Why Types Can Confuse: Things Lacking

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Biblical types are where one person, place or thing is symbolic of another person place or thing. Such symbolism is sometimes called a “type.” The Greek word is tupos, and in Greek the fulfillment is sometimes called an anti-type antitupos. In 1Pe 3:21 in the KJV antitupos is translated as “The like figure,” and in the WEB it is translated as “symbol.” Such symbolism in Scripture is sometimes also called a “pattern” or a “shadow.”

A special son of David was to come, 2Sam 7:12.

This son was to build a temple of the Lord. This was discussed in some detail in two posts in early May, 2019 about “Two Sons of David.” Both Kings and Chronicles claim that Solomon fulfills this, and Solomon did build a temple to the Lord.

Perhaps there was some uneasiness from the first.

Of the son of David fulfilling 2Samuel 7 it was said that God would be a father to him and he would be God’s son. There were many kings of the ancient near East who claimed to be descended from “the gods.” Perhaps some had uneasiness about this claim for Solomon even from the first.

Also it said that God’s lovingkindness for this special son of David could NOT be lost, 2Sam 7:15! However, Solomon’s father David, speaking to Solomon by the Holy Spirit of God, said to Solomon,

“ … if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.”
1Chron 28:9 WEB

So David speaking by the Holy Spirit said that Solomon could loose God’s lovingkindness. That is quite a difference. And it says of Scripture,

“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. ”
Prov 30:5 KJV

So how can Solomon be the son of 2Samuel 7?

And what about later, when Solomon’s kingdom
fell in 586 BC.

For the prophecy in 2Samuel 7 clearly says that,

“ … I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
2Sam 7:13 WEB

And again.

“Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before you: your throne shall be established forever. ”
2Sam 7:16 WEB

So what is the answer?

The answer of course is that two different men are being talked about in 2Samuel 7. Parts only fit Solomon, and parts only fit Jesus, and parts fit both, but in different ways. Two men are prophesied of in this one prophecy! A DUAL SUBJECT. Some are very dogmatic that one prophecy can only talk about one thing, but that is just not so. Two different “sons of David.” The other son of David is Jesus of Nazareth, and Heb 1:5 quotes 2Sam 7:14 of Jesus.

The seeming “contradictions” are the tipoff.

These contradictions tell us that more than one subject is involved in 2Samuel 7, two different “sons of David,” and one is only a type, a shadow of the other.

KJV is the King James Version, 1611

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Mystery Babylon the Great, Her Allies and Competitors

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Mystery Babylon the Great sits far off in desert, a wilderness, Rev 17:3. An unpopulated place. No doubt it should be pointed out that Rome sits in a city, is a city. Another variance between Rome, ancient or modern, and Mystery Babylon?

On the other hand,

“The woman whom you saw IS the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”
Rev 17:18 emphasis added

Contradictions in the same chapter? Or two different entities, one symbolic of the other?

Mystery Babylon is very rich

She is dressed and decorated with the most expensive of clothing and jewelry. She drinks from a gold cup that filled with the nasty fluids of fornication, Rev 17:4.

It does not seem that she gets rich off of kings and other merchants. Instead, she makes kings and other merchants rich. Mystery Babylon brings others great luxury and all sort of wild sex.

“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”
Rev 18:3 WEB

Among the immediate allies then would be the kings and merchants of the earth.

She is source of everything disgusting and stupid

She is the mother even all “of the abominations of the earth.” Rev 17:5 WEB

She sits on a scarlet “beast,” an animal.

This animal is monstrous. It is full of blasphemous names and has seven heads and ten horns, Rev 17:3.

Of course that is the way Satan/the dragon is described in Rev 12:3, 9. Then Satan is described as coming out of the sea in Rev 13:1-2. It seems as if this “dragon” spawns a human organization that also has seven heads and ten horns. The heads are clearly the heads of the organization. It appears that this is what is called “the mystery of lawlessness” which was already at work in the first century in 2Thes 2:7. This organizations and leaders are said to be,

“ … the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders.” 2Thes 2:9 WEB.

And the dragon and this organization has ten horns. Horns in Scripture are often symbolic of power, even particular nations or kings in passages like Dan 7:24, and Dan 8:20.

So this Satanic organization is ruled by a council of seven men, and is supported by ten kings/nations.

The beast is both an ally and a competitor

Now Mystery Babylon rides this monster to victory. “the beast that carries her,” Rev 17:7 WEB. And the beast and the horns also hate her, Rev 17:7.

Think of them as like rival mafia clans which may work together at times, but may also bitterly fight at other times. Both work to “overcome” the saints, Rev 13:7. Babylon is “drunken with the blood of the saints,” Rev 17:5 WEB.

Will Mystery Babylon ascend to the heavens?

“Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, … yet from me shall destroyers come to her, says Yahweh. ”
Jer 51:53 WEB

“and you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; …”
Jer 51:64 WEB.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Mystery Babylon the Great and Conflict

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Where do wars and conflicts come from?

“1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2 You lust, and don’t have. You kill, covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.”
Jas 4:1-3 WEB

Mystery Babylon’s public face seems to be businesses

“12 merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, all expensive wood, every vessel of ivory, every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble; 13 and cinnamon, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, sheep, horses, chariots, bodies, and people’s souls.”
Rev 13:12-13 WEB

Mystery Babylon promotes conflict

“The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”
Rev 17:18 WEB

Wars and conflicts are about money, about “ … You kill, covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. …” Jas 4:2 WEB. The popular accounts act as if the billions or trillions of dollars spent on a war just disappear … but they don’t. The trillions of dollars are “made”/“earned” by businesses that make the things needed for war. The money is still around … out of the taxpayers hands, the ones who do the suffering and dying.

Mystery Babylon’s purpose seem to be to make money. Then an astonishing statement is made about Mystery Babylon.

ALL the blood shed ON EARTH is on Mystery Babylon

“In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of ALL who have been slain on the earth.”
Rev 18:24 WEB emphasis added.

Revealing the Christian Age gives examples of the money to be made by arranging wars.

That would almost seem to be impossible. Let’s think it through. Here is a religio-commercial entity, a secret or semisecret religion, which seems to facilitate international trade and dominate it. (See the posts on Mystery Religions.) She rules over kings. She seems to stir up conflicts to make money. She is the source of all sorts of immorality and luxury. It almost seems as if she plants many of animosities which cause men to kill each other. She is the source of every sort of vile and nasty sex.

But there is the statement. God is the one who “says” Rev 18:24. Are you really willing to say that it could not be?

Also notice that what is talked about is too big to be ancient Rome. The statement made is broader than the influence ancient Rome ever had.

Also Revelation points to Babylon the Great as being destroyed just before the end of this present universe.

You cannot be part of these things and live forever

“4 I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues, 5 for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities. ”
Rev 18:4-5 WEB

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Mystery Babylon, Influence and Money

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Sometimes we have the most naive views of how things work. The media often portrays wars or revolutions or great political movements as spontaneously arising out of nowhere. Movements of the “will of the people,” is a phrase we often hear. The truth is that very little is spontaneous in either war or the political world, in “democracies,” or under kings or dictators.

Almost everything requires funding to work

Revealing the Christian Age, talks in detail of examples of money in public affairs, all in the chapter “Excursus: What this might look like in history.”

Where does food come from for your family? And clothes? And medical care when it is needed. It does cost money, and at times, a great deal of money. Still at times we may think as if a guerrilla movement of several thousand men can just happen. Or several hundred apparently unemployed men can make a “sit-in” for days or weeks, months, and it can just happen.

Start with a squad of say twelve men. Price uniforms for them, and boots and socks and underwear. Then automatic weapons for all twelve. Then figure out how many bullets and hand grenades they will need for six months of combat, and how to buy all of that. Then figure out what it will cost to feed twelve hungry and active young men for six months. That is just a start. Then multiply those figures by an army, and you are beginning to understand the most elementary of costs for even a small war.

The truth is that wars or revolutions cost too much money, and require too much organization and planning for them to ever happen “by accident.” They have to be carefully planned and financed, or they will soon fall apart.

Take Hitler’s Storm Troopers, the “brown shirts.”

At their height Hitler had millions of such unemployed men in uniform. Just take a million such unemployed men. What do you think it would cost to merely put them into uniform (remember, one million men), and pay them at least a token amount so they will make the time to march and train, and then street fight together. Then you have an idea of how much money Hitler had behind him, and you are beginning to think of how much money mass political movements cost anywhere in the world.

Dues are not enough in most organizations

Some organizations, like churches, are able to be very influential long term, especially if their members all tithe (10%) as is often promoted. Even then, most of that money goes for local maintenance and expenses, and paying local workers, with generally lesser amounts be devoted to slow-going mission works in far off places.

Or think of the primaries before the 2016 elections

Jeb Bush, if I remember right, raised over 100 million dollars for a disastrous presidential primary bid. We are talking here about temporary pushes just to win a primary election.

Most fast growing movements require dramatic
infusions of resources.

Such must come from the productive activities of men, or businesses, or the printing of money.

These are basics to understand our world,
and what prophecy tells us about our world.

Mystery Babylon makes others rich, Rev 18:3.

Mystery Babylon the Great and Commerce

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Mystery Babylon the Great is first introduced in Rev 14:8 as “Babylon the Great has fallen.” Before she is discussed, we are told she is fallen.

She is a fount of crazy immorality

She has forced immorality on the nations. She “has made ALL the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.” Rev 14:8 WEB, emphasis added. As ancient Babylon made all of the would be brides into sexual immorality, so Mystery Babylon forces ALL nations into immorality.

As was discussed earlier, she is evidently a mystery religion, a religion that is either secret or semisecret. See the previous post, “Mystery Religions: An Overview.” Evidently Mystery Babylon is sits on a substrata of seven other religions. It has always been common for mystery religions to superimpose themselves on other public religions. Even on Christianity.

Mystery Babylon is a business entity: religio-commercial

There is more about Mystery Babylon in Revealing the Christian Age, and what she might look like when we see her.

The language of the book of Revelation concerning Mystery Babylon seems to come from two primary sources. Old Testament prophecies concerning ancient Babylon and her wealth and power, and the Old Testament prophecies concerning ancient Tyre and Sidon. These were Phoenician trade cities which dominated east-west trade in the ancient world for many centuries. Also they were worshipers of the ancient Baal and Asherah cults. It was the Phoenicians who established Carthage, Rome’s final contender for domination of the ancient world.

The images that we see from the Old Testament are those of wealth and power and large scale business enterprises which span both many nations and continents.

She is the ruler of the kings of the earth, Rev 17:18

Actually it is common for the business face of society to direct the government face of society. Commerce and agriculture and mining produce the wealth of nations. Kings depend on that wealth.

Babylon makes OTHERS rich

“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”
Rev 18:3 WEB

She does not conquer the kings of the earth. She seduces and uses them.

Babylon is the seller of all manner of wickedness

Demons work in her (1Tim 4:1), and “ … she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!” Rev 18:2 WEB.

Wealth and prosperity falls when Babylon falls

Like Tyre of old, she is not all of international commerce, but she seems to be the one who makes it work. So when Mystery Babylon falls, and it does fall WITHIN history, it speaks as if it is end of all prosperity.

“The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more; ”
Rev 18:11

Thus we are looking at things which will reach their conclusion just before the end of this present universe.

First, because of sin, the church falls/is “overcome.” Then Mystery Babylon falls. Lastly the man of lawlessness and the mystery of Lawlessness fall at the Second Coming of Christ.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Ancient Babylon: Power and Confusion

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God Used Ancient Babylon

An ancient world of nations deserved to be punished for their many sins against Yahweh the Lord of hosts. God used Babylon, among others, for these purposes.

“It shall happen, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, … that nation will I punish, says Yahweh, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.”
Jer 27:8 WEB

She was powerful. She was the hammer of the whole earth, Jer 50:23. And she was wicked.

Babylon is Confused

She does not know what is best. Perhaps no better example can be given of her depravity than some of the things from secular history. The Greek historian Herodotus tells us that in Babylon the potential brides were put up for bid at a public auction, with the most beautiful commanding the highest price, and the most homely being offered to poorer men with a dowry as a reward for marrying the girl, Book 1, 196.

Worse, Herodotus talks about what he calls the detestable Babylonian law/custom that required girls to commit fornication before they would be allowed to marry! All marriageable women had to go to what he calls the temple of Aphrodite (the Greek goddess of love). I assume he speaks of the Babylonian goddess Astarte, the Babylonian fertility goddess, whom he calls by the Greek equivalent. It seems some assumed that purity in a woman had distasteful results, so all had to stay in the court of “love” until someone agreed to have relations with them. The ugliest sometimes had to remain in the court three or four years. Then they would be “qualified” to be married. Book 1, 199, 1-5. Abominable confusion about what is right and wrong, what is good or bad.

Babylon’s immorality has further ruined the nations. It has driven everyone just a little bit crazy.

“Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.”
Jer 51:7

A type no doubt, of we will see later of Mystery Babylon the Great. Further, Babylon has set herself again God Himself.

But Babylon has sinned against the Lord, Jer 50:24

“ … for she has sinned against Yahweh.” Jer 50:14 WEB

“We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: … for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.”
Jer 51:9 WEB

Babylon is to be destroyed and desolate FOREVER

“Call together the archers against Babylon, … let none of it escape: … for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.”
Jer 50:29 WEB.

“Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.”
Jer 50:13 WEB

Babylon will be a desolation forever, Jer 25:12.

Babylon has always been about confusion. Symbolic no doubt of Mystery Babylon the Great.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Babylon has Always Been About Confusion

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Two key things came about in the immediate aftermath of the flood.

The foundations of civil government

These were laid in the covenants imposed on mankind and the creatures of the earth.

“5 I will surely require your blood of your lives. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, … 6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man will his blood be shed, …”
Gen 9:5 WEB

So a communal duty was established to put to death anyone who unlawfully kills a man, whether man or beast. The ways and means are not specified, but the duty is given to all men. This laid a foundation for limiting the increase of wickedness, an instrument for protecting the life and span of men.

The Tower of Babel

There is more about the origins of civil government and ancient Babel in Prophecy Principles.

Originally “The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.” Gen 11:1 WEB. They were supposed to spread out and “Be fruitful, and replenish the earth.” Gen 9:2 WEB. Even so, that was not the inclination of our forefathers. It seems they were traveling eastward as a group, and found what was then a fertile land in Shinar.

“They said, “Come, let’s build us a city, and a tower, whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.” ”
Gen 11:4 WEB

Men were already confused about what was good to do, now God sees these directions and says they are not good ones.

A Deliberate Division of Men Inclined to Wickedness

“6 Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do. 7 Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” ”
Gen 11:6-7 WEB

Now the rightful power to kill the evil doer would never be a monopoly of one group of men, thus another hedge against the evil doers. That power would be divided by tribe and nation.

“Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because Yahweh confused the language of all the earth, there. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth. ” Gen 11:9 WEB

Sin is often confused about what is right ro good.

Sin often deliberately confuses right and wrong,
so it may do whatever it wishes.

Sin often brings a curse of confusion
because of our evil desires.

“Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me.”
Deut 28:20 WEB

And so it will be at the end that,

“11 Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie; 12 that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. ”
2Thes 2:11-12 WEB

Babylon has always been about confusion. Symbolic no doubt of Mystery Babylon the Great.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Time Order in Types

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Quite often when God wants to tell us about what will happen in the future, He uses people, places or things which have happened in the past as examples of what will happen in the future. The examples are symbolic of what will happen in the future. The examples are sometimes called “types” in Scripture. We might in modern English call them “prototypes.”

Jesus is our passover lamb.

“ … For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.”
1Cor 5:7 WEB.

Of course the first passover lambs were sacrificed in Egypt around 1440 BC. They put the blood of the passover lamb on the door posts of their dwelling, and when angel of death came, he would passover their houses, and not strike them. But the yearly passover lambs were merely symbolic. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment.

“The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Jn 1:29 WEB.

So the symbolic was early and yearly. The ultimate fulfillment was nearly 1500 years into the future.

God will raise up a prophet like Moses.

That is what God said.

“I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.”
Deut 18:18 WEB

A prophet “like you,” that is to say, like Moses. What would that mean? Well he would be a leader of God’s people. He would be a lawgiver and would bring a new law. He would lead God’s people into the promised land (heaven). And we could go on and on. Peter quotes this passage as applying to Jesus Christ in Acts 3:22. There is a great deal more to say about the ways that Moses is symbolic of Jesus Christ.

Notice that the “type” (Moses) was already present when the prophecy was given. Howerver, the fulfillment (Jesus) was about 1500 years into the future.

The promised land.

As was discussed in “The Author of Hebrews Identifies a Type:The Final Rest,” evidently the land of Canaan, the promised land, is symbolic of our final rest in heaven.

Canaan was taken over in the 15 century BC. The Final rest in heaven, is still yet to come.

The types often occur soon in history.

The original “abomination of desolation” (Dan 11:31) was evidently an idol set up in the temple in Jerusalem in the early 2 century BC in the times of the Greek King Antiochus Epiphanes. The ultimate fulfillment is sometime in the future. So Jesus says,

“15 When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”
Mtt 24:15 WEB

The fulfillments are often in the distant future

Often times there is more than one type of an important person, place, or thing in the future. Moses, Solomon, the passover lamb, and more, are all types of Jesus the Christ.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Prophecy is NOT Rigidly Chronological, 2Sam 7:12-16

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Sometimes it can hardly be chronological at all.

This prophecy in 2 Samuel 7 has two subjects in mind. The general subject is the building of the“house” of David, the family line of David. David had wanted to build “the house of God,” the temple of God. God told David that He would not allow David to build Him a house, because he had been a man of war, not a man of peace.

Instead, God tells David, that God will build a house of David, a family of David, which will last forever. Then He tells David that his son will “build a house for my name,” 2Sam 7:13.

“12 When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; 15 but my loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before you: your throne shall be established forever.”
2Sam 7:12-16 WEB

The issue is that Scripture says that this prophecy is fulfilled by Solomon (for instance in 1Kgs 8:17-20), but it also says that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy. Hebrews 1:5 is a quotation from 2Sam 7:14 and applies it to Jesus the Christ!

“ … and again,
“I will be to him a Father,
And he will be to me a Son?””
Heb 1:5 WEB

Both Solomon and Jesus are “sons” (descendants) of David. Solomon built a literal temple, a literal house of God. Jesus, beginning in the first century of our age is building spiritual temple, a spiritual house of God, the church.

“But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. ”
1Tim 3:15 KJV

How much time separate Solomon and Jesus?

Well, as a minimum, about 1,000 years. Notice that evidently Solomon is symbolic of Jesus, that is to say, Solomon is a “type” of Jesus. We might say in modern English that Solomon is a “prototype” of Jesus.

Notice that part of this does not fit Solomon at all.

Solomon’s kingdom was not “established forever,” 2Sam 7:16. Solomon’s kingdom ended in 586 BC when Jerusalem fell and the city was destroyed.

Notice that part of this does not fit Jesus at all.

Jesus was not a disobedient son of His Father, so the part, “if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;” (2Sam 7:14) does not apply to Jesus at all. The two subjects, Solomon and Jesus are intertwined, with no clear line of division.

You CANNOT divide up this prophecy by either subject
(Solomon and Jesus), or by time.

It just cannot be done. A full discussion of this prophecy and its fulfillment is in Prophecy Principles.

KJV is the King James Version, 1611

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

MOST Secular History and MOST Prophecy is NOT Rigidly Chronological

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And we should NOT expect them to be.

Scripture often comes in with a great deal of criticism for the perceived lack of chronological order in the discussion of future events. An oriental trait we are told. Much of this very unfair criticism. Actually, very little secular history is rigidly chronological.

Take for instance Will Durant.

Will Durant is a very popular, and very readable, historian of the mid twentieth century. Copies of his series “The Story of Civilization,” extends from pre-Christian times to the story of Napoleon in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Used copies are available all over the place, yet all eleven of the thick large format volumes are still in print.

Will Durant is generally chronological.

The first volume is Our Oriental Heritage, and the last volume is The Age of Napoleon.

But Durant is not strictly chronological.

In between though are many volumes which overlap each other. For instance, volumes like The Renaissance, and The Reformation, and The Age of Reason Begins.

Take for instance Volume V, The Renaissance. It generally covers from 1304 to 1576. But if you look inside, what Durant calls Book II covers “The Florentine Renaissance” from 1378-1534. Then, much as if Florence were not in Italy, Book III covers “Italian Pageant,”1378-1534. Then Book IV covers “The Roman Renaissance, 1378-1521! (But isn’t Rome also in Italy?)

And there are many internal chronological inconsistencies, for instance when he goes into detail about this or that trend in art. Generally chronological? Yes! Strictly chronological? No!

If you look around, most histories are the same way.

The Bible is generally chronological.

It starts with the creation of our present universe, and ends with the yet to come end of this present universe, and the creation of a new universe where sin and death and decay and entropy are not operating principles.

But Scripture is not strictly chronological.

For instance, the books of Kings and Chronicles are different accounts of generally the same period of time. And really the books of the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi are generally sprinkled in time through out the period of the books of the Kings and Chronicles!

Isaiah is not strictly chronological.

Yes Revelation talks about the end of this present universe. But the end of the universe is also discussed in last part of Isaiah chapter 2. Also it is discussed in middle of Isaiah 13. Then it is discussed in some detail in Isaiah 24.

Isaiah is putting the events of his day, and of our day, into the larger context of where history, and this universe, is headed.

Often we should think of prophecy as a Father’s conversations
with His children about the future.

And if you want to follow the conversation, you have pay attention to the conversation, and note shifts in mood, or subject or time. It is much like a movie where there are no signs which say, “The next day back at the ranch,” we sense, or should sense, the change of time or location.