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REVELATIONREVELATIONSTUDYSTUDY

REVELATIONREVELATIONIntroductionIntroduction

Approach & PositionApproach & PositionLesson 1Lesson 1

REMEMBEROUR FATHER’S WORDS

Revealed to Isaiah:

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways

My ways, declares the LORD. 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 TOINTERPRETING 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, 16-17

“And the LORD 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 LORD 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 4 - 22).

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, 1000-

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 ScripturesSpiritualize / 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

7th 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 LORD’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 God.” Example Adam / Eve... 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 LORD 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 LORD’S Plan For the Ages is Revealed Through His Time Segments / Covenants2. c. To Abraham’s descendants, known as Israel, the LORD revealed His ways through Moses, giving His laws, covenants, calendar and festivals. To Israel’s prophets the LORD revealed His times and seasons and the promise of Israel’s coming Messiah. When Israel rebelled against the LORD, 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 LORD’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 LORD’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 70th Week will begin. The Mosaic Covenant will resume (Mal 4:4-6).

D. The LORD’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 70th 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 toRevelation Study:

1. Approach – Literal Interpretation of the Scriptures2. 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)