UNDERSTANDING BIBLICAL PROPHECY

ALL BIBLE PROPHECY IS INSPIRED BY GOD
2 Peter 1:19-21 points out that the message of prophecy is an inspired message from the Holy Spirit to all generations of the church, encouraging the church to live expectantly for Jesus Christ’s imminent return. Let’s look at the scripture.
19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
BIBLE PROPHECY CONTAINS MUCH SYMBOLISM BUT IS TO BE INTERPRETED LITERALLY
The New Testament clearly shows that the first coming prophecies of Jesus were fulfilled literally. That says that we should do the same for all prophecy. However we note that the Bible makes generous use of symbols and metaphors, especially in prophetic passages and books. On page xii in his prophecy study Bible John Hagee says that prophetic visions present ideas and not portraits. The flag is a symbol representing our country, but not a photograph of our country. The fifty stars represent the fifty states, all united on one flag. The thirteen stripes represent the original thirteen colonies from which our nation evolved. The Bible uses symbolism over and over again in this very way.
In Daniel there are several prophecies given with an interpretation immediately following it. We note that the prophecy makes generous use of symbolism while the interpretation uses literal language. Thus we see that in interpreting prophecy we must identify the meaning of the symbols and then interpret the prophecy literally using the meaning that the Bible provides for the symbols. This symbolism begins early in the Bible and runs all the way through to Revelation. Early in Genesis we see the tree of life representing the eternal life provided only by Jesus and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil representing death from partaking of Satan and his deceptive lies.
Jesus said that he never spoke to the people without using parables, which were full of metaphoric and symbolic language. Even when Jesus was not speaking in parables he often used this type of language. He said such things as “The son of man must be lifted up” and told the Pharisees that he would only give them one sign, “The sign of Jonah.” All of the symbols are clarified in some place in the Bible. It is the job of the student to find these places and make the proper interpretation in the context in which the symbolic language is used.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION NECESSARY IN UNDERSTANDING BIBLE PROPHECIES
This site was developed with the hope that some people who read it will feel compelled to believe the truth of the Bible, that it is a supernatural book and that every word is literally true. I was a mathematician and physicist for nearly forty years and trained by the Defense Department to be a systems analyst. I have spent thousands of hours studying and analyzing the Bible, often using systems analysis techniques. I am naturally skeptical and feel a need to check and test things for myself before believing them. As I study the Bible I try to keep my theological baggage to a minimum. I am not paid to do this and do not represent any particular organization so I have no particular theology that I must maintain and present.
I like to become aware of the various ways that prophetic scriptures in the Bible are interpreted. In my study I have found that God generally gives two or more witnesses for any teaching or prophecy. Before I make a firm interpretation about something I try to do my best to search the Bible from cover to cover to find and study all of the places where the Bible mentions the topic of interest. I don’t like to come to conclusions about what the Bible says about any topic unless I can find multiple places in the Bible that clearly teach the same thing. I also find the Bible to be a book full of mysteries just waiting to be solved. During the past 15 years or so it has become my computer game, my crossword puzzle, the place where I go to exercise my mind to keep it healthy, etc. In addition to being supernatural, I find the Bible to be scientifically sound and accurate. In fact, I find the Bible to be a literary hologram, the only one ever written. Many of the things I find convince me that it had to be written by God. Men put pen to scroll, but God was directing every word in some supernatural way.
One of my goals on this site is to present so many specific fulfilled calendar date prophecies that the reader will feel compelled to accept them as proof that the God of the Bible is indeed the one and only true God. In fact, in Isaiah 48:5-6 God says that is the reason why he gave prophecies to man. He told the Israelites to ask the gods of their neighboring countries to foretell things before they happened, and then check the result. No other holy book dares to predict the future. To accomplish my goal I have condensed the prophecies and their fulfillments, thus presenting breadth rather than depth.
Before I go on I think it will be beneficial in understanding the prophecies that are presented to provide a summary of key facts, events and dates from the history of Israel. With one exception, these prophecies are made and fulfilled in the time frame from the 7th century BC to the present.

KEY FACTS, EVENTS AND DATES RELATING TO PROPHECIES ABOUT ISRAEL’S FUTURE
Dates of the events discussed herein can generally be historically confirmed to within 1a few years. Remember that there is no year zero (0). Also, dates must be adjusted to the current calendar, which has 365.25 days per year as opposed to 360 days in the old Jewish year. These adjustments have been factored into the following dates..
God repeatedly told Israel through the prophets that he would severely punish them if they did not turn away from their sin and return to him. The great sin that God was concerned about was the Israelites turning to the false gods of their neighboring countries and worshiping them. Lev 26:1-3 presents this in summary.
The Old Testament prophets most quoted in the studies on this site are Isaiah who prophesied in Judah from about 740 to 680 BC, Jeremiah who prophesied in Israel and later Egypt from about 627 to 585 BC, Daniel who prophesied during the Babylonian/Persian captivity from about 606 to 530 BC, and Ezekiel who prophesied during the Babylonian captivity from about 594 to 570 BC.

960-959 BC Solomon’s temple was completed
719 BC Israel conquered by the Assyrians, carried into captivity and cease to exist as a nation
606-605 BC Babylonian captivity of Israel began under Nebuchadnezzar
587-586 BC Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in which the city and temple were destroyed
538-537 BC Persia, under Cyrus, conquered Babylon, Cyrus issued a decree to let the Israelites return to Jerusalem thus ending 70 years of captivity
522-521 BC Dariius 1 becomes king of Persia and declares that tha Jews may rebuild their temple and that those in the surrounding areas must support them
518-517 BC Reconstruction of the Temple proper began, ending the 70 year desolation of Jerusalem
514-513 BC Zerubbabel’s temple was completed
444 BC Artaxerxes issued a decree allowing Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and its walls. Israelites finally felt secure worshipping in the Temple
165-163 BC Maccabean revolt followed the “abomination of desolation,” Origin of Hanukkah
32 AD Jesus was proclaimed king of the Jews and crucified
637-638 AD Jerusalem fell to the Muslims
1879 AD Jewish immigration to Palestine slowly began
1948 AD Israel declared independence thus becoming an independent nation for the first time since 606 BC
1967 AD Six Day War reunited Jerusalem; Jerusalem became a part of Israel once again