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the interpretation of t he drcam.
Each par t of t he image represented
an empire.
Another example of the Bible
intcrpreting the Bible is found in
Revelation 12. In this vision J ohn
saw a great red dragon who had
drawn one third of the s tars of
heaven. Who is t he red d ragon?
And who or what are t he st ars?
The dragon is plainly ident ified
in the same chapter. Read verse 9:
"And t he great dragon was cast
out , that old serpent , called t he
Devil, and Satan, which deceivet h
t he whole wor ld . . .." T he dragon
is identi fied as Satan the devil. (Of
cou rse, many do not believe he
ex is t s today- o r they thi nk he
appears as the custodian of hell.) In
the guise of a serpent he deceived
Eve and tempted Adam to si n in
t he garden of Eden. That same dev–
il has cont inued ever si nce as the
god of this world ( 11 Cor. 4:4).
But what are the st ars? Here is a
good example of t he Bible inter–
preting the Bible in t he same book,
but severa! chapters away. Turn to
Revelation 1:20: " The seven s tars
are the
angels
of the seven chu rch–
es." Here stars are used to symbol–
ize angels. Obviously these seven
st ars are not the same angels, sym–
bolized by stars, that Satan took
with him in his rebellion against
God- but we see t hc biblical prin–
cipie t hat stars can be used to sym–
bolize angels. No doubt, t he s tars
of Revelat ion 12:4 represent one
t hird o f the angelic creation that
rebelled agains t God before the
time God created the first humans,
Adam and Eve. T hat fasci nati ng
story has often been told in
The
Plain Truth.
You can read fur ther
on it in Ezekiel 28: 11- 17 and lsaiah
14: 12- 15.
Many Prophecies Are Dua l
Ano the r impor tant p rincipi e in
understanding Bible prophecy is t he
duality
of prophecy. In 1 Corin–
thians 15:45, Christ is called the sec–
ond Adam. The fi rst Adam was t he
fi rst mortal human being to converse
with God. He later s inned , and the
death penalty passed on to mankind .
The second Adam, Jesus Chris t ,
carne and paid t he penalty for sin.
T hus, it was made possible for man
to be forgiven of his sins and to be
born into the family of God.
10
In the same 15th c hapter another
pr incipie of duali ty is revealed–
morta l human beings can be born
again, made into immortal spirit
beings by a rcsurrection from the
dead.
Prophet ically, the principie o f
dualit y is very important. Many of
t hc prophecies God revealed to the
prophets of old had partial ful fill –
ments in their day. T hus, when
lsaiah or Amos prophesied to the
ancient house of Is rael, sorne of
those events occu r red in the orig i–
nal capt iv it y. Wh e n J e rem iah
prophesied to the house of J udah,
many of those events carne to pass
in his day. Sorne of the events
prophesied in the book of Da niel
began to happen in the days of
Babylon, Persia and Greece, up to
t he t ime of An t iochus Epiphanes in
167- 164 B.C. But t hose prophecies
were only par t ially fulfi lled or were
a ntetypi cal fu l fillment s of yet
future times.
T ime after time, the prophets
foretold events that would lead up
to t he est abl ishment of the govern–
mcnt of God on the eartb. T he
prophets delineatcd t he sins of t hc
people o f t he ancient houses of
Is rael and Juda h a nd told th e
people t hey would be punished .
And t hose punishments indeed
did come on them and will come on
their modern descendants. But t he
kingdom of God was not estab–
lished in t hei r day- and has not
been yet. These Bible prophecies
also tell the sins of people today
and the resulting end-time events
t hat will lead up to the Second
Coming of Christ and the estab–
lishment of t he government of God
on the earth.
The F ocal Po int of Pro phecy
Almost all prophecies relate direct–
ly or indirectly to the es tabl ishment
of the government of God on the
earth- the coming of the Mes–
s i a h-t h e Second Comi ng o f
C hr ist.
We read in Daniel 2:44, "And in
the days of these kings shall the
God of heaven set up a kingdom,
which shall never be destroyed ."
And in Zechariah 14:4 , " His feet
shall s tand in that day upon t he
mount of Olives, whic h is before
Jerusalem on the east , and the
mount of Olives shall cleave in the
midst thcroof toward thc east antl
toward thc wcst. ... "
And in verse 9, ..And t he Lo rd
shall be king ovcr all t he earth : in
that day shall t hcre be one Lord ,
and hís name onc."
The coming of thc Messia h and
t he establishment of God's gover n–
ment is vividly depicted in Revela–
tion 19 : 11: " ... heaven ope ned ,
and behold a white horse; and he
t hat sat upon him was call ed
Faí t hful and T rue, and in righ–
teousness he doth j udge and make
war."
These same prophecies all show
t here will be onc fi nal batt le. The
wo rld will not we lcome J esus
Christ with open arms. Muc h o f
the world, in fact , may well be
decei ved int o be liev i ng J es us
Chris t's Second Coming is an inva–
s ion from outer space or even the
appearance of the antichrist. T he
nations will gather forces at t he val–
ley of Mcgiddo in Palestine. Hence
t hat last g reat battle is usua lly
called the battle of Armageddon–
meaning armed Megiddo ( Rev.
16: 16 and 19: 19).
That short and fi nal battle will at
last be the war to end war. Those
rebell ious armics will be swiftly pu t
down and t he world will enter into
t he glorious and long prophesied
kingdom of God .
The Bible has not specified t he
exact day, month or year of these
fi nal events. But t he events them–
selves have been recorded and bid–
den in the prophecies of the Bible
until our day. We now live in a
time in whic h we need to watch
wor ld events as never be fore. Jesus
said , " Watch ye t herefore, and pray
always, t hat ye may be accounted
wor t hy to escape all these t hings
that shaJI come to pass, and to
s t and before t he Son of ma n"
(Luke 2 1:36) .
We have onl y scratc hed th e
surface of unders tanding p roph–
ecy. Bu t these keys p rovide a
beginni ng point- a frame of ref–
erence upon which to bui ld a pro–
phetic st udy o f the Bible. As t hose
days approach, those dozens upon
dozens of prophecies will begi n to
be fulfilled one a fter t he othe r. Be
su re you are studying your Bible
and watching world news so you
can unders tand the t imes in which
you live. o
The
PLAIN TRUTH