There you go unbound, here is one with more then three paragraphs but well worth the reading.
What happened in 70 AD?
Objective: Many articles prove the significance of Jesus return in 70 AD. It has been proven repeatedly that the prophecies of the prophets and of Jesus came true. It has also been proven that the disciples taught only what they had been taught and left nothing out. In this posting, I am trying to point out other things that also happened in 70 AD. There are a lot more things that happened then that affect us today. One of these things is the existence of the devil or Satan. Trying to point out something that people want to hold on to is going to be hard. In this article, I will pose some questions to people who hold on the existence of Satan and say that he still has power and in doing so; believe the opposite of what the Scriptures teach. When one is first introduced to Preterism or eschatology, it goes against all that one has been taught. The same could be said about this topic. I hope you enjoy this article and it helps you in your continuing study of Gods Word.
This study is about the devil, Satan, the serpent and his existence today. Back in the late 60s and early 70s, Flip Wilson had a saying: The Devil made me do it. How true is that statement? Is the devil so powerful that we today, cannot resist him or is he powerless? Is he still alive or does he not exist in any way, form or fashion? I read in a book once that the devil is powerless. In that same book, it also stated that the devil has the power to deceive. Which one is it? How can the devil be powerless and still have power?
The only place to start is at the beginning. Lets consider Genesis 3:15:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.
In other versions, it may use the phrase and he will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel. Bruise is even used in Youngs translation. So, what is the problem? If you look at the text in Hebrew, you will notice that each bruise has a different meaning. The meaning fits very well with the meaning of bruise in the Greek.
In Goodwick # 8789, the first bruise or he will bruise your head means: to crush. In Goodwick # 8790, the second bruise or ..you will bruise his heel means: to strike. One will notice the next two texts and how they are translated. In looking at this text, one needs to look at the whole picture and know who will do what to whom to correctly interpret the text.
Who is the he in this text? We all know that this text is talking about Jesus. Most Bibles refer one to Romans 16:20 and Hebrews 2:14. Let us start with Romans 16:20.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under you feet.
The KJV and YLT again use the word bruise. The Greek-English Interlinear translates it like this:
And the God of peace will crush - Satan under the feet of you soon.
The Greek meaning of the word bruise or crush in this text is: Strongs # 4937 or Goodwick
# 5341: to break, destroy, dash to pieces. So far, the meaning of the word bruise in the New Testament and Old Testament is the same. Let us see if this meaning is carried throughout the Scriptures.
Hebrews 2:14
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is the devil.
What does the phrase mean, he might destroy him..? In Strongs # 2672 and Goodwick
# 2934 destroy means: to nullify, abolish, to cease, pass way, to make void, to do away with, put an end to. Now I ask you, did Jesus do that or did he fail?
In 1 Corinthians 15:26 it says, The last enemy to be destroyed is death. In verse 24, it tells us that the end will come after everything has been destroyed and death was that last thing. The word destroy has the same meaning as in Hebrews 2:14 and Romans 16:20.
Both in 1 Corinthians 15:26 and Hebrews 2:14, death, Satan or the Devil go hand in hand. I ask again. Did Jesus destroy death or not? Look at the time frame in Corinthians 15:24, Then the end will come
Lets look at 2 Timothy 1:10:
but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Again, the meaning of destroyed is the same as the others. Now that we have seen that Jesus destroyed death at his appearing or coming in 70 AD, what kind of death was destroyed and what kind of life was brought? Was it physical death and physical life or spiritual death and spiritual?
In Revelation 12:12b But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short. What does his time is short mean? Could it mean that Satan knew his time was running out? His number was being called up. On the other hand, could it mean in a futuristic sense that soon meat 1000 plus years? In Revelation 20:10, you have the Devil or Satan or the ancient serpent, the dragon (all names meaning the same person Revelation 20:2) being thrown into the lake of burning sulfur. In addition, death and Hades were thrown into the same place and here it is called the lake of fire. (verse 14)
Here are some questions to the ones who believe that the devil still exists after 70 AD.
1. If the devil was judged and cast into the lake of fire in Revelation 19 and still survived, would that make him more powerful then the Almighty God?
2. How can someone that has been dashed in pieces or put an end to, still exist, today?
3. If the devil still exists today, what is his purpose? What does he do? Does he just roam the earth with nothing to do, because he is powerless?
4. Do you believe Scripture or not?
Max King, in his book The Cross and the Parousia, page 9 puts it this way,
the primary aim of Christs Messianic reign (His pre-end-of-the-age reign) was the resurrection of the dead by means of the age-consummation defeat of sin and death.
The law + Sin = Death
Let us go into this a little deeper. I am not going to go into detail about the eschatological matters. Many articles prove that Jesus has returned and the resurrection, judgment has happen in 70 AD. I would like to pose a question. The law passed away and death, Satan, Hades have been destroyed, all in the same time period, 70 AD. Where does that leave sin? In Romans 6:23 it says, The wages of sin is death. So, if sin still exists, what is the result from sin since death has been destroyed?
Again, let us start in the Old Testament. Go to Daniel 9:24.
Seventy sevens are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
What does it mean,
.to put an end to sin
? In Strongs # 8552 or Goodwick # 9462, the word is Taman, which means to be finished, to completely destroy. Some say that it is talking about animal scarifies. That cannot be, because it talks about that in verse 27. You will also notice that it is using the same phase,
.will put an end to sacrifices and offerings
. This phrase has a different Hebrew word and meaning. The word is Sabat, which means to rest or cease. Josephus tells us that this did happen around February 67 AD. This is from Works of Josephus , volume 1, and page 430.
In Hebrews 9:26b it says.
But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by sacrifice of himself.
Turn to 1 John 3:4-9. I want to put this into context so I will quote the whole text.
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away (or remove) our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No on who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devils work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because Gods seed remains in him, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
The phase
appeared to destroy the devils work means this: # 3395 Goodwick or # 3090 Strongs: to demolish, to loosen its obligation of a law or institution, or making void, doing away with.. From this meaning, it is talking about the law and sin.
The Greek-English Interlinear puts verse 8 like this: For this was manifested the Son of God, in order that he might undo the works of the devil.
Look at Romans 7:7-11:
What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have know what coveting really was if the law had not said, Do not covet. But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.
What does the phase, ..apart from law, sin is dead.. mean?
Romans 5:12-14, 20
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all have sinnedfor before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account (or not charged to ones account) when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
(20) The law was added so that the trespass might increase..
Romans 4:15
.. because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
Are we living under the law? What does
where there is no law there is no transgression, mean? What is the law? The law is the rules and regulations that God gave Moses. The law also includes the Ten Commandments. The law has prophecies about Christ, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and many others. The law is no more. We are not even under the Ten Commandments. You might say, Wait, just one minute. We follow the Thou shall nots..
James 2:10 puts it this way.
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it
Do we, today Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy
Exodus 20:8. There were around 613 separate commandments in the entire Law of Moses. Today we are living under the results of the promises that were giving to the first century Christians. While they lived under hope, we live under assurance. The law was only a shadow of what was to come. The whole book of Hebrews explains this by comparing the Old Covenant with the New Covenant.
Max King puts it this way in his book The Cross and The Parousia of Christ, page 644-645.
The fact that Paul is dealing with the 70 AD consummation of the Jewish age is brought out clearly by the manner in which he expresses deaths ultimate defeat (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law(verse 56) Paul is conscious that deaths defeat hinges upon sins defeat, and that the defeat of sin is tied to the annulment of the old aeon of law, which is sins strength. Many interpreters are puzzled by the presence of the law in a passage where the law would seem to have no relevancy if it were removed at the cross. Nevertheless, the law is in verse 56, and Paul sees its annulment in connection with the consummation of the age very much a part of the defeat of sin and death.
If sin, death and the law are, in Pauls treatment of salvation-history, interlocking realities, how can these powers be defeated in Christs death and still remain to be defeated in the 70 AD consummation of the age?
However, if one already is free from the strength of sin (the law), and from the sting of death (sin), where is deaths power? For Paul, death is abolished when the state of sin and the law are abolished. The state of sin, the law, and consequently death are abolished when the old Covenant aeon is consummated, giving place to the New Covenant aeon of life and righteousness.
Did the Second Coming affect everyone, both the save and unsaved? Did the Kingdom only come for a certain group of people or everyone? Was the judgment for everyone? Did the passing of the law and the destruction of death affect everyone? If we are living in the results of promises made to the first century Christians, then the law, sin, death, Satan (the devil) no longer exists.
One may ask Why is there evil in the world? The answer is very easy. It is because of our own desires. We always want to blame someone else for our problems. That is why we want to hang on to the existence of Satan. We do not want to have personal responsibility for our actions. The world keeps telling us the reason we act the way we do is, because of experiences in our childhood or parents mistreated us, or we had some terrible event happen while we were young and it has affect us. There are some that even blame God for the pickle they are in. How fast we forget what James says in James 1:13-14.
When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
We just do not realize that our beliefs have consequence. Our ideas affect our beliefs and the way we view ourselves.
Our reason for living is found Revelation 5:9-10. This text is talking about us today.
..You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.
