Futurist
Most of Revelation awaits future fulfillment surrounding the return of Christ.
Interpretive Views
Four Approaches, Three Positions
The major schools of reading Revelation, and the three main positions on the millennium — presented descriptively, without endorsement.
Overall Approach
Historicist
Revelation charts the history of the church from John's day to the end.
Preterist
Most of Revelation was fulfilled in the first century — either AD 70 (partial) or Rome's fall (full).
Idealist
Revelation presents timeless truths about the conflict of good and evil in every age.
The Millennium
Premillennial (Historic & Dispensational)
Christ returns before a literal thousand-year reign on earth.
Amillennial
The thousand years symbolize the whole present church age; Christ reigns from heaven.
Postmillennial
The gospel gradually brings a long age of peace, after which Christ returns.
The Trinity — Shield of the Faith
Scutum Fidei
A medieval visual summary of orthodox Trinitarian confession: the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God — yet the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. One God in three Persons.
Classic errors, corrected
- Modalism: One person in three modes. Denies distinction.
- Arianism: The Son is a created being. Denies deity.
- Tritheism: Three gods. Denies unity.
- Adoptionism: Jesus became divine at baptism. Denies eternal Son.
- Partialism: Each person is one third of God. Denies fullness of each.