Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
Gloag classified the interpretations of this passage thus: (1) There is in reality no prediction, or prophecy, in this passage, all such things as predictive prophecy being denied by this class.  (2) "The second class of interpreters are those who, recognizing a prediction, regard it as already fulfilled."[14] (3) "The third class of exponents are those who regard the prophecy as being fulfilled, or as in the course of fulfillment; that is, as already partially fulfilled, but awaiting its complete accomplishment."[15] (4) "The fourth class of interpreters consider the fulfillment as future, and that we are not to look to any past occurrences as answering all the requirements."[16] There are whole libraries of the works of many scholars affirming each of these methods of interpretation; but, rather than trouble the reader with what would appear to be an almost endless examination of such writings, we shall devote the available space to advocating what is believed to be the true understanding of the passage, as classified under (3), above.