Let me share with you the primary reason I began the AD 70 blog. I believe myself to be in a situation similar to the four lepers who discovered God had caused the army surrounding their city to flee the previous evening. The leprous men found incredible riches in the abandoned camp. At first, they ate, drank, and hid the treasure. Then they decided they should share their blessings and “said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings” (2 Kings 7:9). They then led their hungry, but skeptical, neighbors to the feast.1
Like them, I have found treasure. My treasure trove consists of a model that helps Christians interpret and understand biblical prophecies. And I want you who are hungry for a better way to explain the Scriptures to share in my blessing.
The lepers had difficulty convincing their comrades of what they had found. I expect to encounter the same hurdle. I have the advantage of knowing the model already exists and how it came to be. I hope to convince you of its reality, explain to you how it was developed, and set you on your way of enjoying the bounty of God’s prophetic word.
To help persuade you to step outside your current prophetic boundaries and examine the truthfulness of my claim, let me assure you that the model of which I speak addresses the issues we have highlighted in the AD 70 blog. It provides a clear response to Bertrand Russell’s criticism of Christianity. It accounts for God’s promise of an ever-expanding government during the Messiah’s reign. It depicts the progressive overthrow of all Christ’s enemies in the kingdom age—completed by the defeat of death in the resurrection. And it encourages Christians to make a clean break with the uncertainties of panmillennialism.
If I were to imitate the lepers and attempt to explain fully how I came to possess this model of prophetic interpretation, the tale would require far more than our available space. Let me simply say that as a middle-aged pastor of a small rural church in northeast Arkansas, I was placed in a dilemma regarding my own panmillennialism. (I know pastors are not supposed to have such fundamental difficulties after ordination, but this one did.) My situation became somewhat desperate and answers to the questions I was asking—and those that were being asked of me—were difficult to find. Many years later, after the urgency of this “crisis” passed, I finally came to possess this model. I now wish to share it with you.
I invite you to accompany me on a rapid description of the thought processes used to establish the model. What took me years to accomplish will only require a relatively few blog posts.
Let me begin by describing the premises of this model. As we shall see, these led me to begin building the model in a specific passage of Scripture.
General Premises of the Model
There were certain general premises the model must satisfy. It must honor the orthodox Christian faith as expressed in the Apostles’ Creed and other documents universally accepted by the church. It must conform to the doctrinal standards of my own faith tradition as found in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. (The model is not, however, inherently circumscribed by that tradition.) The model must recognize the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible at every turn (2 Timothy 3:16).
Specific Premises of the Model
I assumed a small set of additional premises specifically dealing with the interpretation of prophecy. The model should recognize the priority of prophecies and explanations found in the New Testament. This is where the hidden truth of the Old Testament is revealed (e.g., Colossians 1:25–26). The model, therefore, honors Paul’s teaching that the truth “in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:5). There is nothing deficient about the Old Testament Scriptures, of course. Nevertheless, God was pleased to keep certain truths veiled until the light of the New Testament dawned. The construction of the prophetic model began where the most light shines.
The model interprets unclear prophecies through the use of more clear scriptural passages. This conforms to a principle commonly called the “analogy of the faith.” Paul uses this approach when he compares “spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13). As a result, no part of the model rests entirely upon a single, debatable passage.
The model arises directly from the explanation of a lengthy passage of Scripture. This was the method of the Lord Jesus. He began “at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). In other words, he explained the available scriptures. The prophetic model of which we speak was built in this way. In fact—and this might be a spoiler alert—the complete model rests, in skeletal form, on the explanation of only two extended passages.
The Beginning Point
So, where, specifically, did construction begin? Using the above guidelines, the starting point is naturally in the New Testament.
What, then, are the longest, most significant prophetic passages in the New Testament? The Revelation given to John on the isle of Patmos comes to mind. This is not the ideal place to start, however, because of the “analogy of the faith” premise. Revelation is filled with symbols and images difficult to interpret. Because of this, some of the greatest biblical scholars have hesitated to produce commentaries on this book (e.g., John Calvin). A clear easily understood model of prophecy should arise from another quarter.
This process of elimination brings us to the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21:5–36). This is the second-longest New Testament prophetic passage. It is the longest of Jesus’ recorded dialogs. This passage is relatively free of difficult figures of speech. The few apocalyptic images Jesus uses are common in the Old Testament prophets, making their meaning easier to determine. This passage also enjoys the advantage of centrality, meaning it is the source for many of the apostolic teachings in the rest of the New Testament.
These factors indicated the Olivet Discourse was the place to start the construction of a model for prophetic interpretation.
Conclusion
To be sure, the treasured prophetic model announced here contains elements not found in the Olivet Discourse. This passage provides the skeletal framework, but other passages, meeting the above criteria, supply necessary elements to the complete model.
Beginning with our next post, we will trace the development of the prophetic model by studying Jesus’ last extended discussion with his disciples—the Olivet Discourse.
Like the townsfolk the lepers addressed, come and feast on the bounty provided by the Lord.
