During the time of the reformation beginning in the 1500s the reformers that would go on to form the protestant churches all agreed on the basic methods of prophetic interpretation. From Martin to Luther to John Calvin all the way to John Wesley centuries later the reformers were in agreement about the method that should be used. You see the reformers believed in something that we would identify today as historicism. Now the term historicism has different meanings in different contexts like art and literature. But in the context of prophecy historicism means that the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and others are being fulfilled throughout history. From the perspective of historicism the prophecies begin in the past and extend through the present to the future. This is the way that the reformers and eventually the members of the early Adventist church understood prophecy. Now you may say doesn’t everyone understand prophecy this way? Well actually they do not. Some Christian d...