There are several ways of interpreting The Revelation of Jesus Christ, written under the traditional title
of The Revelation of St. John the Divine.
But, there are four main views that have been expressed throughout history.
They are the idealist where the events here are all just metaphorical
referencing some conflict between God and Satan throughout history and are not
factual historical or future events. They include the historicist where the
events begin at Jerusalem’s fall and chronicle church history. They include the
preterist where all of the events of the book happened around AD70. And they
include the futurist where these are future events. There is a little bit of
all, plus some others, in a proper take on this grand book of the Bible, I
believe.
https://probe.org/four-views-of-revelation/
It is possible to take the text of Revelation and divide it
into two parts regarding the time of trouble and anguish on the earth. I will
look at the events before the translation of the church, commonly called the
Rapture, and the events after, as clearly shown in the text and by
cross-referencing. What I show you may not necessarily line up with what you
and I have been taught. It might but I am sticking as much as I can with the
text and cross-referencing. In other words, it says what it says, not what I
want it to say.
Before I get into the book let me insert here that Modernism
is a heresy that, among its many faults, involves reading the Bible like a
textbook or the owner’s manual for your car, cellphone, or computer. It results
in a hyper-literalist interpretation of the Bible that clouds much meaning and
understanding and the hyper-literalist often takes verses as standalone, out of
context, to mean things they were never meant to mean. The Bible is God’s
revelation of His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself. It mentions
science, history, geography, and politics but is not a book or collection of
books specifically about any of those subjects. In fact, the Holy Spirit often
just mentions an important event like Genesis 10:25 in passing. Was it a
reference to God dispersing human families across the earth at Babel? Was it
the creation of human races from the early human population? Could it have
referred to the dividing of the continents?
In the same respect, Alexander the Great, who had such an
impact on ancient history, is mentioned perhaps once in Daniel 8:21 with Roman
emperors Augustus and Tiberius mentioned in Luke 2:1 & 3:1 respectively.
These men occupy important places in human history but in God’s Book are of not
much more regard than the common, “a certain man,” or, “a certain woman,” of many
verses.
But, while the Bible doesn’t answer all of our questions
about these topics it does answer what God wanted us to have about His ministry
of reconciliation. Think of the Bible as a conversation between your Creator
and yourself. There are things He wants you to know and understand and there
are things He could not care less about and there are things we could not
possibly understand in our finite wisdom. Who knows? There are some things we
want to know that might drive us mad to find out.
Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but
those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children
for ever, that we may do all
the words of this law.
I want my Creator to speak to me through this book. I do not
want to come to it with preconceived notions forcing it to mean things it was
never meant to mean damaging my faith when overwhelming evidence shows those
preconceived notions are not true. That being said, Revelation, which I will
call it, cannot be interpreted, here at the end of the Bible, properly without
cross-referencing and considering the entire Bible. So, now, let’s begin our
journey understanding that I am just a common, ordinary Christian who happens
to find great value in studying and reading the Bible. I am not a Doctor of
Divinity, a Doctor of Theology, a seminary trained pastor, nor am I an
authority on Greek and Hebrew. I simply can read and understand English and am
proficient in using the cross-referencing tab on my computer Bible. I have also
read the Bible through nearly seventy times. I prayerfully ask God to give me
understanding and to be able to help others understand what He has given us. I
encourage you all to write your own commentary.
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