Prophecy

This presentation explores John’s use of the expression angelou autou, “his angel,” in order to see what light it sheds on the subject of eschatology. It also seeks to suggest that Adventist theologians can continue to relate to such an important biblical iconic motif and Scripture’s teaching and perspectives on a crucial and timely subject for God’s people today.

The commentators of the book of Daniel usually divide the book into two parts: one containing narratives about Daniel and his friends and another containing visions. Usually, the narrative part is considered not very important for the interpretation of the visions. This presentation seeks to show that the book of Daniel is a coherent unity and the keys for interpreting the visions might be found in the narrative section. For this purpose the character of the little horn is taken as a test case. This presentation comes to the conclusion that the little horn is portrayed as having some features that are peculiar to the portraits of the pagan kings in the book of Daniel. Therefore some elements of the stories of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius might be understood as typological ones that anticipate the antitypological fulfillment in the end of time.

Although many prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Israel have had no obvious fulfillment, New Testament writers consistently speak of prophecies fulfilled. This paper shows how a sifting within Israel in response to the proclamations of John the Baptist and Jesus results in Israel’s “restoration” in relation to Jesus as its messianic King. Examination of the relevant terminology, together with a detailed consideration of crucial New Testament passages concerning Israel (Acts 15, Romans 9-11, and in Revelation), reveals the inadequacy of a strictly ethnic definition of Israel in light of God’s intention that “all Israel” be saved.

This presentation accepts and assumes the solid work done by other Seventh-day Adventist scholars in establishing the date of 457 BC as the starting date for the 2,300-day prophecy of Daniel 8:14, and AD 1844 as the ending date of the prophecy. Building on these biblically based conclusions, this study explores fresh evidence from Scripture, chronology, and Karaite history in order to determine if there can be more precision with regard to the starting and ending dates of the 2,300 day-year prophecy. It concludes that the time period of the prophecy certainly begins in the autumn (not spring) of 457 BC—probably on the Day of Atonement, October 30—and ends on the Day of Atonement in AD 1844, which, according to the biblical reckoning, almost certainly fell on October 22 that year, not September 23.

With the disillusionment in some circles regarding the prophetic day-year metric, it is time to reconsider the biblical data and turn away from the uninformed gossip that has fueled the uncertainties. This paper assumes an intimate connection between the eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel, and rather than dwelling on the specifics of Daniel 8:14, examines the impact of Daniel 9:24–27 in the NT corpus. If it can be demonstrated that Daniel 9 legitimately employs the year-day principle, then that provides solid evidence for the traditional chronology of the vision of Daniel 8. Not only is the vision of Daniel 9 key to the understanding of the mission of Messiah, but it also outlines a series of specific markers that include the appearance, mission, and death of Messiah. The writers of the New Testament recognized some of these chronological pointers as evidenced by a string of (20+) references, throughout the NT, that speak of “the fullness of time.” The obvious question is, “What time?” This paper demonstrates that the time they spoke of was Daniel’s prophecy found in Daniel 9.

Timely applications of the predictions made by biblical prophets often eclipse their timeless qualities. This presentation points to a need to pay more attention to the timeless aspects of biblical prophetic messages, particularly those that relate to the end times. To this end, statements like “the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, the stars will fall from the sky” are surveyed in their original Old Testament contexts and genres. The presentation closes with a call to Adventist biblical scholars to give more attention to the timeless aspects of biblical prophetic predictions.

This presentation presents a model of interpretation that seeks to convey Daniel's fourth and final prophecy as the continuation and fullest expression of the three that precede it, giving each power and emphasis proportional to what it receives in chapters 2, 7, 8, and 9. It emphasizes the parallel between Daniel 11:40a and Revelation 13:3, binding Daniel together with Revelation. It also emphasizes the parallel between Daniel 11:40b–45 and The Great Controversy chapters 35–40, binding Daniel together with the Spirit of Prophecy.

Understanding and interpreting the last three chapters of the book of Daniel have always been a challenge to scholars and readers of the Bible. The central prophetic content of Daniel 11:2b–12:3 that refers to the mysterious kings of the north and the south has been particularly obscure. Though this section has been either studied superficially or totally ignored in Adventist literature, during the last twenty years there has been a change toward this prophecy. This presentation also evaluates new approaches to Daniel 11 facing Adventism. This study recognizes the basic importance of grammatical and syntactical work in the exegetical enterprise. Furthermore, it demonstrates that structural analysis provides better comprehension of the passage and the flow of thoughts contained in it. It also deals with the parallelism of the Danielic prophecies and hints the chapter itself provides for its interpretation. These guidelines offer a structure for understanding Daniel 10–12.

This study uses the biblical-historicist method of interpreting the prophecy of Daniel 11. The interpretation of this chapter follows a Christocentric, cross-centered interpretation where the first part (11:1-29) focuses on the great controversy before the cross, dealing with the literal history of kingdoms in geographic areas. The second part (11:30-45) focuses on the great controversy during the Christian era after the cross between spiritual Israel and apostate Christianity where kingdoms and places take on spiritual and global meanings. When interpreting texts in the context of the time of the end, these are not explained with its focus on literal Israel with its Middle Eastern background, but in the light of spiritual Israel with its spiritual and universal perspectives.

SDA identity is, to a substantial degree, grounded in the apocalyptic prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. A crucial part of that identity is dependent on the time periods in those prophecies. Yet aspects of those time prophecies have not in the past been developed in relation to solid academic exegesis. This presentation is an attempt to provide a more exegetical basis for Adventist understanding some of the five 1260 day/year passages in Revelation 11-13.