The last of the four schools of interpreting John’s Book of Revelation is the spiritualist view. Spiritualistic interpretation is a relatively new theory that tends to over emphasize symbolism. The spiritualist believes that the book focuses on the struggles of all Christians in any age, not specifically the original readers, the past, or future. Revelation is intended to inspire Christians being persecuted. The spiritualist argues that looking for meaning in the past and constructing meaning is a future forward view is guesswork at best. Any attempt at a literal interpretation is absurd. Furthermore, any attempt to find such meaning may conflict with the spiritual meaning for which the spiritualist is searching. This type of reading is inspirational, except it does ignore the fact that John’s book is written as a letter to be publicly read. John wrote and sent this letter to seven specific Churches. John also stressed that events would soon take place. This sets
The futurist view is the modern extension of the historicist view. It is wildly popular in the United States. While it makes for great works of fiction it is questionable if it is Christian at all. The futurist divides the book of revelation into three sections. Chapter 1: The Past Chapters 2-3: The Present Chapters 4-22: The Future In this view, John still sees visions and writing what he sees. The seven Churches are no longer regarded as seven actual Churches. Instead, they represent the history of the Church is broken into seven different stages. Laodicea, the dead Church, being the present apostate Church. The climatic “final battle” between good and evil is interpreted quite literally. The futurist holds that it will result in a world-wide nuclear war. It will be at this time that Christ returns to usher in a 1000 Kingdom for his faithful followers. This is followed by the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. This is the hope of the futurist, Go