Every Eye Will See Him

“Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth [land] will mourn because of Him.”

This passage from Revelation 1:7 is often read by Christians and simply assumed to be a future event. (“Obviously, this hasn’t happened yet!”) Warning: the interpretation of this passage, read casually out of context, may not be as obvious as most Christians suppose. The context offers strong support for the preterist view, which is that this was fulfilled in AD 70 when Jesus “came in judgment” against apostate Israel. It would be helpful, as a prerequisite, to read my other articles including, “When Was Revelation Written” and “Revelation: Its Central Theme Illuminated” in section B at my website:

In understanding this passage, we must grasp the context, where we find several qualifiers. We first note that Revelation is filled with critical time-statements that limit the time of fulfillment of the events therein. There are some 30 passages at the beginning, middle, and end of Revelation that demand an imminent fulfillment soon after the book was written in the 60’s AD. The opening sentence in the book tells us that it is about events that MUST SHORTLY TAKE PLACE. We also see that the time was NEAR, Jesus would come QUICKLY/SOON, and these things were ABOUT TO HAPPEN.

To extend these imminency passages to thousands of years into the future does violence to God’s Word. Since there are over 100 such imminency passages in the New Testament, we have a clear choice. Either (a) Jesus and the writers of the New Testament were false prophets, or (b) Christians have misunderstood what Jesus meant by his Parousia (“Second Coming”). I think the latter is more faithful to Jesus and to Scripture.

The CLOUD language in this verse will jump out at the serious student of prophecy. It is the same language used in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24:29-34) where Jesus said all prophecy would be fulfilled in his generation, in conjunction with the destruction of the temple (Matthew 24:2-3; Luke 21:22). Such language is reflective of how God came numerous times in the Old Testament—on clouds of glory—usually in judgment against his enemies. (Examples include Psalm 18:4-15 and Isaiah 19:1-22.) These comings of God were real, even though nobody visually saw Him. By “coming on clouds,” Jesus was emphasizing his own divine authority, as his “coming” would be similar in nature to that of Yahweh.

“Tribes” (also in the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24:30) can only mean the tribes of Israel—those who pierced Him—so this ties to local Israel in the first century. The word translated as “earth” is the Greek word ge. In other places, it is translated as “land,” thus having a regional connotation (Matthew 9:31; Acts 7:3; etc.). So clearly, the events John foresaw were to be local rather than global.

We should see how the statement, “those who pierced him,” connects to prophecies of Jesus such as in Matthew 26:64 where He tells the Jewish leaders that THEY would see Him coming on clouds of heaven. Given this context, it seems best to understand “seeing” in the sense of revelation rather than literal sight. Isaiah 40: 5 says, “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Elsewhere we find the concept of “to look upon” God in the sense of profound earnest regard or to “look to the Messiah as the source of salvation.” See Zechariah 12:10. In a similar way many passages in John’s gospel speak of faith in terms of “seeing” (John 6:40; etc.).

What about “every eye” seeing Him?” The words “all” or “every” are often used in Scripture as hyperbole for emphasis rather than in a literal sense. (Examples include: Matthew 2:3; 8:34; 10:22; Mark 1:5; 9:23; Luke 2:1). Should we really understand from this text that the aborigines in Indonesia would see Jesus standing in Jerusalem? I don’t really think so. The interpretive principle of audience relevance helps us understand that the prophecies of Revelation applied to those in the first century in the region of Judea.

Yet, in a more literal sense, consider an amazing event related by Josephus of seeing chariots in the clouds in about AD 66, near the start of the Jewish-Roman War:

“Besides these signs, a few days after that feast, on the one-and-twentieth day of the month Artemisius, a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, CHARIOTS and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the CLOUDS, and surrounding of cities. "

In addition to Josephus—Tacitus, Eusebius, and the Jewish Talmud mentioned this phenomenon! The sight of the soldiers and chariots in the clouds surrounding cities could be interpreted as the Second Coming. This satisfies the visibility requirement.

IN SUM, THERE IS A STRONG CASE THAT REVELATION 1:7 WAS FULFILLED AT JESUS’ COMING IN JUDGMENT AGAINST OLD-COVENANT ISRAEL, WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE IN AD 66-70.

You are correct, except for one minor detail...IT DIDN'T HAPPEN...

It could have happened...The conditions were right for it to happen...But for it to happen the Jews would have had to accept Jesus as their Messiah...The Great Tribulation would have taken place...Jesus would have returned where every eye will see him...Jesus would have set up shop in Jerusalem for a thousand years...BUT IT DIDN'T HAPPEN...

But what did happen was that while Jesus did not eliminate the Jews he put them on hold...And he gave an unbelievable offer to the Gentiles, to make the Jews jealous...And then he blinded their minds so that they could understand what Jesus was doing with the Gentiles...

So when Jesus is done with the Gentiles he will again turn to the Jews...The Great Tribulation will take place and finally ALL eyes will see Jesus return to earth and THEN he will set up his Kingdom in Israel, for a thousand years...

But the time is short...People must put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Saviour before Jesus takes his Gentile church out of here...

Iscool,
Revelation 20 doesn’t say anything about Jesus setting up shop in Jerusalem for a thousand years. It says the saints were resurrected and reigned with him for a thousand years, so the question is where is His throne? The earlier chapters make clear His throne is in heaven.

Scripture also never suggests the Jews as a nation or race would acknowledge and accept their Messiah. It’s true Paul says in Rom 11:26 that all Israel will be saved, but he’s being consistent with his theme in the previous 10 chapters that true Israel is not the physical descendants of Abraham but those who are of the Faith of Abraham.
You may appeal to Phil 2:10 that every knee should bow, but if you interpret that to mean that every knee will bow willingly in acceptance, you’d have to be a universalist. The ESV correctly says “should”, since the Christ is worthy of all glory. Nevertheless, in Matt 23:38 Jesus tells the Jerusalem (and by extension the adulterous Judaic system it represents) “Your house is left to you desolate.” The judgment Jesus pronounces in that passage is echoed in a dozen parables from the unfaithful steward, to the vineyard renters, to the kingdom inhabitants when the king goes to receive a kingdom in a far country, to the friends invited to a son’s wedding feast. In every one of those class of parables, the unfaithful servants are not converted or restored - they are cast out and a totally different group of people take their place.

Jesus will never be “done with” the Gentiles. The fullness of the gentiles came in (Rom 11:25) when they were fully accepted in the church, which happened before 70 AD.

Consider this: the double reaping of the wheat and tares (Matt 13:24-42), or sheep and goats (Matt 25:32-34), is fulfilled in Rev 14:14-20 as the two angels with sickles reap both the righteous to glory and unrighteous to the winepress of God’s wrath where their blood comes to the horse’s bridles. Yes, Josephus even confirms the deep blood river happened during the carnage of the Jerusalem siege.

It DID happen. Read Holford’s “The Destruction of Jerusalem” for a detailed account of the fulfillment, and realize Matt 24-25 inextricably ties the return of Christ, the Resurrection, and judgement to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. “IN THIS GENERATION”. Even if you disregard the clear reference to his own generation in the term “this generation”, at least admit that he plainly indicated it would all happen in the SAME generation. Christ’s return was to occur to the SAME generation as the one that experienced the destruction of the Temple.

You are correct, except for one minor detail...IT DIDN’T HAPPEN...

I believe Grumpa is right on, i believe it all has happened except i believe the ones in the first resurrection actually reigned here on earth for a thousand years.

I believe it is talking about the ones in the first resurrection literally living and reigning with Christ all together a thousand years in his spiritual kingdom.

John 3:3
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

People has to be born of the holy spirit to be able to see that we are living in the kingdom of God here on earth, but we are not of this world so it is just a spiritual kingdom.

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