Rapture, Revelation, and the End Times - Conscious Evolution TV

obin-bobin The End Times According to Christians 123reflects the view of the biblical writers themselves. In theirestimation, the task of understanding the Bible rightly is facilitatedby two principles of interpretation. The first of these,which amillennialists share with historic premillennialists andpostmillennialists, has been a standard interpretive axiomthroughout church history: The Old Testament must be understoodin the light of the New Testament, and the NewTestament writers themselves interpret the ancient Hebrewprophets in terms of Christ. This principle leads proponents ofall three nondispensationalist views to conclude that the NewTestament church is “spiritual Israel” and hence that Christiansare heirs to the privileges and blessings that God promised toIsrael through the Old Testament prophets. Amillennialists takethe matter a step further, however, pointing out that this principleundercuts the need of a future earthly golden age for God tofulfill any of the promises given through the Old Testamentprophets.Even more central to the case for amillennialism is a secondinterpretive principle, namely that the clear teaching of the NewTestament as a whole must form the basis for understandinghighly symbolic texts, such as Revelation 20. As FloydHamilton states, “The clearest New Testament passages in nonsymbolicbooks are to be the norm for the interpretation ofprophecy. ...In other words, we should accept the clear andplain parts of Scripture as a basis for getting the true meaning ofthe more difficult parts of Scripture.” 25 Amillennialists are convincedthat the New Testament writers present a simple,straightforward eschatological chronology (e.g., 2 Pet. 3:10–13):The present age will climax in the return of the Lord in triumphand judgment, followed immediately by the inauguration of eternity.Whatever conclusions are to be gleaned from Revelation 20,amillennialists add, can neither contradict nor supersede butrather must be understood in light of this general NewTestament eschatological expectation.The simple chronology taught by the Bible entails, for example,only one rising of humankind from the grave. Amillennialists gleanthis conclusion from several types of biblical texts. Some textsrobin-bobin