church of Christ at 26th and Connecticut
Joplin, Missouri

Phone
417-781-2326
Fax
417-781-2326

   Worship Schedule

Sunday
    Bible Class              9 am
    Morning Worship    10 am
    Evening Worship      6 pm

Wednesday
     Devotional & Class   7 pm

Upcoming Activities

Interpretations of Revelation

“Interpreters of Revelation normally fall into four groups:

1.      Preterists understand the book exclusively in terms of its first-century setting, claiming that most of its events have already taken place.

2.      Historicists take it as describing the long chain of events from Patmos to the end of history.

3.      Futurists place the book primarily in the end times.

4.      Idealists view it as symbolic pictures of such timeless truths as the victory of good over evil” (TNIV Study Bible).

[There are divisions even within these divisions (such as Early Preterists, Late Preterists, etc.) that I won’t get into in this article.]

1.      Preterists

The word “Preterist” comes from a Latin word meaning “past.”  Again, “Preterists understand the book exclusively in terms of its first-century setting, claiming that most of its events have already taken place.”  Notice that word “most.”  Our brother Dan Winkler’s excellent workbook/commentary on Revelation is a good example of this.  Winkler applies “most” of Revelation to the past, but does apply Revelation 20:11-22:5 to a great day coming when God will judge the world and people will enter heaven or hell.

When I was student at the East Tennessee School of Preaching, my Revelation teacher was Lonnie Smith, and my Daniel teacher was Edwin Jones (who also spoke a lot about Revelation as it connects with Daniel).  Both of these great men are Preterists.  With this kind of background, it shouldn’t be surprising that I, too, am a Preterist.

In other words, I believe that most of Revelation is talking about things that have already taken place—specifically that Christians would be “attacked” and even “killed” (Rev. 11:7 TNIV), by Domitian, the “eighth king” (Rev. 17:11 TNIV) of Rome, the well-known city on “seven hills” (Rev. 17:9 TNIV), “the great city that,” in New Testament times, ruled “over the king of the earth” (Rev. 17:18 TNIV).  But Domitian would fall (Rev. 8:10-11) [and he did in A.D. 96 when he was assassinated] and Rome would fall (Rev. 14:8; 18:2) [and it did in A.D. 476 when it was overthrown by the Germans].

2.      Historicists

Again, “Historicists take [Revelation] as describing the long chain of events from Patmos to the end of history.”

            Our brother David L. Roper, in his commentary on Revelation, points out several weaknesses in the Historicist view, stating lastly: “The fatal weakness of this approach—the flaw that caused it to lose its almost universal appeal—is that we do not know how long it will be before Christ returns.  Most continuous-historical commentators place the final events of the book in their own day; otherwise, many visions cannot be explained.  This means that their timetables must be constantly revised as new and significant events in history occur.”

3.      Futurists

Again, “Futurists place the book primarily in the end times.”  This is the view of premillennialists.

David Roper notes, “A significant weakness is that this interpretation would have had little or no message for persecuted first-century Christians.  Imagine that you are in terrible pain and a friend says, ‘I understand that you are hurting, and I want you to know that thousands of years from now, God will make everything turn out all right!’  Would that bring you comfort, or might you be tempted to reply, ‘That’s great, but I need reassurance now’?”

Furthermore, Futurists interpret much of Revelation literally.  Yet Revelation itself shows itself to be a book of symbols (e.g., in 1:20; 17:9-11; 19:8; etc.). 

4.      Idealists

Again, “Idealists view [Revelation] as symbolic pictures of such timeless truths as the victory of good over evil.”  In other words, Idealists do not see Revelation as prophesying specific events.