The many different interpretations of prophecy today is itself actually a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. The Bible predicted that many would wrongly interpret the prophecies, not because the prophecies couldn’t be understood, but because they would interpret the prophecies after their own ideas and human wisdom and not after the simple methods God has given. It is the rejection of truth that has led to this (2 Thessalonians 2:3), the scriptures are twisted to mean what they do not, in harmony with what the people want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3). In the story of Ahab’s death, four hundred of the prophets were false and predicted peace, only one predicted the truth, trouble, not peace. The Bible makes it clear over and over again that false prophets will always be in the majority and out number the true. “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.” Matthew 24:11; 1 John 4:5. (See also: Jeremiah 23:1-40; Mark 13:22; 1 John 4:1; Ezekiel 13:1-16; Jeremiah 14:13-15)

The Bible is its own interpreter and expositor not man

Peter says: “No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” (2 Peter 1:20) In other words, it is not our responsibility to interpret the Bible, or the symbols in prophecy. We take the position that the Bible interprets and explains itself, and that it always explains its own symbols. All our responsibility to do is to search the Bible for its own explanation, and then take the prophecy’s symbols, once explained, and lay it side by side with history, and see where the pieces fit. This is called the principle of comparing scripture with scripture. With this method, interpreting the prophecies is as easy, and the true interpretation is as self-evident as “come and see,” (John 1:46). It was this principle, that was used by all the prophecy interpreters of the Bible, people like Joseph and Daniel: “And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” Genesis 41:16; (See also Daniel 2:27-30.)

This is often called dispensationlism (though there are combinations besides dispensationlism), putting some of the prophecies in the time of Christ and His disciples, and the rest in some end time scenario. Christ said: “Ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.” By putting the prophecies all in the future or all in the past, we have made the prophecies of none effect for us by the tradition of these methods used by most of Christianity.

Fundamentally there are only two interpretation paths that can be taken, the literal path, or the symbolic/spiritualist path. The literal method says that everything should be literal unless obviously symbolic, and that the symbols represent literal things, which symbols are elsewhere explained in the Bible. All we must do is search the scriptures to understand the scriptures. (John 5:39)

The symbolic interpretation system gives everything some spiritual meaning and sometimes lots of different meanings, and makes everything in the prophecies symbolic and mystical. It makes the prophecies all about hidden meanings, and then it interprets those symbols to be whatever the interpreter thinks they symbolize, often based on context, original Hebrew and Greek, historical information about the time period the vision was given, what the people of that age believed it to be, and any other rules the interpreter chooses to follow. The problem with the symbolic path is that we can make the Bible say whatever we want it to say, by applying whatever meanings we want to the symbols, following our own set of rules to interpret the symbols, which often weren’t even symbols. This is private interpretation, and each church has their own private interpretation of prophecy.

In the Scriptures God says prophecy is His proof for who He is, and challenges all other religions and beliefs to predict the future if they wish to prove themselves: “Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen... Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods...” Isaiah 41:21-23. Here God challenges all other gods, and by extension any other belief system, to predict the future as evidence that they are truth. And by extension He shows that this is His proof that He is who says He is.

“If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” John 7:17. This verse tells us an important principle, God says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” Matthew 7:7. But if we ask, we must be willing to accept the answer. We must be willing to do His will, the will of God, when He tells us what is truth and what He wants us to do with it, for truth is always a responsibility, it must be received, believed, and acted upon. It often means going against family, friends, and our own opinions, to accept it. All the evidence in the world is not enough, people do not reject the truth for lack of evidence, they reject it because of the difficulties they will encounter by accepting it, or because of prejudice. There is no reason for God to show us what the truth is, if we will not follow it.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:5. God is the author of the Bible, and He has given us an open door to ask Him, the Author, what He meant. Ask God, and keep asking until you get an answer, and He will show you the truth. Asking God to show you the truth will do more, then 1000 books, or 10,000 arguments.