You will hear of wars and rumors of wars …” (Matthew 24:6)

Vehicle explosion from a tank in a city in the Middle East. Photo by Jeff Kingma on Unsplash.

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Current events can often recall words from the Bible. Does this mean that the Bible predicted what is happening now? Critical biblical scholars do not make the same assumptions as those who read the Bible as a text that foretells future events.

Is the Bible a Secret Code?

Interpretation of the Bible as a book of predictions is common. Such interpretations read biblical texts as if they are secret guides that have foretold the future centuries in advance.

Perhaps some people use this method in an effort to understand disturbing current events. Such interpretations may also provide reassurance that even horrific events are all in their god’s hands. Others may like feeling that they are in the know because they can “decode” the Bible.

Historical-critical scholars do not read the texts sometimes viewed as predictive as coded messages for our time. Instead they investigate these texts as communications addressed to the contexts in which they were written.

Does the Bible Prove Itself?

Predictive interpretations sometimes assume some circular reasoning. Interpreters who assume the Bible is predictive also assume that the Bible defines reality. They use the Bible as a source of proof for claims that the Bible is true. For example, Prominent evangelical pastor Rick Warren makes the claim that the Bible is true because the prophecies in the Bible have come true or “will come true.” How do we know this? The Bible tells us so. Critical scholars bring basic critical thinking to this form of circular reasoning. (See below, Miller, Helping Jesus Fulfill Prophecy.)

If It Is Not Predictive, Why Do So Many Bible Passages Sound Like Current Events?

Critical biblical scholarship does not focus on proving the Bible, decoding it, or using it as a predictive text. Instead critical scholars seek to understand how the people who wrote the Bible responded and found meaning in their own situations. Aspects of their situations often resemble aspects of our own time. Similar events happened long ago: wars, invasions, famines, floods, and more. Empires used similar methods to establish and maintain their rule. Descriptions of such events can often be applied to our times, too.

Due to these ongoing similarities, ancient biblical writings can offer insights for our time when we learn from biblical authors’ responses to challenges similar to the ones we face. Some of the authors were called prophets, but they were not making predictions for our time.

Who Were the Prophets in Ancient Israel?

Prophets in ancient Israel spoke for what they saw as God’s point of view on the situation of their own generations. They challenged the leadership and the people to follow the will of God. Often this meant a call to social justice, better treatment of the poor, and criticism of the wealthy for their decadent lifestyles.

Did Prophets Make Predictions?

Yes. Their predictions addressed the immediate future in their own times, however. Prophets warned people about the consequences of disobedience to God’s way as the prophets defined it. They called people to repent to avoid the consequences of their behavior. These warnings were not coded or mysterious messages. They were quite clear and direct.

How Did Prophecy Become Messages to Decode?

Greek culture became more influential in the Jewish world after the time of Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE). Prophecy began to be understood as something similar to Greek oracles.

Greek oracles were coded messages. People went to ask Apollo questions at Delphi, for example. There a priestess received the question, sat on a tripod stool, went into a trance, and responded with a mysterious message that required some decoding. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus describes a famous example said to have happened during the Greco-Persian wars. Persian naval forces were threatening Athens. The Athenians sent a delegation to Delphi to consult the oracle of Apollo for advice. The first message from the priestess depicted destruction. A second message implied possible hope, however, in cryptic terms that mentioned that a “wooden wall” would be protective. Dispute ensued about how to interpret the oracle. Did it mean building wooden fortifications or was it the Athenian fleet? (Histories 1.138–45). For the Greeks, oracles were cryptic divination messages to be deciphered. The messages were delivered through a person in an altered mental state. The person was thought to be possessed by and speaking for a deity.

Around the second century BCE when the Book of Daniel was written, Jewish people began to understand prophecy as something similar to Greek oracles. This view influenced New Testament writers.

What about Prophecy in the New Testament?

Gospel writers reinterpreted and even rewrote earlier texts to shape them as predictive oracles about Jesus.

Matthew 2:13–15 is just one example. The story is told of Joseph and Mary fleeing to Egypt to protect the infant Jesus from King Herod’s slaughter of the infants. The passage concludes asserting that this was a fulfillment of prophecy, “This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’” The reference required some force-fitting, however. The passage in Hosea 11:1–2 clearly refers to Israel collectively as a nation, not to Jesus or to any figure who will appear in the future. It even continues with the prophet proclaiming God’s disappointment in the nation’s behavior in Hosea’s time in turning to Baal worship. (Miller, pp. 120–21)

Historical critics seek to understand how gospel writers constructed meaning with their recollection of words from prophets in the Hebrew scriptures. Critical scholars view those prophets as speaking to their own times, however.

Gospel writers also placed some sayings and speeches in Jesus’ mouth that made predictions. Some refer to events that had already taken place when the gospel writers were setting down their narratives. They portrayed Jesus as foretelling those events. Mark 13:9, for example, describes persecutions that Mark’s community has likely already experienced as something Jesus had predicted.

The Book of Revelation has often been read as a coded prediction of the future, too. Critical scholars also understand this writing as a message for its own time, coded to speak of the Roman Empire in ways that would avoid detection.

Why Is Biblical Decoding So Popular Today?

Recent fiction and films like the Left Behind series have made biblical decoding popular. Such fiction has its roots in forms of biblical interpretation prevalent in Christian renewal movements in the United States in recent centuries.

In the nineteenth century, many decoding efforts focused on calculating a date for Christ’s return. Predictors calculated based on their reading of biblical passages. When they announced a date and Christ did not return, however, they recalculated. After many such failed predictions, the focus shifted away from specific dates to scenarios that heralded Christ’s return.

Other interpretations had a more lasting influence. John Nelson Darby, for example, extracted biblical passages without regard for the context in which they were written. From these he constructed a complex explanation of history known as “Dispensationalism.” The Schofield Reference Bible has played a role in popularizing Dispensationalism. Notions like The Rapture are part of such interpretations. Critical scholarship does not uphold these interpretations. (See below, Kea, “The Theology Behind Left Behind.”)