Finally, from an Adventist perspective, there is the example of Ellen G. White. Many Adventists have assumed that Ellen White’s words were more directly chosen by God, that she saw clear pictures of actual events in her future. But even with Ellen White the descriptions of the future came in the language of her past. What was the language of her past? The English language of 19th Century America. God met her where she was and worked within that framework.

While Ellen White clearly addressed the future, you will not find a single statement in all of her writings that clearly describes anything that is unique to the 20th Century or beyond. You will look in vain for a description of computers, nuclear war, space travel, the internet, or any explicit description of the details of World War II in her writings. When she describes events that lie ahead of her times, she does so in language that is firmly rooted in her time and place. For example, when she describes the police forces of the world moving in to attack the saints at the very end of time, what weapons do those police carry in their hands? Swords! An 1847 statement on the second coming of Jesus describes the reactions of slaves and their masters at Jesus’ return. These descriptions were appropriate in the middle of the 19th Century, but no longer in today’s world.

I was once challenged on this point. A person stood up and reminded me of Ellen White’s comments regarding balls of fire falling on New York City at the end. He suggested that this could be a description of nuclear war in our future. I thought for a moment, and then asked if he was familiar with the song, “And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there!” He indicated that he knew the American national anthem.
I asked him, “Do you know when that song was written?”
He thought for a moment, “1814?”
“Right,” I said, “Even the language of the fireballs, whatever that will mean when the time comes, is consistent with the language of Ellen White’s past.” So our knowledge of a more contemporary prophet confirms the evidence collected from our survey of fulfilled prophecies throughout the Bible.

In conclusion, I’d like to share a few practical cautions about prophetic interpretation: 1) I think Christians in general and Adventists in particular tend to be a little too certain that we understand exactly what God intends to do before He does it. Perhaps it arises out of the human temptation to play God, Who alone knows the future. But the history of people’s interpretations of Revelation ought to be a warning to us. Time and again, interpretations that made perfect sense at one point in time proved to be dead wrong when the actual fulfillment came. We should not expect point by point correspondence in all details between prophecy and fulfillment. Fulfillments are best recognized when they occur and not before.

2) The primary purpose of prophecy is not to satisfy our curiosity about the future, but to teach us how to live today. God uses a vision of the future to encourage and motivate real people in the real circumstances of everyday life. Although prophecy is predictive, its primary purpose is to teach us something about God and change the way we live long before the fulfillment comes.

3) We tend to read Revelation as though it was written to our own time, place and circumstances. We bring to our reading associations and concepts that would never have occurred to John or His contemporaries. Such readings almost inevitably leads to a distortion of the text and of its original intention. The language of Revelation is the language of John’s past not ours.

But if Revelation was written in the language of another time and place, it raises an important question. How can study of Revelation be relevant to us in our time and place when it was written for people in another time and place? How can we bridge the gap between their day and ours? How can we safely find a word from the Lord for today in the writings of those who lived and wrote in the distant past? By reading these predictions in the light of the fulfilled prophecies in the Bible. This is what I seek to do throughout my commentary on Revelation published at Ministry4Thinking and Thebattleofarmageddon web sites.