Zechariah 14?
Got that covered too - for the edumakayshun of the woody literalist:
Zechariah 14 is highly significant in regards to the river of life and the identity of the whore of Babylon.
Carrington in his book "Proof of the Gospel" stated the Eusebius "called the father of church history" says that Zechariah 14 "predicted the final siege of the people by the Romans (in 70AD), through which the whole Jewish race has become subject to their enemies"
Among the early Christian writers there has always been an understanding that Zechariah 14 predicted the parousia of Jesus in 70AD.
According to the Second Coming Bible "Theophylact and Cyril held this view."
In Hengstenburg's book "Christology of the New testament" he also states "Jerome and several others of the early "fathers" also applied Zechariah to "the captivity of the Romans."
Merril Unger a millennialist in his "Zechariah: Prophet of the Messiahs' Glory" acknowledged that Zechariah's prophecy was applicable to 70AD and this view was held by many early writers.
Adam Clarke a respected Methodist scholar and commentator said "This appears to be a prediction of that war in which Jerusalem was finally destroyed and the Jews scattered over the face of the earth."
Futurists reject the application of Zechariah because of their insistence on a woody literal interpretation.
We can see the correspondence between Zechariah and John's revelation here:
The fall and destruction of Jerusalem:
(Zec 14:2 KJV) For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
(Rev 14:8 KJV) And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Escape will happen and coming of the Lord
(Zec 14:5 KJV) And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
(Rev 18:4 KJV) And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
(Rev 14:1 KJV) And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
There will be a time of light:
(Zec 14:6 KJV) And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
(Zec 14:7 KJV) But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
(Rev 21:23 KJV) And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
The Lord will be King and there will be no more curse:
(Zec 14:9 KJV) And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
(Rev 22:3 KJV) And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
The river of life flows from Jerusalem:
(Zec 14:8 KJV) And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
(Rev 22:1 KJV) And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
The nations will come unto Jerusalem:
(Zec 14:16 KJV) ....the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts......
(Rev 21:24 KJV) And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
(Rev 21:25 KJV) And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
(Rev 21:26 KJV) And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
The river of life has been flowing since Pentecost, not all the nations are yet are walking in the light of the heavenly Jerusalem - there is never going to be an earthly centered "holy city".
(Heb 12:18 KJV) For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
(Heb 12:22 KJV) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
(Heb 12:26 KJV) Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
(Heb 12:27 KJV) And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
The heavenly city of God can never be shaken
