the end of the second century and through the third century, the heretical school of theology at Alexandria, Egypt, advanced the erroneous principle that the Bible should be interpreted in a nonliteral or allegorical sense. In applying this principle to the Scriptures, the school subverted all the major doctrines of the faith, including prophecy. The early church emphatically denied the Alexandrian system and to a large extent restored the interpretation of Scripture to its literal, grammatical, historical