JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

Jesus called the greatest tribulation the World would ever have seen till A.D. 70 or ever would
see thereafter. That was, of course, the “Great Tribulation” of John’s (own) day - the “Great
Tribulation” lasting from the A.D. 62f Roman battles against the Britons, through Nero’s 64
A.D. burning of Rome and the A.D. 69 re-burning of Rome, until Titus’s A.D. 70 burning of
Jerusalem and the contemporaneous dislocation of the entire Pagan Roman Empire. 161
341. Revelation chapter eight records the opening of the seventh seal of the book of
then-still-future history. At this time, seven angels appear, eacih ready to blow his trumpet,
one after the other. 162
342. When the first trumpet sounds, a third of the trees gets destroyed. 163 When the
second trumpet sounds, a third of the sea becomes blood and a third of the sea-creatures dies
and a third of the ships gets destroyed. 164 When the third trumpet sounds, a third of the rivers
and of the water-fountains gets fouled up. 165 And when the fourth trumpet sounds, a third part
of the sun and of the moon and of the stars gets smitten. 166
343. These catastrophes probably all occurred, at least in embryonic form, in the A.D.
64 to 70 “Great Tribulation” throughout the Pagan World (ending with the destruction of
Jerusalem). But they also anticipate similar catastrophes (both physical and psychical)
especially in the Early Church of the first few centuries of Christianity - as well as down till
the end of all subsequent history, at least till today. Thus practically all theologians.
344. Revelation chapter nine describes the sounding of the fifth trumpet. Here, the
bottomless pit is opened. Scorpion-locusts emerge - not to harm the grass, nor to attack
God’s elect, but to torment only unbelievers (or those who do not faithfully embrace the
baptismal seal of the living God upon their foreheads). 167
345. Many regard this as a prediction of the rise of Mohammad and his Arab
Muslims throughout the entire southern part of the Roman World across North Africa, and
into Spain and France. Thus Beatus, Halevi, Joachim, Luther, Bullinger, Foxe, Napier,
Downham, Brightman, Pareus, Davenport, Mede, Cotton, Parker, Goodwin, Durham, Mather,
Jurieu, Daubuz, Vitringa, Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards, Newton, Gill, Priestley, Faber,
Brown, Scott, Bickersteth, Gaussen, Elliott, Barnes, Lange, Kuyper, Makrakis, and Philip
Mauro etc.
346. Next, at the sounding of the sixth trumpet, the great river Euphrates is crossed by
a vast number of invaders - who are used by Almighty God to punish the idolatry and other
sins of those whom they attack. 168 Many regard this as a prediction of the arrival of the
Ottoman Turks from Central Asia across the Euphrates and into Asia Minor - and their
subsequent conquest of Constantinople and their penetration far into Southeastern Europe.
Thus: Halevi, Joachim, Albert the Great, Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, Chytraeus, Bullinger,
Brightman, Pareus, Mede, the Geneva Bible, Durham, Goodwin, Mather, Jurieu, Mather,
Newton, Fleming, Daubuz, Vitringa, Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards, Gill, John Brown of
Haddington, Wesley, Faber, Fuller, Scott, Elliott, Albert Barnes, Lange, and also very many
others.
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