Revelations/What Is the Right Way to Read Revelation?/FINAL BLOG OF THE YEAR!

So, we’re talking about Revelation today. That’s… great, I suppose. Revelation, if you didn’t know already (don’t know why you wouldn’t) is about the end times. The book is riddled in a heavy amount of symbolism and metaphors. The problem is, no one is quite sure what the writer exactly meant when he was writing this. There are many ways to interpret this book, but they are all so different that they can’t all be right. Before I tell you which I think is right, let’s look at what the core beliefs are:

   

   1)      Futurism= If you live in the U.S., there is a high likelihood that you believe this one. Essentially, the futurist believes that everything described in Revelation is going to happen in the future. These people generally believe in premillennialism, or that we are in an age before the 1,000-year reign of Christ.

   

   2)      Preterism= Taking a completely opposite view of Revelation is preterism. Preterists believe that the events in Revelation happened in 70 A.D. when the Jerusalem fell. It should be noted that there are two different kinds of preterism: full preterism and partial preterism. Full preterists believe that all of the events in Revelation have already happened, including the second coming. This is, of course, heresy, and we shouldn’t listen to them. Partial preterists believe that all of the events happened in 70 A.D. up to the second coming, and we are still waiting for that.

   

   3)      Historicism= This seems to be a slightly different version of preterism. Historicists believe that the events described in Revelation have been progressively happening over the years. They tend to believe in amillenialism, the belief that there is no millennium, and that it’s just a metaphor.

   

   4)      Idealists= The idealist view is the only one that doesn’t treat Revelation as literal events that are going to happen. Well, that is, they believe that the events are already happening in our lives. All of this stuff Revelation talks about happens as temptation and normal events.

Out of all of these, I believe in Historicism. I think it makes the most sense, and it gives a good explanation of what they were talking about. As a member of historicism, I think that we have seen the book of Revelation being fulfilled before our eyes as time goes on. The four horses could have represented the plagues of the middle ages, and the events of the book are still progressing.

Do you disagree? Type it in the comments below! It will be the last time, because it’s THE FINAL BLOG OF THE YEAR! HALELUGAH! 

John on the Topic of Love

John’s letters are among the most beloved of all the letters of the Bible. And in case you didn’t catch what I did there, John’s letters have a lot to do with love.

In his first letter, John says that loving others means that we love the Father and know him. Those who love their brothers “abides in the light,” but “he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” John’s message here is clear: love your brothers in the church and elsewhere.

In John’s second letter, he is addressing an elect lady and her children. He emphasizes to her that they keep the commandment they had from the beginning: “that we love one another.”

In John’s third letter, he writes to Gaius a brother in Christ and a dear friend. He thanks him for donating to missionaries and for strangers. He warns against loving oneself and giving in to pride, however, and gives Diotrephes as an example of this. He gives Demetrius as a man with good testimony, and they should know this.

John’s version of love is different than our own. He insists that we love each other as brothers in Christ. The modern version of love is varied and can mean very different things. However, John’s version of love is specific. We are to love each other as brothers. We are not to hate each other, or we lose sight of God Himself.

Well, that’s it for this edition of Villager News—I mean, that’s it for this blog. If you have any comments, put them below.