Back to the FUTURE.

One mistake that can be made when reading the scriptures is thinking that everything that is
future speaking, is speaking about OUR future. When we make this mistake, we begin to see
every utterance regarding future things as being in our future rather than in the future of the
original audience. An example of this would be in Genesis 17 when God made his covenant
with Abraham. God spoke of an event that would come to pass in Abraham’s future, but that
doesn’t mean that event would come to pass in our future. In Genesis 17:19 we read:
Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.
I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants
after him.

Its not all about you.

As you well know Abraham did later have a son (Genesis 21:1-7) and named him Isaac. As we
read Genesis, we see future promises made and we know to avoid the mistake of thinking that
every future promise is about OUR future. We recognize that God made a promise to Abraham
and then later on within Abraham’s lifetime that promise came to fruition. When we have a
question about a passage, keep reading! The answer to the question will often be only a few
verses or chapters away.

The future is in the past

Much of what the Bible has spoken of regarding the future, is already in our past. This is true in
Genesis, as well as many other prophetic books of the Old Testament and New Testament (like
Revelation). It is a mistake to assume that simply because a biblical text is speaking of
SOMETHING’S future it must automatically be speaking of OUR future. Imagine if we applied
such a thought to Genesis 17:9 and the promise of Isaac. We would have to become
marcionites and begin chopping up our Bible’s to remove any mention of the birth of Isaac. We
would also have to do the same in our New Testament with the promised birth of Christ. When
we begin to examine the silliness of this interpretive mistake we can have a laugh and avoid the
error in the future (pun intended).

Interpretive mistakes

You might think this is an absurd example, but this interpretive mistake is made frequently when
believers read Old Testament scriptures like Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Micah, Jonah, the
Psalms (which often spoke of a future event in the incarnation of Christ), and New Testament
books like 1 Corinthians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Peter, and Revelation. When reading a
passage that you think might be about any future event, slow down and begin to ask as you
read “whose future is this speaking of? Is this the future of the original audience, or some
extended future which even includes my time?” Then as you ask that question, keep reading to
see if the text itself answers your timeframe related questions.

Read the Bible in the original intended meaning

This principle applies in the most narrative heavy genres of scripture, and it also applies when
we read apocalyptic passages of poetry, prophecy, and providence. Learning to read and
interpret scripture with the chief focus being the original intended meaning is a delight and
blessing.