Revelation: Interpretive Approaches

How we approach the book of Revelation, or the interpretive lens we use, as we seek to understand the visions that John has relayed will radically, affect how we understand it. For example, when I first began to study it I was a Futurist not because I really understood what that meant, but because I thought that basically that meant the vast majority of the visions John relayed would happen at some point in the future. I have become convinced that isn’t accurate. But, I’d prefer for each of you to work through this and come to a conclusion through the study of the Word

So, below I am providing some basic definitions of the major schools of interpretation (From G.K. Beale's commentary in the New International Greek New Testament series.) These are very brief introductions, but I have left a fuller explanation of his approach, which happens to be the one I’ve become convinced of. Further, I have attached an article from the ESV Study Bible that details this a bit further and has some charts for those of you who like those.

Major Interpretive Approaches

The Preterist View – The preterist perspective has two forms. The first sees Revelation as a prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. (I, Seth, think this is a problem because I think the book was written after that, 90-95 A.D.). The second form of preterist interpretation holds that Revelation is a prophecy of the fall of the Roman Empire, “Babylon the Great,” the persecutor of the saints, in the fifth century a.d. The purpose of the book is to encourage Christians to endure because their persecutors assuredly will be judged.

The Historicist View – There are many versions of the historicist approach. Historicist interpreters generally see Revelation as predicting the major movements of Christian history, most of which have been fulfilled up to the time of the commentator. The majority of these commentators have understood the seals, trumpets, and bowls as unfolding successive events of history in general chronological order.

The Futurist View – There are two forms of the futurist perspective. Both understand the visions from ch. 4 up through 22:5 as referring exclusively to a future time immediately preceding the end of history.

The Idealist View – The idealist approach affirms that Revelation is a symbolic portrayal of the conflict between good and evil, between the forces of God and of Satan.

Eclecticism, or a Redemptive-Historical Form of Modified Idealism(I, Seth, learned of this from G.K. Beale, but have come to be convinced of it, and will be the interpretive model I follow as I preach)

A more viable, modified version of the idealist perspective would acknowledge a final consummation in salvation and judgment. Perhaps it would be best to call this fifth view “eclecticism.” Accordingly, no specific prophesied historical events are discerned in the book, except for the final coming of Christ to deliver and judge and to establish the final form of the kingdom in a consummated new creation—though there are a few exceptions to this rule. The Apocalypse symbolically portrays events throughout history, which is understood to be under the sovereignty of the Lamb as a result of his death and resurrection. He will guide the events depicted until they finally issue in the last judgment and the definitive establishment of his kingdom. This means that specific events throughout the age extending from Christ’s first coming to his second may be identified with one narrative or symbol. We may call this age inaugurated by Christ’s first coming and concluded by his final appearance “the church age,” “the interadventual age,” or “the latter days.” The majority of the symbols in the book are transtemporal in the sense that they are applicable to events throughout the “church age”

Therefore, the historicists may sometimes be right in their precise historical identifications, but wrong in limiting the identification only to one historical reality. The same verdict may be passed on the preterist school of thought, especially the Roman version. And certainly there are prophecies of the future in Revelation. The crucial yet problematic task of the interpreter is to identify through careful exegesis and against the original historical background those texts which pertain respectively to past, present, and future.

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