or Where Kenneth Gentry Is Wrong on the Revelation

Part 1 here.

I’ve been meaning to write this post since I wrote Part 1 (over two years ago). A friend’s recent question concerning Kenneth Gentry’s lectures on the Revelation encouraged me to bite the bullet and bust a gut and get it done. The question is this: Is the Revelation to be interpreted in the light of Josephus’ Jewish War, or in the light of the Bible itself?

Just as the Tabernacle rebuilt by David included Gentile worshipers, the reinstitution of worship in Israel after the exile likewise required the inclusion of Gentile sponsors. We saw in Esther in Ezekiel’s Temple that the oikoumene was a Jew-Gentile social architecture, with the city of Jerusalem itself serving as a kind of holy altar within a larger temple. [1] Just as the four-horned altar served as an image of the (symbolically) four-cornered Land (not earth; see The Earth Is Flat), so now the entire city was referred to as “holy,” and the genealogy of every Jew was considered “priestly.” This upgrade in holiness of what was once common was the result of Israel’s exile, a death-and-resurrection which purged her of idol worship. So, what could go wrong?

Of course, these new blessings could and would be twisted into curses. The holy city itself and the genealogy of every Jew would become Israel’s new gods.

This is the situation into which the Messiah was born. The outcome of this idolatry was the requirement for a new death-and-resurrection. In Israel’s place, Christ initiated it, and Israel followed Him through the process over the next generation. Like the bronze altar outside the Tabernacle, the entire city itself would be considered “outside the camp,” and even its sides would be splashed with the blood of the atoning sacrifices. As the law decreed, the crimes of the murderers would be atoned for with their own blood.

Consequently, it would be no surprise that the deep structure of the Revelation recapitulates the order of sacrifice. The Revelation is not a description of the Jewish war, though it is part of the outcome. It is a liturgy describing the sacrifice of the priesthood of Israel for the sake of the nations. Herod’s Jerusalem would be offered up in a spectacle of blood, fire and smoke. Any other reading of the final book of the Bible, using, for instance, uninspired second Temple literature, the works of Josephus, or the latest news headlines, to interpret it, is a gross misunderstanding of the purpose of the text.

Ordo Sacrificii sub Apocalypsis

In the book of Leviticus, the simple process of the whole burnt offering (“the ascension” [3]) blooms like a flower, revealing myriad parts with different purposes. Yet each of these remains a process of transformation, one whose pattern can be traced back to Genesis 1.

Creation – Day 1 – Called (Sabbath – “on the Lord’s Day”)

What is the correspondence between the choosing of the blameless animal and Day 1? The baptism of Jesus is a great help. The dove hovers over the water and identifies the Lamb from hundreds of His repentant brothers. We see a similar process at the anointing of David, the shepherd. In the Revelation, it is the vision of the glorified Jesus, the one who has already ascended.

Division – Day 2 – Sanctified (Passover)

In biblical terms, sanctification is not a growth in holiness but a setting apart. In sacrificial terms, it is the delegation of a purpose, much as one might set apart food for a special event. Thus, sanctification has more to do with election than the kind of practical holiness which the word brings to mind today. In Genesis 1, this is the parting of the waters. In Exodus, it is the parting of the Red Sea to set Israel apart from Egypt. In Galatians, Paul combines these two images in his use of Hagar and Sarah as symbols of Egypt’s river and Canaan’s rain, the waters below and the waters above (see The Shape of Galatians, pp. 155-165). In the Revelation, it is the Division of the New Israel, represented by the seven churches, from the Old Israel, the city of Jerusalem who now embodies the worst traits of Egypt, Sodom and Babylon, and worse, flaunts these in God’s face through her continued sacrifices, following the murder of Christ and most of His apostles. Jesus calls these new “sons of God” out of Egypt and “passes over” them, “trimming the wick” on each lampstand. He cuts off the leaven of the Pharisees in each church before He cuts off “Egypt” altogether (see The Eighth Letter and Living Menora).

Ascension – Day 3 – Presented (Firstfruits)

The Passover sacrifice could be a lamb or a kid, but the Firstfruits animal offering was a lamb. Revelation 4-5 reveal the Lamb, ascended to heaven as the firstfruits from the dead, representing all who believe. Since the work of Day 3 was twofold, Land and fruits, Altar and Table, Christ is the connection between the earth (His grave in Israel) and the heavens. Instead of grain and fruit plants, Christ is flesh and blood, bread and wine, offered upon the Table.

Christ opens the scroll, which ends His ministry in the Garden, and sends the four Gospel witnesses into the Land (or, in Tabernacle terms, moves the action from the Most Holy into the Holy Place). The seven seals follow the same sevenfold pattern in microcosm.

Testing – Day 4 – Purified (Pentecost)

Just as Christ is the Head of the sacrifice (offered without being washed), chapter 7 reveals the firstfruits Body: 144,000 believing Jews. Note that the Body is washed (v. 14). These are the sheep which Peter was to feed for the slaughter. The process of “counting” alludes to the book of Numbers. Only the men were counted, because men are sacrificial “heads,” hence circumcision for Israelite males. But there are Gentiles as well, yet these are not counted. They are numberless. Peter’s haul of fish was counted, an offering from the sea presented upon the “altar” on the beach (a fire of burning coals). The fact that these Gentile “human sacrifices” are not counted means the Covenant is moving from earth to heaven, from the Cainite ground to the “Abel” (hebel) clouds of heaven. This is a new heavens and earth, a new creation, and the description of the end of their suffering aptly follows the order of the Creation week (see Saved From The Green Horse). The centre of this promise concerns the striking and scorching heat of the sun, which leads into chapter 8. This is a description of the holy fire from heaven, the Spirit of God descending upon both Jews and Gentiles from the Day of Pentecost onward. From heaven’s point of view, salvation was a call to become a human sacrifice, since Christ has made us “acceptable” to God (in sacrificial terms). We no longer need animal substitutes.

Maturity – Day 5 – Transformed (Trumpets)

This is where our concept of “sanctification” comes in. It is spiritual maturity, so in biblical terms a better word for it might be transformation. The flesh has been consumed and is now fragrant clouds, able to pass through locked doors (as we see in John and Acts), following the High Priest who entered through the torn veil in clouds of incense on the Day of Atonement.

New Israel – Good Trumpets

Maturity corresponds to the Feast of Trumpets (see above), describing in “Mosaic” terminology the witness of the Apostles leading up to the destruction of the  Temple and its now obsolete – and corrupted – worship. The seven trumpets follow the same sevenfold “creation-through-sacrifice” pattern. As the Feast of Trumpets, they muster the troops of Israel. However, as is described by Paul in Romans, there were now two Israels. The Judiastic Israelites are described as Egyptian/Babylonian locusts, and the saints are described as human Tabernacles, temples of the Spirit.

In chapter 10, a part of the New Covenant authority is delegated to John, a son of thunder, who, as the Last Apostle, will speak the final words of judgment upon the rulers of the Land (“kings of the earth”). For a description of the angel, see The Church As Colossus and The Last Trumpet.

The two witnesses are the Law of Moses and the Testimony of the Prophets embodied in the Apostolic Witness as the testimony of Jesus, hence Moses and Elijah deferring to Christ at His transfiguration, and the Father vindicating Christ as He did at His baptism. Just as that act ended Christ’s personal testimony to Israel, so these two witnesses end the Apostolic testimony to Israel. Both Head and Body have now spoken and been slain.

What is interesting here is that the Word began in the Garden, worked its way out through the Land to the World. Here we have three pictures of the testimony of the Firstfruits Church, which reverse the order: A great army crossing the Euphrates into the Land (World), the witness of John as seven “Sinaitic” thunders (Land), and the Law and Prophets as two cherubim (Garden). These symbols follow the High Priest as He makes His way from the court, through the Holy Place and into the Most Holy, just as He does in Leviticus. So the final verse of this section referring to the Ark of God in His temple should be no surprise if we have a handle on sacred architecture. The blood of the human sacrifices is being offered by Christ as the “washed Body” (Leviticus 1:9 – supporting baptism by full immersion of the body). However, this brings a new fire from heaven, one which will be administered by the Roman armies.

Old Israel – Bad Trumpets

Following the pattern of Psalm 1, Maturity has both blessings (the Apostolic witness) and curses (the response of the rulers of the Land). This dual witness is the “Deuteronomy” of the book of Revelation (read Deuteronomy 28). In their warnings, the Firstfruits Church not only “filled up” (multiplied into an abundance, as Brides do) the sufferings of Christ, but also provoked unbelieving Israelites to harden their hearts like Pharaoh did, and to “fill up” their sins. Paul describes this Jew-Gentile ministry and the imminent judgement of Jerusalem:

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last! (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16)

I hope it is becoming plain how erroneous is most exposition of the Revelation, including that by many preterists. Throwing proof texts at each other is like arguing about jigsaw pieces without reference to the picture on the box, which is found in the Torah.

Anyhow, from Revelation 12, the pattern of the Trumpets (Maturity) is repeated. It begins with a negative Pentecost. Just as David received the Spirit and Saul received an evil spirit from the Lord, so false Israel became demonic after the “enlightening” of Pentecost (Hebrews 6:4). Satan was kicked out of his “legal” role in heaven and took up residence on the earth, or more specifically, on the Land, in the Temple of the Herods (the source of the Edenic “springs” described in the final chapters of Ezekiel). So, that’s the Herodian Garden corrupted. Notice it begins with the Woman and the Herodian Dragon, a clear reference to Genesis as the beginning of this legal pattern.

Next, he spewed this corrupted (“bitter” Wormwood) river into the Land, and the false Church sucked it right up. This was the false doctrine which the apostles had to battle against, referred to over and over again in the epistles (so much for the attempts over the centuries to identify this false doctrine as anything but anti-Christian Judaism).

Satan’s final attempt to kill the Bride was to turn to the World for aid, so he called upon the Sea Beast, Rome (see Three Strikes, Binding and Loosing, and Serpents and Dragons). AD64 saw not only the completion of Herod’s Temple (proving Jesus to be a false prophet) but also the burning of Rome, the first time Roman authorities recognised Christianity as separate from Judaism. Satan’s ploy was to attack this strange new Jew-Gentile Body with a Jew-Gentile counterfeit, just as Herod and Pilate became “friends” after the trial of Christ.

After a description of this false worship and its false kingdom (presented as an Aaronic golden calf, the image of a beast), the “transformed” sacrifices are seen as “holy smoke” on the mountain with Christ, Head and Body now united. Their flesh and blood was “harvested” as bread and wine. Like the blood of Abel, it cried from the ground and calls upon God for vindication and vengeance. However, unlike the first murder, this vengeance would not be delayed. The blood of all the prophets from Abel onwards would be avenged upon that generation. The Land is described as an altar overflowing with blood “as high as a horse’s bridle.”

Conquest – Day 6 – Vindicated (Atonement)

Jerusalem had been surrounded by saints with Gospel “Trumpets”, but the final day had come. As it was with Jericho, the firstfruits of the Land, “all flesh” would be cut off in Jerusalem, as the firstfruits of the World. The entire city would be cut around, or circumcised. This brings us to the seven bowls of wrath, which correspond to the seven sprinklings of blood from the hand of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. However, on this day, the Roman general Titus would step over the Body of the apostate High Priest (see End of the Abrahamic Rift and Jesus’ Caesars).

What is the source of the seven bowls? Only the structure of the text reveals this (which means exegetes with little or no poetic sense will write this observation off as speculation). Interestingly, it is the Lampstand, the light of the Law now available by the Spirit (see Seven Bowls of Wrath). The Spirit would no longer strive with old Israel. For a sample of the beauty of the “de-Creation” described under the image of these Temple bowls, see #41 in 50 Failed Predictions part 9. For a complete rundown, see James B. Jordan’s The Vindication of Jesus Christ.

Chapters 17-19 describe the separation of the harlot and the bride, corresponding to Hagar and Sarah (Israel as Egypt versus Abraham’s “heavenly Canaan”), and also the two prostitutes whose hearts were discerned by Solomon. Since this entire pattern recapitulates the Testing of Adam in the Garden, the Father is discerning the heart of the Bride (Numbers 5) whom Christ has presented to Him as a chaste virgin. Not only are her eyes open (Luke 24:31; Acts 9:8,18), but she is liberated by the obedience of her Adam.

Glorification – Day 7 – Sent (Booths)

The final section of the Revelation is also sevenfold. It describes the ministry of the now-enthroned Firstfruits Church in heaven during this current period (see For A Thousand Years and Altar of the Abyss – 7). The sacrificial process enacted in the Garden and re-enacted in the Land would now be recapitulated throughout the World through the testimony of saints from every nation.

I hope to write a complete “Shape of the Revelation” some time soon, but will wait for Peter Leithart’s 2015 commentary because he will no doubt present many insights I can rip off include! In the mean time, get a hold of James B. Jordan’s Revelation lecture series.

But I hope you can see that the Revelation is not a symbolic account of the Jewish War, as important as understanding that history might be. Of course, I do recommend Kenneth Gentry’s Before Jerusalem Fell, which is extremely helpful when it comes to dating the book and establishing its purpose in the biblical canon.

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[1] For an introduction to this subject, see Peter J. Leithart’s The Four: A Survey of the Gospels. For a more in-depth study, see James B. Jordan’s The Handwriting on the Wall: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel. And you can search for “oikoumene” here on the blog.
[2] See Peter J. Leithart, Skinned and Cut, Biblical Horizons No. 35 (March 1992)

ART: A souped up version of the original cover artwork for David Chilton’s The Days of Vengeance. Chilton makes a similar error to Gentry, but is still well worth a read for his many insights.

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“Revelation is not just a vision of the King of Kings,
but of the King of Kings in His court.”

Preterists have a go at dispensationalists for interpreting the Bible through the lens of current headlines. We recognize that the Bible must be interpreted in its historical context, for its “first audience.” But there’s a brand of “newspaper exegesis” that plagues preterism as well.

In 2007, I listened to a lecture series on Revelation by Ken Gentry. I thought it was pretty good, but something didn’t sit right. Next, I got into James Jordan’s series, and it did sit right. Rather than forcing an interpretive framework onto the text, Jordan lets the text speak for itself. In fact, it sings.

What’s the difference? As much as I hate to set the work of these two gents in opposition, Gentry’s approach is to begin with Josephus’ account of the Jewish war and seek to find correlations in the text of St. John. But isn’t this just a first century version of “newspaper exegesis”? Gentry would agree that Revelation is “level-pegged” with Ezekiel as a prophecy against a corrupted Temple. But if we had a 6th century BC equivalent to Josephus, would anyone try to interpret the book in the light of the CNN of the day? No.

But what framework does this leave us with? Where does Jordan begin? How does he make near perfect sense of a text that has baffled scholars for centuries? Rusty Reno gives us a clue, in his foreword to the recent James Jordan festschrift, The Glory of Kings.

James B. Jordan is remarkable. There are plenty of Bible preachers in America who know the Scriptures well. Lots of professors read books in philosophy, history, and literature and have all sorts of interesting things to say about culture. Pundits cultivate a sharp, pungent, and readable style. But Jim is perhaps unique.

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Jim knows a great deal, but I have no doubt that the electricity in his writing and conversation come from his biblical vision. He does something remarkable. He takes the cultic core of the Old Testament—Temple and Priesthood, altar and sacrifice—and reads it into the full sweep of the biblical witness.
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Who else writes detailed interpretations of the Book of Daniel and quotes Allen Tate’s poetry? Who else can give a lecture on echoes of Leviticus in the apocalyptic vision of Zechariah and then chat over cigars about Friedrich von Hayek and Richard Weaver? Moreover, who can cover such a range with vivid images, punchy tag lines, and memorable turns of phrase? Not many, which is why I’ve come to think of Jim Jordan as one of the most important Christian intellectuals of our day.

Jim knows a great deal, but I have no doubt that the electricity in his writing and conversation come from his biblical vision. He does something remarkable. He takes the cultic core of the Old Testament—Temple and Priesthood, altar and sacrifice—and reads it into the full sweep of the biblical witness. The result is not the usual sort of “theological” interpretation we’re all familiar with: Christ’s fulfillment of the Old Testament explained by way of warmed-over theologies of substitutionary atonement or observations that really amount to little more than restating New Testament passages. Instead, Jim takes texts such as Leviticus seriously on their own terms. He brings to life the intense concreteness of tabernacle and sanctuary, and he allows the prophets a retrospective restoration as well as a prospective anticipation. As Jim has helped me see, the Scriptures are forever reaching back and renewing even as they reach forward to fulfillment in Christ.

We live in space and time. Our lives have a concrete and quotidian reality. Precisely because Jim’s reading of the Old Testament takes its bearings from the point of maximal particularity—the cultic focal point that is the most enduring and transparent anticipation of the Incarnation—his reading of the larger biblical witness is saturated with immediacy. Take a look at any of his writings on worship. The life of God’s people has a particular shape in Israel. The tabernacle and temple have a specific architecture. The sacrifices involve discrete patterns of action. As a result, we do not encounter nebulous theological concepts. The immediacy of the cult of Israel is accessible to us today. Indeed, it is more accessible and more immediate, because in Christ we have been brought into the inner sanctuary.

Any particular detail of Jim’s biblical theology is up for debate, but the larger project is compelling—and much needed today. Many of us have limited biblical imaginations. We have stock phrases and favorite passages. We think of ourselves as biblical, but our friends recognize that nine times out of ten we’re quoting from Paul’s Letter to the Romans or the Book of Revelation or the Gospel of John. The Old Testament functions as a hazy background. The Psalms have no living power. Although we would vigorously deny it, we are functionally allied with Friedrich Schleiermacher, who notoriously set aside the Old Testament, or Immanuel Kant, who rejected the “Jewish” parts of the Old Testament as unusable.

Should we be surprised, therefore, that our preaching and teaching remains “spiritual” or “theological” in an abstract and theoretical way? Nothing we say is heretical. Orthodoxy carries the day. But it all floats a few feet above the ground. The gears of faith never seem to do what Jim’s biblical theology does: mesh with the gritty realities of life.

If we diagnose ourselves honestly, then perhaps we can see that, unlike Jim, there are no biblical actualities at the center of our preaching and teaching, things to be seen and entered and touched. Perhaps, for example, we imagine ourselves agreeing with him because we endorse a “sacramental” view of the church. But there is a world of difference between “sacramental” and Jim’s trenchant reading of the Book of Revelation as a handbook for Christian worship, a reading that depends upon his interpretation of the cultic core of the Old Testament. Again, one can debate the details, or the biblical typology, or Jim’s assumptions about how to understand biblical inerrancy, or his conception of biblical history, or any number of other different technical questions. But of this I am certain. Jim does something few achieve, even (perhaps especially!) those who make loud claims about their biblical fidelity. He puts the living realities of the Bible at the center of his thought…

The rest of the foreword deals with the need for Jim’s sort of thinking in the Church today, but here I want to focus on his reading of the Revelation. The book is a “handbook” for Christian worship precisely because it is a worship service. We have little idea of the flow of what is going on because we haven’t internalized the books of Moses. Chilton started us in this direction, but it is Jordan who really makes sense of the details.

All the action takes place in the Temple court of God, and it brings with it all the baggage of Old Testament history. Well, not so much baggage as a royal entourage, tent and all. Revelation is not just a vision of the King of Kings, but of the King of Kings in His court. The detail of the Jewish war of AD66-70 is not what concerns Him. What concerns Him is the “changing of the guard” in His heavenly council. The shadowy concepts communicated by the Mosaic furnitures and rites have found their fulfilment in flesh, in the people of God. Instead of an Altar of Incense, we have actual elders with bowls of Incense, etc.

So, the structure of events cannot be interpreted through the lens of Josephus. The Jewish war is as relevant to the Revelation as the details of the destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar are relevant to the book of Ezekiel. That is, not very much.

However, I do recommend you read Gentry’s brilliant work on the actual dating of the book of Revelation, Before Jerusalem Fell. Current scholarly opinion is wrong on this one, again because they don’t listen to Moses. And on this one Gentry gets it right.

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Jordan’s lectures are available from www.wordmp3.com (click link in right column).

“Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”  Matthew 7:14

Oh dear. This verse proves postmillennialism wrong. It also proves the rest of the Bible wrong because that is postmillennial too. Fortunately, this problem seems almost as simple to deal with as Irenaeus’ ambiguous text that non-preterists use to “unfound” preterism.[1]

Jesus built the sermon on the mount upon the Bible Matrix pattern. [2] Why wouldn’t He? He is the living Word without Whom nothing was made that was made (heptamerous Creation). He is Yahweh Who led Israel from Egypt to the promised Land (heptamerous Dominion). He is the fulfilment of all the annual festivals of the nation (heptamerous Feasts).

At this point in the sermon, the Lord has reached Yom Kippur. It is also Day 6, Adam standing at the door as mediator; it is Joshua as Captain crossing through the Jordan (the Laver), choosing between blessing and cursing at Mounts Ebal and Gerizim (a veil split in two) and letting Canaanite blood sate the horns of the “four-cornered” Land.

The narrow gate was guarded by real cherubim, God’s bouncers, veiled from the eye of every priest but One, guarded again by cherubim sewn into the tent curtains, and again by the Aaronic priesthood, who incidentally carried swords to deal with any man or beast that dared to approach.

When Jesus said the way was narrow and difficult, this is what He meant. It was a tunnel in the Temple of Doom.

It’s not that this narrow gate is now obsolete. There are still guards on the door – the saints – but as the body of Christ grows to fill the earth, so does the door. It is still difficult, but no longer narrow. Or should be say that it is still narrow but increasingly ubiquitous? It is anywhere faithful, vocal saints find bread, wine and water.

“See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” Revelation 3:8

The “harlot” is also an open door, a narrow door given wide appeal through compromise. She wears the robes (veils) of chaste religion to cover her  nocturnal “inclusiveness.” Her forehead says “all-embracing” to men but “SLUT” to God. If we are postmillennial, we believe that as history progresses, the “narrow” door will eclipse the wide way. The other woman always ends up alone and destitute. As Solomon said, it is she who is the true Temple of Doom. [3]

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[1] David Chilton’s brief mention of this in The Days of Vengeance [A4 PDF] led Kenneth Gentry to write a big book about it: Before Jerusalem Fell. Gentry makes an, I believe, irrefutable case for a pre-AD70 date of authorship of the Revelation.

[2] You can see the whole thing in my book, Totus Christus. Interestingly, the Lord’s prayer follows the pattern as a”seven-sealed scroll” within the larger pattern (the sermon), which is also the “Deuteronomy” of an even larger pattern that covers the first section of Matthew’s gospel.

[3] See Godly Intolerance.

There are conflicting traditions concerning John. A widely held opinion is that he was banished to Patmos by the Emperor Domitian who reigned from AD 81 through 96. If so, this makes preterism a paper tiger.

In the discussion on the American Vision forum, Thomas writes:

The Syriac History of John, the Son of Zebedee makes reference to John’s banishment under Nero. Eusebius discovered this manuscript in Greek and translated it into Syriac. It states:

“After these things, when the Gospel was increasing by the hands of the Apostles, Nero, the unclean and impure and wicked king, heard all that had happened at Ephesus. And he sent and took all that the procurator had and imprisoned him; and laid hold of St. John and drove him into exile; and passed sentence on the city that it should be laid waste.”

Further, the oldest copies of the Book of Revelation in the Syriac language all have as part of their titles:

“The Apocalypse of St. John, written in Patmos, whither John was sent by Nero Caesar.”

The late daters’ evidences can all be traced back to an ambiguous statement by Irenaeus. In this case, it is not smoke = fire, but smoke and mirrors. (See Ken Gentry’s excellent Before Jerusalem Fell for a basically water-tight case on an early date. It is a must-have.1).

Anyhow, I find it amazing that the discussion often rests on prooftexts and extra-biblical information. These have their place, certainly, but our God is a God of order. What does the Bible say? The answer to both John’s exile and Revelation’s date of writing are found in Ezekiel.

No one disputes that the book of Ezekiel’s first sections are about the destruction of Jerusalem. Preterists understand that the last section is about its restoration. The centre of the book focusses on the corrupted nations in the “wilderness.” So Ezekiel follows the “slavery to sabbath” (Egypt to Canaan) pattern.

As David Chilton points out in Days of Vengeance, Revelation follows the structure of Ezekiel step by step. Revelation is also about the end of the old worship, the testing of God’s people in the wilderness for forty years, and their triumphal entry into a new land and a rebuilt Temple/city. Anyone who misses or minimises the destruction of Judaism as a big player in the New Testament is swallowing a camel. We misinterpret the apostles’ warnings of an imminent event because we don’t understand Bible symbols.

Regarding John’s being on Patmos in exile, the scriptural evidence is typological yet strong. He is on an island, and throughout Revelation, islands symbolise Gentile territories (in the Gentile “sea”.) These islands, and the Jewish mountains, fled away when the New Covenant kingdom arrived. There was no more Jew/Gentile division. Secondly, Ezekiel began with the prophet in exile. He was given visions to share with fellow exiles as warnings because they already contained seeds of the same destruction that would soon befall Jerusalem, hence the letters to the seven churches. The judgments upon the “exile” churches prefigure the judgments upon the harlot church that would soon be burned with fireunder the Law. Both Ezekiel and Revelation end with the exiles resurrected from the tomb of Babylon and occupying the mediatorial house cleaned and decorated by the Prince.

JLVaughan added:

“The corporate Israel resurrected both times. The first to build the new temple in Jerusalem. The second to be the new temple in the New Jerusalem.”

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1 http://www.amazon.com/Before-Jerusalem-Fell-Dating-Revelation/dp/0915815435/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236761391&sr=8-1

“It is most remarkable that not only in Revelation do we find large patterns of evidences befitting the AD 60s era, but also even many smaller details. It it surely no accidental similarity that allows us to find not only particular personages (Nero), cultural structures (the Jewish Temple), and historical events (the Neronic persecution and the Jewish War) that harmonise well with the Neronic era, but even time-frames for these that fill out the picture of the era of which John wrote. It can be no other than in the mid- to late AD 60s.”

Kenneth Gentry, Before Jerusalem Fell, p. 255-256

An examination of the teachings of Jesus on eschatological issues. Also, a look at the dating and interpretation of the Book of Revelation.

by W.A. Young, Jr. Th.D. Covenant Theological Seminary www.trinityreformed.com

Nothing is more interesting than the study of what is referred to as the end-times.  Nothing sells books, tapes, or videos like future prophecy. Preoccupation with the future is what sells horoscopes, palm readings, and the like. We all face the fears and hopes of what the future may bring. People want to know what will happen in the end. 

The purpose of this paper is to review the nature of eschatology.  There has been a major shift in eschatological perspective that has swept through much of evangelicalism today.  This has occurred in the last one hundred to one hundred and fifty years.  It has both violated and permeated much of the church’s teachings concerning the end of this age.

My own journey, especially during the early formative years, was one of vacillation.  In the early days, I subscribed to the majority report among evangelicals, the dispensational view.  This view is characterized by Hal Lindsey and others. Dispensationalism came about  in the 1830′s and is built on the futurist system and supported by the Scofield Bible.  It dominates evangelical preaching, education, publishing, and broadcasting today. I suspect the reason is that Scofield presents such a systematic approach that an individual can easily subscribe because it is so easily laid out in his footnotes. As I have grown in my understanding of scriptures I have come to see that the moderate Preterist perspective best presents the biblical perspective. This view is what is under consideration in this paper.

What is Preterism? Preterism is the view that Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 are describing an approaching time when God will judge His people. The book of Revelation, as well, is written primarily to the first century Christians to encourage those who were about to witness the judgment of God upon His covenant breaking people. This view sees the book of Revelation representing the persecution of believers under Nero and the Jewish rebellion. The seven kings of Revelation 17:10 are the emperors Augustus through Galba. The number of the beast–666–is the total numerical value of Nero Caesar spelled in Hebrew letters–and so forth. [I follow Jordan's identification of this number with a "first century corrupt Solomon. MB] While Revelation has benefit for us today, it is written primarily to comfort the true believers of that time as they witnessed God bringing judgment to a nation that had crucified His Son and rejected His covenant. When the disciples were commissioned to deliver Christ’s message in the form of the New Testament, God sent the Edomites and the Roman armies to destroy the last remaining symbols of the Old Covenant: the Temple and the Holy city. Revelation is the finale to the drama of redemption.

One of the best known Preterists is Eusebius (A.D. 260-340), the “father of church history.” He details in his classic work Ecclesiastical History, the woes that await Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The focal point of Revelation, he says, is the destruction of Jerusalem.

Other historical figures who were Preterist in their thoughts were: Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons; Clement of Alexandria; Josephus, Jewish historian; Andreas of Cappadocia; and John Lightfoot (1601-1675). These are but a few of the more well known names in church history.

In more modern times we consider the writings of Milton Terry (1840-1914) as well. Philip Schaff (1819-1893) has taken a strong Preterist view in his classic work. The first five chapters of Revelation, Schaff writes, are a remainder of the impending judgment. The bulk of the prophecy (chapters 6-19) is a revelation of the judgment that is about to befall Israel, including symbolic descriptions of the Beast (Nero), the great harlot (Israel), and Babylon the Great (Jerusalem). In chapter 19, we see the victorious Christ going to war against His enemies (Ps. 110). In chapter 20, John describes the millennial reign of Christ, which began in the first century and will end with the final judgment. Chapters 21 and 22 describe visions of the new heaven and earth and the New Jerusalem, realities that have already been inaugurated but not yet fully consummated.

For our considerations, we should look at some “key” issues. An understanding of the unity of the Bible in addressing the “end-time” will help us to properly understand the day in which we live.

First, is the dating of the book of Revelation. A basic rule of hermeneutics is that a writing’s date of origin must be ascertained as exactly as possible. Louis Berkhof has noted in his hermeneutics manual: “The word of God originated in a historical way, and therefore, can be understood only in the light of history.” There are two views pertaining to the dating of the book of Revelation: the early date that is pre-A.D. 70 and the late date which is around 95 A.D. If the book was written before the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. then what Revelation is referring to is not future but present, that is, for those who were reading the document. Revelation contains time indicators that point repeatedly to a first century fulfillment (Rev. 1:1,3; 3:10-11;22:6-7, 10, 12, 20). If it was written after 70 A.D. then the majority of the book is to be interpreted in the future sense. That 30 some years difference will make all the difference in the world. What do the scholars say? Church traditions rather than scholars have formed the belief that the dating was near the end of the first century. (Strange that all the remaining books of the New Testament were written before 70 A.D. Why would Revelation be the only book written after the Jewish rebellion?) External and internal evidence, contextual proofs, and the writings of the early church fathers point to a pre-70 A.D. writing. This is crucial to a proper understanding of our subject. I would suggest reading, “Before Jerusalem Fell, Dating the Book of Revelation” by Kenneth Gentry, Jr. for a concise presentation of this matter.

Second, is the need to consider what Jesus said in the Olivet discourse. This teaching, which is treated in detail by all three synoptic gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke speaks of three distinct future events. These events include (1) the destruction of the temple (2) the destruction of Jerusalem, and (3) His own “coming” in glory. Here Jesus clearly and accurately predicts three future events. These events were unthinkable to those who heard Him say this. There is no doubt that the temple and Jerusalem were destroyed in one of the most well documented events of history in the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman general, Titus. However, the prophetic passage is seen by critics as only two thirds fulfilled. If that be the case, two out of three predictions would qualify Jesus as a false prophet. The problem is found in His words, “This generation shall not pass away until all these things come to pass.” Some have said that this time frame did not begin until Israel regained its homeland in 1948, but this is wrong. It means the generation of Jews to whom Jesus was then speaking would see these things come to pass. Jesus was talking to a people who would see all three aspects of this prophecy come to pass in their lifetime. We have engaged ourselves with all kinds of exegetical gymnastics to escape this problem. He did come to that generation, in the righteous glory of His judgment. And that generation did see all the signs that He forewarned them that would happen. This “coming” is not to be confused with His second coming. His coming in glory or in the clouds is an Old Testament reference to judgment. He brought the New Covenant and the New Creation. As in Genesis 1, when God brought order out of disorder and creation out of chaos so Christ brings in a new creation.

Our third consideration is the term “great tribulation”. This comes from Luke 21 that is describing a time unparalleled in Israel’s history. In 70 A.D. that tribulation came. And the “old system” was destroyed once and for all. Jesus speaks of the “coming of the Son of Man”. He declares in Matthew 24 that “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken”. Surely these things have not been fulfilled. But they have! The language that He is using is commonly found in the Old Testament. Such passages as Exodus 11:6; Ezekiel 5:9; Daniel 9:12; 12: 1; and Joel 2: 2 are but a few. The cosmic problem introduced in Matthew 23 is answered in the Old Testament imagery in passages like Isaiah 13:10; 34: 4-5; Ezekiel 32:7; and Amos 8:9. In Daniel’s prophecy (Daniel 7: 13-14), he speaks of the Son of Man coming up in clouds of heaven to the Ancient of Days. In Daniel’s vision, the ascension of the Son of Man is connected with a judgment upon the nations during the time of the Roman Empire (Daniel 7: 9-12, 18, 22, 26-27). When we take into consideration the language, there is no doubt that Jesus was talking to a generation that by 70 A.D. would see in Jerusalem’s destruction, the fulfillment to His words.

Who was or is the man of sin? We find him alluded to in 2 Thessalonians 2 as the man who would precede the Day of the Lord. A great deal of difficulty surrounds the common assumption that it is referring to events that take place just before the second coming of Christ. But this, too, is wrong. In verse 6, Paul tells us that the man of sin is restrained at the time he is writing his letter. In verse 7, he tells us that “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work” and that the restrainer “now restrains” the man of sin.  If the man of sin was being restrained at the time Paul wrote this letter (51 to 52 A.D.), then Paul was not speaking of some person who would arise thousands of years later. The man of sin, who was alive at the time Paul wrote, was probably none other than Nero.  The language Paul uses to describe him, as one “who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God”, is identical language used by several Old Testament prophets to condemn certain political rulers (Isaiah 14: 4-21; Ezekiel 28: 2-19; Daniel 11:36). Only one man fits Paul’s description of the first century’s man of sin; Nero, who died in 68 A.D. during the Jewish War.

Eschatological expectation intensified as the war between Jerusalem and Rome came to a head. Many believed that the Messiah would return to deliver them. False prophets took advantage of this expectation and deceived many as foretold by Matthew. Signs and wonders occurred as Halley’s comet appeared in 66 A.D. Not long after that Nero committed suicide. Historians have linked the appearance of Halley’s comet not only with the death of Nero, but with the destruction of Jerusalem four years later. Josephus recounts that “there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year.”

Josephus supports the biblical record when he reports, “And now these impostors and deceivers persuaded the multitude to follow them into the wilderness, and pretended that they would exhibit manifest wonders and signs, that should be performed by the providence of God.”

The temple was gone. The Old Covenant people, Israel, was now replaced with a nation of Jews and Gentiles (Matthew 21:43). The Messiah came in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the Israel of God; the seed of Abraham. He is “the temple” (John 2:21); “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29); and He is the High Priest (Hebrews. 6:20). Jerusalem which is the city of the Old Covenant has now been replaced with the Jerusalem from above, the city of the living God (Hebrews. 12:22). Most of the predications in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. After all, what was the subject matter in the Old Testament? What did Jesus say about Himself in Luke 24: 27?

We love sensationalism and sensationalism sells! We have found that out in our present media frenzy with our unsatisfied appetite for juicy news.  There is no exception within the Christian community especially dealing with spiritual matters and, in particular, issues dealing with the end-time. A large amount of prophetic speculation could be avoided if we would begin to take the time-texts of Scripture seriously. There are texts that indicate first century fulfillment, and there are texts that indicate fulfillment at the end of the present age. The task of responsible interpretation is to discern the difference. Do these things really matter? Does truth matter, we should probably ask? But most importantly, why should we look for something in the future when, in fact, it has already happened? Our eschatology should not be one of confusion but of clarity. A great deal of our end-time predications have been false. Will someone please have the courage to challenge them! The beginning of this millennium saw the same problem. We need clarity of properly understanding Scripture to fulfill the purposes of God in our generation.
Here is a list of well written theological books and articles relating to this topic:

Dr. R.C.Sproul, “The Last Days According to Jesus”
Dr. Kenneth Gentry, “The Day Jerusalem Fell, Dating of the Book of Revelation”
J. Stuart Russell, “The Parousia”
David Chilton, “Days of Vengeance”
David E. Holwerda, “Jesus & Israel; One Covenant or Two?”