....... immediately upon reading this small part of a book:
Revelation 20 is the only chapter in the Bible that speaks of a thousand year reign of Christ or "millennium." This thousand year reign is mentioned in this single chapter of this one book of Scripture, and its meaning is not crystal clear. Moreover, the millennium has been a point of contention for centuries. Some of the greatest Bible scholars have avoided writing commentaries on the Book of Revelation because of its seeming obscurity. Ken Gentry writes:
In order to illustrate the need for caution and to hold rein upon the interpretive imagination—for so much written on Revelation is just that — it may serve well to list observations from a variety of Revelation's numerous interpreters on the book's formidability. After all, as Reuss observed, "ideas of the Apocalypse are so widely different that a summary notice of the exegetical literature, mingling all together would be inexpedient."
Although he never wrote a commentary on Revelation, that master theologian and exegete Benjamin B. Warfield proffered the following observation regarding the book: "The boldness of its symbolism makes it the most difficult book of the Bible: it has always been the most variously understood, the most arbitrarily interpreted, the most exegetically tortured." Milton Terry in his 1911 classic, Biblical Hermeneutics (which is still widely employed in seminaries today), noted that "no portion of the Holy Scripture has been the subject of so much controversy and of so many varying interpretations as the Apocalypse of John. Eminent church historian Philip Schaff cautioned that "no book has been more misunderstood and abused; none calls for greater modesty and reserve in interpretation."
But today we find that a single interpretation of the Book of Revelation is being used as a test of orthodoxy. This can only do damage to the already divided body of Christ. And it forces new converts to tackle a difficult area of theology when they have not had their "senses trained to discern good and evil" on the more basic doctrines of the Christian faith (Hebrews 5:14). There are many more clear and crucial doctrines that a young Christian should contemplate before he begins to study eschatology. As David Chilton has observed:
Many rush from their first profession of faith to the last book in the Bible, treating it as little more than a book of hallucinations, hastily disdaining a sober-minded attempt to allow the Bible to interpret itself— and finding, ultimately, only a reflection of their own prejudices."
The term "eschatology" means "study of the last things." It also should be among the last things studied by young Christians. And yet, we find that eschatology is usually a new convert's introduction to the Christian faith. The impending "rapture" is the hook to get people to come to Christ. There's more concern about "prophetic events" than holy living. When the world seems to be collapsing, all too many Christians are turning to Scripture to calculate how these events fit into the timetable of the end of the world. It seems that people will fill an auditorium more readily to hear about the Anti-Christ than about Jesus Christ. This is not the Bible's emphasis.
Revelation 20 is the only chapter in the Bible that speaks of a thousand year reign of Christ or "millennium." This thousand year reign is mentioned in this single chapter of this one book of Scripture, and its meaning is not crystal clear. Moreover, the millennium has been a point of contention for centuries. Some of the greatest Bible scholars have avoided writing commentaries on the Book of Revelation because of its seeming obscurity. Ken Gentry writes:
In order to illustrate the need for caution and to hold rein upon the interpretive imagination—for so much written on Revelation is just that — it may serve well to list observations from a variety of Revelation's numerous interpreters on the book's formidability. After all, as Reuss observed, "ideas of the Apocalypse are so widely different that a summary notice of the exegetical literature, mingling all together would be inexpedient."
Although he never wrote a commentary on Revelation, that master theologian and exegete Benjamin B. Warfield proffered the following observation regarding the book: "The boldness of its symbolism makes it the most difficult book of the Bible: it has always been the most variously understood, the most arbitrarily interpreted, the most exegetically tortured." Milton Terry in his 1911 classic, Biblical Hermeneutics (which is still widely employed in seminaries today), noted that "no portion of the Holy Scripture has been the subject of so much controversy and of so many varying interpretations as the Apocalypse of John. Eminent church historian Philip Schaff cautioned that "no book has been more misunderstood and abused; none calls for greater modesty and reserve in interpretation."
But today we find that a single interpretation of the Book of Revelation is being used as a test of orthodoxy. This can only do damage to the already divided body of Christ. And it forces new converts to tackle a difficult area of theology when they have not had their "senses trained to discern good and evil" on the more basic doctrines of the Christian faith (Hebrews 5:14). There are many more clear and crucial doctrines that a young Christian should contemplate before he begins to study eschatology. As David Chilton has observed:
Many rush from their first profession of faith to the last book in the Bible, treating it as little more than a book of hallucinations, hastily disdaining a sober-minded attempt to allow the Bible to interpret itself— and finding, ultimately, only a reflection of their own prejudices."
The term "eschatology" means "study of the last things." It also should be among the last things studied by young Christians. And yet, we find that eschatology is usually a new convert's introduction to the Christian faith. The impending "rapture" is the hook to get people to come to Christ. There's more concern about "prophetic events" than holy living. When the world seems to be collapsing, all too many Christians are turning to Scripture to calculate how these events fit into the timetable of the end of the world. It seems that people will fill an auditorium more readily to hear about the Anti-Christ than about Jesus Christ. This is not the Bible's emphasis.
