Chapter XXXV: Appendix: B: Current Questions of Divided Opinion

I The Four Schools of Interpretation

1 The Preterist, or Contemporaneous‐Historical School;

2 The Progressivist, or Continuous‐Historical School;

3 The Futurist, or Future‐Historical School;

4 The Symbolist, or Spiritual School.

The wide diversity of prevailing opinion is well indicated by the existence of four separate schools of interpreters, who represent as many different viewpoints that are currently attributed to the prophecy, and that are based upon two fundamentally different methods of regarding its purpose, viz. the Historical which _specializes_, and the Symbolical which _idealizes_ the message of the book, conveniently referred to as the Historical and Symbolical Schools.

II The Seven Shibboleths of Interpreters

1 The Personal Anti‐Christ; 2 The Emperor Nero; 3 The Roman Church; 4 The Mohammedan Power; 5 The Restoration of the Jews to Palestine; 6 The Time, Purpose, and Circumstances of Christ’s Second Coming; 7 The Personal Millennial Reign of Christ on the Earth.

These are the main subjects of disagreement among interpreters, and mark the dividing lines of opinion. The Historical School, in its various forms, usually makes one or more of these central to the thought of the book; while the Symbolical School, for the most part, does not regard any of them as either distinctly indicated, or certainly implied. It is fortunate, however, that the main teaching is not materially affected by the view we may take concerning these subjects of disagreement.