futurism
Key 12: Futurism.
The study of ‘the last things’ is called eschatology (‘eschatos’ = last). Unfortunately the church worls has differed greatly in how to interpret these scriptures. We conclude our study of the key principles of interpreting prophecy, by summarising the 4 main schools of interpretation that have arisen in Church history. They differ in how and when Revelation 4-22 and Matthew 24:7-31 will be fulfilled. Are these predictions past, present or future to us who live almost 2000 years after they were made? Most books on prophecy will be written from the standpoint of one of these schools.
1. The PRETERIST school believes that these prophecies were mostly fulfilled in the first few centuries after Christ. They were written to help the first century Christians to prepare them for what was shortly going to happen. However it seems clear that these prophecies have not come to pass yet in any literal sense, so this school depends on very loose, poetic interpretations. Moreover it means that the Book of Revelation has very little relevance for us today.
2. The HISTORICIST school seeks to make Revelation more relevant by saying the predictions cover the whole Church Age. It gives us a symbolic coded prophecy of the Church Age, and so in Revelation we can see the events of the last 2000 years unfold, we can trace the course of Church history. However the suggested fulfilments are artificial and unconvincing, again requiring a non-literal interpretation of prophecy.
3. The IDEALIST view removes all time references and discourages us seeing specific fulfilments. Instead Revelation portrays the eternal struggle betwen good and evil, and we can apply its truths at any time. In other words it treats prophecy as myth- describing fictional events that carry a moral or spiritual meaning. This amounts to a denial of the truth of God’s Word and a denial of such events as the Second Coming and the Final Judgement.
4. The FUTURIST view (which is expounded in this Book) is based on taking prophecy literally (using the same rules of interpretation as other area of doctrine). That is we take it in its plain meaning, which means literally unless there is obvious symbolism or figures of speech being used. If the literal meaning makes sense then read it that way. Applying this principle it is clear that Revelation 4-22 has not yet been fulfilled, it still awaits a future fulfilment.Most of end-time prophecy describes the climax of the battle between good and evil over this world. In this way we don’t have to make forced interpretations of prophecies to show how they have already been fulfilled.
One criticism of FUTURISM is that the prophecies do not apply to us today,
and so studying prophecy has little value for us. However this is shortsighted.The same argument could be used to say it is pointless to study Bible history, since prophecy is just His-story that has not happened yet! As we come to know what God has done and what He will do, we discover His character, power and purposes and how we fit into the scheme of things and how we are to focus our lives. Understanding what lies ahead stabilises us in difficult times when evil just seems to be increasing. We know what is happening and we know God wins! He is working His purposes out. Knowing what will happen strengthens and guides us for our life now. The key things we need in life are faith, HOPE and love and hope is only developed through the study of Bible Prophecy. Our hope in the soon Coming of Christ keeps us watchful, alert and occupied in His work.
More specifically, by showing us the end of this age in great detail the Bible helps us to interpret what is happening around us, for this world is necessarily moving closer and closer to the conditions described in Revelation. This helps us understand the forces at work around us, so that we can unmask the disguises of evil and discern and give ourselves to what God is doing. By comparing our generation to Revelation we can see we live close to the end.So end-time prophecy very much applies to our life today.
We will also see prophecies that apply to this present age. Moreover by applying TYPOLOGY to some literal prophecies (without denying their primary literal fulfilment), we will gain prophetic insights into our present time. In Book 2 we will do this with the 7 Churches in Revelation 2 and 3. In Book 3 we will do this for the 7 TIMES (of the Gentiles) in Daniel 4. But this is quite different from taking a HISTORICIST approach to interpreting prophecy.