Analytical laws of Biblical Prophecy

PROPHECY

The Golden
Law of
Interpretation

TYPE

The Law of
Double
Reference

GAP

The Law of
Recurrence

TYPE - GAP

The Law of the

Context

Unforeseen
Partial

1. The Golden Law of Interpretation : When the plain sense of scripture makes common
sense, seek no other sense; therefore take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal
meaning unless the fact of the immediate context studied in the light of relative passages and
axiomatic fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise.
2. The Law of the Double Reference : The law observes the fact that often a passage or a block
of scripture is speaking of two different persons or two different events that are separated by a
long period of time.
a. TYPE : In the case of a type, or a typical prediction, the seer's eyes are fixed on the
closer of the two events exclusively. In other words, details of the prophecy are
completely satisfied by the earlier event or person. Yet scripture states (either in the
original passage or elsewhere) that there is also a subsequent event or person
foreshadowed by the prediction
b. GAP : When the prophet predicts one event or person, followed without notice by a
reference to a later event or person, it constitutes a "prophetic gap". It should be
noticed in this case, that the predictive material referring to the later event will not fit
the earlier event. Neither will the description of the earlier event fit the later event.
c. TYPE GAP : Often, type and gap are combined. In this case, the prediction of the
earlier event or person is typical of the later, but the description of the later event or
person does not fit the earlier very well.
d. UNFORESEEN PARTIAL : In the final kind of double reference, the prophet's
focus is exclusively on the later event. Later, it is revealed by scripture that there is
also an earlier event which, although unforeseen, is a real, but incomplete fulfilment
of the prophecy. Frequently, the unforeseen event concerns the Church Age, which
was not clearly revealed to the Old Testament prophets.
3. The law of Recurrence : This law describes the fact that in some passages of scripture there
exists the recording of an event followed by a several recording of the same event giving
more details to the first.
4. The Law of the Context : A text apart from its original context is a pretext. A verse can only
mean what it means in its context and must not be taken out of its context.

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