SOME of the underlying problems with fundamentalist prophetic interpretation.:

Even among fundamentalists, most recognize that Daniel and Revelation are full of highly symbolic material. But as soon as an isolated line appears which it is possible to interpret in a strictly literal manner, many fundamentalists will do so.

Daniel and Revelation were written far apart in time, each relating to a very different historic context. But to a fundamentalist, the total body of material must fit together into one coherent picture of the future. It takes a pretty big hammer to make all of those jigsaw pieces fit. For a large portion of American fundamentalism, "Dispensationalist" interpretation has become that hammer.

Perhaps even more basic: to a fundamentalist, nothing that any Biblical author thought or foresaw can simply be wrong . They cannot accept that the writers were normal, fallible human beings, immersed in the culture of their time, trying to interpret their understanding of God and of their relationship to Him.