Revelation Survey Part 1

Introduction

English Standard Version Chapter 1

1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Greeting to the Seven Churches

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Vision of the Son of Man

9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

This week my aim is to begin our survey of the Book of Revelation from a preterist perspective. In our last time together we looked at the four primary views Christians have held throughout church history as it relates to Revelation. These four views are the futurist, the historicist, the idealist, and the preterist. And after looking at these four views I said that our interpretive approach to John’s Apocalypse, going forward, would be the preterist approach.

Now, because this view is far less popular in our day than it has been at other times in church history, most Christians are usually completely unaware of its existence, let alone possessing much knowledge of the preterist approach at all. The popularity of these four approaches has ebbed and flowed throughout church history, and in our day the futurist approach rules the day, therefore most Christians have heard very little of the other three perspectives for understanding John’s Apocalypse.

For that reason my aim over the next few weeks is to survey John’s Apocalypse from the preterist perspective. While we’ll eventually walk through the book chapter by chapter, for now it’s important that we get a birds-eye view of Revelation as the preterist understands it. In doing so, my hope is 1) to help us understand how the preterist interprets the storyline of John’s Apocalypse, and 2) as a result, thereby making a case for preterism. Sometimes the best way to discern whether a doctrine is biblical or not, is to simply try it on, to put your feet in the preterist’s shoes and see if it fits the biblical data.

Surveying the book will also be essential for grasping the details of John’s visions when we do walk through it, chapter by chapter. Whenever I go hiking or go on a trip I start by plotting my route, I get a lay of the land first. I identify the general approach and direction that I’ll take, the obstacles I might encounter, before setting foot out the door. In the same way we need to plot our course on a map before we get too far into the weeds of John’s visions, lest we get lost and lose our way. This is especially important since the preterist view is known by very few today, and therefore I can’t just assume you already have the necessary foundation by which to build upon and to understand John’s Apocalypse as the preterist does.

Redemptive historical expectation

In our last time, I outlined several strengths of the preterist approach, that I think it rightly understands Revelation as prophesying specific events in history, that the preterist rightly considers John’s audience and the timing of the events which are to be expected in their own generation, that preterists rightly identify the book’s literary genre as prophetic and apocalyptic, and that, like the idealist, they do a good job at interpreting the symbolism, but without divorcing the book’s symbols from the events they mean to describe, and that the events of AD 70 most compellingly correlate with the events described in John’s Apocalypse, that is, first century persecution, the Roman siege against Jerusalem, and the destruction of the Temple. And, lastly, I said that the preterist understanding of Revelation coincides best with what we should expect at that time in redemptive history. And it’s with that point that I want to begin today. Possibly, more than anything else, it has been this point that has convinced me of the preterist approach.

Having finished preaching through Matthew’s Gospel, and more specifically, having studied Matthew chapter 24 and having my eschatological world turned upside down, shortly thereafter, the preterist view of Revelation suddenly made sense in light of my conclusions in Matthew 24. That both Matthew 24 and Revelation are describing the same events, the events of AD 70. And it wasn't just Matthew 24, but in so many other areas of Matthew’s Gospel, areas that all of us are likely very familiar which coincide with the preterist interpretation of Revelation.

Now, here’s what I mean, the preterist understanding of Revelation is much more than simply connecting the events of Jerusalem’s destruction with John’s apocalyptic visions. We could spend hours trying to determine whether the futurist, historicist, or preterist does a better job at correlating historical or future events with John’s visions, and while I think you’ll find the preterist’s historical correlations quite compelling (and while we’ll certainly look at many of them), what I believe is most persuasive is the preterist’s fundamental conclusion that John’s Revelation is meant to carry forward redemptive history, by both prophesying and explaining redemptive history’s transition from the old covenant to the new covenant, from the types and shadows to the perfect, from the earthly Jerusalem to the heavenly Jerusalem, from the harlot to the bride of Christ, and from the Temple to Jesus himself. Something greater and something better had come, and I believe this is what the Book of Revelation fundamentally intends to communicate, and what it fundamentally intends to explain. Judgement against Jerusalem, the harlot, vindication of the saints, and the arrival of the church, the bride of Christ who makes herself ready.

Covenant transition

When Jesus came he established a new covenant, a new covenant that was inaugurated and signified by many events, first, the institution of the Lord’s Supper, second, at his death and resurrection, third, at his ascension, and, finally, on the day of Pentecost. However, all the while, the types and shadows of the old covenant remained, and remained for many years thereafter. Sacrifices were still being made in Jerusalem and the Temple still stood. While the new covenant had dawned the old covenant practices remained intact for some time.

Redemptive history was at a crossroads, while the new covenant had arrived, unbelieving Jews still hung onto the old, and the early Christians were not left unaffected. In fact, this is why several NT letters address issues that arose from this overlap in covenants. Because the old covenant practices were not immediately removed the first century church was forced to grapple with them. What ought we to do with them?

This time of overlap lead to groups like the Judaizers attempting to force Gentile Christians to submit to circumcision, and for the Apostle Paul to write letters to the church in Galatia warning them, “that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be no advantage to you.” Or like the vision that was given to the Apostle Peter in Acts 10 when he had to be convinced that God had abrogated the old covenant regulations of ritual cleanliness, which Peter later realized was an indication of God’s intention to welcome Gentiles, by faith, into the church. However, in Acts chapter 11 Peter was criticized in Jerusalem by the circumcision party for eating with uncircumcised men, so Peter had to explain to them the vision he saw, and how the Spirit of God had fallen upon the uncircumcised just as the Spirit had fallen on them in the beginning.

My point here is that the preterist sees the Book of Revelation as playing a significant role, at this time in redemptive history, a role that prophesied and chronicled the events that carried redemptive history forward, from the old covenant to the new. The significance of Jerusalem and the Temple’s destruction, as described by John’s Apocalypse, is that their destruction would finally liberate the new covenant church from the old covenant types and shadows that so many of the religious leaders held onto. Now, this isn’t to say that those types and shadows didn’t serve a good purpose in redemptive history, but only that, like scaffolding, once the building is complete it’s meant to be torn down, its meant to be removed. The purpose of the scaffolding had been fulfilled. And if that scaffolding had remained it would have only served to get in the way of Christ himself.

The Book of Revelation is meant to chronicle and explain both the end of Temple Judaism and the advent of the Christian church. The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 made way for the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the church. If you’re familiar with the major characters of Revelation, you’ll likely recall in Revelation chapters 17-19 a women, a great prostitute, referred to as the Harlot Babylon, that she was drunk with the blood of the prophets, saints, and martyrs of Jesus. That she sat on a beast with seven heads and ten horns. This beast was representative of the Roman Empire and her emperors, as John says in Revelation 17:9 that the seven heads are seven mountains that the woman is seated upon, and that they are also seven kings. To this day Rome is still known as the City of Seven Hills. John goes on describe that the beast turned against the woman. He says that beast made her desolate and naked, devoured her flesh and burned her up with fire. (Rev. 17:16) Then the angel told John that the woman he saw was the great city that he had seen earlier in chapter 11, verse 8, the city also “called Sodom and Egypt, where [the] Lord was crucified,” which, of course, is Jerusalem.

While, for a time, Jerusalem rode on the back of the Roman Empire in her effort to persecute the early church, that she leveraged the Empire to persecute Jesus’ disciples, the Empire eventually turned on her to burn and devour her. In chapter 19 John heard “what seemed to be a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” God had wielded the Roman Empire to carry out judgement against Jerusalem.

Apostate Jerusalem

And at this point we need to remember that it was in Jerusalem and at the hands of the religious leaders, and even the crowds, that Jesus was condemned to death, that he was hung upon a cross to die. And it was Pontius Pilate that the Jews coerced to carry out their schemes. We need to understand that Israel had become, in large part, apostate. This is why, at the end of Matthew 23, that Jesus said,

English Standard Version Chapter 23

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate.

Therefore, Jerusalem is identified in John’s visions as a harlot. She’s given antagonistic names like Egypt, Sodom, and Babylon, all of which represented Israel’s pagan enemies. And because of her apostasy all of the curses of Deuteronomy 28 will come down upon her, and she will be judged for her immorality, she will be judged for her unfaithfulness to God.

Expectation of judgement

And all throughout the Gospels this is the expectation that’s created for us. We all remember John the Baptist in Matthew 3:7 when the Pharisees and Sadducees went to see him at the Jordan River, and John said to them,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

or in Matthew 12:39 and 16:4 when Jesus repeatedly called the scribes and Pharisees “an evil and adulterous generation”. Or when Jesus cursed the fig tree just outside of Jerusalem, because, like Jerusalem, it had only leaves and it was without any fruit, and so he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

Then, we hear Jesus give his Parable of the Tenants in Matthew 21:33-41 when he said to the chief priests and elders of the people in Jerusalem,

English Standard Version Chapter 21

33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

And if that’s not enough, he gives them a similar parable in Matthew 22:1-14, the Parable of the Wedding Feast. We read,

English Standard Version Chapter 22

22 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” ’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Multiple times, in parables, Jesus condemns Jerusalem’s religious leaders for their long history of killing God’s prophets, even making it clear that he knew they intended to kill him. And what does Jesus say that will happen to them? He says that he will put those wretches to a miserable death, and give his kingdom to a people producing its fruits, to other tenants. That Jesus, like the king, will send his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city.

My point here is that the Gospels increasingly point to a judgement that would eventually befall that great city, Jerusalem. A judgement that would befall them for murdering the prophets, Christ, and his disciples. And we know this because of what Jesus says later in Matthew 23, in his last of 7 woes against the scribes and Pharisees. It says in Matthew 23:29-36,

English Standard Version Chapter 23

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Notice that he says, “all these things will come upon this generation,” that they’re just like their forefathers who shed the blood of the prophets, and that Jesus will again send them prophets, wise men and scribes of whom they will kill and crucify, and many of whom they will flog in their synagogues and persecute from town to town. Jesus here is describing his disciples and the early church, and what we see recorded in the Book of Acts. And by doing so they will fill up the measure of their fathers, which will bring judgment upon their generation.

Then it’s in Matthew 24 that Jesus describes this judgement, this great tribulation, and he tells his disciples in verse 29, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give it’s light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” then in later in verse 33, “So also, when you see all these things, you know the time is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”

Apocalyptic language

Now, descriptions like, “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give it’s light” and “he is coming with the clouds” might trip up modern day readers, but as I’ve pointed out before, this was well known apocalyptic language used to describe God’s coming in judgement against a nation in a generic sense. God’s judgement against Babylon in the OT is probably the easiest example of this. In Isaiah 13:6 it says, “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!” and in verses 9-10, “Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not shed its light.” and then in verse 13, “I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.” So, when Jesus describes the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in Matthew 24 he employs this same kind of language.

Now, this language could certainly be used to describe the second coming when Jesus will judge the whole earth, but the use of such language is not exclusive to the second coming . And here the time indicators clearly indicate that Jesus is referring to the judgment against Jerusalem in their generation. In fact, in Matthew 26:64 when Jesus is turned over to the Jewish Council to be condemned they mock him and demand that he tell them whether he is the Christ, the Son of God, and in verse 64 Jesus says, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” In other words, you may think you’ve won, but after this you’ll see me seated at the right hand of the Father, and coming on the clouds of heaven. They may falsely condemn him while on earth, but they’ll soon see him coming on the clouds of heaven, in judgement against them. Jesus, the prophets, and his saints will be vindicated.

Matthew’s Revelation connection

And so by the time we reach Revelation we read a similar statement in Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the land will wail on account of him.” Notice the similarity in language to Isaiah 13, and especially Matthew 24, and more specifically, notice the time indicator in verse 7, “even those who pierced him.” This coincides with the book’s repeated refrain that these are events that “must soon take place.”

Now, the futurist takes these time indicators and argues that the events are indeed near, but only to that future generation with which John is presumably referring to, but in order to make the text say that, one has to bring their futurist assumptions with him, because you’re not going to get that from the text by itself. Now, this isn’t to say that what we’re taught elsewhere in Scripture can’t be brought to bear on other texts, as I’ve already mentioned, we should do this. For instance, when Jesus says in Mark 11:24, “I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you,” we know that he isn’t teaching that believing prayer is merely a blank check, we won’t get a new house just because we ask with a believing heart. The Scriptures teach elsewhere that whatever we ask must be according to God’s will, therefore we ought to bring that assumption to Mark 11. So the question here in Revelation is not whether or not the futurist can assume that John’s referring to some future generation, but whether that assumption is warranted or not. And I think given what we know about Matthew 24 it’s clear that their assumption isn’t, but rather that John is referring to his generation, that same generation which Jesus said would not pass away until all of these things took place, and that even those who pierced him would see him coming with the clouds in judgement.

In short, the NT creates an expectation that Jerusalem will be judged for her covenant unfaithfulness, for her harlotry, and judged before the end of the disciple’s own generation. Therefore, when we read in Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the land will wail on account of him,” it’s natural and fitting that Revelation would be a prophecy of that judgement which was near in John’s day, the same judgement Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24. And as I eluded to before this putting away of the harlot, earthly Jerusalem, would pave the way for the bride of Christ, the arrival of the the heavenly Jerusalem that John sees in a vision near the end Revelation. But we’ll pickup there in our next time, until let’s pray.

Prayer