How hard can it be to read and understand personal correspondence?

This theme becomes one of the keynotes of our Lord’s ministry in the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles.

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Recurring Prophetic Formulas Mark The Presence of Prophetic Passages

• These and many other such expressions play an important role in alerting the interpreter to the presence of prophetic materials.

• Almost always they signal the fact that the setting for the final or ultimate fulfillment of texts that use these expressions is the time of the second coming of our Lord.

• Watch for their appearance and check to see whether their usage in each context has this technical significance.

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Certain Prophetic Terms Are Rich With Allusions

• The language of prophecy often has a vivid texture and history to it.

• The actions and descriptions it uses are often typical, symbolic, and full of allusions to what happened in the past.

• Some of these terms will help the interpreter to gain some perspective on biblical literature.

• Six of the most common are the following:

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Certain Prophetic Terms Are Rich With Allusions

• 1. Earth. Often one of the most difficult decisions for the interpreter is whether to translate ‘eres “land” or “earth.” Isa. 24 is a good test case.

• This prophecy probably points to a worldwide context, given its use of heaven as a counterpoint in v. 21.

• Thus, we may formulate this rule: where earth is used in distinction to heaven, it is used in its wider sense; but where it is set over against the Gentiles, it denotes “land.”

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Certain Prophetic Terms Are Rich With Allusions

• 2. Sea. The sea may refer to more than a large body of water.

• It may stand for a multitude of people, as it does in Dan. 7:2—3, out of which the four world empires arise.

• 3. Sand of the sea and the stars of heaven. Here too, both forms of thought may stand for a large number of people or the unmeasura ble population of Israel (Gen. 22:17; Hos. 1:10; 1 Kings 4:20; Gen. 15:5; Heb. 11:12).

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Certain Prophetic Terms Are Rich With Allusions

• 4. Day of clouds and darkness, blood and fire and billows of smoke; the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. Usually these phrases represent national and worldwide calamities.

• They are symbols of great suffering and destruction permitted by God in connection with his judging humankind at his second coming.

• Their roots are located in destructions of the past, such as that of the Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

• See such texts as Joel 2:10, 30—3 3:15; Isa. 13:10; 34:4; Ezek. 32:7; 34:12; Matt. 24:29; Rev. 6:12.

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Certain Prophetic Terms Are Rich With Allusions

• 5. The North. Sometimes the North stands for Assyria, at other times for Babylon or Medo-Persia.

• This is because all the conquerors against Israel from the East had to swing out of the North, since the desert prevented a direct westward incursion. Later the North refers to the Syrian and Seleucid monarchs who held sway over Syria and Palestine (Dan. 11:6-40).

• In Ezek. 38-39, the king of the North is identified with Gog, Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, identities some have said are powers resident in the former Soviet Union.

• The same themes that are in Ezek. 38-39 appear again in Rev. 19:17, 18; 20:8.

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Certain Prophetic Terms Are Rich With Allusions

• 6. Marriage of the Lamb. This marks the accomplishment of the projected union of Christ with his church at the conclusion of history (Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9).

• Prophecy often uses a great deal of symbolic imagery, especially in the sections called apocalyptic.

• Apocalyptic literature appears in Daniel 7-12, the entire book of Zechariah, Matthew 24-25, 2 Thessalonians, and the book of Revelation.

• Here revelation is conveyed by angels, visions, and dreams, along with other supernatural means.

• Mixed in with these messages are seas and bowls of blood, froglike spirits, and other symbols.

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Certain Prophetic Terms Are Rich With Allusions

• These symbols may be classified into three groups:

• 1. Symbols that are explained in the same context (e.g., Dan. 2:37- 44; 8:20-21; Rev. 1:20; 4:5)

• 2. Symbols that are paralleled by Old Testament imagery (e.g., the tree of life from Gen. 2:9; 3:24 is used in Rev. 2:7; 22:2)

•