I have finished reading a parellel commentary on the book of Revelation by Steve Gregg entitled Revelation: Four Views. This book was very helpful in that, verse by verse, it described how different interpreters interpret the Bible's final book. Four views are described in its pages:1. Historical- This view holds that the book of Revelation describes history from the time of the apostles to the end of the world. Most of the classical commentaries adhere to this view.
2. Preterist- This view holds that the bulk of Revelation describes the fall of Jerusalem in AD70 (this usually includes argument for an earlier origin of Revelation, aka...prior to AD70)
3. Futurist- This view holds that most or all of the events described in Revelation have yet to occur. The Left Behind Series follows after this view. It is extremely popular in today's Christian pop-culture.
4. Spiritual- This view does not seek specific fulfillments of Revelation. Instead, spiritualist scholars believe Revelation gives us divine principles that will apply many times throughout history.
It's interesting how different these views are. I believe all of them (as long as they are not taken too extremely) are well within the boundaries of orthodoxy. And yet how different they are! One says the prophecies of Revelation were fulfilled long ago. Another says they are being fulfilled throughout history. Another says none of them are yet fulfilled. And another doesn't really say anything (just kidding, no offense to spiritualists).
For most of my life, I was really only aware of the futurist approach. But as I became more interested in the subject, I read many scholars advocating the historical approach. It was only in the past few years that I became firmly aware of the preterist approach. And, though much reading awaits, after finishing Mr. Gregg's 528 page commentary, I am now ready to officially announce that I'm (although still open to persuasion) changing my position.
I can now be called: Matthew, the partial-preterist.
This concludes, what some of you probably think, is the most boring post of all time.
1 comment:
What differences do you see?
Being a new member of the partial preterist camp, differences should be expected since John's vision is referring to AD70 and Peter is referring to the physical return of Christ at the end of the age.
Passages like 2 Peter 3, 1 Thes. 1, and Revelation 20-22, to a partial preterist, are describing a completely different event, seperated by almost 2000 years...and counting.
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