Biblical Typology

In my early attempts to read and understand biblical prophecy, especially the Old Testament prophets, I was frequently confused to see prophecies which obviously dealt with events in the relatively near future, but which also seemed to clearly speak to events in the distant future. Of course, I could only recognize the latter because we read about them in the New Testament. Those who taught me in those days explained by calling them dual prophecies. By default I accepted that explanation, but it never felt very satisfactory. Indeed, the frustration it created contributed to my decision to give up trying to understand prophecy for many years.

Questions plagued me. If the prophecy anticipated more than one fulfillment, how were we to know there were just two? Why not three or four, or a hundred? Where in scripture are we told any prophecy has more than one fulfillment? How could a single prophecy be fulfilled multiple times? If it could be fulfilled multiple times, how would we know when it was finally fulfilled for the last time? What would have been the reaction of those who initially heard a prophecy, saw it come to pass, only to be told, “this isn’t really the fulfillment, just the beginning of it”?

Once I was finally motivated to study the time of the end (decades later), it wasn’t long before the matter was settled in my mind. Though the scripture never talks about dual prophecy, it does talk about types (or depending on your translation, patterns, copies, shadows, etc. Heb. 8:5, 9:23 and elsewhere). The earthly trappings of the OT cultus were a representation of the heavenly reality which would be manifested in the life and ministry of Christ.

Jesus came “at just the right time” “in the fullness of time” to consummate the work of reconciliation promised in Genesis 3. His life and ministry among the believers of the first century are the anti-type of their prior experience. I prefer to use biblical words to express biblical thoughts, so type, pattern, copy, shadow, example, etc. are appropriate, and “dual prophecy” is a distraction.

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