Dear Mike:

I have a spiritual question that has been on my mind lately. Is it true that every Scripture has an outward application as well as the inward application? The reason I ask is due to some passages in the Bible, especially when I used to be big in “Bible prophecy”.  In Mat 24, for example, Jesus mentions that there will be “earthquakes in diverse places”. Also, in Revelation, with all those heavy symbolic verses. Does this mean, for example, that there will be more and more physical earthquakes shortly before His return to Earth?

Thank you for your valuable time.
Your brother,
D____

Hi D____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask:

Is it true that every Scripture has an outward application as well as the inward application? The reason I ask is due to some passages in the Bible, especially when I used to be big in “Bible prophecy”.  In Mat 24, for example, Jesus mentions that there will be “earthquakes in diverse places”. Also, in Revelation, with all those heavy symbolic verses. Does this mean, for example, that there will be more and more physical earthquakes shortly before His return to Earth?”

It is true that every scripture has an outward application. But that does not mean that there will be physical earthquakes shortly before Christ returns to this earth. Remember what Christ said to His disciples in response to their question “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Here is part of His answer:

Mat 24:3  And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Mat 24:4  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Mat 24:5  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Mat 24:6  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [ these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mat 24:7  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers (different) places.

“Earthquakes in different places” is one of the very first things Christ lists as preceding His coming. But when would this all happen? Here is what He said:

Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

The gospel was to be “preached in all the world, and then the end would come,” and because of that fact the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet was also to occur before the end. But we are given this strange parenthetical statement: “(whoso readeth, let him understand:)”.
So just when is “the end of the age?” Here is what we are told, and it will behoove us to get our theology in line with God’s word rather than to cling to the idols of our hearts:

Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, [ even] at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Mat 24:36  But of that day and hour knoweth no [ man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe [ were], so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Mat 24:39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

There it is. It all happened in Christ’s generation, and it is all now part of God’s words which “Shall not pass away.”
So I hope this helps you to see that God’s Words are not about the time, as you put it, “shortly before His return to Earth?” It is instead, addressed to “he that hath an ear to hear” and to “whosoever readeth.” I hope too, that you can see that “Whosoever readeth” and “this generation” is not referring solely to the generation in which Christ walked this earth in a body of flesh and blood, but is rather referring to the generation which is “reading and understanding… the things of the spirit.”

Your brother in Christ,
Mike >