Revelation Through History

"Jesus said to Peter, ‘I do not say to you, up to 7 times, but up to 70 times 7.’”

We like to imagine this to mean Peter was thinking in terms of the Law, like He wanted Jesus to give him a set number he could tally up before bringing vengeance against an enemy. This passage insists Peter (and any Christian) was to forgive his brother an exhaustive amount of times before any thought of revenge. That means we need to show forgiveness repeatedly, so much so that we shouldn’t even bother counting. It’s basically infinite. But I think there was more to it than just "forgive a whole lot".

Are you ready to see what Jesus was REALLY telling Peter about forgiveness? In order to read between Jesus’s lines, lets look at some of their recent history and what historical dots and prophecies Peter may have been connecting during Jesus’s lesson.

Forgiveness... & Math The relentless forgiveness against those who wrong us is one defining characteristic of most Jesus followers today. Or at least that is the goal most of the ti

Between the writing of the book of Malachi (around 420 BCE), and the destruction of Jerusalem's temple in 70 CE, God would have given the nation 490 years’ worth of forgiveness from His last instructions to the culmination of His plan of us being His true and only temples. The people had rebuilt His house and empire and He was giving them the freedom to set up political and religious systems. But they continued to miss it over and over, while He continued to show them forgiveness over and over. In the end, He sent them what they truly needed – the perfect Jesus, and His Holy Spirit who would dwell within them as His new temples. What else is needed after that? Jesus is our maximum forgiveness – He is the open-ended, infinite forgiveness as well as the closed-ended, zero-remainder type as well. He sums it all up rather nicely.

Jesus was telling Peter (in Matthew 18) that he could never forgive an oppressor to the extent that God was forgiving the Jews of their time. He will have forgiven them for 490 years before Judgment would come! If God could go that long, then certainly Peter (and we today) could extend forgiveness past a mere 7 times.

(For more on this, see my previous blog-post on the “Forgiveness and Math”.)

If Jesus told Peter to forgive 70 x 7 (in Matthew 18:21-22), then let’s do the math! The answer is 490. Why that number? Let’s dig a little deeper and see if there’s anything to it because we see repeatedly in the bible that numbers meant a great deal to God’s people. Which means we can assume 490 does as well.

The book of Malachi is considered the final book of the “prophets” section of the Hebrew bible. It’s thought the book was written around 430-420 BCE.

Also, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE. Its destruction was foretold in precise detail, as recorded in the Gospels, and even the smallest descriptions and prophecies came to pass like Jesus and the other writers said. Ample warning was given that if the people didn’t shift their paradigms from law to love, then they would be swept up in the ending of their world. Sadly, this is exactly what happened to the majority of that nation.

But what if the 420 years after the book of Malachi was written leading up to the change of our calendars… plus the 70 years leading up to the destruction of their world… was the “490” Jesus was hinting at?

“Forgive them 490 times”.

This means Jesus was giving them another prophecy within a message. "Peter, can you forgive as many times as your Father will have forgiven you by the time this mission is done?"

(For more on this, see my previous blog-post on the “Forgiveness and Math”.)

The debates never end on the subject of when John wrote the book of Revelation. Was it during Nero’s reign (54-68 CE), or Domitian’s (81-96 CE)? (These were both Roman emperors following the days of Jesus.)

Why is the date of its writing so important? Because if John wrote it in the early 60’s, he could have been foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem. If he wrote it in the 80’s or 90’s, it doesn’t qualify for prophesying about the temple’s destruction in 70, so it’s possible he may have been seeing something still to come for us.

I personally believe Revelation was written during the time of Nero’s reign, and that it was a legit prophecy, but we will never know for sure. Scholars have done their best to interpret the info left by ancient historians. All we can do is review the history available to us, read the symbolism of Revelation, then pair those with hugely significant events of the generation prophesied about, which was the people of Jesus's generation. Along with Revelation, it would be wise to learn of other biblical prophecies fulfilled that fit the heart of God and His intentions Jesus revealed to us.

The belief surrounding the date of the writing of Revelation has gone back and forth through history. This is probably because the eschatology of the church has changed over time. Futurism was almost non-existent until the time of the Reformation (1500’s). A large part of the church believed the prophecies in the New Testament were about the past. Suddenly, church leaders started preaching that the enemies of their day had been prophesied about in the bible. This thought pattern grabbed ahold of the minds of the people and has never let go, probably because it gave them hope that their persecutors were destined to receive their own torment from God. During the 1800’s, the belief of Futurism exploded and it has been the most prevalent eschatological belief in the church ever since.

In his book “Before Jerusalem Fell”, Kenneth Gentry writes: “[The writing of the] Revelation was generally considered to belong to the close of Domitian’s reign [mid-90’s]; but during the greater part of the 19th century there was a strong majority of critics in favor of a date some quarter of a century earlier. This view was entertained by both advanced and conservative scholars. But some time before the close of the last century, opinion began to move back to the traditional date, and for several years it has secured the adhesion of the great majority of scholars. Early date advocates were as confident then as late date advocates have been later in the present century [1900’s].”

Meaning the interpretation of its date of writing has periodically changed. Similar to what scientists say today about the health benefits of eating eggs. Or dark chocolate or red wine. This week they might be okay, while next week your doctor’s opinion could support the exact opposite - all based on well-meaning, current research.

So really, all we can say for sure is that the early church leaders and historians all through our history didn’t agree with each other. Yeah, the dating of the book is important. But what’s even more important? The fact that the book describes (either by foretelling or symbolic recordings afterword) the historical changes that happened in the first century.

Each Christmas, when telling the baby Jesus story, we "give honor" to the magi who brought Him gifts. But they were actually magicians, sorcerers and astrologers. They looked to the stars for guidance, and the stars had told them something extraordinary had happened. All they had to do was follow the star and they would meet the King of the world.

Matthew 2:1 says, “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem.”

The word for "wise men" used in the Greek text was “magos”, and some versions more accurately interpret the wise men as “magi”. This term is also used for a villain in the Latin version of Acts 8, Simon Magus. He was the sorcerer/magician who tried to bribe Peter for Holy Spirit’s power.

According to Wikipedia, Magus refers to “the Persian priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and use of astrology caused derivatives of the term Magi to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term magic.”

If this is truth, then God spoke the magi’s language. GASP! You mean He used the stars and the pagan people who deciphered them (which was against His people’s law) to communicate the most important message of all history? You bet. Should that be out of bounds for God? We know He eventually tore down every wall keeping the Gentiles out, so why not include them in the first sign of His arrival on Earth, even while they were still “heathens” dabbling in Astrology?

I’m not saying this is license to go off into unholy ventures, thinking righteousness doesn’t matter. What I’m saying is that sometimes IN OUR IGNORANCE, God uses our less-than-holy language to get His point across.

(For more on this topic, see my previous blog-post on “God Speaks Our Language”.)

Sometimes God condescends to our level of thinking because the bigger point is His heart and love for us. I believe this is why modern prophets give words that some in the audience judge as false prophecy because they seem to be coming from a perspective that doesn’t match the listener’s. Like giving an “End Times” word to an audience who doesn’t believe in the popular End Times idea. We can’t dismiss God’s heart behind a message just because the filter (prophet) doesn’t view things our way. God speaks our language because His message is bigger than the black and white laws of doctrine and such. Yes, doctrine is important, but love trumps rules and laws.

(For more on this topic, see my previous blog-post on “God Speaks Our Language”.)

Why do God's instructions or comments sometimes seem contradictory? How do we explain His occasional confusing leadings without shifting the blame to demons or bad pizza?

Today's story and musings tell how I learned that the most important point in anything God ever says to us (whether personally or through His prophets) is His heart behind the word. The relationship part. I am one who believes that God can still have His way in bad doctrine and skewed prophecy - and we can always see it if we look for love...

God Speaks Our Language | Revelation Through History - Jennifer Ryan If I didn’t know any better, I’d think God has changed His doctrine over time. I mean, based on what some prophets said 20 years ago, compared to what they say ...

The Egyptians during the days of Moses were obsessed with life after death. Their holiest text was called "The Book of the Dead," and both their mummification process and their tombs (the pyramids) were meant to prepare a person for living in the afterlife. But when God gave the Torah (His instructions for living) to the Israelites after they fled Egypt, He didn’t mention anything about the afterlife.

No one really knows why God didn’t say anything about it, but one thought is that it was due to the Egyptian culture they had just left behind. Maybe God’s instructions for His people’s day-to-day lives, instead of instructions for telling them how to prepare for death, was so they’d be distinguished from the culture they had just escaped. The Torah focused on the importance of living a good life, in contrast to "The Book of the Dead," which was… about the dead.

I have walked in a few evangelical camps in my life. Some have been obsessed with death, because one of the questions asked each time we went to church was, “If you died today, would you go to Heaven or Hell?” This put uncertainty in the mind of the person being asked, and most likely the response would have been one resulting from fear.

Do we live for Jesus because we are afraid of where we will end up in the afterlife? Or do we choose Him because He is worthy of our attention and we would love to live for and with Him now?

(For more on this, see my previous blog-post on the “Book of Life? Or Book of the Dead?”.)

Most Christians believe that if Jesus is our Lord, we will go to Heaven when we die. Scriptures we use to support this belief are found in Revelation. But how can we believe we go to Heaven when we die – because the end of Revelation says so – but we can’t believe the other events of Revelation have already taken place? This doesn’t make much sense to me.

The finale of John’s vision was a happy ending, but there was a progression of events that took place which led to the ability to dwell with God. If the negative prophecies of the first 19 chapters of Revelation are descriptions of our future (which is the popular belief today) then when we die we will go to the Pit described in the Old Testament to rest with our fathers until Jesus comes in His final judgment. Not Heaven or Hell as we view it now.

(For more on this, see my previous blog-post on the “Book of Life? Or Book of the Dead?”.)

The book of Revelation prophesied changes that have already taken place, and we have proof in our hearts because of what we believe happens to our spirits when we die. Our spirits continue on in God’s presence because of all Jesus completed through His first AND second comings of the first century.

Book of Life? Or Book of the Dead? | Revelation Through History - Jennifer Ryan God gave the Torah (His instructions for living) to the Israelites not long after they fled Egypt. In all those instructions, He didn’t mention anything about t...