Comments on Revelation Chapter 20
(Third Revision)
Abstract
How the first century Christian Church got from being a small despised and persecuted minority; how it went from being a tiny germ hidden inside the fiery crucible of late sectarian Biblical Judaism to the ostensible victor in A.D.70 to become the single winner of the Messianic contest by the default of all Jewish efforts, to the contrary, is a great enigma and mystery that has puzzled and confounded historians, researchers and scholars for hundreds of years. Despite plausible efforts to attribute Christianity's success to St. Paul's labors (he traveled over fifty cities and over 6,900 miles of road and sea) or the accidental or coincidental realities of the Roman world—its Greek lingua franca, its secure highways and byways, its policed naval routes, its jurisprudence—each theory that attempts to answer questions of how and why Christianity beat the odds in terms of St. Paul or the Roman policies or infrastructure fall far short because none of them ever answers the question of the anomalous, odd and providential Jewish military failures to apprehend the hoped for kingdom of God in that same period.
The fact remains that the Christians were not a collective group welcome in any positions of power (either socially or religiously, politically or militarily). Nor did they have a state or a base from which they could operate in safety away from foes and forces hostile to their beliefs, persons, properties, and possessions (Hebrews 10:32-34). Humanly speaking, nobody was on their side, and yet after all the expenditures the Jews were willing to spend to achieve their objectives of a discrete Jewish nationalist Temple, territory, kingship, and army, the fledgling churches received the prize and became the unsung survivors of a tumultuous and explosive seventy years. It was the Christians (not the Jews) who went on to become the most successful revolution in the history of mankind. Why and how did this happen?
I propose in this essay that Revelation 20—which is neglected, but more often bent, twisted and distorted or (for all practical purposes) obsolete in every other form of Preterism—contains a unique transition period (a critical link quite different from the one that bridges A.D.33 to A.D.66). In this unique period I hope to show that the work of Christ, the Apostles and the first Christians matured and blossomed and was made ready to stand on its own two feet once the disappearance of the Jewish State from the stage of world history became an established fact; I also hope to demonstrate that the Gog/Magog prediction (in Ezekiel 38-39 and in Revelation 20:7-15) constitutes ancient Jewish military power at its zenith and Waterloo in classical early Roman antiquity.
Above all I would like to maintain a simplicity in this study, a simplicity that will allow students of the Scriptures from any level of familiarity with the subject to cross-reference and begin to recognize how the events in Revelation chapter 20 interrelate with prophecies in Ezekiel and Daniel, Matthew and Luke, Romans and 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and Revelation 12 through 19. If this feat can be achieved, a deeper understanding of the function, genius, and logic of Revelation 20 and what it represents in real history will have been successfully transmitted to be a foundation for independent analysis, critique, and further studies.
Revelation 20
King James Version (KJV)
1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
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Romans 16:20; Revelation 2:13; Revelation 12:9, 12
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Now that Jerusalem was destroyed in accordance with many promises, we must bear in mind the Parable of Jesus recorded in Matthew 22:1-14. That story speaks of two invitations (one BEFORE the destruction of the city and another AFTERWARD).
1And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, 2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. 7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. 11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
As in the Parable of the Invitation, in Revelation 19 depicts the eulogy of the city of those murderers—first-century Jerusalem. Then, stepping away from Revelation 19:21, Revelation 20:1 embarks upon a whole new day and all that is contained in Revelation chapter 19: the aftermath of the destruction, the marriage of Christ to his church, the punishment of the beast and the false prophet and the supper of the Great God. In Revelation 20 the Parable of the King’s Son’s second invitation finds relevance. In the parable a new invitation is sent out; apparently, the wedding feast was an ongoing event.
Now, at some point, according to the parable, there would be an "inspection." As was customary in Jewish wedding celebrations, the guests were provided with the appropriate attire. Yet this "guest" is not decked for the occasion and is questioned, bound, and cast into "outer darkness." We believe the meaning of this points to Judaea's willfully dressing in military attire and being thrown out when Christ performed a second inspection in the final moments of the Jewish State's existence.
No Going Back
When dealing with text and context what should be the aim of the interpreter? The aim of the interpreter is not to hold true to some preconceived notion or idea but to remain true to the flow of the story. There are several key places in Revelation where comprehension of the message is severely hampered only because some prior notion insidiously inserts itself.
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Revelation 1:1, 3 and 7; Revelation 4:1-2;
Revelation 6:12-13 and Revelation 12:1-5
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In the six verses above, constraints are placed on any backward or forward movement of events in the Revelation narrative, however, in conventional wisdom (that pleads for recapitulation) none of these texts are allowed to flow in a consistent direction that preserves the integrity and sense of the larger narrative. This is because embodied in some creed, some formula, some philosophy it is forbidden for them to speak to an obvious stage pertinent to the expectations, experience, or well-being of the people who received the autographed copies of Revelation. But, if allowed to stand, the six Seals make up a discrete unit of events; the sixth Seal and the seven Trumpets make up a second set of disaster and then Revelation chapters 15:5-8 and 16:1 through 21 bring to a head the Bowl Judgments—a third set of discrete events which begin near the end of the Revolt as it stretched into the year 70. These finalize God’s verdict against wayward and wicked first-century Jerusalem. These two chapters name specifically how the city and those fighting for so-called ‘freedom’ lost their bid for kingdom power—receiving power as kings for only one hour with the beast.
And thus, when we approach and pass Revelation 19:21 and enter the introductory verse of Revelation 20:1, we are in brand new territory and looking at new developments. Just here, then, when it was made perfectly clear what was finalized [in chapter 19:1-21], Full Preterists want to inject the Day of Pentecost into Revelation 20:1-4 in order for the end of Revelation 20 (e.g., 20:7-15) to fall into place AS A.D.66-70 EVENTS. But, the events in Revelation 20:1 cannot, should not, and must not be conflated with the events of Revelation 12:9! The reason this interpretive maneuver is wrong is because Michael and his angels fought Satan and his angels there (not here) and that was at the beginning of the Jewish war in A.D.66 (not here in the aftermath of the Destruction of the holy city). Here we are looking at a single mighty angel; here he comes down from heaven; here he apprehends and binds Satan. Note that the angel does this against Satan AFTER Satan has already empowered the Sea Beast, after he gave the Lamb Beast power to do lying wonders in Revelation 13:13 (cf. Revelation 16:13-14), AFTER he has backed them in their war against Jerusalem in Revelation 16:14; 18:1-2, and AFTER the holy city has been completely destroyed. And so, here, finally, Satan meets a preliminary (but not permanent) end.
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Note that Satan was cast from heaven to earth at the beginning of the war (in A.D.66) in Revelation 12:9, but here (apparently in A.D.73, if we are to understand Revelation 19:21 to signify the Masada debacle) he is captured and cast into the bottomless pit.
It is not possible to dovetail this thousand years period into an A.D.30-66 framework, though! This is another maneuver that must not be done. It cannot happen without causing all kinds of intractable interpretive problems. For example, you must also bear in mind Satan's presence at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry circa A.D.30 (Matthew 4:1-11); one has to understand that he would be cast out of Judaea from a future vantage point predicated from the standpoint of a time then present (Matthew 12:43-45); one also has to take into account that he was able to inhabit Judas on the eve of our Lord's betrayal (Luke 22:3). Furthermore, even after the cross, after the Ascension and after Pentecost, Satan was still able to do the same thing to Ananias (See Acts 5:3).
Among the difficulties that arise when such is done
(a) The span of time from Pentecost to the First Revolt period then has to become the time when Judaea's house was 'swept clean and garnished'. But was it? (Examine Acts 5:3 and 16 cf. 8:9-11; 13:6-11 and 19:13-17 and see if that is true).
(b) If Satan was bound at or around the ministry of Jesus then the opposition against the Apostles' ministries in Jerusalem, Judaea, and the Diaspora becomes inexplicable and unexplainable. But Romans 16:20 looks forward to Satan's initial defeat, doesn't it?
(c) It cannot be true that Satan was both in the bottomless pit AND walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (note 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:18; 1 Timothy 5:15, and 1 Peter 5:8). Either he was in one place or in the other; he could not be free and bound, sealed and shut up at the same time!
How could a being (who was allegedly incarcerated around the time of the resurrection of Christ) still be on the lam years and years later "as if" on parole? Apologists and interpreters want to, but cannot have it both ways! Either he was bound between A.D.33-A.D.66 or he was not.
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
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Zechariah 13:2; Acts 3:22-24; Acts 13:40-41
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A major problem with the idea that Satan was bound due to what happened on the Cross, or when Jesus overcame the grave or ascended to heaven is that the New Testament EVERYWHERE declares THE VERY OPPOSITE: that Satan was deluding the people, blinding their eyes against seeing the truth of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4; 11:13-15 and Galatians 3:1).
The popularity and ubiquity of the interpretation that Satan was bound prior to the Second Coming is a staple of the Amillennial paradigm and is shared and accepted by the Full Preterist view. Atavist Bible Eschatology is an ideology that totally disclaims, rejects, and repudiates such a narrative on the grounds that it destroys the meaningfulness of the actions and steps that take place along a logical continuum. This continuum is only fulfilled when Jewish national opposition to the Gospel of God's Son meets horrific and cataclysmic disaster in the third decade of the second century.
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, nor in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Verse 4 is important because it qualifies Revelation 20 as a brand new, unique, and special period in Jewish salvation history; it does this by telling us (in so many words) that the events in Revelation 20 CERTAINLY happen AFTER the events that developed in Revelation 13:11-18. Those events began in A.D.66; those events began when the Jewish war against the Romans made its fateful debut. And those events began when the Jewish rebels succeeded spectacularly in every major plan they executed. What did they do?
They defeated the Romans at Masada in Elul (Wars 2.17.2:408). Back-to-back with that they defeated the Roman garrison stationed at the Tower of Antonia (Wars 2.17.7:430). Next on Saturday Elul 7, (August 16, A.D.66), they killed Ananias the high priest, and his brother, Hezekiah, and even succeeded in COMPLETELY routing the Romans out of Jerusalem. On this important day, they cleared the city of Rome's presence for the very first time in the 129 years since Pompey the Great had conquered it in 63 B.C. (Wars 2.17.10:449-456).
Then, two months later (at the end of the Feast of Sukkot in that same year) the Jews badly beat the Romans at the Beit Horon pass killing nearly 6,000 soldiers (Wars 2.19.8:546-9:555). With these stunning initial Jewish successes it took an entire forty-two months for the Romans to come back and get the upper hand in Jerusalem in order to suppress the uprising.
What is important to bear in mind is that it was in that forty-two-month time period that the image, name, mark, and number of the beast was inflicted upon the people loyal to the Jewish cause (Revelation 13:5, 16-18 cf. Wars 3.8.3:383). Likewise, it was in the same period (by necessity) that those who refused to take such an emblem lost their lives (Revelation 15:1-2). This tells us that the martyrs paid the awful ultimate price for their faith because of their decision not to cooperate with the Jewish war (see Revelation 14:8-13 and 15:1-2).
Recognizing these incidents and where they belong on the Jewish history timeline will not allow either the death of the martyrs or the beginning of this millennium to be pushed back before the sacrileges that broke out in the First Great Revolt.
5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
The rest of the dead? Who are these? In the verses before and in a verse below we discover there are two groups of the saved: The martyrs are saved; they sat on thrones in the heavens, but below we will discover that on earth are another group of saved people: The Camp of the Saints. The former are resurrected from physical death (they had been beheaded), and the latter did not suffer physical death but served some godly purpose that was resented by Gog and Magog (otherwise why would they encircle the Camp of the Saints if they agreed with its existence?). We are reading between the lines, sure, but our inferences (we believe) are not unwarranted in light of the prophecies of Isaiah 66:22-24 and Malachi 4:1-3. If no Christians would be left on earth in the aftermath of the Destruction of Jerusalem, what could those predictions mean?
6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.
It might be hazarded that the resurrected martyrs AND the Camp of the Saints are included in this blessed category. We do have Jewish history that says the Jerusalem Church that had fled to Pella came back after the war's end and made Jerusalem their center of activity. If it can be imagined that a change (transcendent in nature, and obvious to the dead, but not to the living) occurred for the righteous living and dead "in the twinkling of an eye" then we can believe that the Jewish Christian church (and all the churches everywhere) continued in an improved spiritual state without actually being aware of that important and profound fact.
Their unawareness could in no way negate or subtract from an inheritance God already promised through the Apostles Paul and John: "We shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 John 3:1-3) said they.
But what is important to remember is that the Last Trumpet was blown before Jerusalem fell (see Revelation 11:15 and 12:10); therefore, the promised changes happened forty-two months before the city fell, but the exaltation of the martyrs to their thrones happened after the city was in ashes.
7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
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Matthew 12:43-451
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The expiration of the thousand years brings us face to face with the question of which way we should interpret the expression 'thousand years'? One thing is for sure: Even if we interpret it literally, we will be obliged to commence it at the same historical crisis—the Destruction of Jerusalem (or thereabouts). If we do that and take the thousand years literally that will take us out to approximately A.D.1070-73 or so.
But we have a reason NOT to do that! AND THAT REASON IS THE WORD OF JESUS HIMSELF. IN HIS PARABLE OF THE WICKED SPIRIT THE GIST OF THE TIMETABLE OF JUDAEA'S RENEWAL AND RE-DEFILEMENT IS PLACED WITHIN THE LIFETIME OF JESUS' CONTEMPORARIES. Since this is so, THERE is no possible way to imagine a first-century Judaean living out to the eleventh century; it is much more reasonable to hazard that a generation might extend as far out as roughly one hundred years (and see Isaiah 65:20 on this).
When we take this route things make much more sense, especially when we look at events in the Jewish timeline from Christ to the very end of the state almost one hundred years after Jesus' earthly ministry. Surprising and singular events that commenced in the eighteenth year of the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian best fit what John and the earliest Christians saw looming on the horizon after the Destruction of the city and the Temple: A final gigantic, well-organized effort of the Jews to realize their Messianic hopes completely apart from the message and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth and his claims. Realizing this also helps us understand why the Christians after the destruction still believed a great apocalyptic event was threatening in the not-too-distant future.
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
On Israel's immense numerical count beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, Josephus writes,
"When [Ezra] had received this epistle, he was very joyful, and began to worship God, and confessed that he had been the cause of the king's great favor to him, and for the same reason he gave thanks to God. So he read the epistle at Babylon to those Jews that were there, but he kept the epistle itself, and sent a copy of it to all those of his own nation that were in Media; and when those Jews had understood what piety the king had towards God, and what kindness he had for [Ezra] , they were all greatly pleased; nay, many of them took their effects with them and came to Babylon, as very desirous of going down to Jerusalem; but the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country; wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers" (Antiquities 11.5.2:133).
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Matthew 22:11-14; Romans 9:27; Hebrews 11:12
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It is a fact noted by Jewish chroniclers (e.g., Yadin, Borchsenius, Harkabi, et al) who detail the aftermath of the A.D.66-70 war that thousands of prisoners were carried captive into all nations, many to work in Roman munitions factories. Yadin tells us that there they made weaponry substandard and deliberately defective so that they would be rejected by inspectors and then salvaged. And what could be the purpose of this clever trick? None other than a means to supply themselves arms for their own use in a do-or-die war! According to James J. Bloom (in his treatise, The Jewish Revolts Against Rome), they carefully planned to execute this effort at the beginning of the seventh decade after the Destruction. This gives us material to work with in order to understand how Revelation 20 fits into the bigger picture of redemptive history—and especially is this crucial when we are trying to grapple with the end of Old Testament Judaism and the exigency of the New Testament faith at this most critical nexus.
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
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Ezekiel 38:1-16 John 5:43
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As we intimated earlier on, the Camp of the Saints obviously has to be the People of God on earth (and specifically in Judaea and more specifically in what was once Jerusalem). There would be no point in Gog and Magog first targeting the Camp of the Saints if the camp was not, somehow, an annoying or irritating presence among them. It makes sense, historically, that it was the Jerusalem Church, a church that had fifteen bishops between A.D.62 and the year A.D.133 when the Sanhedrin executed and destroyed the Jerusalem Church for refusing to blaspheme Jesus of Nazareth, acknowledge Simon Bar Kokhba as Israel's king and Messiah and join hands with them in a desperate rebellion against Rome. As for the punishment God inflicted upon Bar Kokhba we do not have enough detailed accounts to know precisely what it was. "Fire came down from God out of heaven" signaling the thunderous overthrow of the seven Thunder judgments (Rev. 10:1-7 cf. Ezekiel 38:22). But what we know from John's allusion to Ezekiel 38 and 39 is that this incident is positioned after the Destruction of Jerusalem (for the reasons we outlined above). Also, it is clear from a careful reading and reflection of the texts of Ezekiel that the Gog/Magog event is happening because of forces invading the Land of Israel.
Ezekiel 38:11-12 makes it apparent that the Land of Israel is definitely in a state of disrepair (unlike its condition prior to the outbreak of the First Revolt). It also must be observed that certain people in the Land of Israel (Christians?) are oblivious reasons and goals of the war. Gentile nations are also involved in these efforts and equally suffer the consequences of the downfall of Gog. The only event near enough to the lifetime of Jesus' contemporaries that fits into these conditions is the Final Jewish Revolt against the Romans, the Bar Kokhba Revolt of A.D.132-136.
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.
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2 Corinthians 4:4 Ephesians 4:14 Galatians 3:1
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The devil that deceived them . . .how did Satan deceive Gog and Magog? If we look at the deception that was taking place during the last days of the Second Temple period that deception was the lie that Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ, the Son of the living God. "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son" (1 John 2:22) A second deception relates to Daniel 9:25-27 which shows that Israel's true Messiah would come and die BEFORE the destruction of the Second Temple (many Rabbinic authorities such as Rambam knew this, but concealed this fact from the Jewish people in Medieval times, even as Rabbis generally do today). All these lies and deceptions in the last days of Bible Judaism surrounding the Deity, message, and ministry of Christ and the Apostles; therefore, when Satan was released from the bottomless pit it makes sense that he reintroduced those same lies, denials, and objections and caused Gog and Magog to go to war over issues that had already been settled by the authority and power of the Son of God in the previous century.
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
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Daniel 7:9; Matthew 17:2 ;Daniel 2:35 ;Daniel 12:7; Micah 3:11-12
Act 6:14; Romans 10:4; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Hebrews 9:24
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Jesus, the Ancient of Days, was given the power to judge all flesh (John 5:22); therefore, it must be true that the combatants and civilian mass casualties who died as a result of Hadrian's brutal onslaught against Bar Kokhba's gains, stood before the One they never supposed they would see (much less be judged by). And no place was found for them. . . The war's efforts were to rebuild the Place (i.e., the Third Temple) made with hands (that had disappeared in A.D.70), yet here they are denied an even greater Place—the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man (Hebrews 8:2).
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
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Romans 2:12; Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:16; Galatians 6:13-14
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The dead small and great here refers to the 'rest of the dead' who refused to believe the Gospel even after the prediction of the Fall of Jerusalem and the end of the sacrifices and the oblations and the Destruction of the Second Temple had become a glaring fact (as was predicted and preached by the Apostles and first Christians for close to forty years in advance). A book was opened which contained the Law for their lives (written by Moses) and another book was opened to see if they were recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. The dead small and great in this verse appear to be a separate group of people from the dead in the verses below.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
As the group above was judged "according to their works" this group from the sea, death, and hades also were judged "according to their works." Neither group was "in Christ"; therefore, they were not judged according to grace).
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
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Romans 2:8-11; Hebrews 10:28-31
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The Apostle Paul foresaw the victory of the Lord over death and the strength of sin and the sting of death (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). Earlier in that same chapter he had declared that the last enemy to be destroyed would be death (1 Corinthians 15:26). And he said this would be done when Jesus "delivered up the kingdom to God the Father" vs. 24. What kingdom would Jesus deliver up to God and what does the expression "deliver up" mean?
There Paul speaks about Jesus "putting down all rule, and all authority, and all power"—but does it mean his own rule, authority, and power? Verse 28 gives us the answer: "Deliver up" and "Put down" mean the subjugation of the power of Christ's enemies. And its relevance to this chapter is this: Although Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D.70, Satan was only bound temporarily after that fact to arise to provoke national opposition to the kingdom of Christ in a last defiant show of rule, authority, and power. But like the former show of strength, this later display of glory was granted to last but three years and six months—a "little season." With that opposition concluded death and hades are eliminated, and transposed into the lake of fire.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
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Matthew 7:21-27; John 8:24; 1 John 2:22
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The popular concept of universal salvation because of the death of Jesus for the sins of all men, is not here borne out as a truth. The consistent message of the New Testament is this: In order to appropriate and enjoy that salvation the scripture teaches very clearly that mankind must repent of sins, confess Christ to be the Son of the living God, and be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins. Any delay in those steps does not necessarily disqualify the initiate, but refusal to obey is fatal to salvation.
A Q & A for Christians
Full Preterism has developed without the knowledge or acknowledgment of Intertestamental realities (e.g., the defeat of the Seleucids by the Maccabees; the establishment of the Hasmonean Empire; the rise of Herod the Great; the reduction of the Hasmonean estate into a fragmented Judaeo-Græco polity under Roman domination), it has retained Amillennial presuppositions about Revelation 20 (that it commences at Pentecost).
These weaknesses hinder a proper assessment of important interpretive issues; these issues are ultimately responsible for stunting and retarding the progress of Bible prophecy understanding around an artificial deadline: A.D.70. The gravest result of Full Preterist inuendos is this: The rejection of a legitimate ecclesiology AFTER the destruction of Jerusalem; the reality and legitimacy of a world-wide Church today. If Full Preterism is true it would mean that there is no need for and no reason for New Covenant relationships between God and men and women after the fact of the destruction of Jerusalem. Furthermore, it would mean that there is no real reason to be a Christian after the demise of Biblical Judaism—a dead-end teaching!
Issues to Think About
Full Preterist theologians and many of their devotees have unwittingly painted themselves into a proverbial corner; they seem to be unable to conceive of a functioning Christian Church clear of the first-century Jewish debacles. One of the problems with this view is that the debacles were not even limited to the first century anyway; the challenges went all the way to the end of the Jewish State.
Besides that, a functioning Christian Church system is only possible on a local level and can only be realized now with an interpretation of eschatology that is amenable and permits and fully endorses, justifies, and mandates such a development. But we have seen above that the framework of Bible prophecy hardly justifies a reading of a termination of the Church at the end of the millennium endorsed and venerated by Amillennialism and Full Preterism.
Instead, examination, critique, and analysis show that the Jerusalem Church, the Pella episode, and the Camp of the Saints are the critical link that connects traditional and historic Christianity to the tumultuous events of its Jewish and Semitic past.[2] But to appreciate how important and far-reaching this information is one must ask and ponder the following critical questions:
(a) Is it not true that if one's eschatology won't let the Church exist beyond an A.D.70 deadline, one is in big trouble? Such a terminus already defies the known history of the Christian religion by basically saying the entire second-century Church down to the present is an illegitimate, illegal and even a fundamentally wrongheaded development. If the Church is pointless after Jesus' initial successes against militant Jewish nationalism, then any study of the matter after the fact is purely a social and historical exercise and not one related to faith in God, a pious life and hope for eternal life.
(b) What were Jesus and his Apostles doing and did they intend for it to last? Only prayer, prayerful study, meditation and remembrance of what God's Word give us the answers we really need. It is not the Atavist belief that the Church is only a temporary manifestation.
(c) If God intended to end Jesus and the Apostles' work why did he not catch up the Jerusalem Church with her offspring on November 15, A.D.66? If it was his intention to end the Church he could have done it then, but he sent her to the safety of the Romans in Pella (see Revelation 12:5, 6 and 13-17). Why?
(d) Why would he go even further, protect her there for almost four years and then allow her to come back to the ruins of Jerusalem to be the Camp of the Saints? From that time to A.D.133 the Church had thirteen Jewish bishops in all.3 This leadership precedence AFTER the A.D.70 Destruction of Jerusalem does not indicate that bishops were only a Pre-70 phenomenon, as Preterists tend to believe! Instead, it shows that this was a norm first and second century Christians understood to be part and parcel of their organization as the new People of God.
(e) The most important question that can be asked by anyone who presently believes New Testament commands, precepts, practices and relevance only pertain to a pre-A.D.70 Christian realities is this: Did the historical Jesus begin a movement and establish a blood purchased Covenant he intended to last only four decades, a mere forty years? If he intended it to last beyond the scope of the events that dismantled the Second Commonwealth, then we are on our way to understanding how first and second century Christianity dovetail into conventional Christianity, while the mysteries of exactly what happened in the eschaton did not now seem apparent to the living, we believe it was very apparent to the saints who were able to believe and perceive or who were directly involved during the processes and for those even able to see what has now been lost to history (Isaiah 65:17).
(f) The events of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 are stationed by the Apostle John AFTER the A.D.70 destruction of Jerusalem. Therefore, Ezekiel's prophecies and the circumstances surrounding them cannot be parallel to the Destruction of Jerusalem IN A.D.70, let alone be the same thing as the destruction of Jerusalem.
It is clear from Ezekiel 38 that the Gog/Magog event is an overwhelming invasion of the Land of Israel by a large and overpowering military force that loses its bid to seize the land, hands down. While it is true that the Romans had to respond to the Bar Kokhba threat with overwhelming forces, it cannot be shown that, in the end, the Romans lost the war. Since the Jews lost the war we are forced to conclude that the overwhelming forces invading the land were, indeed, Jewish forces—the forces that elicited the Roman response in the first place.4
I encourage Christians to reflect on Revelation 20 and the part it plays in the larger New Testament story. That story is not one isolated to mean the apocalypse is a separate and discrete event, but the culmination of Acts of God to hinder, make null and void and destroy all Jewish efforts to thwart the progress of salvation history with high things and pretenses that stood against the knowledge of God.
Study the evidence, study the implications and study the respective answers and draw your own conclusions from the evidence we present and whatever you come up with in your own research.
I believe, that after everything is said and done, you will agree that it is preposterous to avert that God would establish a Levitical animal sacrificial system to last for fifteen centuries and then send his own Son to die and rise again for an enterprise that would last thirty seven years in all! If it was even possible to sustain such an argument—which shouts loudly that it makes no sense at all—it would mean that everyone was doomed after A.D.70 by virtue of the successful fulfillment of Bible prophecy!
The Scripture themselves speak decidedly against this misguided and, ultimately, debilitating interpretation of the matter when they say,
"The Lord has sworn and will not repent, You are a priest forever, after the Order of Melchizedek" (Psalms 110:4 cf. Hebrews 7:21).
With that promise before us, a rational way to explain how and why Jesus' priesthood should disappear on the same day the Aaronic and Levitical priesthood slipped into history seems impossible because the Hebrew writer argues that "He takes away the First that he may establish the Second" (Hebrews 10:9).
Finally, if the establishment of the Second can be sustained, then it must also be true that the ministry of Jesus continues indefinitely, according to God's promise to mankind, given by an oath (Hebrews 6:13, 17, 18 and 20 cf. Ephesians 3:21).
Notes
1 The best explanation for Revelation chapter 20 appears to be that it represents the 'house swept clean and garnished' period of Jewish Salvation history (an interlude after the wicked spirit departed and before the wicked spirit returned with others worse than himself). On Jesus' authority we can rest assured that such an interpretation can safely limit the thousand years reign to events inside the lifetime of Jesus' contemporaries and their children—and this means more than may at first meet the eye. It means (ultimately) that everyone who rejected Christ, down to a man, was killed before or by the time the Jewish State reached to its termination point in A.D.136.
2 Characters or entities in Revelation 20 include (a) A mighty angel. (b) Satan, (c) The saints who refused to accept the mark of the beast (d) the Camp of the Saints (e) Gog and Magog (f) God (g) Christ.
3 The existence of the Pella Christian refugees, their return to Jerusalem and their establishment of continuous work appears to be what the Camp of the Saints stands for after the Destruction of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem church subsequently was neither leaderless nor ineffective. The names of the thirteen bishops are as follows: (1) Simeon, 62-107 (crucified by Trajan); (2) Justus; (3) Zacchaeus; (4) Tobias; (5) Benjamin; (6) John; (7) Matthias; (8) Philip; (9) Seneca; (10) Levi; (11) Ephre; (12) Joseph; (13) Judas. Bar Kokhba's destruction of the Jerusalem church and the Emperor Hadrian's ban of any Jews living in the environs made it impossible for the Jewish Church to exist from the end of the revolt onwards.
4 A large enough group of people (and who probably were not involved in the war itself) would also have survived to mark bones and help bury Gog and Magog, according to the prophecies of Ezekiel 39:11-15. This all tells us two things (at least), (1) Life on earth as we know it had to survive the events foretold in Ezekiel 38 and 39. (2) The Great White Throne Judgment could not have been a biological resurrection because (a) the birds ate the flesh of the dead and (b) those in the land spent seven month searching and setting up markers for bones. And, incidentally, those packed and stored bones were discovered by Yigael Yadin and his Israel Exploration Society team in 1961.
*If first century New Testament churches are seen as a charter in embryo, that gives Christians after the eschaton both permission and latitude to develop and implement a sacred and social world free of the restrictions imposed upon it by an extreme and unyielding emphasis on "audience relevance." In Atavist Bible Eschatology Revelation chapter 20 is an 'umbilical cord' that connects historic conventional Christianity to its Semitic origins in the vanished Second Jewish Commonwealth. With this knowledge, the prophecies are permitted to hold their integrity, whilst the precepts and protocols of faith, piety and practice can be worked out for administration, application and services in local congregational settings (just like it once was spread and practiced throughout the Roman, Byzantine, and Sassanid Empires). The proliferation of churches that was happening in the ancient Roman world should be happening on the same basis everywhere and all the time in the here and now.
