Epilogue (Part 3)

Welcome to Week 3 of Epilgogue, our series about the end times

On the first week, we looked at the three major views of the end times

Last week, we tried to answer the question, “are we living in the end times?”

And tonight, we are going to conclude this series by diving a bit deeper into the first book that people think of when they think about the end times; Revelation

But before we get into revelation, it is important for us to review one of the sections that we’ve already looked at

Here is how Jesus responds when his disciples ask him when the end is going to be:

Matthew 24:3 ESV

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Matthew 24:35–36 ESV

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

As we established last week, we really can’t answer when the end is going to be, because Jesus doesn’t even know, the angels don’t know, only the Father knows.

Jesus confirms that there is indeed going to be an end to this world, but we don’t know when that will be.

The other thing that Jesus says in this passage is "My words will never disappear."

That is good news for us!

That means that even though we can’t know when the world will end we do know that God wins in the end.

So if you are a believer and have accepted Christ as your savior you are on God’s side, and his words will always be true.

Look at these words of Jesus:

John 3:16–18 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Those are words of Jesus that will never disappear, that will always be true.

No matter when the world ends, or how it ends, the way of salvation does not change.

.As we have already said, the end times is not a salvation issue.

If you are banking your eternity on your view of the end times then you are banking on the wrong thing.

If we do what Jesus tells us to do, if we believe everything that Jesus says, then your end times view doesn’t affect your salvation, and you have nothing to be scared of.

Don’t wait until the end to choose salvation.

As we jump into Revelation, which is the book of the Bible that we tend to focus on when it comes to end times, we need to realize that the book was originally written for a Christian audience.

It is directed to believers, and when we read within that context not only does it change how we interpret and apply it, it also reinforces the fact that end times was never supposed to be a salvation issue.

End times is a secondary issue, not a primary issue like salvation.

Also last week we established that Revelation is a book that everyone talks about but almost no one reads.

.We talk a lot about it, we hear bits and pieces of different views and single verses, then combine it all into what we think might happen at the end but have no idea why or where it came from.

As Christians, who this book was written for in the first place, we should read it ourselves.

One of the main reasons people don’t read it for themselves is because it seems confusing.

It can be confusing if you don’t understand how to properly read and apply prophecy.

If you don’t do this correctly you can end up at drastically different conclusions using the same verses as someone else.

Let’s quickly go over some key foundations when it comes to reading Scripture about prophecy.

The two purposes for prophecy in the Bible:

1. Forthtelling-divinely inspired explanation of current or recent events

It is divinely inspired, meaning it comes from God.

God gives a prophet a message to pass on to a group of people, and if that message is about something that is currently happening or has recently happened, then it is forthtelling.

2. Foretelling-divinely inspired predictions of future events.

Again, divinely inspired, exactly the same situation as forthtelling, but it is now a message about something that will happen at some point in the future.

Anytime you read any prophecy, before you look for a meaning or application you must first establish if it is forthtelling or foretelling based on the original context of that scripture.

If you don’t do this you can easily end up with a drastically different conclusion of what the passage means from what the author originally intended.

Once you establish the purpose, you then move on to the category:

The 3 different categories of prophecy in the Bible:

1. General prophecy- explains current situations when it was written.

As you might guess, a lot of forthtelling prophecy falls in this category

2. Messianic prophecy – descriptions of the chosen Messiah

We believe that the chosen messiah is Jesus Christ, and there are literally hundreds of prophecies in the Bible, mainly in the Old Testament which makes them foretelling messianic prophecy.

3. End Times prophecy – foretelling the events of the end times

Most people believe that Revelation is mostly end times prophecy.

The truth is that both purposes and all three categories are in Revelation.

If you get prophecy in the right purpose and right category, it suddenly becomes clear, and a lot easier to interpret and apply.

There are differing opinions among Christians on what exactly is going on in Revelation

Today we are going to look at the 4 most common ones

The 4 Views of Revelation

Revelation 20 - the 1,000 years

This passage in revelation describes the 1,000 years, and is also what creates the biggest issue between the different views.

This is the key to all of these 4 views, what does the 1,000 years mean and when does it happen.

As we go through these, I will tell you briefly what each view is based on and what the 1,000 years means in that view.

1. Historicist

According to this view, the text is symbolic of real events.

These events span throughout the history of the church; from Christ’ ascension until the final judgment. The 1,000 years is not significant in their interpretation.

Revelation is a mix of all 3 categories of prophecy

This view was held primarily by the people who started the protestant movement.

If you go back through the church history books, you can follow from our beginning in Acts 2 with the apostles and Jewish converts (messianic Jews).

Then eventually, as the church spread outside of Jewish circles, Christians organized on a larger scale and became the catholic church.

Then in the 1500’s, a guy named Martin Luther thought the church had become to ritualized and broke off to start his own church.

This move my Martin Luther started the protestant movement.

Those that held this view of Revelation were basically Martin Luther and his buddies.

They saw the catholic church (mainly the Pope) as the anti-Christ.

It has been abandoned because events of history have not matched the prophecy as interpreted by this method.

As time continues to go, and we get further and further away from the protestant movement, less evidence seems to support this view.

So, that means we can cross one of the four views off of our list already.

Look at that, getting closer to a conclusion very quickly!

..Not so fast. Here are the other 3.

2. Preterist

This view of Revelation is often joined by postmillennialism

For review, this view believes that Christ’s return will happen after the 1,000 years, hence the name post (after) millennial (1,000).

Like all of the remaining 3 views, there are varying opinions of details within this view, some people are Full preterist and some partial preterist, etc.

Much of the ‘tribulation’ took place in the first century – rise and fall of Rome, King Nero, destruction of the temple in 70 AD, etc.

Remember this when it comes to Postmillennialism- The whole world will eventually be saved, will then live 1,000 years with Christ in an all Christian world, then the final judgment (Revelation 21) will happen once the 1,000 years have passed.

The church’s job is to save the whole world. According to this view Revelation has sections of symbolic as well as literal language.

Revelation is primarily messianic prophecy

Because the church will save the whole world through Christ, revelation is focused primarily on the messiah.

3. Idealist/Spiritualist

Oftentimes, people who hold this view are amillennial

This view says that no specific historical events are described in Revelation

The book portrays the big picture of God vs. evil, andthis epic battle is still going on today.

Revelation is made up of primarily symbolic language, representing ongoing tribulations, happening over and over again as we see history repeating itself, until God decides that enough is enough and returns.

The 1000 years is symbolic for ‘a long time’(like saying it will take you forever to finish a school assignment).

According to this view we are in the 1,000 years right now.

Revelation is primarily general prophecy

Revelation does not describe any specific event, but a general description of events which applies to any period in history.

In the same way, the anti Christ does not describe one specific person, but is symbolic for anything that is anti (against) Christ in this ongoing spiritual battle against God.

The world will continue on a downward spiral until Christ returns bringing the final judgment.

The church’s job is to save as many as they can before that happens.

4. Futurist

Just like the others, there are many different opinions within this view; Classic and progressive dispensationalists, and many others.

How many of you have heard of the popular book series “Left Behind”?

This is the view that those books were written from.

According to this view God saves the world through the messiah in two phases;

#1 Jesus first coming, death, and resurrection

#2 the rapture of the church, 7 years of tribulation/judgment, then Jesus’ second coming and 1000 year reign on earth w/ all believers before the final judgment.

According to this view we are currently “stuck” between the two phases waiting for the second phase to start.

The church just has to hold on and do our best until God finishes the job.

Revelation is made up of primarily literal language.

7 years of tribulation and 1,000 years reign are exactly those amounts of time on a calendar.

Revelation is primarily end times prophesy.

So there are the four views.

And you can see now how important the purposes and categories become.

Each of these views looks at Revelation and has a different opinion as to which category most of Revelation fits into.

These views use exactly the same scripture and end up at very different conclusions on what that scripture means.

Here is the truth that we need to know about ourselves as we search for what God really intended for us to get from Revelation:

Most people’s understanding of the end times is a mix of the four different views.

If you were to grab a random Christian off of the street and ask them about their view of the end of the world, likely they would pull a few ideas from the postmillennium view, then throw an amillennial opinion in there, and end by saying we are all waiting to be raptured, which is only a dispensational view.

Most Christians have no idea what view they have, because they haven’t read it themselves.

Please hear me on this, there are parts of each view that make sense, and there are parts of each view that are a stretch.

But don’t just take the good parts of each…

People do that with the Bible as a whole all the time.

We take the parts that we like and leave out the parts that are hard.

You can’t do that.

You either believe that Bible is true, or you believe it isn’t true.

Either God loves you and made a way for you to be saved or He didn’t.

We can’t personalize it and only take the parts that are nice and convenient.

You can’t do that with Revelation either.

If you don’t read it yourself and just take bits of what we hear or read or figure out through whatever source, you end up with your own view, let’s call it the MYllenium view.

The problem with that is the myllenium view is not based on scripture, it is based on popular opinion.

Make sure you base your life on facts of the Bible, not varying opinions of vague issues.

Follow the steps we have learned on how to properly read prophecy, read the scripture yourself, trust the Holy Spirit, and start down the road to your biblically based opinion.

Final Thought: There is evidence to support any of the four main views of Revelation. Look at each of them, seek the Holy Spirit for guidance, and come to your own conclusion.

The point of this series is not to point out how wrong one view is and how right another one is.

There is evidence to support all three of the main views.

The point of this series IS for us to look at each of them, read scripture, seek the Holy Spirit for guidance, and come to your own conclusion.

Let’s close in Prayer.