Historicism is one of the four major framework views of understanding apocalyptic prophecy in the Bible. In his book Revelation: Four Views, Steve Gregg defines it:
The historicist approach, which is the classical Protestant interpretation of the book, sees the book of Revelation as a prewritten record of the course of history from the time of John to the end of the world. Fulfillment is thus considered to be in progress at present and has been unfolding for nearly two thousand years.
According to Historicism Research Foundation, historicists agree on the following unique concepts:
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- The 'Year-Day' principle – In prophetic language, a day of symbolic time represents a year of actual, historic time.
- The “Time, Times and Half a time,” “3 1/2 years,” “1260 days”, and “42 month” time period, which occurs seven times in Daniel and Revelation, is understood by Historicists to be fulfilled in history.
- All Historicists believe that the Papacy is that Anti-Christ, the Man of Sin of II Thessalonians 2, and a Beast of Revelation 13.
- Historicists generally agree Revelation 9 speaks of the Muslim scourge which afflicted Christendom.
- All Historicists agree that the Book of Revelation prophesies the history of the Church from the Apostolic Era to the future Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
The Historicist interpretation was the standard interpretation from Wycliffe to Spurgeon (500 years) and is known as the Protestant interpretation in distinct contrast to Preterism and Futurism, which were Jesuit interpretations contrived during the counterreformation. The Reformational confessions have adopted the Historicist interpretation, including the Irish Articles (1615), the original Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), the Savoy Declaration (1658), and the London Baptist Confession (1688).
Where to Start
One of the best ways to learn about historicism is through Albert Barnes‘ commentary on the Bible. It can be found online for free on many different sites, such as studylight.org, biblehub.com, and sacred-texts.com. Start with his commentary on Daniel 7, and then move on to Revelation.
For a shorter modern accessible primer on historicism, check out Our Past and Future Hope by Jason Giles on this site.