Yea.. i'sn't that the same kind of got it all figured out thinking that got the Jews in the trouble their in now.
Um..... no....
First of all, the Jews actually did have a lot of it figured out- the messiah was the one who would restore all Israel, open the worship of YHWH to the Gentiles, restore the proper form of worship, and conquer the worst enemies of God's people. Christ did all that- in the church, in Paul's missions, in eliminating the ritual law, and in defeating spiritual death. In the early first century there were about six or seven million Jews. By the late second century, there were about one million. Where did they all go? The Romans didn't kill them.
They converted. They were convinced of the truth of Christianity precisely
because Jesus fulfilled their expectations, not because he abandoned those expectations.
The Jews may not have seen perfectly, but they did far better than we give them credit.
Second of all, I
certainly don't have it all figured out. It is, rather, pretribulation, premillennial dispensationalists who claim to be able to interpret the prophecies of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation like some sort of roadmap to the future, month by month (RE: Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHay). I, rather, see general images. But where these general images are, they are quite clear.
For instance....
The rest of your interpretation, I completely disagree with.
666 is very definitely a word puzzle for Nero Caesar. Ancient alphabets had numerical equivilents for their letters (Roman numerals are a prime example).
So how is Nero Caesar spelled in Hebrew? Nrwn Qsr, or Nun (50), Resh (200), Vav (6), Nun (50), Kuf (100), Samekh (60), Resh (200). Add these up = 666.
Now granted this could just look like child's play if it stood alone. But it doesn't.
In certain early manuscripts, the number is preserved as 616. At a surface level this would seem to destroy the above they, but actually, it strengthens it. These manuscripts are most often found in western Europe, where there was limited knowledge of Hebrew (or Greek) and Latin was the norm. Now, if we take the Latin (Nero Caesar) and transliterate this into Hebrew, we get Nun (50), Resh (200), Vav (6), Kuf (100), Samekh (60), Resh (200) = 616. The textual variant is
specifically engineered to make it more discernable to the Latin-speaker.
As for buying and selling without the mark of the beast- legionarres were tattooed on their foreheads and hands (and shoulders, to be fair) with the emperor's image, and the coins were minted with his image upon them. Moreover, one could not use Roman coins unless one participated in the
emperor cult- the central religious feature of ancient Rome (its one reason there were moneychangers in the temple- only Tyrean sheckles would do for buying sacrifices, since Roman coins were idolatrous).
Now another clue- in AD 68 the empire was in rebellion against Nero and the man stabbed himself in the throat (dying with the words "What an artist dies in me!!").
And then, for the next two centuries, people were terrified of his impending resurrection. It was known as the
Nero Redivinis myth. Sound like the beast, mortally wounded, and returning to life?
Another point- Revelation 17:10 speaks of seven kings- five have fallen, one is [ruling], and the other has not yet come. Who are the seven kings?
The first seven emperors of the Roman Empire. Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Galigula, Claudius (the five fallen), Nero (the one ruling), and Galba (the one yet to come who shall rule for a little while- barely half a year, as it turned out).
May I make it clear that I don't deny this. Nero was the primary beast addressed in the book of Revelation, but certainly he points forward to
the Antichrist- the Man of Sin in Paul, the Antichrist of John, the Gog and Magog at the end of the millennial age.
However, it is so very important to remember that these documents weren't locked away in a secret vault until the end of time. The Revelation was a document concerned with comforting Christians in John's
present, as well as the future.
And this points us to a second aspect- the harlot of Babylon.
First of all, Babylon is often used as a reference to the primary oppressor of God's people. It is used in Isaiah 14 in such a capacity; and Peter sends greetings from the lady in Babylon
writing from Rome.
But who is the false prophet who gives authority to the Beast (Nero)? Who is the harlot of Babylon (Rome)?
Caiaphas! And the Sadducean priesthood that defiled God's holy temple and collaborated with the Romans, going so far as to
deny God's universal kingship and coming messiah as when Caiaphas yelled out to Pilate "We have no king but Caesar!" It was the Sanhedrin and Sadducean priests who whored out God's chosen people and turned them over to Rome- and prophecied (told a truth) of Caesar's rightful rule over Israel! And made daily sacrifices on his behalf in the temple!
These daily sacrifices were made on Caesar's behalf until AD 66, when the Great Jewish Revolt broke out- when the Jewish Christians alone escaped Titus' seige of Jerusalem and the temple was burnt down- an event still marked today on the saddest holiday in the Jewish year, Tisha B'Av (the ninth day of the month of Av). These Jewish Christians, I believe, are the same faithful remnant of Israel (ie, those Jews faithful to God and his new covenant through Christ) who are proported to be rescued in their entirety in Revelation 11.
Do remember that Christ said
this generation will not pass away until those things prophecied in Mark 13 were fulfilled. And was was prophecied there? First, the destruction of the temple (most Christians agree on this); but second, a
visitation of Christ in judgment. This is precisely what happened in AD 70 during the Seige of Jerusalem. The temple, defiled by collaborting Sadducean priests and Roman offerings, which represented the shadow which Christ came to fulfill in totality, was wiped off the map. In AD 66, shortly after the priests (under zealot influence) ceased offering sacrifices on behalf of Caesar, all Jerusalem saw a brilliant light shine from the temple and head a voice saying "
Let us depart henceforth." There were numerous astrological events recorded by multiple historians of the period that speak to the event's apocalyptic nature, but
this was the decisive one- the shekhinah glory, glowing, departed from the temple. The end of the age, as spoken of in Mark 13 and the Book of Revelation, had come. The Seige of Jerusalem marks, and the Book of Revelation records, the decisive end of the Jewish age in covenant history.
And where the old age of temple worship had ended, as shown to us in Revelation's apocalyptic scenes, the new age of worship had begun, shown to us in Revelation's heavenly scenes. As the book of Hebrews says, the temple was worship under shadows in mere imitation of heavenly worship; but Revelation shows John actually
participating in heavenly worship. Amazing.
Anyway, I eagerly await your responses, brothers.
