Recommended Reading:
A Guide to Biblical Prophecy by Carl E. Armerding and W. Ward Gasque
This very usefulbook contains a series of articles by responsible scholars trying to counter some of the more sensational and speculative teachings on the subject.
Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament by G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson
Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy by J. Barton Payne
The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views by Robert G. Clouse, ed.
The Nature of Prophecy
Prophecy is Foretelling and Telling Forth
nabi (Heb.) = one who is called, who has a vocation
The Former Prophets: include Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings.
In the books of the Prophets, roughly half of verses involve telling forth rather than foretelling the future. Most of teachings involve a cry for individuals to return to the true worship of God, his high ethical standards, and for the nation as a whole to recognize God as their only true leader and strength.
prophetes (Gr.) = public expounder, one who speaks forth
Today's preachers follow in the tradition of the prophets.
Typical Three-Part Structure to Prophetic Literature
1. Indictment of Israel for her sins
2. Indictment and punishment of the nations
3. Future promises for Israel
It proceeds from doom to hope. There is some predictive prophecy in step 2 and even more in step 3. Most of the problems in interpretation involve these last two steps so we will concentrate on the predictive aspect of prophecy.
Popular Understanding of Predictive Prophecy
Right off the bat, I feel it is necessary to counter the popular idea that prophecy is very clear and straightforward. Thus, it has been said that it can be used as an accurate guide to predicting future events or events as they unfold. Hal Lindsey: “To the skeptic who says that Christ is not coming soon, I would ask him to put the book of Revelation in one hand, and the daily newspaper in the other, and then sincerely ask God to show him where we are on His prophetic time-clock.”
Most prophecies are ambiguous and not merely
“a straightforward history of events before they come to pass.”
Here is one of the most literally fulfilled prophecies concerning the life of Jesus that I could find: “But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel....” (Micah 5:2) The time frame is ambiguous as well as the nature of the coming “rule.” We can almost forgive Herod's misguided response in attempting to wipe out a possible threat to his earthly dynasty, since that seems to be the obvious interpretation of Micah's prophecy.
“He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.” (Isaiah 53:3) From this, you could predict that the coming Messiah would be a hermit who would be either hated or ignored by the general populace. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. Early in his life he “grew in favor with God and man” and had large crowds following him everywhere during his three years of ministry. This verse in Isaiah is only true of the last day of Jesus' life. Note also the use of the prophetic past tense (“he was” for “he will be”) indicating that this future event is so sure to happen that the prophet can act as if it already has happened.
Most prophecies are poetic in form and language.
Form: parallelism of thought
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death. (Isaiah 53:9)
Taken as prose, it is a false prophecy. Taken as poetry, it is a fulfilled prophecy. The poetic meaning is that in the circumstances surrounding his death and burial, he will be associated with the extremes of society.
Language: Figurative
Though you soar aloft like the eagle, (simile)
Through your nest is set among the stars, (metaphor and hyperbole)
From there I will bring you down,
Says the LORD. (Obadiah 1:4)
Edom's main cities were located on high rock formations.
Many prophecies are typical in nature – types of what is to come.
“And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, 'Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth'...And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything.” (Genesis 14:18-20) Few of us would understand this passage as a prophecy at all, but it is referred to in Psalm 110:4 and subsequently quoted in Hebrews 7:17 as relating to Jesus: “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Over half of all OT prophecies relating to NT or later times are types of things to come, not easily understood as prophecies at all in their original settings.
Prophecies may be telescoped in time.
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed... to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God.”
Isaiah 61:1-2, quoted by Jesus in Luke 4
After reciting these verses to the audience in the synagogue, he added “Today this has been fulfilled in your hearing.” But he purposely stopped his quote before the last phrase since that event was saved for a later time period even though the Isaiah passage would tend to make you believe that the events followed one another directly.
Another example is Peter's speech on the Day of Pentacost in which he quotes extensively from the end of Joel 2 regarding the spirit coming on the people. “Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy...Then everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved...”
However, he stops without continuing the quote into Joel 3 where it says, “For then, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there...”
The standard way of picturing this phenomenon is to imagine the prophet seeing a series of future events that look from his perspective as if they were happening one immediately after the other when in actuality they may be separated by many years. This is another factor that makes it almost impossible to read an OT prophecy and come up with a time-table in advance.
Prophecies are usually conditional.
Conditions are almost always stated (“If you do this, then I will do that...”) but sometimes are unspoken.
1. “The LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never use again and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as slaves.”
Deuteronomy 28:68, with reference to Exodus 14:13 and Deuteronomy 17:16
God appears to be breaking His promise, but is that true?
2. The Davidic Covenant is established in II Samuel 7 without any conditions attached. But when it is restated in I Kings (2:1-4; 8:25 and 9:4-5), there are definite expectations of behavior that seem to limit that promise.
3. This principle can work in the opposite direction also. “'Forty more days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.' And the people of Nineveh believed God...When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” (Jonah 3:4-5,10) E. C. Lucas (New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p. 234) says, “Even when the prophets declared what seemed to be a settled decision of God, the possibility of the hearers' responses changing things seems always to have been implied.”
4. Micah 4:12 predicted unconditionally that Jerusalem would be destroyed, but Jeremiah 26:18-19 says that it did not happen when King Hezekiah heard it and repented.
Don't expect mathematical precision in prophecies.
“Your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years.” (Genesis 15:13) However, the time that the Israelites had lived in Egypt was 430 years. (Exodus 12:40) Those who see a contradiction here usually state that the first 30 years weren't as bad as the last 400. It is more likely that in Genesis, 400 is a round number standing for 10 generations.
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:39-40)
Some scholars attempt to fit in three whole days and nights into the Gospel accounts, but it is difficult to do so. An alternative is to consider that in Jewish thinking, a part of a day counted for the whole day.
Theological Viewpoints on Prophecy
So how do you approach Biblical prophecy in order to interpret it correctly? It depends greatly on what your theological view of the future is. You almost have to consciously decide first which camp you want to be in. And your decision will greatly affect your view of the future.
Complete Preterism: All OT and NT prophecies have already been fulfilled.
Amillennialism: Only 10% have yet to be fulfilled
since we are now living in the millennial period. (approximate statistics derived from J. Barton Payne)
Historical premillennialism: 37% of prophecies were fulfilled in OT times, 45% in NT times, and 18% have future fulfillment (Only four of these last category come from the OT)*
Both amillennialists and historical premillennialists could be called partial preterists.
Dispensationalism: Almost all OT and NT prophecies will be literally fulfilled for the people of Israel sometime in the future.
Somewhat related to these differing views are the four options regarding the OT promises and prophecies regarding the Jews.
a. covenant, reformed, fulfillment theology: credits Israel with being chosen by God for redemptive purposes, which were all fulfilled in Christ, the representative of perfect Israel, and by his church.
b. supersessionism or replacement theology: no correspondence between old and new Israel
c. remnant, dispensational theology: present age of grace is a mere “parenthesis” in God's overall plan for Israel, which will be fulfilled literally during the Millennium.
d. dual-covenant theology, separation theology, two-people-of-God theology: separate plans of salvation for Jews and Gentiles. Mosaic Covenant is still valid for Jews.
Why do they differ so much? A lot of the reason boils down to the use of different hermeneutical approaches. And this is best illustrated by taking a typical prophecy and looking at how different groups might approach it. But before that, I would like to briefly explain two views of the future that I will say very little about for reasons that will soon become obvious.
Minority Views:
Postmillennialism: An optimistic view of the future that says the world will become better and better every day through the influence of Christians until we have a heaven on earth. Christ will come down at that time and bless what has already been accomplished. Where would they get this idea? It was based mainly on observations concerning current events with little support from Scripture. This view was very popular between the Civil War and WWI (even among Southern Baptists) and more recently among some Pentacostals.
Complete (or Full or Consistent) Preterism: This view relies on somewhat convoluted chains of reasoning using both overly-literal and overly-figurative interpretations to make its point. It is dealt with in some detail in several other posts (search for "Preterism"). This view has never been embraced by any Christian denomination and is generally labeled as a heresy since it denies a future coming of Christ, the Last Judgment, destruction of the earth, bodily resurrection of believers, and for some preterists the reality of hell.
A Typical Example of Predictive Prophecy
Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, “As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,” but “As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.” For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors. Jeremiah 16:14-16
Liberals / Skeptics
There is no such thing as prediction of future events in the Bible. Therefore one of the following three must be true:
1. Jeremiah took a lucky guess or logically figured out that most likely future scenario was that the Jews would eventually return from the Babylonian exile.
2. There were many “prophecies” and “prophets” at the time, but the Jews only preserved those predictions that came true later and discarded the rest.
3. The book, or at least this particular passage, must have been written after the return from exile had taken place, not before it.
Amillennialists
They would apply this prophecy to the return of the exiles to Israel using the principle that the closest adequate fulfillment is the preferred one. Almost all OT prophecies were adequately fulfilled in OT times. Others were figuratively fulfilled by Christ or the institution of His church, or remain to be fulfilled at the Second Coming.
Historical Premillennialists
The closest adequate fulfillment is the preferred one, but it may possibly point to a later similar fulfillment, perhaps during the Millennium, an ill-defined interim kingdom of Christ on earth (principle of multiple fulfillments)
Dispensationalists
All OT prophecies must be literally fulfilled. At best, the return from Babylonian Exile is a dim type of what is to come during the Millennium.
In treating this passage, dispensationalists get highly literal to prove their point. They say that the word “all” can't refer to the Babylonian captivity since the Jews were only sent into a few lands to the north. It also can't refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel since that doesn't encompass all of the territory that God originally promised Israel. Thus, this predicted event has not yet happened.
Here is another example to illustrate dispensational hermeneutics:
A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed...” (Isaiah 40:3-5)
Mark quotes the first part of this verse in his first chapter and then goes on to explain in 1:4, “John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
Most dispensationalists say that although this event may have happened figuratively when John the baptizer prepared the people for Jesus, that is not really what Isaiah was talking about. We have to wait for a future time when an earthquake changes the topography of the land around Israel, and Elijah literally returns to earth. Because of their demand for mainly literal fulfillments, the dispensational scenarios for the future tend to be much more detailed than others, and their believers are much more certain of themselves than proponents of other views. Which is part of why their approach is so appealing.
Most prophecies can only be recognized after they have been fulfilled.
By contrast, my own personal opinion based on NT examples is that the only sure guide to fulfillment of prophecy is found in the New Testament if it actually states that a particular event is a fulfillment.
Now when looking at how NT authors treat OT prophecies, there are a few things you might find confusing.
Unity of Authorship for OT Prophecies:
Look at the various citations found in the Epistle of Hebrews. Someone has testified somewhere (2:5) (Psalms); Jesus said (2:13-14) (Psalms and Isaiah); The Holy Spirit says (3:7-11) (Psalms), He (God) says through David (4:7) (Psalms)
The point is that the actual human author is not really important since God is the ultimate author.
Compound Citations:
Some of the OT scriptures quoted are actually combinations taken from several different places, and sometimes only the name of the most important prophet is cited.
Mark 1:2 starts out by saying he is going to quote Isaiah, but his quote is actually a composite citation from Isaiah 40, Exodus 23, and Malachi 3-4.
In Acts 15:15-18, Peter lumps together quotes from Amos 9:11-12, Jeremiah 12:15, and Isaiah 45:21.
Hebrews 1:2b-14 strings together seven different OT passages.
David may speak for the coming Christ in the Psalms:
I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” (Psalm 2:7-8, quoted in Hebrews 1:5 and Acts 13:33)
David's words were interpreted by the Jews as messianic prophecies since these promises were never given to David himself. The author of Hebrews quotes this verse to prove that Jesus was superior to the angels since he was called his son. Paul applies these verses to Jesus' resurrection in Acts 13:33
OT prophecies appear to be used out of their original contexts:
In referring to the Holy Family's flight into Egypt and return, Matthew says: This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” (Matthew 2:15, quoting Hosea 11:1) These are two totally different events. But Christ is the representative of the nation of Israel, both of which were called into and then out of Egypt. Christ is reliving the history of Israel. Both are called “My Son.” In both cases, a powerful ruler was trying to destroy them but they were protected by God.
Quotes are usually from the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament (LXX):
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.” (Matthew 1:23, quoting Isaiah 7:14)
The Hebrew word almah simply means young woman, but LXX translated it specifically as “virgin.” The Septuagint (LXX) was the Bible of the time for most of the people.
Another example: “Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and not perceive.” (LXX) Here it is given as a mere statement of a future fact.
"Hear indeed but do not understand; and see indeed but do not perceive." (Hebrews) In this case it appears as a command from God.” (Luke 8:10 quotation from Isaiah 6:9)
Luke follows the LXX, which may actually be a superior text. The NT writers were not fudging the facts by using a Greek translation in place of a Hebrew original. Actually, the Dead Sea scrolls in Hebrew are sometimes closer to LXX than our standard Hebrew text and may actually reflect a better reading.
New Testament authors may borrow OT prophetic language and imagery:
Zechariah 1 and 6: scouts in chariots with multiple horses each: white, red, black and dappled gray who are sent out by God 70 years after the first destruction of Jerusalem and right before the fall of Babylon.
Revelation 6: riders on individual horses (white, red, black and pale green) usher in the judgment on the world and the figurative Babylon.
Similar imagery is used to hearken back to similar events, but not necessarily the same events.
As another example: “So when you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken of [Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11] by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains...” (Matthew 24:15-16)
(a) Fulfilled in the time of Antiochus IV
(b) Applied to different event in 70 AD
(c) To be fulfilled in the future? See my post on Matthew 24, where this issue is discussed.
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