“I suggest you read Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation by Kenneth Gentry. It’s addresses most of your issues/objections. One friendly suggestion: make sure you are looking at the world through eyes informed by the Bible, not by human understanding of what the end times ought to look like.”
Thanks for the link. I will read it. As to your suggestion, it is appreciated—that’s what I think I am trying to do. The text of Revelation is, well, pretty apocalyptic. For example, does Gentry address the “well, then why haven’t times ended and where is the New Jerusalem” question? And if the answer is, “they are already here,” that’s a pretty big fizzle for the hope Paul expresses for the physical resurrection of his body.
Again, I don’t mean to be polemic, but if the events of revelation have already occurred, then somewhere, someone should have noticed the disappearance of the entire universe and the descent of New Jerusalem from Heaven. Either that or the thousand year reign and the destruction and remaking of the cosmos are entirely odd and obscure metaphors concealed in pretty clear text.
I’ve written too much already on this thread that I doubt anyone is interested in. Thank you for your response.
“but if the events of revelation have already occurred,”
Very complex, requiring a separate response:
As with many elements of the Bible, the events of Revelation occur more than once in history.
This doesn’t extend to the Second coming of Christ.
Anti-Christ is not a single figure in history, rather recurring servants of Satan, appearing through the ages.
In the last 150 years, most books and commentary on Revelation have focused on Catholic bashing.
Many Catholic publications on the subject are unsatisfying in their conclusion that 90% of the events occurred in the 1st century and we’re simply waiting for the 2nd coming of Christ.
Finally, I was presented with “The Apocalypse Explained”, by H.M Feret, O.P., translated in 1942 by Elizabethe Corathiel.
It is a complex read that doesn’t begin to satisfy until half-way through.
The world has much to endure before Christ’s return and many faithful will endure persecution in the times ahead.
“There will be a vast increase of the diabolical malignance of error and deceit toward the end.”