JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

comes on the clouds too] throughout all periods of the World's History.” Cf. Psalms 18:19 &
104:3 and Isaiah 19:1; and Daniel 7:13, referring to Christ's Ascension into Heaven. So too
Vitringa: “Christ is said in Scriptural style to come on the clouds of Heaven as often as He
displays His glory and shows Himself as present to the Church. And there are various
gradations of that Advent of Christ, in which He is seen by His hardened enemies with the
greatest anguish and lamentation.”
295. Indeed, the Book of Revelation is to be interpreted basically as Sacred History --
as a series of the more major sacred-historical events. Some of them were occurring or
beginning to occur or were to occur shortly after the book was written down; and others
would occur only during the then-subsequent History (whether now-past or whether now-stillfuture).
296. It is true that the Book of Revelation (and especially chapters 6 to 19 thereof) has
been interpreted in several different ways. For an excellent survey precisely of the history of
its interpretation, see W. Bossuet's commentary The Revelation of John (Vandenhoeck &
Rupprecht, Göttingen, 1896, pp. 51-141).
297. For the methods of its interpretation, see G. Scroggie's book The Great
Unveiling: An Analytical Study of the Book of Revelation (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1979
rep.). However, we would simply state that the Book of Revelation has been subjected to the
various different interpretations: of the Religionists; of the Preterists; of the Futurists; and of
the Historicalists (sometimes less accurately yet perhaps more generally called 'Historicists').
298. The Religionists believe that the Book of Revelation derives its contents from
pagan myths. Thus: De Zwaan, Boll, Halver, Jung, Eliade, Lohse, and Visser. Clearly, this
school roots largely in unbelief.
299. The Futurists believe that the Book of Revelation largely describes events which
have not yet even started to happen, especially as regards Revelation chapters 4 to 22. Thus:
Darby, Scofield, Fundamentalism, Seiss, Blackwood, Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas,
Grace Theological Seminary in Indiana, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Dwight D.
Pentecost, Walvoord, Malgo, G.G. Cohen, Salem Kirban, Hal Lindsay, Moses David & his socalled
'children of God' and David Koresh etc. It is indeed true that some predictions in
Revelation chapters 4 to 22 have still not yet been fulfilled. However, it also seems obvious
that other predictions in those chapters (such as at least Revelation chapters 12 to 13) are
already largely past history.
300. The Preterists believe that the whole of the Book of Revelation largely describes
the Apostolic Church, during the time in which that book was written. So: Alcazar, Gorgius,
Grotius, Hammond, Herder, Zuellig, Eichhorn, Moses Stuart, Giet, Feuillet, Chilton, and
Gentry. Without doubt this school does demonstrably contain considerable elements of truth.
But it also removes practically all of the many predictions from the last book of the Bible.
301. Sadly, Classic Preterism is largely a Romish re-action which would identify
Nero as the Antichrist against the clear-cut Reformational Historicalism of Luther and Calvin
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