50 Failed Predictions? – #2

 

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3. 97,000 Jews got away scot free from Revelation 19: 21.

“And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.”

The sword is the gospel. This is not entirely positive. All Covenants contain blessings and curses. As mentioned earlier, every “stanza” in the Revelation follows the expanded Covenant pattern. See Totus Christus for how this works. The final point concerns Covenant succession. Its motifs are the four rivers of Eden, godly offspring and the Feast of Tabernacles. The unbelieving Jew and Gentile “bodies” were denied Covenant succession. Now there is only a believer/unbeliever distinction. The Jew/Gentile division is gone forever in God’s economy.

See also Menu for the Dirty Birds and Lambs in Limbo.

Jesus said He wouldn’t judge the Jews, but that the words He had spoken would judge them instead. This pattern goes right back to Eden. God gives an Adam his Word, leaves him alone to obey or disobey, and then returns on the respective ‘Day of the Lord’. On that day, the words given to Adam are what judge him. AD70 was the Day of the Lord for the Jewish Adams. They had broken the Restoration Covenant, and then they had rejected the warnings of Christ as Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Remember, Revelation concerns the decommission of God’s old heaven-and-earth government and the commission of a new one. The issue here is the Covenant and this context must be observed or we just won’t get what’s going on.

4. Paul didn’t remain alive until Christ’s coming. 1 Thess. 4: 15-17. (Notice he says “We,” including himself).

That’s a good point. Fortunately the Revelation gives us the history of what actually happened in Tabernacle symbols. The Old Covenant saints awaited vengeance but were told to wait a little longer. A New Covenant contingent of martyrs was also required — two witnesses. Once the NC saints were sealed with the Spirit and then massacred (the subject of Rev. 14), the saints finally entered heaven as a human government, replacing the Old Testament angelic government. The Law had been ministered by angels in our “childhood.”

The first century history follows the Feasts. After Jesus’ Passover and the disciples’ Pentecost came the Trumpets. At the final trumpet, the saints were received into heaven, from the bosom of Abraham to the bosom of Christ (gems on His breastplate).

The transformation of the saints was prefigured in the transformation of animal sacrifices from flesh into glorious flame and ascending as smoke. Paul communicates this in 1 Corinthians 15, again using the Tabernacle/Feasts pattern. See The First Resurrection. Don’t panic. The second resurrection will be just like it. See Three Resurrections – 1.

5. The saints never received “power over the nations” in A.D. 70 (Rev. 2: 26-27).

This is a quote from Psalm 2. Christ fulfilled it at His ascension in AD30. In Revelation 2, what He promises to do is give the same power to the saints. Christ is the head, the saints were the body: Totus Christus. Revelation is about the firstfruits body and its satanic Herodian counterfeit. See The Two Witnesses.

Christ died and was given authority. The firstfruits saints would also die and be given authority. See Twelve Thrones.

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2 Responses to “50 Failed Predictions? – #2”

  • Joe Says:

    Mike,

    It seems that one of the big challenges for your view is that you want to restrict the AD70 resurrection to OC saints, apostles, and NC martyrs. 1 Thess 4 and 1 Cor 15 speak more broadly than that. All those who are alive at the parousia will rise with the resurrected dead to be with Christ. Hyper-preterists seem to spiritualize this such that the people to whom it happened remained on earth and apparently didn’t recognize that it had happened, nor did they write about it. You avoid this by having this be a bodily rapture/ascension.

    The difficulty is that this would leave the world Christian-less, raising all kinds of continuity problems between the “firstfruits” church and the later church. Indeed, if Christians were evacuated in AD70, who was left to evangelize? Where did the post-apostolic church come from?

    Limiting this bodily rapture to the apostles alive at the time (John the apostle?) and not including all members of the church alive at the time seems to run afoul of both 1 Thess 4 and 1 Cor 15.

    Thoughts?

  • Mike Bull Says:

    Hi Joe

    Good comments. Yes, that is an issue. One of the main points of the Revelation is the entry into the heavenly country of the OT faithful, and the ascension with them of the NT martyrs.

    Jordan sees the first century massacre as a reason why the church fathers got so many things wrong:

    http://www.bullartistry.com.au/wp/2009/04/16/three-resurrections-2/

    For me, an actual imminent physical resurrection is the thrust of the apostles’ writings, and they were inspired. I find it easier to believe that tradition got the date of John’s death wrong, especially when there are hints at what would happen to him. And how’s this one, recorded by John himself, which I think we overlook:

    John 11:25-26:
    Jesus said to her,
    “I am the resurrection and the life.
    He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

    AND

    whoever LIVES and believes in Me shall never die.
    Do you believe this?”

    This division is more than poetic, surely. Could it refer to a first century rapture?

    The “we” in 1 Thess 4 is a tricky one. However, for the saints in Thess to believe that this event might have already passed, perhaps they knew it would only be governmental, ie. apostolic? After all, Paul’s point here – and in 1 Cor 15 – is to comfort them concerning the fate of the martyrs. Yes, we are dying, but we know God raised Christ after He was slain.

    Thanks for your comments, Joe. Really appreciated.