In this seminar, recorded live, Johannine scholar Paul Hoskins teaches on interpreting the book of Revelation. He quickly works through the four main interpretive approaches to the book: preterist, historicist, idealist, and futurist. He then surveys main themes in the book, in particular the theme of two kingdoms and the Trinity vs. the fraudulent “Unholy Trinity.” He concludes with a test case, examining the three and a half year persecution by the Dragon and the Beast and how it is interpreted by those following the four different interpretive approaches.
After the 45-minute presentation, Dr. Hoskins answers questions from the crowd for the next 45 minutes. I curated these questions to try to group them somewhat thematically, and also to ask ones that would relevant for our mixed crowd of those from my church and from the online Bible nerds that joined us. Finally, Hoskins offered to stick around for an extra 30 minutes to field some more questions without my mediation.
Overall, it was an informative and enjoyable seminar, and we’re happy to offer it to you here. Throughout the seminar we mention:
- Hoskins’s commentary, The Book of Revelation: A Theological and Exegetical Commentary, which we have reviewed before positively.
- Hoskins’s series of three sermons at Mosaic church are available here (you may need to search for “The Book of Revelation” to find the sermons). He used Rev 12 and 17 to demonstrate how to interpret Revelation sensitively and in a manner that is relevant to our present Christian experience.
- Hoskins blogs at BibleAndTheology.net.
