Understanding the Revelation
What is Bible Prophecy.
Simply put, Bible Prophecy is God given history in advance. God’s word in both testaments are history and prophecy:
The Old Testament begins with Genesis, history up to the time of the birth of the nation Israel. It then deals with Israel in its present. Later, Israel is given prophecy in Daniel that would unfold its future until the Messiah would appear and He would begin to build His church, and then the doom of the nation would come. There was also the promise of the resurrection with a Messianic Earthly kingdom and a blessed eternal state to follow.
The New Testament begins with the Gospels, the history of the establishment of the infant church and instruction to its members for living. Later followed by the final seven epistles to the churches of 95 AD, and the heavenly scene about the unsealing of the book of future things. Revelation chapter 6 and forward are prophecy of future history, things which must be hereafter, and must shortly come to pass – history in advance which would shortly commence! Closing again with the promise of the earthly resurrection kingdom and a final blessed eternal state.
What era is left out of the Old Testament? None! I must insist the same pattern is followed in the New Testament. No era is left out of its report. The future prophecy given therein commences to come to pass about the end of the first century. Even as Israel had its silent era preceding the appearance of the Messiah, where no new revelation was given, likewise the church needs no new revelation to be added to its cannon after 95 AD, until Jesus comes again.
Dating the Book of Revelation.
There are two classes of evidence to consider upon the determination of this inquiry:
The first would be External evidence, which would be outside the text, empirical evidence: data gathered by historical, provable facts that show unquestionable results. This would be historical proof that knowledge was gained by data, rather than hypothesis and conjecture alone.
The second class of evidence would be Internal evidence, that which the Bible text itself explicitly reveals to us.
With these two available venues for investigation into this question, enough data should be available for an incontrovertible determination. And I believe it is so!
As to the first, External Empirical Evidence, I cannot do a greater work than that which has already been done by E. B. Elliot in his Horae Apocalypticae.[1]
The Horae is the most exhaustive work ever done on the Revelation, completed about 1860, the life work of its author. E. B. Elliot writes:
“For the testimony of Irenaeus, – Polycarp’s disciple … who was himself the disciple of the apostle John, is as express to the point in question as it is unexceptional. Speaking of the name and number of the Beast in the Apocalypse, he says, that had this been a matter then to be made known, it would have been disclosed by him who saw the Apocalypse: “for it [the Apocalypse] was seen … towards the end of the reign of Domitian.”
This witness is “unexceptional,” as there are many more, all of which absolutely dates the Revelation to about 95 AD, the end of Domitian’s reign. In the negative, there is no evidence that John was exiled during the reign of Nero, or any time before the 70 AD. desolation, or even 95 AD. for that matter.
Even more, in my mind the most important evidence is the Internal Evidence. In the Revelation Jesus appears to John and says, “What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia;”[2]
Who are these seven churches in the last decade of the first century? They would be the churches planted by the Hebrew Apostles and Jewish converts, who were told by Jesus himself, to flee Judea before the desolation of the Jewish Temple and Nation; and their disciples, the grafted in Gentiles which lived in the nations where they fled. By this time these two groups would have been well intermarried. They were called Christians. They were God’s Chosen People, the elect. These born-again Jews and Gentiles were experiencing the ongoing fulfillment of the promises to the Hebrew Patriarchs and Jewish Nation.[3]
This mixed church of Hebrews and Gentiles in the nations where they fled and took the Gospel, these are the people that made up the 95 AD church that Jesus said that He would build. Jesus specifically addresses the Revelation to these seven prominent churches of Asia Minor, outlining, “the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;”[4]
The things which are, are the seven churches, to whom Jesus proceeds to dictate seven epistles outlining their present condition, one to each church. These remote churches of Asia Minor are not in Judea, but in the historical context, more than several days travel from Jerusalem. This is a prophecy to the churches about the New Testament temple of God, which churches are the temple of God.[5] This is not a Jewish prophecy to the Jewish nation about the Jewish Temple.
Now if the Revelation were written before the destruction of Jerusalem, as the Preterist hypotheses require, and some of the Amillennials prefer, about 60 AD, then Jesus neglected the most prominent church of that day: where the first several church councils took place and are recorded in the book of Acts, The Church at Jerusalem was the most prominent church of the pre-destruction era, and would be one of the churches “which are”. It is however, conspicuously absent from the seven churches named in the Revelation Epistles. That is because it no longer existed in the last decade of the first century, when the Revelation was written. That is why we have no external record of the Revelation before the destruction of Jerusalem, or 95 AD. I can think of several very practical reasons why God would wait until Old Jerusalem with its old Temple were destroyed before the Revelation was given, and thereby excluded from the prophetic expectation of His church in the future.
This internal evidence alone precludes the Preterist interpretation of the Revelation (that it is of the destruction of Jerusalem), if pre-desolation as they contend, that it would not be primarily addressed to the Church at Jerusalem is unthinkable. Additionally, with the absence of any empirical evidence in their favor whatsoever, it completely overthrows the hypothesis and conjecture on which their pre-destruction date solely depends.
Overview of the Book of Revelation.
When we begin to read the book, we are promised a blessing, and immediately the epistles to the seven churches challenge us with admonition and the promise of reward: there is something there for all men in all ages. There are some symbols which are explained in the text, so do not interfere with the object of the lessons.
In chapters 4 and 5 we get a glimpse into the spiritual realm with John, and recognize that what is being described is very foreign to our present mortal plane, these chapters close with the drama that ensues around the opening of the sealed book that contains the mystery of the future things that would be revealed upon its opening, and shortly commence in history thereafter.
In Chapter 6, the Lamb opens the first seal: here everything seems cryptic, symbolic, and what has come to be referenced to as apocalyptic, with very little explanation, much like the history in advance that was revealed to Daniel in his chapter 11 text of the era of the 70 weeks, then to come. The details of the things which “must shortly come to pass,” having opened up into the age in which we live, are primarily the most cryptic portions of the Revelation. If we simply continue to read to the end of the book, we will understand that Gods people will suffer for the truth, all will not be well for those that are not God's elect, and that a wonderful eternity beyond the grave awaits all of those who put their faith in Christ.
Chapters 6 through 19 are made up of both chronological and supplemental chapters:
The three chronologies that fill the era are divided into sevens: Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets, and Seven Vials. We also know that these are sequential, because in the case of the Seventh Seal, the last of the first sevens, it explicitly opens up the next sequence of the Seven Trumpets. “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. … And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”[6] Afterwards, the following Seven Vials are expressly called “the seven last plagues.”[7] It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
The supplemental portions fill us in on details of circumstance, history, actions, judgment, origin and destiny of the characters and nations involved for the purpose of identification of the times, persons and places portrayed, especially relevant when the things described come into view or have already passed into history.
The last 3 chapters of the Revelation are however much less cryptic, but full of promise: Chapter 20, the primary topic of our study here, defines a final 1,000 years upon Christ's return which is described with some very understandable and desirable differences for the resurrected believer and those mortals that survive the temporal judgements that close the preceding era. The chapter simply ends with a final judgment for those that did not qualify for the first resurrection at the beginning of that 1,000 years.
Chapter 21 and 22 describe a new heaven, new earth, and New Jerusalem in such a way that we can easily discern that it will be fantastically more wonderful than anything we have ever seen or experienced in the fallen creation we had known before, wherein only those whose names are written in the Lambs Book of Life will enter.
[1] E. B. Elliot’s entire essay on the dating of the Revelation may be found in Volume One at HoraeApocalypticae.wordpress.com.
[2] Rev 1:11
[3] All of the promises to the Hebrew Patriarchs and Jewish Nation were then, are now, and will continue to be fulfilled in Christ to His Church, In the resurrection, both the Old Testament Church, from Adam to the time of Christ, and the New Testament Church, from Jesus’ first disciples to the second coming, all will be resurrected and appear together with Him when He returns. see Gal 3:28-29
[4] Rev.1:19.
[5] 1Co 3:16-17 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. KJV.
[6] Rev 8:1,6.
[7] Rev 15:1.