The Value of Fulfilled Pophecy

Imagine your neighbour opens his window and opens fire on your house with an M-16.

You call the police. They tell you that they're sending a squad car around, and if the neighbour is found to be offending, he'll be arrested - and if found guilty, he'll do time. 

So you wait tensely. While waiting, you scribble down in your diary what the police said.

How absurd would it be if thousands of years later, after your neighbour is dead and gone, his house long-since demolished, after other houses have also been built and later demolished on the same block - and then someone discovers your ancient-diary, and concludes that the police are about to arrest someone in the vicinity. 

But people are doing this all the time with Bible-prophecy. They mistake fulfilled prophecy for unfulfilled prophecy. As a result they come up with some strange ideas about what's meant to happen in modern times, but of course most of their predictions flop.

Distinguishing between fulfilled and unfulfilled prophecy doesn't mean the fulfilled prophecy has no relevance to us. Fulfilled prophecy tells us a lot about God and His character - by it we know Jesus was the Messiah - and it helps us position ourselves accurately on the time-line of God's purposes.