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Historicism ⇐ ⇒ Idealism
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For more futurist commentaries on Revelation check:
New Testament Commentaries & Whole Bible Commentaries
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Order of Contents
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Start: What is the View on Revelation Known as Futurism?
Futurism is the view of Revelation that most of the apocalyptic prophecies remain for the future. “Thus, Burgh, Maitland, Benjamin Newton, Todd, and others” & “Kelly, and some Irish authors.” – Charles Spurgeon. The Antichrist is usually (though not always) taken as a future, individual person.
This view can be further divided into:
(1) The older, non-Dispensational understanding (John Eadie, et al.), which can be divided into: Premillennial, Amillennial and Postmilllennial. Premillennialism is inconsistent with the Westminster Confession, though the latter two varieties are not.
(2) Dispensationalism, that there is a hard separation between the dispensations of God’s dealings with the Church and national, ethnic Israel. All forms of Dispensationalism are inconsistent with the Westminster Confession of Faith. Dispensationalists are all Premillennial, though they can be divided into:
(i) Pre-Tribulation: The Church is raptured before the 7 year Tribulation. This is practically a standard of orthodoxy amongst many Fundamentalists and Evangelicals. Tim LaHaye, Hal Lindsey, John MacArthur are representative examples, among many others.
(ii) Mid-Tribulation: Believing Christians are raptured in the middle of the Tribulation.
(iii) Post-Tribulation: The rapture happens after the Tribulation at Christ’s 2nd Coming.
No dispensationalist writings are included on this webpage as Dispensationalism represents a novel system of systematic, serious error, originating from the late-1800’s and early 1900’s.
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Futurist Commentaries
1800’s
de Burgh, William – An Exposition of the Book of the Revelation (1857)
** “Good in its own line.” – Spurgeon
Newton, Benjamin – Thoughts on the Apocalypse (1853)
** “Of the Futurist School. Condensed and Instructive.” – Spurgeon
Seiss, Joseph A. – The Apocalypse, vol. 1, 2, 3 11th ed. (1865)
Seiss (1823–1904) claims to take a ‘literal’ hermeneutic to the book. He interprets the first four chapters as happening through history, but the bulk of the book, chs. 4-20 as yet future. See the chart at the beginning of vol. 3. He was a premillennial and was influential in his own day.
“An exhaustive, premillennial exposition by a well-known Lutheran writer of the past century.” – Cyril J. Barber
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