Interpretive Overview of Revelation 4-22

Romans 14:5 NASB95

5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.

Introduction

The way an author structures his or her text can tell you a great deal about what their trying to say. The Bible is no different in that aspect than any other text because the authors are all trying to get a point across to you as the reader or listener. However, what makes the Bible different, or in other words, what sets it apart from other literary works is the fact that the Bible is the Spirit inspired Word of God. Within its pages are contained the very words of life that can lead the vilest sinner to salvation. It contains words of comfort for the oppressed and weak, while at the same time giving joyous adorations to the creator of all things. It tells us of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus. The Scriptures impress upon all people their need to believe on him, and they do so with urgency because no one knows the hour of his return. Speaking of that topic, the return of Jesus, we need to realize that good and godly men and women disagree about the events leading up to and surrounding his return. I’m telling you this because as we move into the next section of Revelation, you’re going to begin to see many of those differences come to light. That said, these differences shouldn’t separate us, instead, they should draw us closer to one another in that they serve to show us how fallible we truly are. In short, these differences concerning the events leading up to and surrounding the end of human history should point us to the necessity of placing our faith and trust in Christ for he is the only one who will see us through to the end. So, with that caveat in place, I want to give you a brief synopsis of the different ways people interpret the book of Revelation. The reason I want to do this at the beginning of chapter 4 is because this seems to be the place in Revelation where the differences in some of the interpretative approaches begin to manifest themselves.

Prayer

The Preterist Approach

The first approach to Revelation we’re going to look at is what’s known as the Preterist approach. The word Preterist comes from the Latin word “preter” which has a number of meanings, the most common of which is “past”. To put it as simply as possible interpreters that take a preterist approach to the book of Revelation believe that almost all of the events it describes have already occurred. Most commonly, preterists would say that much of what’s going on in Revelation has to do with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. Here’s how a preterist would typically interpret chapters 4-22 of Revelation. Chapters 4 and 5 respectively refer to the events surrounding Jesus being caught up into heaven as described in Acts 1. In chapter 5 you see Jesus in heaven seated as the judge where he is handed the seven sealed scroll because he, and only he can break it’s seals. Then in chapter 6 with the breaking of the 1st seal the events leading up to the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 begin. Preterist say that the opening of the first seal took place in AD 66. As each subsequent seal is opened you get closer to the destruction of the temple in AD 70 by the Romans. The 144,000 of chapter 7 describe in symbolic fashion the number of Jewish Christians who were sealed by God in order to survive the events of 70 AD. The great multitude at the end of chapter 7 is symbolic of all the Gentiles who are to be saved. Next, in chapters 8 through 10, preterists say that the first four trumpet judgements speak of disasters that were inflicted by the Romans on the Jews in the period of the Jewish War from AD 66-70. The 5th trumpet judgement is a depiction of demonic spirits, and the 6th trumpet concerns the Roman armies who destroyed Jerusalem and deported the Jewish people. Chapters 11-13, the 1260 days, are about the actual period of the Jewish war from AD 66-70, and the Temple that’s described in chapter 11 is not a future temple, but is instead, Herod’s temple that was standing at the time of Christ. The first beast of chapter 13 is Rome and the second beast is most often interpreted to be the cult of the Roman emperor. Chapters 14-16 contain the bowl judgements and refer the actual fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 to the Roman General Titus. The next section, chapters 17-19, are taken by most preterists to describe the fall of the Roman Empire with the rider on the white horse in chapter 19 being a reference to Jesus and his church as they go forth to the spread of the gospel during the time in which we live now. Most interpreters who hold the preterist position view the Millennium kingdom of chapter 20 as symbolic of the time in which we live now (Satan is bound now because the gospel is spreading: Amillennialism), or they view the Millennium as a period of time in the future that the church will eventually bring about on earth through the preaching of the gospel (postmillennialism). Lastly, chapters 21 and 22 speak of the time after Jesus returns to earth, renders judgement, and brings in the new heaven and earth. Now, this view probably sounds really strange to most of you today, but if you could go back in time, say about 150 years, many of the people in this church would likely have held this position. (Pause) The positive thing about the Preterist approach is that is makes a lot of since out of what’s going on in the book of Revelation, especially from the perspective of the first century. The problem is that it assumes Revelation was written before AD 70, and most Bible scholars believe John wrote it around AD 96.

The Historicist Approach

The second approach to Revelation is known as the Historicist approach. I really debated as to whether or not to even include this view because it’s virtually extinct now days. Nevertheless, if you study Revelation you’ll encounter it with commentators like Luther, Calvin, Isaac Newton, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Adam Clark, Albert Barnes, and Matthew Henry. (Virtually all modern commentators reject this view.) Interpreters that held this view said that Revelation was a survey spanning all of church history. They believed that John’s visions were symbolic, however, the symbolism didn’t mean the events described weren’t real. The Historicist approach can be described in the following, chapters 4 and 5 are usually taken to describe the ascension of Christ after which he opens the seals to begin the unfolding of church history. Chapters 6, the seals judgements, and chapter 7 are taken to refer to the barbarian invasions that led to the fall of Western Roman Empire in AD 395, while chapters 8 and 9, containing the trumpet judgements move forward to the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople in AD 1453. Historicists believed that the two beasts of chapter 13 referred to different aspects of the corrupt medieval Roman Catholic Church while chapters 14-16 containing the bowl judgments were said to be describing the judgement on the papacy (Babylon) and then the beginning of the French Revelation in 1789 and the Napoleonic Wars which ended in 1815. Historicists believed that these judgements, the bowls, would continue on until the return of Christ as described in Revelation 19. As to the Millennium of chapter 20, some Historicists like Charles Spurgeon were premillennialist (Christ return to rule for 1000 years), while others were amillennialists (they believed the millennium is symbolic of the time period we’re in now.) Still, others were Postmillennialists, believing the church would usher in the millennial kingdom through missionary efforts. *One interesting thing about this view is that interpreters used a theory called the year-for-a-day principle when dealing with the time references in Revelation like the 1260 days / 42 months, etc. This allowed them to calculate with precision when they believed certain things might happen. It’s fairly easy to see why many commentators held this view because of world events during the time in which they lived, but the difficulty with the Historicist view was that no one could agree on which even fulfilled what part of the book of Revelation. Much of the Historicist interpretation of Revelation seems to be based on reading the Newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other.

The Idealist Approach

The third way of reading Revelation is known as the Idealist Approach. This way of reading the Apocalypse is quite popular today and many Baptists and Presbyterians prefer it. In the Idealist approaches the visions John sees as symbolic representations of the battle between good and evil that occurs between the first and second coming of Jesus. A good way to describe this approach to reading Revelation might be to think of a movie that tells a story from beginning to end from one perspective and then backs up and describes the same events and period of time from a different perspective. Now, imagine the movie doing this seven times over, and you’ve got the basic gist of the Idealist approach to Revelation. The Idealist approach is probably the easiest to explain because it’s actually really simple. Chapters 4 describes the ascension of Jesus at the beginning of the book of Acts. Then, in chapter 5 Jesus is given the scroll that contains all of the events in human history. Next, chapters 6-20 describe the time period in which we currently live from differing perspectives. Essentially, seals 1-6 run from the ascension of Jesus to his future return. Then, John backs up and describes the same period of time with the seven trumpets. After that, he backs up again and the seven bowls describe the same period of time from an altogether different perspective. Most Idealists are amillennialists and believe that they millennial kingdom is symbolic of the time period we live in now. They would say that it’s taking place in heaven where Jesus is ruling as we speak. (Pause) There are a lot of positives about the Idealist approach, but one of the problems seems to be that the judgements seem to get more intense as we get closer to the return of Christ, so it’s difficult to see how each of the cycles, or different perspectives could be describing the exact same phase of human history.

The Futurist Approach

The fourth view is what’s known as Futurism because interpreters who hold to this reading of Revelation believe all of the events from chapter 4 onward take place in the future, that is, they are future even to us. The most common form of Futurism is Dispensational Pretribulational Premillennialism. This position was made popular by the Scofield Reference Bible in 1917, and it is taught by many preachers today like John MacArthur, David Jeremiah, and Charles Stanley. The Futurist interpretation of Revelation goes like this, according to some futurists, the beginning of chapter 4 is a representation of the pre-tribulational rapture of the church to heaven just prior to the beginning of a 7-year tribulation. (I say some because some like MacArthur still hold to a pretrib rapture, but say that it’s not being referred to at the beginning of Revelation 4.) Nevertheless, virtually all futurists say that the rest of chapter 4 through chapter 19 describe events that take place in the world after the church has been taken out of the picture. The vast majority of these events are centered on God’s working with the nation of Israel in the middle east. Interpreters who hold this position believe that shortly after the rapture of the church the tribulation will begin with the rise of the anti-Christ who will sign a peace treaty with the nation of Israel. The first 3 ½ years are described in the events that unfold in Revelation 6 through 10. It is during this time that 144,000 Jews are sealed to preach the gospel. In Revelation 11, according to Futurist, the anti-Christ breaks his peace treaty with Israel, and everything falls apart when he sets himself up in a rebuilt Temple in the Holy Land. The last 3 ½ years are, according to this method of interpretation, the worst in human history under the reign of the anti-Christ, and they are described in chapters 11-19, at the end of which Christ returns with the church to begin his millennial kingdom, ruling from Jerusalem. Some Futurists believe that the millennium (Rev. 20) is necessary because they say that there are still promises that have to be fulfilled for the nation of Israel. In chapter 20, Satan is bound at the beginning of the thousand years after which he’s loosed for a brief period until he’s caught and thrown into the Lake of Fire with all who have followed him. Like I said, this view is very popular, and it deals with many of the interpretive issues in Revelation quite well. However, like the others I’ve mentioned, it has problems. For one, a legitimate question one could ask is, “Why does God have to remove the church from earth to work with Israel?” I mean, it would seem that he’s been doing that for nearly two-thousand years, hasn’t he? Some attempt to answer this by saying that the church isn’t destined for the wrath of the tribulation, but one wonders how our brothers and sisters in places like Iraq and China would respond to such statements, after all, people there are required to give their life for their faith every day. Most Bible scholars say that the biggest problem with this view is probably the fact that prior to the mid 1800’s no one had ever heard of it. Does this mean that it’s isn’t correct or not true? No, but it does bring up many legitimate questions.

The Eclectic Approach

The last position I will mention is what most term as the Eclectic approach. It bears this name because it tends to view certain aspects of each of the other interpretive options as being correct, but it also says that none of the others are completely right either. This is the position I hold and when I describe it, I think you’ll see at least some elements of each of the other views in what I’m going to say. I believe chapters 4 and 5 describe what happens right after the ascension of Jesus at the beginning of Acts. In chapter 6, Jesus opens the sealed scroll. The first five seals describe all of human history between the ascension of Christ and the events just before the second coming, with the 6th seal actually describing the events surrounding the second coming of Christ using very brief and condensed language. In other words, the sixth seal is kind of like the Reader’s Digest version of the rest of the book of Revelation which is, itself, contained in the 7th seal. To put it as simply as I can, I would say that the first five seals make up a repetitive cycle that’s been going on for nearly two thousand years now, wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilence and disease, and Christians being martyred for their faith. The first five seals characterize the time period in which we now live. The trumpet and bowl judgements of Revelation 8-16 seem to be events that will take place in the period just prior to, and leading up to the return of Christ which is described in Revelation 19. Concerning the millennium of Revelation 20, I tend to think good arguments can be made for what’s known as historical premillennialism as well as amillennialism. Postmillennialists teach that the world will get better, but that seems to be the direct opposite of what happening now, so, I’m not a postmillennialist. I’m not a Dispensationalist because I don’t think Scripture teaches a sharp distinction between Israel and the Church, although I do believe God has a plan and purpose for Jewish believers in Christ. As to what’s going to happen when Jesus returns, I think he will rule, and every knee will bow. However, I’m not willing to speculate on things the Bible isn’t clear about. As to the rapture, good arguments can be marshalled for all of the positions, and there are pastors and theologians that hold each of the positions whom I have the highest respect for, but I tend to think that the church will remain on earth until Jesus returns and the rapture will be post-tribulational. In other words, the rapture is part of a matrix of events we call the second coming. Some other people who hold this view that you might have heard of are George Ladd, Robert Duncan Culver, John Piper, Max Lucado, Douglas Moo, DA Carson, Al Mohler, Alistair Begg, and former SBC presidents James Merritt and Russell Moore.

Conclusion

So, what’s the point in me giving you all of this information? The point is not to confuse you, although I’m sure some of you probably feel confused now! My point in doing this is to show you that good and godly men and women hold differing views concerning the book of Revelation and the events surrounding the second coming of Christ. When you think about it, the events surrounding Jesus’ first coming took everyone by surprise. People didn’t expect the Messiah to come as baby born, especially one born in a barn. That said, and quite frankly, I don’t think the events surrounding his second coming will be any different. I can’t help but chuckle a little when I hear a dogmatic preacher who thinks he’s got everything figured out concerning the events of the second coming. Yes, it’s important to study topics like the rapture, but it’s also dangerous to be overzealous about something the Bible isn’t crystal clear on either. At the end of the day the important thing isn’t what you believe about the timing of the rapture, of what your view of the millennium is, no, the important thing is what you do with Jesus, whether or not you believe in him. Is he the Lord of your life? That’s what saves you.