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NASB | Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Revelation 1:1 This is the revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries], which God [the Father] gave to Him to show to His bond-servants (believers) the things which must soon take place [in their entirety]; and He sent and communicated it by His angel (divine messenger) to His bond-servant John, |
Bible Question: I understand that there are some (4 or more) main interpretative schools for The Revelation. Can you tell me what they are and a little overview about each of them? |
Bible Answer: The Two Preterist Views 1)The final judgments in Revelation are about Rome and Jerusalem and Jerusalem is Babylon the Great. This Preterist View does not explain why Jesus did not come, or why the two witnesses did not come, or why Abomination of Desolation did not come, or why the world wide destructions of the earth did not come, or why no one received a mark of the beast. The list can keep right on going. 2)The final judgments in Revelation are about the fall of the Roman Empire with Rome as the Great Babylon. The same problems exist with this view as the first one. The Two Historic Views 1)Revelation is a charted history of events, the past Revelation 1:19 – John speaks of the past the announcement of the vision in 1, John speaks of the present the message to the seven churches in 2and 3, John speaks of the future in 4-22. The only thing that remains is to see the events unfold because the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Those that have a problem with this view are concerned with where we now are in time because they are not sure when the future part begins in history. There is a simple answer to this, we now have wars and rumors of wars and that is all we can say for sure. 2)Revelation is history, but the message to the churches is figurative and applies to both John’s day and to continuing history as a message to church types. This view often identifies the Catholic Church as Babylon the Great with the first beast as a pope and the second beast as his false prophet. The problem with this view is that it will be impossible to know for certain what all the symbols mean until they happen. Some have already interpreted the symbols as having occurred. The Futurist View 1)Revelation from 4 on is about the future and is largely seen as dispensationalist as the final two divisions of God’s history with man. Some futurists believe the church will be raptured before the 7 year Great Tribulation, some do not. The judgments happen in sequence during the 7 years or are varying descriptions of the same events. Those who have a problem with any futurist view are concerned with whether or not the book has a practical application right now. They ignore what John says in Revelation 1:3 that whoever reads the book of Revelation will receive a blessing and that they should pay attention to what is written in it, which surely is giving instructions for an application as to continued perseverance in the faith and good conduct. The Two Idealist Views 1)Revelation is purely symbolic of the ongoing struggle between God and Satan and is about everything that has occurred and that will occur between them and the symbols don’t represent real historical events. The problem with this view is that it removes the possibility that Jesus will actually come back and conquer and rule the earth and reduces God’s sovereign involvement in history to the symbolic fight between good and evil. 2)Revelation is purely symbolic literature because Revelation defies a literal interpretation of what the author’s intent was to his audience, but can still as symbolic literature, adhere to the history of redemption. This allows for an application for today of the symbols found in Revelation as a heavenly perspective on earthly events. The problem with this view is that it minimizes the prophetic nature of the message by making it a be a reapplication of the message to uncertain events in the present or future without allowing for a literal interpretation of a past, a present or a future, as John declares it to be, and relegates the prophetic nature of the Revelation to mere symbolism. The Historical View With The Futurist View 1)The first historical view with the futurist view combined present a very good case for a reliable view that incorporates the apocalyptic language and the prophetic nature of Revelation and is a fifth rarely presented view. Revelation is an apocalypse containing material combining symbolic descriptuve language with prophecy. These two elements have to be considered in determing what John's intent in writing it was. We can't just say it is purely symbolic based on Revelation 1:19 because John says it is about the past, present, and future, which makes it historical. We can't say it is purely historical because John is prohecying so it has to also be about the future which had not happened yet, or has not happened yet. We can't say it is purely symbolic because it contains a message to a church in his day and because it is about the past, present, and future. But we can say that it is about history, the future and that it uses symbolic language to describe future acts of judgment and that it is prophetic. That is why I believe the fifth veiw is the correct one to hold. The Preterist view has too many errors to be true. God Bless, Tamara |