How do you interpret the Book of Revelation?
The Son of Man and the seven lampstands (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Revelation’s picturesque images, mysterious symbols, and apocalyptic language make it one of the most challenging books in Scripture to interpret. There are four main interpretative approaches to the book. The preterist approach views Revelation not as future, predictive prophecy, but as a historical record of events in the first-century Roman Empire . The preterist view thus ignores the book’s own claims to be a prophecy (1:3; 22:7, 10, 18–19). Nor were all the events predicted and depicted in Revelation fulfilled in the first century. The second coming of Christ described in chapter 19 obviously is yet to occur. But the preterist view requires that one see the words about Christ’s second coming as fulfilled in the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, even though He did not appear on that occasion. Nor is there any persecution in the first century that fits the description of the horrific events depicted in ch