The message found in the book of Revelation has recently been a serious topic on my heart to the point of catapulting me into figuring out why such chaos has spawned in the church over the subject of the last days, particularly the controversy arising over the book itself. I call this chaos, "The Great Confusion of the Times." Why has so much confusion come forth in the church? I believe that there is an answer to this question and a solution to it.
Through my studies I have found there to be four major schools of thought throughout the church, concerning the books interpretation and how to approach it. These different schools are the Preterists, Historicists, Futurists, and Idealists. Aside from these, which we will look into, I have found that a love for Jesus Christ should be the main catalyst into the books study. My hope in writing this paper is not to simply give my interpretation of the book as if I have arrived to the full understanding of it, which I have not, but to give the clearest possible breakdown of interpreting the book by using scripture references at face value and common sense. Before I go into detail of these different schools of thought found throughout Christian culture and the breakdown of interpretation, I would like to express where I come from and why this book is on my heart.
During the past few years I began getting involved at a place called the International House of Prayer of Jacksonville (IHOP Jax). Inside IHOP Jax is the Prayer Room (PR), a place I love to come to worship and pray to Jesus. In the PR, currently, I spend a volunteered 20 hours a week praying the Word and meditating on the Word as an Intercessory Missionary. I came to this place with pure motives to do the Psalms 27:4 verse, that God would really be the "One thing I have desired" and that I would "gaze upon the beauty of the Lord...all the days of my life." As I look back on these young years of my prayer life I find that the greatest ministry I have in this life is to be a minister to God. I would not ever change this ministry for a large church building or a great following. I know that my devotion to Christ is worth more than all the riches and fame that this world has to offer. I believe that He alone is my exceedingly great reward in this life and the age to come. Knowing that Jesus approves me to spend ridiculous amounts of time before Him in meditation and proclamation of who He is, my heart is stirred to do two things: To find out more about Him through intimacy with Him, and to be a voice of truth to a generation. From this journey of seeking the Lord, there has risen inside of me a desire to know the plans that Jesus has for the earth, as times seem to be growing darker and darker. What does Jesus say about the darkest days of history and how do those who believe prepare for the coming storm? How can believers be ready for these great and terrible events that are mentioned in the book of Revelation and various other places throughout scripture? Is this book even relevant to our generation, that we would need to read it and prepare for it? These are the questions that have been a propeller in my study of the last days and the book of Revelation. Although the main thrust that has caused me to do this study is the first five words mentioned in the book, which are, “The Revelation Of Jesus Christ.” He has found the preeminence in my heart and I desire to be as close to Him has possible. In John 15:15, Jesus says, "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from my father I have made known to you." I want to be God’s friend. That is the primary reason why I have chosen to seek out the revelation found in this book; the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Even so, many have done graphs and charts over the book and tried all the symbolism as if to somehow satisfy that curiosity deep inside. Yet, they have often been left confused and most likely build walls of resistance toward ever going back to the book. I'm not saying that the graphs and charts are not helpful in this study. I'm proposing that a desire to be a friend of Jesus should always be the centerpiece to the pursuit of understanding the message behind the book or else we will find our selves walking down a strange and cumbersome road of study. If we are friends with Him we will know His plans. In fact, if we are truly His friends we will desire to eat the scroll (read the bible), yes I mean all of it, and not simply for head knowledge, but for heart revelation.
Now that I have shared a little bit about what, I believe, is the best way to start studying the book, lets talk a bit about the book itself. I am not going to go into every last detail about it but rather, try to pave a launch pad for the reader to start this study with clarity and without confusion. In David Pawsons book, Unlocking the Bible, (pg.1253-1257), he gives his commentary on the book of Revelation’s interpretation from a very unique point of view, using the strengths of the four major schools I mentioned earlier and dismissing the weakness of each school. I like his commentary because he is open-minded towards every view found through out the church and uses common sense to take the strengths and to dismiss the weaknesses. For the sake of understanding, I will briefly talk about each school and how to apply them to the book Revelation.
The first on the list is the Preterists and this group believes that the book was written as a prophecy concerning the people the first century A.D. near the fall of the Roman Empire and has little relevance to us in our generation. They say that the main relevance it has to us is that we can learn how to live here and now from what has happened then and there. The strength of this view is that it pushes us to understand how people in that day would receive the writings. The main weakness of this view, while many can be found, is that there are almost no events, in that time period, that have obviously taken place with the accuracy of the events that Revelation reveals.
The next group is the Historicists and they believe that the events prophesied are talking about all of church history between the First and Second Comings of Jesus. Pawson explains in his book that this school is “past, present and future to us” (Pawson, pg.1254). Most Historicists agree that we can find ourselves somewhere in chapter 16 or 17. This view makes the book of Revelation relevant to every generation, which is an up side. A down side to this view is that when you line up the events from history to the events in the book, they don’t just fall into place. They are unconvincingly and unnaturally lined up. Another type of Historicist is the view that all the events of church history seem to repeat over and over through out time. Just like the linear version of the Historicist, the repeating version has the same problems and things just don’t line up.
Third on the agenda is the Futurist and this group believes that the book prophesies the last three and a half year of the world that will usher in the Second Coming of Jesus and His Millennial Reign. They believe that world will gradually get worse and worse until the greatest climax of evil and then Jesus comes to make wrong things right. There are different opinions in this view concerning when the rapture takes place, whether before the tribulation or after the tribulation. This view is interpreted more literally than the others. This makes the book relevant only to the last generation and it also causes people to use the book focusing more on the charts and graphs rather than being close to Jesus.
The forth view is the Idealist and this group believes that the book is more about an eternal and spiritual perspective of the on going battle between good and evil rather than actual events taking place. This group proclaims that “in the end love wins.” Most of the Bible is considered myth to this group and they have summed up that the book of Revelation is more about symbolism rather than a future reality. Its can be relevant to any generation because it is primarily about teaching spiritual truths. Dawson points out, “this has serious consequences for ‘eschatology’ (the study of ‘the last things’, from the Greek word eschatos = ‘end’ or ‘last’)” (Pawson, pg.1257) Through many studies done by scholars, Pawson included in his book When Jesus Returns, (pg.2), we find out the accuracy rate of the prophetic scripture. Not only does the scripture have over a quarter of prophetic words about the future that can easily be approved with its own detailed descriptions, but also over 80% of them have already happened. Up to this point in time the bible has a perfect prophetic declaration rating of 100%. The rest of the prophetic words are still future to us and are expected by most Christians to happen in the end times. Besides my own faith in believing the bible literally, this would be an important reason to interpret the bible with a literal face-value point of view. I also believe that taking the spiritual truths is necessary as well as the Idealists do, but that we should not dismiss the reality of content mentioned in the text. My conclusion is that the content should be seriously considered as well the spiritual truth.
The approach I found to be most precise in interpreting the book of Revelation is to take only the strengths of each view and apply them to the sections where they are required in the book. For an example, lets take look at the book in sections and skip to chapters 4-18 since these chapters, relating to the judgments, are more controversial than the other parts. Preterists won’t work, since their speculations of how things play out all happened in the past and yet, the specifics of tribulation judgments never happened as the book describes them. A Historicist view doesn’t work either, since it is in the same boat of things not falling into sync. Futurist is helpful because they believe what Jesus said in Matthew 24:21 that “there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” This lines up with the growing intensity of the tribulations found in the book of Revelation as the time line moves towards those days. Idealists should not completely make this book out to be simply myths and symbolism since that would separate this book from other books in the bible that have clear prophetic words, which have come to pass, and are not merely spiritual jargon. It is smart, however, that the spiritual message of the book be for every generation in every time period. So from this we summarize that, to interpret chapters 4-18, the best option would be to use a Futurists point of view with a hint of the Idealists. The other sections of this book have different mixtures of approaches depending on the time frame to which they belong, but now we can see how to clearly break down this book using the strengths of different views mixed together.
I would like to say that, in my opinion, the best option in interpreting the bible is to always take it at face value unless the bible specifically tells us that it is a symbol for something else. The Bible has simplicity in explaining things by itself and doesn’t need mans highly sophisticated intellect to figure it out. The Bible was written so that ordinary people could simply understand it, and yet, the mystery behind the simplicity is the depth of revelation that can come out of it. Where many have strained their intellect to over analyze, and so forth, confuse many the bible, all along, was meant to mean what is says and say what it means. One of many examples in the book of Revelation that shows us where to specifically symbolize something is found in Revelation 1:20. “ The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstand: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.” An example of something that was meant to be taken literally is the scene around the throne in Revelation 4. When it says that there are 24 elders, it means there are 24 elders. When it says there are 4 living creatures, it means there are 4 living creatures. Then you have the scripture that are obviously symbolic, like Revelation 1:10b where it says “…I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet” That is obvious symbolism for a voice speaking with urgency and volume. To say that something is symbolism without the scriptures own commentary is doing what Jesus talks about in Revelation 22:18-19. This scripture clearly states the importance of keeping the words of the prophecy where Jesus says “if anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” That’s quite an intense statement for the Idealist who thinks that this book is purely myth. It would be greatly considered for him to think about the possibility of it having literal application lest he find out later.
Revelation is not only a book about the literal events that Jesus allows to take place in this dark, yet, glorious time coming upon history. It also has spiritual truths to be considered. The seven letters to the Churches in chapters 2-3 are perfect examples of truths we should apply in our lives. We should strongly consider taking the spiritual truths offered in it vs. taking it strictly literal, ending up in sense like Radical Islam or the crusaders of the Middle Ages, seeking selfish desires of dominion like animals do. One of my favorite verses concerning Jesus coming again is Ezekiel 43:5-7 where Jesus comes into the temple with all of His glory and Jesus, in verse 7, says, “…Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever.” How can we get away from this reality to come? I don’t see much of a chance. If you didn’t catch it, I will reiterate that He will dwell with His children. If we are His children or his friends we will need to apply the spiritual truths as well as the reality of things to come. I believe they go hand in hand.
This subject for me is not something that I can use to hold up over anyone’s head as if to say I have it all figure out. It is, however, that I simply want to know Him more closely. Also, as I stated previously, it is for me to be a voice of truth to generation for the sake of a generation and for the sake of Jesus receiving them as the reward that He suffered for. I want those who are coming up after me to have clear picture of the last days events so that they would be prepared as his children and be the overcoming church. This is the theme of the book of Revelation. It’s about a people overcoming by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony (Rev 12:11) unto Jesus receiving all the glory. The question that sparks the naysayers is why God allows such pain and chaos to take place? Isn’t He loving and merciful? He should not hurt people. I believe Jesus is loving and merciful, in fact he is so merciful that he allowed us to choose Him in love under His blood for 2000 years. Along with His love and mercy is His justice and the fact that many men and women do not desire to change their heart to follow Him. Jesus gives us the desires of our hearts. He is a jealous bridegroom, king, and judge and His ways are justice and righteousness. He wants a people who will volunteer to be His lovers even in the midst of the greatest persecution and even in the midst of the greatest shakings on the earth that will take place. The book of revelation is Jesus allowing the greatest shakings in history to shake the hearts of men to turn from evil and to loving Him. Some will hate Him for it and some will love Him and give Him their whole lives. It will be the clearest line we will ever see drawn when He shakes the earth and there will be very few who have not made a decision. To love him or to hate him, that is the choice. To make no decision is to make the wrong decision.
He wants His people to not only have head knowledge as if to satisfy the curiosity inside of them but to be prepared through intimacy and love for the storm coming in the distance. We think the Antichrist is extreme but I propose that he is exactly what is needed to make right what is in wrong in our hearts of man. Just as the Lord orchestrated Saul to chastise David, so, He will raise up the Antichrist to chastise the earth and the believers. It is His divine leadership, and it is completely different from how men would orchestrate it, but the good news is that it works. Just as Jesus went to the cross, will we be prepared to pick up our crosses and follow Him if all these things come down like the book of Revelation says they will? In the end it is a question plain old faith. It is to believe the scripture or not. As times get darker “some will depart because of deceiving spirits” (1 Tim 4:1). Who will actually have faith when He returns (Lk 18:8)? There are dozens of verses that flesh out what the days will look like and how we can know that the time is near. More importantly there are much more scriptures concerning how to get as close as possible to Jesus in this life. “When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth” (Lk 18:8)?
Bibliography
Pawson, David. Unlocking The Bible Omnibus. Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives, plc.
Pawson, David. When Jesus Returns. 1995, David Pawson, Hodder & Stoughton Religious
Others references came from the New King James Version of the Bible.
