Interpreting Revelation - Four Views: Historicist

Today we come to the fourth and final major Christian interpretive approach to the book of Revelation. So far this week we've introduced the view that sees Revelation mostly about the future (Futurist), mostly about the past (Preterist), and mostly about big-picture spiritual lessons (the Idealist). Today we come to a view known as the Historicist (or Historicism) approach. 

Protestant Giants

This view sees Revelation as a preview of the entirety of history after the Incarnation of Christ. According to this approach events that occur throughout history have been previewed in Revelation. In this way there are parts of Revelation that are viewed by Historicist interpreters as having already taken place, and other parts that have not yet taken place. Steve Gregg provides some examples of the historicist approach: 

For example, the breaking of the seven seals (chs. 6–7) is often said to be the barbarian invasions that sacked the western Roman Empire. The scorpion/locusts that come out of the bottomless pit (ch. 9) are the Arab hordes attacking the eastern Roman Empire, followed by the Turks, represented as the horses with serpents for tails and flame-throwers for mouths. “The beast” (ch. 13) represents the Roman papacy.

Steve Gregg, Revelation, Four Views: A Parallel Commentary (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson Publishers, 1997), 34.

If you've ever heard someone claim that the Pope or Roman Catholic Church is a part of the apocalyptic vision of John, that person might have a historicist view of Revelation. One reason for this is the time period in which this particular view of interpreting Revelation was at its peak. During the period of the European Reformation a great number of protestants from all across Europe saw the struggle they were experiencing as a framework that lined up with the scenes described in Revelation. 

Because of the theological and cultural climate of the period of the Reformation, a great many heroes of western protestant Christianity held to the historicist interpretive view. Let me give you a few names to back that statement up. Noted historicist interpreters include:

• John Wycliffe (English 1330-1384)
• Jan Huss (Czech 1369–1415)
• William Tyndale (English 1490-1536)
• John Knox (Scottish 1514-1572)
• Martin Luther (German 1483-1546)
• John Calvin (French 1509–1564)
• Sir Isaac Newton (English 1642-1727)
• Jonathan Edwards (American 1703–1758)
• George Whitefield (English 1714-1770)
• John Wesley (English 1703–1791)
• C. H. Spurgeon (English 1834-1892)

There were even more giants during the time of the Reformation and the Renaissance who were historicist, but I hope this list gives you a sense of the weight this interpretive lens had for a little over 400 years. 

Time keeps on Ticking

The rules for the historicist approach to interpretation often flow from a symbolic representation of time keeping within the rest of the Bible. Steve Gregg helps our conversation again by articulating how many historicists arrive at their precise calculations for particular events in Revelation:

A unique characteristic of this line of interpretation is its advocacy of what is called the “year-for-a-day principle” when dealing with designations of time in Revelation. It is believed that God revealed literal and exact time periods, but cast them in a symbolism that represents a year as a day. On this principle, five months (150 days) is taken to designate 150 years. The significant period of 1260 days is interpreted as the same number of years. “An hour, and a day, and a month, and a year” becomes (depending whether a year is 360 days or 365 days) 391 years and 15 days, or 396 years and 106 days.

Steve Gregg, Revelation, Four Views: A Parallel Commentary (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson Publishers, 1997), 34.

This framework does have trouble adjusting as each subsequent generation of interpreters try to piece together the details of which historical event corresponds to each scene in Revelation. Since many historicists have viewed Revelation as chronologically linear (meaning that what happens in chapter 5 comes after what happens in chapter 4, etc) there end up being huge gaps in history that are filled with relative silence from the text of Revelation. Under the historicist approach some of the scenes of Revelation occur over the span of only a few years, while others occur over the span of thousands of years (ironically Revelation 20 with it's explicit thousand year statement is not then extrapolated out to being some gargantuan number by historicists). 

It is easy to see why anyone would gravitate to this view of Revelation. There are plenty of occurrences throughout history which can be described poetically, symbolically, or even spiritually as resembling the scenes in Revelation. Scenes of tremendous worship and glory (Revelation 5, 11, and 19) could be interpreted to predict specific periods of growth, revival and expansion of Christianity. Scenes of persecution, martyrdom, and great disorder could be interpreted as predictions of spiritual warfare and oppression against believers (Revelation 6, 12, 13, and 17). What the idealist view does by viewing as much as possible through a spiritually allegorical perspective, the historicist does by viewing as much of the text through history. 

The historicist interpreter is not only a voracious reader of the New Testament, but are also studious in their considerations of potential world shaping events in history. If you read about the past World Wars, famines, plagues, and immorality of humanity, you may indeed have more sympathy for this once popular, now out of favor interpretive approach to Revelation. 

A few thoughts about the Historicist perspective

While there are not many historicists interpreters teaching or preaching today, there is certainly a legacy of historicism which has informed much of our contemporary thinking about Revelation. Speculating about past events which have lead up to current events and then moving to assume these are "the last times" is a pretty tempting historicist activity. Maybe there are more among us who are historicists than we would have originally thought. While futurist interpretations are among the most popular approach today in western Christianity, a futurist is only one or two history lectures away from becoming historicists. Below are some questions for those who do see Revelation as providing a prophetic previewing of church history

• How would the early seven churches who were being written to (Revelation 1:11) have known that many of these events were in their future by hundreds (and thousands) of years? 
• Which historicist most accurately lines up the course of church history and the book of Revelation?
• If Revelation was given by Jesus to John to benefit believers, what benefit (practical or theological) is there to having this perspective and preview of history? 

I hope you have enjoyed taking a brief look at four different interpretive approaches to Revelation. If you have learned something new or exciting in this series, let me know. I'd love to hear your thoughts about Revelation and takeaways from each interpretive approach.