attempt to limit oneself to just one method is itself a bold endeavor that sets one up for a future great disappointment.
As the great former Adventist theologian Desmond Ford once explained, it seems far more sensible to be open to multiple approaches to prophetic fulfillment. Many times prophecy involves an “and, not an “or.” For example, in relation to the identity of the little horn mentioned in Daniel 9, Dr. Ford explained:
“[T]he Dan. 8 prophecy had a limited fulfilment in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, another in pagan Rome, another in papal Rome, and yet will have final fulfilment in Satan’s manifestation just before the millennium and at its end.”[1]
Preparing
So how then should we prepare for the end of the world?
We need to hope for the preterist’s optimistic future. This means actively facing the world’s problems head on. Get involved, vote, recycle, push for peace, and try to make a better world. If you need to buy a new harvester to plant your crops, don’t put it off for 30 years under the idea that Jesus will return next year, because He probably won’t.
It also means being prepared for the futurist’s pessimistic future: steeling yourself that things could get worse. But be calm and carry on. Don’t sell your goods and move to some backwater town, only to realize you can’t because you don’t have a job or family support to live there. While you should buy that new harvester, consider one day you might have to walk away from it on your doorstep, and make peace with that by becoming less attached to material possessions. Jesus may indeed return next year, so prepare for eventuality.
It also means seeking those deeper metaphorical meanings of the idealist, and looking for fulfillments in history of the historicist. Consider the Bible’s words for another generation – past and future – as being applicable for you too. Take comfort in their words as you face your own potential mini-apocalypse.
Watch, don’t guess
Most of all, we must reflect on Jesus’ own words: watch. Don’t just guess, because that isn’t really watching. And don’t get angry when someone else guesses differently. None of us really knows what the future holds, and even if you turn out to be right, it is likely that the prophecy will be fulfilled in a way you didn’t quite expect.
The very worst thing you could do is be self-righteous and dogmatic about it:
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matthew 24:42-44).
- Desmond Ford, Daniel 8:14, p.319. Contrary to some false claims, this passage illustrates that Desmond Ford was not a preterist who only believed the little horn was limited to the Greek King Antiochus Epiphanes. ↑
Stephen Ferguson is a lawyer from Perth, Western Australia, with expertise in planning, environment, immigration, and administrative-government law. He is married to Amy and has two children, William and Eloise. Stephen is a member of the Livingston Adventist Church.
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