How do we interpret biblical prophecy?

Question 1164

Prophecy fills a great portion of the Bible. Whole books of the Old Testament are given over to it, the Gospels record the words of Jesus about things yet to come, and the book of Revelation closes the canon with a sweeping vision of the end. Yet prophecy is also the part of Scripture most often twisted, sensationalised and misused. Newspapers are read into ancient texts, dates are set and then quietly forgotten, and confident charts are drawn that collapse within a few years. Learning to read prophecy faithfully guards us against these errors and opens up some of the richest treasures in the Word of God.

The word prophecy is broader than prediction. A prophet was a man who spoke for God, and much of what the prophets said was a call to repentance and faithfulness in their own day. Yet woven through their messages were promises and warnings about the future, some near and some far, some already fulfilled and some still awaiting their day. To read prophecy rightly we need to handle both the present word and the future word with care, and to bring to it the same honest, plain reading we bring to the rest of Scripture.

Begin With a Plain Reading

The foundation of all sound interpretation is the literal, grammatical and historical method, and prophecy is no exception. By literal we do not mean wooden or insensitive to figures of speech, but that we take the words in their normal, ordinary sense unless the text itself signals otherwise. When a prophet speaks of a city, a mountain, a king or a nation, we begin by asking what those words plainly mean, just as the original hearers would have understood them. This approach honours the text and keeps us from imposing our own ideas upon it.

The great strength of a plain reading is shown by the prophecies already fulfilled. The promises of a Messiah born in Bethlehem, of a King who would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, of a Sufferer pierced for our transgressions and numbered with the wicked, all came to pass in a literal way. Bethlehem was a real town and the donkey a real animal. Since the first coming of Jesus fulfilled prophecy in a straightforward and literal manner, we have every reason to expect that the prophecies of his second coming and the events around it will be fulfilled in the same plain way. The track record of fulfilled prophecy teaches us how to read the prophecy that remains.

Keep Israel and the Church Distinct

A great deal of confusion in reading prophecy comes from blurring the line between Israel and the Church. When God made promises to Abraham and to David concerning the land, the throne and the nation, he made them to a particular people. Many of these promises were not fulfilled in the days of the prophets and have not yet been fulfilled in the history of the Church. If we take the words in their plain sense, we are bound to expect a future for the nation of Israel in which these promises find their literal completion, with the Messiah reigning from Jerusalem over a restored people in their own land.

The alternative is to say that the Church has replaced Israel and that the promises made to the nation are now to be read as fulfilled spiritually in the Church. Yet this approach forces us to read the plain promises of land and throne and nation as if they meant something quite different from what they say, and it leaves us wondering why God would make such specific promises to a people only to transfer them silently to another. When we keep Israel and the Church distinct, the prophetic Scriptures hold together and the faithfulness of God to his ancient promises is preserved. The apostle Paul devotes three chapters of his letter to the Romans to insisting that God has not cast off the people whom he foreknew, and that all Israel will yet be saved.

Watch for the Gaps in Time

One feature of prophecy that often catches readers off guard is the way it can leap across great stretches of time without warning. The prophets sometimes saw the near and the far together, like a man looking at a distant mountain range who cannot tell from where he stands that miles lie between the peaks. Isaiah speaks in one breath of a child born to us and of that same child reigning on the throne of David forever, though centuries separate the manger from the kingdom. Jesus, reading in the synagogue at Nazareth, stopped in the middle of a sentence from Isaiah because the first part spoke of his first coming and the part he did not read spoke of judgement still to come.

This means we must hold the whole of prophecy together and not assume that everything in a single passage belongs to a single moment. The age of the Church, in which we now live, was largely hidden from the Old Testament prophets, who saw the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory that would follow without always seeing the long valley of grace that lay between. Reading prophecy well includes a humble willingness to let later Scripture, and especially the New Testament, show us where the gaps fall.

Let Scripture Interpret Scripture

No prophecy of Scripture stands on its own, and the safest guide to a difficult prophetic passage is the rest of the Bible. The book of Revelation, which puzzles so many, is woven through with hundreds of allusions to the Old Testament, so that Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and the Psalms unlock much of what John saw. When we let the clearer passages shed light on the obscure, and gather all that Scripture says on a theme before drawing conclusions, we are protected from building strange doctrines on a single odd verse.

This principle also restrains the wild speculation that has so often discredited the study of prophecy. Where the Bible is plain, we may speak plainly. Where it is silent or symbolic, we hold our conclusions loosely and refuse to press details beyond what is written. Many a teacher has brought reproach on the cause of Christ by claiming certainty about matters the Scripture leaves open, and the cure is always a closer attention to the whole counsel of God rather than to the headlines of the day.

Understand the Symbols Without Becoming Captive to Them

Prophecy does contain genuine symbolism, and a plain reading does not require us to deny it. When John sees a beast rising from the sea or a woman clothed with the sun, we are clearly in the realm of vision and figure. The right response is neither to dismiss the symbols as meaningless nor to invent fanciful meanings for them, but to ask how the Bible itself uses such images. Often the symbol is explained within the passage or elsewhere in Scripture, as when the seven stars are said to be the angels of the seven churches, or the great harlot is named as a city.

Behind the symbols lie real events, real persons and real outcomes. The symbolic dragon stands for a real and personal enemy of God, and the symbolic marriage supper points to a real and glorious reunion of the Lamb with his people. We read the symbols as the vivid clothing of true realities, and we look through them to the things they represent rather than getting lost in the imagery itself.

Refuse to Set Dates

One temptation deserves a plain warning. Throughout history men have tried to calculate the day of the Lord’s return, and every such attempt has failed and brought shame upon those who made it. Jesus himself said that concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. If the Lord set the timing beyond the knowledge of the angels, no chart or calculation of ours will uncover it. The proper posture is not prediction of dates but readiness of heart, living each day as those who could meet their Lord at any moment.

The blessed hope of the Church is the coming of the Lord for his own, an event that requires no preceding sign and could occur at any time. This imminence is meant to keep us watchful and holy rather than anxious or speculative. The prophetic Scriptures were given to comfort, to warn and to spur us to godliness, never to feed idle curiosity about a timetable God has not revealed.

So, now what?

Approach the prophetic Scriptures with the same plain and reverent reading you give to the rest of the Bible, taking the words in their normal sense, keeping Israel and the Church distinct, and letting Scripture interpret Scripture. Be humble about what God has not made clear, and refuse the lure of date-setting and sensational headlines. Study prophecy not as a hobby for the curious but as a means of growing in hope and holiness.

Remember why prophecy was given. Peter tells us that the prophetic word is like a lamp shining in a dark place, and the apostle John says that everyone who has the hope of seeing the Lord purifies himself as he is pure. The right reading of prophecy will not leave you arguing over charts but waiting for your Saviour with a clean heart and an eager love. Let the certainty of his coming steady you in trial, loosen your grip on this passing world, and stir you to live for the day when faith gives way to sight.

“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:19

For Further Study

J. Dwight Pentecost’s Things to Come remains a thorough dispensational treatment of biblical prophecy and its interpretation. Charles Ryrie’s Basic Theology and his Dispensationalism set out the literal hermeneutic and the distinction between Israel and the Church with clarity, and the prophetic studies of John Walvoord, particularly on Daniel and Revelation, model careful and restrained handling of the prophetic text.