Interesting post.
The author of this site seems to believe that there have been multiple destruction of the heaven and earth thru out the ages.
I just came across the article as I have always viewed Revelation as "Covenantle"........
I have never seen it explained in that manner as this site:
The author of this site seems to believe that there have been multiple destructions of the heaven and earth thru out the ages.
I just came across the article as I have always viewed Revelation as "Covenantle"........
I have never seen it explained in that manner as this site
The Covenantal Significance of the Destruction of Heaven and Earth - Revelation Revolution
Thus the destruction of heaven and earth is said to occur around the time of the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians according to Jeremiah 4:23-26 and then again at the fall of Babylon which resulted in the return of the Jews from exile and the subsequent rebuilding of the Temple shortly thereafter. Here one can see that the destruction of heaven and earth seems to accompany both the time of the destruction and rebuilding of the Temple. Since the Temple is necessary to perform the Law of Moses, it is perhaps not surprising that the destruction of heaven and earth seems to mark both the destruction and rebuilding of the Temple which marked the cessation of the practice of God’s covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai and its resumption.
I believe the sixth time heaven and earth were destroyed and recreated was during the Maccabean Wars. During this war the Jews fought for and temporarily won their sovereignty from Greece during a series of battles in the second century B.C. This war began when the Seleucid Empire attacked Jerusalem and seized the Temple, desecrated it and put a stop to the practice of the Law. The Temple remained under Greek control until it was seized by Jewish rebels under Judas Maccabees and reconsecrated three years later. With the Temple seized and the Jews thus unable to perform the stipulations of the Law, God’s covenant with the Jews was temporarily put on hold and heaven and earth was destroyed. The destruction of heaven and earth at this time is implicit in Zechariah 14. In this chapter events fulfilled in the Maccabean Wars are painted in imagery mimicking the steps and events of the creation of heaven and earth in Genesis 1:1-10.
As was the case at the destruction of heaven and earth during the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites and the conquest of Israel by the Babylonians, the destruction of heaven and earth during the establishment of God’s covenant of forgiveness of sins brought on by the cross foretold in Jeremiah 31:31-35 was also enacted by military conquest. The full implementation of this new covenant, Christianity, was symbolized by the destruction of Israel and its Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70 which, as stated above, made it impossible to follow the Law of Moses.
dThe fact that it was and is impossible to fully follow the Law from A.D. 70 to the present because the Temple had been destroyed implies that the Law had been fulfilled and the old covenant established at Mt. Sinai was replaced by a new covenant—Christianity. Not surprisingly the establishment of God’s new covenant with Israel, Christianity, which came into full effect in A.D. 70 at the destruction of the Temple was also marked with Biblical imagery denoting the destruction of heaven and earth as is strongly implicit in Revelation 6:12-14.
Signol, Emile. Taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders. 1847
I believe the final prophecy concerning the destruction and creation of heaven and earth was fulfilled one thousand years after the destruction of heaven and earth during the Jewish War predicted in Revelation 6:12-14. During the thousand years between the Jewish War and the Crusades, Israel grew to become an almost exclusively Christian nation. The spread of Christianity in Israel between the Jewish War and the Crusades is the Thousand Year Reign mentioned in Revelation 20. At the end of that thousand year interval, the Seljuk Turks, coming from the land of Gog which is in modern day Turkey, conquered Israel in 1071 A.D.—exactly one thousand years after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. After seizing Israel, the Seljuk Turks harassed and killed Christian pilgrims on holy pilgrimage to Israel. This molestation of Christian pilgrims incited the first Crusade, the Battle of Gog and Magog. See
Revelation 20: A Preterist Commentary,
Ezekiel 39:1-20: A Preterist Commentary and
Ezekiel 38: A Preterist Commentary.
The First Crusade occurred 1000 years after the Jewish War with Rome and is the Battle of Gog and Magog.
As was the case at the destruction of heaven and earth during the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, the conquest of Israel by the Babylonians, the conquest of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, the conquest of the Maccabees over the Seleucids and the conquest of Israel by the Romans, the destruction of heaven and earth at the Crusades was also marked by military conquest. Though Christian Europe won the first battle, the Battle of Gog and Magog, during the First Crusade, the Christian Crusaders ultimately lost political control over Israel in subsequent Crusades. As a result Israel grew to become a predominantly Muslim nation by the end of the Crusades. Here one can see the religious significance of this instance of the destruction and recreation of heaven and earth.
After the Jewish War and the subsequent Bar Kockba Rebellion, Christianity replaced Judaism as the dominant religion in Israel. After the Crusades, Islam replaced Christianity as the dominant religion in the region. Though Islam replaced Christianity as the dominant religion in the Israel, this fact, I believe, does not make obsolete the new covenant instituted by the cross. Remember that after the flood and the establishment of the then new heaven and earth, God promised to never again destroy the land with a flood according to Genesis 9:11. This covenant is presumably still in effect even today despite the fact that heaven and earth had been destroyed several times since then. Furthermore, though the covenant of the Law inaugurated at Mt. Sinai was temporarily nullified at the destruction of the first temple by the Babylonians in the sixth century B.C., and then again during the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanies during the Maccabean Wars of the second century B.C. this fact did not permanently put an end to the covenant at Sinai until heaven and earth had been destroyed centuries later at the final destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. Therefore, after the institution of a new heaven and earth, subsequent renewals of heaven and earth do not necessarily nullify old covenant promises. The only time in which a new covenant replaced an old one was in A.D. 70 when the covenant of the Law was replaced by a new covenant of forgiveness called Christianity. That having been said, I do not believe that the destruction of heaven and earth at the time of the Crusades invalidates the previous covenant established by Christ at the cross and finally put into full effect at the destruction of heaven and earth during the Jewish War (Matthew 5:17-18).
- The following is an interesting quote from the Dead Sea Scrolls: “I [God] will cause my glory to rest on it [the tent of meeting] until the day of creation on which I shall create my sanctuary [Solomon’s Temple], establishing it for myself for all time according to the covenant I have made with Jacob in Bethel.” (The Temple Scroll col. 29.) Does “the day of creation” refer to the time of the construction of the Temple itself? Or could this “day of creation” refer to the construction of the cosmos at the time of the building of Solomon’s Temple?
0 thoughts on “The Covenantal Significance of the Destruction of Heaven and Earth”
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Ron May 12, 2015 at 7:02 pm
Interesting: “Then Babylon conquered Judea and destroyed the first temple making it impossible to fully follow the customs of the Law of Moses (…) During this time God issued Israel a certificate of divorce. (…) The temporary nullification of the Law of Moses was marked by the destruction of the first temple…”
The destruction of the first temple happened at the NINTH OF AV!
At the NINTH OF AV the second temple was also destroyed and the Law of Moses nullified (for ever). This was a clear sign for the jews. Today is an annual fast day in Judaism which commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem and the subsequent exile of the Jews from the Land of Israel. The day also commemorates other tragedies which occurred on the same day, including the Roman massacre of over 500,000 Jews at Betar in 135 CE.
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