It is important to note that 28% of the Old Testament is prophecy, most of which came to pass in the life and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The New Testament has over 20% of some form of prophecy too, of which most (although this is debated) has not yet come to pass. Thus, prophecy is important because God has dedicated a significant portion of His Word to it.
Again, do not read in what is not there. We are given a clear warning in Revelation 22:18-19 not to add in our ideas or take a way His precepts and thus teach what is false. It is OK to speculate academically, research, and argue and deliberate over the views, but we are not to seek or read in what we want and then miss what He has. A lot of Christian writers love to embellish on this subject and give their own version of what will happen. But, the scores of books that have been written in the last hundred years have not panned out in their theories. Every prediction made by many melodramatic preachers and writers have not come true because it is “their” theories, not based on fact or careful study of Scripture. The Bible clearly tells us we do not have access to that information; no one will know the time (Matt. 25:13; John 16:4).
When you come to a word in the Bible, it is best to first assume it is literal, unless the context and word cry out, “hey! This may be a metaphor!”
Just look it up in a Bible Dictionary, a Bible Background Commentary or language help, or use our website. A metaphor does not mean that the Bible is not literal, as finding the meaning of the word is a literal way to receive God’s truth. The bottom line is this; the reason why we do not always take these images literally is for the reason that this is “apocalyptic literature” written in symbolism, poetry and imageries conveying ideas and representations, whereas most of Scripture is narrative and epistles (letters) that we do take as literal; they mean what they mean plainly.
Make sure you are not reading into the Bible what you want it to say; rather, allow His Most precious Word to challenge you to lead a great fruitful Christian life! We can agree to disagree over what is literal and what is figurative, or what view one should take—or take no view at all, as I do. The main point is our love for the Lord and our willingness to learn and apply His precious Truth into our lives and church. He is the One who gives us life, salvation, is in control, has a plan, and will work it out in His perfect time!
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If you look at the language of the Bible you will find more metaphors, and symbols, than most give it credit. For instance, Jesus taught mostly in parable, and when he didn’t he said things like “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” A statement he was clearly directing at himself and not the literal temple, A statement not meant to be taken literal. I mean just thing about how people talk, we use words, and pictures, and stories to explain and compare things. We OFTEN over exaggerate, which was also another teaching quality of Jesus, the hyperbole. If you thing everything should be taken literal just look at the fulfilled of the Old Testament Prophecies. Many prophecies like the Locus King and army of Joel were descriptions of invading armies, not literal locus. If all of the Old Testament prophecies have not come true literal, why should we think all of Revelation needs to be taken literal? Most scholars would say much of Revelation was describing the persecution taking place under Emperor Nero and not some future event.
The simple truth, prophecy is like Hindsight… It always tends to be 20/20.