THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

CHAPTER II
How ARE THE 0. T. PROPHECIES OF BLESSING To
ISRAEL To BE INTERPRETED?
The main purpose of the present chapter is to bring
clearly to view the important truth that in Scripture
the contrast is not between the spiritual and the literal,
but between the spiritual and the natural; for a
passage of Scripture may refer, when taken "literally,"
either to "that which is natural" or to "that which is
spiritual." In other words, the literal interpretation
may call for a thing which exists in the realm of
nature, or for the counterpart of that thing which
exists in the realm of spiritual realities (1 Cor. 15 :46)
.
It is of the utmost importance that this be understood ;
for the advocates of modern dispensationalism have
wrought confusion, and have succeeded in giving
plausibility to many misinterpretations of Scripture,
by first taking for granted (erroneously, as will be
herein shown) that a "literal" interpretation necessarily
calls for something material or natural, and by
then insisting strenuously that all prophecies which
refer to Israel, Jerusalem, Zion, etc., should be interpreted
"literally." It will not be difficult to show
that this is a thoroughly unsound principle of interpretation,
that it is based upon a false premise, and that
application has made havoc of many prophecies.
its
For example, those expositors who think the Bible
teaches us to expect hereafter a millennium of earthly
bliss, a golden age of world-wide peace and plenty, dur-
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