Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 20:2 (Fall 2016)
Article: Kingdom Hermeneutics And The Apocalypse: A Promotion Of Consistent Literal Methodology
Author: Cory M. Marsh

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Kingdom Hermeneutics And The Apocalypse: A Promotion Of Consistent Literal Methodology

Cory M. Marsh

Adjunct Professor
Southern California Seminary
El Cajon, California

Introduction1

George Eldon Ladd espoused wisdom when he said, “The easiest approach to [the book of] Revelation is to follow one’s own particular tradition as the true view and ignore all others; but the intelligent interpreter must familiarize himself with the various methods of interpretation that he may criticize and purify his own view.”2 It is in this Laddian spirit that the present article will consider the hermeneutical approaches of several key eschatological positions concerning the book of Revelation, and in particular, the kingdom views attached to each position. However, rather than give a summary statement of the three different millennial positions,3 the focus here will be to expose each position’s supporting hermeneutical base as that is where the differences originate. This will be done with a view to comparing and contrasting each position’s hermeneutical method against the backdrop of a consistently literal, grammatical-historical interpretation that results with the view that ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ (the kingdom of God) is still awaiting a

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future and literal fulfillment—a position unique to the system known as dispensational premillennialism.

The Four Approaches

There are four popular hermeneutical approaches concerning the book of Revelation, which in turn affects one’s view of the kingdom or millennium.4 Traditionally, these have been labeled preterist, historicist, idealist, and futurist. Each of these eschatological views is derived from the hermeneutics employed to reach that particular position. That said, elements of literal, symbolic, and figurative expressions are recognized in each of these four, but the question to be answered is this: What was God’s intended meaning when he wrote the book through its human author?5 As these approaches to Revelation are explored, it will be shown that only the futurist approach concerning the promised literal thousand year kingdom is consistent with a grammatical-historical hermeneutic and, because of that, does the most justice to the book of Revelation as a whole.

Preterism

According to Ladd, preterism is “the prevailing interpretation of the Revelation in sc...