Introduction
Future events, from a purely human viewpoint, may be VAGUELY forecast to a near future on the basis of information at hand, and previous experience. Some events may REASONABLY be expected if a certain course is taken within controlled conditions. But accurate predictions dissolve into informed guesses and speculation in a year or two.
Prophecy, however, ACCURATELY describes future events, hundreds and thousands of years ahead: this is because prophecy is God's revelation to mankind, through his appointed prophets, of such events. In the Bible mankind is divided into Jews, Gentiles, and the Church (I Corinthians 10:32): prophecy is directed to one or another of these groups and it is therefore important to bear in mind to whom it is addressed.
The Old Testament was primarily addressed to the Jewish nation. God used their prophets to declare future events, and they concern mostly the Jews themselves and the Gentile nations who deal with them. There were a few exceptions, such a Joseph's and Daniel's interpretation of Gentile dreams.
In the New Testament prophecy is generally addressed to the church, but events concerning the Jews and the Gentiles already announced in the Old Testament are also referred to and expounded upon, such as Revelation 4 to 20.
Included in prophecy, are solemn promises, or covenants, made by God, e.g.:
The Abrahamic covenant - basic - announcing a great nation to be descended from Abraham, and that in him all families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:1-4).
The Palestinian covenant - restoration - announcing that after being scattered among many nations, Israel will return to the land its fathers possessed (Deuteronomy 30:3-5).
The Davidic covenant - dynasty, nation, throne - announcing that David's house, his kingdom and his throne will be established forever (II Samuel 7:11-16).
The new covenant - blessing, redemption - announcing that Israel will again become God's people, and that he will be their God, they will know the Lord and will be forgiven (Jeremiah 31:31-40). It is clear from Romans 11:25-27 that this will only happen after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. In its context, it means after the Church, containing the Gentiles, is completed and raptured.
Most of the Bible contains prophetic material, either straightforward or in the form of types and symbols, and about half has already been fulfilled, to the letter. As to the timing and sequence of the events announced in prophecy, a remarkable detailed framework is provided in the book of Daniel, for the times of the Gentiles, starting from the Babylonian captivity of the Jews and ending on the return of Christ for judgement of the nations, when he will set up his millennial kingdom. The church of Christ was only revealed by Christ and his apostles, being hidden from the knowledge of the Old Testament prophets; therefore the period of the church's existence is omitted from Daniel's chronology. In the "revelation of the seventy weeks" (each of one year) of Daniel 9:24-27, the events were accurately fulfilled until the end of the 69th week, when the church was established; the 70th week will start when the Antichrist signs a covenant with Israel, and the church will then have been raptured; this marks the beginning of the Day of the Lord, the tribulation, or wrath, to last seven years until the return of Christ (Daniel 9:27 and 14, Luke 21:20-28).
As far as Daniel's and Old Testament prophecy is concerned, therefore, the clock stopped nearly two thousand years ago, and will start again any time now, on the signing of the covenant between the Antichrist and the state of Israel, after the rapture of the church - only God knows when this will take place (Matthew 24:36-44, Acts 1:7).