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More Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Book of Revelation

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William Hendrickson has done a great job in this book in presenting the "historic amillennial" view of interpreting the book of Revelation. He does a good job showing how Revelation is written in signs and symbols (as Rev. 1:1 in the Greek clearly says) rather than being written as a literal account. Through consistently using the Bible to interpret the Bible (not simply prooftexting), Hendrickson shows that Revelation is not a book which appeals to our desire for the sensational. Dispensationalists would do well to seriously read this second best book I've ever read on Revelation. Hendrickson is not perfect though. He occasionally breaks out of his, and the Bible's, consistent method of interpretation in this book and uses some "literal" interpreting (such as that concerning the black plague). Overall, I recommend this book at an excellent starting point, but not as an ending point. There is a book which takes the technique of using the Bible to interpret the Bible to a much higher level (The Days of Vengeance by Chilton), but whereas Chilton's book is over 700 pages, Hendrickson's book is about a fourth the size. One would do well to begin at the shorter, simpler exegesis of Hendrickson before moving on to something so completely comprehensive as Chilton's book. More than Conquerors is a presentation of historic amillennialism and there are other forms of amillennialism to consider as well (futurist and post-millennial for instance). But the main issue is the refreshing approach Hendrickson restores to interpreting the Bible; that is, he uses the Bible, not the newspaper, to determine the meaning of the prophecies. For this one reason, I believe this book should be on people's reading list. And dispensensationalists would do well to put down the newspaper and turn off the evening news (which are never good commentaries on the Bible) and pick up Hendrickson's book. I personally do not ultimately agree with Hendrickson's specific interpretation in every area, but I agree with his method of using the Bible to interpret the Bible. Therefore, it's a good text book on Bible interpretation in process, even though one may not ultimately agree with the book's final conclusions.

This is a classic interpretation of Revelation and one that I recommend for the layman. The first edition came out in 1939. It is of the idealist and Amillennial School, which makes Revelation meaningful today and not just to the future. He recognises that the purpose of Revelation is to 'comfort the militant Church in its struggle against the forces of evil'. It is not a verse by verse commentary, he discusses one passage at a time, which means that the book is readable. He is, as you would expect, thoroughly biblical and avoids the speculative nonsense that surrounds Revelation today. If you want a scriptural interpretation of Revelation then I warmly commend this book to you.

The Revelation of Christ has been given to the people of God as part of God's Word for the purpose of comforting them as they pass through the trials and hardships of this foreign land. Certainly the book was directed to the Christians who originally received it, but the beautiful thing about it is that it was also designed to be meaningful to God's people living throughout every generation until the Lord's return. In reading this final book of the Bible, there will be no need to determine the meaning of its symbolism based on contemporary circumstances. Rather, the book itself, as it is understood in light of the Gospel truth and the rest of Scripture, is directly applicable to the day and age in which we are living as it was meant to be for such saints as Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, or Spurgeon.

William's Hendriksen presents this view of the book in his commentary by the method of scripture interpreting scripture, not looking for prophetic fulfillment in specific events of his day (1939, when the book was written). Instead, he saw how needful it was to show the relevance of Revelation to every generation of God's people. The main theme of the Apocalypse, as he puts it, is the struggle between Christ and His followers (the Church) and Satan and his followers (the world), ultimately ending in final victory for the King and His faithful ones. Hence, the title of the commentary, "More Than Conquerors". It seems like a pretty simple idea, and perhaps this is why many stumble as they try to "figure out" the meaning of the symbols in the book, looking for their fulfillment in specific historical or future events (the latter being more guesswork than anything else).

Finally, I would like to say that this view of Revelation would be especially relevant to those brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution right now as we speak for the sake of the Gospel. If they could know its significance for them and not be influenced by the unfortunately general misunderstanding of the Revelation that comes from American evangelicals today, their joy to press on would be increased even more than it is already! "And they overcame [the accuser] by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." (Revelation 12:11). May the Lord bless them immensely with an added measure of his presence and joy, that many of us may never see in this lifetime!

Overall, Hendriksen's commentary is a solid introduction to the Revelation, although there may be some details with which I would disagree. And, as others have already stated, it sheds much light on the most effective way to interpret Scripture (that is, in light of the rest of Scripture). Beyond this, you may want to obtain a copy of Lenski's commentary or a related book by Hoekema.

We have been preparing to study Revelation, and have been using excellent aids such as Steve Gregg's Revelation: four views: a parallel commentary, Michael Wilcock's I Saw Heaven Opened [in the Bible Speaks Today series] and Robert Mounce's commentary, but I had left my Hendriksen, which I bought 30 years ago, on the shelf.

I have always been amused that the title comes from Romans 8, not Revelation!

I am so glad I opened it again! This book is sane and helpful. Written in 1939, it would have been so tempting for the writer to identify the cataclysmic events of the time with what we find in Revelation, but instead he has begun by studying the time in which the book was originally written, and thinking about what it would have meant to the first hearers and readers.

Hendriksen is one of those who sees the book divided into 7 parallel sections, each of which covers the same territory, but in a different way. His interpretation makes the book meaningful for all Christians in all ages, not just the original recipients and certainly not a select group who live just before the Second Coming of Christ.

Whatever books you are using on Revelation, I highly recommend you include More Than Conquerors in your study.

Originally published in 1940, William Hendriksen's More Than Conquerors stands as one of the classic commentaries on the Book of Revelation available that combines excellent scholarship and a style that makes it accessible to the layman. Rejecting the sensationalism so common wth interpretations of the last book of the Bible, the author takes an approach that places the book in its proper historical and cultural context and remains faithful to the message of the Gospel. The result is so powerful that the often intimidating subject of the eschaton becomes clear and flows naturally from the Gospel message the Church has preached for two millennia.

Rather than taking the book as a linear historical narrative, Hendriksen appraoches it as an example of recapitulation (common in apocalyptic writings) where passages go over the same time period repeatedly albeit with the emphasis given in a different place. He points out that Revelation is naturally broken into seven parts with the number seven appearing as a recurring them within the book. Each section goes a little further and ends with a vision of the victorious Lord. Numerous other parallels are also pointed out to add to the impression of a repetitive pattern in the book.

An important theme throughout is that, contrary to the nonesense one hears from today's prophecy pundits, the main figure of Revelation is not the antichrist but rather is a revelation of Jesus Christ as the very beginning of the book announces. Thus in any proper interpretation, our attention should not be drawn to the antichrist, Israel, the Arabs, the Russians, the European Union, China, Iraq, America, or anything or anyone but Jesus Christ. Hendricksen keeps this firmly in mind and points out time and time again that there is comfort to be had in a proper Christ-centered reading of Revelation.

One criticism one hears of this book by fans of the popular "prophecy experts" is that the book takes a "symbolic" rather than "literal" approach to the text. This surely misses the point of any reasonable interpretation as it cannot be denied that for a book replete with symbolism, the symbolic interpretation isthe literal interpretation. Thus there is no uncalled for "spiritualizing" of the text but only a sound exegesis.

More Than Conquerors presents a sound commentary on Revelation that settles on an amillennial position grounded in a moderate idealism. Whether one agrees with every detail of the exegesis or not, a view of the text that is unmistakenly Christocentric is certainly a marked improvement from much of the drivel that gets passed off as exegesis on the end times. For both the insight and the comforting view of Revelation contained therein, it is essential reading.

It is apparent that Hendriksen did NOT write this book with Times magazine, Newsweek or the New York Times in his left hand. Using the analogy of faith and allowing clear, New Testament scripture to interpret the symbolical apocalyptic literature, Hendriksen gives us a refreshing rendition of the Idealist interpretation. Although "progressive parallelism" is no novel methodology, it is aptly defended and applied by this book. "More than Conquerors" is a good primer to the historic amillennial view of eschatology; other pertinent works the reader might be interested in is `A case for Amillennialism' by Kim Riddlebarger & "Amillenialism Today" by William Cox. It is good hermeneutic to allow the Scripture to speak for itself; dispensationalists should quit using ad hominem arguments in their eisegesis i.e. anti-Semitism, liberal allegoricalness. I believe amillenialists did not arrive at their conclusion due to racist sentiments or other carnal inclinations. A good hermeneutic text would be Milton Terry's Biblical Hermeneutics published by Wipf & Stock Publishers. Get this book!

This commentary avoids most of the major pitfalls of Revelation commentary-- minutiae, prognostication, current events speculation. It focuses on the true subject of ALL scripture-- the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ reigns is a message of hope for all time. End time speculators bow before your king, not an image of the future that glorifies any nation or ethnicity. The elect of all peoples will sing his praises for all eternity. Start now by reading this book.

this is possibly the best single commentary to begin your study of revelation. the pastoral love that flows throughout the pages of this book is wonderful. dr. hendriksen makes every aspect of this book useful and applicable. once you start it, you will want to finsih it. this is the classic reformed amillennial idealistic interpretation. MUST READ.

Hendriksen does an excellent job presenting the case for a mostly spiritual interpretation of the book of Revelation. It is amazing that so many self-proclaimed "Bible prophecy scholars" honestly believe Revelation is completely literal (although they can't even follow that all the way). The numbers are especially symbolic. Are we really to believe, as the dispensationalists tell us, that the 144,000 are a literal number of Jews? That exact, round, even number? (The number 144 also appears elsewhere in Revelation, but hey, perhaps that's literal too--of course not.) It is impossible for the futurists to be right. Hendriksen presents a clear, thorough case for a spiritual interpretation of Revelation, as well as the progressive parallelism view. Furthermore, he does an excellent job in the book of critiquing and showing the falsehoods of the postmillennial view (a false, carnal optimism) so trying to infiltrate Reformed circles.

By and far one of the best books wriiten on The Revelation of Jesus. Easy to read and follow, even for the layman. If you want biblical accuracy, this book is a must for your library! Howard Hendriksen was richly blessed with an insight for truth, and has layed the book of Revelation out so simply. Never fear again some of the rhetoric of today concerning God's message for His Church. You will view the book of Revelation for what it is; A blessed message of hope to Christ's Church triumphant! Hendriksen clearly demonstrates the unity of scripture throughout the book of Revelation as well as throughout the entire Bible. He shows how the book was written in figurative/symbolic/parable type style and how the reading of The Revelation read literally makes no sense. All of the symbolical images have their root in scripture, and Hendriksen walks the reader through the Bible to show the origin. This is more than an interpretation, it is Biblical teaching at it's best. An indespensible study tool. Another excellent book is 'The Momentous Event' by W.J. Grier also, 'Biblical Studies in Final Things' by William E. Cox