The Book of Revelation: Four Approaches to the Prophetic Text
Pastor Gene Giguere
The four approaches to Prophecy:[1]
The Preterist approach views the Book of Revelation as a historical record of events that took place in the first-century Roman Empire.
But this view ignores the fact that the book itself claims to be a prophecy (see Revelation 1:3; 22:7, 10, 18–19).
Christ did not return in the first century as predicted in Revelation 19.
(According to proponents of this view, Christ’s Second Coming was fulfilled in the destruction of the Temple in a.d. 70, even though He did not actually appear at that time.)
No persecution that took place in the first century fits the description of the horrific events depicted in Revelation 6–19.
The Historicist approach sees the Book of Revelation as a panoramic record of the full sweep of church history from apostolic times to the present.
The historicist must often resort to allegorizing the text to make it fit some historical event it is supposed to represent (i.e., the fall of Rome to the barbarians, the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, the advent of Islam, even the French Revolution).
As a result, historicist interpreters have come up with all sorts of different interpretations of what certain texts mean, turning its interpretation into a virtual free-for-all.
In many cases, this approach (like the preterist) is guilty of ignoring the Book of Revelation’s own claims to be a prophecy.
This view removes its interpretation from the realm of the literal and historical and leaves it to the chaos of allegorical and spiritualized meanings.
The Idealist approach sees the Book of Revelation as depicting the timeless struggle between good and evil which is played out in every age.
According to this view, the Book of Revelation is neither an historical record nor a predictive prophecy.
Like the first two views, the idealist view ignores the Book’s claim that it is a prophecy.
The book is thus reduced to a collection of myths designed to convey spiritual truth.
The Futurist approach sees Revelation 4–22 as predictions of people and events yet to come.
Only this approach allows Revelation to be interpreted following the same literal, grammatical-historical hermeneutical method by which the rest of the Bible is interpreted.
While sponsors of the other three approaches are frequently forced to allegorize or spiritualize the text to support their interpretations, the futurist does not.
The futurist alone accepts the Book of Revelation’s claim to be a prophecy.
The most common criticism of the futurist approach is that it robs the book of any meaning for those to whom it was written, since most of its events are future.
To this, Dr. John Walvoord comments:
“Much of the prophecy of the Bible deals with the distant future, including the Old Testament promises of the coming Messiah, the prophecies of Daniel concerning the future world empires, the body of truth relating to the coming kingdom on earth as well as countless other prophecies. If the events of chapters 4 through 19 are future, even from our viewpoint today, they teach the blessed truth of the ultimate supremacy of God and the triumph of righteousness.”[2]
[1] For a further discussion of the various views in accessible language see: MacArthur, John, Jr., Revelation 1–11: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Press, Publisher, 1999) & Hayford, Jack W.; and Curtis, Gary, Until the End of Time, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998, c1994).
[2] Walvoord, John, The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Chicago: Moody Press) 1966, p. 22.
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