How hard can it be to read and understand personal correspondence?

The following list is representative of these formulas:

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Recurring Prophetic Formulas Mark The Presence of Prophetic Passages

• 1. In the latter days or in the last days. This expression refers to the period of time introduced in connection with the complex of events that surround the second coming of our Lord.

• Early examples of its use appear in Jacob’s blessing on his sons (Gen. 49:1) and Balaam’s predictions (Num. 24:14).

• In the prophet’s use of the term, it refers to the time of restitution (Isa. 2:2;Jer. 49:39; Mic. 4:1; Hos. 3:5).

• In John 6:39, 40, 44, 54 the expression last day is used of the time of the resurrection of believers.

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Recurring Prophetic Formulas Mark The Presence of Prophetic Passages

• 2. The day of the Lord. This is not any twenty-four hour period but the grouping of events that precedes and includes the second advent of Christ, during which time God moves in judgment and salvation.

• Harbingers of this day have been seen all through prophetic history, but the day still remains “near” and ready to be revealed.

• The classic description of that day is found in Amos 5:18. The earliest reference may be Exod. 32:34, “the day when I visit.”

• It appears frequently in the prophets (e.g., Joel 1:15; 2:1; 3:14; Isa. 13:6; Ezek. 30:3; Zeph. 1:7, 14).

• Sometimes it is simply referred to as “that day” (as in Amos 8:3, 9, 13; 9:11).

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Recurring Prophetic Formulas Mark The Presence of Prophetic Passages

• 3. The Lord comes. The book of Jude (v. 14) says that all the way back in the prepatriarchal age, Enoch looked for the Lord’s coming again.

• This second advent is spoken of as an epiphany or parousia, a manifestation of the Lord. Christ will return to earth to punish (Isa. 26:21), to save (Isa. 40:10), to come to his temple (Mal. 3:1), and to visit Zion (Isa. 59:20).

• This he will do “suddenly” (Rev. 3:11; 22:7, 20), comparable to a flash of lightning or the unexpectedness of a thief (1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10; Rev. 3:3; 16:15). Believers thus

• need to be ready and to watch constantly (Luke 12:39; 21:34; 1 Thess. 5:4).

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Recurring Prophetic Formulas Mark The Presence of Prophetic Passages

• 4. Restore the fortunes of my people or return the captivity. God will liberate his people Israel from all over the world a second time just as he released them from the Egyptian captivity.

• Usually this event is placed very near to his coming again.

• Jeremiah and Ezekiel use this expression repeatedly (e.g., Jer. 30:3; Ezek. 39:25).

• The same formula can be used in connection with God’s restoration of foreign nations as well, namely Moab, Ammon, and Egypt (Jer. 48:47; 49:6; Ezek. 29:14).

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Recurring Prophetic Formulas Mark The Presence of Prophetic Passages

• 5. The remnant shall return. Similar to the preceding formula, this one also predicts restoration of Israel back to its native land of Canaan.

• It appears first in Gen. 45:7 but is used repeatedly in the prophets (Isa. 6:13; 10:2 1, 2 and books like Joel, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel).

• In the NT, Paul takes up the idea in Rom. 9:27 and 11:5. God has always had his faithful few, who formed the remnant.

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Recurring Prophetic Formulas Mark The Presence of Prophetic Passages

• 6. The dwelling (or tabernacle) of God is with men. The promise theme of the Bible uses this concept as one part of its famous tripartite formula, repeated almost fifty times throughout both Testaments.

• God promised that he would dwell among the people of Israel (1 Kings 8:27), but in that final day he would personally come to be in the midst of the nation (Ezek. 37:27, 28). The same truth is taught in Zech. 2:10, 11; 8:3; as well as in Rev. 21:3.

• Just as the word became flesh and tabernacled among us in the first advent (John 1:14), so Christ would come once again to walk and talk in our midst; only then he will rule and reign as well.

Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Principles for Interpreting Prophecy

• Recurring Prophetic Formulas Mark The Presence of Prophetic Passages

• 7. The kingdom of God. Moses’ song at the Exodus promised that “the Lord will reign for ever and for ever” (Exod. 15:18).

• God is recognized as king in 1 Sam. 12:12, but the concept of Messiah having a kingdom builds from the promise made to David in 2 Sam. 7:16 and the prophetic vision of Messiah ruling as a king over the earth in the Royal Psalms and pictures of the same in passages such as Isa. 9:6-7; 24:23; Mic. 4:7; Obad. 21; Dan 7:14 gives this kingdom and dominion to the Son of Man.

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