For much of my life, I
diligently studied Bible prophecy. I wanted to know what the Bible said about
my future. I was a “futurist”. I had a future application for every event and
character in the Book of Revelation and in Matthew 24. I found many teachers of
the Bible that gave me insight into the prophecies. But the thing about all my
studies is this: I now find them all wrong. I now believe that all Bible
prophecy events were completed by 70AD with the destruction of the Jerusalem
temple. Yes, even the big one – the second coming of Jesus Christ was completed
by 70AD! I am now what is called a “preterist”.
Why have I changed my
ideas about Bible prophecy? In this article I will try to describe to you my
reasons.
Let’s begin with the
Book of Revelation where there is so much prophecy. An important factor in understanding
the vision that John has in the book is WHEN the events that he is describing
would take place. If God would just tell us in plain, simple language, when
these things would happen it would be very helpful, would it not?
Well I have good news.
We are blessed to discover that God has actually told us WHEN these things
would occur. In fact, the very first sentence in the Book of Revelation tells
us the answer.
The
Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show His servants – things which
must SHORTLY
TAKE PLACE.” (Rev. 1:1)
This just cannot mean
two thousand years away, but it means “soon”. He immediately follows up in the
third verse by saying that the time is NEAR.
I don’t know how I
overlooked it for so long, but the whole book is full of prophecies that are
for first century believers about first century events.
QUICKLY – Rev. 3:11
SHORTLY TAKE PLACE –
Rev. 22:6
QUICKLY – Rev. 22:7
TIME IS AT HAND – Rev.
22:10
QUICKLY – Rev. 22:20
The Revelation is
written to the seven churches in Asia Minor. These are specifically listed. It
was not written to all Christians in general. John is writing to the specific
churches that were present during the transition from the Old Covenant to the
New Covenant in the first century. I believe that John wrote the book around
63AD in anticipation of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.
I also believe that
there are no future time applications even though there are lessons to be
learned for us now.
Multi-headed monsters
rising out of the ocean. Fire-breathing creatures destroying anything in their
path. Giant demon-insects with tails delivering a sting that kills with
agonizing pain. Catastrophic acts of God: plagues, famine and earthquakes. With
its strange and mystifying symbols, the bizarre images and doomsday scenarios
ascribed to the Book of Revelation have been the raw material for many curious
interpretations and predictions throughout the centuries.
Many are virtual
prophecy junkies as I may have been, addicted to “updated interpretations” of
Revelation, because they see this book as a handbook for predicting the end of
the world.
Revelation was written
during a time of extreme crisis and suffering for God’s people. It served to
remind them – and it serves to remind us now – that, in spite of persecution
and pain, God is fully aware of what we are going through. Revelation proclaims
a message of hope. The purpose of the
Book of Revelation is not to present a maze of puzzling images for some clever
interpreter to unveil – specific details about future world events that can be
unraveled if some human prognosticator provides the key – but rather to reveal
the victory of Jesus Christ.
The topic and theme of
the Book of Revelation is Jesus Christ, not some geo-political predictive
timetable of future world events. The key to the book is its Christology, not its chronology. The guiding principle to be
used in understanding Revelation is WHO, not WHEN.
It is critically
important to realize that the book is not written in a straight-forward style
easily understood by the twenty-first century western mind. It is written in a
literary style called apocalyptic
which uses poetic language, metaphorical messages, and figurative images and
symbols to convey its message. Some images used are known – common animals for
example. Other images describe nightmarish beasts unknown to any biologist or
zoologist.
Characters and events
symbolized by images are real but not literally real. They are physical symbols
of spiritual realities. Because of their culture and familiarity with
apocalyptic literature, the original readers of Revelation in the 60’sAD would
have had a better sense of how to interpret these symbols than we do.
The messenger, John,
used the apocalyptic style, with all of its images and symbols, because the
original audience WOULD understand. He could have reasoned that the Jews would
understand but the Romans would not. He didn’t use it in order to hide or
confuse the meaning so that we Christians today would eventually need to decode
its “true” meaning.
With this in mind,
let’s begin a chapter by chapter study of the Book of Revelation.
[Read Revelation
1:1-20]
Verses 5 and 6 are the
gospel in miniature.
Verse 7, “Look! He is
coming with the clouds” introduces another ongoing theme and variation of
Revelation: the second coming. I believe that this second coming occurred at
the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD.
The use of “coming” in
relation to judgment is an Old Testament concept also used in the New
Testament:
“Behold,
the Lord rids upon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt” (Isaiah 19:1)
“Behold,
the Lord comes forth out of His place and will come down and tread upon the
high places of the earth” (Micah
1:3)
“I
will come to you quickly and will remove your candlestick out of his place
unless you repent”
(Revelation 2:5)
“Repent
or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against you with the sword of
my mouth”
(Revelation 2:16)
The Bible uses the symbol of “clouds” to show
that the Lord is coming in JUDGMENT. See Ezekiel 30:18. “I
shall break there the yokes of Egypt…a cloud shall cover her…” Everyone will be able
to know of His coming in JUDGMENT when they see that Jerusalem is destroyed. Those who would see Him were
further identified as “they who pierced Him”. This had to be in Jerusalem and
clearly pointed to the Old Covenant Jews, who had led the charge for His crucifixion
forty hears earlier.
As a further point, the
Jewish historian, Josephus, described miraculous events of armies in the skies
over Jerusalem at that time.
Verses 12 to 20 focus on
the divine Author, the risen Lord, who is later introduced as the Lamb of God.
The placement of this vision at the beginning of the book provides further
emphasis for its Christ-centered perspective. His glorified appearance given
here is the only biblical description of His immortal eminence and serves to
place human mortality in dramatic contrast.
[Read Revelation 2:1-7]
In His message to
Ephesus, Jesus has many positive things to say. They saw through seductive
appeals but their genuine Christian love seems to have withered. The first love
of Christians is our romance with God’s grace. The love we have at first
includes our trust and faith in the Lamb of God who took our place. The
Ephesians apparently left their grace-based relationship with God in favor of a
relationship based on ritual, doctrine and earning their favor with God.
[Read Revelation
2:8-11]
Smyrna was a beautiful
and prosperous city that was overwhelmed and controlled by pagan religion
making it difficult for Christians to live and make a living. Jesus let them
know that He recognized everything they had endured, the severe persecution and
even imprisonment for their faith. Jesus encouraged them to trust in Him.
[Read Revelation 2:12-17]
Many pagan shrines and
altars were part of the landscape of Pergamum. Jesus said, “I know how bad it
is where you are living.” Jesus warns that as they deal with challenges and
temptations, and accommodation and compromise, to remain true to Him and His
grace and strength.
[Read Revelation
2:18-29]
Thyatira was the
smallest of the seven churches, a smaller manufacturing and trade center.
Unique forms of religion flourished there, many of them connected with trade
unions.
Some in the church at
Thyatira had apparently allowed a false teacher named “Jezebel” to lead them
away from God into idolatry and sexual immorality. Jesus commended this church
for its love, faith, service, and perseverance. But he also corrected them
because they tolerated this woman who called herself a prophetess.
[Read Revelation 3:1-5]
Sardis was once great
but was now a city in decline. The church at Sardis played the Christian game. They were nominal Christians. They were going
through the motions at the right time, but they were dead spiritually. The
letter to Sardis is a warning against complacency and compromise that spans the
ages – living in the past, compromising with culture, assuring that “all roads
lead to heaven”.
[Read Revelation
3:7-13]
The region around the
city of Philadelphia experienced frequent earthquakes, and for that reason may
have had a small population. Physical calamities helped to make the city aware
of its need for God, and that it could never be righteous enough by its own
power to attain God’s kingdom of heaven. God’s grace must have been much in
their thinking.
Jesus tells
Philadelphia, and all of us, that He has given us an open door of grace which
no one is able to shut. No human or circumstance can shut you out of God’s
eternal life once you have it. The “hour of trial” coming, I believe, was the
attack on and final destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, and that the “inhabitants
of the earth” were represented by the whole world of Judaism to which this
passage applied.
What about this term “rapture”
which we hear in many churches? The word “rapture” does not appear in the
Bible. Christians have been waiting for 2,000 years for something to occur,
which has already occurred in 70AD.
Jesus has John tell the
church in Philadelphia that because they have kept His command to persevere, He
will keep them from the hour of trial. In Revelation chapter 7, 144,000 and a
great multitude are sealed out of the tribulation. Apparently many faithful
Christians were removed from the earth during the Roman approach to Jerusalem
in order that they would avoid the tribulation.
[Read Revelation
3:14-22]
The city of Laodicea
considered itself to be self-sufficient, in need of nothing. But Jesus said
they were actually lowlifes in their pride of being self-sufficient.
There was one thing
about which the Laodecians could complain. Their water supply had to come by
aqueduct, and by the time the water arrived in the city, it was neither cold
nor hot, but lukewarm. In nearby Colossae the water was cold, pure, and
delicious; but not in Laodicea. Jesus said that their spiritual condition was
like their drinking water.
Jesus again comments on
standing at the door and knocking. Many depict this as knocking at the door of
unsaved sinners. But Jesus also knocks at the door of the Christian conscience,
reminding us to remember His grace and to trust Him.
[Read Revelation
4:1-11]
Chapter four abruptly
shifts the scene and setting from letters to the eternal throne room of God.
Our attention is moved from struggling churches and imperfect humans to a
glimpse of perfection and holiness, of splendor and glory of the eternity that
God inhabits.
Chapter four paints a word
picture of the worship and praise that is continually given to God. John can
only convey this majesty, might, and power in metaphorical terms of brilliance
because the glory of God is beyond human language and comprehension. Chapter
four whisks us from the problems to the solution, from sin to holiness and
eternal, absolute perfection.
[Read Revelation
5:1-14]
First century readers
recognized the scroll that John saw as an ancient will. The giving of wills was
customarily witnessed by seven people, who would then affix their seals to the
document. Only the heir of the deceased was entitled to break the seal, read
the will and execute the instructions written in it. Only Jesus, the Lamb of
God, is qualified to open its seals and reveal the purposed of God.
Chapter five is filled
with inspiring words of praise, reverence, and worship that have become known
to us in Christ-centered music: traditional, conservative, and in contemporary
praise and worship music.
The scene described
depicts a lamb that has just been slaughtered, a grisly sight. John expects to
see the Lion of Judah, but it is as if the Lion of Judah has morphed into the
Lamb of God.
The fifth chapter is
one of the watershed chapters of this book because it insists that the message
is all about Jesus. The message is not some spiritual recipe about how we can
decrypt and decode ancient prophecies so that we can save our physical necks
from pain and suffering.
[Read Revelation
6:1-17]
As Jesus opens each
seal something happens. The first four seals have become known as the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse. These four horses and their riders do not represent
any particular historical figure of any specific era, but instead they depict
chaos, terror and destruction whenever it may be unleashed.
The first horse is the
white horse of conquest. The most probable meaning of this horse is that it
represents human governments and religious power that promise rewards to their
subjects on return for obedience and worship. This white horse can’t be Jesus, because
the Lamb of God in chapter five conquered through His own death, not through
terrorizing others. This white horse is the Antichrist who deliberately looks
and sounds like Christ, who appropriates His name, and uses holy sounding
religious language and terminology in order to go forth to deceive and conquer.
The second horse is the
red horse of war. Whether this horse causes war in the name of governments or
in the name of religious power or in some kind of unholy combination of the
secular and the supposedly sacred, the result is the same: hatred, violence,
and bloodshed. When we reject the Lamb who died for us, we can wind up killing
each other in a vain attempt to establish our own superiority.
The third horse is the
black horse of famine. The rider demonstrates famine by the scales he holds.
What can we expect from rejecting Christ? Emptiness, famine, spiritual and
physical hunger. A void that yearns to be filled. Our world has never lacked
for religion that worships something or someone other than the Lamb of God.
The fourth horse is the
pale horse of death. It symbolizes those who are the walking dead, who seem to
have life but are spiritually and emotionally dead. Those who accept Jesus
Christ are immune from spiritual death. For those not sealed by Jesus, death is
the end result of any path they may choose.
The fifth seal is
opened, and we see the brutal reality of death by martyrdom suffered by those
who believe in Jesus Christ. The shocking story or our time is that more
Christians have died this century simply for being Christians than in the first
nineteen centuries after the birth of Christ.
And now the sixth seal
is opened. It’s a gigantic cosmological upheaval. But is it a literal or
symbolic upheaval? In the Jewish commentary of that time, earthquakes were
often used to describe divine intervention. See on Mount Sinai (Exo. 19:18).
Other metaphors such as those in this sixth seal were common and understood by
the people. Therefore I interpret this earthquake, blackened sun, bloody moon, and
falling stars as symbolic of divine intervention and JUDGMENT. When the world
of the kingdom of men collides with the kingdom of heaven, earthquakes and
conflict always result.
[Read Revelation
7:1-17]
Suddenly in chapter
seven, everything is put on hold until
an extremely important piece of business is taken care of. The servants of God
must be sealed and protected. Upon an initial reading of this passage, it might
seem to be a picture of future punishment. But rather the 144,000 is a symbolic
number depicting the great number of God’s faithful who bear His seal and are
under His spiritual protection. The great multitude that no one could count
represents another view of God’s faithful who come out of great tribulation and
wear clean robes of righteousness made white in the blood of the Lamb. These
two groups are sealed by God’s grace. This sealing demonstrates that no one can
separate them from the love of God in Jesus Christ. That’s the message of the
144,000. Don’t’ get sidetracked by some juicy speculation about the exact
demographic, racial, and chronological identification of the 144,000.
The great multitude is
an even bigger number who seem to have survived, by God’s help, slightly
differing challenges of persecution and tribulation. What is crystal clear is
that God will make a way. We can be sure of our salvation when we are sealed.
Nothing can touch us.
[Read Revelation
8:1-13]
If we avoid twisting
and contorting this language into some literal application, then a fascinating
window into how prayer “works” in God’s time opens. We humans are often
confused by Jesus’ absolute promise to answer prayer (Mat. 7:7-11) followed by
what we can only interpret as a failure on God’s part to answer. Prayers here
symbolically ascend to God but they are not answered for “half an hour”.
The angel takes the
collected prayers of the saints and hurls them to the earth as the dramatic
symbol of God’s answer, resulting in divine judgment against all the
wickedness.
A series of seven
trumpets, sounded by seven angels, now begins. Each trumpet signals a different
disaster sent to drive an unrepentant and unbelieving humanity to its knees.
These plagues are described in symbolic terms as part of the mysterious
symbolic language of the apocalyptic style in which Revelation was both
inspired and written.
The last three trumpets
are accompanied by “woes” – especially severe.
[Read Revelation
9:1-20]
Commentators, pastors,
teachers and myself included have perched on precarious limbs outdoing
themselves trying to identify these images with literal objects and events. A
prophecy of helicopters and tanks?? Such an interpretation teaches that no one
could understand Revelation until the modern weapons of warfare were
manufactured.
The overall message is
that we humans are stubborn. Even in the midst of severe trials, we will assert
our independence rather than surrendering to God.
In the apocalyptic
imagery of the Book of Revelation, people are either with Christ or against
Him. After all, those who are suffering persecution, such as the original
readers of this book, do not need ambiguity. They need black and white
reassurance.
[Read Revelation
10:1-11]
The interlude between
the sixth and seventh trumpets is marked by teaching about God’s faithfulness
to His people. John is given another vision. But John is instructed not to
publish these messages. This reminds us that some aspects of God’s work are
simply not revealed to us.
The angel announces
that there is no delay. The kingdom is here. The kingdom is now in the person
of the risen Christ who lives His life within those who accept Him.
The angel gives John a
small scroll and directs him to eat it. What is this all about? This action of
ingestion symbolized the vision that John is commissioned to internalize and
later write to God’s people. But it often involves more sacrifice and suffering
for the messenger than most humans are able to tolerate on the basis of human
strength and resources alone.
[Read Revelation
11:1-19]
John was told to
measure the temple. So we know that this occurred before 70AD when the temple
was completely gone. The two witnesses prophesied for 1260 days (3 ½ years).
They had much power but finally were able to be killed. Their bodies lay in the
street in Jerusalem (“where the Lord was crucified”) for 3 ½ days. God brought
them to life again and they ascended to heaven in a cloud. We do not know who
these two witnesses were. Some Bible scholars have suggested that they might be
Moses and Elijah. Whoever they were,
they gave final warning to Israel before their final judgment was dispensed.
[Read Revelation
12:1-17]
Here we meet more
symbols. A woman clothed with the sun who was pregnant. This woman apparently
is representative of believing Israel – those Jews who converted to
Christianity. The woman bore a male Child (Jesus) who was to rule the nations
with a rod of iron. Satan is pictured as the fiery red dragon. He wanted to
destroy the Child but failed to do so. The Child was caught up to God and His
throne. The dragon persecuted the Christian Jews called the “Remnant”, who are
designated as the “twelve tribes of Israel”. They overcome the dragon by the blood
of the Lamb. The Remnant are the Jewish believers who are not part of the
spiritual New Covenant people of God. They are joined in the spiritual Kingdom
by the believing Gentiles.
[Read Revelation
13:1-18]
The “Beast” has a
twofold role or element to it. Politically, it is the Roman Empire. It was
going downhill toward destruction after Nero burned the city and committed
suicide. Civil war began and chaos reigned for a while. But it revived again.
It is also identified by the kings who led it. The 10 horns are possibly
smaller kings inside and outside the Roman Empire. These are smaller political
powers and entities which participated with the revived Roman Empire and went
against Jerusalem.
As with many political
governments, the state is sometimes identified by the name of the ruler or
leader. For example, people may say that “Cuba controls all of the people
through communism!” Others may say that “Castro controls all of the people
through communism!”
The sixth king that was
not present when John arote the Book of Revelation was Nero. John refers to the
Roman Empire as the Beast which comes out of the sea. Since Revelation is
written in relation ti Israel, the beast (Romans) came from the Mediterranean
Sea to attack Jerusalem. “Rome attacked Jerusalem!” is like saying “Nero
attacked Jerusalem!”
The second beast
mentioned in this chapter is apparently some strong political leader who hated
Christians and he spoke and did acts as from the devil, Satan. The “mark of the
beast” is some actual thing which set apart Christians and non-believers.
Exactly how the mark operated in that society can only be speculated.
There have been many
interpretations of the number “666”. Only those that the book was written to
could really interpret its meaning.
[Read Revelation
14:1-20]
John records that the
Lamb, (Jesus) sealed 144,000 Jewish Christians and protected them from His
judgment upon Jerusalem in 68-70AD. The number “144,000” is symbolic. It
represents a specific large number of believing Jews from the twelve tribes.
They are God’s beloved redeemed believers.
As the final slaughter
in Judea took place, the blood from the dead people and animals flowed outside
the city of Jerusalem. Josephus records that over one million three hundred
thousand people lost their lives in Jerusalem alone. Add to that the murders of
people all over the rest of the nation of Israel and the blood-flow must have
been horrendous.
[Read Revelation
15:1-8]
The scene switches to
God’s throne in heaven with praise to Him and preparation for the final
judgment of God.
[Read Revelation 16:1-21]
These “bowl judgments”
included sores upon people, dead bodies’ blood in the sea, blood in the rivers,
scorching of people with fire, darkness and pain upon people, spirits of demons
doing battle Against God in the valley of Megiddo. Stories have been told and
movies made about the final climactic world war called “The Battle of
Armageddon. But the truth is that it is only a place that was used by the
invading armies to gather during their siege of Jerusalem in 70AD.
[Read Revelation
17:1-18]
There is a deliberate
focus in the Book of Revelation about the judgment of the Woman. She is seen as
being arrayed in purple and scarlet and accused of being full of abominations.
These are descriptions of unbelieving Jerusalem and the Temple. It involves Old
Testament ritual clothing of the High Priest. The woman is also known as
Babylon, which describes Jerusalem. Why was Jerusalem described this way? It is
because the unbelieving nation of Israel willingly rejected the Messiah Jesus. Their
Old Testament system was ended at the Cross of Calvary. God divorced Israel and
married a new bride, which is the New Covenant church. This consists of
believing Jews and believing Gentiles, who are also known spiritually as the Body of Christ. The old is
finished, the new is begun. Finally God would bring judgment on the now
meaningless, adulteress, and blasphemous Temple. This was done in 70AD.
[Read Revelation
18:1-24]
This chapter describes
how the destruction of Jerusalem (Babylon) is completed and how its destruction
affected the nations around it. The city had merchants from many nations that
made money buying and selling in the city. The secular people mourned when she
was destroyed by God. She had persecuted the new Covenant remnant and in her
was found the blood of prophets and saints. The city had turned away from God
and had become a worldly place of evil. Heaven rejoiced when Jerusalem was
burned and made desolate.
[Read Revelation
19:1-21]
There is celebration in
heaven that the Old Covenant has been completely destroyed with the judgment
and destruction of Jerusalem. Now the New Covenant people of God are compared
to a happy marriage between Christ (the Lamb) and His Church.
Christ is then pictured
as riding in on a white horse in power to totally finish the destruction of
Jerusalem and the temple. His judgment is fierce and complete.
Then is described how
the beast and “false prophet” are captured together. This is symbolic of the
Jewish Leaders, probably more specifically the High Priest who worked with the
Roman government to control the people. He and they rejected Christ and
deliberately turned the temple and holy city into a market place that was a den
of thieves instead of a place of worship.
This chapter is
probably the most difficult to explain to someone who says, “Look! This hasn’t
happened yet!” But everything in this chapter HAS happened already in the first
century.
John writes that he say
an angel coming down from heaven who bound the dragon, who is Satan, for a
thousand years; He set a seal on Satan so that he should deceive the nations no
more until the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be
released for a little while.
John is giving a kind
of history of the world before and up to 70AD. Throughout the entire Old Testament
period of history, Satan was free to deceive all of the nations of the world
except Israel. That one nation was God’s chosen nation for His Word to be
recorded, His prophecies to be made, His laws to be established, and His
promise of a coming Messiah to be taught. Satan was bound from interfering with
God’s plan.
After the Messiah Jesus
came to earth and lived His ministry, He fulfilled all Old Covenant laws,
satisfied all prophecies about the Messiah, accomplished the defeat of sin and
death for His people, and established a New Covenant including a new spiritual
kingdom. His new kingdom is now made up of all of His believing Christians.
The binding of Satan
was initiated by Jesus when He ministered to the Jews during His earthly
ministry starting in about 26AD. He told the Pharisees that He could not be
casting out demons unless He has bound Satan first (Matt. 12:29).
Satan was bound during
the roughly forty year period between Christ’s first coming as a human being
and His coming in judgment on Jerusalem in 70AD. He was released from that
binding for a short time (7 years – about 63AD) to bring the armies of Rome to
a fever pitch against the Jews. After being again defeated by the Lord Jesus in
70AD his binding continues so that he cannot stop the world from receiving the
gospel message.
Satan is now like a “mob
boss” in prison who is still able to affect things on the outside. He has been
actively involved in the spiritual world among people and will continue to do
so to the extent that God allows him. The present physical earth and physical
non-believing humans are still within his permitted sphere of spiritual sway.
His powers are limited and overseen by God.
The number 1,000 is a
symbolic figure in prophecy. It represents a long time, or a large number, or
even practically unending. Some examples of the use of the number 1,000 in the
Bible are as follows:
Israel will be a 1,000
times more numerous (Deut. 1:11)
Cattle on a 1,000 hills
(Psalm 50:10)
A day in your courts is
better than a 1,000 (Psalm 84:10)
To God, one day is as a
1,000 years and a 1,000 years is as a day (2 Peter 3:8).
The use of 1,000 can be
subjective and be dependent upon the context in which it is being used. So here
is what we have:
The period called the “Millenium”
by futurists is actually the period from Christ’s earthly ministry to the
destruction of Jerusalem – about 40 years. The early Christians lived and “reigned”
in the power of Christ during this 40 years. At the end of this “Millenium”, the
dead in Christ were resurrected and, as Josephus says, were seen physically
around Judea in 70AD.
Then is mentioned a “great
white throne judgment”. This is a final rewarding of all born-again Christians
to their rightful home with God and a final judgment on unbelievers of
separation from God.
[Read Revelation
21:1-27]
Here we need to
understand what is the “new heaven and new earth”.
Israel was the “old
heaven” (religious system) and the “old earth” (nation and political system)
that God had formed for His Old Covenant purposes. Someday that same heavens
and earth would pass away as described in 2 Peter 3. This system was fulfilled by Jesus and it
is now finished. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple along with the
Lord’s judgments upon Israel ended that former religious system forever in God’s
eyes.
God would form a new
heavens (New Covenant system) and a new earth (spiritual Kingdom of God). This
is the spiritual Israel made up of God’s Christian people consisting of
believing Jews and believing Gentiles. This occurred historically by 70AD.
John says that he saw
the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. This
represents all of God’s Christian people and their spiritual dwelling place. It
is a city in the spiritual realm where the redeemed enjoy sweet fellowship with
God in His presence.
What we must understand
is that ALL of Revelation 21 and 22 are in existence right now. The whole
system of spiritual Kingdom for Christians began in 70AD. The descriptions may
seem overly glorious compared to living right now but all the beauty is ours
right now as born-again Christians. We just have to appropriate it by living
the Life of Christ now and trusting in His power and glory.
Physical descriptions
of this spiritual New Jerusalem are given by John. This city is cube shaped. It
measures 1,200 miles on all sides of the cube. It represents the Lamb’s bride,
His wife. The city has no temple in it. Almighty God and the Lamb are its
temple. The glory of God illuminates the city. The Lamb is its light.
All deceased Christians
after 70AD immediately go to heaven and are with Christ for eternity. When our
human life ends on earth, we immediately receive our new immortal bodies and
live with God in heavenly places. Whether that is within the New Jerusalem city
or another heavenly dwelling, one thing for sure, it will be with Christ
forever.
[Read Revelation
22:1-21]
In this last chapter,
John accentuates again that Christ is coming QUICKLY: verses 7, 12 and 20.
John continues the
glorious description of the spiritual Life that is ours in Christ. And he completes
the Book in the last verse with HOW this is all achieved: “The GRACE of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen.”
So what now? Now that
we don’t have to anxiously look forward to the coming of Christ? Live NOW the
way we will live always after our death – trusting in Christ within us. This
includes active personal and corporate worship of God. It involves obeying Him.
We are to continually listen to the Holy Spirit.
This certainly does not
mean to hunker down and drop out of life to just await the coming of Christ.
Christians need to set an example and get involved in the culture, community,
schools and politics. Christians should work to make it easier for themselves,
their families, and future generations to study the Bible, pray, fellowship,
stand-up for Christ, and build His Kingdom.
The bottom line is
this: I don’t know the future of the world. I cannot know the future – I must
just let it transpire as God directs. It is a waste of time and energy to try
to apply Bible prophecy to the future – it was never meant by God for us
because its application ended in 70AD.
Now maybe Christ is
going to do something spectacular and miraculous in the future to rival His
power and majesty in 70 AD. Christ can do whatever
He wants to do and I would never attempt to limit Him in any way. But the Bible
doesn’t TELL us anything about future events except that we Christians are
saved and will go to God’s heaven when we die. We will just have to wait to see
what happens.
(In a future article, I
will discuss the prophecies of Matthew 24 and Daniel 9-12 to show their
application to 70AD.)
