A common mistake we students of Bible prophecy make is trying to figure out God's mystery before it is finished. Instead of being satisfied with what God has, and is, revealing, we begin speculating. And, this is where we get in trouble.

There really isn't anything wrong with this practice, as long as the speculations are acknowledged. The error comes when our speculations are no longer acknowledged. And, this is what I fear has happened regarding some of today's popular prophecy teachings. Although sound in many ways, they include speculations that are no longer acknowledged by their teachers as speculations.

When you think about it, the situation I've described above is unavoidable. After all, if you are an academic who is responsible for teaching students the subject of Bible prophecy, you are expected to have all the answers. It's your job to figure it all out, with the information available, as best as you can.

This brings us to what is known as dispensationalism. Dispensationalism was developed to help us figure it all out -- it is a system of Bible interpretation. It's based on the realization that God has dealt with humankind in different ways throughout time. For example, God dealt differently with the Jews who lived under the Law of Moses then He does today with Christians who live under grace. So, a dispensationalist attempts to figure it all out by breaking human history up into dispensations. The result was to divide God's word up into different boxes and interpret it accordingly.

Before continuing, I'd like to make something clear. The Christian world owes a great debt to the old dispensational scholars. In my opinion, they did an exceptional job with the information they had before them. Like I said before, it is the academic's job to provide their students with answers. And, dispensationalism was a logical method for accomplishing this.

Unfortunately, God's Word can't be so neatly put into boxes. And, until our Lord returns, there is an unfolding mystery yet before us (1 Corinthians 13:12, Revelation 10:7).

Friends, let's not get boxed in.