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Originally posted by houseparent
Excellent question and exactly why it's so difficult to debate dispensationalists! For example, the very beginning of Revelation. The letters to the seven churches were written to a literal seven churches correct? CT and Dispy beliefs would agree with that regarding literalism. So where does the idea that these seven letters were also written to a future generation as well? How do we know what "Church age" we are in?
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I'd never heard that they were written to a future generation, but that each letter represents a part of the church age. Maybe we're saying the same thing, different words.
Maybe we can use this and other passage examples to try see how they use their hermeneutic to arrive at an interpretation. The reasoning I've heard is:
Rev 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;
This verse, from what I've been taught, helps us understand the timeframe for various parts of Revelation. Some of Revelation is past, some present, and some is still future. If the early part of Rev 4 represents the rapture of the church, a future event, those things happening after Rev 4 would also be future, those before (7 letters) represent the present church age.
Is that a fair representation of dispy reasoning, and use of their hermeneutic, on this passage?