Escalating tensions in the Middle East have sparked renewed interest in last-days Bible prophecy. With fierce fighting reported in the news every day and unsuccessful attempts at brokering a lasting peace agreement, many are asking if this is the beginning of the end. Questions about biblical eschatology—theology regarding the end times—continue to build.

Bible Gateway interviewed Dr. Ron Rhodes (@roncrhodes) about his book, The 8 Great Debates of Bible Prophecy: Understanding the Ongoing Controversies (Harvest House Publishers, 2014). [Read an excerpt]

What led you to see the necessity of writing this book?

Dr. Rhodes: Bible prophecy is quite controversial for many Christians. Today we have a variety of theological camps which espouse different views on prophetic issues. We’ve developed our own lingo (Christianeze) to describe these camps. Regarding the millennium, there are premillennialists, amillennialists, and postmillennialists. On the issue of the rapture, there are pretribulationists, midtribulationists, posttribulationists, and others. In some cases, a sense of rivalry has emerged among some Christians.

I wrote The 8 Great Debates of Bible Prophecy to enable the average every-day Christian to understand the main debates of Bible prophecy. And through this understanding, my goal is to help Christians learn to “agree to disagree in an agreeable way” on these various issues (see Rom. 14:2-5; Eph. 4:15; John 13:35; 1 Pet. 3:15). We should debate, but not divide.

You say prophecy-related verses comprise about 27% of the Bible. What conclusions do you draw from that observation?

Dr. Rhodes: Prophecy is so predominant in the Bible that we cannot afford to ignore it. We should seek to understand the “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27), which obviously includes prophecy. Besides, prophecy serves to motivate Christians to live righteously (2 Pet. 3:11, 14; 1 John 3:3; Rom. 13:11-14). That in itself makes prophecy an important subject.

You take a journalistic approach in the book, laying out the arguments for the various prophecy positions in an objective manner, then ending each section with your own opinion. Why did you write it this way?

Dr. Rhodes: I wanted my readers to not only understand the biblical arguments for each position, but to also witness firsthand how one Christian (yours truly) struggled through the issues to arrive at a conclusion. If a reader comes to a different conclusion than I did, that’s fine. The important thing is to weigh the biblical data and firm up your own convictions on these issues (see 2 Tim. 2:15).

What is the “big stuff” of Bible prophecy that we should all be able to agree on?

Dr. Rhodes: Regardless of our various theological camps, we all agree that Christ will one day come again and overcome all evil (Rev. 19:11-16). We agree that we will all be resurrected (1 Cor. 15). We agree that people will face God in judgment (Rev. 20:12-13; Rom. 14:10). We agree that there will be an eternal state, which, for Christians, means that we will live forever in the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21-22).

These commonalities should temper our disagreements on some of the other issues. Just the other day I was thinking that once we’ve been with God in heaven for a few trillion years, our debates during earthly life over the timing of the rapture will seem rather silly.

Briefly explain the difference between interpreting prophecy literally and allegorically.

Dr. Rhodes: The non-literal or allegorical approach to Bible prophecy first emerged around AD 190 in Alexandria, Egypt. This allegorical school of interpretation led to the rise of amillennialism in the early church. Amillennialism is the view that the prophecy in Revelation 20 regarding the millennial kingdom should not be interpreted as a literal 1000-year reign of Christ on earth, but rather refers to Christ’s present spiritual rule over the church from heaven. As well, the prophetic promises made to Israel in the Old Testament are believed to be spiritually fulfilled in the church.

Other Christians (including yours truly) interpret Bible prophecy literally, embracing the normal, everyday, common understanding of the terms used in biblical prophecy. Words are given the meaning that they normally have in common communication. Based on a literal approach, Christ will reign on earth for 1000 years following the Second Coming, and the promises made to Israel in Old Testament times will be literally fulfilled for Israel.

Of course, the literal method does not eliminate figures of speech (Ps. 34:15; Is. 51:9; Ps. 91:4), or symbols such as those in the book of Revelation. But it does hold that there are literally truths represented by those symbols. In many cases, the symbols in Revelation are defined for us. For example, John said the “seven stars” in Christ’s right hand were “the seven angels (messengers) to the seven churches” (Rev. 1:20). Likewise, He said “the seven lampstands” were “the seven churches” (1:20), “the bowls full of incense” were “the prayers of the saints” (5:8), and “the many waters” were “peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues” (17:15).

My personal approach to biblical prophecy is summed up in this principle: When the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense lest you end up in nonsense. One thing this principle led me to conclude is that if you want to understand how God will fulfill prophecies in the future, examine how he fulfilled prophecies in the past. It seems to me that the prophecies of Christ’s first coming were fulfilled rather literally. (For example, Jesus was born from the line of Abraham [Gen. 22:18], from the line of David [2 Sam. 7:12-16], was born of a virgin [Is. 7:14] in Bethlehem [Mic. 5:2], and was pierced for our sins [Zech. 12:10].) I expect the prophecies related to the Second Coming will likewise be fulfilled literally.

In your book, you come down hard on those who set dates for endtime events. Why?

Dr. Rhodes: I present a number of reasons why date-setting is wrong. First of all, we’ve had date-setters since the first century, and so far the track-record of date-setters is dismal (100% wrong). Further, Jesus Himself informed His followers: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7).

The truth is, people can make harmful decisions for their lives if they fall for the teachings of date-setters. They might decide to donate their life savings to a ministry, such as the ministry run by the date-setter. They might decide to sell their house, and use the profit to support themselves as they witness door to door about the Lord’s soon coming. They might decide to put off going to college, since “the end is near”.

Further, when predicted dates fail to materialize, the faith of those Christians who fell for the date-setting shenanigans can be damaged, especially among newbie Christians. Date-setters also tend to be sensationalistic, whereas Christ exhorts us to be sober-minded in regard to end-time events (see Mark 13:32-37). Finally, date-setting can damage the cause of Christ, since humanists love to write critical articles in their magazines about those “silly Christians” who are always setting dates.

The best policy is to PLAN your life like you’ll be here for your full life-time expectancy, but LIVE your life like the Lord could come today (see Col. 3:1-2).

Bio: Ron Rhodes, president of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries, is heard regularly on nationwide radio, and is the author of Bite-Size Bible Answers, Bite-Size Bible Definitions, Commonly Misunderstood Bible Verses, and 5-Minute Apologetics for Today. He holds ThM and ThD degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary, and teaches there and at several other seminaries.