Interpretive Principles for Eschatology (Part 2)

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There where the Lamb has died hard, the Christ is crucified, washed by the blood of that great

High Priest. Hi there, welcome to Reformed Ex Mormon. I hope you're having a wonderful and blessed day today.

Today we're going to be continuing on with our multi -parted series on the topic of eschatology, the study of end things or end times.

And today we're just going to be looking at the four main proponents of interpretive principles that people utilize when it comes to talking about and reading and studying and understanding prophetic word, prophetic utterance.

Majority of the time when we speak of these four different positions or these four different understandings or conclusions that one would come to, we're speaking about it in the book of Revelation.

But these things can be applied to Old Testament prophecy as well as prophecy spoken by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

These four different conclusions is what maybe I'll call them, are preterism, historicism, idealism, and futurism.

And when we speak of interpreting the Bible, there's a word that's often used amongst scholars, amongst theologians, amongst

Christians, and that word is hermeneutics. Now what does that word hermeneutics mean?

Hermeneutics is the biblical science of interpretation of the

Bible and the methods of that interpretation. Now we utilize hermeneutics whether you realize or not.

When we go to a Bible verse, we utilize context, we utilize what's been said before, what's said after, we utilize who is being spoken to, who is doing the speaking itself, what's the question that's posed.

We might even say, okay, this is a very complex, hard to understand verse. Maybe we'll go and look at another gospel account of it or another foretelling of it or we'll maybe go to that which is simple to understand that which is complex.

These kind of principles that we use. And when we use these kind of principles, when it comes to prophecy, we've had many great scholars, many great theologians, many great pastors, teachers, and evangelists that land on different sides of the coin on how to understand biblical prophecy.

Now like I said, those four different biblical conclusions of biblical prophecy that are utilized are predatorism, historicism, and idealism, and futurism.

And these principles, these conclusions for biblical prophecy utilizing hermeneutics really influence the way we build our eschatology view.

In fact, if one person holds to one of these type of conclusions versus another one, they're going to have a different eschatology than the person that fell upon the other version.

So let me read to you, these are some definitions, some working definitions that I have written out for these four different conclusions.

We'll start with the term predatorism. What is predatorism? Predatorism means past fulfillment.

That the ex -prophecy, the prophecy in question, the ex -prophecy has already been fulfilled in the past.

All Christians, in some sense, hold to predatorism because all Christians believe that Christ has fulfilled

Old Testament prophecy in the past. And to give you an example of something like that would be at the crucifixion of Christ in John, it says that they pierced his side and not a single bone of him was broken, and this was to fulfill prophecy, this was to fulfill scripture.

So anyway, every Christian believes in one way or another. Many Orthodox Christians that hold to this view call themselves what it would be known as partial predatorists.

There is a heretical view, and this is very important, there is a heresy out there that is called full predatorism or hyperpredatorism.

This view maintains that all prophecy, every single one of them, has been completely fulfilled, including the second coming of Christ, thus meaning that we are currently living in the new heavens and the new earth.

This is heretical because it denies an essential of Christianity, which is that Christ is coming again for his own bride, which all four of the

Orthodox views of Christianity hold to, is that Christ is coming again. Hyperpredatorism says no, that's already taken place in most likely 70

AD is what they would argue, and that we are living in this new heavens and new earth right now, and they would deny a physicality of the second coming of Christ.

And there's many things that are wrong with this, but right now we're just focusing on partial predatorism, or some would just say predatorism.

A lot of predatorists, when they read the book of Revelation, they would see, or not even just the book of Revelation, but a lot of Old Testament prophecy, they would say a lot of it is fulfilled in the 70

AD period, between 66 AD to 73 AD and the destruction of the

Jerusalem temple in those years. And they would say that that is fulfilling in a lot of different ways, and they would look at the book of Revelation and say it has to have been written prior to 70

AD, and they would have their resources that would make them conclude those things, and they would say that therefore it is written with that in mind, something that's already taken place in the past.

But a predatorist is within orthodoxy, as they will proclaim that Christ is coming again, a partial predatorist would.

Now what is historicism, the second of the four here? Historicism is that prophetic fulfillment takes place throughout history.

And so they would say that the X prophecy, or the Y prophecy, and maybe even another Z prophecy, have been fulfilled at different points that are obvious fulfillments in major historical events.

This view often holds that things are fulfilled in events, political events, or other leaders, nations, etc.

Those kind of ideas. This view sometimes breaks a prophecy up into different sections, sometime within a single verse.

So many proponents of this would be looking at times like the

Reformation, and seeing the Church of Rome, the Catholic Church, all these kind of things, fulfilling stuff that happens in the book of Revelation, and here and there and whatnot, and that these things are still taking place throughout history today.

So that's what a historicism person would believe in. Once again, within orthodox, as they say, Christ is coming again.

Now idealism. Idealism, being the third of those four biblical conclusions, would be that prophecy is currently being fulfilled, that the

X prophecy is being fulfilled continually or currently, or that it has been fulfilled with implications that are always taking place in an idealistic and ideal way.

This view often regards symbols that used physical objects of that day as a way to reveal the literal, ideal fulfillment of the then future.

Often this view correlates moral testament prophecy as being fulfilled with Christ symbolically or theologically than other views often do.

So where one person would say, well, that has yet to take place, somebody that holds to idealism would say, well, maybe it is taking place just within the

Christian heart, and that it's utilizing that which is physical to the person then to have a theological implication for us today.

Once again, within orthodoxy, as it says, Christ is coming again. There is a danger in this mode of interpretation, as I think a lot of Christians have seen the bad side of this, where somebody just spiritualizes everything that they hear.

To give you an example of something like this would be a Jehovah Witness that has spiritualized the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

They don't hold to a literal, risen, physical body of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they have spiritualized this way outside of the realm of orthodox

Christianity. There are people that are idealists that still fall within the realm of orthodoxy, as all these conclusions have examples of men and women that have taken it outside the balance of Scripture.

So just remember that, that we can't accuse the other side of only being the heretical side, and our side that we look at is true.

Every interpretive principle, every conclusion always has a heretic that rows up through the ranks in their time.

The fourth out of these conclusions for biblical prophecy, using those hermeneutics, as I mentioned earlier, would be what's called futurism.

Futurism means that the prophecy has yet to take place, that the fulfillment of the prophecy has yet to take place, but it will in the future.

That X prophecy, whatever prophecy that we're speaking of, that it will be fulfilled in the future.

This view often utilizes the most literal interpretation of the prophecy.

It is almost always associated with the second coming of Christ and a future millennial physical reign of Christ on earth.

In many senses, all Christians are futurists because all views of orthodox

Christianity hold that Christ is coming again, but disagree with the method and the means of the events using the same scriptural passages.

Like I said in here, this is a person that usually tries to hold to the most literal reading of something, and to the most, maybe not even literal is the right word, the most physical reading of this.

The danger in doing something like this is in Revelation 4 -5, it speaks of Christ standing as if a lamb that is slain.

If you were a futurist and somebody that only held to literal reading of the text, as a physical reading of the text, you would come to the conclusion that Christ is a sheep.

Well, that's not true. It's a picture that's taking place there that has a theological implication.

Likewise, we see how even in that sense of a physical literal interpretation of prophecy, it can lead to dangerous theology.

It really, really can. So each one of these four different conclusions for biblical prophecy, using proper harmoneutics, really do change the way that we hold to eschatology, the study of end things, our understanding of the millennium, our understanding of this church period, this understanding of many things that we think about and talk about in the scripture.

It really drives the way that we understand those things. And it's important as a

Christian for us to understand when we come to a difficult text, how are we approaching it?

What are our presuppositions about it? What have been the methods that we've been using in the past? And are we still using them now?

There's many different things, but I hope that this video helps you understand those four different ways that we approach biblical prophecy.

And let me be clear on this again. All four of these contradict each other in one way or another, and so therefore they can't all be true at the same time.

So if Jesus spoke in something as a predatorist, and we come to the understanding of it as a futurist, we have come to the wrong, failed idea, and we ought to repent over those things.

Likewise, if Christ spoke of something being fulfilled throughout history and somebody's approaching it in an idealistic way, they need to repent and be reformed, be refined to what the scripture says.

But these, like I mentioned, there are scholars on every side of the coin when it comes to this subject on the way that one ought to be approaching biblical prophecy, especially when it comes to the book of Revelation.

Now, I hope that this helps you understand what the other side is thinking if you already have a conclusion on this.

And if you don't have a conclusion on this, I would encourage you to look through some of those biblical prophecies and try to use each four of these different means, these conclusions in that text and see why somebody would believe in those things that they do, why they come to those understandings as they do, and formulate what your understanding of it is and have a solid reasoning for that.

Once again, don't trust what I have told you about these things. Go and study them for yourself in the word of God.

Fall back on that alone for your authority and utilize people like myself, pastors, teachers, evangelists, apologists, commentaries, other study tools to help you be a better student of the word of God.