During a Prophecy Q&A event last month, Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Southern California said that pastors who choose not to preach on bible prophecy are failing to "teach 20 to 40 percent of the Bible."
Hibbs stressed that pastors should preach on prophecy, noting that "The book of Revelations, Chapter 19 tells us that 'Jesus Himself is the Spirit of prophecy.' Jesus said, 'I give you these things in advance, so when they happen you will know that I Am … the self-existing eternal God.'"
According to The Christian Post, Hibbs also pointed out that some seminaries don't teach Bible prophecy, which he asserted is an issue since courses in eschatology feature prophecies, including those on salvation and the Messiah.
"People are going to go pay $100,000 to go get their doctorate in theology and come out expected to become a pastor of a church and the world around them is being prophetic, whether they like it or not," Hibbs explained. "It's happening, and they don't know what to do. They don't know what to say, so they avoid it because they have never been taught in the seminaries."
"That's not a good start. Watch out where you're going to seminary if you're going. It's sad," he asserted.
The Q&A event also included remarks from Olive Tree Ministries director Jan Markell, Pastor Barry Stagner of Calvary Chapel Tustin in Costa Mesa, California, and Behold Israel – a non-profit organization – founder Amir Tsarfati.
Tsarfati noted that Jesus rebuked his disciples when they didn't believe in bible prophecy because they "missed" God's plan of salvation through Christ.
"As far as I'm concerned, when they leave prophecy out … it's the number one sign of the woke and progressive, and that's the progression of the world," Tsarfati said. "The progression of the believer is when they realize it was Jesus. The progression of the church that is not into Jesus is [going] down to the road of shame, embarrassment and sadness," he added.
Tsarfati also encouraged Christians to seek out other ways to learn about biblical prophecy if their churches are not teaching it.
"How many times have you encountered people who say, 'we don't have any church around 10, 20 miles [of us]?' I'm saying this: if that's the only church around, go there and take food supplements," Tsarfati stressed. "And the supplements are online — watching others teaching Bible prophecy because you don't get that in your church. If they're the only church around, you don't want to not go to church. You need that fellowship."
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
