The only way one can ascribe th ebulk of Revelation as being written about Nero and His persecution, is if they take the symbols, then symbolize them and twist them to be close but not exact.
I find the biblical metaphors far more convincing than the super-stretching many futurists do in interpreting Revelation. The idea that the giant locusts were actually some sort of soldier in a mech suit amuses me - but is not what John's mix of biblical metaphors is about. He doesn't write so that only people 2000 years later can understand - he writes so
his generation can hear and understand and obey his message. How on earth would YOU obey a message about the Reds fighting the Greens on Mars in 2000 years!? Hear and obey!
John would not have known the extent of the persecutions!
So he can write in intricate detail about some futurist interpretation of conflicts between nation-states that did not even exist in his own time, but can't write in general terms about the broad categories of persecution Rome was about to inflict from his own time? Interesting.
And allegorists hinge much on the word "soon" which is "en" and is a preposition which means by and by more correctly!
I have covered this in a previous post and it most definitely is used as "soon". You need to retract this statement. But here it is again.
REVELATION 1: SOON
How is the word SOON used in the rest of the New Testament?
The NIV renders Revelation 1:1 as:-
"The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place."
The Hendrickson Interlinear bible renders it in the side-bar text:
"A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to show His slaves things which musts occur quickly."
Then, under the word for word greek to english translation, it reads:
"Must occur with speed".
Bible hub has it as ἐν τάχει, en tachei or "in quickness"
Revelation 1:1 Interlinear: A revelation of Jesus Christ, that God gave to him, to shew to his servants what things it behoveth to come to pass quickly; and he did signify it, having sent through his messenger to his servant John,
If you look up tachei it is most definitely about speed of development and is rendered quickly, shortly, short time, soon, quickness, etc.
Greek Concordance: τάχει (tachei) -- 8 Occurrences
Luke 18:8
"I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily."
EG: Acts 12:7
"He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists."
Acts 22:18
"and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’"
Acts 25:4
"4 Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly."
Romans 16:20 is interesting, and could lend itself to a less immediate use of the word as instead of 'shortly' or 'soon' it could be the gospel sense of 'swiftly' which some commentators take as 'surely'. It's the one time in the New Testament where it does not literally mean SOON or QUICKLY.
"20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."
1 Timothy 3:15
"14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that,"
Rev 22:6
6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
This could be the 'soon' of either the imminent Roman persecution or the 'soon' of the 'swift' and sure gospel promise. As verse 6 goes back to the general subject of the book, it's not a conclusive proof of the judgement coming 'soon' and therefore not a conclusive proof that this tachei is frequently used as anything other than the literal meaning of SOON!
Well he may have heard of the destruction of the temple, but the time of the gentiles is still not fulfilled so the destruction of the temple by Titus does not fulfill all bible prophecy.
Sure the temple itself was destroyed, but why aren't the times of the gentiles not fulfilled? Did not the gospel pretty much go out into all the world by the end of Acts? As far as I can tell, there is nothing that remains to be done. Jesus ascended into heaven, the gospel went out into the places described in Acts 1:8 with it ending up at the 'ends of the earth' in Rome - the heartland of the empire that pretty much ruled the known world.
There is nothing left to be done. The Lord could return in 5 seconds - or 50,000 years or so. We just don't know.
also we have no messenger flying throughout the globe warning of the mark, we have no mark, no image coming alive etc.etc.etc.etc. One has to play twister with scripture to get it to conform to an allegorical retranslation!
Sorry - but I'm tired of futurists saying they don't do allegorical translations. What is this mark you speak of? A silicon chip implanted in us or something? Are you kidding me? The passage does not say silicon chip - it just says mark. And then the very next chapter says God's people will have a mark on their forehead! "Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads."
I don't take the number to be literal, or the mark.
The number is 12 times 12 times many many - that great Hebrew number meaning "a gazillion" - the number 1000. 12 tribes times 12 apostles times a gazillion - 144 THOUSAND means the fullest, most complete, perfect number of God's people - everyone who was meant to be there will be there. Not one little child of God will be lost. And - by way of contrast - instead of being 'marked' by the beast - we will be marked with God's name on our foreheads.
Or do you read this literally and there will only be 144,000 people in heaven, all with Jehovah written on their foreheads? Will this be in their language or in Hebrew?
Another serious problem with allegorical reinterpretation of Revelation is this:
Let me guess - that futurists can't stop using allegory themselves?
It is a historical fact that Titus broke the siege of Jerusalem to go back to Rome to see his father vespasian crowned as cesar in 69 AD This matches the Luke account and the internal evidence of Hebrews and Josephus.
Then in order to make the antichrist fit the allegorical opinion, you are forced to make him of the Julian line when that line ended!
I'm not sure I follow - there's Revelation's descriptions of the dragon and the beast from the sea (Rome landing in Asia Minor to persecute the Churches John has written 7 letters to!) and the beast from the earth. Where does Revelation call these the anti-Christ? Don't conflate other new testament descriptions of the Anti-Christ without actually knowing they are one and the same. Some descriptions of anti-christ apply to that cute old lady down the road that grows prize-winning roses. After all, anyone that denies Jesus was in the flesh is anti-christ.
If there was a plausible explanation of Chapter 13 as about Asia Minor, would you even listen? Or are you too sold on the attractiveness of your own end-times-table?
Remember, John said SOON and meant SOON and NEAR and wanted HIS generation to HEAR and OBEY. These words cannot be swept aside - Chapter 1 means what it says in the clearest use of the words. "These things" must be the suffering describing the 1000 years - all the time between Jesus resurrection and his return. The perfection of the millennium is describing the rest of the martyrs, but not life here on earth. The rest of the book describes that - and is more applicable than ever right now given we are in the middle of one of the pandemics that Revelation says will typify these last days (2000 years and counting.)
(Note - I'm saying pandemics are a
theme with a certain application in Revelation - not that it specifically predicted this one.)
