Bible Discussion Thread

INTRODUCTION TO REVELATION (Part 7):

IX. METHODS OF INTERPRETING REVELATION:

There are various methods of interpretation. We will find out that John was told to write in symbols what he saw. The symbols aren't really anything new to the Jewish mind, but they are to us.

But there are people who have different systems and methods of interpreting the book of Revelation:

1) THE SPIRITUAL METHOD:

They allegorize everything. And they allegorize it as a symbolic picture of the struggle between the church and evil throughout the present age. That is, whatever age in which we live, it's just symbolic of the church's struggle against evil.

2) THE PRETERIST METHOD:

This is very popular in our day. This method presents the events that happened in the past, and the events of the present day in which it was written. This method depicts the struggle between the church and Rome.

And you might ask how do we know which is which? Well, right up above, we have the representation of that outline. If the spiritualists say that this is all the battle between good and evil in our day, we've got the things which thou hast seen in the past, the things which are in the present, and the things which shall be, that is, in the future.

So, these are not present things. The things that are present are present in John's day.

So, if the method of interpretation doesn't fit in with Revelation 1:19, which gives us the outline of the book, then it is not the correct method.

The Preterists depict it as a struggle between the church and Rome, and they only deal with past and present events. But what about the future? They say there's no future events happening, that it's all now, and it's between the struggle between us and Rome.