Stratiotes
Puritan Board Freshman
Thank you for your help
Can somebody help me with a brief summary of the a millennium view in eschatology
- Thread starter Stratiotes
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Jerusalem Blade
Puritan Board Professor
Hello Dan,
Welcome to PB. Below I have cut-and-pasted from a series of handouts I gave to folks in a class I just finished teaching on the Book of Revelation. Hopefully you can glean from these excerpts some information valuable to you.
Revelation – and eschatology in general – has been made confusing and difficult because of various competing views clouding the mental atmosphere. It ought not be so.
The “millennium” – the “thousand years” spoken of in Revelation 20 – signifies the entire New Testament church age. From the very first verse of Revelation the text itself declares its own genre, that being apocalyptic using symbols to reveal dynamics, events, and characters throughout the NT church age.
The 1,000 years in Rev 20 signify the same time-frame as the 1,260 days / 42 months / 3½ years do in Rev chapters 11, 12, and 13 – this is briefly discussed below.
I hope the excerpts are helpful and not confusing! Please feel free to ask any questions you have, and I’ll try to answer them.
If you want a good Amil book that relatively briefly and very clearly goes through Revelation, I would suggest Dennis E. Johnson’s, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation.
------------
As we are about to look at the vision-cycles of chapter 6 and onward, it will be needful to give an overview of the general vision – the setting – the entire book is based upon, and all its events are contained within. This will be brief and not drawn-out.
We have looked at the various schemas used to interpret Revelation, and have settled upon the one that includes all the churches from John’s day to the end of the age, excluding none. This means that the book and its vital – urgent – counsel was as much for the church in Smyrna in 100 A.D. as it was for the churches of the Waldenses in the mountains of Europe in 1,000 A.D., and for the churches in our contemporary world of 2013 A.D. The Amillennial – aka the present “millennial” reign of Jesus Christ from heaven – is the only view that does not exclude large segments of the age-long church from the blessings of wisdom and courage promised the readers and keepers of the prophecies of Revelation.
Only in the context of the entire NT church age do the details of the visions fit into perfect place. Starting in chapter 6 we have the first of the three vision-cycles of God’s sovereign warnings and judgments – the seven seals – opened / administrated by the Lamb. The dynamics revealed in these seals – saints persecuted for their witness to Christ and His kingdom, warning judgments visited upon the earth as a result of the saints’ prayers, and God’s wrath on the “earth-dwellers” for not heeding the warnings – extend throughout the age, intensifying as the age progresses and the end draws near.
------------
In chapter 11 we see the church under the guise of three new symbolic images, the temple, the holy city (New Jerusalem), and the two witnesses. As the temple (and the altar within it) they are measured – a sign of protection and God’s presence (taken from Ezekiel 40-48); as the outer court and the holy city they are vulnerable to being “trampled under foot”, i.e., persecuted, and as the witnesses they give legally valid testimony regarding Jesus Christ and God’s salvation offered through Him, and the coming judgment upon all who spurn this mercy and choose instead lives of wickedness in following the beast and harlot.
Of particular importance are the time symbols used in this chapter: 1,260 days, and 42 months, both equaling 3½ years (based on the Jewish 30-day months), for they coincide exactly with the time parameters used in chapter 12 of how long the woman clothed in the sun and wearing a crown of 12 stars (Israel, who is then transformed into the Christian church after the man child she gave birth to is caught up to heaven) is given to survive in spiritual safety from the dragon under God’s care in the wilderness. In chapter 13, the second revealing of the beast (the first was when he overpowered the two witnesses in chapter 11), we are told that he was given to war against the saints for 42 months, and then kill them.
It should be noted that in these three chapters, 11, 12, and 13, the same time indicators are given for the length of time the witnesses prophesy of God’s plan (the entire church age), the time allotted to the world to “trample” the church (the entire church age), the time period the church is fed and protected by God in the wilderness (the entire church age), and how long the devil is given to war against the saints (the entire church age). “3½ years” is a period familiar to the Jews and those who know Jewish history as indicating intense suffering while the word of God is manifested in power (cf Elijah’s 3½ year drought; Antiochus Epiphanes’ 3½ year defiling of the temple; Jesus’ 3½ year time of ministry).
In chapter 11, after the period of time the witnessing church fulfills her mission (all the elect of God brought into the fold through the preaching of the gospel, and the world warned of impending judgment except they repent), the beast is given to war against them and kill them (note the “given”, for it is only as God allows that His saints may be touched, as was the case with Job). After the church is wasted, left for dead and unburied (symbolic for great disrespect and hostility), the Spirit of life entered them and they stood on their feet, striking terror into the hearts of their killers, and then the great voice from Heaven shouts to them, “Come up here!”, and they are raised to be with Christ – a pure and simple cameo shot of the genuine rapture, which takes place when the 7[SUP]th[/SUP] trumpet sounds, and the end arrives with a terrible shaking of the world.
But the visions continue and we see the beast from the sea and the beast from the land, persecuting antichristian governments and lethally deceiving antichristian philosophies and religions respectively, ensnare in their demonic power all those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life from before the foundation of the world. The saints are spiritually protected from being harmed by them.
Again and again – in what is called recapitulation and parallelism – we see visions of God’s bringing judgment on the persecuting idolators and protection and care upon His suffering people. In chapters 15 and 16 we are introduced to the seven bowls, or vials, containing God’s full and final wrath, and which are then poured upon the earth – intensity of wrath in response to the intensity of persecution upon His people.
------------
Amillennialism – and a modified or eclectic idealism
In its pure form (which I do not hold to), idealism does not tie the prophecies of Revelation to any particular post-NT event. Instead, it sees them as “basic principles on which God acts throughout history” (Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, p. 28). Thus, these principles relate to people of every generation.
Millard Erickson describes it this way, “the idealist or symbolic interpretation dehistoricizes these events, making them purely symbolic of truths that are timeless in character” (Erickson, A Basic Guide to Eschatology, p. 98). They are “timeless . . . truths about the nature of reality or human existence that either are continuously present or continually recur” (Ibid. 30). Please note that the idealist view of Amillennialism taught in this class is not the “pure” idealism! We will see that what Beale terms “modified” or “eclectic” idealism does refer to actual historical events, though on a far lesser scale than Dispensationalism.
In a nutshell (for this will be expanded upon throughout the classes) a-millennialism linguistically means “no millennium”, referring to the premil teaching that there will be a literal 1,000-year period when Jesus supposedly comes to the earth (before His second coming in judgment to usher in eternity) and supposedly reigns from earthly Jerusalem, with a rebuilt earthly temple. Amil means a denial of this sort of millennium. Rather, it affirms that the millennium referred to in Revelation 20 – the “thousand years” – is a symbolic number indicating a period encompassing almost all of the New Testament church age, from Christ’s first coming to shortly before His second coming. 1,000 is a number – 10 to the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] power – signifying completeness, fulness to the nth degree, and we see the number 10 used symbolically elsewhere in Revelation. 1,000 is used in a similar fashion in Psalm 50:10: “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” This does not mean the cattle on only a thousand hills, but all the hills of the world, indeed all the world. We will see the remarkable use of numbers to symbolically convey extremely significant things, time-wise and otherwise, in our look at Revelation.
Within this context – the entire NT church age – all the visions of Revelation fall into place, and it becomes a comprehensible whole.
Combining the Insights of the Schools – Vern Poythress
All the schools except the historicist school have considerable merit. Can we somehow combine them? If we start with the idealist approach, it is relatively easy. The images in Revelation enjoy multiple fulfillments. They do so because they embody a general pattern. The arguments in favor of futurism show convincingly that Revelation is interested in the Second Coming and the immediately preceding final crisis (cf. 2 Thess. 2:1-12). But fulfillment in the final crisis does not eliminate earlier instances of the general pattern. We have both a general pattern and a particular embodiment of the pattern in the final crisis.
Likewise, the arguments in favor of preterism show convincingly that Revelation is interested in the seven churches and their historical situation. The symbols thus have a particular embodiment in the first century, and we ought to pay attention to this embodiment.
Finally we have a responsibility to apply the message of Revelation to our own situation, because we are somewhere in church history, somewhere in the interadvental period to which the book applies. Here is the grain of truth in the historicist approach.
We can sum up these insights in a single combined picture. The major symbols of Revelation represent a repeated pattern. This pattern has a realization in the first-century situation of the seven churches. It also has a realization in the final crisis. And it has its embodiment now. We pay special attention to the embodiment now, because we must apply the lessons of Revelation to where we are. (Vern Poythress, The Returning King: A Guide to the Book of Revelation, p. 37)
The Idealist View – G.K. Beale
The idealist approach affirms that Revelation is a symbolic portrayal of the conflict between good and evil, between the forces of God and Satan. The most radical form of this view holds that the book is a timeless depiction of this struggle. The problem with this alternative is that it holds revelation does not depict any final consummation to history, whether in God’s final victory or in a last judgment of the realm of evil. The idealist notion encounters the opposite problem facing the preterist and historicist views, since it identifies none of the book’s symbols with particular historical events.
The View of This [Beale’s] Commentary: Eclecticism, or a Redemptive-Historical Form of Modified Idealism
A more viable, modified version of the idealist perspective would acknowledge a final consummation in salvation and judgment. Perhaps it would be best to call this fifth view “eclecticism.” Accordingly, no specific prophesied historical events are discerned in the book, except for the final coming of Christ to deliver and judge and to establish the final form of the kingdom in a consummated new creation — even though there are a few exceptions to this rule (E.g., 2:10, 22 and 3:9-10, which are unconditional prophecies to be fulfilled imminently in the specific local churches of Smyrna, Thyatira, and Philadelphia). The Apocalypse symbolically portrays events throughout history, which is understood to be under the sovereignty of the Lamb as a result of his death and resurrection. He will guide the events depicted until they finally issue in the last judgment and the definitive establishment of his kingdom. This means that specific events throughout the age extending from Christ’s first coming to his second may be identified with one narrative or symbol. We may call this age inaugurated by Christ’s first coming and concluded by his final appearance “the church age,” “the interadvental age,” or “the latter days.” The majority of the symbols in the book are transtemporal in the sense that they are applicable to event throughout the “church age” (see the section below on “Interpretation of Symbolism”).
Therefore, the historicists may sometimes be right in their precise historical identification, but wrong in limiting the identification only to one historical reality. The same verdict may be passed on the preterist school of thought, especially the Roman version. And certainly there are prophecies of the future in Revelation. The crucial yet problematic task of the interpreter is to identify through careful exegesis and against the historical background those texts which pertain respectively to past, present, and future.
The present commentary fits most within the overall interpretive framework of such past commentaries as Caird, Johnson, Sweet, and above all Hendriksen and Wilcock. (G.K. Beale, New International Greek Testament Commentary: Revelation, pp 48, 49, the section of the Introduction, Major Interpretive Approaches)
Why getting it right – or wrong – matters: Understand the times, fruitful labors, or: Unprepared, wrong focus.
If one holds to the premil view, we’ll expect to be raptured out before the serious tribulation starts (though there are views within their fold, such as mid-trib, and pre-wrath, both of which go through some tribulation), and how one prepares one’s mind – and life – would be different than if one were postmil, expecting things to generally get better and the Christians in it for the very long haul. For the postmil, one would see the secular culture as a field to be sown with the Word of God and spiritual labors with the expectation of that culture becoming “Christianized” and bearing at least outward observance of God’s Law. One would be devoting one’s life and energy to infusing the Mosaic Law into the political-legal arena, with the expectation of its becoming the law of the land.
For the amil, or one holding that the present age is the millennial period, we see that we are in a worsening world, with the main threats either intense worldly seduction from an increasingly antichristian culture, and/or persecution from hostile ruling authorities – with no hope of these things getting better, not in the long run, though there could be short-term improvements. We fight for justice for the downtrodden and speak for those with no voice, even though we go against the grain when we do it in Christ’s name. The focus for the amil is that we
“may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life...” (Philippians 2:15, 16)
To the amil the Kingdom of God to be secured and sustained is the church, not the culture or the political arena, though one may speak to the culture, whether by Christian witness, works of art and literature, or works of mercy, calling those who love the truth out of the power of darkness and into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. Ditto with the political-legal arena – one may seek to influence those therein to uphold God’s agenda of righteousness and compassion, and to become disciples of Christ, but the amil does not desire build the Kingdom of God in and of the worldly institutions of culture, law and politics.
To the amil the church is the manifestation of God’s Kingdom and rule in this world, and the House in which He lives. I suppose one’s eschatological view will seriously affect one’s attitude to the culture, politics, and the areas of one’s heartfelt labors. It will also affect one’s expectations of suffering-to-come, and preparing one’s mind and heart in that regard.
I do think that having a suspended judgment is wise till one is confident one has a sound view. And it does seem that John (or rather the Spirit of Christ through him) assumes we can understand His revelation to the churches, both then, and now, as the principles and dynamics operating revealed remain valid throughout the age:
“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” (Rev 1:3)
There is a blessing to those who undertake to comprehend, and it is not small, but substantial. If the early church could understand Revelation, and they could, so can we.
Why did the Lord give us the Book of Revelation? : Encouragement in affliction; warning in dangers. How applicable is it to us in the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century?
For one thing, it shows us He is utterly in control, and He loves us as we bravely suffer for His name and His cause, bearing the cross, even as He told us to. We need not fear the powers of men and governments.
We are warned of many dangers, which are seen in the seven letters, and in the activities of the beasts and harlot. Both idolatry – loving things of the world more than God – and fear of man who forbids and punishes those giving first loyalty to God are weapons of Satan against us, and God strengthens and encourages His saints who yield to neither of them. This conflict is depicted throughout Revelation.
The phenomena of recapitulation and parallelism show that the dynamics of trials of the saints and the judgments on their persecutors in John’s day are repeated all through the church age, greatly intensifying at the very end.
There may be periods of relative peace for the people of God, but the underlying conflict between Christ and His people and Satan and his is a constant, and may flare up suddenly. We should not be surprised at this.
Welcome to PB. Below I have cut-and-pasted from a series of handouts I gave to folks in a class I just finished teaching on the Book of Revelation. Hopefully you can glean from these excerpts some information valuable to you.
Revelation – and eschatology in general – has been made confusing and difficult because of various competing views clouding the mental atmosphere. It ought not be so.
The “millennium” – the “thousand years” spoken of in Revelation 20 – signifies the entire New Testament church age. From the very first verse of Revelation the text itself declares its own genre, that being apocalyptic using symbols to reveal dynamics, events, and characters throughout the NT church age.
The 1,000 years in Rev 20 signify the same time-frame as the 1,260 days / 42 months / 3½ years do in Rev chapters 11, 12, and 13 – this is briefly discussed below.
I hope the excerpts are helpful and not confusing! Please feel free to ask any questions you have, and I’ll try to answer them.
If you want a good Amil book that relatively briefly and very clearly goes through Revelation, I would suggest Dennis E. Johnson’s, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation.
------------
As we are about to look at the vision-cycles of chapter 6 and onward, it will be needful to give an overview of the general vision – the setting – the entire book is based upon, and all its events are contained within. This will be brief and not drawn-out.
We have looked at the various schemas used to interpret Revelation, and have settled upon the one that includes all the churches from John’s day to the end of the age, excluding none. This means that the book and its vital – urgent – counsel was as much for the church in Smyrna in 100 A.D. as it was for the churches of the Waldenses in the mountains of Europe in 1,000 A.D., and for the churches in our contemporary world of 2013 A.D. The Amillennial – aka the present “millennial” reign of Jesus Christ from heaven – is the only view that does not exclude large segments of the age-long church from the blessings of wisdom and courage promised the readers and keepers of the prophecies of Revelation.
Only in the context of the entire NT church age do the details of the visions fit into perfect place. Starting in chapter 6 we have the first of the three vision-cycles of God’s sovereign warnings and judgments – the seven seals – opened / administrated by the Lamb. The dynamics revealed in these seals – saints persecuted for their witness to Christ and His kingdom, warning judgments visited upon the earth as a result of the saints’ prayers, and God’s wrath on the “earth-dwellers” for not heeding the warnings – extend throughout the age, intensifying as the age progresses and the end draws near.
------------
In chapter 11 we see the church under the guise of three new symbolic images, the temple, the holy city (New Jerusalem), and the two witnesses. As the temple (and the altar within it) they are measured – a sign of protection and God’s presence (taken from Ezekiel 40-48); as the outer court and the holy city they are vulnerable to being “trampled under foot”, i.e., persecuted, and as the witnesses they give legally valid testimony regarding Jesus Christ and God’s salvation offered through Him, and the coming judgment upon all who spurn this mercy and choose instead lives of wickedness in following the beast and harlot.
Of particular importance are the time symbols used in this chapter: 1,260 days, and 42 months, both equaling 3½ years (based on the Jewish 30-day months), for they coincide exactly with the time parameters used in chapter 12 of how long the woman clothed in the sun and wearing a crown of 12 stars (Israel, who is then transformed into the Christian church after the man child she gave birth to is caught up to heaven) is given to survive in spiritual safety from the dragon under God’s care in the wilderness. In chapter 13, the second revealing of the beast (the first was when he overpowered the two witnesses in chapter 11), we are told that he was given to war against the saints for 42 months, and then kill them.
It should be noted that in these three chapters, 11, 12, and 13, the same time indicators are given for the length of time the witnesses prophesy of God’s plan (the entire church age), the time allotted to the world to “trample” the church (the entire church age), the time period the church is fed and protected by God in the wilderness (the entire church age), and how long the devil is given to war against the saints (the entire church age). “3½ years” is a period familiar to the Jews and those who know Jewish history as indicating intense suffering while the word of God is manifested in power (cf Elijah’s 3½ year drought; Antiochus Epiphanes’ 3½ year defiling of the temple; Jesus’ 3½ year time of ministry).
In chapter 11, after the period of time the witnessing church fulfills her mission (all the elect of God brought into the fold through the preaching of the gospel, and the world warned of impending judgment except they repent), the beast is given to war against them and kill them (note the “given”, for it is only as God allows that His saints may be touched, as was the case with Job). After the church is wasted, left for dead and unburied (symbolic for great disrespect and hostility), the Spirit of life entered them and they stood on their feet, striking terror into the hearts of their killers, and then the great voice from Heaven shouts to them, “Come up here!”, and they are raised to be with Christ – a pure and simple cameo shot of the genuine rapture, which takes place when the 7[SUP]th[/SUP] trumpet sounds, and the end arrives with a terrible shaking of the world.
But the visions continue and we see the beast from the sea and the beast from the land, persecuting antichristian governments and lethally deceiving antichristian philosophies and religions respectively, ensnare in their demonic power all those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life from before the foundation of the world. The saints are spiritually protected from being harmed by them.
Again and again – in what is called recapitulation and parallelism – we see visions of God’s bringing judgment on the persecuting idolators and protection and care upon His suffering people. In chapters 15 and 16 we are introduced to the seven bowls, or vials, containing God’s full and final wrath, and which are then poured upon the earth – intensity of wrath in response to the intensity of persecution upon His people.
------------
Amillennialism – and a modified or eclectic idealism
In its pure form (which I do not hold to), idealism does not tie the prophecies of Revelation to any particular post-NT event. Instead, it sees them as “basic principles on which God acts throughout history” (Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, p. 28). Thus, these principles relate to people of every generation.
Millard Erickson describes it this way, “the idealist or symbolic interpretation dehistoricizes these events, making them purely symbolic of truths that are timeless in character” (Erickson, A Basic Guide to Eschatology, p. 98). They are “timeless . . . truths about the nature of reality or human existence that either are continuously present or continually recur” (Ibid. 30). Please note that the idealist view of Amillennialism taught in this class is not the “pure” idealism! We will see that what Beale terms “modified” or “eclectic” idealism does refer to actual historical events, though on a far lesser scale than Dispensationalism.
In a nutshell (for this will be expanded upon throughout the classes) a-millennialism linguistically means “no millennium”, referring to the premil teaching that there will be a literal 1,000-year period when Jesus supposedly comes to the earth (before His second coming in judgment to usher in eternity) and supposedly reigns from earthly Jerusalem, with a rebuilt earthly temple. Amil means a denial of this sort of millennium. Rather, it affirms that the millennium referred to in Revelation 20 – the “thousand years” – is a symbolic number indicating a period encompassing almost all of the New Testament church age, from Christ’s first coming to shortly before His second coming. 1,000 is a number – 10 to the 10[SUP]th[/SUP] power – signifying completeness, fulness to the nth degree, and we see the number 10 used symbolically elsewhere in Revelation. 1,000 is used in a similar fashion in Psalm 50:10: “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” This does not mean the cattle on only a thousand hills, but all the hills of the world, indeed all the world. We will see the remarkable use of numbers to symbolically convey extremely significant things, time-wise and otherwise, in our look at Revelation.
Within this context – the entire NT church age – all the visions of Revelation fall into place, and it becomes a comprehensible whole.
Combining the Insights of the Schools – Vern Poythress
All the schools except the historicist school have considerable merit. Can we somehow combine them? If we start with the idealist approach, it is relatively easy. The images in Revelation enjoy multiple fulfillments. They do so because they embody a general pattern. The arguments in favor of futurism show convincingly that Revelation is interested in the Second Coming and the immediately preceding final crisis (cf. 2 Thess. 2:1-12). But fulfillment in the final crisis does not eliminate earlier instances of the general pattern. We have both a general pattern and a particular embodiment of the pattern in the final crisis.
Likewise, the arguments in favor of preterism show convincingly that Revelation is interested in the seven churches and their historical situation. The symbols thus have a particular embodiment in the first century, and we ought to pay attention to this embodiment.
Finally we have a responsibility to apply the message of Revelation to our own situation, because we are somewhere in church history, somewhere in the interadvental period to which the book applies. Here is the grain of truth in the historicist approach.
We can sum up these insights in a single combined picture. The major symbols of Revelation represent a repeated pattern. This pattern has a realization in the first-century situation of the seven churches. It also has a realization in the final crisis. And it has its embodiment now. We pay special attention to the embodiment now, because we must apply the lessons of Revelation to where we are. (Vern Poythress, The Returning King: A Guide to the Book of Revelation, p. 37)
The Idealist View – G.K. Beale
The idealist approach affirms that Revelation is a symbolic portrayal of the conflict between good and evil, between the forces of God and Satan. The most radical form of this view holds that the book is a timeless depiction of this struggle. The problem with this alternative is that it holds revelation does not depict any final consummation to history, whether in God’s final victory or in a last judgment of the realm of evil. The idealist notion encounters the opposite problem facing the preterist and historicist views, since it identifies none of the book’s symbols with particular historical events.
The View of This [Beale’s] Commentary: Eclecticism, or a Redemptive-Historical Form of Modified Idealism
A more viable, modified version of the idealist perspective would acknowledge a final consummation in salvation and judgment. Perhaps it would be best to call this fifth view “eclecticism.” Accordingly, no specific prophesied historical events are discerned in the book, except for the final coming of Christ to deliver and judge and to establish the final form of the kingdom in a consummated new creation — even though there are a few exceptions to this rule (E.g., 2:10, 22 and 3:9-10, which are unconditional prophecies to be fulfilled imminently in the specific local churches of Smyrna, Thyatira, and Philadelphia). The Apocalypse symbolically portrays events throughout history, which is understood to be under the sovereignty of the Lamb as a result of his death and resurrection. He will guide the events depicted until they finally issue in the last judgment and the definitive establishment of his kingdom. This means that specific events throughout the age extending from Christ’s first coming to his second may be identified with one narrative or symbol. We may call this age inaugurated by Christ’s first coming and concluded by his final appearance “the church age,” “the interadvental age,” or “the latter days.” The majority of the symbols in the book are transtemporal in the sense that they are applicable to event throughout the “church age” (see the section below on “Interpretation of Symbolism”).
Therefore, the historicists may sometimes be right in their precise historical identification, but wrong in limiting the identification only to one historical reality. The same verdict may be passed on the preterist school of thought, especially the Roman version. And certainly there are prophecies of the future in Revelation. The crucial yet problematic task of the interpreter is to identify through careful exegesis and against the historical background those texts which pertain respectively to past, present, and future.
The present commentary fits most within the overall interpretive framework of such past commentaries as Caird, Johnson, Sweet, and above all Hendriksen and Wilcock. (G.K. Beale, New International Greek Testament Commentary: Revelation, pp 48, 49, the section of the Introduction, Major Interpretive Approaches)
Why getting it right – or wrong – matters: Understand the times, fruitful labors, or: Unprepared, wrong focus.
If one holds to the premil view, we’ll expect to be raptured out before the serious tribulation starts (though there are views within their fold, such as mid-trib, and pre-wrath, both of which go through some tribulation), and how one prepares one’s mind – and life – would be different than if one were postmil, expecting things to generally get better and the Christians in it for the very long haul. For the postmil, one would see the secular culture as a field to be sown with the Word of God and spiritual labors with the expectation of that culture becoming “Christianized” and bearing at least outward observance of God’s Law. One would be devoting one’s life and energy to infusing the Mosaic Law into the political-legal arena, with the expectation of its becoming the law of the land.
For the amil, or one holding that the present age is the millennial period, we see that we are in a worsening world, with the main threats either intense worldly seduction from an increasingly antichristian culture, and/or persecution from hostile ruling authorities – with no hope of these things getting better, not in the long run, though there could be short-term improvements. We fight for justice for the downtrodden and speak for those with no voice, even though we go against the grain when we do it in Christ’s name. The focus for the amil is that we
“may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life...” (Philippians 2:15, 16)
To the amil the Kingdom of God to be secured and sustained is the church, not the culture or the political arena, though one may speak to the culture, whether by Christian witness, works of art and literature, or works of mercy, calling those who love the truth out of the power of darkness and into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. Ditto with the political-legal arena – one may seek to influence those therein to uphold God’s agenda of righteousness and compassion, and to become disciples of Christ, but the amil does not desire build the Kingdom of God in and of the worldly institutions of culture, law and politics.
To the amil the church is the manifestation of God’s Kingdom and rule in this world, and the House in which He lives. I suppose one’s eschatological view will seriously affect one’s attitude to the culture, politics, and the areas of one’s heartfelt labors. It will also affect one’s expectations of suffering-to-come, and preparing one’s mind and heart in that regard.
I do think that having a suspended judgment is wise till one is confident one has a sound view. And it does seem that John (or rather the Spirit of Christ through him) assumes we can understand His revelation to the churches, both then, and now, as the principles and dynamics operating revealed remain valid throughout the age:
“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” (Rev 1:3)
There is a blessing to those who undertake to comprehend, and it is not small, but substantial. If the early church could understand Revelation, and they could, so can we.
Why did the Lord give us the Book of Revelation? : Encouragement in affliction; warning in dangers. How applicable is it to us in the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century?
For one thing, it shows us He is utterly in control, and He loves us as we bravely suffer for His name and His cause, bearing the cross, even as He told us to. We need not fear the powers of men and governments.
We are warned of many dangers, which are seen in the seven letters, and in the activities of the beasts and harlot. Both idolatry – loving things of the world more than God – and fear of man who forbids and punishes those giving first loyalty to God are weapons of Satan against us, and God strengthens and encourages His saints who yield to neither of them. This conflict is depicted throughout Revelation.
The phenomena of recapitulation and parallelism show that the dynamics of trials of the saints and the judgments on their persecutors in John’s day are repeated all through the church age, greatly intensifying at the very end.
There may be periods of relative peace for the people of God, but the underlying conflict between Christ and His people and Satan and his is a constant, and may flare up suddenly. We should not be surprised at this.
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