Tag Archives: 70 AD

Lesson 17 of Series – More About False Teachings

More About False Teachings: Does God Break His Promises?

The Lord gave Daniel the prophecy of the end of his people, nation, and city, in Daniel 9:24-27 which was to happen at an “appointed time” of 490 years. After that would come another “time, times, and an half,” Daniel12:6-7,  which is also called “the time of the end,” during which time their Messiah Prince should come.  Some dispensationalists and pre-millennialists say that Daniel 9:24-27 “doesn’t tell us that the seventy weeks were fulfilled, because when the Jews refused their Messiah, God stopped the clock, breached his promise, …. ‘Time in’ hasn’t been called yet.”

Did God “Stop the Clock”?

The “last times” specified in Daniel had come in the New Testament era and the people knew it was the last times for their nation, city, and people.  Simeon and Anna knew it was time for the Messiah, (Luke 2:25-34). The Samaritans knew that it was time for the Messiah, (John 4:25, 29-30). Andrew knew it was time for the Messiah, (John 1:40-41), and Philip also knew, (John 1:45).

John 2:18: “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”

Hebrews 9:24-26: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world [age] hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

The Book of Revelation states that “the (appointed) time is at hand, 1:3.”

Did God “Breach His Promise”?

To accuse God of “breach of promise,” (as translated in Numbers 14:33-34 KJV),  is to accuse Him of lying! This idea is totally foreign to the concept of the covenant-keeping God of the Bible.

Indeed, the passage in Numbers 14:33-34 shows clearly that when God states a time, He means just that. The word translated “breach of promise,” (KJV), is Hebrew tenuw’ah, from nuw’, meaning ‘my opposition,’ or, as translated in Job 33:10, ‘occasion for hostility,’ (BDB). The Lord was saying that they should bear their iniquity for forty years that they might know His “opposition to their rebellion,” the “occasion for His hostility,” not that He failed to keep His word or “breached His promise”!

Numbers 23:19 says:”God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

He is a God of faithfulness, (Deuteronomy 32:4). He does not change, (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17). He keeps His covenant to “all generations,” (Psalm 33:11; 45:17; 100:5; 119:90, and many other references).

Psalm 105:8: “He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word [which] he commanded to a thousand generations.”

So when the Lord gave Daniel the prophecy that his nation, people, and city would end in 490 years and the “time of the end” would be an additional time, times and half a time, and that their Messiah would come in that time, those who believed in God and knew the covenant were expecting those things. They were fulfilled and the fleshly nation came to its final end in 70 AD with more than three million killed, almost another million taken and dispersed as slaves, Jerusalem burned to the ground, and the genealogies burned.

God Fulfilled His Promises Through Christ

But Christ was raised from the dead, established His Church and sat down at the right hand of God to reign forever and ever. “Of the increase of His Kingdom there shall be no end,” Isaiah 9:7, Luke 1:32.

Next Lesson: The End According To Daniel

Revelation 1:1 ‘Must’ The Moral Imperative

Introduction to This Series

This series of lessons will present the facts that the events pictured in the Book of Revelation were not merely an historical report, nor were they a prophecy of things which were to come to pass at some distant future time. They are a record of the fulfillment of things that had been covenanted and prophesied in the Old Testament and history of the nation of Israel, namely the end of the nation and its capitol city, Jerusalem. They are not foretelling the fall of the Roman Empire. Neither are they primarily the record of the invasion of Jerusalem by the Romans. They are the record of the fulfillment of God’s Word regarding His promises in the Covenants. They are about the things that God was morally obligated to fulfill.

1:1. “Things which must shortly come to pass.”

Overview

Ray Summers speaks of the word ‘must’ in Revelation 1:1 as indicating a moral necessity:

“The verb translated ‘it is necessary,’ or ‘must,’ … is an impersonal verb which indicates that a moral necessity is involved; the nature of the case is such that the things revealed here must come to pass shortly. The aorist tense of the infinitive ‘to come to pass’ adds to the truth that immediate action is necessary. The prepositional phrase translated ‘shortly’ means just what it says – shortly, quickly, hastily.”

However, Summers takes the position that the moral necessity was the fall of the Roman Empire. But this phrase could hardly be applied to the fall of the Roman Empire for that was neither done quickly, nor immediately in reference to the time of the writing of the Book of Revelation in the first century AD. The Empire fell over a period of more than a hundred years during the fourth and fifth centuries AD. Even through the period of the second century AD the historians Cary and Scullard could say: “To speak of a ‘decay’ of the Roman Empire at this period would be premature” (Cary and Scullard, 488). It is my position that the moral necessity in the Book of Revelation applies, rather, to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Although I disagree with many of Summers’ basic views, the fact remains that his definition and grammatical analysis of “must shortly come to pass” is quite correct.

What Was Morally Imperative At That Time?

To understand what was morally imperative, and why it was so, sheds much light upon the interpretation of the Book of Revelation since its stated purpose is to show these “morally imperative” events. These four things, at least, were morally imperative in the context of the times:

  1. God must fulfill the blessings and cursings promised in the covenant as recorded in Deuteronomy 28-30.
  2. He must vindicate the words of the Old Testament prophets, specifically, the seventy weeks of years and “Time, Times and Dividing of Times” as given to Daniel.
  3. He must fulfill the predictions made by Christ in order to vindicate Him as
    a. Prophet,
    b. Judge,
    c. Messiah
  4. He must fulfill the vengeance promised in behalf of His Covenant People who had become martyrs:
    a. Because of His covenant;
    b. As their God and Kinsman-Redeemer; and
    c. To cleanse the land from blood defilement.

Please follow this series to get the larger picture of the holistic interpretation of the Book of Revelation.

Precis Of Revelation In Context

PRECIS OF REVELATION IN CONTEXT

The first three verses of the Book of Revelation tell us that something was about to happen.

WHAT HAPPENED?

In 70 AD the nation of Israel was destroyed along with its capitol city, Jerusalem. The survivors of this destruction were sold into slavery and assimilated racially. Jesus Christ was left as the only legitimate Heir to the Promises, the Covenants, the Kingdom, and the Throne.

His Bride, His Body, the Church, flourished in the absence of their arch persecutors. They went forth with the presence and power of God and conquered the Roman world in the first few centuries.

The surviving Rabbis of the Pharisees joined together to preserve their religion. They appropriated to themselves the name “Jews” and “Israel.” They worked for the next few centuries to try to gather up their “Oral Law” and put it into writing. The result of their work is still extant in the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud, which they claim to be their authoritative scriptures, supplanting the Biblical Scriptures. These are now available in English translation.

WHEN did it happen? ON CUE AS FORETOLD

The events of the Book of Revelation happened “Shortly,” “Quickly,” “Soon,” after the Book was written in the first century AD. It is about events that are now past in time. Its interpretation therefore requires a knowledge of the historical context.

WHERE did it happen?

Primarily in Judea and from there to the Jewish colonies throughout the Roman world.

HOW did the Book happen?

By revelation from God to Jesus Christ, to the Angel, to John, then to “His Servants.” This revelation came through visions, through voices, and through the writing by John to the Churches.

WHO was the message to?

It was to “His Servants.” “His Servants” were the Jews who had accepted Christ as their Savior and their earliest Gentile converts.

WHY did it happen?

Because these things had been promised in the Covenant and prophesied by the Prophets and confirmed by their fulfillment in Christ. It was morally imperative that they happen when they did.

This blog, Revelation in Context, will describe, discuss and document these events in their Biblical, historical, linguistic, and cultural context. We invite you to go with us through this study of this most interesting, inspiring and informative Book.