JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

Empire - from Jerusalem in the East, to Rome in the West. For, as Schaff points out:
“Jerusalem crucified the Lord; Rome beheaded and crucified His chief Apostles and plunged
the whole Roman Church into a baptism of blood. Rome became, for good and for evil, the
‘Jerusalem” of Christendom; and the Vatican hill [became] the ‘Golgotha’ of the West” 70 and
the pagan altar of incineration during the Roman Civil War unleashed by the death of Nero in
A.D. 68. (Indeed, it was precisely in the Vatican then, and especially in the later Romish
mass, that - in the opinion of Classic Protestantism - “also our Lord was ‘crucified’” anew. 71 )
175. Before this “Great Tribulation” of 64 to 70 A.D., explains Schaff, 70 “the Roman
Empire was at first by its laws of justice the protector of Christianity, without knowing its true
character - and came to the rescue of Paul on several critical occasions.” However, things
changed dramatically against Christianity from the time of the A.D. 64 Neronian burning of
Rome and the resulting persecution of Christians.
176. Indeed, Christians then continued to be disadvantaged throughout the Empire
during the following 66.5 to 70 A.D. period - even while the Romans attacked and finally
burned down Jerusalem. For now Rome “rushed into deadly conflict with the ‘new’ religion
[of Christianity], and opened, in the name of idolatry and patriotism, a series of intermittent
persecutions which [only] ended at last in the triumph of the banner of the cross at the Milvian
Bridge” 70 under the Briton Constantine as the first Christian Caesar of the Roman Empire at
the beginning of the fourth century A.D.
177. Starting with the Neronian persecutions, Rome more and more revealed itself as
an incipient antichrist. From A.D. 64 onward Rome, argues Schaff, “formerly a restraining
power that kept back for a while the outbreak of antichrist now openly assumed the character
of antichrist with fire and sword.” 70
178. On the Roman Antichrist, the Westminster Confession of Faith, citing Second
Thessalonians 2:3-9 and Revelation 13:15-17 & 13:6, argues that “the Pope” (23:4) - viz. “the
Pope of Rome” (25:6) alias the Romish Papacy - “is that antichrist...that exalteth himself in
the Church against Christ.” For (29:2-6) “the Popish sacrifice of the mass...is most
abominably injurious to Christ’s one only sacrifice...and is the cause of manifold
superstitions” and “gross idolatries.” Indeed, “Popish...vows...are superstitious and sinful
snares in which no Christian may entangle himself” (22:7) - and “Christians...should not marry
with infidels, papists, or other idolaters” (24:3).
179. Now the predicted “Great Tribulation” started with Nero’s burning of Rome in
A.D. 64. As Schaff remarks: “To divert from himself the general suspicion of incendiarism,
and at the same time to furnish new entertainment for his diabolical cruelty, Nero wickedly
cast the blame upon the hated Christians.” 70 They, “especially since the public trial of Paul
and his successful labors in Rome, had come to be distinguished from the Jews.... They were
certainly despisers of the Roman gods, and loyal subjects of a higher King than Caesar, and
they were falsely suspected of secret crimes.” 70 Understandably, “the two most prominent
Apostles, Peter 72 and Paul, 73 were among the many that perished under Nero and during the
“‘Great Tribulation.’” 74
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