Oh please, get me started! I love this stuff. When I was in bible school, I was never more confused in my life as I was in eschatology class. First thing was the meaning of the 1,000 year reign in the Revelation - the Great Millenium. So now, there's an argument about when Christ returns in relation to the millenium. You got your pre-millenialists, a-millenialists, and post-millenialists. The pre-millenialists tend to dominate, but then, you've got your preterists, who believe the Revelation was written for, and completely understood by the people of that day, to whom the book was written. Then the preterist-futurists believe some of the Revelation was written for early Christians and some for the end times, then the futurists believe the ancient people had no idea what the Revelation was about, and the entire book was meant for the end times - the latter days, which according to them, we are in. Then there are pre-mils who believe in a secret rapture, after which we appear in the clouds with Jesus, and there are pre-mils who believe the second coming is a single event. Of the rapturists, it's all based on the 7-year Great Tribulation. Do we come back with Jesus pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib - you know, the argument about whether or not Christians will go through the tribulation. Then you've got your a-millenialists, who say that the Great Millenium is a figurative thousand years, and that we're already reigning with Christ, and the Tribulation is figurative too, that "In the world, ye shall have tribulation," so we always have tribulation, and the a-millenialists are mainly historicist, so they believe events in the Revelation are happening slowly as the church progresses. Then there are post-mils who believe the millenium is figurative and represents a golden age of the church and the Christianization of the world, so that Christ will return to a perfected church. Then there are some pre-mils who believe the fulfilling of all Revelation prophecy depends on the Nation of Israel, and others who believe that the church is the true Israel, and then you've got your neo-orthodox existentialists, who believe the second coming is happening all the time. After hearing all of this, I decided I was a pan-millenialist. It would all pan out in the end.