Medieval Lexicon of Symbology

 1.  Prophecy is a statement that projects forward toward coming reality 2.  Prophecy is a major part of the Bible's Storyline.  One of the major themes of the Bible is the fulfillment of God's promises and using those promises to make sense of what is happening to God's people.   Prophecy and fulfillment create a connected narrative that reveals greater understanding about events.  Prophecy is less about "predicting the future" and more about making sense of events as they happen in the present. 3.  Typically, Bible prophecy takes place on two levels:  the Immediate and the Reflective. A.  The immediate or direct level is when Bible prophecy is literally and immediately fulfilled.  God declares what will happen, and it does happen that way. B.  The Reflective level is when a Biblical truth is reflected in future events as a Typology.  For example Abraham's preparation to sacrifice his son Isaac is a Type of the sacrifi...

 1st Century:  The apostolic writings. The letters and gospels of the eye witnesses of Jesus.  Forms the New Testament 2nd C.  The early church fathers:  the letters and essays of students of the Apostles, and leaders of the early church Late 2nd C and 3rd C.   Writings of philosophers who had strayed from Christian teaching and inserted their own philosophy.  The Gnostic Gospels.  The Gospel of Truth.  The Gospel of Phillip.  Gospel of the Ebionites - who portrayed Jesus as fully human.  The Gospel of Peter Later writers who wanted to make something influential and so would ascribe their writings to a Apostolic author, even though it was much later.  It often incorporated later thinking into its writing.:  The Gospel of Thomas.  The Gospel of Judas Church fanaticists who, out of an extreme fervor or reckless mockery, penned absurd works meant to mimic authentic apostolic writings.  The Infant Gospel of Jame...