The Ballot and the Bible by Schiess Kaitlyn;

Author:Schiess, Kaitlyn;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Politics/Bible;REL084000;REL012110;REL015000
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2023-06-19T00:00:00+00:00

Themes of Lindsey’s Prophetic Interpretation

The Bible is “definite” about the roles particular nations will play in the coming cosmic drama. Lindsey argues that it is incredibly important that we map biblical prophecies onto modern-day nations. The data in the biblical text is sufficient for us to understand which nations play which roles in the end times, as long as we apply the right hermeneutical rules.

Scripture is interpreted from a position of American superiority. Lindsey makes derogatory comments about Asian and Middle Eastern nations and peoples, describing them as “backwards” and writing about Islamic head coverings with suspicion.28 In short, Lindsey approaches questions of biblical interpretation with an explicit yet uninterrogated cultural bias (a bias that we will see with more political flair in his later work).

Scripture is a puzzle or riddle to be deciphered. Lindsey insists that he isn’t reading current events into the Bible; he’s merely reading the Bible and watching its predictions unfold in real time. While Lindsey does have some evangelistic goals (securing your salvation before the coming crisis), much of the book reads the Bible like a puzzle God knew would stump us. The prophets do not challenge us by drawing attention to our sins or calling us to repentance. Rather, they outline dramatic events that we can puzzle together as informed spectators.

Scripture should be interpreted “literally” (sometimes). Lindsey highly values faithfulness to Scripture. He decries pastors who “explain away” prophecy, and claims to take it seriously and literally. Of course, no one interprets every word of the Bible as if it intends a physical or historical meaning. Even Lindsey says that some parts are figurative and some parts (like the “revived Roman Empire” in Daniel 7) must be metaphors because they don’t make sense in light of current international affairs. One proponent defined dispensational theology by noting that they “believe what the Bible literally teaches” while their opponents allow for allegorical or spiritual interpretations by which you “can invent any kind of ‘interpretation’ you want.”29

This disdain for allegorical readings of Scripture is itself a problem: there are legitimate concerns about allegorical readings, but to condemn them is to condemn the biblical interpretation of wide swaths of the historic church, including theologians who helped cement the foundational doctrines of the faith against heresies and schisms. Many critics also misrepresent allegorical readings. They do not come from a lack of discipline (theologians work out and argue with each other about the “rules” of interpretation), and they do not avoid what the Bible teaches.30 When early Christians read the Old Testament allegorically, they were doing what they saw the apostles who wrote the New Testament doing: seeing in Old Testament passages truths more fully expressed in the New.31

No one reads the Bible entirely literally. The Bible is full of figural language, different genres, and somewhat bizarre cross-references from our perspective (who would have thought to cite Hosea 11:1 as a prophecy about baby Jesus in Egypt?). Most Christians recognize that everyone is making judgments about when to take things in a physical or historical way and when to understand them in a spiritual way.

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