Claim. The Bible’s apocalyptic imagery — sun darkened, stars falling, fire from heaven, dead rising, clouds, trumpet — is symbolic, not literal. Once history is understood as the providence of restoration, the Last Days prophecies become readable as figures for the overthrow of evil sovereignty and the establishment of God’s, not as literal cosmic catastrophe.
Elaboration. Per 3.2. Bible Verses Concerning the Signs of the Last Days: “If they understood that human history is the history of God’s providence, which has been restoring the world to the original state intended by God at the Creation, then they would know that the signs of the Last Days prophesied in the Bible will not take place literally.”
DP grounds this in two arguments. First, the earth itself was created as God’s eternal object partner — 4 (“the earth remains forever”) and 69 (“like the earth, which he has founded forever”) rule out literal destruction. “Almighty God would never be pleased with having created a world so fragile it could possibly perish because of Satan.” Second, the prior Last Days — Noah’s day — already came and went without the world’s literal end (dp-last-days-recurring-transition-not-single-event).
DP then applies this symbolic principle to five specific Last Days symbols, each its own atomic: heaven-and-earth destroyed (dp-heaven-and-earth-destroyed-means-satanic-sovereignty-overthrown), judgment by fire (dp-judgment-by-fire-means-judgment-by-the-word), dead rising from tombs (dp-dead-rising-from-tombs-means-old-testament-spirits-appearing-to-believers), caught up in clouds (dp-caught-up-in-clouds-means-received-into-good-sovereignty), sun-moon-stars (dp-sun-moon-stars-symbolize-jesus-holy-spirit-believers).
This places DP in opposition to dispensational literalism (e.g., Hal Lindsey, LaHaye/Jenkins).
See also. dp-six-days-as-symbolic-time-periods