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The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

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    IV. Definition of Prophetic Terms Employed

    Certain terms pertaining to prophetic interpretation, which will occur with increasing frequency throughout the four volumes of The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, should be defined at the very outset. Especially should the following expressions be clearly understood:PFF1 31.3

    1. OUTLINE PROPHECIES

    First, there are what may be called the outline prophecies, by which is meant a long sequence of epochs and events spanning the centuries, such as the four commonly recognized successive world powers of prophecy—Babylonia, Persia, Grecia, and Rome—as found in the great metallic image of the kingdom of man outlined in Daniel 2; or in the same four world empires portrayed by the four beasts in Daniel 7. These are commonly recognized as covering the centuries, and reaching to the same great climax of the ages. A similar outline of epochs and events is several times repeated in the Revelation. Here the seven churches, the seven seals, and the seven trumpets cover long stretches of time in chronological sequence, and each leads to the same final climax. These we shall consistently denominate the outline prophecies.PFF1 32.1

    2. TIME PROPHESIES

    Prophetic time periods appear frequently in Daniel—such as the seventy weeks, the 1260 days, the 1290 and 1335 days, and the 2300 days—and there are paralleling time periods in the Revelation (the five months, forty—two months, three and a half times, three and a half days, ten days, et cetera). These are connected, of course, with definite events and activities, and their beginnings or endings are often marked—by significant occurrences. These predicted time periods will be referred to as time prophecies, though they are tied inseparably into, and form a part of, the sequence of events depicted in the grand outline prophecies. They are the inspired measuring lines of prophecy. They constitute the inspired timetable of the centuries.PFF1 32.2

    3. BEAST

    Another term, common to symbolic Bible prophecy, is that of “beast.” Nations were effectively cartooned or portrayed by various well—known or unknown beasts, just as some are today: the British lion, the Russian bear, or the American eagle. In Daniel’s day a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a fearful monster without an earthly replica appeared in Daniel 7, and the ram and he—goat of Daniel 8 are expressly explained by the prophet as symbols, respectively, of “Media and Persia” and “Grecia.” (Daniel 8:20, 21.) Similar “beasts” are pictured in the Revelation. These terms are not epithets of derision; they are simply the divine method of cartooning nations and their careers through the centuries. So a prophetic “beast” merely means a kingdom or nation, no more and no less.PFF1 32.3

    4. HORN

    “Horn” is likewise frequently used to symbolize divisions, or nations, that develop out of a great parent kingdom. Thus the ten horns appearing on the fourth beast of Daniel 7 (compare the paralleling beasts of Revelation 13 and 17) are expressly stated to be ten kingdoms, or divisions, that would arise out of the territory of the fourth world kingdom.PFF1 33.1

    5. WOMAN

    Still another term, sometimes causing perplexity, needs explanation—that of a symbolic “woman,” which occurs frequently in the Revelation. It is used by the prophet to symbolize a church, true or false. The intent is obvious—a chaste woman, arrayed in pure white (Revelation 12), indicating a pure church; and a fallen woman, garbed in suggestive scarlet (Revelation 17), portraying a fallen or apostate church. In logical harmony with the figure the impure woman is called a “harlot,” or a “whore.” Her illicit, compromising relations with paganism and with the nations of the earth are denominated spiritual “adultery” or “whoredom,” after the similar Old Testament reference to the lapses of Israel and Judah into idolatry and national sins. (Jeremiah 3; Ezekiel 16.)PFF1 33.2

    These opprobrious terms refer to spiritual adultery, or an unholy mingling of the sacred and the secular, churchly apostasy and illicit union with the world. They therefore refer not to personal impurity but rather to departure from God.PFF1 33.3

    6. MILLENNIUM

    Basically, the millennium is the reign of the saints with Christ during the thousand years of Revelation 20. The term “millennium” is given in the Merriam—Webster unabridged dictionary, second edition, as:PFF1 33.4

    “1. A thousand years.... 2. Specif. the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20, during which holiness is to be triumphant. Some believe that during this period Christ will reign on earth.”PFF1 33.5

    This is a more exact definition than that generally given, as, for example, in The New Schaff—Herzog, limiting it to the concept of an earthly kingdom:PFF1 34.1

    “The term millennium denotes in theology the thousand years of the kingdom of Christ on earth referred to in Revelation 20:1-6. Millenarianism (or the corresponding word of Greek derivation, chiliasm) is the belief in the millennium; more specifically, the belief that Christ will reign personally on the earth with his saints for one thousand years or an indefinitely long period before the end of the world.” 9Clarence Augustine Beckwith, “Millennium, Millenarianism,” The New Schaff—Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. 7, p. 374.PFF1 34.2

    The only specific millenarian passage in the Bible is in Revelation 20, where, however, there is no mention of the saints’ reigning on the earth. And not all Christians so interpret it. Therefore the first definition being less specific than the second, is more accurate and Biblical.PFF1 34.3

    According to the Webster dictionary, “premillennialism” is “the doctrine that the second coming of Christ precedes, and ushers in, the millennium,” in opposition to “postmillennialism,” the theory that the second coming of Christ will be after the millennium, which is to come as the result of the Christianization of the world, presumably without miraculous intervention,” and to “amillennialism,” a more recent term, used sometimes of the view which eliminates the thousand years entirely, but more often regards it as the Christian age in general, or the supposed reign of the departed saints in heaven during this time—in either case throwing emphasis on the personal coming of Christ at the end of the age, followed immediately by the general resurrection and judgment and the eternal state.PFF1 34.4

    So, after this statement of the scope and purpose of the present work, the next step will be to consider the Biblical background of the prophecies—primarily the books of Daniel and the Apocalypse in relation to the canon of Scripture.PFF1 34.5

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