Rules for Interpreting Prophetic Literature | Rapp Report Daily 0064 | Striving for Eternity

Welcome to The Rapid Pull, daily edition, where we provide a quick Biblical interpretations and applications. This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

Interpreting Prophetic and Apocalyptic Literature

One of the more difficult styles of literature to interpret is prophetic literature, or sometimes called apocalyptic literature. Now this is difficult because it is often something that is masked in imagery, something that is still future.

Obviously, for the prophetic literature that has already been fulfilled in Christ's first coming, we can look back and we have the advantage of hindsight. However, it is not always as clear to the readers as it is when it is not fulfilled.

Just like the first coming of Christ, there were things that people didn't see as clearly until after he completed his coming, the same with the second coming. And you see much of the Old Testament is this type of prophetic literature.

Reading Prophecy in Historical Context

Now some of it is going to be harder to understand when it talks about the future that is yet to be fulfilled, and yet some of it is not so much. When we look at the prophets, we must identify who the prophet is, who he's speaking to, who his audience is, because that's going to play into what it is he's prophesying.

Much of the prophecies of the prophets are going to be about future judgment on the nation of Israel that we have already seen completed. And so what we do is we want to look at prophetic literature and look at it historically, but understand that sometimes it is a thumbnail sketch and not as detailed as many people want to think it is.

How Cults Abuse Prophetic Literature

And most cults abuse this type of literature.