One other view which all of us have heard is that Revelation has already been fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (70 AD, Introduction, pg. 1). This view is called Preterism.
“Preterism holds that the contents of Revelation constitute a prophecy of events that were fulfilled in the 1st century. Preterists believe the dating of the book of Revelation is vitally important and that it was before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Preterism was first expounded by the Jesuit Luis de Alcasar during the Counter Reformation. The Preterist view served to bolster the Catholic Church’s position against attacks by Protestants, who identified the Pope with the Anti-Christ.”
“Preterism,” Wikipedia.
“ … [The idea behind Full Preterism is that] John’s Book of Revelation should be regarded as a purely historical work [without any application to the future implied]. What we and the earth we’re standing on are still doing here 2000 years later is not explained, but this idea had its source in the First Council of Trent, the Vatican’s counterthrust to the Protestant Reformation, and we even know the name of the man who was to spend his life developing it. He was a Jesuit named Luis De Alcazar (1554– 1613), the author of Vestigatio Arcani Sensus in Apocalypsi, or ‘Investigation into the Hidden Meaning of the Apocalypse,’ which was published in the year 1614. The purpose of his book was to destabilise the main thrust of Protestantism that the pope of Rome was the very Antichrist foretold in John’s Revelation, and that the Church of Rome was Mystery Babylon, the Mother of Harlots who sits on the seven hills of Rome. The papacy had lost much ground in the early-mid 16th century over this identification and it was vital that the process be challenged, stemmed, or better still, reversed, and this was best achieved by convincing the world that the events which John wrote of, all belonged to an earlier age than the papacy. So whoever the Antichrist was, it couldn’t have been the pope; and whatever the Harlot was, it couldn’t have been the Roman Catholic Church …”
Bill Cooper. The Authenticity of the New Testament Part 2: Acts, the Epistles and Revelation (Kindle Locations 1707-1714). . Kindle Edition.
Leave a Reply