"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near."
Revelation 1:1-3
It surprises some people to learn that the Church has from earliest times believed in the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ, and expressed it in its classical creeds and confessions. It is a common misconception to imagine that this doctrine was not believed from the time of the apostles until just over a hundred years ago when renewed interest began to be taken in it by some evangelical believers. It is not even true that what has become known as the pre-millennial interpretation of the doctrine had its origin in the early 19th century, for in fact this goes back to some early Fathers of the Church. It is only true that some of the ramifications and elaborations of this view arose comparatively recently, and it is these which loom so considerably in some interpretations of Revelation. According to the millennial view, which is dispensational in the sense that it divides history into various dispensations or ages in which God's dealings with men differ, a highly complex and complicated pattern of events is due to take place in connection with the second coming of Christ. It is held that Christ will come for His Church, and His saints will be caught up to meet Him and will accompany Him to heaven; this marks the end of the Church-age or dispensation, and the Holy Spirit will be withdrawn from the earth. After this will occur the Great Tribulation in which Anti-Christ will be revealed and will manifest his power. During this period the gospel of the kingdom, as distinct from the gospel of grace, will be preached, and the Lord will have dealings again with Israel as a nation, bringing her to repentance, and the converted Jewish people will become His instruments in world-evangelisation. This period will end with the coming of Christ (again) to earth with His saints, and the Millennial reign of Christ will begin, when Christ's throne will be established at Jerusalem and the Davidic kingship re-established. At the end of the Millennium the final battle between good and evil will take place, and the great white throne of divine judgment will be set up and final judgment take place.
We trust that during the course of this present study the above view will be seen to be erroneous. What we must point out at this stage is that if it is true, then it implies necessarily that the greater part of Revelation does not really have more than an academic interest for the Church, for according to this view, the bulk of the book, from chapter 4 almost to the end has reference to events which took place after the rapture of the Church, after believers are taken home to be with the Lord. But this is not only to misinterpret Revelation, it is to misunderstand the whole conception of Christ's second coming altogether. As C.S. Lewis puts it, 'When the author walks on to the stage, the play is over'. When Christ breaks in to time the second time, time will be no longer. It will be the end. This is the view which the classical interpretations have always held, and we believe it is the correct one, as the Notes will seek to establish later.