One clue to the date of Revelation

Then you better send back your Gentry book.

 

Not only that, if you look by the Copyright, it clearly states First Printing 96 AD.

 

:laugh::laugh:

 

The best work I've seen in attempting to date Revelation (and all the other NT books) is Introduction to the New Testament by D. Edmond Heibert. I found his work to be most helpful. He goes through all the internal and external evidence and presents a balanced view. This is the best treatment that I've found, and he goes through all the major lines of reasoning.

 

You should be happy. It appears you have found what you wanted to find.

 

That is true, but only because this was not a prophecy about a single person but rather about a type of person, in the same way that the term "man of God" refers not to a single person but rather a type of person.

Read all of 2 Thessalonians and notice that the "Wicked" the Scripture says the Lord will destroy with the brightness of his coming, that "they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

The "man of sin" is contrasted to the "man of god" as Paul goes on to say "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you ..." Paul clearly makes a contrast between the "man of sin" who had rejected the Gospel and would be destroyed and damned, and the "brethren of the Lord" who had believed the Gospel and been saved.

And John teaches us exactly who the "anti-christ" is in four different places in his epistles and he expressly states that "anyone who denies the father and the son is anti-christ" and he further states that the spirit of anti-christ, which they had heard would come, was already present in the world.

Historically speaking, the "anti-christs" were those non-Christian Jews who denied that Jesus is the Christ, who refused to believe the truth of the Gospel and were given over by God to a strong delusion that led them to revolt against Rome and bring upon themselves a terrible destruction and damnation. Anyone who was thus deceived was a "son of perdition" whereas a remnant of Jews who believed the Gospel were saved and became a "son of God."

And all the little jots and tittles of what these godless men would do was in fact fulfilled during that very generation which saw the coming of Jesus, even down to one of the Zealot leaders donning the royal robes and marching through the streets of Jerusalem up to the Temple and taking a seat in the very inner court of the sanctuary itself and claiming he was the Messiah while his army set up camp within the holy courts. They even struck coins to commemorate the "deliverance of Jerusalem." But their godless overthrow of everything that was good and holy did not last long, they met their end in a bloody fire that consumed them down to the last man.

 

The Roman persecutions of the first century were never limited only to Rome but were enforced throughout the Roman Empire. Nero was actually a latter player, it was in fact Emperor Caligula who first elevated himself to the status of divine, which beforehand had only been attributed to emperors after their demise. But Caligula was totally insane and it was he who ordered that a statue of himself be made and placed in every temple and place of worship throughout the Roman Empire so that he would receive the worship he felt he was due. When the Jews refused, Caligula sent an army with instructions that they were to place his statue in the Temple in Jerusalem, by force if necessary, and if the Jews would not permit it, they were to be slaughtered.

The time had not yet come however, and God intervened, and Caligula died without that order being carried out, so Jerusalem was spared for the time being. But her end was sure, and it came at exactly the moment of God's choosing.

But as for dating the Revelation, the only internal evidence that is conclusive is that the Revelation was written before the destruction of the Temple which occured in 70 A.D., in the "midst" of the 7-year Roman/Jewish war. That destruction is chronicled in detail in the Revelation, even down to naming the siege engines that were used (Roman "scorpione") that were rear-mounted quick-firers (with stingers "in their tails"). They "tormented" those men who "had not the seal of God in their foreheads" (the unsaved Jews) and that torment lasted for 5 months, from the beginnig of the siege at Passover until the city and sanctuary were destroyed in August, just as the Revelation foretold (chapter 9) in the description of the battle which destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel and brought the Old Covenant to an end.

All of which serves to prove that Jesus is the Christ.