Secrets Unsealed

ANCHOR School of Theology

Stephen Bohr

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

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.

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

Let's begin our second class by studying principle number 3.

It's on page 4 of your syllabus and hopefully we'll be able to cover most of this principle in this our second class.

Principle number 3 is that we are supposed to remember to study the historical and cultural background, the grammar, the syntax, and the vocabulary of the passage that we are considering.

In other words there is a lot of work that goes into studying the text itself within its context.

Now prayer can never take the place of in-depth, careful, and exhaustive, as well as exhausting sometimes, investigation of the text.

We must do a basic study of the text or passage that we are dealing with.

Here are some principles to remember and I have 12 principles here under this third principle which is talking about dealing with the text itself.

First of all Peter stated that Paul wrote some things that are hard to understand, which the unlearned twist to their own destruction.

This must mean that the Bible, the study of the Bible is not always easy.

Profound Bible study requires time and effort, it is not enough to read the Bible we must search the Bible.

There is a grave danger folks of being hasty and superficial in our study of scripture because we haven't carefully examined and correlated all of the evidence that comes from the text.

Bible study is like detective work, looking for clues here and there and then bringing all the evidence together to solve the case so to speak.

Our study must be meticulous and exhaustive, in other words it's not enough to pray, we must pray and then we must study.

God will not do for us what we can do for ourselves, He has given us resources to do it.

So the first principle is that we need to dedicate time and effort in gathering all of the information.

Second, this is at the top of page 5, we should always pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our study.

The Holy Spirit inspired the Bible and for this reason He is the only 1 who can explain what it means, and we might have to read a text several times before we are able to make any sense of what the text is trying to tell us.

Third, try and discover what the text means before you try to determine what it means to you.

The Bible text has an objective inherent meaning independently of what you think.

Did God inject in the text a meaning that's apart from me?

The danger of Bible study groups where people ask what does this text mean to you is that we will put our own spin on the text instead of allowing the text to speak for itself, as a result we end up with many opinions about the text but not necessarily with the meaning that the writer intended.

Sad to say in many study groups what the people are doing is pooling their ignorance.

How can you give your opinion about what the text means to you if you haven't studied what the text means?

The Apostle Peter assures us that no prophecy is of any private interpretation.

In short, beware of determining what the Bible means to you until you are sure what the text really means.

We are to extract from the Bible what it means rather than putting into the Bible what we think it means or what we wanted to say.

Point number 4, Carefully examine the context, and I'm going to give you examples of most of these in a few moments, but I wanted to go through the principles first.

Carefully examine the context, that is what comes before and after the passage that you're studying.

Many times the context contains the key that unlocks the meaning of the passage that we are struggling with.

So read what comes before and what comes after, it's vitally important because some people simply isolate a text and they say that this text means this when it doesn't mean that at all.

To give you an example Colossians chapter 2, let no 1 judge you about the Sabbath.

Taj is an evangelist, he faces people all the time who use that text to say see, or nobody judge you regarding days, so they take that 1 verse but they don't look at the context, the immediate context, as well as the broader biblical context.

When you read the Bible mark the key words and write your own notes and comments in the margins, any questions, any comments you have write them in the margins, very important.

In this way when you are studying the passage many other related Bible passages will come to mind and help you understand the specific passage that you are studying when you read over and over again.

Number 6, if you are not able to read the original languages, read the passage in as many Bible versions as possible.

It is highly unlikely, although once in a great while it does happen, that all Bible versions are wrong in their translation.

And be very careful with paraphrases and amplified versions because they are not translations, they are interpretations, so we have to be very careful with those.

Seventh, do a careful study of the meaning of key words in the passage.

You can do this by using a Bible concordance such as Strong's, so look for other passages that use the same word.

Frequently the same words are used in other passages of the Bible.

A careful study of these words and other passages of the Bible will help you understand much better the passage or the verse that you are studying or that you are considering.

Number 8, look at the marginal references for any parallel passages to the 1 that you are studying.

Some of these connections are priceless and I'll be giving you some examples in a few moments.

Number 9, study the grammar and syntax of a passage, by syntax we mean word order.

They most certainly are, extremely important.

You don't need to know the original languages to do this.

There are many resources in English which can help you in this regard.

Good Greek English and Hebrew English lexicon would be very valuable and in our free time when we're not in class I'll be glad to share with you the software that I use.

It's a software that anyone can use whether you've studied Greek or Hebrew or not.

You can find out the meanings of words, the tenses, it's amazing, it's an amazing software.

Number 10, learn to ask questions, we already covered this of the passage that you are studying.

Some of you might be too young to remember Lieutenant Columbo, he asked and asked until the guilty party self incriminated himself.

Why does it say things in the way it does?

What special circumstances led to its writing?

Learn to reflect on what you are reading.

It is like looking in a mirror, you look into the mirror and suddenly the mirror starts looking at you.

In other words the mirror talks back to you, we should study the Bible and then the Bible will study us.

After you have done all your personal research, this is very important, many people go to Ellen White first, I always go to Ellen White last because I enjoy the excitement of discovering it for myself, and then I go to Ellen White to see if I missed anything, and many times I've missed quite a bit.

After you've done all your study go to see what Ellen White has to say about that verse or about that passage, Read the Seventh-day Adventist Bible commentary or other commentaries to see what those commentaries have to say about that verse or about that passage because there might be something that you missed in your own personal study.

And finally number 12, when you finished your research put all of the pieces of information together and reach your conclusions and see how the passage can help your spiritual life by enhancing it, protecting it, enriching it, and correcting it.

You must now be willing to obey what you have learned.

The purpose of the Bible study is not to increase our intellectual knowledge.

The final goal of all Bible study is obedience.

So those are some of the principles that we need to apply when we study the text itself.

Now let me give you a few examples of the importance of all of these little nuances that we find within the text.

First of all the importance of the historical background.

Go with me to Philippians chapter 3, Philippians chapter 3 and verses 3 through 11, Philippians chapter 3 and verses 3 through 11.

This is the Apostle Paul speaking and we'll have occasion to come back to this a little later on in our class.

For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.

Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law a Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Now would it be helpful to us to go to Paul's conversion story in the book of Acts to understand what he's saying.

Could you understand what he's saying if you didn't understand who Saul of Tarsus was before his conversion?

So you have to go beyond this text to another context that will help you understand where the Apostle Paul is coming from here.

Now notice verse 7, this is the road to Damascus experience.

But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

Would it be helpful for us to read about who Saul was before and his conversion experience to understand what he's saying here?

And so what I'm saying is we need to know the historical background to passages.

Incidentally when the Apostle Paul says I've lost all things for Christ this is 1 of his prison epistles, he was in prison and he'd lost everything for the cause of Christ.

And so does it help to know where he's writing from?

Of course, where he's writing from, what his frame of reference is, what his experience has been will help us understand a text, you can't isolate a text from the experience of the writer, so the historical background is extremely important.

Now what about verb tenses, is the verb tense important?

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

Let's take a look at a few more examples of the importance of allowing scripture to be its own interpreter, and I'm only going to mention some of these we're not going to look up all of the verses because we don't have the time to really look up all of the verses, but take for example Revelation 7 verse 9, it speaks of a great multitude which no 1 can number, and it tells us there that they have palm branches in their hands, interesting, palm branches in their hands.

Well if you go to Leviticus 23 and verse 40 you're going to notice that on the Feast of Tabernacles palm branches were born by those who celebrated the feast.

So that must mean that this group, this unnumbered group is celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles which means that they have just come from which feast?

They have just come from the day of atonement which is the previous feast.

And so you have to read what comes before that passage and you'll see that they went through the day of atonement and now they're victorious they have palm branches because they have gone through the experience of the day of atonement.

And then you have of course, I'll just go down to the next page, Revelation 13 verse 13 it speaks about the false prophet bringing fire down from heaven in the sight of men.

Now if you go to the marginal reference or if you go to a concordance you're going to find an interesting connection between this verse and an experience that took place in the Old Testament.

Who brought fire down from heaven in the Old Testament?

When he brought down fire were the multitudes persuaded that he was a prophet of God?

But here in Revelation Chapter 13 it speaks about the false prophet bringing fire down from heaven in the sight of man to persuade human beings to accept its message.

Now this false prophet must be a false prophet, it must be a false Elijah, because true Elijah brought fire down from heaven in the sight of man to persuade the multitudes that his message was from God.

So if in Revelation 13 you have a false prophet who brings fire down from heaven to persuade human beings that his message is correct he must be a false prophet Elijah.

So is there going to be a false Elijah at the end of time?

Yes, just like there will be a false Christ.

So it's very important for us to find the connection with the Old Testament because it's when the fire came down that the people said, the Lord He is God, the Lord He is God.

They were persuaded when the fire was joined with Elijah's message.

Now God did not allow the false prophets in the days of Elijah to bring fire down from heaven, but the deception is going to be even greater at the end of time because the false prophet will be allowed to bring fire down from heaven in the sight of men, and it will happen before the true fire falls.

Ellen White says that before the great revival Satan will seek to keep it from happening by introducing a counterfeit.

And so we need to connect Revelation 13 13 with 1st Kings chapter 18 and verse 38.

The next example Revelation 15 verses 2 to 4 there refers to the song of Moses and the lamb.

Where would you go to understand that a little bit better, the song of Moses and the lamb?

I used to ask, what does Moses have to do with the final deliverance?

Why are you going to sing the song of Moses?

The deliverance in the end time is of the Lamb, it's not of Moses, so why Moses?

The reason, and we're going to study this later on in the class, the reason is that there is a parallel between the events that led up to the singing of the song of Moses and the events that will lead up to the singing of the song of the Lamb.

Part 1 of 30

21. How to Interpret Biblical Symbolism Part 2