“Christian communities often seem to take one of two paths in their approach to Revelation: Some Christian groups seem to be preoccupied with the book and what it might tell us about the future, and the rest don’t read Revelation at all. In this lecture, we will briefly go back to colonial America, where interest in Revelation was common among Protestants. We will trace the “progressive” approach to Revelation, in which history was assumed to be progressing toward the millennial kingdom of God. People could share in this progressive march of history by spreading the gospel and reforming society. We will then look at the divergence of the apocalyptic and progressive perspectives, at which point some Christian groups dropped their interest in Revelation while retaining a hope for social progress and some hung on to Revelation but moved away from the hope for societal reform. We are still feeling the effects of that split today. “ –from Apocalypse: Controversies and Meanings in Western History by Craig R. Koester
As strange as it may seem for an agnostic such as myself (an atheist that hedges their bets), this particular lecture series has been useful to the extent that the divide presented above tells us a little about something that is currently at work under the Trump administration and his relationship with the evangelicals. As the above points out, there was a split in terms of how the Book of Revelations was interpreted. On one hand there were the post-millennials that saw Revelations as a kind of blueprint for a just society and, therefore, set out to achieve that millennium of peace through social reform. On the other, there were the pre-millennials that were mainly focused on the unavoidable process that went on before the millennium could be achieved. By looking at it as prophecy (history described before the history actually happened), they mainly focused on the suffering that would come from it and, consequently, not their role as social reformers that might ease the suffering, but rather as truth holders obliged to save anyone they can by converting them to Christ so that they too will be taken away in the Rapture before the anti-Christ comes.
?: Do you see the difference……
This difference could not be more highlighted than it is under Trump. On one hand we have post-millennials (mainly black evangelicals (that see our path to the millennium of peace through social reform and who are completely opposed to Trump and his policies. On the other, we have pre- millennials (mainly white evangelicals (who see Trump as a means to save us from ourselves so that we too can be swept up in the Rapture.
And I’m really not that comfortable with the latter.