Multi-Dimensional Scripture

Reconciling various views of prophetic scriptures.

When I was at Trinity International University I took a class that went over the various approaches to Biblical prophecy. The study of Biblical prophecy is called eschatology. Please get a quick overview here. I come from a Futurist, Pretrib, Premil background (which most of the students had), but this class caused me to think seriously about other views. It certainly can become a hotly debated topic, right up there with free will vs. predestination. Most of the students in my class balked at the other views other than the Futurist, Premil position. But the professor (Matthew Williams, now over at Talbot) did a great job at presenting the evidences for all views. And the evidences from the other views were compelling. So much so that the students began gravitating towards the evidences of some of the other views but doing so in a smorgasbord kind of way – chopping up Scripture and picking and choosing what they liked from each position but not committing to any position. The professor wisely put a stop to that as it was most certainly an end run around the critical thinking he was trying to get the students to do. He forced them to commit to a position by having them write an essay in support of just one of the positions.

But in doing so he was forcing the students into a logical fallacy known as the “false dilemma”. This fallacy typically involves asking a question and providing only two (or in this case three: Futurist, Preterist, or Historicist) possible answers when there are actually far more or at least one other one. I wish to present another option. All of the positions are true, not in a smorgasbord kind of way but in a mulit-dimensional way. God designed prophecy to be true on multiple levels.

Critics of prophecies used to prove Jesus was the Messiah say that those prophecies were fulfilled much sooner (in Israel’s history) and are taken out of context if applied to Jesus. In many cases prophecies were speaking of Israel AND Jesus. Both are true. This is not a compromise to accommodate the critics but an elevation of Scripture and a fuller of understanding of the characteristics of prophecy. This is one of John’s main points that he stresses throughout his Gospel. The two most quoted Old Testament books in the Gospel of John are the Psalms and Isaiah. The Pharisees had taken much of the Psalms symbolically and much of Isaiah literally. John flips it around and uses Psalms literally and Isaiah symbolically to point to Jesus. Interpretation of prophecy is not meant to be discovered easily but is hidden within layers of meaning. This is similar to Jesus hiding meaning in parables.

Jesus points out the multi-dimensionality of prophecy in John’s writings when he uses the phrase, “a time is coming and has now come”.

John 4:23
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

John 5:25
I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

1 John 2:18
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.

Jesus was pointing out things on two levels: is coming and has now come. Some fulfillment had come, more fulfillment is coming.

The Book of Revelation is an obvious source of disagreement when both are true. Those who take it as symbolic and a reflection of the spiritual and those who take it literal and believe it will happen in the physical. But the same issue sparks disagreement in other parts of Scripture as well . The Song of Solomon for example. Does it refer to an actual historic event? Is it an analogy of God and the nation of Israel? Of Christ and the Church? The answer is all three. Paul uses another scripture to show an example of Christ and the Church:

Ephesians 5:31-32
"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

This is not just a coincidence that the analogy fits so nicely but God had planned it that way and Paul had discovered the “mystery”. People who connect so well with symbolism have a hard time taking the Bible literally. Works of literature with heavy symbolism are usually works of fiction. But God is an Author who writes His stories with real people and real events and not just pen and paper.