JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

48. Indeed, the entire septennial bloodshed launched by the tyrannical Pagan Roman
Emperors Nero-Galba-Otho-Vitellius-Vespasian-Domitian-Titus in A.D. 63 to 70, was not
confined to Rome itself. Instead, it spread throughout the whole of the Roman Empire - from
Britain in the Far West, and even as far as Jerusalem itself and beyond in the East.
49. Now this “Great Tribulation” - says the book of Revelation - had already spread to
Smyrna and Pergamos (even before the Apocalypse itself was being written). It would soon
spread further afield, to Philadelphia. And it would then rage even throughout the entire
Roman Empire. For it would - as Christ Himself had said in his own Epistle to the Church in
Philadelphia - quickly descend “upon all the World.” Revelation 3:10.
50. Indeed, Jesus had also in Matthew chapters 23 and 24 rather earlier and very
accurately predicted that the predicted persecution would - even during that very same
“generation” - in fact become the greatest tribulation the World had ever seen (or ever would
see). For together with natural disasters like earthquakes and pestilences, there were soon to
be even unnatural disasters such as wars and conflagrations (during that septennium). Rivers
of innocent blood flowed for seven years, throughout the Roman Empire. The Jews were
almost annihilated in the Near East. Christian Apostles were persecuted and martyred. And
even ordinary Christians were thrown to the lions in various places. 29 See sections 173 and
180 to 272 below.
51. The historian Orosius (who flourished around 415 A.D.) relates the tragic story. 30
After Nero had started to torture Christians to death in Rome itself, he next “ordered this
throughout all provinces, with the same excruciating persecution.”
52. The earlier historian Sulpicius Severus (around 400 A.D.) also gives an account. 31
He says that after Nero had destroyed Rome itself with fire, he promoted the cruel murdering
of “many” Christians (throughout Italy) - and prohibited the remnant from practising their
religion throughout the Empire.
53. Similarly, the great German theologian - Professor Dr. G.H.A. Ewald. 32 He too,
mindful of clues in the book of Revelation itself, 33 affirms the extension of the Neronian
persecution to Christians living well beyond the city of Rome and its environs.
54. Also the celebrated French authority on Ancient Church History, Ernest Renan,
claims 34 that “the atrocity commanded by Nero had to have these effects in the provinces, and
stirred up a fresh growth of persecution.” So too does the great Swiss-American Church
Historian Rev. Professor Dr. Philip Schaff. See sections 173 and 183f below.
55. In one word. Compared to this fiery persecution of God’s people under Nero - the
later persecutions under Domitian during the rest of the first century A.D., pale into relative
insignificance.
56. Second. The rejecters of an early date for Revelation argue that the early exiling
of Christians to islands like Patmos 35 did not start to take place until about 93 A.D. This is
known to be the date when Emperor Domitian banished his own Christian kinswoman Flavia
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