The last book in the New Testament is the book of Revelation. It is a probably one of the most discussed and debated books of the entire Bible. The book of Revelation is one of the books of the Bible that most everyone seems to have an opinion about, but yet it is a book that is often misunderstood. This is mostly due to misinterpreted because it contains symbols that must be interpreted, along with different meanings of words. Many scholars of the Bible have studied the book of Revelation and still will have different opinions on what this book represents. We often find ourselves getting very frustrated when trying to figure out what this book is trying to tell us. One thing that most can agree on is that we know for sure is that this book is the final chapter in God’s plan for the human race. We can spend all day trying to figure out what these different things mean but the bottom line is, it doesn’t matter what we think and what we believe is going to happen. God is in control and God’s plan will be fulfilled regardless of what anybody thinks or believes might or might not happen. So how do we go about interpreting and understanding the book of Revelation? Dr. Cornelius Venema, president and professor of doctoral studies at Mid-America Reformed Seminary and associate pastor of Redeemer United Reformed church in Dryer, Indiana published in his article in the Table Talk magazine, dated January 1,
2012. In this article he gives us a five examples on how we can approach and understand the book of Revelation. The first approach he calls the Futurist Approach. The futurist approach to the book of Revelation regards the visions of chapters 4–22 as referring to events that lie in the future. These events will occur immediately prior to Christ’s second coming and at the end of history. He goes on to say that many, though not all, futurists are premillennialists and dispensationalists. For dispensational Futurists, most of the events in the visions of Revelation will occur during a future period of tribulation subsequent to the rapture and removal of the church from the earth, during which God’s program for the Nation Israel will resume. For example, many dispensationalists believe the vision of Satan’s defeat in Revelation 12 does not describe the inauguration of Christ’s kingdom at His first coming, but Satan’s defeat is the midpoint of a future seven-year period of tribulation after the church is raptured. He goes on to tell us that the strength of futurism is its recognition that the book of Revelation teaches continued, and even increased, suffering for the people of God before the end of history. Futurism also properly emphasizes that the ultimate triumph of Christ and His people that will occur only at the second coming of Christ. The weakness of the futurist approach is that it views the bulk of the book of Revelation as describing events in a distant future. Thus giving, much of the book little direct relevance for those persecuted believers that the book was originally addressed to.
In his second approach he describes as The Preterits Approach. This is the opposite approach of
Futurism. He explains how this approach, to the book of Revelation primarily refers to events that occurred in the past, either in the period prior to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70 or in the early Christian centuries leading up to the destruction of the Roman Empire in fifth century AD. For Preterists, the language of Revelation 1:1 (“the things that must soon take place”) establishes a time frame for the entire book. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which John the Apostle was given on the isle of Patmos, is a disclosure of events that were imminent at the time of the book’s writing and that now lie in the past. Just as the seven letters to the churches of Asia Minor were addressed to actual churches in the first century, so the remainder of the book spoke to the members of these churches of events and circumstances that would soon occur. Only in chapters
21–22, in the vision of the new heaven and earth, do we find a prophecy of events still lying in the future. The strength of Preterism is that it recognizes that Revelation does speak of events that
“must soon take place,” not events in a distant future, or far removed from the early church. Preterism focuses on the relevance of the book’s teaching to it’s the recipients, the church of the first century. The problem with Preterist reading of Revelation, is that the book becomes irrelevant to the present struggles of the church and its expectation for the future fulfillment of
God’s promises.
The third approach is called the Historicist approach. The Historicist approach reads the book of
Revelation as a visionary symbolization of a sequence of events that will occur throughout the course of the history of the church. Starting with Christ’s first coming until His second coming at the end of the present age. Historicist interpreters of the book typically read its visions as a presentation in chronological order of the most significant developments in the history of redemption, from the time of its writing until the second coming, the millennium, the last judgment, and the final state. These visions correspond to actual events, institutions, or people that play an important role in the historical accomplishment of God’s redemptive purposes. A well known illustration of an Historicist reading of the book of Revelation is the Reformation identification of the harlot Babylon in Revelation 17 with the Roman Catholic Church and the papacy. A less well-known Historicist interpretation is the medieval church’s identification of the
Beast from the sea in Revelation 13 with the rise of Islam. The strength of historicism lies in its recognition that the visions of Revelation do refer to events that were occurring at the time of its original writing and throughout the history of the church until Christ’s second coming. A weakness of Historicism lies in its assumption that the visions of Revelation reflect a simple chronological sequence of events rather than presentations of the same events from different angles of vision.
The fourth approach is called the Idealist Approach. The Idealist Approach differs from the first three approaches in its reluctance to identify any particular historical events, institutions, or people with the visions of the book of Revelation. Sometimes called “iterism,” this approach views the visions of Revelation as a portrayal of the church’s struggle throughout the entire period between the first and second comings of Christ. Idealism acknowledges that the book of Revelation was originally written to encourage the early church in its struggles under religious and political persecution. But it also maintains that the letters to the seven churches and the visions of the book reflect circumstances that characterize the entire church age, from Christ’s first coming until His return at the end of the present age. Whereas Futurists, Preterits, and Historicists identify the harlot Babylon in Revelation 17 with an end time, first–century, or historical figure, respectively,
Idealists argue that Babylon symbolizes a variety of political and religious forms of opposition to the church and the gospel that recur throughout history. Finally the last approach is called the Eclectic Approach. The eclectic approach interprets the book of Revelation in a way that aims to incorporate the strengths of each of the other main approaches. The Eclectic Approach acknowledges that there are elements of truth in all of the approaches identified thus far. Preterism rightly insists that the visions of Revelation reflect events and circumstances contemporaneous with its writing or the period immediately thereafter.
But Preterism fails to adequately account for the way Revelation also reveals events and circumstances that characterize the struggles of the church throughout the entire interadvental age.
Futurism partially solves the problem of Preterism by emphasizing the way the visions of
Revelation portray events that will take place shortly before the end of history. But in doing so,
Futurism exaggerates the future orientation of the book. As for Historicism, although the events portrayed in the visions of Revelation may have occurred in the past or may recur at various points in history, these events are not limited to a particular time in the past, present, or even future. The strength of Eclecticism is its ability to incorporate the primary emphases of the other approaches without the one-sidedness that often characterizes alternative views. The weakness of the approach may be its tendency to ascribe different meanings to the same vision. In doing so, the Eclectic interpreter can make the vision mean almost anything.
During my research I have found that there are many different views on interpreting the book of Revelation. I find that this is a very difficult book to interpret, when you try to find the meetings of all the symbols and visions that John describes. Dr. Dennis Bratcher a theology professor said we need to have a simple understanding on how to interpret the book of
Revelation in his book interpreting the book of Revelation gives us guidelines that are very simple to follow. The first example that he gives us is that Revelation is a message not for the far future, before the first century church. But for the church that was being threatened with persecution from both Romans and Jews. Because we accept it as Scripture, it is also the "word" of God to the church today.
The second point that he gives us is that the book of Revelation is related to a particular time in history, to a particular set of circumstances and to a particular people. He goes on to say this does not mean it is irrelevant for us today; it just means we cannot make it to address us directly, without first understanding something about what it meant to the early church. I might not agree with all that he has to say in his book Understanding Revelation, but he does give us a clear and understanding of his point of view. One of the easiest ways that I found to interpret the book of Revelation comes from Edgar
Cayce’s book How to Interpret the Book of Revelation. In his book he gives us a simple breakdown on how the book of Revelation can be interpreted, he starts off by saying that the book of Revelation was written by a man John, he explains how John was an apostle of
Jesus and how God revealed to him the things to come. Here’s an outline from Cayce’s book on how to interpret revelation. He first breaks down everything chapter by chapter, In chapter 1-3 we read about the letters to the churches. In Chapter 4-11 we see that Christ opens the seals of the book in Heaven. Chapter 12-14 we learn about a woman, a dragon, two beasts, and a lamb. Chapter 19-22 we read about rejoicing in Heaven, the Devil thrown into a bottomless pit, a new Heaven and earth. I will be honest and say that I am not familiar with any books written by Mr., Cayce’s but I do like how he breaks everything down very simply making it easy to understand.
Dr. Merrill C. Tenney takes on a different approach on this subject. He points out in his book
Interpreting Revelation that we have to understand the history of the bible which includes the old
Testament to have a full understanding revelation. We need to understand what the prophets
Isaiah and Daniel and many other books say in the Old Testament because they give us a preview of what John is seeing in Revelation. I absolutely agree with him that you have to read and study the Old Testament prophets and what they have said because this goes along with the visions that John saw. I think many Christians make a big mistake on thinking they can read the book of Revelation without reading the books of the prophets. Many think that they can grasp the interpretation of what is going on without this and this is just unrealistic. We have to understand the history of the Bible and Dr. Tenney does an outstanding job of highlighting these things in his book.
Dr. Mel Lawrenz takes on a different approach than the other four authors does in his article
How should we understand the Book of Revelation. In his approach the author advice is to continue to read Revelation over and over again and to a certain point I agree. I believe revelation of the scripture can come with reading it over and over again but not without going back and reading from the prophets of the Old Testament. Clear understanding of the book of
Revelation only comes when you can read the correlation of the scriptures. He does give us some good examples that we can go by to have better understanding of the book, first we need to understand that no one clearly has a definite understanding of the book of Revelation only
Jesus’s does. He says in his book never look at Revelation as being a book full of riddles and to avoid it. I believe if we keep it simple we can have a better understanding of it. He simply points out that Revelation is the message that God is coming to judge and to redeem and that the power of evil empires will be distroyed and God will establish the fullness of His kingdom.
I believe this statement is true and really sums up what the book of Revelation is all about.
Unlike all the other books that I have been studying Dr. Lawrenz gives us a great insight on studying the book of Revelation.
In conclusion I would like to say there are so many different views and theories about the book
Revelation. Some will be correct and some will not be, one thing I do know for sure about this book is the promise that comes from reading it. In Revelation 1:3 it says “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand.”
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Bibliography

Dr. Cornelius Venema, Interpreting Revelation Table Talk Magazine January 1 2012. Dr. Dennis Bratcher