Introduction
to Bible Prophecy
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8. Five Essential
Bible Doctrines
To appreciate all that
apocalyptic prophecy offers, you also
need to have a basic understanding of
five essential Bible doctrines. If
you do not correctly understand these
doctrines, Revelation’s story
will be difficult to grasp. In fact,
I have found that prophetic
divergence between church groups is
largely caused by something other
than prophecy itself! The culprit is
doctrine.
Many scholars and
pastors prefer to keep the books of
Daniel and Revelation shrouded in
mystery by claiming these are books
of symbolism. In other words, they
are theological putty. While the
books of Daniel and Revelation do
contain a few symbols, there is no
mystery. When God uses a symbol He
always defines the symbol with a
relevant text so that there is no
confusion or arguing about the
meaning of the symbol! Think about
this: If every student of prophecy is
free to define symbols as desired, we
are back to private interpretation
and total confusion. Competing views
only cancel out each other. On the
other hand, if a symbol is clearly
defined, God has spoken and there is
no room for confusion. This is the
basis for Rule Three which
states apocalyptic language
can be literal, symbolic, or
analogous. To reach the intended
meaning of a passage, the student
must consider (a) the context, (b)
the use of parallel language in the
Bible, and (c) a relevant text that
defines the symbol if an element is
thought to be symbolic.
“Experts”
often manipulate symbolism into
whatever form they need or want and
poorly informed laymen will accept
this manipulation if it generally
agrees with what they already
believe. Rule Three removes the
“silly-putty” from
symbolism. When God declares
something is symbolic, He declares
the meaning of the symbol. This
simple fact enables the Bible to
speak for itself and it defeats the
age-old argument that Daniel and
Revelation are just books of symbols
that no one can understand. If more
people understood Rule Three, the
Bible would be understood with
greater clarity and authority.
Bible doctrines
can assist or resist our
efforts to reach the intended meaning
of apocalyptic prophecy. Suppose a
student of prophecy embraces this
popular doctrine: When a person
dies, he goes immediately to
Heaven or hell to spend eternity. If
the student embraces this doctrine,
Revelation 20 will not make any sense
because by using this logic, Cain,
the first murderer, has been burning
in hell ever since his death. Why
would God resurrect Cain at the end
of the 1,000 years (according to
Revelation 20) only to throw him back
into the lake of fire? Taking this
one step further, why are the wicked
resurrected at the end of the
thousand years if they are already
burning in hell? Even more perplexing
is this question: “How could
Cain be sent to hell before Judgment
Day arrived?” The Bible teaches
that God has appointed a specific
time for human beings to be judged.[22] Finally, what
about this question: If the wages of
sin is burning in hell throughout
eternity, how could Jesus pay the
penalty for our sins when He was
resurrected after spending only three
days in the tomb?[23]We see from these
questions that a correct
interpretation of Revelation 20
requires a correct position on what
happens at death, the judgment of
mankind, and the penalty for sin. The
matter of doctrine has been presented
because the books of Daniel and
Revelation build upon five essential
Bible truths. These five truths are:
- The enduring
nature and sovereignty of
God’s law (The Ten
Commandments)
- The return of
Jesus and the destruction of
the wicked (The Second Coming
of Jesus)
- God’s use
of parallel temples (Services
in the earthly temple shadow
services in Heaven’s
temple)
- The terms and
conditions of salvation
(Salvation through faith in
Christ alone)
- The condition
of man in life and death (At
death, the soul ceases to
exist. There is a pre-Advent
judgment. The righteous will
be resurrected at the Second
Coming and the wicked will
continue to “sleep”
until the end of the 1,000
years.)
These five themes can
be examined at length in my
book, Jesus: The Alpha and
The Omega. This book can be
freely downloaded from the internet
at www.wake-up.org or a printed copy
can be purchased.
9. Ignore Chapter and
Verse Designations
The original
manuscripts of Daniel and Revelation
did not include chapter and verse
designations. Translators appended
these “numerical helps”
later to facilitate Bible study.
Translators reasoned that students
could quickly locate a sentence or
group of sentences for further
investigation if chapters and verses
were added to the text. These
well-intentioned numbers can create a
minor problem. Most people think of a
chapter in the Bible as a complete
unit; therefore, it is easy to
overlook the actual layout of the
seventeen prophecies. Do not be
confused with the fact that
prophecies can begin and end anywhere
within a chapter or that they can
begin in one chapter and continue
several verses into the next chapter.
Apocalyptic prophecy ignores the
chapter and verse designations
inserted by translators. 10. Some Big
Points and Little Points No one can
accurately explain every detail in
Daniel and Revelation – and this
includes me. I have had to change my
thinking several times in my quest to
understand these two books and I
expect I will have to change my
thinking in the future. No human
being can know everything there is to
know about God or His Word. So, we
should never stop moving toward a
better understanding of God’s
truth. To the scholars who scoff at
the idea that ordinary people can
correctly understand God’s Word,
I ask, “If it is impossible for
ordinary people to correctly
understand the Word of God, why did
He give it to us?”[24]
Prophetic truth has
several dimensions with which to
grapple. For example, we may
correctly identify the timing of the
fifth trumpet before it happens, but
wrongly interpret the event.
Conversely, we may correctly
interpret the event and wrongly
calculate the time of its occurrence.
Nevertheless, we may be sure that
when the time comes, God will see to
it that every person hears and
understands His truth. God will
accomplish this amazing feat during
the Great Tribulation through His
144,000 servants. A person cannot
refuse to love the truth and be saved
if he does not first have the
clearest evidences of truth set
before him.[25]
We do not have long to
wait before we know whether we
live at the appointed time
of the end. I believe the
Bible makes it clear that events of
global consequence will soon take
place. Obscure prophetic matters will
soon become clear as the noon day sun
when final events begin to unfold.
Life as we know it is about to make
an abrupt turn, and on that day, the
majesty and sovereign authority of
Jesus Christ will begin to dawn on
this planet. God’s plan for the
termination of sin can be understood
in advance because the purpose of
apocalyptic prophecy is the
revelation of Jesus Christ. God wants
His people to understand Him and His
actions. We cannot love someone we do
not know and cannot understand. When
we see and experience the fulfillment
of apocalyptic prophecy, our faith in
God will be strengthened, not
destroyed, even though the times will
be very difficult. Jesus said, “I
have told you now before it happens,
so that when it does happen you will
believe.”[26]
Reach Your Own
Conclusions
As you read through
this commentary, keep in mind that my
conclusions are a work in progress.
Therefore, if you determine the four
rules to be valid, let your
interpretation of Daniel and
Revelation be your own. If this
volume proves to be helpful, great!
If you can prove the four rules are
false and you have a better set of
rules, please share them with me. I
would like to review them and the
story they produce. After all, you
and I will soon face the same common
denominator regardless of what we
believe. His name is Jesus Christ.
No prophetic
conclusion is complete until all of
the pieces of the puzzle have been
included and properly assembled. This
is perhaps the most difficult part of
prophetic study: The student
has to understand all apocalyptic
prophecies to be confident about the
synthesis of his conclusions. The
amount of information involved in
this endeavor is huge and because of
this, I am often accused of stating
ideas without substantiation. I
freely confess that this occasionally
happens because some of my
conclusions are substantiated by
other facts not directly involved
with the matters at hand. Given the
breadth of some themes, it is not
helpful to explore supporting
tangents at the time of presentation.
If all tangents on a given topic are
explored, the matter becomes so
tedious or expansive that the volume
of information can be overwhelming.
There are three ways
to investigate this huge story.
First, you can read and reread this
volume. The second and third reading
will be much more helpful than the
first reading because the initial
threshold for understanding the
harmony of these concepts is quite
high. Second, you can freely download
numerous companion ma- 33
Introduction Jesus’ Final
Victory terials from our website at
www.wake-up.org or you can purchase
them in printed form if you wish.
Last, if you are not able to make
sense of the material presented in
this volume, there is solace in
knowing that God will soon reveal
these matters to the world anyway.
However, given the dramatic events
that are going to soon occur, some
exposure to the prophecies right now
is far better than the hysteria and
terror that will surely overtake the
world when God’s wrath begins.
Understanding part of God’s
plans and purposes for the Great
Tribulation is a privilege. Take
advantage of it! Remember, the
apostle Paul said, “Do not
treat [Bible] prophecies
with contempt.”[27]
I hope that you will
find this book helpful. Be sure to
test my conclusions against the
rules. Once you see the architecture
in Daniel and Revelation and
understand how God
designed the seventeen prophecies,
you will no longer need this
commentary to help you understand
what the prophecies say. With a
little effort on your part, you will
be able to help others see the
wonderful story that now shines from
the books of Daniel and Revelation.
Larry Wilson
June 2011
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