Symbols in Bible Prophesy

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3) NKJV

 In the very early stages of my walk with The Lord, I was intrigued by prophesy. I loved to study prophesy that was written and later fulfilled in Scripture, but my favorite was to see fulfillment that has happened since the completion of the written word. In my early studies, I was not familiar with God’s use of symbolism so I relied on the teachers of the day and accepted what I read as truth. I do not mean to speak negative against the well intended, people of faith who taught what was generally accepted interpretations. Part of the problem was that the understanding was time sensitive and bible teachers were trying to explain something which could not be seen. To understand prophesy, it is important to understand the symbols that are used. We will use Scripture to interpret symbols and we will integrate current events to shed light on the vision of God. God’s use of symbolism is consistent throughout the bible but we will particularly be focusing on Daniel and Revelation. Our first study of symbolism will begin with the four beasts in Daniel 7 and how they relate to the beast in Revelation 13. All events and numbers in Revelation are to be understood as their literal meaning unless stated otherwise in Scripture. This is very common and is what I mean by using Scripture to interpret Scripture. With the advent of bible software, this process of interpretation has become very valuable to all students of the bible. This has just been an introduction of the necessity of understanding symbolism in the study of future events. Some will question why understanding future events is so necessary and we will cover that in depth in future post. For now, just glance back up to the verse at the beginning of this post and trust there is a very good reason Jesus included this in his plans for those he loves.