When Scripture Bears Two Meanings

So on passages that are set before us with a clear explanation, we too can always lay down the meaning and state our own opinions boldly. But there are things the Holy Spirit has placed in Holy Scripture with a veiled meaning, keeping them for our meditation and exercise, and wishing some of them to be gathered from various proofs and conjectures. These ought to be brought together step by step and with care, so that their assertions and proofs may be arranged by the judgment of the man who is arguing for them or supporting them. For sometimes, when different opinions are expressed on one and the same subject, either view may be considered reasonable and be held without harm to the faith, either firmly or doubtfully, that is, in such a way that neither full belief nor outright rejection is given to it. And the second view need not interfere with the first, if neither of them is found to be opposed to the faith. So it is in this case: Elijah came in the person of John, and is again to be the forerunner of the Lord’s coming. So it is too with the “abomination of desolation,” which “stood in the holy place” by means of that idol of Jupiter which, as we read, was placed in the temple at Jerusalem, and which is again to stand in the church through the coming of Antichrist. So it is with all the things that follow in the gospel, which we take as having been fulfilled before the captivity of Jerusalem and as still to be fulfilled at the end of this world. In these matters neither view is opposed to the other, nor does the first interpretation interfere with the second. [a]