Hey, if that's the way you view it, then far be it for me to convince you otherwise. I see a physical City in Revelation and you don't.
We will let the audience decide.
I am not interested in what the audience thinks. I am not here for a consensus. I am here to testify to the Truth according to the Word of God regarding the woman of Revelation. And you, my friend, do not have the Truth. See why below:
Luke 19:43 That shall be
arriving days upon Thee.[
Revelation 18:8]
and Thy enemies shall be casting up a rampart/siege-work to Thee..
Read the context, dude!
Luke 19:41-44 KJV
[41] And when he was come near, he beheld
the city, and wept over it,
[42] Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
[43] For the days shall come upon thee, that
thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
[44] And
shall lay thee even with the ground, and
thy children within thee; and
they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest
not the time of thy visitation.
The problem is that you go to great lengths to theorize must be taken very literally, is now mysteriously not very literally when it comes to
God's very specific qualification of the prophecy as not one stone would be left standing one upon another! It's just this one part that isn't to be taken literally? That's not some generality, that's a very exact, precise and detailed "
qualification" of the
very stones of both the Temple and the City. In other words, our Lord was precise, explicit and quite unambiguous in what He said about the (
so called) literal stones. First, that there would not be "one stone left standing," and then "one upon another." Thus if you are going to take the Temple building and the City construction very literally, then you by definition have to take Christ's qualifying remarks about said Temple destruction literally. Else you have
confusion and or
personal opinions (private interpretation) about just how much of it must be literal. If the Temple is literal and the City is literal, then the qualifying term of "every single stone" of it falling off it must be literal. Right? Like when Christ said, "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt." My meaning is that it's contradictory to have one thing both precisely physical in construction and not precisely physical in its destruction.
But there really is no contradiction because when Christ was crucified, both the Temple and Holy City were brought to desolation. How? Not as a physical entity, but as it
represents the
congregation of God, and its stones are the PEOPLE of said congregation. HELLO?! Just as it does in the New Testament dispensation! The Temple building fitly framed together, a holy temple in the Lord, they are the stones and Christ the corner stone. Likewise, the Holy city, as Christ Himself illustrated in Luke 19.
Luke 19:44
- "And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."
Don't you see that Christ is
NOT talking about a physical city, but the
Old Testament congregation of Israel, and how it would be brought to ruin or desolation? It's so obvious. And it is also obvious that it was not in 70 A.D. by the Romans, but by
Christ's own people who rejected Him. The Holy City and Sanctuary "represents" the Lord's Old Testament congregation, the people of Israel. Notice "thy children within thee." Moreover, when God fulfills Scripture, its not half way, pick and choose or contradictory, it's total harmony with itself.
Daniel 9:26
- "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."
The people who destroyed the city were not the Romans like you believe, it was the
people of the Prince, the Messiah. Christ was cut off at the cross, not in 70 A.D., and again NOT for Himself -- for His people. Again it is PEOPLE, not physical stones. Indeed true to his prophecy, the city and the sanctuary were destroyed or brought to desolation
by the people of the Prince.. This is what Christ spoke about as He wept over the Holy City Jerusalem concerning its desolation. Not that it would take play over 40 years later in 70 A.D., but
them being cut off and blinded when He (whom the city and sanctuary represented) was cut off. It's not talking about physical stones falling, but
spiritually stones falling as the
kingdom was taken from them and given to another. Can't you understand that?! Not God's building the ruins again by physical stones, but by spiritual stones, with Him (
whom they had rejected as Messiah) as the chief corner stone of
that rebuilding. Sure, you are working hard by running to and fro looking for physical destruction of the Temple and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple and a Physical restoring of the land and city, blah blah blah... but this is a purely private interpretation rather than God's interpretation of the Prophecy! Period! As it is written:
Mark 12:9-12
- "What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.
- And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner:
- This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
- And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way."
Tell me..
HOW is it that they knew what Jesus talked about them, yet Christians today, like you, with so much more information (and with your mishandling of Scripture)
CHOOSE to think it terms of physical stones and buildings! Think about it, Jewish scribes understood that you dont! Israel perceived that
this building Christ spoke about in parables
was about them, and
the rebuilding with Christ as the corner stone, was spoken about Him! Why can't you understand it like they did?! It is because you muse about how stone falling and being in rebuilding must be taken in a literal fashion
simply because of Josephus' testimony of the Romans who laid siege upon and sacked Jerusalem. Please! Where is the Biblical validation that "this" fulfills the prophecy? Simply because it
seems so doesn't cut it.
“Whenever ye see
Jerusalem surrounded by armies,
then know that nigh is
Her desolation. [
Revelation 18:19]
Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 are the Olivet Discourse. You, of course like the Dispensatlationtists, are trying to apply this to a physical temple in 70AD as I have described above. So you err. The Olivet Discourse is a prophecy concerning the
NEW TESTAMENT CONGREGATION prior to the Second Coming. Not 70AD.
Revelation 18
8 Thru this in
one day shall be arriving Her blows
death and sorrow and famine.
19 For to one hour
She was desolated.”
Again, read the context, dude!
Revelation 18:7-10 KJV
[7] How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
[8] Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
[9] And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
[10] Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
This Jerusalem, a great city, is not a physical city in the Middle East. She is the New Testament Congregation who have received spiritual riches (merchandise) where we, as kings of this kingdom, trading Gospel within her. We can "see" of the smoke of her burning as a sign of God's judgment upon her for her unfaithfulness with false doctrines and false prophets everywhere that we need to come out to avoid the
PLAGUES. Do you even know what the plagues referred to? Was it not the same plagues that Christ did to the Jews at the Cross?
Spiritual blindness! This is when God has caused the unbelievers
within the New Testament congregation to believe a lie. This is how they got spiritually blindness just like the Jews before.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 KJV
[8] And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
[9] Even him,
whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
[10] And with
all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
[11] And
for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie:
[12] That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
