Posted on 06/23/2002 10:23:26 AM PDT by John H K
If I were to say to you "Three hundred years from now, a new generation will be born, and THIS GENERATION will be affluent and spoiled..." I would be as correct in my usage as someone who says "This Generation of today worries me." BOTH usages are correct, with very different meanings.
As to Revelation being written in AD 95. That is based on the ambiguous words of one man, Iraneus, and it doesn't fit with scripture.
No offense, but that statement is flat-out wrong. The vast VAST VAST majority of biblical scholarship places the authorship of Revelation in 95 AD.
Take a look at Revelation 11:1-2 1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
Is this not the temple that was destroyed in AD70? How could John go and measure it, and count the worshipings therein in AD95?
Because John was TAKEN UP IN THE SPIRIT to see things in the FUTURE. This was a REVELATION, not a re-hash. The Temple John measured was the NEW, future Temple which the Jews will re-build on the Temple Mount. That's what all the fighting and dying is about in the West Bank as we speak!
Perhaps the quickest way to refute preterism is to examine Revelation 11... John has described the Two Witnesses lying dead in the streets of Jerusalem, so the scene is Jerusalem. Then he writes...
13And in the same hour there was a terrible earthquake that destroyed a tenth of the city. Seven thousand people died in that earthquake. And everyone who did not die was terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.14The second terror is past, but look, now the third terror is coming quickly.
That earthquake did NOT happen between 65AD (when YOU say Revelation was written) and 70AD, when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were dispersed out of Israel. It was so traumatic that "EVERYONE who did not die was terrified and gave glory to God..." and yet there is ZERO historical record of any earthquake like that in the timeframe you need it to be in for your views to be correct.
This earthquake is but one tiny reason to reject the notion that Revelation has all been fulfilled. This heresy is one of the main reasons so many billions of people are spiritual sound asleep right now, when they should be preparing themselves.
Have You Heard About the Left Behind Book Series?
Time Apparently Hadn't.
Here's how the New York Post sums up the latest issue of Time in its weekly "On the Newsstand" feature: "Time resorts to one of the oldest gimmicks in the book that still makes for good reading—religion and its role telling the future. Here in New York, we don't encounter too many fundamentalist Christians, but out there in the hinterlands, they're everywhere."
Yes, Time takes on the apocalypse. The cover says "The Bible and the Apocalypse," but don't be fooled: the real book of interest here is the one imagined by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. And really, that's where this cover package falls a bit short. Senior editor at large Nancy Gibbs tries to tie together the popularity of the Left Behind series (which launched in 1999) with the war on terrorism. But while there was a spike in sales after 9/11, Weblog has heard that the series is actually diminishing in sales lately (but Weblog can't confirm this with a link—a little help?).
Why Time's religion writer, David Van Biema, didn't get to write the lead article is unknown. Instead, he's left to write a sidebar on the history of apocalypticism. He again shows that he knows his stuff. Next Time, he should be allowed to write more.
Gibbs shows care in a brief sidebar on evangelicals and Jews—one of the few news articles Weblog has seen that doesn't claim conservative evangelicals are wholly driven by eschatology in their support of Israel. The rest of the cover package, however, seems extraordinarily late for Time. Hasn't everyone either done an article on Left Behind, apocalyptic thought after 9/11, or both together?
Another look at the history of end-times beliefs over the past 2 millenia can be found at ChristianHistory.com's archives - they devoted an edition of their quarterly mag to this topic.
Think carefully about the lack of historical evidence (because they haven't happened yet) for the passages you claim are fulfilled as of 70 AD.
Look at Daniel 9:27 which Christ referenced in Matt 24:15. Think about the absence of history that fulfills Dan 9:27 in one 7-year prohectic week. See this explanation of why Dan 9:27 is not yet fulfilled.
If you try to lay out the timeline of historical events that match Matt 24 and Dan 9:27, and Rev, you find there aren't any historical events, because it isn't history - it is future - Revelation is 'revealed' future.
Sadly I think we must agree to disagree.
You want to transpose that which was said to those in Judea, and to the seven Churches in Asia(Revelation) to some future date. You are reading the Scripture as if it was written to you and not for you. Christ told them, His Kingdom is now at hand, that He came to fulfill all that was written, and that some hearing his words would not die before seeing it. Unless you can find me a living breathing 2000 year old witness that will be here to see it, I will believe His words over anyone elses everytime, all the time.
You might look up the meanings of these Greek word meanings, and see which ones were used in Matthew 24 and in Revelation, it just might open your eyes to what Christ was telling his audience.
Genera and genos.
Aion, kosmos, and oikoumene.
Mello.
If you took the time to show the history you claim is there, we'd have a basis on which to resolve the bigger issue.
I am puzzled why you've not shown any history or commented on the link. It would seem you have assumed the exercise has no merit, or maybe you don't see the history either but are too invested in your viewpoint to say so.
I think you're intelligent enough to understand where the exercise leads, but don't really like the answer.
Sadly, you are right. I'm sorry you refuse to listen to the Word of God, but I implore you, that when you see Israel re-build their Temple on the Temple Mount, that you will re-read Revelation so that you are not lead astray by the great deception that is coming.
Remember that Revelation speaks of TWO beasts. One is the antichrist, a political/military leader, but the other is called the False Prophet. (Prophet means "man of God") He will be a trusted religious leader, but he will be a FALSE "man of God".
People who have been decieved into thinking that Revelation was not written to them will not study the book, and will be blindsided by this coming religious leader the whole world "trusts". This is the entire purpose and reason why Jesus gave the book of Revelation to the world.
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