A Preface to Interpreting Revelation - Four Views
Because of the multiple approaches to interpreting Revelation that have been held by Christians throughout the centuries I've decided to give a bit of background on Revelation here for anyone interested in "going deeper". This week the next few posts will be detailing a few quotes describing different approaches to interpreting Revelation.
If you find these helpful let me know!
Today - A few words of preface
There are four overarching "buckets" of interpretive approaches to the last book of the New Testament: Revelation. Within each of these "buckets" are multiple smaller buckets each with their own nuance and distinctive differences. Here is some exciting and great news: believers throughout history have approached Revelation in different ways. In other words, you can be a Bible believing, Jesus loving, born-again, repentant Christian and see the book of Revelation very differently than other Bible believing, Jesus loving, born-again, repentant Christians. The book of Revelation, with all it's various approaches should not be something that discourages, or sows discord in our communities of Christian faith.
This means you, and other people you live with, among, and together work towards building God's kingdom, may disagree on what Revelation communicates. That's OK. Does this mean that no matter what we say about Revelation there is really no point in discussing, learning, or studying the book? Not at all! There is tremendous benefit, encouragement, and growing in faith which is to be had through careful, prayerful, diligent study of Revelation.
Just as we need to be on guard against false teaching when we read any other passage of the Bible, we also need to be on guard against false teaching when it comes to Revelation. How can we know what is a false teaching that strikes against the essential truths of God's Word? As with any passage of scripture we need to seek what God's intended message was in communicating to the original audience. We need to look for consistent patterns (as God does not contradict himself). We need to examine the harder things to understand things in light of the easier-to-understand-things. All of this is dependent upon the Holy Spirit to enlighten us in our reverent, gentle handling of God's precious Word.
There are four major views of interpretation which Christians have held regarding Revelation. These four views will be named as follows for this study:
Futurist -
The Futurist interpreter sees Revelation being about what is yet to come (has not yet occurred)
Preterist -
The Preterist interpreter sees Revelation being about what has already happened (in the past)
Idealist -
The Idealist interpreter sees Revelation being filled with symbols (unrelated to specific history)
Historicist -
Tomorrow we will take a look at the first of these approaches.
I only recently found this book after asking a brilliant and dear friend of mind if he had any resources that neatly summarized all four interpretive views of Revelation. Gregg's book is almost like having a Wikipedia article filled with hyperlinks, quotes, and further resources to dive into. While most commentaries give you the results of the study and discipline of the author, this commentary seeks to give you a summary of the best understandings, and arguments put forward through history from each of these four approaches.
I will try to limit my own perspective or questions for each of these four perspectives in this particular mini-series. I will be preaching through Revelation in the summer and will give my all to preaching God's Word as faithfully to the original intended message as possible. That being said, I'll give a few sentences of feedback or questions for each perspective in this series.