4 Views of Revelation

Hello, for those of you who are following our series in Revelation, or maybe you're just interested in the subject of Bible prophecy or the study of the end times, I just want to take a moment to remind you that there are four different ways people interpret the book of Revelation.

The Four Main Views of Revelation

So what you're getting from us is one particular viewpoint. If you're following the ministry of Morse Corner Church, you're watching the videos I'm posting to my YouTube channel. We are futurists. Okay, so these are the four viewpoints, futurism, preterism, historicism, and then what is called a spiritualist view.

Okay, so the spiritualist view says that the book of Revelation is pretty much all symbolic, and it's just a story that tells of the ongoing battle between good and evil, and the real takeaway is that in the end, God wins, you know, the good guys win.

And that's really the spiritualist view, sometimes called the idealist view, but yeah, the spiritualist view doesn't take Revelation all that seriously in the sense that they don't think this is actually going to happen, except that, you know, in the end, God wins, and they do believe in a new heaven and a new earth.

The other viewpoint is the historicist view. This is a very common view among the Protestant reformers. They all believe that the Roman Catholic Church was the whore of Babylon, and the Pope was the Antichrist, and that's the historicist view.

So you're going to find that among some Presbyterians and Reformed people, and it's actually pretty common even among Seventh-day Adventists, maybe a different form of historicism, but yeah, they view the book of Revelation.

Each chapter and each event corresponds with an event in church history, so a totally different way of interpreting the book. It's a non-literal interpretation, just like the spiritualist. The third viewpoint is the preterist.

This is also common in Reformed churches. The preterist, preterism means in the past, so they say that the book of Revelation, or at least the first 20 chapters, it's all been fulfilled in 70 AD or in the first century.

These events already happened, which again would require you to take the book of Revelation as, you know, it's symbolic, it's not literal. So the preterist views everything as happening in the past. There's the partial preterist, so that's chapters 1 through 20, has already been fulfilled and we're still waiting on the new heaven and the new earth thing.

But the full preterist says, no, we're living in the new heaven and the new earth, and I think that is the one viewpoint we would identify as heretical. I think, actually, the historicist's view has a few good points.

Why the Futurist View Takes Revelation Literally

There's probably a few things I agree with with them. Spiritualist view are right, that good overcomes evil, but I don't agree with that position. I'm just telling you where I'm coming from, and this is the fourth position that I hold, and I believe this is the correct viewpoint of Revelation.

This is the futurist view. So Revelation is future prophecy. The events of Revelation haven't happened yet, and I believe that, we believe that because we take the book literally. We read Revelation like we read any other book of the Bible, so when it tells us something's going to happen, it's going to happen.

When Jesus comes back, it literally means every eye will see him. When that verse in chapter one says every eye will see him, we really believe that. So the visible return of Christ at his second advent, no one's going to miss it.

Because if it happened in 70 AD, obviously the problem is nobody saw him. But that's the fourth view, so just to review this, there's the spiritualist view where it's all symbolic, and it's just a story about good defeating evil.

Revisiting the Spiritualist, Historicist, and Preterist Views

That's number one. Number two, the historicist view, so it lines up with events in church history. Again, you're taking the book as mainly symbolic. Three, preterist view, again, it's symbolic, but it all happened in the past.

And then number four, again, what I believe is the correct view, the futurist view, where we view Revelation as future prophecy. We're still waiting for it, and if you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below.

Thanks for watching. Until next time, may the Lord be with you. Have a great day.