The Last is First

Shalom, friends.

At the time of this writing, no one is following this blog, but I have faith that someone will discover it soon enough. Hopefully, when you realize my heart for God's Word and love for prophecy, you will pass the word to your friends and loved ones, if you find my information helpful.

So far, I have been establishing some groundwork for the future. As we go, new definitions will be added as we encounter them. Some of these definitions will be intuitive, but most will be through basic understanding of the words as used within Scripture, both in English and in the original language in which the words are found.

Although there are hundreds and even thousands of bits of information within the prophecies found in Scripture, there are a finite amount of them. As they are used to describe certain aspects of prophecy, they will become unavailable for other uses. This is an important take on prophecy! For instance, I believe in a historical, grammatical interpretation of Scripture. This is often called a "literal" interpretation of Scripture because the normal way to historically and grammatically interpret most literary works is literal in nature. In fact, the first way that any writing is perceived is literal until some aspect of the writing produces a contradiction within literal thought and forces a more symbolic interpretation, such as a figure of speech or an analogy of some sort. Figurative language forces such a contradiction, and there are such instances in Scripture ... however, that is NOT the norm.

As I have already said, it is perfectly realistic to believe in a miracle-working God. Therefore, when the historical accounts in the Tanakh or the Old Testament include miracles, there's no need in my opinion to question whether the miracles did in fact occur. IF God authored the Bible and IF God is not a liar, then the miracles occurred. I have no reason to doubt their veracity.

Leeway is introduced when the words "like" or "as" are used. If the human author of a book of the Bible injected a simile into the writing, then figurative language was introduced. If an "obvious" misassociation of objects occurs, such as a man being called a "lion," then the author injected a metaphor, and again, figurative language was introduced. These are most common in parables.

An analogy, such as a parable, has a limited amount of symbols that may be analogous to some real-world object or concept. Therefore, an account is less likely to be an analogy if the event has many details introduced in the account. The more details are provided, the less likely that we are dealing with an analogy, leaving it more likely that we are reading a literal account.

The account of the New Jerusalem as described in Revelation 21 and 22 is VERY detailed! In fact, there are so many details provided that one would be foolish to dismiss the account off-handedly as merely an analogy or a teaching allegory. Therefore, although some theologians believe it to be an analogy or a parable, I can't help to believe that it is quite a literal city as described. In fact, I believe that there are so many details provided, that John WANTED someone to be able to visualize the city as described.

So, in the next entry, we will explore some details about the New Jerusalem.

In the Messiah's love,
Retrobyter