Conclusion

Bible writers use Scripture in a variety of ways, but never is the historicity of any recorded event called into question. To the contrary, the entire narrative of biblical history is accepted as factual, including the accounts of Creation, the Fall, and the Flood. In a similar way, prophesied future events such as the judgment and the Second Coming are accepted as certain to happen and never questioned. Confidence in the unity, clarity, and historical veracity of Scripture underlie its citation by Bible writers. Close study of these quotations and how the Bible writers apply them show their understanding of the original (exegetical) intent as well as their awareness of the surrounding verses and how the passages they quote relate to the larger context of Scripture.GOP 118.1

The accounts of divine activity, both past and future, constitute sources for profound theological reflection with key images being utilized to describe divine activity in somewhat different but related ways. The Creation and the Exodus become motifs of future hope and salvation, because God’s past activity illuminates how He acts in later times. Bible writers also indicate that certain persons, events, and institutions of the past bear a typological relationship to a future reality that more perfectly fulfills the divine purpose. In one case (1 Cor. 9:8-11), Scripture appears to be quoted rhetorically—using the language of the text but applying it differently from its original intent. However, upon closer inspection, it is also possible to perceive this instance as an exegetical use with an application in harmony with first-century norms for a literal interpretation of Scripture.GOP 118.2

Regarding prophecy, Bible writers show no hesitancy in accepting the predictive element, which is more prevalent than has sometimes been recognized. It is also present in the apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelation, as distinguishable from general prophecy that characterizes most of the Old Testament prophets. The writers of the New Testament give special attention to the prophecies (and types) of the Messiah, including the Servant Songs of Isaiah, which in their original context appear to alternate between collective and individual significations. Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel receive particular attention by New Testament writers, who seem to have discerned in Scripture the larger divine intention—that Israel was brought into existence as a nation to worship God and is first and foremost a spiritual entity.GOP 118.3

Nowhere in Scripture is it ever suggested that Israel would be reconstituted by God as a secular nation. To the contrary, the Israelites were repeatedly urged to respond in obedience to God’s Word; thus they would be a blessing to the nations and equipped to teach them about the true God. This overarching principle carries over in the New Testament period in that Israel’s response to Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the messianic hopes of the prophets, is determinative of the nation’s future and of the individual’s salvation. The brightest hopes envisaged in the Old Testament are fulfilled on a level that transcends this life and this present world. Especially in the book of Revelation we find these hopes, which before had amounted to only glimpses, re-presented in a fuller, grander way and on a universal, even cosmic scale. Thus it becomes clear that God’s earlier promises recorded in His Word, far from being annulled or canceled, are gathered up and applied in such a way that “all Israel”—God’s Israel—will be saved, and that a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells has been prepared especially for them.GOP 118.4

Finally, judging from the consistency and implicit trust with which Scripture is handled by the various Bible writers, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, it would seem reasonable to expect that any later inspired writers should employ a similar interpretative method.GOP 119.1