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Essay / Approaches to Interpreting the Book of Revelation
Approaches to Interpreting the Book of Revelation The book of Revelation is often very difficult to understand because of its "visions and elaborate symbolism" (Mounce, 1992 , p.39). Because of the many visions and symbols that come from the book of Revelation, there are several different approaches to interpreting it, including the idealist view, the preterist view, the historicist view, and the futurist view. This article will discuss the four main approaches to interpreting the book of Revelation and which approach is most consistent with my personal beliefs about the book of Revelation.MethodologiesIdealismIdealism, also known as the non-literal approach or allegorical (Walvoord, 1989, p. 16), interprets the book of Revelation by removing "the symbolic language of any predictive value and reduces the prophecy to an image of the continuing struggle between good and evil, the Church and the world, and the eventual triumph of Christianityā€¯ (Gundry, 2003, p. 508). An idealist views the book of Revelation as a "theological poem setting forth the ageless struggle between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness" (Mounce, p. 43). The idealist approach ultimately interprets the book of Revelation in a "spiritual" way, meaning that the book of Revelation "reflects the conflict between Satan and God, between evil and good, which lasts in this world from Eden" (Tenney, 1991, p. The idealist also believes that the conflict between good and evil described in the book of Revelation should apply to the church of the period in which the Revelation was written and the symbols contained in the book of Revelation have no historical connection to anything social or political events of that time middle of paper...... it is important to the. reader of the book of Revelation to understand that the book focuses on the second coming of Christ of which we do not know the day or hour (Matthew 24:36). References Gundry, Robert H. (2003). of the New Testament. (4th ed.): Zondervan Hanke, Howard A. (1981). Waco: Word Books Publisher. Mears, Henrietta C. (1987). What the Bible is about. Ventura: Regal Books. Mounce, Robert H. (1992). The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Book of Revelation. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Tenney, Merrill C. (1991). Interpretation of the revelation. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. The Holy Bible. (1997). New version of King James. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. Walvoord, John F. (1989). The revelation of Jesus Christ. Chicago: Moody Press.