JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

186. “The Synoptic Gospels were certainly written before A.D. 70; for they describe
the destruction of Jerusalem as an event still future though nigh at hand.... Matthew was
probably composed first; then Mark.... If the Acts, which suddenly break off with Paul’s
imprisonment in Rome (61-63) [or earlier (F.N. Lee)] were written before the death of the
Apostle - the third Gospel [Luke], which is referred to as ‘the first treatise’ (Acts 1:1), must
have been composed before A.D. 65 or 64.”
187. The book of Acts, claims Schaff (I:728) was written “before the terrible
persecution in the summer of 64, which he [the writer] could hardly have left unnoticed.” As
regards the Catholic Epistles (I:743f): “James, before A.D. 50; First Peter (probably also
Second Peter and Jude), before A.D. 67.” The “Epistles of John” - as “a “postscript” to “the
fourth Gospel.” All of Paul’s writings (Romans to Second Timothy), obviously before his
own martyrdom in “A.D. 64 to 69” (I:330). The anonymous book of Hebrews (I:816 f),
“before the destruction of Jerusalem (70)” and possibly considerably earlier. As regards
John’s Apocalypse (I:834), “the internal evidence strongly favors an earlier date between the
death of Nero (June 9th 68) and the destruction of Jerusalem (August 10th 70)” A.D.
188. It is as if God just waited for the completion of the book of Revelation as the
last book of the Bible, and then terminated the previous instruments of divine revelation
culminating in the temple at Jerusalem - thus making way for the New Jerusalem of the
Christian Church Militant and Triumphant. Malachi chapters 3 & 4 and Matthew
chapters 23 & 24. Thereafter, all that was and is left - was and is the World-wide expansion
of Christianity. Psalms 2 & 22 & 72 & 110; Isaiah 2 & 11 & 65 to 66; Daniel 2:35-44 &
7:13-25; 12:1-13; Zechariah 9:9f; Matthew 28:19; John 3:16f; Acts 1:8-11; Romans 11:11-32;
First Corinthians 15:24-28 and Revelation 15:4 - to culminate in the consummation of Christ’s
Kingdom on the New Earth. First Corinthians 2:9 & 15:28 and Revelation chapters 21 to 22.
189. With specific regard to the book of Revelation (13:8), declared Schaff 87 in 1890,
“ recent [rather than earlier!] commentators discover even a direct allusion to Nero, as
expressing in Hebrew letters (Neron Kesar) the mysterious number ‘666’ - as being the fifth of
the seven heads of the beast which was slaughtered (Revelation 17:10).... Nero, the
persecutor of the Christian Church, was (like Antiochus Epiphanes) the forerunner of
Antichrist, who would be inspired by the same bloody spirit from the Infernal World. In a
similar sense, Rome was a second Babylon; and John the Baptist, another Elijah (cf.
Revelation ll:3f & 14:8f).” [ Earlier Scholars before Schaff rightly see ‘666’ as the Papacy.]
190. Indeed, continues Schaff, 88 “there is scarcely another period in history so full of
vice, corruption, and disaster, as the six years between the Neronian persecution and the
destruction of Jerusalem. The prophetic description of the last days by our Lord (Matthew
chapters 23 to 24) began to be fulfilled before the generation to which He spoke had passed
away, and the day of judgment seemed to be close at hand. So the Christians believed, and
had good reason to believe. Even to earnest heathen minds, that period looked as dark as
midnight.”
191. According to the Pagan Roman Historian Tacitus, 89 Nero had many Christians
crucified, sewed up in skins and ripped up by wild dogs, and covered with pitch and burned
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