In our previous articles in this series,
Did Jesus promise to return in their generation?
The resurrection was expected and fulfilled in that generation
The disciples believed they were in the millennium
The Millennium was expected to end soon
we proved that Jesus promised to return in the disciples lifetimes in order to resurrect and judge the living and dead (Matthew 16:27-28). He was not lying, making a guess, or misunderstood by the disciples, and the angel of Revelation made an oath that his coming would not be delayed.
The resurrection was expected and fulfilled in that generation
In the second article, “The resurrection was expected and fulfilled in that generation“, we showed that the resurrected saints were not meant to dwell on earth forever, but heaven (John 14:2-3, Philippians 3:20, 2 Corinthians 5:1, 1 Peter 1:4, John 17:14). We showed that the dead were waiting in Sheol or Hades for the resurrection (Revelation 20:12-13, 1 Corinthians 15:52-57, Hosea 13:14). They were not already in heaven (John 3:13, Acts 2:34, compare Hebrews 9:8 and Hebrews 9:24). We also showed that in the resurrection the dead would receive new “spiritual” (1 Corinthians 15:44), “heavenly” bodies (1 Corinthians 15:49) “like the angels” (Luke 20:35-36). And just as the bodies of the angels and the resurrected body of Jesus could be visible or invisible, material or immaterial (Genesis 19:1-11, Genesis 32:22-32, John 12:28-29, Matthew 3:16-17, 2 Kings 6:17, Luke 24:31, John 20:26, Luke 24:37-39), so too the resurrection of the saints could be either an invisible or visible event (Philippians 3:21). We also looked at a couple events in history that may have described its fufillment.
The disciples believed they were in the Millennium
In our third article, The disciples believed they were in the Millennium, we covered the idea that the disciples believed that when Christ ascended into Heaven, the Millennium began and that they were currently reigning with him as priests in that Millennium (1 Corinthians 15:19-26, Hebrews 10:12-13, Revelation 3:21). They also believed Satan had been bound (Matthew 12:28-29, Luke 10:17-20, John 12:31-32, Jude 6, 2 Thessalonians 2:6-10) and scripture describes the first resurrection of the saints had occured (Matthew 27:51-53, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Revelation 20:4-6, Hebrews 12:1).
The Millennium was expected to end soon
In the fourth article, “The Millennium was expected to end soon,” we showed that the Judgment of the Son of Man (Matthew 16:27-28) is also the Sheep and Goats Judgement (Matthew 25:31-41) which is also the Great White Throne Judgement (Revelation 20:11-15). The Judgement of the Son of Man was expected to occur in their lifetimes, the Sheep and Goats Judgement was promised to soon happen (Luke 21:36), and the Great White Throne Judgement was promised to occur soon and without delay (Revelation 1:1,3;3:10-11;22:6-7,10,12,20; Revelation 10:5-7; Revelation 11:15-18). We showed that Satan was expected to be released and crushed soon (2 Thessalonians 2:6-10, Romans 16:20).
Jesus also promised his disciples would experience the most distressing time in the history of the world in their generation (Matthew 24:34, Luke 21:36 NIV) and never again would there be a greater time of distress (Matthew 24:21) in fulfillment of Daniel (Matthew 24:15, Luke 21:22). Daniel 12:1-12 prophesies that at the most distressing time of the world, the dead would be resurrected and the wicked dead to shame and everlasting contempt. Therefore Jesus was promising his disciples that the righteous and wicked dead were about to be resurrected and judged.
Both Paul and Peter claimed either explicitly or implicitly that the resurrection of the wicked dead was about to occur (Acts 24:15 see Greek, 2 Timothy 4:1 see Greek, 1 Peter 4:4-7).
Since Revelation 20:11-15 is the only place in Revelation that describes the resurrection of the wicked dead happening, it was promised to be fulfilled in the disciples’ generation.
We provided an explanation of how Christians in that culture and time might have understood the thousand year reign, the “days of the Messiah,” to actually be 40 years.
Now we can turn to the topic at hand. What’s a possible historical fulfillment of these promises?
Looking at history
While I will attempt to provide a reasonable fulfillment historically of these promises, I am not a historian and some of this will be speculative territory. The explanation I provide today, may not be the same one I agree with years from now. Instead, consider it a hypothesis that could start your research, but not as the conclusion of that research.
Who are Gog and Magog?
I speculate that Gog represented unbelieving Jews and Magog represented Rome. But how did unbelieving Jews become Gog? In the Old Testament prophets, it was Babylon, Sodom, and Egypt who were the enemies of God’s people Israel. Since the establishment of the New Covenant, God’s people were reconstituted. It was no longer ethnic Jews but those of faith in Jesus Christ who become the true Israel (Matthew 3:9, Matthew 8:5-11, Matthew 21:43, Matthew 22:1-10, Matthew 24:14, Colossians 1:26-27, Romans 4:12, Romans 11:17-18, Ephesians 2:11-22, Romans 9:6-8, Galatians 3:29, Galatians 4:21-31, Acts 3:21-26).
Worst yet, the old Israel not only rejected Christ but persecuted God’s new people, killed Jesus, and was being held responsible for killing the prophets, making themselves an enemy of the true Israel (Galatians 4:29, Matthew 10:17-23, Revelation 3:9, Revelation 2:9, Luke 11:46-51, 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16, Romans 9:27). That’s why Revelation refers to unbelieving Jerusalem as Babylon, Sodom, and Egypt (Revelation 18:21,24, Matthew 23:30-38, Revelation 11:8). Likewise, Revelation says Gog comes against “the camp of God’s people” (Revelation 20:9). In Revelation, ethnic Jews are never defined as God’s people, this is a title reserved for those who have faith in Christ (Revelation 14:12).
As we will cover next, when Satan was released, possibly in 63AD, he used the Jews to convince Rome to use “Caesar’s sword” for the first time against the Christians in the Neronic persecution. Persecution existed in small doses, but was no where near as wide-spread or terrible as in the Neronic persecution.
Tom Mills from “Preterist and Futurist debate and discussion” group on Facebook says:
Did you know in the Septuagint, in the story of Esther, Haaman, the villan of the story that tried to kill all the jews by the kings decree, is called a “gogite”? The Hebrew scriptures say Agagite, but in the LXX its Gogite, I find that very enlightening! In the same way that Babylon from the OT is used to describe Israel in the NT, I think that perhaps it is the same thing with the Gogites applying to some villian in the New too! (Tom Mills)
In Revelation, perhaps Gog is the unbelieving Jews who wished to persecute God’s people (Christians, Israel) using Nero’s decree like King Xerxes decree to carry it out. They were acting like Haaman, the Gogite.
Another line of evidence that Jerusalem is Gog, is how Ezekiel describes its downfall:
Ezekiel 38:21-22 NIV I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. 22 I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.
In the siege of Jerusalem, the Jewish rebel factions warred against each other within the walls of Jerusalem. They suffered plagues as prophesied against Israel for breaking a covenant (Deuteronomy 28:58-61), famine, bloodshed and Roman hailstones mixed with fire were showered down on them. Ultimately they were destroyed by fire, as Revelation 20:9 prophecies.
How was Satan released?
Revelation 20:7-10 NIV When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves.
Christian persecution existed in smaller doses before 64AD, but in mid November that year, the Neronic persecution started and for the first time the “sword of Caesar” was used against Christians.
Search your records, then you shall find that Nero was the first that used Caesar’s sword against this sect, which at that time greatly increased at Rome. However, we glory in the author of our condemnation, for he who understands, knows that Nero could only condemn that which is very good. [Tertullian Apology Bk. 1, Ch. 5 (3:22)]
A fire broke out in Rome and the Jews incentivized Nero to falsely blame the Christians. Christians were hunted down and subjected to widespread and brutal torture.
Philip Schaff tells us that Sulpicius Severus (c. 363-425) in his Chronicle (2:28-29) “gives a pretty full account [of the horrors suffered in Rome], but mostly [copied] from Tacitus. Both he and Orosius (c. 375-418, History Against the Pagans 7:7) [were the first to] clearly assert that Nero extended the persecution to the provinces.” Both of these were Christian writers, and Orosius worked with both Augustine and Jerome (Ed Stevens, The Final Decade, 152)
Ed Stevens writes:
But Orazio Marucchi, a Roman Catholic scholar, mentions several Roman and Italian sources who indicate that the Neronic persecution was not just confined to Rome or Italy, but rather:
“…extended throughout the length and breadth of the Empire. The burning of Rome was but a pretext, for the Christians were to be considered as enemies of the human race.” [Orazio Marucchi, Manual of Christian Archeology, p. 29] (Stevens, The Final Decade, 155)
If the thousand years were coming to a close, I can see no better time to mark the release of Satan than the start of the Neronic persecution and fire in Rome. He was allowed for a short time to persecute Christians. He “deceived” Rome into falsely blaming the Christians and gathered empire-wide persecution against Christians. Notice what Philip Schaff has to say about that time:
Under this wanton charge of incendiarism, backed by the equally groundless charge of misanthropy and unnatural vice, there began a carnival of blood such as even heathen Rome never saw before or since. It was the answer of the powers of hell to the mighty preaching of the two chief apostles, which had shaken heathenism to its [foundations]. A “vast multitude” of Christians [were] put to death in the most shocking manner. Some were crucified, probably in mockery of the punishment of Christ, some sewed up in the skins of wild beasts and exposed to the voracity of mad dogs in the arena. The satanic tragedy reached its climax at night in the imperial gardens on the slope of the Vatican (which embraced, it is supposed, the present site of the place and church of St. Peter): Christian men and women, covered with pitch or oil or resin, and nailed to posts of pine, were lighted and burned as torches for the amusement of the mob; while Nero, in fantastical dress, figured in a horse race, and displayed his art as charioteer. Burning alive was the ordinary punishment of incendiaries; but only the cruel ingenuity of this imperial monster, under the inspiration of the devil, could invent such a horrible system of illumination. (Schaff, History of the Christian Church)
We covered that when Satan was loosed he would wage war against the saints. We have just such an event happening with Nero using the Roman state to persecute Christians. It seems we have a probable candidate for the time of Satan’s release.
What about the 666 mark of the beast?
Daniel Morais, the author of http://revelationrevolution.org, describes what the mark of the beast represented in history and states that the 666 was a form of “gematria,” an art form of that time that would convert letters into numbers. Hebrew and Greek had letters that were also used as numbers.
Morais argues this 666 value can be applied to the “trinity” of the beast: Nero Caesar and a fusion of the names of the two emperors “Titus Flavius Vespasianus Augustus.”
According to the historian Brian Jones, before A.D. 69, both Vespasian and Titus were called Titus Flavius Vespasianus.
Thus this mark is both a spiritual and physical mark. The physical aspect of the mark of the beast, the charagma, was the name and likeness of these three Caesars found in deeds of purchase and Roman money. Prior to A.D. 70 Rome was sympathetic to Jewish Law and allowed the Jews of Palestine to mint their own money without the graven image of the emperor on it.3 After the fall of Jerusalem, Caesar Vespasian no longer honored the Jewish Law and forced everyone throughout the empire to use Roman money with the name and image of Caesar.
…It should, therefore, not be surprising that a coin issued in A.D. 72 is marked with the following legend around Vespasian’s head: IMP CAES VESP AVG P M COS IIII. If one were to transliterate this inscription into Hebrew characters it would read as follows ymp qys wsp ‘wg p m kws d.121 The sum total of the numerical values of these Hebrew characters adds up to 666 in explicit fulfillment of Revelation 13:17-18: “[N]o one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.”
(Interestingly just as Nero Caesar transliterated into Hebrew characters adds up to 666 so does Titus Flavius Vespasianus by the same transliteration…
How did Christ return?
Historians living hundreds of years ago expressed an event witnessed in Jerusalem in 66AD that Christians could describe as the second coming of Christ. You can see their quotes here:
Records of Jesus coming on the Clouds
Now you may ask, “Doesn’t the bible say all the people of the earth will see him?” This understanding comes from a mistranslation of Matthew 24:30:
Matthew 24:30 BLB And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
Some translations use “people” instead of “tribes,” but this is likely a worse translation. Also the word for “world” can also easily mean “land,” as the International Standard Version does:
Matthew 24:30 ISV Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all ‘the tribes of the land will mourn’ when they see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory.
In this case, the tribes of the land can be more easily identified as the land of Israel and the twelve Jewish tribes, rather than all nations of the earth.
Jesus also compares the visibility of his return to lightning:
Matthew 24:26-27 ESV So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Lightning is not visible across the entire earth, but within a geographical region, such as the land of Israel, it is witnessed.
The same is true for Luke 21:35 where the Young’s Literal Translation properly translates “the whole earth” as “land” as is permitted by the greek. It should be noted that Jesus said they could escape this tribulation by fleeing to the mountains (Luke 21:21), showing that it was a localized event.
What about stars falling from heaven?
Luke 21:25-26 ESV “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Matthew 24:29 NIV “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
In the Old Testament, such language was understood as a metaphorical representation of the destruction of a nation. In Isaiah 34, similar de-creation language is used (Isaiah 34:3-4,9-10) to describe the destruction of Edom (Isaiah 34:5). Although the “stars of the sky” were “dissolved,” the earth still existed and although the land was turned into “blazing pitch” with “smoke rising forever,” the desert animals were able to dwell in it and find rest (Isaiah 34:11,13-15). However, in the events leading up to 70AD, several notable events did occur in the stars in fulfillment of Jesus’s words.
69AD – [E]vil omens occurred. A comet was seen, and the moon, contrary to precedent, appeared to suffer two eclipses, being obscured on the fourth and on the seventh day. Also people saw two suns at once, one in the west weak and pale, and one in the east brilliant and powerful (Cassius Dio Roman History 65.8)
66AD – Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year (Josephus The Wars of the Jews 6.5.3.)
66AD – Now it happened after this that there was seen from above over the Holy of Holies for the whole night the outline of a man’s face, the like of whose beauty had never been seen in all the land, and his appearance was quite awesome (Sepher Yosippon (A Mediaeval History of Ancient Israel) translated from the Hebrew by Steven B. Bowman. Excerpts from Chapter 87 “Burning of the Temple” cited in http://fulfilledtheology.ning.com/forum/topics/historical-records-with-some)
How Satan was thrown into the lake of fire and Gog and Magog were destroyed by fire
Revelation 20:9-10 NIV But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
After Satan attacked the saints, he was thrown into the lake of fire and fire came down from heaven and devoured Gog and Magog.
If Jerusalem was Gog, then its temple and city being burnt down by the Romans with flaming ballistas would likely have been the fulfillment of this prophecy. But what about Magog and Satan?
We have a second “fire from heaven” occuring a few short years after Jerusalem’s burning. In 79AD a huge fire broke out in Rome which was so great, the Romans believed it was sent by God. At that same time, Cassius Dio writes of the Abyss opening up and giants roaming the earth and flying through the sky. Could this have been the angels throwing Satan into the lake of fire literally?
Cassius Dio Epitome of Book 66:22-24
22 1 Such is Vesuvius, and these phenomena usually occur there every year. But all the other occurrences that had taken place there in the course of time, however notable, because unusual, they may have seemed to those who on each occasion observed them, nevertheless would be regarded as trivial in comparison with what now happened, even if all had been combined into one. 2 This was what befell. Numbers of huge men quite surpassing any human stature — such creatures, in fact, as the Giants are pictured to have been — appeared, now on the mountain, now in the surrounding country, and again in the cities, wandering over the earth day and night and also flitting through the air. 3 After this fearful droughts and sudden and violent earthquakes occurred, so that the whole plain round about seethed and the summits leaped into the air. There were frequent rumblings, some of them subterranean, that resembled thunder, and some on the surface, that sounded like bellowings; the sea also joined in the roar and the sky re-echoed it. 4 Then suddenly a portentous crash was heard, as if the mountains were tumbling in ruins; and first huge stones were hurled aloft, rising as high as the very summits, then came a great quantity of fire and endless smoke, so that the whole atmosphere was obscured and the sun was entirely hidden, as if eclipsed. 23 1 Thus day was turned into night and light into darkness. Some thought that the Giants were rising again in revolt (for at this time also many of their forms could be discerned in the smoke and, moreover, a sound as of trumpets was heard), while others believed that the whole universe was being resolved into chaos or fire. 2 Therefore they fled, some from the houses into the streets, others from outside into the houses, now from the sea to the land and now from the land to the sea; for in their excitement they regarded any place where they were not as safer than where they were. 3 While this was going on, an inconceivable quantity of ashes was blown out, which covered both sea and land and filled all the air. It wrought much injury of various kinds, as chance befell, to men and farms and cattle, and in particular it destroyed all fish and birds. Furthermore, it buried two entire cities, Herculaneum and Pompeii, the latter place while its populace was seated in the theatre. 4 Indeed, the amount of dust, taken all together, was so great that some of it reached Africa and Syria and Egypt, and it also reached Rome, filling the air overhead and darkening the sun. 5 There, too, no little fear was occasioned, that lasted for several days, since the people did not know and could not imagine what had happened, but, like those close at hand, believed that the whole world was being turned upside down, that the sun was disappearing into the earth and that the earth was being lifted to the sky. These ashes, now, did the Romans no great harm at the time, though later they brought a terrible pestilence upon them.
24 1 However, a second 5 conflagration [fire], above ground, in the following year spread over very large sections of Rome while Titus was absent in Campania attending to the catastrophe that had befallen that region. 2 It consumed the temple of Serapis, the temple of Isis, the Saepta, the temple of Neptune, the Baths of Agrippa, the Pantheon, the Diribitorium, the theatre of Balbus, the stage building of Pompey’s theatre, the Octavian buildings together with their books, 6 and the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus with their surrounding temples. Hence the disaster seemed to be not of human but of divine origin; 3 for anyone can estimate, from the list of buildings that I have given, how many others must have been destroyed.
This event seems to closely match the prophecy in Revelation 20:9-10.
Perhaps one of the giants roaming around was Satan and he was cast into Vesuvius. But perhaps that’s too great of an imagination. Either way, this event certainly seems to match “fire came down from heaven and devoured them” and occurs within the few short years that Satan had remaining (Revelation 20:3). Cassius Dio himself says,
Hence the disaster seemed to be not of human but of divine origin;
It seems the people experiencing these events would certainly describe the Heavens and Earth shaking in a quite literal way:
There, too, no little fear was occasioned, that lasted for several days, since the people did not know and could not imagine what had happened, but, like those close at hand, believed that the whole world was being turned upside down, that the sun was disappearing into the earth and that the earth was being lifted to the sky.
We demonstrated in the last article how closely Ezekiel 37-39 parallels Revelation 20. I speculate that the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum on the coastlands of Rome was the fulfillment of Ezekiel 39:6 and Revelation 20:9:
Ezekiel 39:6 NIV I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the Lord.
Gog, the unbelieving Jews who persecuted Christians were destroyed by the fire of war from the Romans and the Romans, Magog, were destroyed later by the fire of Vesuvius. This might also line up with a prophecy from Paul:
Romans 2:9 NIV There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile
As for Satan’s destruction, many people who worshiped false gods believed the gods were destroyed at this time:
There were some so afraid of death that they prayed for death. Many raised their hands to the gods, and even more believed that there were no gods any longer and that this was the one last unending night for the world … I believed that I was perishing with the world, and the world with me, which was a great consolation for death. (Pliny the Younger, Letters, 6.20)
If we believe that false gods were Satan and his demons and if the people who worshiped them from this time forward believed they no longer existed, this is strong evidence that Satan and his demons were destroyed in the lake of fire at this time.
The earliest church living after 70AD also believed Satan had been destroyed see quotes from Athanasius, Melito of Sardis, and the Odes of Solomon on this subject.
Furthermore, the Jews or Greeks believed this eruption of Vesuvius was the wrath of God as fire coming down from heaven,
and showers will fall from heaven like red earth. Know then the wrath of the heavenly God (John J. Collins, Sibylline Oracles—A New Translation and Introduction)
Too see more evidence check out: The Destruction of Pompeii—God’s Revenge? by Hershel Shanks.
How was death defeated?
As we covered in the article about the resurrection, when Jesus came in 70AD, he ended Hades death, not earthly death (Revelation 20:13-14, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, John 11:26). The saints generally weren’t allowed into Heaven before the resurrection (Hebrews 11:16,40, Hebrews 13:14) with exception to those raised in Matthew 27 (Hebrews 12:1, Ephesians 4:8-10, Revelation 20:4-5). Hebrews says that the holy places, also known as Heaven (Hebrews 8:1-2, Hebrews 9:24), were not opened as long as they were living in the present age (Hebrews 9:8). But that present age was soon coming to a close (Hebrews 8:13, Hebrews 10:27). So when Christ came, it changed the afterlife experience. Christians would from then on go to Heaven when they died and the unbelieving to the lake of fire, neither would go to Hades anymore.
The earliest church living after 70AD believed death had been defeated at Christ’s second coming and that from that time forward they would go to heaven. We can also testify this is the reality today when we hear testimonies of people’s near death experiences.
Conclusion
We covered some possible historical fulfillments of the end of the Millennium.
- Gog and Magog were likely represented in the teaming up of unbelieving Jews and Romans against the Christians.
- When Satan was released around 63AD, he used this bond and deceived the world by blaming the fire of Rome on the Christians to inspire empire-wide persecution of the saints.
- An angelic army of flaming chariots was seen on the clouds coming against Jerusalem in 66AD in fulfillment of Christ’s prophesies of his return.
- God rained down fire on Gog and Magog, by burning down Jerusalem through the Roman siege and erupting Vesuvius on Rome and spreading fires that destroyed the pagan temples.
- As for Satan’s destruction, the people near Vesuvius saw giants flying in the sky in the smoke of the volcano and many people of that time believed their deities existed no more. The earliest church living after 70AD also believed Satan had been destroyed.
- The beliefs of the early church living after 70AD and the near death experiences we hear of today, show that the destruction of Hades came to pass.
While there is plenty of opportunity to question these supposed fulfillments, I hope at least that they provide one plausible explanation that can strengthen your faith that Jesus kept his promises.
In our next and final article, we will look at some of the implications of these beliefs for us living today.