Part 4 of 12 of the theme 'Lessons from Revelation ' by Gijs van den Brink
Last time we talked about different ways the book of Revelation is explained and discussed symbolic explanation. This week we want to mention some forms of prophetic explanation.
We can distinguish four types of prophetic approaches. But in all cases it involves a real fulfillment in history.
First, there is the contemporaneous or preterist approach (from the Latin praeter 'past'). All prophecies are fulfilled in the first century. Everything takes place in the time of John, the first century. This is the view of most modern liberal interpreters. They also usually regard the prophecies as ex eventu, written down after it happened in the form of a prophecy. This, of course, contradicts the fact of real visions, in which, therefore, people generally do not believe and regard the visions as a literary form. And so we get further and further from home.
Second, there is vision that the prophecies are have become fulfilled throughout history. The visions are then about church history, or world history. The course of history is supposed to be described and chronologically. So one reads history back into the book. This vision no longer has serious supporters in the last 100 years. In the 19e century commentary by Karl August Dächsel (1818-1901) you can still find this view in abundance.
Third, there is the futuristic explanation, also called the dispensationalist explanation. Everything after chapter 4 is about the time after the rapture of the church. Especially in America, but also in the Netherlands, this vision is still quite alive. A tight schedule is imposed on the Bible. Texts are then assigned to a certain period within the schedule. The schema here is going to determine the meaning of the Bible portion. This bias is not acceptable to me.
A fourth approach, however, is the salvation historical explanation mentioned. This is the classical orthodox approach. We have applied this approach in explaining the Study Bible commentaries.
This approach deals with both the prophet's own time and the future. This approach thus closes in on the preterist and futurist. We rejected those because the interpretation is then determined by a preconceived position. A salvation-historical reading of the prophecies also implies that the prophecies represent only highlights and not a conclusive chronology.
For John, there is no gap between his own time and the end times. Like the other apostles, John assumes that we have been living in the last days since the first coming of Jesus.
Author: Gijs van den Brink
From: Study Bible Magazine
This is part 4 of 12 concise blog on the topic of "Lessons from Revelation" from Study Bible Magazine, Some of which we will be posting online in the near future. We hope this will help you understand the Bible better!
