|
Six keys to understanding the Book of Revelation: 1. Whatever it was that was written about would shortly or quickly take place. a. Rev. 1:1 the things which would quickly take place b. Rev. 1:3 the time is near c. Rev. 22:16 soon take place d. Rev. 22:7: Behold, I am coming quickly e. Rev. 22:10 the time is near f. Rev. 22:12 Behold, I am coming quickly g. Rev. 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 2. There is internal evidence within the Book of Revelation that will enable us to determine a pre-A.D. 70 date for its authorship. a. Most commentaries attribute the date of its authorship to be around A.D. 95. b. If this were true, and nothing “apocalyptic” happened shortly or quickly after that, it gives cause for some to take the huge leap into the future and say that “a day is as a thousand years” to the Lord and quickly must not have meant “quickly,” giving rationale to the pre-mil, dispensational view that events that we are seeing today, 2000 years later, were what John was referring to. c. The A.D. 95 dating is based on external evidence—a tradition stemming from Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon, who lived between A.D. 130 and 202. In his writings, more than 100 years after the fall of Jerusalem, he made a statement about John and the apocalypse, saying that it (he) was seen toward the end of the reign of Domitian, who died in A.D. 96. The sentence in question is ambiguous—was it John who was seen or was it the apocalypse that John saw. So this shaky evidence is the foundation upon which the entire post A.D. 70 writing of the Book of Revelation is based. d. Ken Gentry’s book, Before Jerusalem Fell, on the dating of the Book of Revelation, sets the bar in scholarship and research, pegging the date of the writing of the Book of Revelation prior to A.D. 70 that others will have to convincingly disprove or refute. 3. The message in Revelation was written during the time when the temple was still standing. In Revelation 11:1-2 John was told to measure the temple. 4. We are given another clue as to when it was written in Rev. 17:10 where John described the Beast. a. Seven kings, five fallen, one is, and one is to come and he will remain for a short time. b. Five Kings: i. Julius Caesar (49 B.C.— ii. Augustus Caesar (31 B.C.—A.D. 14) iii. Tiberius Caesar (A.D. 14—A.D. 37) iv. Caligula Caesar (A.D. 37-A.D. 41) v. Claudius Caesar (A.D. 41—A.D. 54) c. The one who is: i. Nero Caesar (A.D. 54—A.D. 68) d. The one to come and remain a short time: Galba (six months) e. This means that the Book of Revelation was written sometime during the reign of Nero, before A.D. 70. f. This is further substantiated by the identification of the Beast with the number 666. In the Hebrew alphabet, the name Nero Caesar is spelled NRWN QSR. In ancient languages, letters could constitute words, but they could also represent numbers. In this case the numerical values for the words NRWN QSR are: N (50), R (200), W (6), N (50), Q (100), S (60), R (200). This totals 666, identifying Nero as the Beast. 5. Another clue: The identity of Babylon. a. Rev. 11:8 “And their dead bodies (the two witnesses) will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.” [Jerusalem was where the Lord was crucified] b. Rev. 17:18 “The woman whom you saw (Babylon the Great, the mother of Harlots) is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth (land).” c. This was not the first time that Jerusalem was referred to as a harlot. Isaiah 1:21: “How the faithful city has become a harlot. She who was once full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her but now murderers.” d. We are also told that Peter wrote his first epistle from Babylon. (I Peter 5:12, 13) He identified Silas and Mark as being with him. When he wrote this letter, were the three of them together somewhere in Iraq? Or, was Babylon a “code word” to mean Jerusalem? We know that Silas’s home was in Jerusalem. He was sent by the Jerusalem church to Antioch and later went with Paul on his second journey. When that journey came to an end, Silas returned home. John Mark was with Peter. He was Peter’s son in the gospel and Barnabas’s nephew—his home was in Jerusalem as well. This is further evidence that Peter was with Silas and Mark in Jerusalem when he wrote I Peter. Babylon was a code word that had come to symbolize Jerusalem. 6. Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 23 and 24. He prophesied that it would come upon the generation to whom he was speaking at the time. (Not one stone of the temple would be left upon one another, which would not be torn down—Matt. 24:2). Jesus made these predictions in A.D. 30. A biblical generation is 40 years. In A.D. 70 the destruction came, just as Jesus had predicted. Looking at all of these keys together it becomes evident that the Book of Revelation was written prior to A.D. 70—possibly in A.D 66 or 67. The book was written about events that would transpire in the first century that would mark the complete passing of the Old Covenant with all of its types, pictures, holy places, and sacrifices, to the New Covenant God established by the shedding of blood of his own Son, with all who believe (Jews and Gentiles), and who would make up the new people of God—the church. The beast the apocalypse last days end times
Related Articles -
The beast, the apocalypse, last days, end times,
|
