Interpretive Principles for Eschatology (Part 2)

Praise to the Sovereign King, hear, hear his people sing,

solely and wholly saving his own bride.

There where the Lamb has died, heart

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 gonna 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 gonna 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 are 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 harmoneutics.

Now, what does that word harmoneutics mean?

Harmoneutics is the biblical science of interpretation of the

Bible and the methods of that interpretation.

Now, we utilize harmoneutics 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 kinds 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 harmonetics 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 gonna 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 predatorism, when they read, 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 second or in the 70 AD period, between 66 AD

to 73 AD in 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, et cetera.

Those kinds of ideas.

This view sometimes breaks a prophecy up into different sections, sometime within a

single verse.

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

the Reformation and seeing the church of Rome, the Catholic church, all these kinds 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 slash currently, or that it has been fulfilled with implications that are

always taking place in an idealistic, an 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.

And 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.

And so 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's rose up through

the ranks in their time.

The fourth out of these conclusions for biblical prophecy using those harmonetics, 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.

And so, 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, but the most physical

reading of this.

The danger in doing something like this is in Revelation chapter four and five, 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.

And so, 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 harmoneutics, 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 predatorous 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.

God bless, go in peace, tell the world of our King.