Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Allegories, Copies, and Shadows

TYPES AND FIGURES

STUDY TIP: See People for understanding of types and figures.

Types and figures represent people who are either clean or unclean. Clean types are true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors. Unclean types are false prophets, Giants and Nephilim, Judas, Kings, Queens and Princes, Pharisees and Scribes, Serpents, Devils, Satans, Adversaries, Demons, Evil Spirits and Anti-Christs. Angels can be either clean or unclean.

The clean and unclean principle is found throughout the Bible. The essential challenge in discerning between good, clean, spiritual food and unclean, evil food is in evaluating who is serving the food. This means we must know the hearts of the characters we find in the Bible. Clean people have clean/pure hearts and serve clean spiritual food (i.e. teaching). Unclean people have evil/impure hearts and serve unclean, evil, soulish food.

STUDY TIP: See this link for a detailed discussion of clean and unclean foods.

Here are the rules of thumb to follow when making these evaluations about Bible characters:

  • Food served by God or true prophets is good, clean food and safe to eat because it gives life to the spirit.
  • Food served by religious leaders and false prophets is unsafe because it only nourishes the soulish flesh and not the spirit.

STUDY TIP: See DISCERN BETWEEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN, HOLY AND PROFANE, AND SOUL AND SPIRIT for understanding of the differences between soul and spirit.

The challenge is complicated by the fact that in the Bible and in real life we have no obvious clues that tell us who is a true prophet and who is a false prophet.

STUDY TIPS: See False Prophets and IDENTIFYING FALSE PROPHETS for a short list of such clues. Also see True Prophets and How to Identify True Prophets.

When reading the Bible, the challenge to discern between true and false prophets is further complicated by the fact that a Biblical character might be a false prophet in one place and a true prophet in another place. While they are false prophets they are Old/First Covenant religionists, and while true prophets they are New Covenant disciples. This reflects the fact that people, including Biblical characters, often change in terms of their attitudes about religion. Even Jesus was an Old/First Covenant religionist for the first thirty years of his life.

Here are a few examples of Bible characters who transitioned between Old/First Covenant (OC) and New Covenant (NC):

Adam
  1. Adam was created from dust (OC), and then breathed spiritual life into him (NC).
  2. He ate from the Tree of Life (NC), but later ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (OC).
Noah
  1. Noah was righteous in God’s eyes when he built and ark and delivered people from the flood. (NC)
  2. After the ark landed he planted a vineyard (i.e. got religious)(OC)
Abraham
  1. Abram was born in the region of Babylon. (OC)
  2. God invited Abram to leave his home region for a new land. (NC)
  3. Abraham’s first name was Abram (OC).His name (i.e. character) changed when he entered into the New Covenant with God (NC).
  4. In addition to fathering Isaac, who was a child of God’s promise (NC), he also had sons by Hagar and Keturah. These other sons and their sons were enemies of Israel. (OC)
Moses
  1. Moses was born and raised as a prince of Egypt (OC).
  2. He escaped from Egypt.
  3. He later returned to Egypt as a deliverer (NC).
  4. He challenged Pharaoh until he could lead Israel out of Egypt (NC)
  5. He listened to God, spoke what he heard to Israel, and introduced Israel to God (NC).
  6. He reported God’s laws to Israel (NC).
  7. He led Israel through the wilderness to the promised land (NC).
  8. He did not enter the promised land himself (OC).
Aaron
  1. Aaron spoke spoke to Pharaoh for Moses (NC).
  2. He listened to the people and created the Golden Calf (OC).
  3. He served as a high priest (NC).
  4. He was not allowed entry to the promised land (OC).
David
  1. David is introduced as a shepherd boy (OC).
  2. He was anointed by the prophet Samuel (NC).
  3. He was anointed twice by people (OC).
  4. He was a warrior king (NC).
  5. He was a man after God’s heart (NC).
  6. He conspired to take another man’s wife after he chose not to go to war(OC) .
Saul/Paul  Saul was first a pharisee (OC) who persecuted people who followed Jesus. Later, after his conversion, his eyes were opened, and he began his ministry (NC).
Peter Jesus complemented him for hearing from God (NC) and later called him satan (OC).
Jesus For the first thirty years of his life, Jesus was religious (OC). After he was baptized by the holy spirit, he was purely, and irreversibly a type of New Covenant disciple.

People who follow Jesus are also New Covenant disciples. That means the following is true about them:

When these characters are in their Old Covenant (OC) phase, they are types of False Prophets,Pharisees and Scribes, Serpents, Devils, Satans, Adversaries, Demons, Evil Spirits, Anti-Christs,  and foolish, worthless, stupid shepherds. When they are in their New Covenant (NC) phase, they are types true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, and warriors).  Because they are not always in one phase, it is very important to discern which phase they are in because we can learn from their behaviors either way. This is one way that scripture is useful for training in righteousness. 

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