by Chuck Ness
To fully appreciate “The Revelation of Jesus Christ”, one must read it in conjunction with passages from other books of the Bible. Specifically, but not exclusively, Scriptures found in Daniel, Zechariah, Ezekiel, and various verses found in the New Testament. I also believe having an understanding of world history, economics, and politics is a must to get a proper perspective of the end times. However, even with all these tools at ones disposal we find no shortage of opinions as to what these visions of John represents.
A quick search on Google shows that there are almost 100 million sites claiming to have insight that can help the reader understand this book, and that is just the English web sites. What and who to believe can be greatly influenced by each individual’s understanding of a select number of Scriptures and ones understanding of when this letter was written. Even among those who agree on the major points find that they disagree on many minor issues. To make it a bit simpler, there are four four distinct interpretations when it comes to eschatology, Preterist, Historicist, Spiritualist, and Futurist.
- There is the Preterist, or the Postmillennialist view which looks at the visions symbolically as the struggles of the Church against Rome, believing that most of John’s visions were fulfilled during Nero’s reign and after when in AD 70 Titus besieged Jerusalem and eventually destroyed the Temple.
- Next is the Historicist, or the Historical Premillennialists view that takes a historic look at the problems the Church has had with the world from the early church up until the time Christ returns.
- The Spiritualist, or the Amillenialists which looks at this letter as a type of allegory for every Christian’s walk in the world, as they struggle against evil forces bent on their destruction.
- Finally there is the Futurist, or more commonly referred to as the Dispensational Premillennialists who take more of a literal straightforward account of what is to come while attempting to predict just what, when, where, and who is all involved in John’s visions.
The words, eschatology and eschatological, are used in discussion of the branch of Christian theology that deals with, “last things”. Or rather, with the state of individuals after death, and with the course of human history when the present order of things has been brought to a close. Depending upon your view, these events may include the Rapture, the Second Coming of Christ, the Tribulation, the Millennial Kingdom the Future Judgments and God’s plans for eternity. The primary books of the Bible pertaining to end times prophecy are the books of Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, the Gospels and of course the book of Revelation.
What follows are a couple of charts that you will find interesting. They offer information as to what each of the four views of Eschatology is based upon. The charts may be too small to see, and if so you can just click on the image and they will open up into another window for a larger view.
Click on any chart to enlarge for better detail
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