Daniel and Revelation Committee Series

Volume 1

Selected Studies on Prophetic Interpretation

Revised Edition

William H. Shea

Editor Frank B. Holbrook

Biblical Research Institute

General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Silver Spring, MD

Copyright © 1992 by the Biblical Research Institute

12501 Old Columbia Pike

Silver Spring, MD 20904

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shea, William H.

Selected studies on prophetic interpretation / author, William H. Shea.—Rev. ed.

p. cm.—(Daniel and Revelation Committee series; v. 1) Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-925675-11-3.—ISBN 0-925675-03-2 (set)

1. Judgment of God—Biblical teaching. 2. Time—Biblical teaching. 3. Bible. O.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 4. Bible. O.T. Daniel—Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title II. Series: Daniel and Revelation Committee series (Rev. ed.); v. 1.

BS1192.6.S5 1990

221.1′5—dc20

90-39036

CIP

Acknowledgments

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations throughout the volume are from the RSV, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952 © 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Transliteration of Hebrew and Greek Alphabets

Hebrew Alphabet

Consonants

Masoretic Vowel Pointings

Greek Alphabet

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Transliteration

To the Reader

I. Biblical Parallels for the Investigative Judgment

II. Why Antiochus IV Is Not the Little Horn of Daniel 8

III. Year-Day Principle—Part 1

IV. Year-Day Principle—Part 2

V. Judgment in Daniel 7

VI. Pictures of Jesus at the Heart of Daniel

VII. Day of Atonement and October22, 1844

Index

To the Reader

It is sometimes asked, “What is a Seventh-day Adventist?” A common reply is, “A Seventh-day Adventist is a Christian who observes the seventh-day Sabbath and who is preparing for the Saviour’s second coming.” But the perspective is larger than this.

A more significant frame that holds together the picture of biblical truth as taught by Seventh-day Adventists is their understanding of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. In these prophecies the Adventist people have found their times, their identity, and their task.

Adventists arrived at their interpretations of Bible prophecy by employing the principles of the historical “school” of prophetic interpretation. The historicist view (also known as the “continuous-historical” view) sees the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation unfolding in historical time from the days of these respective ...