This book is about the various ways in which the Book of Revelation (the Apocalypse) has been interpreted over the past 300 years. It examines in detail Methodist, Baptist, Anglican, and Catholic uses of Revelation from 1600 to 1800, and then American Millerism and Seventh-day Adventist uses from 1800 to David Koresh and the "Waco Disaster." The book argues that, far from being a random sequence of bizarre statements, millennial schemes (including the setting of dates for Christ's second coming) are more often characterized by internally consistent interpretations of scripture.
Contents
1. Introduction: texts, eisegesis and millennial expectation; 2. Hanserd Knollys, Benjamin Keach and the Book of Revelation: a study in Baptist Eisegesis; 3. Revelation 13 and the Papal Antichrist in eighteenth-century England; 4. Catholic apocalypse: the Book of Revelation in Roman Catholicism from 1600 to 1800; 5. Methodists and the millennium: eschatological belief and the interpretation of biblical prophecy; 6. Charles Wesley: prophetic interpreter; 7. William Miller, the Book of Daniel, and the end of the world; 8. ‘A Lamb-like Beast’: Revelation 13:11-18 in the Seventh-day Adventist tradition; 9. Waco apocalypse: the Book of Revelation in the Branch Davidian tradition.
Reviews
"interesting study...the overall effect is one fascinating"
Theology Today
"This work is strongly recommended for understanding the damaging effects of historicist eisegesis and setting dates, and for understanding historicism primarily in relation with postmillennialism (ans some premillennial interpretations)."
Ron J. Bligalke, Journal of Dispensational Theology
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