Finally, the system confuses the literal and the symbolic. Dispensationalists regularly insist that the biblical prophecies must be taken literally, as history written in advance; but their own readings often strain the notion of what is literal. For example, it is difficult to think that a literal reading of Daniel would put a gap of over two thousand years between Dan. 9:26 and 9:27, as noted above. Dispensationalists usually assume that the reference to the “temple” in Rev. 11:1–2 must be taken