Some People Can't See Anything Even Though They Are Looking

Have you ever left a comment on a thread in Youtube and months later someone finally replied to it?  Just today someone replied to a comment I left a couple of months ago about how internal evidence in the Book of Revelation proves it was written early.  On May 20th I wrote,

“ALL the internal evidence supports the earliest dating. The declarations of the book itself support the early dating. And if the book is true all the events happened between 8 May A.D.63 and 7 April A.D.136. I would only be honored to have a written discussion with anyone willing to exchange ideas and opinions on this matter.  God bless."

And on August 6 a person replied,

“the internal evidence supports the early date is ridiculous. Either you don't read much or you're dishonest.  To be a preterist one has to be dishonest.”

I do read a lot and I am not a dishonest person and I do believe there are many dishonest claims in Preterism, but I do not claim to be a Preterist and I never was one but that does not change the fact that the Book of Revelation makes claims about itself that prove either that it was written early or whoever wrote the Book of Revelation was lying, too. 

How is Preterism dishonest?  Someone may be asking.  I have seen where Preterist say all Jewish persecution against Christians ended in A.D.70 and that is a dishonest claim when they should know, or can easily find out that the only people the Jewish president Bar Kokhba persecuted was second century Christians who refused to fight in the Israelite State army.  If they have Eusebius' Histories they should know their claims about an A.D.70 cut off date for Jewish hostilities is a pure fabrication to strengthen their false claim that all Bible prophecies ended in A.D,70.  Many if not the majority of Preterists also claim that Nero is the man of sin who sat in the Second Temple showing himself to be God but they cannot prove it or even logically demonstrate how that could be true.  But the facts of history show Nero never came anywhere near Judaea in his whole lifetime nor did he do anything that would suggest that he was the mystery of iniquity of which Paul prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. 

Many, if not most, Preterists claim that the millennial period of Revelation 20 began on the Day of Pentecost and ended in A.D.70. However, for this to be true, it would mean that the Jewish saints were executed by beheading in A.D.33, which is historically incorrect and completely unrealistic. Additionally, Preterists overlook the fact that the Roman Empire was not significantly impacted by events in the first or second centuries that would have caused its collapse or disappearance. The real challenges for Roman history came with Constantine's decision to relocate the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantine and Thessalonica in A.D.330. These decisions did not mark the end of the Roman Empire, but rather set it on a path to greater strength and economic prosperity. Furthermore, it granted Christians newfound advantages: becoming guardians of the most powerful empire in the history of mankind - which is quite remarkable!

But when we turn our attention to the Book of Revelation and internal evidence that really is a discussion that should be carried out without making any assumptions about how much anyone reads (because we cannot easily tell how much someone reads if we don't even know them).  And there are some people who do read a lot but what they say betrays that fact.  My evidence that the Book of Revelation, I feel, is straightforward:

Revelation makes claims about itself that prove it was written early

[1] It was written to Jewish Christians in Asia Minor to inform them of the coming of the Lord Jesus which was to shortly take place. 

[2] It was written to seven Jewish Christian churches in Asia Minor who were suffering at the hands of the fellow Jewish countrymen.

[3] Those Jewish Christians were promised power over the nations to break them in pieces like a potter's vessal.

[4] An event was to soon occur that would completely humiliate the synagogue community and make them admit that Jesus loved the Christians. 

[5] A heavenly tribunal was to soon to be held to decide what to do about the fourth kingdom (which was foretold in Daniel 7:10ff). 

[6] The Sixth Seal happened in the lifetime of women who saw Jesus carrying his heavy xylon to Golgotha (Luke 23:27-31). 

[7] If the Seals happened in the lifetime of these women and their children that also means that the Seven Trumpets happened in their lifetime too (because the Seven Trumpets come directly out of the Seventh Seal - Revelation 8:1-6).

[8] The Seven Trumpets end with the kingdom of God being realized (Revelation 11:15 cf. 12:10), but Jesus promised the Apostles that the kingdom of God would come in their lifetime (Luke 21:24-31).  The Apostle Paul also taught that the translation of the saints would happen at the last trumpet sound (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). 

[9] Revelation 11:1-2 speaks about the invasion on the Second Temple and the trampling of Jerusalem for forty-two months (Wars of the Jews 2.20).  This happened in the autumn month of Marcheshvan after the Jewish victory against Cestius' troops in the Beth Horon Pass (Wars of the Jews 2.19.8:546-9:555).

[10] Revelation chapter 11 also brings on the subject of the judgment of a great city where our Lord was crucified (Revelation 11:8).

[11] An earthquake occurred and seven thousand people died, which was a tenth of the city's population.  That means that this great city had less than one hundred thousand residents (Revelation 11:13) and we know first century Rome had over a million residents.¹

[12] This very unusual earthquake is noted in Josephus' account of the Jewish war (Wars of the Jews 4.4.5:286-287).

[13] After the city was cleared of all Romans and all Gentiles a emergency war council was convened in the Second Temple and a provisionary war government coalition was formed consisting of Judæans and co-religionist Idumeans (Wars of the Jews 2.20.1:556-4:568).  They chose ten commanders to govern seven regions of the Holy Land, including Jerusalem (which is the beast government, according to Revelation 13:1).

[14] Revelation 11:1-2,8, and 13 not only tells us about what happened to the Second Temple and how long it would endure; it not only tells us it is the city where our Lord was crucified and the comparitively small residential population thereof, but also that the final trumpet was sounded, declaring the coming of the promised kingdom of God.  Furthermore, however, the Twenty-four elders declared,

"We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who exists, who existed in the past, and who will continue to exist in the future; because You have taken Your great power and have reigned.  And the nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and it is time for the dead to be judged, and for You to give reward to Your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who fear Your name, both small and great; and for You to destroy those who destroy the earth" (Revelation 11:17-18 AEV).

It is interesting to observe so many noteworthy milestones packed into one chapter, the Second Temple, its occupation by the people of Israel, the extent of the forty-two month desecration of Jerusalem, the death of God's two witnesses in the city where our Lord was crucified; the great earthquake that killed a tenth of the population of the city, the coming of the promised kingdom of God with power and the arrival of the time of the resurrection and judgment of the dead.

This is internal evidence that shows, first of all, context—that is the setting consistent with the contemporary presence of the Second Temple.  This, almost more than anything else, screams that the Book of Revelation was written well before the demolition of a structure that had, with difficulty, stood the tests of time since its initial completion in 516 B.C.  It was a building that the Samaritans did all they could to delay and prevent from being built in the first place.²  It was the place where King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, in 167 B.C., spoiled when he installed a statue of Zeus in the Holy of Holies, but it was also the facility that Judas the Maccabee purified and rededicated in the first Hanukka in 163 B.C.  And in the year when the Virgin Mary was born Herod suddenly got the idea that he wanted to remodel and expand this Second Temple and in doing so he made it the largest and most beautiful building on the planet earth, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

But again, as had happened with Solomon's Temple, so again, by Jewish hands this Second Temple would suffer its worst abuses over forty-two months till its disappearance because of menacing and irreligious forces directly emanating out of the Jewish world itself for, as Josephus correctly notes, the prophecy of Daniel was fulfilled that said the Temple would be destroyed when it was invaded by people of their own country (Daniel 9:25-27 cf. Wars of the Jews 4.6.380-388). 

The Translation of the Son of Man

and the Flight of the Jerusalem Church

Revelation chapter 12 has as many surprises as chapter 11.  And it also has its tantalizing suggestions that link it to real history.  I want to start off by saying that nobody saw a great red dragon in the sky but they did see armies battling in the sky.  And nobody saw a giant woman with stars around her head and the moon under her feet (Rev. 12:1-2), but it is noted that at this very time the Jerusalem Church fled the metropolis and stayed at Pella for the duration of the civil war, which was three and a half years.  I futhermore want to note that nobody saw anyone give birth to a boy child (Rev. 12:4-5), but it is noted in Jewish history that something sudden and strange happened at the Second Temple while the armies were overhead duking it out: The 30 foot tall brass doors of the Second Temple opened all of a sudden and there was a great motion perceived as if the spirits were going out of the Temple.  This, I maintain, must have been the exact time was a group of Christians ascended into the clouds to the throne of God, as foretold in Revelation 12:5.  This ascension to positions of authority in the heavenlies was promised to Christians at Thyatira (Revelation 2:25) and was expected to happen in the first century to those who waited for the return of our Lord at Thessaloniki (1 Thessalonians 4:16ff).  At the very same time, Revelation 12:7-10 demonstrates the defeat of Satan by Michael and his angels and that battle is recorded in real historical time,

“Prodigies had occurred in this nation, which, although prone to superstition, did not consider it appropriate to cleanse or atone through offerings and sacrifices due to their aversion towards religious rituals. There were witnessed battles taking place in the skies, the gleaming of fiery weapons, and the Temple being illuminated by a sudden radiance emitted from the clouds.  The doors of the Temple unexpectedly swung open, and a voice with an otherworldly tone was heard proclaiming that the gods were departing.  Simultaneously, there was a noticeable commotion resembling a departure. Some individuals interpreted these events with fear and apprehension, while most firmly believed that the ancient records of their priests contained a prophecy indicating that the East would rise in power during this specific time and rulers from Judæa would achieve universal dominion.  These cryptic predictions had alluded to Vespasian and Titus, but due to the typical blindness of ambition among the common people, they interpreted these grand destinies as their own and refused to believe the truth even when faced with calamities.” (Josephus' Dissertation 3.5.15).

So far I have been following the text and the narrative flow of Revelation and so far I cannot understand how a person can accuse me of being unread or dishonest.  I am reading the Book of Revelation like a book describing events that would shortly come to pass and this Jewish history seems to correspond with it pretty well.  But Revelation chapters 13-19 is a block of passages that cover the beast and the great city and the destruction of both and the only way to deny its first century fulfillment is to have prejudicial ideas and a presuppositional checklist of what the Book of Revelation is supposed to mean.   With these prejudices and with this checklist one can walk through Revelation and categorically deny that anything of the kind ever happened to meet those criterion (and that is not the right way to study or understand the Bible, in my opinion).  But we need to pause and think about the very different approaches that one can make to the Book of Revelation: One way is to walk up to it using the previous claims of the New Testament and the history of the first century Jewish world (that is one way, our way, my way, too).  Then there is another way: To walk back to the Book of Revelation from modern times with modern assumptions and imperatives about what it means and what it says.  This is a very popular approach and a perfect way to never see any correspondance between events in the first and second centuries that meet and even exceed any criterion for "fulfillment" in all twenty-two chapters of this critically important book.

The situation is so grave because we haven't even discussed how the Book of Revelation corresponds to imperatives placed on it in by prophecies uttered in the Tanakh, the Old Testament.  And so, in consequence of this characters and entities in Revelation can be anything people want them to be: the Fourth Kingdom can be the Roman Empire because the whole Jewish world believed that for the better part of two hundred years before that theory had a chance to prove it had NO predictive value.  The idea that the Romans were the fourth kingdom is the single reason why the Jewish nationalists thought opposing Rome was a good idea in the first place.  They believed that even if they had no reasonable human means to defeat Rome God had promised in Daniel 2 and 7 that HE would defeat Rome.  But there was one problem: Jesus never taught or insinuated that the Romans were the fourth kingdom AT ALL.  Instead, Jesus' prophecies insinuate the conduct of Judæa itself as standing in line to be judged by him at his return.  And just as the fourth beast in Daniel 7 was defeated and deprived of the kingdom of God Jesus also promised presumptious Judæans they would be cast aside from their kingdom hopes "where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:11-12;13:42 cf. Luke 13:27-29).  So what does making the fourth kingdom the Roman Empire do?  Well, it creates a major mixmatch: People looking for the judgment of the Roman Empire cannot find any such thing anywhere near the writing of the autograph copies of the Book of Revelation and they conclude, "Nothing to see there!"  They are not paying attention to anything Jesus promised would happen to Jerusalem or Judæa, or the daughters of Jerusalem and their children or the Second Temple or that generation.  There literally are NO guardrails and that means that major categories of "proof" and "internal evidence" slip past their attention and "doesn't count" for proof in their own eyes.  They can go on ad nauseam proclaiming to all, near and far how the Book of Revelation is now finally about to wrap up in our days and time and even if they make a mistake about it for the umpteenth time, all they have to do is keep the same script but only revise the date they claim it will finally be done.  All this means is that popular interpretations of the Book of Revelation are superficial and do not come anywhere near explaining what this important part of Hebrew Scriptures meant for first and second century Christians and for all of mankind since then.   

The Beast, the Rebellion Itself

Revelation chapter 13 through 19 recorded the rise and fall of a Jewish nationalist chimera.  Now, we all know what something similar though not totally indentical to a chimera is but nowadays we do not call it that.  Here are two chimeras we are very familiar with: The Donkey for the Democratic Party and the Elephant for the Republican Party.  One can visit Washington D.C. and discover that there are no donkeys and elephants living or working in any of the buildings or offices spaces of either of these two parties, but we realize these symbols do not mean they do.  These animals are just symbols of two political realities in the United States today just as the Beast in Revelation chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 19 is a symbol of a political reality in the first century when the seven churches of Asia Minor existed.  However, the Book of Revelation does something interesting to the Old Testament material: It takes the four-headed leopard of the Greek Empire and adds three more heads to it and it adds the feet of the Medeo-Persian Empire, which was a bear.  It also adds the mouth of a lion, which was the Neo-Babylonian Empire and conflates this picture to suggest the Jewish nationalist movement is the epitome of all the worst traits of the three Gentile principalities the Jewish people traversed once they were carried away captive upon the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.  Now, this does not mean that Judæa suddenly became problematic during the A.D.66-70 Jewish civil war, instead, it suggests that Judæa was problematic (and dangerous) in major ways dating back to its founding under Judas the Maccabees and the Hasmoneans as far back as the rededication of the Second Temple and Hanukkah on 25 Kislev 163 B.C. to 23 Elul 141 B.C. when the foundation was formerly recognized for its existence.  The Hasmoneans loosed the Law of Moses and made it permissable for the Jews to go to war on the Sabbath day (which meant they could now use aggression and violence on the day of rest, but at the same time there was a great reluctance to do anything compassionate, when need be, on the Sabbath).  And we see the nation had this lopsided idea of the Sabbath and found fault with Jesus consistently throughout his ministry on just this main issue to the point that they wanted to “destroy” him for restoring people to full health on the Sabbath day. 

The Beast and the Mark of the Beast

Returning to our method of approach we see in Revelation 13 the rise of an entity that is destined to be short-lived but in its brief existence it manages to cause people to have a mark in their right hands or foreheads and to orchestrate, through its cohort the Lamb Beast, the destruction of Jerusalem.³  Both of these eventualities completely correspond to how first century Jewish history reads and there are so many points of agreement that this essay could easily be turned into a full-fledged book on this subject.

The Judgment of the Great City

The judgment and destruction of the Great City is covered beginning in Revelation 16:21 to 19:1-4 we have a description of the downfall and destruction of a city guilty of killing the prophets, Apostles, and saints (Rev. 17.5; 18:20-24; 19:1-4).  In popular parlance this city HAS TO BE ROME.  But on Biblical terms such an answer is quite wrong, misguided, and impossible.  Nowhere in the Bible does anyone say or imply that Rome will pay any price for misconduct against the servants and prophets of God—not a single reference like this can be found!  On the contrary, in the Gospels Jesus was very clear that Jerusalem made herself notorious for this odius crime (Matthew Matthew 16:23:29-39; Luke 11:45-51.  Jerusalem is public enemy number one in the Book of Acts as she authorizes the persecution of Christians near and far (Acts 9:1-2 cf. 1 Thess. 2:16).  So Jerusalem's leaders first fault was their lie that the Lord did not rise from the dead when they knew full well that he did (Matthew 28:11-15), but this means that now they are obliged to prosecute, condemn, and kill everyone who believes the Apostles and choses to follow the risen Christ (John 16:1-4). And these developments mean her sons became scoffers and mockers and both the mother and the son (Hagar and Ishmael = Jerusalem and her children) invariably stood in line to be thrown out, deprived of an inheritance they thought God owed them because of their racial pedigree as children of Abraham (Romans 4:13-14 cf. Galatians 4:21-31).  Now, in the case of those who do not see the New Testament the way we see it Jerusalem was this romantic place and we need to get back to it and reify a State Temple and bask in the so-called glory of what once was (without really realizing how seriously dangerous and harmful and precarious it was to be a Christian under that kind of leadership in antiquity).

In Revelation 19 Jewish Hopes

Go Completely Haywire

Revelation chapter 19 begins by noting that heaven was overjoyed (not sad) about the destruction of Jerusalem.  To them it was salvation and glory that such an obstinate, wretched, wicked, murderous, and recalcitrant city no longer existed.  The city had gone insane and lost all sense of itself by not valuing reality and putting its trust in willful objectives that were completely contrary to the will of God and all human decency.  And now it lay in the smoldering dust and rubble and its destroyers are next to be destroyed while the completion of the marriage of Christ to the Church supplants a fourteen-century-long marriage that God had that repeatedly went completely awry.  The logic of Christ working through means of the Roman vengeance is best expressed in the Apostle Paul's warnings against agitation and rebellion in Romans 13:1-7 and the Jewish freedom fighters surely felt the tip of the sword which was the direct consequences of their choices and actions to the point that at the last they also were driven by dispair and hopelessness to murder themselves: They cast lots and plunged their swords into their nearest and dearest, their wives, their children and their friends and companions, and even themselves in order not to have to face the grim terrors of Roman arrest and captivity (Revelation 19:21).⁴  

But suicide is not a way out but the beginning of the 'long journey' that nobody should have the nerve to take, which guarantees an existence in everlasting darkness (Jude 13).  But by contrast the Bible shows that the Christians had everything to look forward to: See our God Jesus face to face and inherit a house not made by the hands of man (2 Corinthians 5:1-4 cf. Hebrews 13:14).  Walking in the light of God the Father and enjoying the blessings of a beatific vision and splendor of life and fellowship forever and ever.  But nothing in the Book of Revelation justifies the idea that Bible prophecy would tardy and come along two thousand years after all relevant facts from the first and second century no longer even matter.  And nothing, not even in the 20^th chapter of the Book of Revelation, can deny the fact that the eve of the Destruction of Jerusalem was close by even as the Book of Revelation was being penned sometime in late A.D.61 or early A.D.62.

Revelation 20: An Interpretation Full of

Constraints Vs. An Interpretation With No Constraints

Revelation 20 is another part of the Book of Revelation that is ravaged without any shame by interpreters of every stripe.  Constraints of this chapter can take shape on what we think about the beginning of the chapter or what we think about the end of it.  From the beginning, we can go only as far back as the shameful events of Revelation 13:13-18 to be able to think about what happens in Revelation 20:4 and if we decide to approach it from the other side we have Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 to fill us in on what happened once the thousand years reign was fulfilled.  And then we have the prophecies and the authority of Jesus that tell us that Satan's departure and return to Judæa would all happen with the constraints of that generation he preached to (Matthew 12:42-45).  This is very restrictive but we could go much further!  If we only concerned ourselves with the consequences and the inferences of the Book of Hebrews only then we would have to make certain determinations about what kind of world, religion, and society would exist inside the millennial period and ask: Would it be a return to the shadow realities of the Law of Moses or to the body and substance realities of the grace and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ?  In light of this one question alone, Premillennialism would have to fall on the sword of the Book of Hebrews and give up all its claims about what it teaches "will happen" when the millennium comes because all of its teachings are directly contrary to the truth about not only what the Book of Hebrews says, but also what the Apostle Paul taught about the temperality of the Law and its inferiority to the able ministry of the New Testament (2 Corinthians 3:1-18).  The decay and disappearance of the Levitical system in the late first century and the destruction of Bar Kokhba's last effort to revive it and make it operational again is not a story that can be easily detected or seen if people are approaching the Book of Revelation in a way that has nothing to do with the reasons why the booked was pinned in the first place. 

In fact, if they miss the real reason why the Book of Revelation was written no amount of historical evidence about the downfall of Jerusalem, the priesthood, Jewish messianic insurrections involving multitudes of people and armies mean anything at all. If people are looking for satelites and nuclear bombs and things Russia might or might not do and government codes and modern day Israel being something or the Jews building a Third Temple and on and on and on—no amount of discussion, arguing, debating, or pleading and appealing to authorial intent of the Book of Revelation 2,000 years ago will mean anything at all.  People will label you as dishonest and a liar, disregarding anything you say or present, simply because their beliefs are rooted in essential falsehoods that they are unwilling or unable to challenge. Concurrently, they possess a strong bias and interpret everyday occurrences as "evidence" that the end of the world is approaching. This belief has persisted in every generation since it was truly relevant in the historical context of the Jewish world, until its demise in A.D.135 following a catastrophic collapse of attempts to revive the Levitical priestly system of things.  When Bar Kokhba was beheaded for his sinister and outrageous lies, murders, blasphemies and pretenses Israel finally failed to prove Jesus of Nazareth was not who he said he was and they did not succeed in all their meticulous plans to overcome the will of God by power and by might.  So that by the first few months of A.D.136 all signs of life in Judæan desert caves, caverns, and tunnels grew completely silent and Christians were finally on the other side of an Exodus from ancient sectarian Judaism they had begun on that first Pentecost in A.D.33.

Endnotes

1 During the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, the population of the city of Rome is conventionally estimated at one million inhabitants. Ian Morris estimated that no other city in Western Eurasia would have as many again until the 19th century.  Source: Wikipedia.

2 According to Ezra 4:5, the Samaritans sought to "frustrate their purpose" and sent messengers to Ecbatana and Susa, with the result that the work was suspended. Seven years later, Cyrus the Great, who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, died, and was succeeded by his son Cambyses.  Source: Wikipedia

3 Wars of the Jews 3.8.3:383

4 "We revolted from the Romans with great pretensions to courage: and when, the very last, they invited us to preserve ourselves, we would not comply with them,  Who will not, therefore, believe they will not certainly be in a rage at us, in case they can take us alive?"  See entire speech at Wars of the Jews 7.8.1:252-7:383.

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