The Sweet-Bitter Scroll

As we go through the book of Revelation, I am attempting to show the evidence for the major interpretations: Preterist, Historicist, Futurist, and Idealist. I am doing this because I see some truth in all four schools of thought.

While Full Preterism is heretical because it denies the future Second Coming of Christ and our physical resurrection (2 Timothy 2:16-18), Partial Preterism interprets much of the book of Revelation as having been fulfilled in the first Christian century in the destruction of Jerusalem, while holding fast to our Lord's future return.

Historicism understands the book as the unfolding of history from the First to the Second Comings of Christ.

Futurism sees most of the book as future for us. And Idealism focuses on the conflict between Christ and Satan throughout the ages.

John's eating the scroll as sweet as honey (Revelation 10:9-10) picks up on Ezekiel 3:1-3, where the sweet scroll leaves Ezekiel bitter and angry (Ezekiel 3:14), just as does the scroll of Revelation for John.

God has two books: the book of nature, Natural Revelation (Psalm 19:1-4), and the book of Scripture, Special Revelation (Psalm 19:7-11).

God's Word is sweet as honey (Psalm 19:10; 119:103), but when it convicts us of sin, it can be bitter in our souls until we confess and repent (Psalm 19:12-13).