My dear friend and fellow pastor Denny Burk blessed me with a blog interview on Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches. Here are the questions:
What is the main point of Revelation? What is the genre?
If much of the prophecy in Revelation symbolizes early Christian conflict with Rome, then why not take a Preterist reading of the book?
Did John write Revelation, or did some other John write it? Is that relevant to our interpretation of the book?
Is rapture doctrine taught in Revelation?
What about the interpretation of Revelation 4:1 that says “come up here” is a reference to the rapture?
Does revelation teach that there will be a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth?
Here I list seven reasons to be pre-mil
What’s your millennial position, and how does Revelation inform your view?
What do you say to pastors who do not preach Revelation because it is either too difficult or too divisive?
Did you split your church when you preached it?
Check out the interview here. Amazon should have the book soon, and it’s available now from Crossway.
I assume that anyone who looks at this blog is already subscribed to Denny’s, but just in case there’s someone who isn’t, I highly recommend it. Don’t miss him on twitter, either.
Thanks for the opportunity, Denny!
Hi Jim,
From the interview with Denny Burk:
‘Lots of evangelicals hold that the first 69 weeks are literal sets of 7 years (69 weeks of years) that lead up to the death of Christ. If you take that view, then consistency requires that the 70th week also be a literal 7 year period. The pre-trib dispensationalists are consistent in seeing Daniel’s 70th week as the final 7 years before the return of Christ. They think this last week comes after the rapture of the church.
I think that the various references to 3 1/2 years in Revelation (1260 days, 42 months, times/time/and half a time) are interpreting Daniel’s 70th week, but I don’t think John is treating it as the final 7 years after the rapture of the church before the return of Christ. Rather, I am convinced that John is presenting those 3 1/2 year periods as symbolic ways of presenting the whole of church history between the two comings of Christ.’
Just trying to understand your thinking here for clarification purposes. In the above are you saying that the first 69 weeks of sevens in Daniel 9 leading up to Christ’s death are chronological literal years, and that Biblical historians can pin down some dates to actual history here, but that the last week (one week) in Dan. 9:27 is an indeterminate time of church history between the two comings?
Is there hermeneutical precedent for this? What are the clues you see to take this understanding?
Maybe you spell this out in your book, and I’ll have to get a copy.
Thanks.
Thanks for your note, Steve,
Roger Beckwith has written some things that show that the destructions of Jerusalem in AD 70 and AD 132–35 were prompted by messianic movements that were informed by (mis)calculation of Daniel’s 69 weeks.
Beckwith himself seems to see the 69 weeks as at least somewhat literal, then the 70th being more symbolic–I would need to go back and re-read him to verify.
Peter Gentry, in an article you can find linked if you search this blog, also takes the 69 weeks as literal and then the 70th as more symbolic.
Andrew Steinmann in his commentary on Daniel takes the 69 weeks and the 70th week as symbolic.
Though I am more in line with Beckwith and Gentry (69 weeks as literal, 70th symbolic) in this book on Revelation, if the Lord gives me strength to finish this book on the theology of Daniel that I’m working on, I may wind up where Steinmann is.
Blessings!
Jim
Thanks, it was an enjoyable interview!
Hi Jim! I am looking forward to reading your new book. Based on your interview and other posts I cannot tell if you hold to a pre or post trib rapture. Can you share which and the most compelling evidence for your understanding?
Thanks!
Post. I discuss the rapture issue in the Burk interview. Did you see that part?
Sorry, I missed it… too many distractions… 🙂 I will listen again in a more quiet setting. Thanks for replying!
Just got my Revelation Commentary Yesterday!!!!