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As with many theological debates, there are various views concerning the interpretation of apocalyptic1 literature. There are, for instance, various views of the book of Revelation in general summarized in the following table.
If you are somewhat familiar with the various views, you might be tempted to skip ahead without reading it but I think you will find it helpful to at least skim the material so that you see how I intend to use the terms later in this article.
| Preterist View |
From a Latin word meaning the past - refers to the belief that most or all the events
described in Revelation have occurred in the past. Primarily, these events are attributed to the
events surrounding the Judeo-Roman war of AD 68-70 in which Jerusalem was destroyed. Of course, at the
time that the book of Revelation was first penned, these events were in the future but from our
current perspective, they are in the past.
A key verse to this view is Revelation 1:1 that seems to indicate the events were things soon to take place at the time it was written. For more extensive coverage of this view, see the Preterist Archive (use your browser back button to come back to this page afterwards). For just a few of the scriptural evidences of fulfilled prophecies, refer to the following:
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| Futurist View | This view tends to ascribe the events described in Revelation to a description of future events. | ||||||
| Symbolic or Idealist View | This view tends to see the book of Revelation as a general description of any given point in history. This view does not usually see the book as describing specific historical events but instead sees the book as describing the ongoing struggle between the spiritual powers of evil and good represented by the devil and the church. Typically, this view outlines the book of Revelation to be several versions of the same story told with varying symbols and/or detail. | ||||||
| Historicist View | This view tends to see the events in Revelation as actual events in history. They do not see them as primarily in the past or in the future however. The events of Revelation are a panoramic view of all of church history culminating in the return of Jesus to earth. The view expounded at this web site is the historicist view. |
Further, there are many views on "millennial"2 chapters (specifically, the 1000 years mentioned in chapter 20) of the book of Revelation. The following table summarizes the various views of "the millennium."
| Dispensational Premillennial View |
Premillennial refers to the belief that Jesus will return before the 1000 years indicated in chapter
20 of the book of Revelation.
This view is inevitably tied to the futurist view described previously.
The Dispensational form of Premillennialism has a
view that has the distinguishing mark of a secret rapture of all Christians from the earth
at some point prior to Jesus' second coming. Extensive popular works have already been published concerning this view so
no attempt will be made here to describe it.
This view has become the predominant view in America where it was first taught in the mid 19th century. |
| Historical Premillennial View |
This is a variation on the premillennial theme that
is based on sound biblical exegetical principles. This version of Premillennialism does not include
a secret rapture before Jesus' return to earth. It generally does depend on a literal interpretation
of the time of 1000 years. Historical Premillennialists tend to take either a futurist or historicist views.
This view has had a long history in the church. It's roots can be traced to the chiliasts of the first century. |
| Postmillennial View |
Postmillennial refers to the belief that Jesus will return after a
millennial period.
Postmillennialists tend
to be of the preterist persuasion.
This is another view with a long history including many who witnessed the events of A. D. 70 and saw in them many of the apocalyptic texts appearing to come to life in their time. |
| Amillennial View |
Amillennial literally means "no millennium" but that is rather misleading. It is not that the amillennialist would deny what scripture clearly teaches in Chapter 20 of Revelation. The amillennialist simply believes that the time referred to as the 1000 years is a reference to the entire time between the first and second comings of Jesus. This view is expounded in detail in, A Defense of (Reformed) Amillennialism by Professor Engelsma. Amillennialist take many different views, some tend to lean toward the preterist position, some toward the futurist, some toward the idealist, and others toward the historicist view. There does not seem to be a consensus on the general view among amillennialists as much as with other views. The primary distinguishing marks of the Amillennialist is the belief that Satan was bound at the crucifixion or resurrection and that the 1000 years are a reference to "a very long time" between the first and second comings of Christ. For scriptural references to the binding of Satan and the figurative use of the number 1000 in scripture, see the footnote on millennium2. It is important to note that in Revelation 20:3 and other places where the binding is spoken of, it is for a particular purpose - that Satan no longer be able to deceive the nations. The greek word used there and translated as nations is ethnos, which is more commonly translated elsewhere as gentiles. So, the binding was for the purpose of ending the deception of the gentiles that had previously all but excluded them from the family of God. Further, ethnos is the word Paul uses in his epistles to refer to Gentile Christians as opposed to Jewish. The Amillennialist view is another that has had a long history dating back to the first century church. It was especially championed in the writings of St. Augustine and had a significant following in the church for several centuries after that until the mid 19th century. The Historicist version of Amillenialism was the predominant view in the reformation. Amillenialism in some form (typically idealist) is the predominant view of the church worldwide. |
To fully appreciate any one of these views, we must consider apocalyptic literature in general and how scripture itself indicates it should be interpreted. The science of scripture interpretation has come to be known as, heuristics.
First, we need to consider the eccentricities of language. The book of Revelation as we know it, is passed down to us in Koina-Greek. The Koina-Greek language provides some difficulties to translators due to the use of certain words that can only be interpreted based on context.
Second, we need to consider how scripture interprets itself. This is one of the great rules of heuristics in general and not just useful in apocalyptic literature. Man is fallen and with his fall came a mar on his ability to perceive the world around him accurately. With that in mind, we cannot rely on so-called "common sense" alone to help us understand a passage. For instance, our "common sense" would rebel against some of the clear teachings of scripture because our common sense is guided by our twisted view of reality. It may be of some use as our minds are renewed more fully through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit but we need to remember to bring subjective methods into line with objective methods. When anything comes in conflict with what scripture teaches, we must bring all things into submission to scripture. The study of the science of knowledge is a fascinating and fundamental subject that requires much more detail than can be give here. I would highly recommend to the reader the book, A Survey of Christian Epistemology by Dr. Cornelius Van Til for a thorough treatment of this important subject.
Let us consider an example of how scripture interprets itself and brings every other thought captive on a particular subject. A conflict might arise in our understanding of history and the book of Joshua - our historical understanding is that the promises about Israel's land area as described in the book of Genesis have never been fulfilled. But, the book of Joshua indicates that all the promises have been fulfilled. Which is an accurate description of reality, our knowledge of history or scripture? Scripture is the accurate description - which means our knowledge of history is flawed.