Thought 11: Is knowing the future important?

People really like to talk about the book of the Revelation.  They like to talk about the many layers of meanings behind each symbol and give incredibly intricate diagrams and flowcharts about the time period described in the book.  Some people even go far enough to predict when all this stuff is going to happen.  I have heard a number of otherwise sane people tell me straight faced that the rapture/tribulation/etc... would all happen in specific years.  It's funny how much time and thought go into interpreting this book when so many other parts of the Bible are rarely if ever talked about.

I think I understand why people are so obsessed with knowing the future.  The future is dark and the dark is scary.  So we come up with elaborate understandings of prophecy in Revelation so we know the future.  That makes it less scary (even though most of the stuff in Revelation described literally is pretty horrifying).

But the better question is, is it important to know the future?  Other than trying to make it less scary for ourselves what importance does it hold?  Why would God go to great lengths to let us know what is going to happen in the future?

I imagine some people think it is so we will know the Bible is true.  If we see these prophecies fulfilled then we'll know the Bible is right and have proof of its authenticity.  The problem with this is that idea if not found in the Bible anywhere.  Our knowledge of God's (and the Bible's) trustworthiness is not based on true predictions.  Every single person who lived through Jesus' life misunderstood most of the major prophecies about him.  They still ended up doing alright.  So we can't say that understanding those prophecies will let us act more correctly.

The gospel according to John is written as a convincing argument that Jesus is who he said he was.  It doesn't reference the future at all, but rather the past.  John's idea of convincing isn't supernatural future telling, but rather a history of the life Jesus lived and the words he spoke.

For us to live correctly we should be much more concerned with knowing the life Jesus lived and the words he spoke rather than whether or not Revelation requires a literal "this is stuff that will happen" interpretation approach or a metaphorical approach.

I'm not saying understanding what this book is about is not important.  Obviously understanding Scripture is important.  God wouldn't give it to us if there was no purpose for reading it.  But being able to correctly guess (and yes guess is the right word) when your particular flavor of Revelation interpretation is going to happen just isn't important.  We don't need dates.  We don't need specific understandings of the future actions that will correspond to each description.

We need a Revelation of who Jesus is.  We need to understand his heart and his thoughts.  We need to understand the one who is the expression of God Himself.