Revelation

Before the tribulation

held by John Nelson Darby, the Scofield Reference Bible (1909), Lewis Sperry Chafer, John F. Walvoord, Charles C. Ryrie and Chuck Missler; this is this site's own tradition

The support is the promise to Philadelphia, 'I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world' (3:10), the absence of the church from the earth scenes of chapters 6 to 18, and the pattern of Noah and Lot taken out before judgment fell.

In the middle of the seven-year period

held by Gleason L. Archer among others, reading the catching up at the seventh trumpet

The support is 11:15, where the seventh angel sounds and the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of Christ, set against Paul's last trumpet, and the two halves of forty-two months at 11:2 and 13:5.

Before the outpouring of wrath, after the tribulation has begun

held by Robert Van Kampen, who developed the view, and Marvin Rosenthal, whose book The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church (1990) set it out for a wide readership

The support is the distinction the book itself draws between the persecution of the saints by the beast (13:7) and the wrath of God poured out in the bowls (16:1), with the church kept from the second and present for part of the first.

At the return itself, after the tribulation

held by the reading of most of the church before the nineteenth century, and in modern exposition George Eldon Ladd (The Blessed Hope, 1956) and Douglas J. Moo

The support is Matthew 24, where the gathering of the elect follows the tribulation in one sequence: 'immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened' (Matthew 24:29), and then 'they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory' (Matthew 24:30).

Futurist: the visions from chapter 4 forward describe events still to come

held by the ancient reading of Justin, Irenaeus, Hippolytus and Victorinus of Pettau, recovered in the modern era and held by John F. Walvoord (1966), Robert L. Thomas, Chuck Missler and the dispensational tradition; this is this site's own tradition

The support is 1:19, where John is told to write 'the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter' (1:19), and the call at 4:1 to come up and be shown 'the things which must come to pass hereafter' (4:1).

Historicist: the visions run in order through the history of the church

held by Joachim of Fiore in the twelfth century, then Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin's successors, Isaac Newton, and much English and American exposition into the nineteenth century

The reading fell out of use for a plain reason. Each generation of historicists found its own century at the point of climax, and the identifications kept having to be redrawn.

Preterist: the visions answer the first century

held by in its partial form, which keeps a future return and a future judgment, Kenneth L. Gentry (Before Jerusalem Fell, 1989), David Chilton (The Days of Vengeance, 1987) and R. C. Sproul (The Last Days According to Jesus, 1998)

The reading requires a date before AD 70 and reads Babylon as Jerusalem or as Rome. In its partial form it is a serious position held by serious men. Full preterism, which says every promise including the resurrection and the return was fulfilled in AD 70, is a different thing. Paul named that error and its effect: men 'saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some' (2 Timothy 2:18), and the angels at the ascension said 'this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven' (Acts 1:11). This site does not present full preterism as a viable reading.

Idealist: the visions show the conflict of Christ and evil in every age

held by Origen and the Alexandrian tradition, Augustine, and in modern commentary William Hendriksen (More Than Conquerors, 1940) and G. K. Beale (1999) in combination with other approaches

The support is the way the imagery has spoken to persecuted congregations in every century. The cost is that the book announces particular events with particular numbers, and a reading with no landing point leaves those numbers doing nothing.

A person still to be revealed

held by Irenaeus (Against Heresies 5.30), Hippolytus (On Christ and Antichrist, about AD 200), and the futurist tradition including John F. Walvoord (1966), Robert L. Thomas and Chuck Missler; this is this site's own tradition

The support is that the figure is destroyed by the returning Christ at 19:20, an event that has not happened, and that 13:18 says the number is the number of a man.

Nero, counted in Hebrew letters

held by the preterist reading, argued by Kenneth L. Gentry (1989) and widely noted in commentary of every school as the strongest of the historical proposals

The Greek form of Nero Caesar, written in Hebrew letters, totals six hundred and sixty-six, and the shorter Latin form of the name totals six hundred and sixteen, which is exactly the variant reading in Papyrus 115. That coincidence is the reason the proposal has to be taken seriously. What it does not explain is 19:20, where the beast meets the returning Christ.

A number that means falling short, three times over

held by commentators in several traditions who note that six falls short of seven, the book's number of completeness, and that the beast's trinity of dragon, beast and false prophet at 16:13 is a counterfeit of God's

The support is the book's steady use of numbers as meaning rather than arithmetic. The cost is 13:18, which says the number is a man's number and invites a count.

A name we cannot recover

held by Irenaeus himself, who had the earliest access to the tradition and refused to guess, and a long line of commentators after him who have judged the same way

The support is the failure rate of every confident identification made in nineteen centuries.

Rome

held by the ancient reading, which 1 Peter 5:13 appears to use as a code name, and the majority of commentary since; Robert H. Mounce (1977), David E. Aune (1997 to 1998) and Grant R. Osborne (2002) among moderns

The support is 17:9, since Rome was known everywhere as the city on seven hills, and 17:18, since one city reigned over the kings of the earth when John wrote. The merchant's list of chapter 18 matches what came into the ports of Italy.

A rebuilt literal Babylon on the Euphrates

held by part of the dispensational tradition, including Charles H. Dyer (The Rise of Babylon, 1991) and others who read Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 50 to 51 as awaiting a final fulfilment

The support is that the prophets describe a destruction of Babylon more total than anything history records, and that the city is named plainly here. The cost is 17:9 and 17:18, which point at a city of seven hills reigning over kings.

Jerusalem, judged in AD 70

held by the preterist reading, argued by David Chilton (The Days of Vengeance, 1987) and Kenneth L. Gentry (1989)

The support is 11:8, where the great city is 'called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified' (11:8), and 18:24, where the blood of prophets is found in her. The cost is 17:18, since Jerusalem did not reign over the kings of the earth.

The world system of commerce, power and false worship in every age

held by the idealist stream, including William Hendriksen (1940) and G. K. Beale (1999), who read the harlot as the seduction of the world wherever it is exercised

The support is that 18:4 is addressed to readers in every century, and that the sins listed are ordinary commercial and religious sins. The cost is that 17:18 names a city.

Seven congregations in their own time and place

held by all commentary in every school, and the ground of the local studies by William M. Ramsay (The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, 1904) and Colin J. Hemer (The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting, 1986)

Seven congregations chosen to speak to the whole church in every age

held by the ancient observation recorded in the Muratorian list that writing to seven is writing to all, carried by commentary of every tradition; the closing line of each letter is addressed to the churches in the plural (2:7)

Seven successive ages of church history, in the order given

held by the reading of John Nelson Darby, the notes of the Scofield Reference Bible (1909), Clarence Larkin, and later dispensational teachers including Chuck Missler

The support offered is the order of the letters and the way the seventh describes a wealthy and self-satisfied congregation. The cost is that the seven cities lie on a courier's road in exactly that order, which accounts for the sequence without any appeal to chronology, and that the letters give no signal of a change of subject from congregation to century.

Moses and Elijah

held by a reading held from the early church, resting on the two miracles named at 11:6 and on the appearance of the same two men at the transfiguration; carried by many in the futurist tradition

The support is that the powers described belong to those two men specifically. The question raised against it is that Moses died, though he was also seen alive on the mountain.

Enoch and Elijah

held by Tertullian, Hippolytus and a broad line of patristic and medieval commentary

The support is that both men left the world without dying, which fits a return that ends in death at 11:7.

Two individuals not yet named

held by commentators who take the sackcloth, the days and the deaths as describing a coming ministry without identifying the men in advance

The support is that the text describes them by their work rather than by their names, and that the book names Antipas when it wants a name (2:13).

The witnessing church, pictured as two

held by the idealist and amillennial reading, including William Hendriksen (1940) and G. K. Beale (1999), who point to the two candlesticks of 11:4 against the candlesticks of 1:20, which are churches

The support is the candlestick image, which the book has already defined. The cost is that these two die on a particular day in a particular street and are raised in the sight of watching crowds.