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Brother EG, Hi,
The 3 1/2t (times), is a set amount of time for sure.
It has a beginning and an end.
It is half of 7.
It just doesn't make sense to have it be 3 1/2 literal years.
Why would it being saying something in Daniel, about 3 1/2 literal years, that was 2500 or more years in the future?
1st, 3 1/2t (times), Babylon to 70 ad
2nd, 3 1/2t, 70 ad to 1967? Times of the gentiles
This would equal the time of the statue in Daniel 2
The 3 1/2t (times), is a set amount of time for sure.
It has a beginning and an end.
It is half of 7.
It just doesn't make sense to have it be 3 1/2 literal years.
Why would it being saying something in Daniel, about 3 1/2 literal years, that was 2500 or more years in the future?
1st, 3 1/2t (times), Babylon to 70 ad
2nd, 3 1/2t, 70 ad to 1967? Times of the gentiles
This would equal the time of the statue in Daniel 2
E
in Daniel 9, Daniel was told a prophesy which stated the messiah would come 69 sevens after the command is given to restore Jerusalem.
Jesus to the week entered jerusalem. He also was killed after this event, just as prophesied.
I do not ask God why he does things, I just trust him when he says this will happen, it will. He so far has a 100% accuracy rating on all of his prophesies, I doubt he will start to fail.
The times of the gentiles is the time the gentile is given, that time is still ongoing, Isreal is still in sin, and Christ has not returned, so it has not yet been fulfilled yet.
Here are some reasons why I accept the early date for the writing of Revelation.
Internal Evidences that Support the Early Dating of Revelation, Prior to 70 AD.
A. The first point to consider in favor of the early date is the fact that John was told that he "must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings," Revelation 10:11. Now, if Revelation was written in AD 95-96, John would have been over 90 years old and it would have been very unlikely he would have been able to travel to the various "nations and…many kings" and preach. However, with Revelation written earlier, John would have been in his mid 60's and at that age, his traveling would have been more feasible.
B. Another point is that John wrote Revelation to a specific group of churches in Asia Minor, 1:4. This is a critical point that has been overlooked by many scholars and commentators which shows that Revelation could not have been written before 61 AD.
1. There was only a very small opportunity of time in which these seven churches in Asia existed at the same time. This was in the late 50’s to early AD 60's. The apostle Paul established nine churches in that area, but only seven were addressed in Revelation. This is a good indicator that places the writing of Revelation sometime after two of these churches had disappeared. Around 60 or 61 AD the cities of Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea, were destroyed by an earthquake. Laodicea was soon afterwards rebuilt, but Colossae and Hierapolis were not. This left only seven churches in Asia during the five years just prior to the beginning of the Roman/Jewish war.
2. It is important to note Jesus' particular message to the specific Church of Philadelphia in 3:7-13. In verses 10 and 11, Jesus told John to warn the Church there that an "hour of temptation" was "about to come upon all the world." That "hour of temptation" was to be the time of persecution. Christ then told them that He was coming quickly and he admonished them to "hold fast". This is important because this warning was given to a specific congregation of Christians in a specified area of Asia Minor in a specific time in history. The first Roman persecution of Christians took place under Nero in 64AD but, at the time of the revelation, it had not yet reached Philadelphia. Therefore, Revelation had to have been written before they experienced this time of persecution.
C. One of the most compelling proofs of the early date is the fact that the Jewish temple was still standing at the time John wrote Revelation, 11:1-2. In verse one, John is given a measuring rod and told to go and measure the temple and count the worshipers there. You can't measure something that is not there. "And there was given me a reed, like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."
1. In verse two, John is told not to measure the outer court because it has been given to the Gentiles and they will trample on it for 42 months which is also 1260 days or 3 ½ years. Isn't it amazing that history tells us that this is exactly how long the Romans trampled the holy city of Jerusalem from the spring of 67 AD to its destruction in the early fall of 70 AD? This is a very compelling argument.
2. How do we know that this is speaking of Herod's temple and not the Church? This passage calls to mind Jesus words in Luke 21:20-24. Notice that Jesus told the disciples that they would see this event. They had asked Him about their temple in verse 5 and Jesus told them it would be destroyed before their generation passed away, 32. In verse 24 Jesus says, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles." This is the same thing John was told in Revelation 11:2. So, John is reminding the Church that the time of which Jesus had spoken in Luke 21 would soon be upon them.
D. Identifying the "woman" of chapters 17 and 18. John saw a "woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus," 17:6. The woman had this name written on her forehead: "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH," 17:5. The angel said that "the woman" was "that great city," 17:18 in whom "was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth," 18:24. Then John wrote, "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her… Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all," 18:20, 21. So who was this "woman," this "great city?"
1. John gave us a clue in Revelation 11:8, where he wrote, "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." This shows us that John was referring to the Jerusalem of his day. To prove this assertion, John wrote that Sodom also used as a figurative name applied to this city. That means it does not tell us the actual name of the city but its spiritual condition. Once more, in letting the Bible interpret itself, we find this is a reference to Jerusalem. In Isaiah, chapter one, after declaring that he had a "vision…concerning Judah and Jerusalem" Isaiah wrote, "Hear the words of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom." In Jeremiah 23:14, because of the adulterous prophets, God said that Jerusalem and her inhabitants were "all of them unto me as Sodom."
2. In Luke 13:33-34, Jesus said, “Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!" Then, in Matthew 23:29-37, Jesus blasted the Jews of his day for killing the prophets and the apostles. He declared that they are the children of their fathers who also killed the prophets. Then in verse 32, Jesus said that they would complete the sin that their fathers started. But the most crucial evidence is found in verse 35, where Jesus said, "upon you i.e. the Jews of His day, may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on the earth." Then He said, "I tell you the truth, all of these things all these things will come upon this generation.. Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone to death those who are sent to you," 36-37. In both passages, Jesus told the Jews of His day that they were guilty of "all the righteous blood shed upon the earth" (see also Acts 7:51-52). Therefore, since both of these passages deal with the same crime and the same judgment, the "great city" of Revelation is Jerusalem of Christ's generation. So, Revelation was written during a time Jewish persecution upon Christians which had to be prior to 70 AD.
E. The seventh king of 17:10 - "...they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while." So far we have seen that Revelation deals with the revealing of Jesus to first century Israel. As noted above, "the woman" John saw was first century Jerusalem. The "kings," therefore, were the rulers of the Roman Empire of John's day. The "kings" were not ruling at the same time, for the text stated "five have fallen," meaning that five of those kings had come and gone. Then, "one is," meaning the king who was ruling at the time Revelation was written. Here in this verse, we have one of the clearest proofs for dating this book. If we simply examine the list of Roman Emperors, we will be able to determine who the sixth king was, and the time Revelation was written.
There are seven kings.
1. Five have fallen – Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD), Tiberius (14-37), Caligula (37-41), and Claudius (41-54), Nero (54-68)
2. One now is - Galba (who reigned only seven months from the fall of 68 to January of 69)
3. The other has not yet come and when he comes, he will remain only a little while. This was Otho who reigned only three months in 69 AD. It is also noteworthy to remember that the reign of Galba began a time of brief reigns with Galba reighning only 7 months, Otho reigning only 3 months from January 15 to April 16, 69 AD, and Vitellius who reigned only 8 months from April 16 to December 22, 69 AD. After this Vespasian assumes the throne and reigns for 10 years from December of 69 to 79 AD. It was under his reign that Rome began to stabilize politically. Why are only seven kings mentioned? Because it is during the reign of Galba that Jerusalem is destroyed.
We find in Nero and Galba the terrible persecutors of the Christians at whose hand Peter and Paul were martyred. God used Nero to set in motion the destruction of Jerusalem commanding Vespasian to destroy the city. This was the sixth king, suggesting that Revelation was written before the fall of Jerusalem. Historically, Nero is the one that persecuted Christians beyond all comparison. John's banishment to Patmos was itself a result of the great persecution of Nero. The apostle Paul was tortured and then beheaded by Nero at Rome in 67A.D. The apostle Peter was another victim of Nero.
F. The time element
Consider the expectations of the author. Jesus tells John to expect the fulfillment of the prophecy soon, 1:1-3; 2:16; 3:11; 22:6, 7, 10, and 12 and 20.
1. In Revelation 1:1-3, right off the bat, John informed his readers, the seven churches of Asia, that the contents of this volume "must shortly come to pass." John did not write that some of the events, or even most of the events must shortly take place. He wrote that ALL of the events contained in Revelation "must shortly come to pass." The purpose of the revelation was to explain the events that were about to unfold.
a. Why must those things "shortly come to pass?" Because "the time (was) at hand."
b. At hand for whom? The seven churches of Asia, specifically, and to the church of the first century in general.
c. The time for what was at hand, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ."
d. How was Jesus about to be revealed, in the events, in the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem.Remember, this is the main episode of the book.
2. In Revelation 22:6, John wrote that the Lord sent an angel to John "to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done." Here, at the end of the book of Revelation, John recorded the exact same message that he did in chapter one. This emphasizes that all of the events contained in Revelation were about to take place in that century, not stretched throughout time, and certainly not for some distant future generation.
3. In Revelation 22:10, the angel of the Lord said to John, "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand." Once more, we see that the events of Revelation were about to take place in the first century. However, another element was added to this warning. The angel told John not to seal the Scroll. Why is this important? To answer that, let's look at Daniel 12.
a. After Daniel had received visions concerning his people (the nation of Israel), he was told, "thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book," 12:1. Daniel is then told how they would be rescued - by resurrection. Some would be rewarded with "everlasting life" and others with "everlasting contempt," 2. But then, Daniel is told something very peculiar. In verse 4, Daniel was told, "shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end." Now, we must ask "Whose time of the end?" Verse one told us that Daniel's visions concerned the nation of Israel, not mankind in general.
b. Next, Daniel saw two angels talking about the fulfillment of all that he had seen, 6. One asked the other, "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" The answer was, "when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished," 7. But Daniel could not understand what they meant, so he asked again, "When?" The angel answered "Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." Now that we have looked at this passage, how does it relate to Revelation 21?
c. How John relates to this Revelation is that this Revelation is the opening of Daniel's sealed book. Remember, Daniel's visions were concerning the "time of the end." Whose end? Israel’s. This revelation is about God's judgment on his people. These are the same visions. The reason this has a direct bearing on Revelation 21, is that Daniel was told to seal his book concerning the end "for it pertains to many days in the future," Dan.8:26. But John, having received the same vision, was told not to seal his book "because the time is at hand," Revelation 22:10. The end of Old Covenant Israel was at hand. All things written had to be fulfilled by the time Jerusalem fell in AD 70 (see Luke 21:20-22). Therefore, since Revelation is the opening of Daniel, then it was fulfilled by the Autumn of AD 70 when Jerusalem fell.