(4) Believe that prophecy can be understood just as it is without any changes or additions and that it is simply a record of things to happen at some time after its utterance. Prophecy should be understood to be as literal as history is. After all, history is simply a record of what has happened and prophecy is a record of what is going to happen. Both kinds of records are in the same everyday human language and both should be understood on the same basis. God expects us to understand both just as they are written, and He will judge us for not using our common intelligence to understand both as they are plainly written.

(5) Forget the idea that prophecy must be fulfilled before it can be understood. If prophecy must be fulfilled before it can be understood, then it has failed in its purpose of revealing to man beforehand what is to happen. Many authors apologize for their uncertainty concerning the things they write about and declare we cannot hope to fully understand prophecies until their final fulfillment. Such men had better not write at all than to be uncertain about what they are writing. If one has a definite "thus saith the Lord" for what he says, he does not need to apologize.

What we mean to emphasize by this point is that all true prophecy is clear in itself as to what is to happen, and it is just as clear before it happens as it is after it is fulfilled. Take the subject of modern inventions as being a fulfillment of prophecy. Men never dreamed of an automobile and never interpreted Nahum 2:3, 4 in connection with one until they were invented. Men never dreamed of airplanes, radios, locomotives, or any single invention and never interpreted any Scripture as definitely predicting them until after they were invented. After we got them, prophetical students soon claimed they found them in prophecy. Prior to 1945 Bible students never dreamed of atom bombs as being a subject of prophecy, but immediately after they were dropped in that year, not only did Japan wake up but prophetical sensationalists arose from their long slumber and ignorance and found them in prophecy. Thus, in such a short time nearly everyone in Christendom (if sensationalists are believed, knows that the atom bomb is a fulfillment of several prophecies and they also know now just how several other prophecies are going to be fulfilled. The world is coming to an end, and many other prophecies will be fulfilled by the atom bomb, so these men say.
The sooner that we all have our speculative, sensational, prophetical appendix removed, the better off all of us will be, and the sooner the good name of prophecy will be restored, and men will again respect true prophecy as stated by God. The fact is that no single invention is mentioned in particular in the Bible. The so-called automobile in Nahum 2:3, 4 refers to horse-drawn chariots of the king of Nineveh and those of Nebuchadnezzar in actual combat in the streets of Nineveh over the possession of the Assyrian Empire. This fact is made clear in Nahum 2:1-4, 13; 3:1-3, where we have mention of "the whip . . . rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses" and "the horsemen." The so-called locomotive of Job 41 is "king over all the children of pride," according to the last verse. The phrase "as birds flying" in Isa. 31:5 does not refer to the airplane but to the second coming of Christ as is proved in the passage itself. It states that "as birds flying" God, not airplanes, will come down to fight for Israel and at that time every man shall cast away his idols forever, and we all know that this did not happen in 1917 when General Allenby took Jerusalem from the Turks. This prophecy will be fulfilled when the armies of Heaven come with Jesus "as birds flying" as in Zech. 14:1-5; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; Jude 14; Rev. 19:11-21; etc. And so it goes with any single invention that men have found in prophecy. The context proves that the subject of the passage is not some modern invention. Dan. 12:4 is the only verse in all the Bible that covers inventions of today. One can use this verse and preach on inventions and not be so sensational and foolish in preaching on prophecy by using passages that do not refer to inventions.

(6) Do not interpret God's own interpretation of any symbol or prophecy or change God's meaning from that which is plainly and obviously clear. God always interprets His own symbols as can be plainly seen in Dan. 2:38-44; 7:17, 23-26; 8:20-23; 9:20-27; 11:2-45; 12:1-13; Rev. 1:20; 12:9; 13:18; 17:8-18; etc. Plain literal prophecy needs no interpretation as it is simply history written before it happens. If God uses a word or a figure of speech or any other form of human expression in a different way from what is commonly understood, we have a right to expect Him to make due explanation. Otherwise take His Word as it is commonly used and understood. When there is no explanation of a symbol or a figure of speech it is to be taken for granted that it is not only clear in itself, but it is clear from its usage elsewhere in Scripture, and especially when it is harmonized with all other Scriptures on the same subject.

(7) Give only one meaning to a passage and that the plain literal meaning unless it is male clear that a double meaning should be understood. In order to understand certain prophecies there are two laws in prophecy that should be understood.

A. The law of double reference. In some passages two distinct persons are referred to, the visible person addressed and the invisible person who is using the visible one as a tool, as we have already explained in Lesson Seven, Point IV and Lesson Nine, Point VIII, 2, which see.

B. The law of prophetic perspective. This law is that of recording future events as if they were continuous and successive, but the fact is that there may be thousands of years between the events. For example, in Isa. 61:1-3, as recorded in Luke 4: 17-20, Christ stopped His reading in the prophecy at the words "the acceptable year of the Lord." He closed the book and said, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." If He had continued reading the prophecy and had said, "and the day of vengeance of our God," and had said this was fulfilled that day His statement would have been untrue, for "the day of vengeance" has not yet come. There has been already about two thousand years since "the acceptable year of the Lord." The day of vengeance has not yet come, and will not come until the tribulation of the future. Both events are in one verse in the prophecy and have only a comma between them, which would indicate that since both events were given together they would follow each other in succession, but they did not.

In other words, the prophets see things in the same vision as one would look at a distant range of mountain peaks where the valleys between them are not seen. One must learn to take each separate event in prophecy and collect together all that is said about it in all the Bible and see when it will be fulfilled in connection with the other events. This is rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Tim. 2: 15).
(8) The key to the interpretation of many prophecies is to regard the prophet primarily as a preacher of righteousness. A prophet was not only a foreteller but a forthteller. He was a speaker for God, to rebuke, to instruct, and to correct people in his day, as well as to foretell future events. He had powers of insight and foresight and he was more than a foreteller of future events. He was inspired to see conditions about him and the purposes of God in these things. The present was only a moment in the divine plan which was working toward the end of establishing the Kingdom of God again on Earth and ridding the Earth of all rebellion. Hence, the prophet was a teacher, a social reformer, and a statesman, as well as a herald of the future kingdom. Many of his utterances were really sermons preached as the occasion demanded. This is especially true of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets, although in their books there are many prophecies of the future. Daniel and John were mainly prophets for foretelling future events, although in their books there is the element of forthtelling as seen in Dan. 2, 4, 5, 6; etc., and Rev. 2,3.

(9) One main thing to keep in mind in all prophecy is the history of the writer and his times and the circumstances under which he wrote. One must understand the exact position of the writer as to the age in which he lived and the purpose of his predictions and the people to whom he wrote and the subject of his message. With a knowledge of the historical background, the manners and customs of the age and of people to whom he wrote, the peculiar idioms and human expressions of his times, and the purpose he had in view, there cannot possibly be any misunderstanding of one thing about which any one of them writes.