Interplanner
Well-known member
I don't expect to 'square away' every single thing in the Rev, and I don't start there, and I don't build any doctrine that is not completely clear in a letter.
The 'rebellion that desolates,' as the horrible zealot movement was first called in Dan 8:13, had a leader. That was the son of perdition. the vision of this desolation has a time frame; actually the work of Messiah does, and the desolation is by his counterpart and tacked onto that time period, rather inexactly, I would say.
But guess what? Christ mentioned this awful set of events happening before his generation was gone several times. Lots of specifics. So that much is rather narrowed down.
I feel no lingering pull to put everything in the Rev in neat boxes and files. I think it was a pastoral set of images to help the Christian escapees from Judea (let those in Judea not go to the cities) understand what had happened.
The main problem: Judaism/Jerusalem was a harlot, riding on Roman authority and Rome quit the deal they had and ruined her, Rev 17. We find Judaism's leaders in a lot of key places around the empire, but we also find zealots trying to liberate the country itself and get other parties involved in breaking Rome's eastern rim. I think Rome had enough with the zealots revolts (plural) and decided to purge out the country. Don't forget, Claudius had evicted all Jews from Rome a bit earlier, although that set was back in place (Acts 18:1). My point is there were simmering suspicions about the Jews all through this period, and Rome had to shut it down when the major revolt of 66 began over the use of temple treasury monies.
The 'rebellion that desolates,' as the horrible zealot movement was first called in Dan 8:13, had a leader. That was the son of perdition. the vision of this desolation has a time frame; actually the work of Messiah does, and the desolation is by his counterpart and tacked onto that time period, rather inexactly, I would say.
But guess what? Christ mentioned this awful set of events happening before his generation was gone several times. Lots of specifics. So that much is rather narrowed down.
I feel no lingering pull to put everything in the Rev in neat boxes and files. I think it was a pastoral set of images to help the Christian escapees from Judea (let those in Judea not go to the cities) understand what had happened.
The main problem: Judaism/Jerusalem was a harlot, riding on Roman authority and Rome quit the deal they had and ruined her, Rev 17. We find Judaism's leaders in a lot of key places around the empire, but we also find zealots trying to liberate the country itself and get other parties involved in breaking Rome's eastern rim. I think Rome had enough with the zealots revolts (plural) and decided to purge out the country. Don't forget, Claudius had evicted all Jews from Rome a bit earlier, although that set was back in place (Acts 18:1). My point is there were simmering suspicions about the Jews all through this period, and Rome had to shut it down when the major revolt of 66 began over the use of temple treasury monies.
