in the front seat

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 t...

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...

The historicist view in contrast to the preterist view makes the message of John’s book relevant to the reader in whatever age it is being read.  Historicism teaches that the events described in Revelation chapters 4 through 20 describe the history of the Church from the time of the first century to the second coming of Christs.  This view is most common among conservative Christian Protestant denominations.  As a young boy this type of thinking was very exciting.  After all, it is the material of a good television special or a History Channel show about end time’s prophecy.  Wrapped into all of that speculative thinking is the highly creative task of re-thinking all of human history to match key world players and events with the apocalyptic imagery.  This is Dan Brown style fiction, interesting but inaccurate and definitely dangerous. As Catholics we must be on guard against this view and its promulgation.  This mode of interpretation was...

The word preterist comes from the Latin praeteritus meaning “gone by”.  As such this view holds firmly that John’s Book of Revelation was fulfilled at the time of it being written or shortly thereafter.  If this method of interpretation is true, then Revelation had enormous meaning to the first century Christians were facing or would face intense persecution.  John’s message was to “hold firm” and remember that God vindicates his faithful people.  This view was introduced by a Jesuit priest, Louis de Alcazar who wrote in response to the Protestant Reformation. This view challenged scholars to interpret events and images in the Book to coincide with events affecting the early Christians.  So the great conflict in the text between good and evil is a conflict between Christians and Rome and Jerusalem, i.e. Christians and the Empire and Christians and the Jews.  When viewed symbolically in its Hebrew form, the “mark of the Beast”, 666, is viewed a...

The Book of Revelation is arguably one of the most problematic books in the Christian Cannon for us to interpret.  Before anyone begins reading the Book of Revelation or any other apocalyptic literature like the Old Testament prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, or the New Testament “little apocalypses” in Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 17, 21 one must understand the nature of the genre. We must keep in mind that writing is wiring, regardless of where we read it or the value that we place upon the document.  When we read a how-to manual we do so carefully usually stopping frequently to follow the steps involved.  Whereas a piece of fiction is usually read quickly, some (like my wife) read the end before reaching the plot intensifies. Biblical literature was written to an ancient people in an historical context using popular genres of the time, with images more easily understood in the author’s time.  Holy Scripture is considered inspired because it in more that h...