Howard, thanks for your interest, but all I was trying to show was that the best way to interpret Revelation 19:11-21:8 is to claim that Christ returns before the earthly millennium (that's all I take "premillennialism" to mean). I did this by refuting the ideas that the millennium passage is part of a recapitulation or an interlude, because everyone generally agrees that on the surface the block 19:11-21:8 is chronological. Adela Yarbro Collins is a scholar on the book of Revelation, who wrote the book "The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation". I'm not sure of the distinction between "historic" and "dispensational" but I tend not to agree with the overall eschatology of people generally labeled dispensational. For example, I strongly disagree with the rapture idea (cf. Left Behind series). I Thessalonians 4:17 is misinterpreted in my opinion. I have read that it was a custom in Bible times to leave the entrance of a city to meet dignitaries such as royalty, but that everyone returns to the city. Likewise, in I Thessalonians those caught up in the air to meet Jesus will return to earth because Jesus is returning to earth.
