Biblical Prophecy A Jigsaw Puzzle with Pieces Throughout the Bible
("eschatology" = the study of the end)
© 2000 Sid Galloway
Biblical Prophecy
A Jigsaw Puzzle with Pieces Throughout
the Bible
("eschatology" = the
study of the end)
© 2000 Sid
Galloway
Sermon Tape # 52,
Sunday November 26, 2000
(see suggested reading list & related sermons at -
"The Bible: One Bite at a Time")
http://www.soulcare.org/General/articles_bible_exposition.htm
Core Principles To Help Frame the Prophecy Puzzle (Eschatology):
God, Himself, claimed He would use prophecy to
prove His authorship of His Word (Gen. 3:16; Isaiah 41:22-23; 44:6-8,
etc..) No other religious material on earth claims 100% accuracy in
hundreds of predictions of the future to prove that its author is the God who
transcends time and space.
Isaiah 44:6-7
" Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel,
... 'I am the First and I am the Last;
... And who can proclaim as I do? ...
... the things that are coming and shall come."
Almost
30% of the Bible prophetically proclaims the future.
(For example: Gen 3; 12; 15; Psa 2; 22; 53; Isa-Mal; Mat 24; 2 Th 2; 2 Pet 3; The
Revelation)
God
Promises that the Revelation unveils the Old Testament
mysteries about the future, so that they can be clearly understood. The
Revelation was not given to hide or obscure God's plan from His people.
The
Big Picture (His-story) merely takes time & diligent effort to put it
together. And like any jigsaw puzzle, its always best to put the edge
pieces (the outline) together first.
The Key
to understanding the Bible’s prophetic timetable is to interpret prophecy normally, just as any other writing.
(Literally unless
the context demands a metaphorical interpretation)
Even huge jigsaw puzzles are not really complicated, but simply require patience, diligence, and time to put them together. And when you finally put this one together, the picture is awesome and will draw you to your knees in humble worship - singing "Thou art worthy"! Not only is the study of Bible prophecy like a jigsaw puzzle in a general way, but even some of the specific principles of jigsaw puzzling are applicable to a proper study of prophecy. By "jigsaw puzzle" I do not condone the common error of merely gathering proof texts out of context and cramming them into a preconceived framework. To do it properly, each piece, whether it be a word, sentence, or paragraph must be prayerfully and carefully studied in its full context.
The Process of Puzzling:
1. First, you gather and lay out all of your pieces.
(For example, Gen 3:15; 12; 15; Isa-Zech; Mat 24; 2 Th 2; Revelation, etc.)
2. Second, you set in order the outline and corner pieces.
(The normal, literal, grammatical-historical and contextual method of interpretation)
3. Third, you group together pieces with similar content (all the blues, or dark greens, etc.).
(Messianic prophecies, references to 3.5 years/42 months/1260 days, Anti-Christ's titles, etc.)
4. Fourth, you methodically put the puzzle together, piece by piece, and section by section.
(Systematic exegesis seeking to fit all pieces into a coherent, consistent picture)
5. Fifth, eventually you will end up with a few difficult pieces that at first don't seem to easily fit into your general scheme. So you have to examine those pieces from different perspectives. Sometimes you will discover that by just looking at it from a little different angle it perfectly and beautifully fits into a spot you didn't even see before.
(Isaiah 61:1-3 split between Jesus' first and His second comings, in light of Luke 4:18-19.)
6. Finally, if you end up with your puzzle looking kind of buckled up and bent, with some extra pieces that absolutely will not fit anywhere, then you need to seriously consider that you've been forcing a lot of pieces together.
(Eisegesis, like claiming Mat 24:21-22 and all of Revelation were fulfilled before AD 70 ..........)
While every student of the Bible should try to approach it exegetically rather than eisegetically, no student of the Bible is totally unbiased. We all come to Scripture with some measure of preconceived notions. So that you'll know where I'm coming from up front, I believe that the Scripture teaches a futurist, premillennial, pretribulational eschatology. If you want to examine the alternative views, which I am convinced by the evidence are incorrect (i.e., amill, and postmill), you might want to read Kenneth Gentry's, "He Shall Have Dominion", R.C. Sproul's The Last Days According To Jesus", Anthony Hoekema's The Bible & the Future". At the links below, I've listed many authors who support the position I believe is the most consistent and faithful to the Bible.
After comparing the writings of the best scholars from all camps, I believe you will see that the premillennial position most consistently interprets the Bible "normally", and is therefore able to harmonize all of the jigsaw puzzle pieces (Bible verses) together into a coherent picture of God's culmination of His-story. The other views are sincere and should be respected, but they end up having to "mythologize", "spiritualize", and allegorize huge portions of Scripture in order to fit them into their preconceived theologies. This is the same error found among those who do not accept Genesis 1-11 as literal history. Those who reject the historicity of Gen 1-11 see it as a series of myths that merely teach some general truths about morality and the flow of history.
Instead, we should simply take God at His Word, normally (literally) as it is stated, in the context of the entire Bible. By literal, I am referring to systematic and consistent use of macroliteralism not microliteralism. (Please see the notes for, "Why 'Normal' Interpretation is the Key to Prophetic & Apocalyptic Passages" for an explanation of macroliteralism - a term coined by Dr. Thomas Ice to refer to the normal, historical-grammatical method of interpretation.) This issue is not a matter of semantics, but is in fact the heart and core of prophetic study. Certainly on occasion, the Scripture uses figurative language (symbol or analogy), but the majority of prophecies - both those that have already been fulfilled as well as those yet to be realized - are given to us as literal, historical, people, times, places, and events. For example, in Daniel 9, the first 69 of the 70 weeks of years were already fulfilled in an amazingly literal manner regarding Jesus' first coming, and this fact is accepted by scholars from each eschatalogical camp. Given this, the only normal, consistent interpretation for the 70th week of Daniel is that it also will be fulfilled in a historically literal manner. And as we will see in our unfolding study of the Revelation, the majority of the book is referring to Daniel's 70th week.
Also note these related web articles on our site . . .
- The Bible's Author, Contents, Trustworthiness
- Biblical Authority (Inerrancy/Apologetics, Sufficiency, Creation, Eschatology)
Return to related articles from "The Bible: One Bite at a Time" -
Biblical Prophecy: A Jigsaw Puzzle with Pieces Throughout the Bible