Secrets Unsealed

ANCHOR School of Theology

Stephen Bohr

1. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 1

2. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 2

3. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 3

4. Notes on Daniel 2

5. The Importance of the Historical Flow Method- Part 1

6. The Importance of the Historical Flow Method- Part 2

7. Christ is the Center of Bible Prophecy Part 1

8. Christ is the Center of Bible Prophecy Part 2

9. A Providential Election

10. The Sabbath and Redemption

11. The Son (God) and the number 666

12. Who’s Hero Is Jesus Christ?

13. What Was Literal & Local is Spiritual & Global

14. The Flood Story As An Illustration of Historical Typology

15. The Year-Day Principle

16. God’s Israel: Understood Globally and Spiritually

17. Israel and the Fig Tree Part 1

18. Israel and the Fig Tree Part 2

19. The Stoning of Steven.. The Last Straw

20. How to Interpret Biblical Symbolism Part 1

21. How to Interpret Biblical Symbolism Part 2

22. The Sanctuary Sequence in the Book of Revelation

23. Daniel’s Little Sealed Book

24. Revelation 10

25. The Importance of Literary Structure in the Study of the Millennium Part 1

26. The Importance of Literary Structure in the Study of the Millennium Part 2

27. Revelation 12-22

28. How All the Books of the Bible Meet and End in Revelation

29. Learn how to use the writings of Ellen G. White- Part 1

30. Learn how to use the writings of Ellen G. White- Part 2

We have exciting days ahead in studying particularly Bible prophecy, but before we get into our study today we want to ask for the Lord's guidance and so I invite you to bow your heads with me as we ask for God to be present with us.

Father in heaven we come before your throne today with gratefulness in our hearts because we know that you are sitting on the throne of the universe and nothing escapes your attention.

We live in momentous times, we live in a great time of world history, and we know that prophecy is so important at this time.

We need to understand it so that we can share it with others, and so Father we ask that as we begin this class that your Holy Spirit will be present here, that we might receive the Holy Spirit's instruction, we might learn and have the capacity to share this message with the world at large.

We thank you Father for the promise of your presence and we pray this in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

We are first of all going to deal with some introductory matters, and as I mentioned everything that we are going to study is in our outline in that particular order.

Now the first thing that I want us to take a look at is the basic types of Bible prophecy that we are going to be taking a look at.

The first type of Bible prophecy is what is called apocalyptic prophecy.

Basically it has to do with the great chain prophecies of Scripture like Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Revelation 12, Revelation 13, Revelation 17.

Now these prophecies have only 1 fulfillment, 1 fulfillment.

I want to read this statement from my former teacher Gerhard Haasel at the seminary where he explains what apocalyptic prophecies are.

He says this, and this is in your outline.

Dual or two-fold fulfillments may be present in some biblical predictions where contextual scriptural indications make this clear and when the details of the specifications are met in each instance.

On the other hand, apocalyptic prophecy as found in the books of Daniel and Revelation has but 1 fulfillment for each symbol.

In other words there are not 2 fulfillments for the lion of Daniel 7.

There are not 2 fulfillments for the bear or for the leopard or for the dragon beast or the 10 horns.

There is only 1 fulfillment for each symbol in apocalyptic prophecy, and that's important because some people are finding reapplications even of the chain prophecies to events that are happening in the world today, and we're going to see that that actually destroys historicism, It destroys the idea that prophecy fulfills in a change so that we can know exactly where we are at any given moment in the course of history.

So the first type of prophecy that we're going to take a look at is apocalyptic prophecy.

Then there's a second type of prophecy and that's classical prophecy, and I have some examples here in our syllabus.

For example Jeremiah 50 and 51, those chapters deal with the fall of ancient Babylon.

It's a prediction about the fall of Babylon in the days of Belshazzar.

However many of the details that we find in classical prophecy is fulfilled on a larger scale in the future.

So in other words the fact that it's classical prophecy doesn't mean that it was only fulfilled with the literal historical event in the Old Testament.

Many of the details then become symbolic or illustrative of events that take place at the end of time.

For example ancient Babylon we know according to Jeremiah 51 sat on many waters, and the waters were dried up.

Now that kind of rings a bell when we come to the book of Revelation where it says that the harlot sits on many waters and the waters of the Euphrates will be dried up, and so classical prophecy was fulfilled in the Old Testament but the fulfillment in the Old Testament then becomes a figure or an illustration of a greater fulfillment in the future.

Now let's take a look, by the way let me just read this statement also from Gerhard Hassel, this is in the book 70 Weeks Leviticus and the nature of prophecy page 289, the previous 1 was in the same book page 322.

A dual fulfillment may be recognized only if Scripture demands an initial and partial fulfillment, and later scripture clearly indicates a final and complete fulfillment.

So in other words scripture has to be clear that there is a later fulfillment to this classical prophecy.

We can't just impose the Old Testament story on the future.

There has to be clear biblical indications in the text that these things have a greater fulfillment in the future, like what I mentioned a few moments ago, in the waters Babylon sits on many waters, and the waters of the Euphrates were dried up.

We know then that the story of Jeremiah 50 and 51 has a greater fulfillment at the end of time because the terminology that is used in the classical prophecy reappears later on in Scripture.

Now let's go to our third type of Bible prophecy, and this type of prophecy we are going to dedicate most of our time to here in our class.

It means that in the Old Testament you have the type or you have the small-scale model and then that type or small-scale model is fulfilled in the future.

Now let me just mention here what we have in parentheses.

The sanctuary is a prophetic type isn't it, Because it illustrates the different steps, the different events of Christ's ministry, Christ's ministry of salvation.

The Hebrew feasts are also prophetic types because they point to future events.

And what's interesting is the sanctuary gives us the events of Messiah's plan of salvation, the feasts give us the calendar or give us the dates for those events that are found within the sanctuary.

So in other words the sanctuary and the feasts are typological, the feasts give us the events and the feasts give us the calendar, and the sanctuary provides the events of Messiah's plan of salvation.

Matthew 24 we're going to take a look at in a few moments in more detail is a typological prophecy.

Elijah, the story of Elijah in the Old Testament is a typological prophecy, it has a historical root, it took place in the Old Testament.

However we know that there is also a New Testament Elijah, New Testament Elijah is John the Baptist, very clearly Jesus identified John the Baptist as Elijah.

There's an Elijah during the Middle Ages, we know that because Jezebel is active during the church of Thyatira, the fourth church of Revelation, and Jezebel cannot appear by herself.

If Jezebel is there Elijah must be there also, are you with me?

Now there's an end-time Elijah also because Malachi chapter 4 says that God is going to send Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord which is the second coming.

And so really the historical Elijah becomes a type of the New Testament Elijah, a type of the Middle Ages Elijah, and a type of the end-time Elijah.

So we're dealing here with typology, we're dealing with a small-scale illustration that is fulfilled later on on a larger scale.

The Mount of Transfiguration is a typological prophecy, what happened there?

Well on the mount you have 3 individuals, 3 key individuals besides the apostles.

You have Jesus, and you have Moses, and you have Elijah.

The spirit of prophecy makes it very, very clear.

Moses died, resurrected, and went to heaven.

He is a type of those individuals who will die and Jesus will resurrect when he comes again to take to heaven.

Elijah was translated to heaven from among the living, and so he represents those who will be translated to heaven without seeing death.

And then of course in the middle we have Jesus Christ who makes it all possible.

And so you have a little miniature illustration of the second coming of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.

And so there you have in the New Testament you have a type, not only do you have types in the Old Testament you also have types in the New Testament.

And so then you also have various stories from Genesis and from the book of Revelation and also the book of Daniel.

Genesis the flood story for example is typological, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is typological, those of you who have seen the series Cracking the Genesis Code have seen that every story in the book of Genesis is a typological story.

Jesus for example, the flood, we're going to study it later on in this class.

Jesus said that the story of the flood is typological, as it was in the days of Noah so also will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Jesus also said as it was in the days of Lot.

And so we need to examine the entire story of Solomon Gomorrah because the entire story is typological of the end times, even the fact that 3 angels came to Abraham.

Interesting, why 3 angels came to Abraham?

Is it perhaps true that the messages that they deliver are in the same order as the messages of the 3 angels of Revelation Chapter 14?

When we examine scripture we find that it is so and so we're dealing with typology.

Now I want to use 1 particular example that we have in our syllabus and that is the prophecy of Matthew 24.

I have a whole series of 14 presentations on Matthew 24, I'm only going to deal with 1 particular aspect and that is the typological nature of this prophecy of Matthew Chapter 24.

Now on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to Jesus and they asked him 2 questions.

I want you to notice what those 2 questions, this is at the bottom of the first page of your syllabus, notice what the 2 questions were.

Tell us when will these things be, Jesus had just said that 1 stone would be left upon another in the temple, the Jewish temple and the wall.

And so the disciples now say when are these things going to be?

And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?

Are those 2 questions, 2 separate questions?

Now the disciples thought it was 1, because the disciples thought that if the temple was destroyed that was the second coming, that was when Jesus was going to establish his kingdom, but Jesus knew that these were 2 different events.

And so Ellen White makes it very clear that in his answer Jesus used the law of typology.

In other words in the destruction of Jerusalem Jesus saw a type or an illustration, a small-scale model of what's going to happen with regards to the world at the end of time.

You see what happens in typology is that that which is small-scale becomes very large-scale.

In other words the true fulfillment of Matthew 24 is not what happened in relation to literal Jerusalem, that is only a small-scale illustration like the sanctuary is a small-scale illustration of global events and spiritual events at the end of time.

Now I want to read some statements from the spirit of prophecy where Ellen White clearly shows that Matthew 24 is using the law of typology, the third type of prophecy that we're discussing as we begin our study.

She uses the law of type and anti-type and she uses many different interesting terms to describe this relationship between type and anti-type, and I want to read these statements and I want to underline certain words that we find here.

The first 1 is found in The Great Controversy page 25, this is at the top of page 2 of your syllabus.

This is how Ellen White describes the intentions of Jesus.

The prophecy which He uttered was twofold in its meaning, While foreshadowing, see that's an interesting word, foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem it prefigured also the terrors of the last day.

See the key words there, the key words are foreshadowing, that small-scale event foreshadowed, and prefigured, 2 words that indicate that what happened on a small scale is going to happen on a larger scale.

Now there's also a statement in Desire of Ages page 743 where she uses a different terminology.

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ANCHOR School of Theology

1. Principles for the Study of Bible Prophecy- Part 1

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