The Date

 

 

We talked about Jesus’ return

Though we didn’t know when

But we did know somethings would happen

Just before then.

 

John was clear in his letters

Concerning the things that would happen,

And Jesus as he spoke to his disciples

They felt quite threatened.

 

They were going to lose their temple

And their beloved Jerusalem,

These were two of the major things

That would happen to them.

 

As we gazed at the temple

We just could not believe

That this would happen to our place of worship,

We were quite grieved.

 

As a matter of fact, we quizzed the Master

Concerning the date

And we got the distinct impression

It would be sooner rather than late.

 

 

What really got through to us

Was when he gave us the time frame

That some of us would be alive…

And I thought, “Who could be so insane?”

 

This temple was our life

And it was our connection with God

And, the fact that the Master was leaving

Had already left us in awe.

 

Not long after that unsettling discourse

The Master was crucified

But he rose from triumphantly from the dead

As we ourselves testified.

 

Thereafter we watched him as he ascended

And we thought what he had said,

About the horrid events that were coming

When not all of us would be dead.

 

So that when we heard from John

About his experience on Patmos isle,

We were even more convinced that all these things

Would happen in a relatively short while.

 

We were under intense persecution

From many of our fellow Jews

And they became more and more incensed

As we preached the Good News.

 

The Master warned that they would hate us

Since they had hated him

And just as he had said, their view of him

Became more and more dim.

 

Revelation 17:3

 

The apostle John pointed to seven heads-

The first would have to be Julius Caesar,

Five of had fallen and one was,

Which led to Nero, the present Emperor.

 

Galba Caesar would follow Nero

But would remain only for a short while

And one only need to check Jewish history

In which this matter is filed.

The temple was destroyed in AD 70

And Jerusalem was laid waste,

This happened after Nero Caesar had died

And this can be easily traced.

 

Emperor Nero died in AD 68,

The sixth Caesar on the apostle John’s list

So, the temple would have to be standing;

That we ought not to have missed.

 

It would have to be the second temple

That John had written about,

The one that Herod had refurbished-

Of this there should be little doubt.

 

Revelation 11:1-2

 

He was told to measure the temple

Hence, there must have been one,

Tell me, what would have been the sense

To measure a temple that was gone?

 

The temple must have been standing

When John wrote the book,

Hence, this would have to be before AD 70

Just take another look.

 

Luke 21:24 and Revelation 11:2

 

Then they are the parallel passages

Found in Revelation 11 and Luke 21

In which both Jesus and the Apostle John

Pointed to when the temple would be gone.

 

Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles

Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

The echoing of this in Revelation 11:2

Suggests the temple was standing still.

 

The temple would cease to stand in AD 70

The culmination of a forty-two months attack,

Read Revelation chapter 11 and verse 2

To ascertain this fact.

 

John must have been referring to Jesus

As it pertains to this event,

The accuracy of apostle John’s reference

Could not be mere coincidence.

 

History shows from 67 AD to August AD 70

War was raged on the Holy City,

Therein would be our three and half years

As stated in John’s prophecy.

 

There in is fulfilment of the Gentile’s time

As spoken by both Jesus and John,

Now the spreading of the Gospel could take place

Since the Jewish temple is gone.

  

Matthew 24:13

 

And this gospel of the kingdom

shall be preached in all the world

for a witness unto all nations;

and then shall the end come.

 

The date must have been before AD 70

When the book of Revelation was written,

It must have been when we consider

The period when all these things happened.

 

All these things must happen, said Jesus,

Before the end is come,

The coming judgment on the Jews

And the setting up of the kingdom.

 

Matthew 24:32-33

 

So likewise ye,

when ye shall see all these things,

know that it is near, 

even at the doors.

 

Verily I say unto you,

This generation shall not pass,

till all these things be fulfilled.

 

Revelation 3:9

 

Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan,

which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie;

behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet,

and to know that I have loved thee.

 

Romans 2:28-29

 

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly;

neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly;

and circumcision is that of the heart,

in the Spirit, and not in the letter;

whose praise is not of men, but of God.

  

John 8:39

 

They answered and said unto him,

Abraham is our father.

Jesus saith unto them, 

If ye were Abraham's children,

ye would do the works of Abraham.

 

Galatians 3:29

 

And if ye be Christ's,

then are ye Abraham's seed,

and heirs according to the promise.

 

Two dates are in contention

For the writing of the book of Revelation,

The more popular date has been AD 95

But AD 65 is gaining in consideration.

 

This earlier date is based on information

As shown in this conversation;

Most of which comes from the book itself-

That book being the book of Revelation.

 

John wrote to seven churches

That were experiencing great persecution

And he addressed the said churches

As “brother and companion in tribulation”. 

 

Matthew 16:28

 

Verily I say unto you,

There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death,

till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

 

That he was sharing in their tribulation

There is therefore no doubt

And the fact that he was still alive

Should bear this all out.

 

John is said to have died in AD 100

At the ripe old age of 93 or 94,

Hence, he was one of them still standing

As Jesus had spoken of before.

 

Stewart Russell © March 10, 2021

Once Upon A Time

 

Once upon a time we would ask

Who, where, what and when

When confronted by a narrative

In which we saw a problem.

 

The simple facts about a matter

To gain some comprehension,

Yes, these four narrative keys especially

Would form our basic questions.

 

Only after these four were settled

Would we decide to move on

But nowadays when it comes to the Bible

This approach seems long gone.

 

The why and how would follow

Before the “what do you think”

But we jump to conclusions these days

Before the eye could blink.

 

We regarded the topic sentence

When we read another’s essay

But when it comes to the Bible story

Denomination points the way.

 

Primary schools are the exception

That still practise these basic tenets:

The who, where, what and when

Is still their ongoing habit.

 

Who said what and to whom?

Where was it said and when?

Why it was said and how it was said-

That’s what we asked our children.

 

The explicit became clear

As it was right there on the page

And once we had established this

We could go on to the next stage.

 

However, in studying the Bible

We attempt it in the reverse,

We interpret and then draw conclusions

Based on what we heard at first.

 

 

“The cart before the horse”

I’m sure you have heard this before,

Yes, we are still doing it today

And with the Bible, much more.

 

Revelation 13:1

 

The apostle John saw a beast

That rose up out of the sea

With seven heads, ten horns and ten crowns

And upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

 

Revelation 13:7

 

And it was given unto the beast

To make war with the saints

And power was given him over all kindreds

And tongues and nations.

 

From these two verses alone

The beast is both Empire and Emperor,

The beast is both symbolic of Rome

And its present emperor, Nero.

 

Revelation 17:11

 

The beast not only has seven heads

But is also one head as in Nero,

He is the six hundred three score and six

As in Hebrew “Neron Kaiser” shows.

 

 

The Hebrew number system

Derived its values from its alphabet,

When tallied with Neron Keiser

The following is what we get.

 

The vowels were deleted

Since there were no vowels in Hebrew,

Hence the letters NRWN QSR

Stand for Neron Kaiser too. 

 

 

Nero was the first imperial persecutor

Of the Christian church

And his name matches the number 666

As shown in this research.

 

 

You may wonder about the 616

Again, his name provides the catch,

This one is the Latin enumeration

And Nero Caesar is the match.

 

Revelation 17:10

 

There, you have it either way-

The ball lands on the sixth wonder,

Five kings are fallen, one is and one to come

That sixth king is Nero Caesar.

 

 

The seventh is not yet come-

His reign being for a short space,

Seven months was earmarked for him-

Galba fits right into this place.

 

 

Julius Caesar was the first

Followed by his great-nephew, Augustus,

Third, fourth and fifth in order:

Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius

 

“And there were seven kings

Five are fallen and one is;”

Nero was that Roman Emperor

That perfectly fits this list.

 

It was a riddle for the Romans

But surely not for John,

In just a shorth while he would have figured

 The temple and Jerusalem would be gone.

 

 

Nero Caesar was a horrible man

And was worshipped as divine

And the great tribulation of this period

Was part and parcel of his time.

 

His would not have been

A literal sitting in the Jewish temple

But the god-like stance he had taken

And how he was regarded by the people.

 

Acts 12:22-23

 

You would recall King Herod,

To the people he spoke like a god,

But Herod, in his most glorious moment,

Died like a depraved fraud.

 

And so too had Nero Caesar

Who it is alleged committed suicide,

And who, like so many are forced to realize,

God is God and there’s none besides.

 

And what about the mark

Without which no Jew may buy or sell?

Well Nero’s image was on the coins inscribed

As the history of the time did tell.

 

 

During the reign of Nero Caesar

The coinage system was under reform

Hence, at the time of John’s writing,

Nero’s image was on the coins.

 

You would recall the question

That the disciples had posed to Jesus,

Should they pay the Roman tax

As required by Caesar Augustus?

 

Rend to Caesar what is Caesar’s

Was what Jesus had replied

After Caesar’s image was on the coin

That the disciple had supplied.

 

Revelation 13:18

 

Here is wisdom:

Let him that have understanding

Count the number of the beast

For it is the number of a man

And his number is

Six hundred three score and six.

 

Once upon a time,

Though not your usual story line,

Happened as the book Revelation records

And the Tribulation was at that time.

 

 

The millennium kingdom came to earth

With the advent of Pentecost

Where the Holy Spirit, another like Christ

Came to save the lost.

 

The millennium will be complete

When Satan is temporarily released

And then bound again forever

And when time will forever cease.

 

The beast of Revelation is not future

Neither the number of a man 666,

Hopefully I have shown in this poetic discourse

A futuristic position just does not fit.

 

Stewart Russell © March 6, 2021

 

“Left Behind”

 

 

“Left Behind” is a series of novels

Co-authored by Tim Lahaye,

It tells about events that will take place

Possibly in our day.

 

It is a futurist view of eschatology

Dealing with the End Times,

And of all the eschatological views

It is the most prominent kind.

 

The series tells of Jesus’ return

In a series of fictional novels

And all the events that will occur

Affecting the world’s peoples.

 

 

The other author is Jerry Jenkins,

And was first published in 1995

Hence, this being its 25^th anniversary

Shows how the series has thrived.

 

It has sold millions upon millions

And is still taking the world by storm,

And though it is a fictional series

Its authors still caution: be warned!

 

The rapture can occur at anytime

Nothing is left to be fulfilled,

However, given this is its 25th anniversary

It is surprising we are here still.

 

 

It tells of a seven-year period

The Bible calls The Tribulation,

Of a time when the world will experience

Untold perils and destruction.

 

The Church will have been raptured

And will be in heaven at this time,

And all these plagues and judgments

Will be visited on those left behind.

 

The way the series was structured

Implies it should have happened by now

But two and half decades afterwards

The world is the same somehow.

 

The title, however, may still be apt

Based on what preterists believe,

The futurists’ position should be left behind

Since it’s clear they’ve been deceived.

 

 

AD 70 is regarded as the worst time

The Jews have ever had to face,

They were forced to flee the Holy City

Or be wiped out without trace.

 

The troupes of the Roman Empire

Surrounded them on all sides,

Their emperor, Nero Caesar, was intent

On destroying the Jews, he despised.

 

Jesus had earlier advised them

They should flee to the Judean hills,

Once they had seen these events unfolding

This would be their bitter pill.

 

The temple would be utterly destroyed

And the city would be left desolate

And the very thought of what would occur

Was more that the disciples could take.

 

So, “Left Behind” is way behind

And should really be left behind

And all those who swallow its eschatology

Have also been left behind.

 

 

Jesus will return, that is true

But no one knows when that will be,

It could be in another year, a hundred or more

But every born-again will see.

 

One’s eschatological position

Should not be a deterrent to salvation

As long as sometime during his lifetime,

He makes this vital decision.

 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

And the Bible says you will be saved,

The Holy Spirit will transform your heart

And change the way you behave.

 

  

Confess your sins this moment

And acknowledge Christ as your Saviour

And you will never be left behind

For in Christ you will be highly favoured.

 

Stewart Russell © November 21, 2020