Below are a few keys that can help one to have a better understanding of Bible prophecy. Since we are likely living in the end times meaning that Yeshua the Messiah’s return is imminent, and many prophecies relating to the end times are possibly about to be fulfilled, it behooves us to keep the following points in mind.

When trying to understand future Bible prophecy, realize that it’s like looking through a dark glass. In most cases, we’ll only see a hazy picture. As we get closer to the events spoken about in given prophecy, the picture will become clearer.

In most cases, we won’t fully understand prophecy until it has been fulfilled. Even then, many people still won’t understand it. This was the case with Yeshua’s first coming. The apostles failed to understand fully the purpose of his mission until after he had ascended to heaven. Even then, prior to A.D. 70, they thought his return was imminent. It wasn’t until after A.D. 70 that they realized that his return would occur much later in the future.

To have even a hazy understanding of Bible prophecy, one must have a working knowledge of the following things:

• Biblical hermeneutics (or the rules of biblical interpretation).
• An understanding of Hebraisms (i.e., Hebraic metaphors and symbols, Hebraic literary devices and Hebraic figures of speech and colloquialisms).
• An understanding of the Torah including the biblical feasts. Understanding the fall feasts, for example, is critical to understanding events surrounding the second coming of Yeshua.
• One must understand who the key players in biblical prophecy are. This should seem obvious, yet many people miss this point. This means understanding who the twelve tribes of Israel were and are today, and how YHVH is restoring the two houses of Israel to each other and to himself. More biblical prophecy deals with this subject than probably anything else.
• One must have an understanding of biblical history as it relates to ancient Israel and the surrounding nations. Without this knowledge, one won’t know which biblical prophecies have already been fulfilled,  which ones have only been partially fulfilled, and which ones have yet to be fulfilled. Many prophecy teachers make the mistake of attributing prophecies to the future which have already been fulfilled and vice versa. This is because they lack an understanding of ancient history. For example, some modern prophecy teachers believe that Jeremiah’s prophecy about Babylon’s fall (Jer 50 and 51) is a future prophecy, when in reality it has already been fulfilled perfectly and there is no indication in the passage that it’s for a future time. On the other hand, some teach that Ezekiel’s two stick prophecy (Ezek 37) has been totally fulfilled in the past by the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon. Such a reading of this prophecy ignores events contained therein that have yet to occur thus making the prophecy still a future one. Some teach, for example, that Matthew 24 has been totally fulfilled in the past, while others teach that it’s a future prophecy. An understanding of history will reveal that some aspects of this prophecy were fulfilled in the first century, but that other aspects of it have yet to be fulfilled.

The Jewish sages teach that many aspects of Israel’s long history is cyclical or repetitive (e.g., the cycles of Israel’s redemption). What has happened in the past will happen again. Keep this in mind when studying Bible prophecy. We can learn about the future by understanding the cycles of the past.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but hopefully it will point the reader in the right direction.

I welcome your suggestions about points that could be added to this list.