'For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If  anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.'   Revelation 22:18-19

Bible prophecy suffers as much from its enthusiasts as it does from its detractors.
Too often, prophetic studies suffer from inadequate scholarship, fanciful conjectures, and contrived conclusions. With all of the different viewpoints floating around out there, it is essential to begin with a firm foundation. In order to get a clear understanding of Biblical prophecy, we must first examine its origin and purpose.

The Bible itself claims to be the Word of God; it is His message to mankind. The Bible says that 'all scripture is God breathed ' (2 Timothy 3:16). Therefore the prophecies recorded in Scripture are not mere inventions of mankind. In 2 Peter 1:20-21 it says
'.no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.'

Perhaps the chief purpose of prophecy is to authenticate the Bible's supernatural origin (although that is not its sole purpose). Because God exists outside our space-time domain, He is able to see, in effect, the beginning and the end of our time domain simultaneously. Consequently, the Bible proves that its message is of extra-dimensional origin through predictive prophecy (i.e. by writing history in advance). In Isaiah 42:9, God declares, 'Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.'

However Bible prophecy is more than simply a glimpse of what may lie ahead; it is an overview of God's complete plan for mankind. By the reckoning of some, the Scriptures include 8,362 verses containing 1,817 predictions concerning more than 700 different matters. Of these, there are more than 300 prophecies dealing with the coming Messiah.
The odds of one person fulfilling just eight of those prophecies is incalculable.
Even more astonishing is the fact that Jesus fulfilled all of the hundreds of prophecies about the Messiah.
One of the most fascinating and challenging facts today is the precise correlation between world events unfolding daily, and their accurate prediction in the Bible.

A careful look at Prophetic Scripture surely triggers a growing suspicion that in the midst of the dramatic events in these early years of the 21st century, which are shaking the world, God is moving the 'props' on the stage of His purposes, and mankind is on the verge of fearful and momentous days!