Any study of the book of Revelation presents a daunting challenge for both the analyst/author/teacher and the student. The book is almost like a giant 2000 piece puzzle. Even knowing where to start is a challenge. It seems that the puzzle is not a rectangle. Scholars cannot even agree on the shape of the puzzle or the number of pieces that make it up. Even when you think you might have the puzzle all put together you are not really sure. Most who study Revelation fall into a relatively small number of camps. I personally fall into what is called the pretribulational pre-millennial camp, although I disagree with some of their teachers on interpretation of a few details concerning the judgments in Revelation. Pretribulational pre-millennialists generally believe the following:

• That there will be a rapture of believers in Jesus to heaven sometime before the Second Coming of Jesus, likely at the beginning of the seven year tribulation period, but possibly at the midpoint of the tribulation, and maybe even at both times.
• That the Second Coming of Jesus precedes the millennium and is at the end of a time of great tribulation on earth.
• That the millennium is a literal future time period that will take place on earth.
• That Jesus will reign as king of kings during the millennium, that many Jews will become believers in Jesus during the tribulation and that the Jews will be given the land promised to them by God in Gen 15:18.
• That references to Israel in Revelation refer to the nation of Israel.

Revelation chapter 1 gives a very high level outline of the whole book. It tells us that chapter 1 deals with things that had already happened at the time of the books writing, chapters 2-3 deal with things that were concurrent with the book being written and chapters 4-22 deal with the future. In studying Revelation we see that chapters 4-22 are about end time events preceding and following the Second Coming of Christ. It is these chapters that are most controversial in their interpretation. I had already eliminated some interpretations from my mind before beginning this study. For example there are those who view Revelation as being fulfilled in the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. That makes no sense to me because Revelation says that these chapters were yet future and John had not written about them until about 25 years after 70 AD. Others attempt to completely allegorize Revelation and say that there will be no future literal fulfillment of Revelation, and that we are already in the millennium. That interpretation simply does not fit the model of the first coming of Jesus, which was literal. The first and second comings of Jesus are presented in similar ways in the Old Testament. If the first coming was literal then I must believe that the second coming will also be literal.

Is there any possibility that some of the events of Rev 4-22 have already been fulfilled? It certainly does not appear to me that any of the material presented in those chapters has been fulfilled with the exception that many of the symbols used in Revelation have their roots in historical (or prophetic) Old Testament events. Also the Bible is full of repeating models of the first and second comings of Jesus. Some of this could also be called double or multiple fulfillment of prophecy. We will next give some examples of this.

• In Hosea 11:1 God is speaking of Israel as the son he called out of Egypt. Matt 2:15 relates this same passage to Jesus being called out of Egypt. Many Old Testament passages had double meaning and double application. There is a symbolic parallel in the history of Israel and events in the life of Jesus. This is apparent in many of the Old Testament models of the gospel of Jesus. There is an interesting prophecy of the future of Israel in Gen 32:22-32. Here the Angel of the Lord, who is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus, comes to earth and wrestles all night with Jacob. The wrestling match is symbolic of the future history of Israel in which they would struggle with man and with God throughout the whole night time of their existence and yet overcame in the end. Jesus here changed Jacob’s name to Israel to symbolize this fact. It was only a symbolic change because Jacob continued to be called Jacob. In other cases where God changed a man’s name the change stuck with him for the rest of his life.
• There are scores of models in the Old Testament of Israel’s history being a model of the coming Messiah. One possible reason for this is that it facilitated the “blinding” of the Jews. They can easily read their Bible and see it representing them nationally or historically in the lives of individuals, and overlook the historic fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth. See the section titled Proof thru Prophecy, The fulfillment of Old Testament models in the gospel and life of Jesus for several examples of this. Other examples are noted below.
• In Ex 4:22 God speaks of Israel as his first born son. Jesus was literally his “first born son.”
• Isa 41:8-10 refers to Israel as a person, a servant. In Isa 42:1-7 the servant is spoken of as the Messiah.
• Isa 52 and 53 clearly are prophetic of key events in the life of Jesus. Jews interpret these passages nationally.
• Ps 16:8-11 is clearly prophetic of Jesus as preached by Peter in Acts 2:22-36 and 13:35. Yet David may also have believed that it applied to him during his lifetime. The same can also be said of Ps 110:1 as recorded in Acts 2:34-35, again by Peter.
• Other examples of the double application of prophecy include Jer 31:15 and Matt 2:16-18, and Ps 91:11-12 and Matt 4:4-6.
• Isa 61:-3 is a prophecy of Jesus first and second comings, given sequentially. Verse 1 through the middle of verse 2 applies to Jesus first coming, and the middle of verse 2 through the middle of verse 3 applies to Jesus second coming. Jesus said as much when he first preached in the synagogue in Nazareth as recorded in Luke 4:16-21.
• There is a prophecy in Mal 3:1 and 4:5-6 which has double fulfillment. This is apparent from Matt 11:14, 17:10-13, Mk 9:11-13, Lk 1:17. This double fulfillment involves the coming of John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus and the yet future reappearance of Elijah (the two witnesses came in the spirit of Elijah) in the Tribulation period. It can be said that Elijah has already returned but is yet to return.

Many of the symbols used in Revelation also seem to reflect the culture of John’s day. Understanding this requires serious study of extra-Biblical historical documents of the first and second centuries AD. We will not cover these. In this study I have generally restricted my interpretations to those things that can be found in the Bible. To me the evidence is overwhelming that Rev chapters 4-22 cover the time period of seven years before the Second Coming through the millennium and into our final existence in the new heaven and new earth.

Revelation is simply full of figurative language. That means that it is full of symbols which represent something analogous. For example, the beast is an empire and at the same time an evil, ferocious, powerful man and the sea represents a mass of humanity. In some cases it can be very difficult to determine whether or not words of phrases used in Revelation are meant to be taken literally or to be interpreted symbolically. In most cases I have tended to lean toward a symbolic intent or meaning for words or phrases for which the intent is not clear. For example, when John mentions the sea of glass surrounding the throne of God he may be speaking literally or he may be using that phrase to represent something far different from a sea of glass. He could be saying that the area surrounding the throne was a vast area that looked to him to be like very clear glass or he could be saying that the throne was surrounded by a sea of humanity who had been washed as clear and clean as glass by the blood of Jesus. In nearly every case I go with the symbolic interpretation; more so that other scholars that I am familiar with. Many studies tend to read over these symbolic phrases and not address them. It is easy to understand why that is so. It is very difficult to understand what might be intended. However, there are many clues given in Revelation and throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, which point toward the meaning of the symbols. I have attempted to find these clues and use them to make an interpretation. I have included a symbology dictionary containing about 125 symbolic words from my study of Revelation and their possible meaning as part of this effort.

OVERVIEW OF VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF END TIME PROPHECIES

WHY ARE THERE SEVERAL DIFFERING VIEWS OF BIBLICAL END TIME PROPHECY?

There are several differing views and interpretations of end time prophecy as presented in the Bible. There are several reasons for these widely varying interpretations and views of end time prophecy among Bible believing Christians. Many of these spring from how one views the Bible:

1. Is it the inerrant word of God?
2. Who wrote the Bible and when did they write it?
3. Who is God and does he have a plan for mankind?
4. Is there an authority on earth who can tell us how we should interpret the Bible?

Other reasons include the following:

1. Prophecy is largely written in allegorical and figurative language. It is sometimes difficult to determine whether is passage is to be taken literally or allegorically. Also it can be very difficult to determine what the symbolic language stands for or whether in fact a symbolic or literal meaning is implied.
2. Understanding Bible prophecy takes a huge investment in time. It is spread across the entire Bible and deeply understanding any part of it may require a vast and deep knowledge of the entirety of Bible prophecy.
3. God made each of us to be unique. Some of our differences are innate and some are learned. All of us seem to have blind spots in certain areas and they vary from person to person. Our individual make up determines how we see the world, and thus how we might see Bible prophecy and how it should be interpreted.
4. Most of us seem to believe what we have read or been taught and do not seriously question it.

Since there are so many possible ways for people to interpret Bible prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled, is there some way that we can determine which interpretation might be best? I believe that there is a way to do this. It seems to me that we already have a long written record of previously fulfilled Bible prophecy, so we should carefully examine that record to see how it was fulfilled. This is what we seem to see. Already fulfilled prophecies of the first coming of Jesus and many other events often used symbolic language but they were fulfilled literally. It seems to me that if we use those fulfillments as a model, we will have the best chance of understanding future yet unfilled prophecies. We should expect end time prophecies to be fulfilled literally, yet understand that the symbols and allegories that are often used may be difficult to understand. We should seek to understand how those symbols and allegories might have been used in other places in the Bible and expect God to use them in a similar way again since the Bible is so very consistent. Also, Jesus indicated in Matt 26:54, Mark 14:49 and John 18:9 that prophecies must be fulfilled exactly as they appear in the scriptures.

We will next take a closer look at how allegories and symbolic language are used in the Bible since they play a key role in how we interpret prophecies that are fulfilled after Jesus ascension and into the end times. Also see Proof thru Prophecy, Understanding Biblical Prophecy for additional insight into how to understand Biblical prophecy.

ALLEGORIES AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN THE BIBLE

Apocalyptical Literature: Books about events regarding the end of the world, including the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God. In the Bible this includes the book of Revelation.

Allegorical Interpretation of Scriptures: Looking beyond the literal meaning of the text to find a second or hidden meaning. An allegory is a story in which people, things and events have another meaning. This was widely used in the early Church but is not used much today because of past abuses. This includes parables, models, types, illustrations and patterns. These types of hidden meaning in Old Testament events are mentioned many times in the New Testament. See Rom 5:12-14; Heb 8:3-5, 9:6-10, 23-24, 10:1; Col 2:16-17; Gal 3:6-9; 2 Pet 2:6; Zech 3:8; Matt 12:39-41, 13:36-43. This was particularly true of the parables; see Matt 13:34-35 which fulfills Psalm 78:2. The mysteries spoken of so often in the New Testament generally involve allegorical interpretation. This includes the mystery of the gospel (Rom 16:25-27), the mystery of the church (Eph 3:2-6, 5:32), and the mystery of the Holy Spirit (Col 1:24-29, Jn 14:15-21). Jesus entrusted us with these hidden things of God and 1 Cor 4:1-2 says that for that reason we must be faithful to him.

Figurative Interpretation: The Bible is full of figures of speech and these should generally be interpreted symbolically rather than literally. A figure of speech is an expression that compares one thing to another to convey meaning or heighten the effect. In a figure of speech one thing is used to represent something different. For example, Jesus is often referred to as a lamb or as the Good Shepherd. In other places believers are referred to as the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16). In apocalyptical literature, the Bible often uses something akin to figurative language. We sometimes refer to this as coded text. The hidden meaning of the coded text is always found somewhere in the Bible, often in the Old Testament. For example, the four living creatures of Rev 4:6-8 are revealed in Ezek 1:4-14 and 10:20-22. Rev uses the terms “stars” and “seven lampstands” several times. In this instance the explanation of the symbology is given in Rev itself, in Rev 1:20.

A LOOK AT DIFFERING VIEWS OF THE END TIMES

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ONES INTERPRETATION OF END TIME PROPHECY

The interpretations of end time prophecy over the last 2000 years have varied according to several things:

Whether the descriptions of end time events in the Bible are interpreted literally, allegorically, figuratively, or otherwise and

Whether they are viewed as historical, current or future, including placement of the timing of the various events (the return of Jesus, the tribulation and the millennium).

The principal interpretations of end time prophecy can be placed into the categories shown below. There is a chart accompanying this study that summarizes these interpretations.

CATEGORIZING END TIME BELIEFS

• THE PROPHETIC EVENTS HAVE ALREADY TAKEN PLACE:Preterism. Many Protestant Bible scholars interpret some or all of the end time events as having already been fulfilled in the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD. A reading of the works of the first century Jewish historian Josephus can indeed be interpreted as describing a fulfillment of some of the end time events described in the Bible. However, there are many end time events in the Bible that were clearly not fulfilled in 70 AD. In my opinion, the events of 70 AD can be viewed as a partial model of the eventual complete fulfillment that still awaits the world.
• THE PROPHETIC EVENTS ARE CURRENTLY TAKING PLACE: There are three versions as follows:

Historicism: One viewpoint holds that we are currently in the tribulation period. It holds that the prophetic events of Revelation can be tied to specific wars, movements, etc. that have taken place over the last 1900 years; the last 1900 years have been the tribulation period and it is nearing its end. It seems that according to this viewpoint we are currently in the 6th bowl judgment and approaching Armageddon. This viewpoint was a popular Protestant viewpoint before about 1900 AD and is currently held by Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses.

Amillennialism: A second viewpoint holds that we are currently in the millennium. It is a figurative period only. Satan has already been bound up and sent to the Abyss with his angels and Jesus is living with us spiritually. We are already in the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. This was developed by Augustine and others and adopted by the Catholic Church as dogma in 431 AD. It is still the belief of the Catholic Church as well as the majority of Protestant denominations. At the Reformation in the 1500’s the Protestants split with the Catholic Church on the subject of salvation but did not initially address the issue of prophetic interpretation. This viewpoint is called “amillennialism” because there is no literal 1000 year millennium. The contention is that the rapture and Second Coming are the same event and occur at the end of the age. All believers then go to heaven and there is no “new heaven and new earth.”

Postmillennialism: A third viewpoint holds that the church will gradually succeed in making the world Christian and the world will eventually evolve back into a paradise, or millennium type of existence. Jesus will return at the end of the age and take all believers to heaven. This was a popular Protestant viewpoint from the 1700’s through the 1900’s. Taking stock of reality led to its death.

• THE PROPHETIC EVENTS WILL ALL TAKE PLACE IN THE FUTURE: This viewpoint says that the major end time prophetic events including the return of Jesus, the tribulation and millennium are yet future. There are two distinct versions of premillennialism as follows.

Historical Premillennialism: It holds that the rapture and Second Coming are the same event and come at the end of the seven year tribulation period, just before a literal 1000 year millennium. This was the prevailing viewpoint in the early church up until about 400 AD.

Pretribulational Premillennialism: This viewpoint was taught by some in the early church. It gained a renewed following among conservative Protestants early in the 1900’s and is the prevailing viewpoint of conservative and Evangelical Christians at the current time. It teaches that the rapture will precede the tribulation, the Second Coming will be at the end of the tribulation and it will usher in a literal 1000 year millennium followed by eternity in a new heaven and new earth.

• THE PROPHETIC EVENTS WILL NEVER TAKE PLACE: Some dismiss them partially or entirely.