Premillennialism
Premillennialism
The third idea about Bible prophecy, is that prophecy should consistently be taken literally. This is a basic idea of premillennialism. In this lesson we examine whether the premillennial interpretation of the Bible really is as literal as premillennialists claim.
One of the things that this lesson will bring out, is that although premillennialists claim to interpret Bible prophecy literally, and genuinely think they do, in fact they don't. This is surprising to many people because it’s often taken for granted that premillennialism uses a literal approach to the scriptures whilst others use an allegorical or “spiritualising” approach. Not so, as we shall see.
Here are two quotes representative of the “Literal Bible” idea...
“The real issue between amillennial and premillennial viewpoints is whether prophecy should be interpreted literally or allegorically... all prophecy about past events has been fulfilled literally ... more than 300 prophecies regarding Christ’s first coming, all of which were literally fulfilled...”
Hal Lindsey 'The Late Great Planet Earth', chapter 13.
“Every prophecy pointing to the first advent of Christ was literally fulfilled to the letter in every detail”.
Jesse F. Silver in "The Lord’s Return"
Again Hal Lindsey’s comment is representative, and Jesse F. Silver makes an interesting claim. If these writers are correct in their assertion, then there is a very good case for expecting all prophecy about the second coming to likewise be fulfilled literally. The premise, however, is wrong.
Let’s examine the basic idea itself, that every prophecy pointing to the first coming of Christ was literally fulfilled. This proposition won't pass the test.
The first problem is that the premise has a catch, because it does not really have in view every prophecy pointing to the first coming of Christ. Many prophecies that figuratively point to the first coming of Christ have been excluded because the writers believe them to refer to Christ’s second coming, not his first. It’s like my claiming that all the apples in a box are green after I've taken out the red ones. The apples in the box might all now be green, but not all the apples are in the box that ought to be there. The statement “every prophecy pointing to the first coming of Christ was literally fulfilled” is meaningless if it has not taken into account all the prophecies that Christ fulfilled..
The second problem is that nobody, not even one who makes the claim, really believes that all prophecy is literally fulfilled. Premillennialists claim to take prophecy literally but they don't. If they did, their theories would be far different from what they are.
Ezekiel 37:24, Hosea 3:5.
"And my servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd... The sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king".
If premillennialists really took prophecy literally, they would believe David, not Jesus, will be their king in the Millennium.
We all understand that the fulfillment of those prophecies is not literal to the letter. It is generally recognized that the name "David" here does not literally mean king David himself. The name stands figuratively for David’s descendant Jesus Christ of whom David was the ancestral type.
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