Guided Reading Course
Session 23: The Future (I): The Return of Christ and the Millennium
“Come, Lord Jesus” – The Apostle John (Rev 22:20)
We’re now into the realm of theology which is highly debated and keenly felt. I’m going to ask you to
leave preconceptions and emotions at the door and read with brains critically engaged. If you have a
long-held and dearly cherished view remember sola Scriptura – go back with an open Bible and
consider other positions charitably. The goal of this session is not to arrive at a firmly held view, but
rather to have a greater appreciation of the various views such that we hold our own with an open
hand.
Grudem, ST, (pp. 1091-1139)
1. What are the various signs which will precede Christ’s coming (pp. 1097-99)?
2. Much of this debate is about hermeneutics. Read the attached summary of 4 broad
approaches.1 How would the various schools interpret the signs?
3. Which of Grudem’s three solutions do you prefer? Why? (pp. 1099-1101)
1
These approaches are most commonly used in the interpretation of Revelation, but they spill over into
passages such as the Olivet discourse and 1-2 Thess.
4. Outline the basic meaning of (pp. 1109-1114):
a. Amillennialism
b. Premillennialism
c. Postmillennialism
5. Give the Scriptural arguments for and against each position:
For
Against
Amill
Premill
Postmill
B.B.Warfield, Biblical and Theological Studies (pp. 334-50)
Warfield was professor of theology at Princeton between 1887-1921. He’s widely considered one of
the most influential evangelical theologians of the last 150 years. This essay is a stimulating piece
considering gospel progress before Christ returns.
1. Evaluate Warfield’s argument regarding the paucitas salvandorum (the paucity of the saved)
2. Which interpretative/millenarian camp would you put Warfield in?
From “Interpreting Revelation” by Cornelis Venema2
The Futurist Approach
The futurist approach to the book of Revelation regards the visions of chapters 4–22 as
referring to events that lie in the future, events that will occur immediately prior to Christ’s
second coming and the end of history. Many, though not all, futurists are premillennialists
and dispensationalists. For dispensational futurists, most of the events in the visions of
Revelation will occur during a future period of tribulation subsequent to the rapture and
removal of the church from the earth, during which God’s program for national Israel will
resume. For example, many dispensationalists believe the vision of Satan’s defeat in
Revelation 12 does not describe the inauguration of Christ’s kingdom at His first coming but
Satan’s defeat at the midpoint of a future seven-year period of tribulation after the church
is raptured.
The strength of futurism is its recognition that the book of Revelation teaches continued, and
even increased, suffering for the people of God before the end of history. Futurism also
properly emphasizes that the ultimate triumph of Christ and His people will occur only at the
second coming of Christ. The weakness of the futurist approach is that it views the bulk of
the book of Revelation as describing events in a distant future. Consequently, much of the
book had little direct relevance for those persecuted believers to whom the book was
originally addressed.
The Preterist Approach
Preterism, as its name implies (deriving from a Latin root for “past”), takes the opposite tack
of futurism. In this approach, the book of Revelation primarily refers to events that occurred
in the past, either in the period prior to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70 or
in the early Christian centuries leading up to the destruction of the Roman Empire in the
fifth century AD. For preterists, the language of Revelation 1:1 (“the things that must soon
take place”) establishes a time frame for the entire book. The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which John the Apostle was given on the isle of Patmos, is a disclosure of events that were
imminent at the time of the book’s writing and that now lie in the past. Just as the seven
letters to the churches of Asia Minor were addressed to actual churches in the first century,
so the remainder of the book spoke to the members of these churches of events and
circumstances that would soon occur. Only in chapters 21–22, in the vision of the new
heaven and earth, do we find a prophecy of events still lying in the future.
An obvious strength of preterism is its recognition that Revelation does speak of events that
“must soon take place,” not events in a distant future, far removed from the circumstance of
the early church. Preterism properly focuses on the relevance of the book’s teaching to its
first recipients, the church of the first century. The problem with a consistently preterist
reading of Revelation, however, is that the book becomes largely irrelevant to the present
struggles of the church or its expectation for the future fulfillment of God’s promises.
The Historicist Approach
The historicist approach reads the book of Revelation as a visionary symbolization of the
sequence of events that will occur throughout the course of the history of the church, from
Christ’s first coming until His second coming at the end of the present age. Historicist
interpreters of the book typically read its visions as a presentation in chronological order of
the most significant developments in the history of redemption, from the time of its writing
until the second coming, the millennium, the last judgment, and the final state. These visions
correspond to actual events, institutions, or people that play an important role in the
historical accomplishment of God’s redemptive purposes. A wellknown illustration of an
historicist reading of the book of Revelation is the Reformation identification of the harlot
Babylon in Revelation 17 with the Roman Catholic Church and the papacy. A less well-known
historicist interpretation is the medieval church’s identification of the Beast from the sea in
Revelation 13 with the rise of Islam.
2
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/interpreting-revelation/
The strength of historicism lies in its recognition that the visions of Revelation do refer to
events that were occurring at the time of its original writing and throughout the history of
the church until Christ’s second coming. A weakness of historicism lies in its assumption that
the visions of Revelation reflect a simple chronological sequence of events rather than
presentations of the same events from different angles of vision.
The Idealist Approach
The idealist approach differs from the first three approaches in its reluctance to identify any
particular historical events, institutions, or people with the visions of the book of Revelation.
Sometimes called “iterism,” this approach views the visions of Revelation as a portrayal of
the church’s struggle throughout the entire period between the first and second comings of
Christ. Idealism acknowledges that the book of Revelation was originally written to
encourage the early church in its struggles under religious and political persecution. But it
also maintains that the letters to the seven churches and the visions of the book reflect
circumstances that characterize the entire church age, from Christ’s first coming until His
return at the end of the present age. Whereas futurists, preterists, and historicists identify
the harlot Babylon in Revelation 17 with an endtime, first–century, or historical figure,
respectively, idealists argue that Babylon symbolizes a variety of political and religious forms
of opposition to the church and the gospel that recur throughout history.