For many years I had been urged to compile a list of all significant prophecies of Scripture and provide an exposition of them. This book, in an attempt to meet this need, explains one thousand passages of the Bible and, for the first time in current literature, all the prophecies of the Bible are explained in one volume. The significance is especially striking with the arrival of the twenty-firstcentury which has continued to sharpen interest in prophetic interpretation.
The leading problem in the interpretation of prophecy is whether the Scripture should be interpreted in its natural or literal sense. This is discussed in the Introduction. It is also important to understand that in the interpretation of prophecy, every prophecy is related to other prophecies like the piece of a tapestry to the whole. Accordingly, a system had to be used that would unfold prophecy in an orderly way and relate prophecies to each other. To achieve this, the general method of study of prophetic Scripture was approached from the biblical point of view, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation. In the Gospels the chronological approach was modified to deal with major prophecies in the Synoptic Gospels and to consider separately prophecy in the Gospel of John. Biblical quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version.
Most significant is the fact that half of these prophecies—five hundred of them—have already been literally fulfilled, establishing beyond any intellectual question that the Bible was intended to be interpreted literally in prophetic passages. Unmistakably, the evidence is overwhelming that God means exactly what He says as prophecy after prophecy has already been literally fulfilled. When history has run its course, every prophecy will be fulfilled.
Though it is impossible in one volume to deal at length with each interpretation, the goal of this volume is to provide an explanatory exposition of each significant prophecy of Scripture with some mention of alternative views. The reader will in this way be provided with a workable and intelligent interpretation of prophecy that fits into the larger scheme of prophecy as fulfilled or to be fulfilled and will be given an introductory understanding of the prophecy as a basis for further study.
The competent work of Karen Grassmick as stenographer did much to enhance the book. The cooperation of the administration of Dallas Seminary in allowing me free time is gratefully acknowledged.
John F. Walvoord
Summer 1998
Price: $17.99
No comments:
Post a Comment