So you believe pre-1830 main-line Catholicism and/or Protestantism, both infamous for their severe persecution of differing views offers the correct understanding of end times eschatology?
The pre-tribulation rapture is a 19th century made up philosophy, that’s why it wasn’t thought of before - you know like the Mormons, the Jehowah’s witnesses etc., the pre-trib rapture is another fake 19th century philosophy
So you believe Revelation to be largely symbolic with all references to Israel and the Jews symbolizing the church/believers and that all Old Testament end-times prophecies about Israel must now be understood as meaning church/believers?
No, I’ve read the books, both Biblical and historical. Mo mention of the pre tribulation rapture before the 1830s.
Revelation talks about the destruction of Jerusalem.
For those reading the book in 68 A.D., almost all of The Apocalypse would have been future, but not for us. the events surrounding 70 A.D. really do fulfill the visions of John. the symbols relate to the events of the Great Tribulation and the Jewish-Roman War.
The first three chapters of The Apocalypse give the historical setting. Immediately, St. John begins using numbers in a symbolic way. Seven is the number that symbolizes God’s perfect workings in the world. The speaker in the vision, Christ, is envisioned standing in the midst of “seven golden lampstands … and … in His right hand He held seven stars.… The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches” (1:12–20).
The next two chapters contain letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor, struggling to stand for God in the midst of evil. Apostasy came early and often in the Church. In fact, Jesus warned in the Olivet Discourse that false teachers would appear before the judgment of 70 A.D. These letters prove that the heresy promised in the Olivet Discourse did in fact appear before the judgment of the Sanhedrin. The rest of The Apocalypse proves that the Great Tribulation and the Temple’s destruction that Jesus predicted appeared as well. Starting from the Nicolaitians.
In Chapters 4 through 11, we encounter St. John’s vision of the scroll. All other visions recapitulate this first one. It comes in two parts: the seven seals of a scroll and the seven trumpets contained in the last seal. The saints—those who make up the Church—are mentioned eleven times in these chapters, on average almost once every chapter. These saints are on earth. If they had been “raptured” away, it would have been a very secret rapture indeed—so secret that St. John never even mentions it!
We now encounter the second specific time reference in The Apocalypse. This one will be repeated. We read that Jerusalem, “the holy city,” will be trampled for forty-two months (11:2). This is the biblical period of judgment, as is evidenced as far back as the prophet Elijah, who withheld rain from Israel for three and a half years. These forty-two months are still within the sixth trumpet. The trampling is made possible because the protective river Euphrates has dried up. The trampling will be accomplished by the locust army of “two hundred million” cavalry. This specific period is identical to the “one thousand two hundred and sixty days” during which the “two witnesses” of prophesy (11:3). We see this period when the woman flees from Satan (12:6, 14). It appears again when the beast is given “authority” over Israel for “forty-two months” (13:5). Remember Daniel? This same three and a half years appeared in Visions.
The two witnesses are the Law and the Prophets Daniel informed us that the little horn, Nero, would make war on the times and the law for three and a half years.
John specifically points out the allegorical nature of his language in this vision (11:8).So how were the events surrounding these two witnesses fulfilled? As long as the Temple stood, the Mosaic system gave voice to the Law and the Prophets. They witnessed against the paganism of both the Romans and the unfaithful Jews. This witness annoyed many Romans. The Law and the Prophets were killed by the beast when biblical Judaism was destroyed forever by the Roman army in 70 A.D.
The specific location in which these two witnesses are killed is now identified. All of these events transpire in “the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified” (11:8). This city is obviously Jerusalem. First, it is the location of Christ’s Crucifixion, and second, the term “great city” is used elsewhere in reference to Jerusalem. Josephus uses the term as well (WJ, VII, 8:7).