Pre-Trib Research Center: A Hermeneutical House of Horrors: Some Historical Notes on The Interpretation of Bible Prophecy

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Professor Emeritus of Preaching

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School,Deerfield, Illinois

Everyone who interprets Bible prophecy does so within a theological system.Some protest - "I have no system! I just interpret the Bible!" They are likeWilliam James' famous crustacean who protested - "I am not a crustacean! I ammyself!" But to have no system is probably to have a defective system just likehaving no theology is to have a bad theology.¹

It is my humble but grateful persuasion that dispensationalism is thesystem of interpretation that most consistently and satisfactorily squares withthe Biblical data. In comparison with competitive systems, it is mostvertically consistent and most horizontally fits the facts. Its distinctivefeatures are:

1)the periodization of history (although not unique, cf Augustine,Bernard).

2)the clear and continuing difference between Israel and the Church (and

the pre-tribulation Raptureof the bridal Church, the two-stage parousia).

3)the critical contrast between law and grace.

4)the contrast between "the gospel of the kingdom" and "the gospel of the

grace of God" (involving theoffer of the kingdom and its postponement).

5)the insistence on consistent historico-grammatico exegesis, i.e. theplain,

simple, natural meaning ofthe text, literal where possible. This does not

rule out poetic metaphor(mountains that leap and trees that clap their

hands) nor does it rule outallegory when it is clear (Hagar and Sarah in

Galatians 4) or extended metaphor (in the vine and the branches in

John 15). Nor does it rule out figurative language (like sheep and goats inthe judgment of Matthew 25) or Jerusalem (called figuratively Sodom and Egyptin Revelation 11) or locusts and frogs representing demons. But we would insistthat behind any metaphor, allegory or figurative language there is a literalreality. Any writer expects us to read his work this way.

The imperative of a careful consistent hermeneutic cannot be overstated. Ofwhat benefit is our stalwart defense of Biblical inerrancy if we play fast andloose with what the text means? We can lose it all right here! We must notharass the text or indulge in special pleading with the text. I remember seeinga sign outside of a woodworking shop - "All kinds of twisting and turning donehere." We need a deep respect for the text and a profound commitment to exegetical integrity. Wemust keep asking ourselves: "Is this what the text really says?" Thank God forthe promise of a continuing work of the Holy Spirit in illuminating the meaningof the inspired page. We must not add to it or subtract from it (Deuteronomy4:12, Revelation 22:18-19). To ignore eschatology as so many do these days isto subtract from Scripture. The late Paul Feinberg and I often team-taught"Preaching from Bible Prophecy," and there were those whose big idea from anytext was always "God is sovereign" or they were pan-millennialists, "Everythingis going to pan out." But Scripture says more than that, as Bishop N.T. Wrightand Graeme Goldsworthy need to be reminded in their "realized eschatology."

But equally dangerous is adding to the Scripture - this is probably where

we tend to err - to see more in a text than is in fact there. OUR POSITIONIS STRONG AND THERE IS NO NEED FOR OUR SEEKING TO BUTTRESS OUR POSITION WITHPHANTASMS AND ILLUSORY EVIDENCE. We undercut our integrity when we overstate orpile on applications which the text does not support. I want to share somehistorical notes on some areas in which we seem to be vulnerable.

I.SOME CLASSICAL HERMENEUTICAL BLACKHOLES

1)the theory that a day in prophetic calculation equals a year, as inDaniel 8 where instead of 2300days (leading up to the impieties of Antiochus

Epiphanes in the inter-testamental period) some would project 2300

years, leading the Seventh Day Adventists to their nefarious Sanctuary

Doctrine in which the Lord Jesus entered the inner sanctuary in 1844 and other Millerite errors. Thetheory was first introduced as best as I can discern by Tyconius the Donatist heretic who seducedAugustine into

amillennialism.² But others have succumbed to this error aswell.

2)the 6000 year theory has sporadically surfaced in the history of

interpretation but is manifestly a figment for date-setters and is false

because it challenges the imminence of the Lord's return for his church.

The doctrine of imminence as taught by Christ and all of the Apostles

provides the foundation for our conviction of a two-stage parousia.

Where is this theory in any Biblical text? cf Daniel's 70x7, 9:24-27.

3)the gospel in the stars is a gloss on the prediction of celestial signs

(Luke 21:25) and has luredsuch worthies as J.A. Seiss, E.W. Bullinger

and D. James Kennedy in ourtime. Extra-Biblical resort to the heavenly

constellations as a source of revelation is futile and dangerous. Let'sstick to the Bible! The prophetic significance of the "Jupiter effect" someyears back and interest in flying saucers have been calamitous cul-de-sacs forserious students of prophecy. Shall we ever be "learning and never coming toknowledge"? Shall we abandon the sufficiency of Scripture?

4)pyramidology has frequently become a snare for the British Israelitesbut

so insightful a propheticscholar and chartmaker as Clarence Larkin got

snagged here. Let's not maptunnels in the pyraminds - study Scripture!

5)the danger of the Bible codes as devised by some young Orthodox

Jews purportedly predictingthe assassination of Yitzak Rabin and the

upcoming nuclear destructionof the U.S. has inveigled many including

Michael Drosnin, anunbeliever, who made a pile of money on his books

popularizing this approach.The equi-distant spacing technique used is

especially fruitful with theHebrew consonantal text (observe that nothing

of the NT is treated and henceno testimony to or for Christ) but even the

works of Dickens and Hawthornecan be turned into something with it.³

6)the United States in prophecy has been a quagmire engulfing some who

for jingoistic or patrioticreasons argue a prior that God must include the

US in prophecy, be it theeagle of Ezekiel 17 (except there are 2 eagles)

or the burning mountain ofRevelation 8, etc. I don't see the United States

in prophecy other than as apart of "the whole world" which goes after

beast (Revelation 13:3-4). Wemust tread very carefully here.⁴

7)the extraordinary creativity of some (or lunacy as some would insist) is

seen among those who arguethat space-men are responsible for many

Biblical mysteries - that the breast-plate of the High Priest was an

electronic device and that the Great Pyramid was a radio transmitter usedby the ancients. Some have authenticated their prognostications by actual

guided tours of the heavenly domain. We are in an area now which hasbrought all prophetic studies into ridicule and disfavor. Thank God we seem tohave passed by some heinous horrors - I remember that early in World War IIsome prophecy buffs were trumpeting Isaiah 3:28, "round tires like the moon" aspresaging tire rationing, or the "Beast of Belgium," or the increase of vulturepopulation in Israel, or Indiana granite being quarried for the new temple. Thenotion that Deuteronomy 33:24 ("Let him bathe his feet in oil") predictsdiscovery of an oil field in Asher in Israel was worked hard by some but endedwhere it ought to be - in the dust-bin. How careful and cautious we need to bein handling this rich material.

II.IN SOME AREAS THERE IS ROOM FORLEGITIMATE DIFFERENCE

In view of the fact that hermeneutics is not an exact science likemathematics or formal logic, it is little wonder that we do not see all issuesidentically. No one is an infallible interpreter. The Apostle spoke to theissue: "Now I know in part; then I shall know fully" (1 Corinthians 13:12b).Where Scripture does not explicate a matter, it is appropriate in narrative ordidactic material to explore hypotheses - as when Paul says "You see what largeletters I use as I write to you with my own hand" (Galatians 6:11). We are notpresumptuous to ask "why?" or "how?" in handling the Scriptural text as long asour projections are reasonable and plausible understandings and not accordedstatus on the level of the plaindicta

of Holy Scripture. This is not an area for pontification but for the Bereanspirit of "examining the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said wastrue" (Acts 17:11). We can be relaxed with each other here and learn from eachother here. We need to make ourcase for our convictions but recognize these are not the radicals or essentialsof the faith, but nonetheless important in their possible implication. Let usfight irenically.

Some sample areas of difference among evangelicals are:

1)William R. Newell and most of us would see the first beast out of the seaas the Anti-Christ and the second beast out of the earth as the False Prophet(Jewish? John 5:43). Our beloved H.A. Ironside sees the second beast as theAnti-Christ. I believe he is mistaken and few follow him.

2)Classical dispensationalists have understood the third and fourthparables of the kingdom in Matthew 13 (the mustard-seed and the leaven) asessentially negative and the fifth and sixth parables (of the treasure in thefield and the leaven) to represent Israel and the Church. We see evidence ofsome revisionism in interpretation these days, more in Mark Bailey of Dallasand less in Dwight Pentecost.⁵I am inclined to stay with the moretraditional Scofieldian understanding but I relish the debate!

3)Is the Church in the Olivet Discourse? Are both Israel and the Churchhere? After all, the Lord has introduced the Church in three passages (andpossibly in the parable of the pearl of the great price). Must we press theobvious Jewish cast of Matthew 24:4-25 to embrace the latter half of thechapter and the next chapter? Was there anything in the Olivet Discoursedirectly for the church age as it was written well into that time frame? Idon't think this is nailed down air-tight. There are discussable issues here.

4)The meaning of ta genea in Matthew 24:34, generation or "this people"(Alford)? Several different approaches - how dogmatic shall we be?

5)Shall we emphasize the discontinuity in the great image vision of Daniel2 and speak of "the revived Roman Empire," the ten-toes phase of the end-time;or shall we emphasize the continuity and the Holy Roman Empire and the RomanCatholic Church as part of the far reaches of the Roman Empire, with itsdivision into the two legs in 1053 AD? My preference is for the latter but theissue is not of the same magnitutde as the Virgin Birth.

6)Is apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 the great final spiritual declensionand rebellion described elsewhere in Scripture (cf Luke 18:8, 1 Timothy 4:1ff,etc.) or is this a reference to the rapture (departure) as E. Schuyler

English first argued in Re-Thinking the Rapture⁶andas others have more recently picked up or is this as it would appear to be anevil event in contrast to "our being gathered to him" (2:1)? Not crystal-clear.

7)Do the seven churches of Asia Minor (Revelation 2-3) have a tertiaryapplication setting forth seven periods in the history of the Church as ThomasBrightman and Joseph Mede first argued at Cambridge in the seventeenth century?A good case can be made without any demeaning of the remarkable scholarship ofSir William Ramsey and more recently by the late Colin Behmer of Australiashowing the extraordinary match of the descriptives to the actual first centurymilieu. The cherished view of many dispensationalists that the furtherapplication is sound gives particular thrust to the Revelation 3:10 promise tothe Church in Philadelphia.

8)The identity of the two witnesses in Revelation is not stated. The early

church was almost unanimous in seeing them as Enoch and Elijah and

many still do. The context has led more in our time to see them as Mosesand Elijah. But who can say with absolute certitude?

8)The complex issue of whether Babylon in Revelation 17-18 is a rebuildingof ancient near eastern Babylon (in seeming contradiction to passages in Isaiahand Jeremiah) or is it figuratively code language for the new Rome and thewestern confederacy of the end-time (cf 1 Peter 5:13)? This divided theoriginal Scofield Bible Editorial Committee right down the middle, four andfour. The late Dr. Charles Feinberg held the latter and his two sons, Paul andJohn have held to the former. How hard should we come down on the issue whilestating our own personal predilection?

9)Is the awakening to life in Daniel 12 the physical resuscitation ofIsrael (Ezekiel 37) or their spiritual rebirth? It is Walvoord vs CarlArmerding.

10)Dispensational opinion has leaned strongly to seeing the first rider onthe white horse in Revelation 6 to be the Anti-Christ but Zane Hodges enters aminority report arguing it is the Lord Jesus.⁷

Sometimes we may need to shift a view given greater evidence as when Dr.Walvoord at a point in time abandoned what many had vehemently argued as adifference between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God. Chuck Smith ofCalvary Chapel set a date for the return of Christ but later repented. Stillthere are very idiosyncratic views like that of the late J. Barton Payne whosemassive Encyclopedia of Bible Prophecy has put us all in his debt(a clear step above William Biederwolf's still impressive The MillenniumBible). Payne clung to imminence but

spiritualized the Tribulation (something like Dr. Robert Gundry). I thinkthis is severely flawed and unfortunately like Rosenthal's pre-wrath raptureand his mentor Robert Van Kampen's The Sign are really over the line. Some among uslike Oswald J. Smith after a date-setting frenzy in the 1930s abandoned therapture teaching altogether. Similarly Arthur Pink who gave us possibly thebest book ever written on Satan's masterpiece, "the man of sin" (TheAnti-Christ, 1923), in moving to a hyper-Calvinistic stance alsomoved his eschatology totally into that of John Calvin. Sadly enough, G.Campbell Morgan whose earlier God's Methods with Man (1898)was an articulate gem of dispensational truth not only became exceedinglycautious and non-commital on matters of eschatology but really became theforebear of today's many prophetic "know-nothings" or mugwumps - mug on oneside of the fence and wump on the other (to draw an analogy from Americanhistory).⁸

III.THE DISASTROUS DEBACLE OFDATE-SETTING

The mischief of date-setting has hung over the Christian Church virtuallyfrom the beginning. The doctrine of imminence means we do not know when Christis coming. Could it be clearer than our Lord stated it - "No one knows aboutthat day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only theFather"? (Mark 13:32). It is hard to stand on the tip-toes of expectancy for2000 years. In order to rouse folk out of their lethargy we may be tempted tosay more than we should. The wicked servant said "My Lord delays his coming"(Matthew 24:48) which is an egregious error but it is equally inadmissible toargue that we are the terminal generation

since our Lord made it quite clear that "It is not for you (us) to know thetimes or dates the Father has set by his own authority" (Acts 1:7). The reasonwhy "that day will not surprise us like a thief" (1 Thessalonians 5:4) is thatwe are watching for the imminent return of Christ. We are to be awake andalert. Signs of the approaching end of the age (the rapture itself is signlessor else it would not be imminent) quicken our pulse

such as the Israel-sign (unique to our generation) and the moral free-fallin our times (as depicted in 2 Timothy 3, for instance), but we must pull backto what imminency demands. We cherish "the any-moment" rapture and believe thatis grounded in the teaching of Christ and the Apostles and in the understandingof the early church which held to it along with a regnant

view of Christ's return to set up his kingdom and rule for 1000 years!

Still date-setters have incubated their erroneous schema from the earliestdays (2 Thessalonians 2:2). Those who say "Where is the promise of his coming?"(2 Peter 3:4) are making one serious mistake - but those of us who "love hisappearing" are vulnerable to chronological overstatement, especially when wewrite articles and hold prophetic conferences. The early Montanists (156 A.D.)lurched toward too great a specificity in dates.⁹ In view of theupcoming doomsday explosion of 1000 A.D., a church council in 900 A.D. spoke ofthe beginning of the final century of church history. Shades of Y2K when many foolish things were said among us. BrotherArnold of the Friends of the Poor set 1260 as the date. Martin Hauska of theTaborites predicted 1420. Hans Nut pegged 1528. Isaac Newton using the year-daytheory posited the the thesis that therefore

Christ could not come until the 2lst century! The French prophets in theearly 1700s were ardent datesetters as was J.A. Bengel (1836) and FrederickFranson, one of the founders of the Evangelical Free Church and of TEAM mission(in his untranslated Himla uret, or Heavenly Clock). The cultshave majored in date-setting but shame on us for walking in their train. Can wedo more than say "What if it were today?"

A notorious date-setter of great influence has been Salem Kirban of SecondComing, Inc. In 1977 he identified the locusts of Revelation 9 as "killer bees"described in modern science. He predicted that in 1978 there would be a headtransplant, that in the 1980s church property would be confiscated and that in1983 the capital of the U.S. would be moved. He saw the Guardian Angels asagents of Anti-Christ and fiber optics as the eyes of the Anti-Christ so thatwe are being observed even when we turn off the television. The fact is that hehas been a false prophet (Deuteronomy 18:21f), as has been Edgar Whisenantwhose 88 Reasons Why Christ is Coming in 1988, revisedthe next year to 89 Reasons, the 89th reason beingthat he didn't come the year before. The same is true of Harold Camping whoprophesied Christ would come in 1996 (he is an amillennialist). Reg Dunlop set 1991 as the date basedon his advocacy of the 6000 year theory. Lester Sumrall: "I predict 2000 A.D."

More than a few among us spoke of the Lord's coming around 2000 - how doesthis date-setting square with imminence? Sometimes a kind of "can you topthis?" competition seems to goad some into extremism--

Texe Marrs and company of Austin, Texas spoke of 2000 as the limit of U.S.survival, with "crematoria, foreign troups in America and concentration campsthroughout America, all engineered by the Illuminati and the TrilateralComission under the aegis of Senator Dole, Rush Limbaugh, Dan Quayle, PhilGramm, Jesse Helms, Henry Hyde and Allen Keyes.¹⁰

The Prophecy Club of Topeka, Kansas, has majored in sensationalisticfear-mongering but admittedly based on special revelation - The Angel Gabriel accuratelyfortold (sic) thirteen specific prophecies to Dumitru Duduman.¹¹Theyhave predicted a civil war in the U.S. orchestrated by the Communists and thenan attack by Russia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico and two other unnamed nations.This is like the idea that each Psalm is a prophecy of our time - Psalm 48 is1948, etc. What in Psalm 105 speaks of today? What happens to imminency? Someare convinced that Christ will come (according to the Feasts in Israel) in theFeast of Trumpets, but this is to ignore the fact that this is the Jewishcalendar and then Christ could not come back today. "O consistency, thou art ajewel!" The same must be said of those who insist that the Temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt before the Raptureor that there must be a world-wide revival before Christ returns. This is to saythat "my Lord delays his coming." Verbotten.

George Ladd told me many things had to happen before the Rapture. But moredamage has been done by the usually reliable Hal Lindsey than by any other (andhe has been used to bring many to Christ). Following David L. Cooper he hasplainly asserted that "Within forty years or so of

1948" (the establishment of the state of Israel) the end will come.¹²Buteven elongating the length of a generation (Mark 13:30) cannot mitigate thetragic falseness of this as well as all date-setting. Wrong-headed.

IV.THE MENACE OF MIS-IDENTIFICATION ANDOVERSTATEMENT

Let it be very clear that every school of prophetic interpretation has itsbizarre and curious mis-identifications. Oddly the venerable B.B. Warfield ofPrinceton taught that the Millennium was in the Middle Ages. Dear J. MarcellusKik believed that the angelic trumpet call in Matthew 24:31 was the summons tothe early church to do missionary work. Oswald T. Allis was of the persuasionthat the stone not cut out with human hands in Daniel 2 was the church! Thebusiness of the church is to destroy the nations? Strange things have been doneto the prophecy of the seventy weeks as when Arthur Bloomfield adds another 31/2 years to the chronology to make it 10 1/2 years. Daniel 9:14-27 explicitlystates that 490 years total (not 493 1/2) are required to achieve sixobjectives. G.H. Lang, always stimulating, can only disappoint us by denyingthat the four beasts in Daniel 7 are the four world empires but modern nations. Even J.A. Seiss fails to seethat the woman who brings forth the man-child in Revelation 12 is Israel butargues it is the church of God on earth.¹³

E.W. Hengstenberg who wrote so admirably on The Christology of the OldTestament exposesthe underbelly of Historicism when he sees the loosing of Satan in Revelation20 as the French Revolution. Some have argued tht there is much gold buried inIraq because Babylon was the

head of gold in Daniel 2. Silverin Persia? Bronze in Greece? Iron?

With due respect and in all kindness, is it not possible to becomeobsessive on minor details in prophecy? Really how important is the Ark of theCovenant in the end-time wrap-up - does Hebrews really make an argument here? Iknow of one brother dedicated to showing that the Dead Sea Scrolls are a hoax(for me they have been a most positive affirmation of the reliability of theMasoretic text). William Henry has written a book on

The A-tomic Christ: FDR's Search for the Secret Temple of the ChristLight (2000) which explores the Druids, Mongolia and theorigin of the atomic bomb. Others are caught up with the so-called Ezekielstones, allegedly 64 marble and 4 basalt tablets about 14 inches square. Theyhave been hidden for years in a secret room in West Jerusalem. Ostensibly theywere in the possession of a former president of Israel and are the originals ofthe Book of Ezekiel. Of course there are hidden messages in the stones which(as of 1990) could not be revealed. If true, this would be the only originalextant autograph of any Biblical book. If true, why have we heard reallynothing about it? How seriously should we take material of this kind? Is thisnot a side-track from serious prophetic study?¹⁴

^{How important really is the Spear of Longinus, the Roman soldier whopierced the side of Jesus? Was itin fact found in Hitler's bunker and did Eisenhower order that it be returnedto a museum in Vienna and will the Anti-Christ hold it in his hand and doesthis really matter at all?}

Of course the colossus of futile speculation and inquiry is theidentification of the Anti-Christ. Dispensationalistsof all people are those well taught that until the bridal Church is removed inthe Rapture, the parousia of the Anti-Christ cannot take place. Satan, notknowing the date of the Rapture, has to have a prime candidate for this malign slot ready in everyage, but he is unidentified until the Rapture has taken place! (cf 2 Thessalonians2:7ff). Historicists like Luther and Guiness make the facile identification ofthe Pope as the Anti-Christ. Innumerable candidates have been seriously putforward. Among them, in World War I the Kaiser (Caesar) of Germany; OswaldSmith's candidate was Benito Mussolini. Some pegged Henry Kissinger. Some saidit was Jimmy Carter and that his sister Ruth Carter Stapleton was theHigh-Priestess. Others said Anwar Sadat would start World War III. Of courseBig Foot and the Abominable Snowman are to be seen as demons (must be runningout of material for the magazine). This is patently nonsense. It is theseedpickers of Acts 17 redivivus, "spending their time in nothing else, buteither to tell, or to hear some new thing" (17:21). Charles Taylor advanced theidea that King Juan Carlos of Spain would be the Anti-Christ. Some speculateClinton. The latest candidate is Bill Gates, richest man in the world. GeorgeLadd said the Anti-Christ was the Abomination of Desolation and Robert VanKampen opined that the Anti-Christ would be Hitler raised from the dead. Whycan't we just let it be a matter of agnosticism? We don't know and we can'tknow his identity. What profit is there in speculation on this score?

But of course, some have extraordinary prescience - they know that theBermuda Triangle is the abussos of the New Testament so they must have

some special kind of revelation. Or do they? This repells some dear folk.

But let it be clearly underscored that the most gargantuanmis-identification

is the fast-growing error of Replacement or Supercessionism whichidentifies the Church as the new Israel, utterly supplanting and replacingethnic, geo-political Israel. Israel is mentioned 74 times in the New Testamentand in no passage is it a reference to the Church. Even George Ladd concededthat the Church is never called Israel in the NT.¹⁶That all of thejudgments upon Israel are literal and that all of the unconditional andconditional promises are spiritualized and for the Church is a puzzle. ThatIsrael has been consigned to the slag-heap in perpetuity is one fertileseed-bed for anti-Semitism. Since Israel is the heremeneutical crux ininterpreting Bible prophecy, this heresy is of immense proportion.

Next to this popular and preposterous mis-identification in our time mustcertainly come preterism in its various shades (realized eschatology with avengeance) which sees the Olivet Discourse fulfilled in the events of 70 A.D.in the destruction of Jerusalem. Is the Lord's Supper indeed the marriagesupper of the Lamb as preterists maintain? Were this so, we have totally lostour handle on any hermeneutic and are out on the sea of subjectivity facing allthe shoals and sandbars of a clueless Scripture with no roadmap to the future.Is the destruction of Jerusalem really "the consummation of the age" of whichour Savior spoke in Matthew 28:18-20? Is Maranatha passe? Charles Wesley wrote500 hymns on the Second Coming. Was he totally off? Is the incineration of theSecond

Temple "the blessed hope?" Is not this the "boasting" over the branches?

V.THE LAMENTABLE OVER-DRAWING OF THETYPICAL

There is an additional landmine to which I would gently call attention as aperil in prophetic interpretation. Genuine types and typology are found inScripture (1 Corinthians 10:11, examples = tupos). There are explicit types(endorsed by NT speakers or writers like the serpent lifted up in thewilderness as typifying Christ's death in John 3:14) and I would urge thatthere are also implicit types (the cities of refuge and Noah's ark as emblemsof the way of salvation). But there is an over-doing of types that bleeds intoeschatological understandings and we must beware of undercutting textualintegrity when it does.

The early Arthur Pink wrote many probing and powerful studies in Scripture,but when he presents 100 ways in which Joseph prefigures the Lord Jesus or 40ways in which Eliezer seeking a bride for Isaac (as set forth in Genesis 24)adumbrates the work of the Holy Spirit in finding a bride for Christ, must wenot become a little uneasy?¹⁷M.R. DeHaan was on the mark soconsistently that it is acutely painful to question his contention that mostBiblical passages have "a prophetic revelation." Now there is an immense massof prophetic material in Scripture - 1527 passages in the OT and 319 in the NT,but are we in danger of losing authorial intent of the text when Daniel 3 isseen as "a prophetic picture of Israel in the Tribulation"?¹⁸Thisreminds one of the medieval 4-fold

interpretation of Scripture in which the fourth, anagogical iseschatological. Is chapter 6 really a picture of the preservation of the144,000 during the Tribulation? Meaning and application of a passage areclosely related but the passage is supreme in delineating the parameters of theapplication, a point well made by Paul Tanner in his outstanding work, TheInterpretation of Prophecy.¹⁹The text must control andshape the application.

A dear brother preached on WHAT WILL THE LORD SAY TO US WHEN HE RETURNS?This is a most engaging theme, but the text is Song of Solomon 2:8ff. His mainsare: 1)the expression of an invitation, 10,13; 2)the expression of cessation oftrial - winter is past; 3)the expression of love and holy ardor - "let me seethy countenance." These are indeed lovely thoughts - but is this exposition? Isthis preaching the text? Is this exegesis or eisegesis? Is the text a nose ofputty to be made to fit our system whether or not it was ever intended to doso?

Another more academic issue is raised by Professor John Sailhamer'sadaptation of Brevard Childs' canonical criticism. I know and appreciate JohnSailhamer and his work. He is a dispensationalist, but he has a peculiar viewin which there are eschatological types and typologies in virtually allhistorical narrative.²⁰ Thus his, in my view, exaggeratedintertextuality is something that is overdone. The Hebrew noun eretz (earth),for instance, wherever it occurs, is really referring proleptically to Israel, the earthly people of God(as in Genesis 1:2). All literary genre are to be read eschatologically andtypically. This is too much.

¹⁸

But how do we determine what is too much? With typology or anything else inprophetic interpretation? Sometimes it is relatively simple to ascertain, aswhen Benny Hinn prophesies that Castro would die in the 1990s and that the endof the world would come by 1990. There is only one name for such a person andthat is false prophet. Robert Gundry tries to make a case for our being able toknow "approximately" when Christ will come.²¹Marvin Rosenthal wasearly on confident that his position on the pre-wrath rapture would be a majorposition of the believing church by 2005.²²David Chilton and GaryNorth in blasting what they call "pessimillennialism" rather arrogantly predictthat premillennialism would be buried by 1987.²³These cases are relativelyeasy to access - twaddle.

Under pressure to produce (and who doesn't feel it), we may strain too hardto find contemporary verification. George Otis, Jr. has done this with regardto Islam, it seems to me, in his book The Last of the Giants: Lifting theVeil on Islam and the End Times. We have always held that Islamiccountries would be major players in the end-time scenario (as in Ezekiel 38-39and Daniel 11, the "King of the South") but they will not be totallypre-emptive as Otis suggests.²⁴There are other centers of power, inEurope and in Asia (the Kings of the East-Time Magazine allows that the Peoples Republic ofChina could amass an army of 200 million, cf Revelation 9:16). Let's notoversimplify in the light of a current situation.

There is some soundness in John Hagee but healso argues that Islam will

rule the world and advances the odd notionthat the 1335 days of Daniel

12:12 are in fact 1335 years which in the Muslim reckoning of time (?)would bring you from 622 A.D. and the founding of Islam up to 1917 and theBalfour Declaration and Allenby's occupation of Jerusalem.²⁴ He also greatly exaggerates thesignificance of Yitzhak Rabin in the affairs and destiny of Israel. His heartis right, however, on the Rapture and on Israel.

Obviously there are many secular false prophets - like The KipplingerLetter predicting on December 6, 1941 that there would be no war.Such scientists like Paul Ehrlich writing in the sixties about the imminentcatastrophes of the "population bomb" and world food shortage, which have nevercome true. In the fuel crisis ofthe 1970s we were told that the world would run out of fuel in 10 or 15 years.These prophets of doom and gloom were and are false prophets. But we who areambassadors for Christ must not be false prophets by venturing beyond the textand cautious application. I speak to my own heart as I speak with a heartfeltplea to you. Jeremiah had grim news but always projected HOPE!

This is not to say that we should shrink back from clear teaching inScripture when appearances seem to shift. The collapse of Soviet statesocialism in our time gave some of our critics a field day. They mocked ourunderstanding of a key Russian role in the early consolidation of theAnti-Christ's power. But let's not surrender on this. Scripture stands and ourinterpretation is old and true. Historians have pointed out that Russia is

never more dangerous than when on her back (ask Napoleon). She is still

a powerful, nuclear and energy rich country with vast ambition.

France's and the Netherlands' turndown and Britain's reluctance to acceptthe European Constitution is not the end of a developing European union with acombined higher G.D.P. than the U.S. It is premature to abandon ourunderstanding of the ten toes of the image (Daniel 2) and the ten horns of thebeast (Daniel 7). Let us not panic in haste on these issues.

VI.THE BLESSED PERSPICUITY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

No system of interpretation is without its sticky wickets. We all wish theApostles would have stated a few things abit differently or explicated someexpressions more fully. But we judge a system on its radicals, its main pointsand it is my undying conviction that dispensationalism stands these tests well.Some of our critics have issued premature obituaries, as has Jack Van Deventerin Agenda:

"Today,dispensationalism is in a theological turmoil, having declined sharply sincethe 1970's because of mounting criticism. Grenz notes: 'Dispensationalism todayis in a state of fluidity. No longer are the rigid distinctives of the pastheld to with unswerving certainty. Many progressive dispensationalists are nolonger certain as to exactly what are the defining tenets of the system thatcommands their allegiance.''"²⁶

This may be accurate in part with regard to the schools and the academy butis not true at the grassroots. Sources tell us that the burgeoning underground church in China holds toimminence and premillennialism. Remember that imminence necessitatespre-tribulationism. I can picture the little cemetery in El Salvador with thesign: CHRISTO VIENE. The Word has perspicuity - if read clearly: Christ iscoming - Christ is coming soon -

we need to be ready. Only in dispensationalism is there really any

real excitement about the return of the Lord. Who else holds conferences

on Bible prophecy? Whose are the hymns and gospel songs about the SecondAdvent? Who has the best-selling fictional projections setting out the Biblicalscenario of the end-time (starting out with Sidney Watson in the early 19thcentury up to the Left Behind today).²⁷How many faith missionary societies and schools have had these tenetsembedded in their statements of faith! D.L.Moody, Billy Sunday and Billy Grahamhave all been premill-pretrib. Dispensationalism itself has embraced theReformed (like Barnhouse and Boice). the Amyrauldian and the Arminian.Dispensationalism has claimed the Yale/European educated R.A. Torrey and thelayman, William E. Blackstone.

As Augustine observed: The Bible is like a river - an elephant can swim init and a little child can wade in it. The least sophisticated can grasp theessentials and the profoundly probing can be entranced for hours with a singleexpression. This is the miracle of the Word of God. I can bear personaltestimony - I was a boy preacher and began to preach before I was converted.W.B. Riley baptized me when I was ten. I preached my way through numerousschools. My old pastor Gustaf F. Johnson at Park Avenue Covenant Church in Minneapolis preached oftenand deeply on prophetic themes - I remember the Sunday evening after thedetonation of the atomic bombs he preached on "The Atomic Bomb and 2 Peter3:10." After the establishment of the state of Israel he preached on that the

following Sunday evening. My immigrant parents/grandparents had noschooling but cherished their Bibles and the blessed hope. I pastored for

32 years, most lengthily I followed Paul S. Rees at historic First CovenantChurch in downtown Minneapolis (formerly the Swedish Tabernacle). Since 1981 Ihave taught preaching and been chief homiletician at Trinity EvangelicalDivinity School and have some association also with Moody Bible Institute(though retired, I still teach and at master's and doctoral levels). Biblepreaching and Bible prophecy have been my life's work.

My urgent plea to my students has always been: STICK TO THE TEXT! Of thevarious historic forms in the taxonomy of preaching, none is more appropriateto our high view of Scriptural inerrancy than is expository preaching. Whyabandon it in preaching on prophecy? Let even our systematic constructions intheology be submissive at all times to the text and corrections of HolyScripture. Let us live out more consistently the implications of Bibliclinerrancy. Let us sacrifice sensationalism for the sanity of wht the Biblicaltext actually says. If we stayed more assiduously to the text of Scriptureitself we would be less prone to those aberrations and false starts which havesometimes intruded into our proclamation and lured us into an hermeneuticalhouse of horrors. Let us preach the Word boldly and fearlessly and accuratelyand powerfully through the Holy Spirit in order that we might all be workmen"who do not need to be ashamed and who correctly handle the word of Truth: (2Timothy 2:15). Grant it to your unworthy servants, O Lord. And even so "come quickly, Lord Jesus.Maranatha! Amen.

END-NOTES

1.David L. Larsen, The Company of Hope: A History of Bible Prophecy in

the Church (Bloomington,IN: Authorhouse, 2004) 459

2.ibid. 75

3.John Weldon, Decoding the Bible Code: Can We Trust the Message?

(Eugene,Or:Harvest House, 1998). Among the best studies on this.

4.S. Franklin Logsden, Is the United States in Prophecy? (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 1968). A mostbizarre thesis - Babylon=USA. Charles

Hunter, the charismatichealer, insisted that "the beast" in Rev.13 is USA.

Those in Pentecostalismespousing "Dominion Theology" are often

called "positive confession"charismatics and include Pat Robertson. cf

Robertson's The New Millenium(Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990).

5.In his very well-done series on the parables of Matthew 13, Mark Bailey

in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1998-99,views the mustard seed and the leaven

as positive and the treasurein the field and the pearl as showing how

we must abandon all for thekingdom, rather than Israel/Church.

Pentecost would seem to agreewith the former but not the latter. I would

hold with Walvoord andToussaint here.

6.E. Schuyler English, Re-Thinking the Rapture (TravelersRest, SC:

Southern Bible Book House,1954).

7.Zane C. Hodges, "The First Horseman of the Apocalypse" in Bib Sac,

October,1962, 324ff; Daniel K.K. Wong, "The First Horseman of

Revelation 6" in Bib Sac, 153:April-June, 1996, 212ff

8.G. Campbell Morgan, God's Methods with Man (NewYork: Revell,1898;

cf ed.Jill Morgan, ThisWas His Faith: The Expository Letters of G.

Campbell Morgan (London:Pickering and Inglis, n.d.) p249ff, 269ff.

9.William M. Alnor, Soothsayers of the Second Coming (Old Tappan,NJ:

Revell, 1989). A veritablecompendium of quakery. I have drawn from it.

10.Texe Marrs, Flashpoint, Vol. 96-4 and other such undatedsources

which I have on file. Thefive major prophecies made by Karl Marx have

also proven false-cf "What isLeft of Socialism," Lezek Kolakowski, in

First Things, October,2002, 42ff. We must beware of "the wolf,wolf syn-

drome--Larry Burkett had beenpromising "the economic earthquake"

since 1991 and the Dow hasrisen 200%. His advice for Y2K to keep

$10,000 hidden in the houseand move from 401 (K) to money-market

funds has proven disastrousfor anyone who followed him.

11.The Prophecy Club article "Will Russia Attack America?" was in USA

Today, October 7, 1998 and onthe inside cover of Insight on the News,

May 4,1998. David Wilkerson has consistently mis-prophesied that

Russia would attack the USwith nuclear weapons, that marijuana would

be legalized, that the RCChurch would oust charismatics, etc. etc.

12.Hal Lindsey and C.C. Carlson, Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 1970) 54.

13.J.A.Seiss, The Apocalypse (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, rep.1964) 278f

14.David Allen Lewis, Prophecy 2000 (Green Forest, AR: NewLeaf Press,

1990).

15.David L. Larsen, "Replacement Theology: The Heresy of

Supersessionism: in TheDiscerner: A Non-Denominational Quarterly

Exposing UnbiblicalTeaching and Movements, Jan.-Mar.,2005, 25.3

16.David L. Larsen, The Company of Hope, op. cit.443

17.Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Chicago:Moody Press, 1922)

139ff. So iconclastic andidiosyncratic did Pink and his wife become that

they did not attend anychurch in their last years in Scotland.

18.M.R.DeHaan, Daniel the Prophet (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1947)

81ff, 188ff

19.Paul Lee Tanner, The Interpretation of Prophecy (WinonaLake, IN:

BMH Books, 1974). A superbdiscussion of the subject. Also very

helpful is Elliott E.Johnson, Expository Hermeneutics: An Introduction

(GrandRapids: Zondervan, 1990) 159ff, 251ff (Israel and the Church).

20.John H. Sailhamer, "The Canonical Approach to the OT: Its Effect on

Understanding Prophecy," in JETS,30/3, September, 1987, 307-315

One of the problems with suchan esoteric hermeneutic is that takes the

Bible out of the hands oflaypersons requiring almost a PhD to interpret

it. This violates ourunderstanding of the perspecuity of Holy Scripture.

21.David L. Larsen, The Company of Hope, op. cit.252

22.ibid. 504

23.ibid. 480

24.George Otis, Jr., The Last of the Giants: Lifting the Veil on Islam and

the End Times (Tarrytown, NY: ChosenBooks/Revell, 1991)

25.John Hagee, Beginning of the End, Final Dawn Over Jerusalem,

Day of Deception (Nashville: Thomas Nelson,2000). Hagee holds that

Israel will force the removalof the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque on

the Temple Mount. Many of ussee another scenario (as do many of the

Rabbis today).

26.Jack Van Deventer, "Dispensational Origins of Modern

Premillennialism" in Agenda,7.3, 31

27.Crawford Gribben, "Before Left Behind," in Books and Culture,

July/August,2003, 9

Postscript: In an article in Near East School of Theology's THEOLOGICAL

REVIEW (XXVI/1,2005, 3-38), Professor Marc Schoeni, although bitterly opposed toDispensationalism, concedes: "A consistent Biblicism has to be Zionist" (38).He admits that parts of the OT have a clear Zionist import. Zionism wasn'tcreated out of thin air! The issue is: HERMENEUTICS! he urges. How shall weunderstand Scripture as a whole. This is the key.