bible_study/Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E1 - Who Are the Prophecy Pros.md
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Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/BONUS - COVID-19 and the End Times.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E1 - Who Are the Prophecy Pros.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E10 - Billy Hallowell Media, Prophecy, and Journalism.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E12 - Amir Tsarfati Israel, World Deception, and The Day Approaching.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E13 - Dr. Tony Evans A Crisis of Leadership and Hope in Prophecy.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E2 - The Relevancy of Bible Prophecy.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E3 - Hollywood’s Obsession with the Apocalypse.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E4 - Phil Cooke – Prophecy, Culture and Hollywood.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E5 -  Rapture – God’s Special Ops Extraction.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E6 - What Happens at the Rapture.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E7 - What’s the Big Deal with Israel.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E8 - Dillon Burroughs – Purpose of a Watchman.md
Podcasts/Prophecy Pros/Season 1/S1E9 - Are we living in the days of Noah.md
2023-10-22 20:04:23 -04:00

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URL: https://prophecyprospodcast.com/s1e1/

!S1E1 - Who Are the Prophecy Pros.mp3


Todd: Welcome to the Prophecy Pros podcast, episode one. Who in the world are we and what is this all about? Im Todd Hampson and Im with Jeff Kinley.

Jeff: Thats right. And were the Prophecy Pros and were here to help you understand Bible prophecy to make sense for you, but most of all to help you in your life and living for Jesus Christ. So lets get started.

Jeff: All right, Todd, so lets talk about why were here. I mean, why the Prophecy Pros? And I think before we even get into that is how each of us kind of got into prophecy and maybe a little bit about our background and that might help people get to know us a little better. Why dont you begin?

Todd: Absolutely. Im primarily a lay leader. Ive never been on staff at a church, but Ive always had a love for Bible prophecy. And really that stemmed back to my salvation, when I was 13 was the first time I heard the gospel. And through a series of crazy situations, God led me to a private school when I first heard the gospel and had all these questions. I thought evolution was true, I thought the Bible was a book of fairy tales. And then one gentleman showed me that fulfilled Bible prophecy is the number one apologetic that proves the Bibles from God. So that got my attention and that really is the thing that unlocked it. It led me to the Lord. And since then Ive just always had a love for Bible prophecy. And once I started studying it, naturally just fell in love with eschatology.

Todd: And about five years ago, looking at the crazy stuff going on in the world, it just seemed like a lot of stuff was lining up with scripture. So I just rolled my sleeves up and dove in and really figured this thing out. How about yourself?

Jeff: Well, our stories are very similar in that neither one of us kind of grew up in a Christian home. So we didnt have a whole lot of background in the Bible and that type of thing. For me, I was your basic drug-dealing hippie in high school, kind of thing. And then the Lord saved me through a friend in high school, and one of the first things that I got exposed to just other than the Bible itself was Bible prophecy. And it really got my attention and made me want to dig deeper into the Bible because a lot of people talk about prophecy in the end times and you think, “Hey, is this true? I mean, is this a sensational topic? And what are they really peddling here?”

Jeff: So I really wanted to know the truth for myself, but I became a pastor and went to seminary, in Dallas seminary, and became a pastor and then became a youth pastor for many, many years, about 20 something years. And over that time, students would often come to me, “Jeff, teach us the Revelation. Take us through Bible prophecies.” So that got me to begin to teach that to them. And what I found was is that when people are presented with what the Bible says, theyre actually really interested in it. And like you said, today, more than ever, people are looking around the world. Theyre going, “Man, something is wrong with our world.” I mean were the Titanic man. Whats going on here? We struck this iceberg and how do we as Christians live in this postmodern, post-Christian age?

Jeff: And I think Bible prophecy has a lot to say about that.

Todd: It really does. And in the next episode, were going to talk a lot about some of the benefits to studying Bible prophecy, but I just want to acknowledge the elephant in the room in that it is a weird topic. I own that. Yes, if it werent for fulfilled Bible prophecy and all the things that prove the Bibles from God. To think that Jesus is going to crack the sky and rapture us and all this end times events stuffs going to happen is absolutely insane if it were not for fulfilled Bible prophecy and other evidences that the Bibles from God. And of course our conversions. The fact that we became Christians the way we did and that internal witness that we know its true. Theres one question I get a lot is like why focus on Bible prophecy? Why is that such a key focus of yours? Why not just talk about just the Bible in general or more broad topics?

Todd: What I usually tell people is, well, different people have different interests. God gives people different spiritual gifts. He positions people in different places. Some pastors really focus on family ministry or finding and healing addicts and people that are really broken and bringing them to the cross. All those are good things, but you and I kind of specialize in Bible prophecy and its almost like a weird hobby that we cant really explain, but its just something that God put in us. What can you share more about that?

Jeff: I think a lot of times when people think about Bible prophecy, they think these guys are in the room with tinfoil hats on and theyre kind of channeling some signal from outer space or whatever. But really, were grounded in the scripture. We want to help people be grounded in the scripture. Thats really part of what our ministries are really all about. And so we want to help people kind of take away some of that facade thats in front of Bible prophecy. Some of the myths of Bible prophecy. Some of the obstacles that I think keep people from wanting to study Bible prophecy.

Jeff: I get a lot of Christians, a lot of people in their twenties and thirties wholl say to me, “Jeff, I want to study Revelation, but it scares me. I dont know how to approach it.” That kind of thing. So one of the things that I think we want to do in the Prophecy Pros is help really bring those walls down and tear away those obstacles and just say, “Hey, you can do this.” Were calling ourselves the Prophecy Pros only because this is what were doing. But you can be a Prophecy Pro if youre listening at home.

Jeff: And this is something that with a Bible and with just a little bit of coaching, you can understand these things. Its not rocket science. And God wrote the Bible for us to understand. A lot of people forget that, dont they?

Todd: Absolutely. And Jeff breezed past one little detail and thats, he went to Dallas Theological Seminary, which, some of the people he learned under were big hitters in Bible prophecy. And I think, honestly, thats another reason God teamed us up is because I have no seminary background, just elbow grease. And youve got a ton of elbow grease and seminary background. But both of us are professional authors, professional speakers. We actually do know this. We have gotten paid to do it. So were technically professionals. And we dont say that to brag or tout it, but we do want you to know were not fly by the night Bible prophecy guys, making this podcast in our mamas basement. We really have paid our dues. We really know what were talking about.

Todd: And throughout this, this is our promise to you, throughout these episodes, we will try to be really clear where the Bible is crystal clear on elements of Bible prophecy and areas where its a little bit more subjective or good Bible prophecy teachers may disagree slightly on certain things. So well try to point those things out. But I just wanted to mention that, and reiterate what Jeff said is that you can figure this out. So Jeff, let me ask you this. Who do you think is behind the fact that so many people think revelation and eschatology and Bible prophecy is confusing, scary and irrelevant?

Jeff: Yeah. Well, you go back to the very first book of the Bible and theres a character in there named Satan. And hes there-

Todd: Ive heard of him.

Jeff: Yeah, heard of him. And the first thing that he does to mankind is to tell them a lie about what God has said. In other words, he lied about Gods word. He gave them misinformation about what God says. And I think today Satan could do one or two things with the Bible. He would, A, hed try to keep you from the Bible. And B, if youre getting into the Bible, he would try to mislead you in some way. And I think theres a lot of white noise, if you will, in the world of Bible prophecy and so theres a lot of books out there. I mean, go to Amazon, just type in prophecy, boom, here comes this hundreds of books.

Jeff: So you got to know, how do I know which ones are kind of legit, which ones are predicting blood moons are going to fall on the earth and that kind of stuff? And so we need to have some clarity. And I think that clarity is in scripture. I mean, we have some really great guidelines in the Bible. And part of what the Prophecy Pros podcast wants to do is we want to equip people, encourage them. We want to give them inspiration really to live. Its really where it boils down to. I mean, prophecy is not just for information, its for transformation. Its there to drive away fear and to replace it with faith and to give people hope and confidence in these perilous times that were living in. So thats really part of the impetus, really part of the boost that we want to communicate to people, and even broadcasting this to them.

Todd: Absolutely. Personally, Ive noticed that studying the Bible through the lens and through the backbone of scripture of Bible prophecy, its almost like you have a pair of infrared goggles on that you can see things you never saw before. You see how intricately connected the Bible is from cover to cover and thats the beauty of Bible prophecy. It touches on every area of theology, every key person or figure in the Bible ties back to Bible prophecy. Actually, this year Im going through my Bible. Im in Genesis and Exodus now, highlighting original prophecy and when its fulfilled with different colors, and literally every single page, theres prophecy all throughout scripture. So its not a fringe topic, I guess is what Im saying.

Jeff: Its not. In fact, its very interesting that when Paul wrote his letter to the Thessalonians, in verse Thess two, he wrote to them because some of the false teachers were entering in to the church and teaching them things about the end times that were not true. And so Paul came in and said, “Hey, I dont want you to be disturbed in your faith. I dont want you to have anxiety about the future,” that kind of thing. A lot of Christians do when it comes to Bible prophecy, they have this anxiety about themselves. And yet he says, “I dont want anyone to deceive you.” In fact, its very interesting because he says over in verse five of chapter two, he says, “Do you not remember that while I was with you, I was telling you these things?” Which tells us that Bible prophecy was a part of Pauls curriculum that he did and church planting.

Todd: For new believers.

Jeff: For brand new believers. Yeah, because I mean its just a part of everything has eschatology, which is a study of the end times is part of understanding who God is and what God wants us to do. And he had previously written to the Thessalonians in chapter four verse Thess four, he says, “I dont want you to be uninformed about these things.” And I find Todd is, as I travel around, I know you do too. A lot of Christians will come up and say, “Ive never heard any of this before.” Because either my pastor hasnt preached on it or, I havent read anything about it. And so theres a lot of not just misinformed information but lack of information about Bible prophecy and so part as we go on in the months and years as we do this thing, we want to give a lot of information. Like I said before, in a way that you can take, there are tools that well be giving you, you can take these tools and your life can be transformed. So I think thats one of the things that the Prophecy Pros podcast is going to do.

Jeff: Keep you from misinformation, give us information, keep you from being misled and to give you hope and confidence.

Todd: Absolutely. Beautifully put and Im really glad you brought up first and second Thessalonians because I would challenge our listeners to read that now because like you said, that was Pauls believers one on one class. He was only with them three or four weeks when he planted the church. But he explained the rapture. He explained the second coming. And really what he teaches there is that the second coming or our rapture are our bodies being saved and resurrected is part of our salvation. So a lot of times in churches well teach about salvation spiritually, which is important. Being born again, thats where we you cross that line of faith, but also part of our salvation is our physical salvation and our future hope that all of this is going somewhere.

Todd: And I think in the past maybe 40 or 50 years, theres been a lot of people obviously from the Jesus movement in the 70s people saying the Lord is going to return soon. And of course left behind series in the 90s all amazing things, and I should mention Late, Great Planet Earth in the 70s was what the bestselling book for like 10 years or something like that.

Jeff: It was.

Todd: So a lot of Christians have said, “All right, theyve been saying that forever.” But really its been 40 or 50 years. God is trying to get peoples attention that were in the last days and well talk about reasons why that is, biblical reasons why we believe were in the waning era of the church age, but for today we really just wanted to encourage them to kind of getting the overview of what were doing and why were doing it and know that they can understand Bible prophecy and its not a fringe topic.

Todd: Its something that every believer, I believe should study. And it brings your faith to life like never before.

Jeff: It really does Todd. And, the Bible is written in such a way to give us that kind of awakening as it were. I mean, you talk about its been 40-50 years, but sometimes someone whos in a deep sleep takes a little while to wake up. I got sometimes even with our own lives or my own life, he has to tap me on the shoulder. Sometimes he has to shake me by the shoulders to get my attention. If you think about this, people, you think about someones last words for they die or for they go off, whatever, are the most important words sometimes and youre thinking about God couldve ended the Bible any way he wanted to.

Jeff: He couldve just said, “Hey guys, love each other. Its all good. See you later.” But God ended his written revelation to mankind or specifically to the church with a book about prophecy. And so that must be something that is important. Its kind of like, these are your marching orders until I come again, heres what I want you to end on. And so thats a whole book there. And so I think that tells us something about the priority of prophecy, about just the importance of it in our daily Christian lives. And again, to make sure that we dont avoid it. I growing up, I went to my grandmothers house often, there was this one room of the house where she would never let anybody go into. And I never really understood why, but there were tons of grandkids around.

Jeff: So now I know why her China was in there and all of a sudden, “Stay out of that room.” But I think a lot of Christians look at Bible prophecy and specifically revelation, like that room, its like its locked, its only for grandma.

Todd: its off limits.

Jeff: Its off limits, man. You dont touch it, and we want to help people touch it. We want to help people open that door, walk into that room, explore, see whats going on and enjoy what God has for us there.

Todd: Amen. The analogy I like to use is that not reading the book of revelation is like go into your favorite action movie and leaving before the ending and you dont even know how it ends. And God is a story teller. I mean, he loves story.

Todd: He uses it all throughout scripture. So the whole Bible is written as this one mega story. So we cant skip out on the, you know, why we pay our money at the movies and then walk out before the endings.

Jeff: Absolutely. And also just to consider some 28% of the Bible, was prophetic when it was written. So I mean thats a fourth of the Bible. You take that away and youre gutting the scripture there.

Todd: Absolutely.

Jeff: And its throughout the entire Bible. Its not just one book of the Bible. So were going to discuss all those topics. Were going to get into that and we want to answer peoples questions as well. Sending your questions and were going to get some responses to those things. And because there are things that youre interested in, people come to me, they send us emails saying, “Hey, what about this?”

Jeff: “What does this mean?” And thats why were here to help answer those questions, dispel those fears so we can move forward with faith and confidence.

Todd: Absolutely. And a passion that you and I both have and have had for a long time is reaching the next generation with this message. A lot of people, especially the younger generations, millennials, Gen Z, whole nine yards, even Gen Xs, our generation have not heard this message. So were really trying to package it, so to speak, in a way like missionaries that go on the field and speak the language of the people that theyre trying to reach. Were trying to, thats what we do with our books. Thats what were doing this podcast. So I would just say to our listeners, if you know anybody who you think would not be interested in Bible prophecy, but this might get their attention, please share the information about this and, and wed love for them to listen as well.

Jeff: Absolutely.

Todd: Well, I think thats about all we got for this episode, man. Is there anything else you want to share, Jeff?

Jeff: No, Im just really excited. I mean, thats really the main point. Im so pumped about what Gods going to do through this and the people that its going to be reached through it. Just from us having this conversation and really bringing you into the conversation and helping our listeners understand, hey, youre a part of this and we do want to hear from you, but most of all, we want to be here to serve you, to help you, and to cheer you on in your faith with some great stuff from Bible prophecy.

Todd: Thats right.

Jeff: Okay, Todd, so how can people find us? Contact us? Whats the info?

Todd: All right. The simplest way to find that information about us is just to go to prophecyprospodcast.com and there you can find all the information about Jeffs ministry, my ministry, our books, podcasts, everything else you want to know will all be stored at prophecyprospodcast.com.

Jeff: Awesome.

Jeff: Hey, for more resources and show notes, how to contact us, how to ask questions, go to prophecyprospodcast.com. Hey, well see you next episode or maybe not, maybe well see you in the air.