How Do Seventh-day Adventists Interpret Bible Prophecy?

Bible prophecy conjures up a variety of emotions in people. For some, it feels exciting or mysterious.

For others, confusing, overwhelming.

But if 8,352 verses in the Bible are prophecies¹—about 26% of its total verses—shouldn’t we try to understand some of them? Revelation 1:3 even pronounces a blessing on those who read the words of that prophecy.

That’s why Seventh-day Adventists, from their earliest days, have spent so much time studying and sharing about prophecy. Especially those in the books of Daniel and Revelation.

And just as we go to the Bible for our teachings, we want it to guide us in understanding its prophecies. That means allowing it to show us how to interpret itself.² In other words, how did individuals back then understand the prophecies they received? And how can that help us today?

To see what that looks like in practice, we’re going to answer the following:

• What framework of interpretation does the Adventist Church use?
• What principles guide us in interpreting prophecy?
• Why do we interpret prophecy this way?

What framework of interpretation does the Seventh-day Adventist Church use?

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We interpret the Bible through the historical-biblical framework, or historicism. This framework sees prophecies as starting at the time of the prophets who received them and fulfilling through history to the end of time.

This framework is different from preterism, which believes that Bible prophecy already happened in the past and that the writers simply recorded history. Or futurism, which interprets most of the prophecies as happening far in the future.

Another way historicism is different from these two methods is in its reliance on Scripture.

Richard Davidson, a professor of Old Testament interpretation, emphasizes that the historical-biblical method is “the attempt to understand the meaning of biblical data…from Scripture alone.”³

In other words, we…⁴

• See the Bible as the Word of God and the authority and test of all truth.
• Recognize the harmony across Scripture. Passages in one part of the Bible can help us understand passages in other parts.
• See the Bible as applying across time and cultures.

Historicism is also what we see in Scripture itself. When angels appeared to the prophets and interpreted prophecies for them, they used this method.⁵

For example, the prophet Daniel saw a vision of a ram and a goat. When the angel Gabriel came to interpret the vision for him, he told him,

“As for the ram you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the goat is the king of Greece” (Daniel 8:20-21, ESV).

Daniel was a Jew living in the time of the Israelites’ captivity to Babylon. But soon, Babylon would be conquered by Medo-Persia (Daniel 8:1; 5:30-31), so this prophecy started at his time and went onward from there.

A prophecy in Daniel 2 is another example of historicism.

The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar received a vision of a statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet partly of iron and clay. Then a small stone appeared, broke the whole statue into pieces, and grew into a mountain (Daniel 2:31-35).

God Himself gave Daniel the interpretation in Daniel 2:36-45. The head of gold represented Babylon, and each part of the image after that represented successive world empires: Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The feet of iron and clay represented the divided nations of Europe, and the stone represented God’s kingdom.

So, this prophecy gives a whole sweep of history from Daniel’s time to the end of the world.

And we didn’t have to interpret any of it on our own because the Bible gave us the interpretation. It hints at how we should understand other biblical prophecies, too.

What principles guide the Adventist Church in interpreting prophecy?

As we’ve already pointed out, Seventh-day Adventists believe that the Word of God is our guide for interpreting prophecy. This belief has led us to numerous principles:

• The need for the Holy Spirit
• Christ as the central, overarching theme
• The Bible as its own interpreter
• Two genres of prophecy
• Literal meaning first
• Importance of context
• Old Testament types in Revelation
• Day-for-year principle
• Repetition and enlargement
• The role of other materials outside the Bible

Many of these principles apply to any Bible study, but we’ll look specifically at how they relate to prophetic interpretation.

Of course, keep in mind that even with these principles and guidelines, Adventists sometimes have differences of opinion about certain prophecies.

And that’s okay.

After all, we’re a body of individuals—and that means unity rather than uniformity. We agree on the key aspects of our faith and doctrines but also allow room for different views when it comes to the details.

The need for the Holy Spirit

Prophecy wasn’t a result of wild human imagination. The prophets received these messages through the Holy Spirit and wrote them down for our benefit (2 Peter 1:21).

That means the Holy Spirit can also help us understand these messages. Especially when they seem confusing.

In 1 Corinthians 2:12, the apostle Paul wrote:

“We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (NKJV).

We need this spiritual discernment to understand what God is trying to say to us (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Adventists believe that, for this reason, prayer should kick off any study of the Bible. This way, we can receive the promise of the Holy Spirit to guide us “into all truth” (John 16:13, NKJV).

Christ as the central, overarching theme

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Jesus Christ told the religious leaders of His time that the Scriptures (the Old Testament then) “testify of Me” (John 5:39, NKJV).

And Adventists approach prophecy from this perspective—that every aspect of the Word of God speaks about Jesus.

Revelation itself begins with this intro:

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1, NKJV).

Revelation reveals Him, and it’s the message that Jesus has for us, His followers.

The Lamb—a symbol of Jesus (John 1:29)—is mentioned 27 times throughout Revelation. The overarching message is that He is victorious (Revelation 5:12; 12:11; 17:14).

We recognize that all biblical interpretations of prophecy will keep Jesus central.

The Bible as its own interpreter

This principle recognizes that Scripture itself can help us understand what it means. Because of the unity among the books of the Bible, we can compare Scripture passages within context and see what the Bible as a whole has to say about a topic.

This principle is described poetically in Isaiah 28:9-10; 13:

“Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message?… For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (NKJV).

Jesus Himself explained the Scriptures in this way.

When He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He explained to them the prophecies about Himself throughout the Old Testament:

“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27, CSB).

To be clear, though, this principle doesn’t mean the Bible tells us everything at a surface glance and therefore we don’t have to put any effort into studying it for ourselves. And it doesn’t mean we can use isolated, out-of-context verses simply to prove our point. But as Professor Davidson says,

“Since the Scriptures ultimately have a single divine Author, it is crucial to gather all that is written on a particular topic in order to be able to consider all the contours of the topic.”⁶

A simple example of this is Daniel’s vision of four great beasts in Daniel 7. Reading the vision, you might be left to wonder what these beasts represent. But going a little further, we find an interpretation in the same chapter: “These four beasts are four kings [kingdoms] who shall arise out of the earth” (Daniel 7:17, 23, ESV).

Then, when Revelation picks up on very similar symbolism of beasts, we can conclude that it also is speaking about kings or kingdoms (Revelation 13).

Two genres of prophecy

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Bible prophecies fall into two main categories:

1. General
2. Apocalyptic

General prophecies have to do with God’s people, particularly the Israelite nation. They’re usually non-symbolic. They “deal with local events, nations, and situations,”⁷ but also leap from “the local crisis to the end-time day of the Lord.”⁸

The prophecies in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and those of the minor prophets fall into this category. They were specifically about the people of Israel and their city, Jerusalem. But they also had secondary applications to the events surrounding the Second Coming, the judgment, the millennium (1,000-year period after Jesus returns), and the new earth.

Matthew 24, with its signs of the Second Coming, is also a general prophecy.

Apocalyptic comes from the Greek word meaning “an unveiling” or “a revelation.”⁹ These prophecies, unlike general ones, have a worldwide application and are often symbolic.

Gerhard Pfandl, previously the associate director of the Biblical Research Institute, lists characteristics of these kinds of prophecies. He includes the following:¹⁰

• These prophecies often come in visions and revelations.
• They’re usually symbolic.
• They center around the great controversy, the war between God and Satan, good and evil (Revelation 12-14).
• They relate to Jesus’ coming, the judgment, and the resurrection in the last days.
• They’re often interpreted and explained by angels.

Literal meaning first

Some prophecies are full of symbols that can’t possibly be literal—dragons, beasts, a woman clothed with the sun, and bowls of wrath, to name a few. But not all prophecies are symbolic, so we have to be able to distinguish what’s literal and what isn’t.

One principle is to always go with the most logical, literal meaning first. Davidson explains:

“The consistent example of the Bible writers is that the Scriptures are to be taken in their plain, literal sense, unless a clear and obvious figure is intended.”¹¹

This principle keeps us from assigning figurative meanings to just any story of the Bible.

Davidson brings up the example of Jesus’ disciples, who recognized the difference between literal and figurative language when Jesus spoke to them. They could distinguish between parables and symbols, and simple, plain teaching (John 16:25-29).

Importance of context

Context is paramount to understanding any verse in the Bible. All the following types of context should be considered:

• Scriptural context—the context of the surrounding verses, chapters, books, other writings by the same author, and the teachings of the Bible as a whole
• Linguistic context—the meaning of words in their original languages
• Cultural context
• Historical/archaeological context

Adventists take these factors into account particularly when interpreting symbols. It can be easy to interpret them according to a modern-day framework, but we have to remember to look into the Bible’s original context.

One example is Daniel’s vision of a lion with eagle’s wings (Daniel 7:4).

Scriptural context helps us understand that the beast is representative of a kingdom (Daniel 7:17, 23).

But, then, some have assumed that it’s a symbol of the United States of America—since the eagle is a symbol of this country today.

However, this ignores the cultural and historical context of the verse, including the fact that the United States wasn’t even in existence at the time.

If we explore the time of Daniel more, we find out that a lion and eagle’s wings were commonly used to refer to Babylon (Jeremiah 4:7, 13; Habakkuk 1:6). What’s more, “archeologists have unearthed a number of sculptured winged lions among the ruins of ancient Babylon.”¹²

Old Testament types in Revelation

Local, literal events and people in the Old Testament often have spiritual, worldwide applications in the New Testament or the end times.

For instance, the Old Testament speaks a lot about the literal nation of Israel, whereas the New Testament talks about all Christians being God’s special people (1 Peter 2:9). Or, in the Old Testament, God’s people went into literal captivity in Babylon (Daniel 1), while Revelation talks about God’s people being captive in spiritual Babylon (Revelation 14:8).

Another major symbol from the Old Testament is the sanctuary, which was an illustration of the plan of salvation.

Sanctuary language is used all throughout Revelation to help us understand that the original sanctuary is God’s throne room in heaven. We find:

• Seven golden lampstands (Revelation 1:12; 2:1)
• Bowls of incense and an altar of incense (Revelation 5:8; 8:3-5)
• The ark of the covenant (Revelation 11:19)
• The Lamb who was slain (Revelation 5:6, 12; 12:11)

Day-for-year principle

In apocalyptic prophecy, time periods are also symbolic and can be understood with the day-for-year principle: one symbolic day = one literal year.¹³

The Bible itself gives numerous examples of this.

In Ezekiel 4:5-6, God told Ezekiel to act out a prophetic parable in which each day of the parable represented one year:

“For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year” (ESV).

Numbers 14:34 also talks about how 40 days represented the 40 years the Israelites would spend in the wilderness.

Historically, Jewish scholars, Bible historians, and Protestant reformers have used this principle for understanding time prophecies.¹⁴

And it makes sense because many of the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation are for the end times (Daniel 8:17). If the number of days was literal, rather than representing years, they would’ve ended long before the end times.¹⁵

So, how do we know when numbers are symbolic?

First, they’ll be in the context of other symbols, and, second, they will be in a prophetic vision or passage of the Bible rather than one that’s simply describing a historical event. Third, they are usually mentioned as hours, days, weeks, months, or a year rather than longer periods.¹⁶

Repetition and enlargement

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Bible prophecy often repeats concepts, adding more details each time.

The prophecies of Daniel are a great example of this.

Daniel 2 gives an overview of world empires from the time of Babylon down to the end of the world.

Daniel 7 and 8 both follow this sequence but add information about certain empires and the judgment in heaven.

Daniel 11 includes very specific details about nations mentioned in the first three prophecies.

Revelation also follows this principle. It mentions seven churches, then seven seals, then seven trumpets, and then a historical timeline in Revelation 12-14—all of which foreshadow events from the time of John the Revelator down to the end times and the Second Coming.¹⁷

The role of other materials outside the Bible

Adventists aren’t opposed to using other materials to help them study Bible prophecy—from Bible dictionaries to encyclopedias to commentaries. However, we always test what we find in the Bible to make sure it’s consistent with its teaching as a whole.

We believe that Ellen G. White, an early leader in the Adventist Church, had the gift of prophecy (or spirit of prophecy) and received messages from God. But that doesn’t mean we follow her above the Bible.

Instead, we accept her writings because, through study, we’ve seen that they’re consistent with the Bible and help to confirm what it says.

And again, the Bible is the ultimate authority for our conclusions.

Why do we interpret prophecy this way?

“Courtesy of the Ellen G. White Estate, Inc.”

The historicist framework has been around for a long time. As we already saw, it was the “dominant” framework of interpreting Bible prophecy back in the times of Daniel and Jesus.¹⁸

Pfandl also points out that it was used by the church fathers of the early centuries AD and throughout the Middle Ages.¹⁹ And the Protestant reformers were also historicists.²⁰

Not until the 16th century did other major frameworks, like futurism and preterism, begin to emerge in the Christian Church. And even then, historicism was the most common one until the 19th century.²¹

Historicism has also been foundational to the Adventist Church from the beginning.

After all, we are a movement built on the study of prophecy.

In the early 1800s, William Miller earnestly studied Bible prophecy, particularly the 2,300-day prophecy. His study led him to believe that this time period would end in 1844. This discovery spurred the Millerite Movement, which taught Jesus would return that year.

Though William Miller was wrong about the event that took place in 1844, his study of the timing of the prophecy was spot on.

Adventists continued to use his principles of interpretation as they studied the Bible. They recognized that Miller had been wrong in setting a date for Jesus’ coming (Matthew 24:36), but they gleaned many valuable insights from his study.

Adventists find hope through studying prophecy

Bible prophecy has been an integral part of the Adventist experience from the start. It’s helped us establish many of our major beliefs and find the overarching themes of God’s Word. It’s also given us confidence about the end times.

But more than anything else, studying prophecy has built our trust in God. We see how many of those prophecies have already come to pass. And that encourages us that the ones in the future will, too.

In a world of so much uncertainty, confusion, and pain, prophecy gives us reason to hope.

1. Jackson, Wayne, “How Many Prophecies Are in the Bible?” Christian Courier. [↵]
2. Davidson, Richard, “Interpreting Scripture According to the Scriptures,” Biblical Research Institute, p. 1.  [↵]
3. Ibid, p. 10.  [↵]
4. Ibid. [↵]
5. Pfandl, Gerhard, “Understanding Biblical Apocalyptic,” Biblical Hermeneutics: An Adventist Approach, p. 275. [↵]
6. Davidson, p. 6. [↵]
7. Pfandl, p. 267.[↵]
8. “Methods of Bible Study,” Seventh-day Adventist Church. [↵]
9. Pfandl, p. 269. [↵]
10. Ibid. [↵]
11. Davidson, p. 7. [↵]
12. Anderson, Roy Allen, Unfolding Daniel’s Prophecies, p. 89. [↵]
13. Pfandl, Gerhard, “In Defense of the Year-Day Principle,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, pp. 3-17. [↵]
14. Ibid. [↵]
15. Goldstein, Clifford, “The Day-Year Principle,” Ministry. [↵]
16. “20 Reasons to Apply the Year/Day Principle,” Secrets Unsealed. [↵]
17. Pfandl, p. 283.[↵]
18. Ibid. [↵]
19. Ibid. [↵]
20. Shea, William, “Making Sense of Bible Prophecy,” Adventist Review. [↵]
21. Pfandl, p. 274-275.[↵]