Exploring the Bible

  The Book of Revelation is often considered the most dazzling, yet daunting, book of the Bible. With its vivid imagery of dragons, beasts, and celestial battles, it has captivated the imagination of believers for two millennia. However, when you pick up a commentary or listen to a sermon, you might notice that not everyone agrees on when these events take place. While all orthodox Christians agree on the ultimate conclusion, Christ returns, evil is defeated, and God restores all things, there are distinct "lenses" through which scholars interpret the timeline of the visions given to St. John. Understanding these three major frameworks,  Preterism, Historicism, and Futurism,  is essential for any student of the Bible. It helps us appreciate the depth of the text and the history of how the Church has understood her future. The Three Frameworks Before diving into the comparison, it is helpful to briefly define the specific focus of each view. 1. The Preterist Vie...

  In the study of the New Testament, there is one non-biblical name that appears in footnotes more than any other: Flavius Josephus . To the Jewish people of the first century, he was often viewed as a traitor—a commander who defected to the enemy while the Temple burned. To the Romans, he was a useful intelligence asset and a propagandist. But to historians and theologians today, he is the indispensable eye through which we view the world of the Gospels and the fulfillment of ancient prophecy. Without Josephus, our understanding of the cultural and political landscape of Judea in the time of Jesus and the Apostles would be nearly blank. From Priest to General Born Yosef ben Matityahu in Jerusalem around 37 AD, just a few years after the crucifixion of Jesus, he came from a line of aristocracy. His father was a priest, and his mother claimed royal descent from the Hasmoneans. Highly educated in the Law, he identified with the Pharisees, the same sect that often debated wit...

When the topic of biblical prophecy arises, the modern imagination often drifts toward images of future global conflicts, apocalyptic scenarios, and the "End Times." This perspective, largely popularized in the last century, anticipates that the majority of prophetic scripture is waiting to be fulfilled in our future. However, there is an alternative theological framework that has existed within church history for centuries—one that looks backward rather than forward to understand the fulfillment of scripture. This view is known as Preterism . Derived from the Latin word praeter , meaning "past," Preterism posits that many of the prophecies found in the New Testament, specifically in Matthew 24 and the Book of Revelation, were fulfilled in the first century AD. Rather than a roadmap for the 21st century, Preterists view these texts as a divine commentary on the events leading up to and including the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 AD. What Does Preteris...