It may seem strange that a person could go from consciously following Satan to being a spiritually
reborn Christian in just one instant of time, through the preaching of only one bible verse and via someone not even walking with God themselves; yet that is exactly how I was saved.
After a year’s downhill slide into alcohol, drugs, crime and eventually madness (perhaps even
demonic possession), God simply reached down and plucked me out of the pit. All the rushing, the
shifting sands of personality, outrageous pride and crazy thinking were swept aside in a moment and replaced with complete stillness, peace and soundness of mind. And I knew right then that the God
of the bible, the very one I had never believed even existed, was indeed God. Afterwards I wasn’t
able to recall the words my friend had spoken, though I knew he had said something simultaneous
to God’s spirit coming upon on me. However I did ask him later the same evening what he’d said and
he replied that he’d just responded to my words (which I think were highly blasphemous) by saying,
“John, we never know the day nor the hour”, by which he meant ‘the day or hour of the Lord’s
return’. (While he may have been very much separated from God in his lifestyle, he’d been raised in a Christian family and did believe.)
After that, eighteen years passed during which I married a Christian girl with a tremendously kind
heart and genuine faith, received the very great blessing of four wonderful children, absorbed God’s word through much bible reading, got involved in a range of informal ministries, was convicted NOT
to go to bible college, experienced up’s and downs in my walk yet slowly matured in consistency,
and also came to really appreciate what you might call “the ordinary Christian life”. Throughout
most of that time I read and studied a lot, first just to understand the basics of the faith, then to delve deeper into God’s word. About a year into being a Christian I decided to read up on the subject of prophecy, my simple thought being that if prophecy taught us what God planned to do in the
future then I wanted to know about that. I never really intended this study to span more than a few months and certainly had no idea that it would become a particular interest from that time on. All I wanted to achieve was to understand for myself, out of the word of God, the teaching of the Church
I was in (which taught a classic evangelical pre-millennial & pre-tribulation rapture based view of prophecy). Now most of it really did make good sense, but one or two parts not only seemed a bit
speculative, but also some of the supporting verses for them appeared to be getting used out of
context. I guess it was trying to dig out the truth on these matters that drew me much deeper into
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the topic than intended. Interestingly enough it seldom occurred to me that the words spoken at the moment of my conversion were in any way significant to God’s calling. Only recently have I really
started to wonder if my interest in prophecy has more behind it than just a personal fascination.
Anyway, after years of testing various prophetic views against the word, and also just repeatedly
rereading prophetic passages trying to grasp how they fitted together, I eventually started to gain more and more clarity on the subject. In about 2005 I started collecting some thoughts on paper,
then later wrote a few notes aimed at teaching my children and a couple of their cousins. Later I
added some more sections for a bible study I ran for a while and the material started to build up.
Realizing that I had a decent pile of notes I then hashed them together into an eBook which got a
about 10,000 downloads in its first year online. However even at that point I was unsure about the
project, still asking God for re-assurance that I was on the right track, or for correction if I wasn’t.
The real turning point towards this becoming a more serious project was when I went to a church
leadership conference in 2010. Though not cessationist I am not at all Pentecostal in church
background so I was not particularly wired to expect what occurred there. You see I was praying
earnestly for guidance that day, praying that God would show me where to invest my time and
energies and how to be fruitful for him. At one particular point in the day this book project came to mind and I was really struggling with whether there was any value in taking it further. First, despite believing myself to be on the right track with prophecy, how could I really be sure? Second, most
people didn’t seem very interested in the subject. Third, I knew it would be a lot of extra work to complete to a reasonable standard and wondered if this was really the best use of my time. So I was praying hard about it and eventually just said to the Lord, “I really don’t want to do this unless it’s of you. If it’s not I’ll just dump it – no questions, just show me what you want”. So after really placing the matter in God’s hands like this the next prayer offered up in the room struck me like a
thunderbolt. A man on the other side of the room was praying out loud saying that the Lord was
telling him that someone in the room was thinking of writing a book and that the Lord wanted to say to that person “Just go ahead and do it, this work is of Me and I am with you”. (Shortened version, I didn’t write down his exact words.) In seeking out the person who had prayed this afterwards I have to admit I partly wanted to make sure they weren’t a nutter or something, but the guy turned out to be a humble, grounded and mature servant of the Lord who had just felt this impressed strongly on
his mind to say. Looking back I very much doubt that I would have continued with the project if it
wasn’t for this remarkable encouragement.
Despite receiving further reassurances myself in prayer concerning this work as a whole I do not
claim to be right about everything. However I do believe that what I’ve put together represents the P a g e 4
clearest, least overworked, most directly “fallen out of the pages of the bible” interpretation of
prophecies related to end times. Most of all though I want to emphasize to readers that the one
thing I am really certain of is that some aspects of the unfolding of prophecy will take everyone by surprise and that, while we can know a lot in advance, many of the details will only become
completely clear when fulfilled. For this reason I stress that we must all keep somewhat of an open mind and not be locked into rigid denominational or personal perspectives.
I really would value your feedback, both encouragement and constructive criticism, so if you have
any thoughts that arise from reading this book please feel free to email me at
john@straightforwardprophecy.com.
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