 So, welcome everyone to class. We'll just open in prayer if someone is willing to pray for us before we begin. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we once again thank you for this time of study, Father. We just wish to commit this time into your hands, Father. Lord, we also thank you, Lord, for the way you guided and blessed all our fellow students on the trip to Mangalore to care of their every need, Father. We continue to trust, Lord, in you that in every area of our life, Lord, you can and will provide and make a way where there is no other way, Father. We pray that whatever we learn today will be able to retain it and apply the same in our lives, Father. We continue to pray for a blessing upon our entire staff and all the students of the Bible College. In Jesus' precious name, we pray. Amen. Thank you. So, we'll do just a little bit of a look at what we were covering last week and then we will go from there. So, we were looking at, we did a discussion on the types, illustrations and allegories and I'll just go over the differences between the three. So, the type and anti-type have a natural correspondence and it's the same for illustrations and truths. That means that between the type and anti-type or between the illustration and the truth, we can see that there is clearly a resemblance between these two things. There's nothing that we are trying to force in terms of trying to find similarities or trying to find meaning between the two things. On the other hand, allegorizing involves finding a hidden spiritual meaning behind a text that wasn't, that isn't naturally there. So, we are trying to interpret it in a way that isn't clearly shown in the scriptures itself. For a type and illustration, this is usually based on something that actually historically took place. Whereas with an allegory, there isn't any focus on historical reality. So, we are just looking at finding a spiritual truth. We are not looking at the literal text itself. With a type, it usually is, it kind of points to something that's going to happen in the future. An illustration doesn't have that futuristic kind of direction, but it serves as an example. So, usually from the Old Testament, something from the Old Testament is used as an example to talk about something in the New Testament. With an allegory, again, there is no kind of prophetic use of the allegory. It's much more looking, like digging up a meaning to the text that is deeper than what we are actually reading. A type is fulfilled by the antitype and the antitype is usually of a greater, it's greater and it kind of elevates what has happened in the Old Testament text. The truth that is kind of explained using an illustration is not fulfilled by the illustration per se and an allegory does not fulfill text. With a type and an illustration, both are designed by God and an allegory is not. It's mostly the imagination of the interpreter. The type and antitype will be clearly designated in Scripture. A truth and illustration will also be indicated in Scripture, but it won't be called a type or an antitype. The allegory is not at all talked about in Scripture. It's something that a human being, an interpreter is giving meaning to a text that isn't indicated in Scripture. We said that allegories are something that we will try and avoid. We don't see that as right interpretation of Scripture. There may be circumstances where God gives us a prophetic message for a group of people where we sense that God is saying, like a certain story, God is going to work in those people's lives. So in those cases, we will talk about it in that way, but we won't use this form of allegorizing, which is taking the text and trying to add a spiritual meaning that isn't naturally in the story itself. We'll focus on the message that is for the people that we are preaching to. So that's just a review of the types and illustrations and allegories. We also looked at parables and how parables are stories based on our everyday lives that are used to illustrate something spiritual. So based on how Jesus used it, we can use stories from everyday lives to talk about spiritual truths. But when we are interpreting parables in Scripture, the way we do it is to take what is clearly indicated in Scripture, what is clearly compared, so the kingdom of God is like a tree. Then we look at what is said about the tree and we understand what Jesus is trying to say about the kingdom of God. But we won't try and compare every detail of the story. We won't try and find a meaning to every detail of the story and then try and describe what the kingdom of God is like, because that is not the intention of the parable. We'll just take the main point that Jesus was trying to talk about, which is clearly indicated as he is talking. And that's how we will interpret the parable. So any questions on any of that? No questions? Okay. Then we will go into Biblical prophecy and how do we interpret Biblical prophecy? Now we recognize that this can be quite complex. So this is just an introduction to Biblical prophecy and how we can rightly look at texts, rightly interpret texts. We're not looking at covering every question or we're not looking at going too in-depth, because in your second and third year you will cover this more in detail. In your second year you look at the end times and in third year you look at the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation verse by verse. So then you'll be putting this into practice, the interpretation of scripture into practice. So here these are just some basic guidelines and introduction to it. And just to kind of give us, just to address that issue of Biblical prophecy and how do we read these passages to give us a basic idea about it. So some key principles that we look at when we're interpreting Biblical prophecy. One is to look at the timeline. So if somebody can read for us Isaiah 9, 6 and 7. Isaiah 9, 6 and 7. For unto, as a child is born, unto has a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom. To order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward. Even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Thank you. So here if we look at this Isaiah 9, 6. The first part of it is talking about the prophecy about a child being born and a son being given. Now we know that in the New Testament this is talked about as being fulfilled when Jesus was born. And points back to Isaiah 9, 6. So we know that Jesus has already fulfilled that. Jesus has already come as a child. But the second section of this, the government will rest on his shoulders. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestors to David for all eternity. So that part of it is something that we are still looking forward to. So in these two verses there's actually a gap of 2,000 years, right? Over 2,000 years. Because Jesus fulfilled that first part of the passage over 2,000 years ago when he was born. And now we are still looking forward to his return and the establishment of his reign. Which is talked about in Revelation 19 and Revelation 20, Revelation 19-15, Revelation 24. So this is just an example of how prophecy can have a wide range. Like one verse or one sentence even in the Bible, if it is prophetic in nature, can actually span over thousands of years in that one verse, right? So this is one example of that. We'll also look at Isaiah 65, 17-19, and 20-25. If someone can read that for us please. Isha Sagar, you can go ahead. Isaiah chapter 65 verse 7. For behold, I create new heavens and new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. For 18, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem and rejoicing. And her people are sure. In verse 90 there is a rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. The voice of keeping shall no longer be heard in her or the voice of her. Thank you. You can go ahead till verse 25. No more shall an infant a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days. For the child shall die 100 years old, but the sinner shall be 100 years old. They shall build a house and a habit to them. They shall plant vineyards and produce. They shall not build an another in an habit. They shall not plant another. For as the day of the free shall be the day of my people. And my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Verse 23. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth to children for trouble. For they shall be the descendant of the plus of the Lord. And their offering will be done. Verse 24. It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer. And while they are still speaking, I will hear. Verse 25. The wolf and the lamb shall feed them together. The lion shall eat the straw like the ox. And thus shall be the serpent. They shall not hurt nor destroy all my holy mouth and face the Lord. Thank you. So if we look here in this passage, Isaiah 16, 17 to 19, here is talking about the new heavens and the new earth. If we look at this same kind of what is talked about in Revelation, so Revelation 21 and 22, the new heavens and the new earth are God's final establishment of His kingdom. And in that description of the new heavens and the new earth, there is no, there's no talk of being born or people dying, right? We don't see any of that. In fact, we see that there will be no more tears. There will be no more death. So, but Isaiah here, he says there will be a new heavens and new earth. And there will be joy. And then verse 19, the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more. But then after that, in verse 20, it starts to talk about death and birth. Talks about people planting. It talks about the animals being at peace with one another. But all of these things are not talked about in Revelation 21 and 22. So there's no indication in those passages that there is going to be any birth and death because we will be like the angels, right? Without resurrected bodies. So based on this, we understand that what Isaiah is talking about in verses 20 to 25 is actually the Millennial reign of Jesus. And that comes before what he's talking about in verses 17 to 19, which is 17 to 19 is the new Jerusalem, the establishment of new heavens and the new earth. So we are looking at this prophecy. And if we were to take it as it is, as Isaiah has written it, then we'll be very confused because they're saying, okay, the new heavens and new earth are established. But then it's still talking about birth. It's still talking about death. Why is that still happening? That's not the way Revelation describes it. So because we know that Revelation is much more arranged in a way that is this comes after this, we go by that timeline and we understand Isaiah 65 as having reversed the timeline. So this is something that we do see in prophetic scripture as well, where it's not giving us this will happen first and this will happen next and this will happen next. Sometimes the timeline can be switched. So what comes later will be talked about first and then we see something that's supposed to happen earlier, talked about later. So this is where we look at other parts of scripture to understand what is the timeline, what is going to happen after what. And we try and interpret based on other scriptures that talk about the same thing. So we see the Millennial reign talked about in Isaiah 2 in Micah 4 in Revelation 20. And based on that, we can understand that that comes before the new heavens and the new earth. So is that clear? Any questions so far? Okay, we'll move on. So this is the first principle we look at is time when we're interpreting biblical prophecy. The second is prophetic imagery. So I'm sure all of us have read or in some way heard parts of Revelation, right? And we know and the book of Daniel, we know there's a lot of imagery that is used that can be very difficult to understand. And so we have to rightly interpret what these images mean. So we'll just look at this example of Revelation 12 1 to 6. Somebody can read that for us, please. If anyone like to read, I can read it. Pastor, is it Revelation 12 1 to 6? Yes. Okay. Revelation 12 1 to 6. Now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of 12 stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on its heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and his throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days. Thank you. So here we see a few images that are mentioned, right? So that is the woman, woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head. So that's one picture that we have. And there's some description about this woman. Then we see that she gives birth to a son who is going to rule all nations. And then we have the description of the dragon. So do you all have any ideas about who each of these people might be? Revelation 12, 1 to 6. So when we read this, our immediate response is like, what is happening? Who is this woman? She's pregnant. She's going to have a child. What is this talking about? And it can feel a little bit like it's too much for us to understand. It's something that's beyond us. But if we actually look a little bit deeper, there is a lot of answers to the questions or answers to these images that are being used within the text and then within the rest of the scripture itself. So if we start with the woman, what is the description about her? She is clothed with the sun, with the moon and a crown of 12 stars on her head. Can you all think of any place in scripture where these things are talked about? The sun, moon and stars. About Joseph's sister, Jacobson. Yes. So if we go back to, thank you, Genesis 37, 9. And if someone can read that for us. Go ahead. Okay. Yeah. Whoever is ready, Lucy or Sagar, one of you can go ahead. Sagar, go ahead. Genesis 37, 9. Then he dreamed, still another dream and told it to his brothers and said, Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time the sun, the moon and the 11 stars bow down to me. Okay. So immediately when we read that passage in Revelation, we can, we know that this story also mentions the sun, the moon. And here it says 11 stars because Joseph is not included in that, in the stars. Right. But in Revelation 12, we see this woman who has the sun, moon and stars and 12 stars crowning her head. So from Genesis 37, 9, we can see the sun refers to Jacob, the moon refers to his wife and the 11 stars are their sons. Right. So based on this, we can understand that this woman is, is talking about Israel itself, talking about this family, right, Jacobs family, the sun, moon and the 12 stars. That is the beginning of the nation of Israel. So Revelation 12, then we can interpret as the woman is Israel. Does everyone think that makes sense? Right. Okay. So this, it can seem confusing when we first read it, but it's just about paying a little attention to some of the details and looking at the rest of scripture as well. And another way for us to clarify, are we interpreting this correctly? We know that Jesus is born off the Jewish line. Right. Jesus came from the Jewish nation. And so when we talk, when it talks about her being pregnant and giving birth to a child, this also makes sense from the perspective of this child was born. And why do we say that the child is Jesus from this passage? So in verse five, the child is said to be someone who will rule all nations with an iron rod. If we go on in Revelation to Revelation 19, verse 15, it says, it's talking about Jesus. And it says, from his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. So here we see that this is referring to Jesus. Right. So Revelation 19 is talking about Jesus ruling them with a rod of iron. And Revelation 12 is referring to a child who will rule with a rod of iron. And so we understand that that child is referring to Jesus. Now, another description in Revelation 12 is that the child was caught up to God. Right. Revelation 12, verse five, the child was snatched away from the dragon and was caught up to God into his throne. So we know that this is talking about Jesus's ascension. So both of these things we can see are fulfilled in Jesus's life. That Jesus came from the Jews and Jesus was caught up to heaven. And we see Revelation 19, verse 15, talking about Jesus as one who will rule with the iron rod. And so we can say that that child that is talked about there is Jesus. And now the third part, the dragon. Who is the dragon referring to? If we just go on in that chapter to verse nine, if someone can read verse nine for us, please. Revelation 12, verse nine. Some of the great dragon was passed out. That serpent of hold called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He was passed to the earth and his angels were passed out with him. Okay. So in the same chapter, if we just continue reading, we can see that the dragon is named and says that the dragon is Satan is the devil. So just from that little bit of referencing other passages, looking later in the chapter, looking later in the book, we were able to find out who this passage is talking about and then we're able to understand a little bit better what this chapter talks about. So that's the way we'll interpret when we're looking at prophetic imagery. We look at other passages. We look at the same chapter. We look at the rest of the book and see whether there is further explanation of those images that will help us understand what they are referring to. Okay. And also about this dragon, there is a little bit of a description that is given. So he has seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns on his head. We know that, I think some of us know, but if we look at Revelation, seven is used a lot to talk about perfection. So in this passage, when it's saying that he has seven heads and seven crowns on his head, referring to the fact that he has full authority at that time. So Satan has full authority for that period of time. And the ten horns, if we look back to Daniel 724, we see the same image of ten horns and there it is explained to us what the ten horns mean. So someone can read for us Daniel 724. Daniel 724. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom and another shall rise after them. He shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings. Thank you. So here we see clearly that horns are used to refer to leaders or kings. Right. So when we're looking at Revelation 12, you'll understand that those horns that the dragon has refers to ten rulers who are going to be under this dragon's authority. So they are going to be used by him and they're going to be used in the nations of the world. Okay. So this is just an example of how we can do some interpretation of prophetic imagery. Let's look at one more example. Revelation 17.1. If someone can read that for us. Revelation 17.1. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls came and talked with me saying to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. Thank you. So here again, we have this imagery of the prostitute or a harlot who is sitting on many waters. Now, what does that mean? Who is the harlot? What are the waters? What does it mean that she's sitting on the waters? So we have a clue here on the PowerPoint that there's also verse 15 of this chapter that we can look at. So based on verse 15, what else can we understand about this, about the harlot sitting on waters based on verse 15 of Revelation 17? System multitudes of nations and tongues referring to people. Yes. So the waters represent multiple nations or represents the nations of the world. So this harlot is sitting on the nations of the world. So sitting can be understood as, has some kind of authority or influence over the nations. Okay. And who is the harlot? We go back to Revelation 13 to understand a little bit about who that is referring to. So in Revelation 13, we have a description of the beast. Okay. And also of a prophet of the beast. Now, the beast is someone who represents the Antichrist. And if we read more about it, he institutes what we would call a world financial system, a system that will basically control the financial side of things. And then the beast also has a false prophet. So we see that as a world religious system. And this false prophet is the one who calls people to worship the beast. So based on Revelation 13, if we, we won't look in depth at Revelation 13 right now, but we can understand that this harlot is actually referring to that false prophet, which is the world religious system. So this world religious system will influence many nations, will influence the nations of the world. So this passage is well Revelation 17. We are just looking at what does the rest of Revelation 17 say? What does the rest of Revelation say? And we can understand a little bit more about what these images are talking about. Okay. So one important thing to remember is that we will try and look within scripture to find out the meaning of what this imagery is. Looking at the rest of prophetic imagery especially to see, has this image been used in other prophetic scriptures or passages? And how has it been explained or what does it refer to? What do those images refer to? Any questions on this? Okay. Sister Gertrude, I can see you have your hand raised. Yes, sister. Sister, could it be a Catholicism, this doctrine, false doctrine? So this world religious system is connected directly to the Antichrist and is said to be introduced when the Antichrist comes, right? So we will not, we can't interpret based on scriptures that this is something talking about Catholicism or about the Roman Catholic faith because as far as we can tell the Antichrist has not yet come, right? This Antichrist is yet to come and the Antichrist will then introduce this world religious system. I have a question, sister. Is this ten hon? Does it refer to any nations now? To any nations at present, is it? So all of this we understand as things that are yet to be fulfilled. So in Daniel 7 it was referring to the former Roman Empire. And so when we're looking at the future, it will be something that will come in the future, not something that we are seeing right now at present. Yes. Okay, sister. Thank you. Thank you. So any other questions on this prophetic imagery? Still about the seven heads and seven crowns. Does it refer to any nations or is it only authority of the Satan? Yeah, the seven heads basically using that number seven refers to this sense of perfection. Number seven is a sense of perfection. And because it's talking about the crowns, we understand that it's saying that he will have perfect authority or full authority here. And then the haunts are the leaders or rulers that we understand from Daniel 7. Okay, so we'll just move on to the third aspect of biblical interpretation, which is timing. So we first talked about the time line, right? So where one thing happens after another thing. And sometimes that may not be clear which comes first and which comes next and or what the extent of time is between one event and the next event. Here we're talking about time from the perspective of here more figurative language being used to describe time. So an example of this that we can look at in Revelation 12 6. We read this passage already that the woman will be taken care of for 1260 days. If we look at verse 14 of the same passage, it says the woman at the end of verse 14, she would be cared for and protected from the dragon for a time times and half a time. So here time times and half a time is used figuratively, but verse six says the exact same thing that she would be taken away to a place in the wilderness and she will be cared for 1260 days, 1260 days. So because we already have the literal interpretation in verse six and the figurative language in verse 14, we can interpret verse 14 based on verse six. So when it's in time times half a time, we take that as a time as one one year times two years and half a time is half a year. So one plus two plus half is three and a half years, which is 42 months, which is equal to 1260 days, which is what Revelation 12 6 talks about. So sometimes when there is this kind of figurative language, if we look at again others parts of scripture here, it's in the same chapter. It's very clear that time times half a time is 1260 days because of what the verse six already talks about. So that makes it easy to interpret. Another example is Genesis 41 where Pharaoh has the dream. Here the cows, so seven fat cows, seven lean cows and each of those cows represent a year. This is an example of figurative language. And here we only have that interpretation because Daniel was given that revelation from God. So Daniel receives that revelation and he interprets it as each of them meaning a year. And then we know that that actually happens after that. So we know that it is a correct interpretation. Now this is not generally the way we will interpret. This is recorded for us in scripture that Daniel was given that revelation and he was a prophet. So he was given that kind of revelation. We are when we are interpreting will base our interpretation on scripture itself because we know that that will give us assurance that our interpretation is based on some sound. Sound judgment, right? So we're basing it off of what has already been said or what has already been explained. Let's see. I'll maybe we can just look begin to look at Daniel 924 to 27. Someone can read that for us please. Daniel 924 to 27. 70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgressions to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. No, no, therefore I understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until messiah the prince, there shall be seven weeks and 72 weeks. The street shall be built again and the wall even in troublesome times. And after the 62 weeks, messiah shall be cut off but not for himself and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of which shall be with the flood until the end of the war. Desolations are determined. Then he shall come. Sorry. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering and all the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate. Thank you. So we are at our break time. So we'll just take a break and we'll come back and look at this passage. And then we look at some final principles on Bible prophecy interpreting Bible prophecy. And we will end a little early for this class and then come back for the third hour. So we'll just take a break now and come back in 10 minutes. Thank you.