1. "All-time Road Map": HISTORICISM: The single road-map through history leading up to the end-time events. The traditional Adventist perspective, rooted in Daniel 2 and 7 and shaped by the teaching of the great reformers.


2. "Yesterday": PRETERISM: Predicted "end-time" events were in the author’s own day. In its pure form, held by "liberals" who deny any predictive element in prophecy or any "real" end of time.


3. "Tomorrow": FUTURISM: "End-time" events yet to come. In its pure form, denies conditional prophecy; the most popular view of eschatology among conservative Christians today (compare Left Behind [movie]). Unfulfilled events in the Bible (especially from the Old Testament) are predicted to take place at some future point to a literal and restored Israel (the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem at the present site of the Moslem mosque, Dome of the Rock). The best-known modern from of futurism is Dispensationalism. Note the seven-fold division of history (fully developed in the Scofield Bible notes):


1. Innocence: Before the Fall
2. Conscience: Before the Flood
3. Human Government: Before Abraham
4. Promise: Before Sinai
5. Law: Before the Cross
6. Grace: Before Second Advent
7. Kingdom: Seven Years and Millennium

Note: The seven-year period falls between the secret coming of Christ ("rapture" [parousia]) and the public coming (epiphaneia); the saints spend the next thousand years on earth, during which there is birth, death, and animal sacrifice.

4. "Today, Today, Today!": IDEALISM: Multiple applications for "end-time" events. From an Adventist perspective, this approach suggests that there were several points in history when Christ could have come. It builds on the concept of "conditional" prophecy. Note the summary of God’s "original" plan for Israel, based on volume 4 of the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, 25–38:


1. On-site Evangelism. The world would be attracted to God by Israel’s witness and prosperity. Many would ask to become part of Israel.
2. Salvation through the Messiah. God’s anointed one (the messiah) would have come, died, and risen again, but would have been accepted by his own people.
3. Jerusalem as Missionary Headquarters. The present city of Jerusalem would have become a center for outreach into the whole world.
4. Final Confrontation but the Gradual Elimination of Evil. A confrontation would finally take place between good and evil; God’s rule would be established; but the marks of evil would gradually disappear.

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