Bible Prophecy - Multiple Fulfillments

Multiple Fulfillments

Some interpreters have argued that a prophecy may have several fulfillments. Samuel Horsley gave the precedent that "The application of the prophecy to any one of these events bears all the characteristics of a true interpretation" (as reproduced by J. W. Burgon in Appendix A of Inspiration and Interpretation, 1861). Desmond Ford uniquely terms this belief the "apotelesmatic principle".

Methodist theologian Adam Clarke concurs with Anglican bishop Thomas Newton that the Abomination of desolation is a proverbial phrase that could include multiple events “substituted in the place of, or set up in opposition to, the ordinances of God, his worship, his truth, etc.” This allows for some, or all of the following events to be viewed as partial fulfillments of this prophecy simultaneously:

• the re-dedication of the Temple to Zeus by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167 BC; and
• the worship of the Roman Standards on the Temple Mount under Titus in 70 AD; and
• the building of the Dome of the Rock by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan in circa 690 AD.