PRINCIPLES.
"Hold my right hand, Almighty."
"I here
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous theme,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
* What in me is dark,
Illumine; what is low, raise and support;
That to the hight of this great argument
**
*
*
I may assert eternal providence,
And justify the ways of God to man.”
We lay down the following as our principles of interpreting symbolic prophecy.
First. Perfect coincidence of events with prophecy, is infallible proof of the fulfillment of prophecy. It was in accordance with this principle, that Jesus proved himself to be the Messiah.
Second. The definition of prophetic symbols is to be found in scripture, or to be determined by fulfillment. Where a symbol has more than one scriptural sense, which is rarely the case, its intended meaning must be determined either by its context or by fulfillment, or by both.
Third. All interpretations must coincide with the literal and evangelical doctrines of the bible.
Fourth. All the symbolic days, months, and times, are interpretable on the same principles as are the seventy weeks, and have a double, or twice doubled interpretation and fulfillment.