I promised in my last blog article that I would deal with
the subject of the 144,000 in Revelation 7 and 14. That I will do very soon, but I felt that I
needed to explain first the pilgrimage I began years ago that has led me into a
new understanding, not only of the Book of Revelation, but of God’s grand plan
of redemption.
Having been nurtured spiritually on the New Scofield
Reference Bible and educated in the Classic Dispensational system of
interpretation, I found it hard to consider anything but a literal view of the
numbers and names in the Book of Revelation, even though dispensational
commentators themselves admitted that the book contains much symbolic
language. The dispensational mission
board with whom I served for twenty years required missionaries to sign their
statement of faith every year, and that dampened any impulse to question the
validity of pre-millennial dispensationalism.
Still dispensational interpretations of certain Scriptures always
bothered me.
When I became chaplain of the Hiawatha Correctional Facility
in Kincheloe, Michigan, it happily occurred to me that my employer, the State
of Michigan, was no longer requiring me to adhere to a particular doctrinal
position. I could explore every issue,
every doctrine, in light of Scripture, allowing commentators from differing viewpoints
to have their input. As a result, the
Scriptures took on new life! My wife and
I had new enthusiasm in our Bible study.
We also saw prophecy and apocalyptic Scriptures in a new light.
I saw more clearly than ever that each Bible student views
the Scriptures through a set of prisms that organize the data into a
system. That is not necessarily bad, but
we need to be careful that our system doesn’t take on the authority of
Scripture itself, that we realize that our understanding is never
infallible. I recently bought an
instrument that most people consider a toy: a kaleidoscope. I hadn’t looked through one since I was a
kid. The kaleidoscope holds a lesson for
everyone who wants to interpret and understand the Bible. The same little pieces of plastic lie in the
bottom of the lens, yet as you look through the scope and turn the outer
chamber, ever so slightly, the whole pattern changes! What might be predominantly red and purple
flowers in separate groups suddenly transform into one large pattern of green
and yellow mixed with flecks of red and orange!
Now don’t take this illustration too far: I’m NOT SAYING that the Bible
can mean different things. I’m just
illustrating how the same bits of information – Scriptural statements and
passages – can form different patterns depending on our presuppositions, and if
we never bother to turn the “prism,” we would never see anything but the one
pattern. I decided to turn the prism on
prophetic and apocalyptic Scripture, and it has been very rewarding.
One of the first books I explored was a very helpful book
titled, Plowshares and Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic, by D. Brent
Sandy.[1] Another helpful book was Four Views on the Book of Revelation,
C. Marvin Pate, Gen. Ed.[2] That was followed by Understanding Dispensationalists, by Vern S. Poythress.[3] Then I took the bold step of buying and
reading Kim Riddlebarger’s A Case for Amillennialism.[4] Most recently I have been working my
way through G. K. Beale's commentary on the Book of Revelation, along with my
own studies in the Greek text of Revelation.
What I have discovered has been a blessing beyond my
expectations! The Book of Revelation
itself promises: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words
of this prophecy . . .” (Rev 1:3a). Yet,
according to the Classic Dispensational viewpoint, the Church is gone after
Rev. 4:1, raptured, and God returns to dealing with ethnic Israel. What’s more,
the numbers in Revelation were to be taken largely as literal. When I began to question that presupposition,
Scripture in general began to make more sense to me, not only, but especially,
the Book of Revelation.
I found that there is great blessing in the imagery and
symbolism of Revelation, and it’s not difficult to understand. There is sound
exegetical and hermeneutical[5]
grounds for the symbolic interpretations. The Book of Revelation was intended
by God to be an encouragement and a preparation for His people as we face the
trials and challenges of serving Christ in this increasingly godless
world. We know that The Lamb of God will
overcome! His Kingdom will come! “Even so, come Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20b)
Copyright 2015 by Thomas L. Jones
[1]
Sandy, D. Brent. Plowshares and Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical
Prophecy and Apocalyptic. Downer’s
Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2002.
[2]
Pate, C. Marvin, Gen. Ed. Four Views on The Book of Revelation.
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998.
[3]
Poythress, Vern S. Understanding Dispensationalists, 2nd Ed. Phillipsburg,
NJ: P&R Publishing, 1994.
[4]
Riddlebarger, Kim. A Case for Amillenialism: Understanding The End Times. Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2003.
[5]
Exegesis is the process of observing
what a text is actually saying, literally “reading out” a text, as opposed to
reading something into a text! Hermeneutics
is the science of interpreting a text.
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