glory and majesty," and taught the premillennial advent, the literal restoration of the ancient Zion,
and the future apostasy of the clergy of the Roman church to the camp of Antichrist), S. R. Maitland,
De Burgh, Todd, Isaac Williams, W. Kelly.
Another important division of historical interpreters is into Post-Millennarians and
Pre-Millennarians, according as the millennium predicted in Rev. 20 is regarded as part or future.
Augustin committed the radical error of dating the millennium from the time of the Apocalypse or
the beginning of the Christian era (although the seer mentioned it near the end of his book), and
his view had great influence; hence the wide expectation of the end of the world at the close of the
first millennium of the Christian church. Other post-millennarian interpreters date the millennium
from the triumph of Christianity over paganism in Rome at the accession of Constantine the Great
(311); still others (as Hengstenberg) from the conversion of the Germanic nations or the age of
Charlemagne. All these calculations are refuted by events. The millennium of the Apocalypse must
he in the future, and is still an article of hope.
The grammatical and historical interpretation of the Apocalypse, as well as of any other
book, is the only safe foundation for all legitimate spiritual and practical application. Much has
been done in this direction by the learned commentators of recent times. We must explain it from
the standpoint of the author and in view of his surroundings. He wrote out of his time and for his
time of things which must shortly come to pass (1:1, 3; 22:20), and he wished to be read and
understood by his contemporaries (1:3). Otherwise he would have written in vain, and the solemn
warning at the close (22:18, 19) would be unintelligible. In some respects they could understand
him better than we; for they were fellow-sufferers of the fiery persecutions and witnesses of the
fearful judgments described. Undoubtedly he had in view primarily the overthrow of Jerusalem
and heathen Rome, the two great foes of Christianity at that time. He could not possibly ignore that
great conflict.
But his vision was not confined to these momentous events. It extends even to the remotest
future when death and Hades shall be no more, and a new heaven and a new earth shall appear.
And although the fulfilment is predicted as being near at hand, he puts a millennium and a short
intervening conflict before the final overthrow of Satan, the beast, and the false prophet. We have
an analogy in the prophecy of the Old Testament and the eschatalogical discourses of our Lord,
which furnish the key for the understanding of the Apocalypse. He describes the destruction of
Jerusalem and the general judgment in close proximity, as if they were one continuous event. He
sees the end from the beginning. The first catastrophe is painted with colors borrowed from the
last, and the last appears as a repetition of the first on a grand and universal scale. It is the manner
of prophetic vision to bring distant events into close proximity, as in a panorama. To God a thousand
years are as one day. Every true prophecy, moreover, admits of an expanding fulfilment. History
ever repeats itself, though never in the same way. There is nothing old under the sun, and, in another
sense, there is nothing new under the sun.
In the historical interpretation of details we must guard against arbitrary and fanciful schemes,
and mathematical calculations, which minister to idle curiosity, belittle the book, and create distrust
in sober minds. The Apocalypse is not a prophetical manual of church history and chronology in
the sense of a prediction of particular persons, dates, and events. This would have made it useless
to the first readers, and would make it useless now to the great mass of Christians. It gives under
symbolic figures and for popular edification an outline of the general principles of divine government
and the leading forces in the conflict between Christ’s kingdom and his foes, which is still goingA.D. 1-100.