Notes on Daniel: The Dual Fulfillment Theory of Prophecy

It is obvious that most of Daniel’s prophecies have been fulfilled. Most futurists and historicists readily admit this, but do not make the historical applications to all of the kingdoms and rulers of ancient history as I have done here. What they do instead is to take the more obscure passages and apply them to events in the Middle Ages or the future.

This is sometimes termed: “The Dual Fulfillment Theory.”

Could it be that prophecies work on a number of different levels? Could a prophecy on one level speak about things that were about to happen in the lifetime of the prophet but on another level speak to us today about things that are yet to take place? Is there such a thing as a “dual fulfillment” of the prophecies in Daniel, Matthew 24, and Revelation?

While this seems to be a good question on a certain level, it doesn’t deserve a thorough refutation except to briefly examine the main implication of this idea.

Are we to believe that each one of the details of Daniel, the Mount Olivet Discourse, and Revelation are each to be fulfilled twice?

Are there two six-sealed scrolls?

Two beasts?

Two groups of 144,000?

Two Armageddons?

Two Millenniums?

On and on we could go.

If you adopt a dual-fulfillment view, you are doing so on the basis of theological prejudice, not on sound methods of interpretation.

1 Comment

The entire Bible is eschatological and the New Testament is the fulfillment of the eschatology of Daniel. So, your final critique in this page is a critique that you should take to heart. At every turn, and at every point in the New Testament, the eschatology matches Daniel's. That means, if Daniel is fulfilled as you say, then so is the New Testament. There’s no way around that and to say otherwise is to say so with theological prejudice.

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