WELCOME TO THE REVELATION STUDY

REVELATION Introduction Approach & Position Lesson 1

REMEMBER OUR FATHER’S WORDS Revealed to Isaiah: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the L ORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8-9)

Moses’ Prayer Our Prayer “Now therefore, if we have found favor in Your sight, please show us Your ways, that we may know You in order to find favor in Your sight.” Exodus 33:13

Jesus the Messiah said "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Matt 24:45-46

APPROACHES TO INTERPRETING SCRIPTURE 1. Literal approach to the Biblical Text– Take the ordinary meaning 2. Spiritualize the Biblical Text– Invest a Spiritual meaning + 3. Allegorize the Biblical Text– Apply a Symbolic / Spiritual meaning Figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another +

Sir Isaac Newton, 1693 “About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the prophecies and insist on their literal interpretation in the midst of much clamor and opposition.”

I. APPROACH (EXEGESIS) SCRIPTURE A. Literal Interpretation 1. The late Dr. David L. Cooper’s statement has become known as the Golden Rule of Interpretation: “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense...”

A. Literal Interpretation 2. Webster’s Dictionary defines: Literal interpretation - “involves an approach based on the actual words in their ordinary meaning...not going beyond the facts.” 3. Hermeneutics - the science of interpretation, esp. of the Scriptures. A branch of theology that deals with the principles of Biblical exegesis.

A. Literal Interpretation 4. Exegesis – a critical explanation or interpretation of a text or a portion of a text, esp. of the Bible. 5. Eisegesis - an interpretation, esp. of Scripture, that expresses the interpreter’s own ideas, bias, or the like, rather than the meaning of the text (Isaiah 55:8-9).

B. Literal Approach 1. Jewish Scholars Insist on a Literal Interpretation / Approach to Scripture. 2. Pertinent Questions Applicable to a Literal Approach: a. To whom is the passage spoken ? b. To whom is it given ? c. When and where was it given ? (What is the historical setting ?) d. What are the provisions? The time frame ?

Literal Exegesis of Exodus 31:12-13, “And the L ORD said to Moses ‘You are to speak to the people of Israel...you shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between Me and the people of Israel that in six days the L ORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'“ (Septamillennial)

I. C. Jewish (Hebraic) Approach Literal Interpretation 1. Brings Clarity to the Biblical Text + 2. Reveals Our Father’s Ways: +

II. POSITION A. Four Positions Concerning Timing and Fulfillment of Revelation Dr. Charles Ryrie states, “Understanding when the events of Revelation take place marks the difference between the various schools of interpretation.”

A. Positions Concerning Fulfillment Prophetic Events of Revelation 1. Preterist – events are fulfilled, they are in the past; through Christ the Kingdom is here. 2. Historical – events are continually fulfilled throughout the church age & may continue. 3. Idealist – events have no specific fulfillment in the past or the future they occur daily. 4. Futurist – events will be fulfilled in the future at the time of the end (Rev ).

B. Three Positions Concerning the Nature and Timing of the Millennium: 1. Premillennial view – Christ Messiah will return to Earth at His second coming to usher in a literal 1000-year earthly reign. + + Literal Interpretation of the Scriptures

B. Three Positions Concerning the Nature and Timing of the Millennium: 2. Postmillennial view – teaches the millennial kingdom is not a literal thousand years but a golden age the church will usher in by the preaching the gospel. + Spiritualize the Scriptures

B. Three Positions Concerning the Nature and Timing of the Millennium: 3. Amillennial view - teaches there will be no future, literal, earthly, year reign of Christ but the Kingdom is only spiritual in nature and is presently fulfilled as Christ lives in the hearts of His people. + Spiritualize / Allegorize the Scriptures + Spiritualize / Allegorize the Scriptures

C. Three Premillennial Positions Concerning the Timing of the Rapture (Departure): 1. Pre-Tribulation – Pretribulationist believe that the Rapture (Departure) of the Church, the Body Messiah will occur before the Tribulation begins on earth.

C. Three Premillennial Positions Concerning the Timing of the Rapture (Departure): 2. Mid-Tribulation – Midtribulationist teach that believers will be caught up to heaven at the mid-point of the tribulation (usually associated with the 7 th Trumpet of Revelation 11:15).

C. Three Premillennial Positions Concerning the Timing of the Rapture (Departure): 3. Post–Tribulation – This position teaches the Departure of the Church will occur at the end of the Tribulation in conjunction with the Second Coming of Christ to earth.

D. The Lord’s Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments (Dispensations) Webster defines Dispensation as, “a divinely appointed order or age: the old Mosaic, or Jewish, dispensation; the new gospel, or Christian, dispensation.”

D. The L ORD’S Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments (Dispensations) 1. A broad overview of the Scriptures clearly reveals major time segments (dispensations) in our Father’s program for man and the earth.

D. The Lord’s Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments (Dispensations) 1. a. Dwight Pentecost states, “Any individual who refers to the Scriptures as the Old and New Testaments bears witness to the fact that God has divided His program into time segments.”

D. The Lord’s Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments (Dispensations) 1. b. C. I. Scofield states, “It is a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of Example Adam / Eve... God.” Example Adam / Eve...

D. The Lord’s Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments / Dispensations 1.c. Lewis Sperry Chafer, “The dispensational study of the Bible consists in the identification of certain well-defined time periods which are divinely indicated, together with the revealed purpose of God relative to each.”

D. Time Segments / Dispensatons Associated with Covenants 2. Biblical Time Segments from Genesis – Revelation are often initiated and established by a New Covenant.

D. Time Segments / Dispensatons Associated with Covenants 2. a. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they came under judgment and were driven from the Garden of Eden. The L ORD instituted the Adamic Covenant which began a new time segment / dispensation.

D. Time Segments / Dispensatons Associated with Covenants 2. b. From Adam to the days of Noah, sin and rebellion increased in the earth resulting in His judgment. The Flood brought a new time segment identified in the Noahic Covenant.

D. The L ORD’S Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments / Covenants 2. c. To Abraham’s descendants, known as Israel, the L ORD revealed His ways through Moses, giving His laws, covenants, calendar and festivals. To Israel’s prophets the L ORD revealed His times and seasons and the promise of Israel’s coming Messiah. When Israel rebelled against the L ORD, they incurred His judgment. They lost the Kingdom and their Land to be scattered among the nations in the Diaspora which began the time segment of the “Times of the Gentiles” and the New Covenant.

D. The L ORD’S Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments / Covenants 2. c. 2. This new time segment began the Age of Grace / Church Age (Act 2). While our Father picks a Jewish / Gentile Bride for His Son, the Law of Moses and the 70th Week of Daniel are held in abeyance. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)

D. The L ORD’S Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments / Covenants 2.c. 2. When Christ the Messiah’s body is complete (known as the Fullness of the Gentiles), Messiah will come to close the Church Age (Rom 11:25). A new Time Segment called: The Tribulation / Birth pains / Jacob’s Trouble / Daniel’s 70 th Week will begin. The Mosaic Covenant will resume (Mal 4:4-6).

D. The L ORD’S Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments / Covenants 2.c. 2. When the Church Age is complete the Mosaic Covenant resumes (Mal 4:4-6); the prophetic clock of Daniel’s 70 th Week (Dan 9:24-27) begins ticking again for that one seven-year period to climax at the return of Israel’s Messiah to restore the earth and the Kingdom to Israel. Messiah will rule over the nations in Jerusalem based on previously established Covenants.

Approach & Position to Revelation Study: 1. Approach – Literal Interpretation of the Scriptures 2. Position – Futurist Premillennialist Pretribulationist

D. Focus for Lesson 2: 1.Time Segments/Dispensations 2. Understanding Law and Grace 3. Three Groups of People Referenced in the Book of Revelation: Israel, the Gentiles & the Church (I Cor 10:32)