Despite being largely united on doctrinal issues like the Trinity and moral issues like sexual morality, Christians who take the Bible literally and seriously are remarkably scattered on eschatology (a fancy term that means “beliefs concerning the end times”). Is Jesus coming back before a thousand year reign? After? Is there a thousand year reign at all? What about the tribulation? What on earth is Revelation about?

If you are skeptical of Christianity or are struggling with grounding your faith in reason, you have every right to expect the end times passages in the Bible to make logical sense, be internally consistent, and be straightforward when properly grasped.

After 17 years (starting with my conversion) of trying to navigate the confusing maze of Christian theological claims about the end times, I found it necessary during the course of my chronology studies to “solve” eschatology. I will present the model I developed as a result, which I call “pretermillennialism” (although I think it could also be called “partial preterism +”), for your consideration. If you find eschatology a blocker to accepting or returning to the Christian faith, hopefully this will help you.

Note: To explain eschatology in the Bible, I will have to educate you about important historical events from about 450 BC to 136 BC (all of which you can look up for yourself, except in one instance where I explicitly claim that the Bible calls into question secular historical scholarship). This may therefore come across as a bit dry, but if you can get through it, with any luck the Bible’s end times passages will “click” for you.

With the framework below in place, Bible scholars interested in eschatology can work on successfully interpreting all the end times passages in Scripture (note that I haven’t interpreted every relevant verse yet, focusing instead at times on high-level narrative).

The Latter Days

The “former days” of Israel in the Bible started with the Exodus and ran through the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the exile of the Jews in Babylon. The “latter days” refer to the time from the return of the Jews to Judah by decree of Cyrus the Great to the coming of the Messiah and the end of national Israel.

For some quick contextual orientation, the First Temple was completed by Solomon in 2940, the 60^th Sabbath of Sabbaths year from creation (2940 = 60 x 7 x 7). The temple worship system was supposed to begin and the Israelite labor force that built the temple was supposed to be released in 2941, which was the 60^th Jubilee from creation. However, Solomon ignored the 60^th Jubilee, waited until his palace was complete to begin temple worship, and kept the labor force in place so he could continue the public works construction projects of 1 Kings 9:15-19. Note: Solomon put the Canaanites left in Israel to permanent slave labor (1 Kings 9:20), but the Israelites worked one month on, two months off (1 Kings 5:13-14). His refusal to release the Israelite labor force led to the splitting of the Israelite kingdom after his death (1 Kings 12:1-24).

After ignoring the 60^th Jubilee, Solomon also began ignoring the Sabbath year (see Leviticus 25 for more information about Jubilees and Sabbath years). This was continued by the later kings of Judah for 60 Sabbath year cycles (60 x 7 = 420 years), through the Sabbath year 3360. Nebuchadnezzar sent the Babylonian army to besiege Jerusalem in 3362, and he sacked the city and destroyed the First Temple in 3364.

The 70 years in Babylon (Jeremiah 25:11-12; Jeremiah 29:10) started in 3360 and ran through 3430, the 70^th Sabbath of Sabbaths from creation (3430 = 70 x 7 x 7), the year Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and killed Belshazzar. The following year, 3431, in the 70^th Jubilee from creation, Cyrus issued his decree returning the Jews to Jerusalem and Judah and sponsoring the building of the Second Temple.

The Metals of Daniel 2 and the Beasts of Daniel 7

In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue of a man, composed of different metals in different sections of its body. Daniel interprets the dream as a revelation from God about the remainder of Babylon’s rule and the events of the latter days. In Daniel 7, Daniel dreams about beasts. Like Pharaoh’s two dreams in Genesis 41, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s dream are revelations about the same events.

Each metal represented a kingdom, and each beast represented a king who would begin the time of that kingdom’s dominion over Israel.

Gold / Lion – Babylon / Nebuchadnezzar

The gold head of the statue and the lion with eagle’s wings was Babylon, whose rule over Israel started with Nebuchadnezzar and lasted through the end of the 70 years of Babylonian domination. Nebuchadnezzar received the initial grant of authority from God to rule Israel and the nations around it in Jeremiah 27:4-7. This grant of authority passed down from metal/beast to metal/beast until the coming of the Messiah, who was predicted to end the system in place in the latter days and replace it with what Jesus referred to as the “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of heaven.”

Note that the lion’s wings being plucked off and it becoming more like a man (Daniel 7:4) resemble the language of Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion in Daniel 4:33-34.

According to Jeremiah 27:7, Babylon would be ruled by Nebuchadnezzar, his son (Evil-Merodach), and his grandson (Belshazzar), before its reign would cease.

Silver / Bear – Media-Persia / Cyrus

The chest and arms of silver and the bear raised up on one side with three ribs in its mouth was the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. Cyrus the Great was the emperor of Media-Persia who conquered Babylon. The raising up on one side probably had to do with an imbalance in power between Media and Persia, and the three ribs were the three kings of Babylon from the gold/lion phase. The devouring of much flesh is a fulfillment of Isaiah 13 and Jeremiah 51, which foretold the destruction of Babylon at the hands of the Medes.

There is a lot of confusion around the books of the Bible concerning the Persian rule of Israel, and a few key points are essential to resolving it:

• “Darius the Mede,” “Cyrus the Persian,” and “Cyrus king of Persia” were all royal titles for Cyrus the Great. Cyrus is the “Darius” referenced in the books of Haggai and Zechariah.
• “Darius king of Persia,” “Darius the Persian,” “Ahasuerus” (except in Daniel 9:1), “Artaxerxes king of Persia,” and “Artaxerxes king of Babylon” are all royal titles for Darius the Great.
• Daniel 11:2-4 shows that Alexander the Great of Greece overthrew Darius the Great. The numerology of the Bible timeline and the 70 Weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 (discussed later) confirm this. Therefore, the historical records concerning the supposed Persian emperors between Darius the Great and Alexander the Great must all be about Darius the Great (this is supported by the fact that almost every single such supposed later Persian emperor has a name that is a variant of one of the royal titles used for Darius in the Bible). The traditionally accepted BC dates for both the conquering of Babylon by Cyrus the Great and the conquering of Persia by Alexander the Great are therefore incorrect, according to the Bible.

This means Cyrus the Great was the emperor who killed Belshazzar, freed the Jews, and was tricked into throwing Daniel into the lion’s den. After Cyrus’ death, his son Cambyses II reigned, Pseudo-Smerdis ruled briefly after Cambyses’ death, and then Darius the Great overthrew Pseudo-Smerdis (these are the four kings of Daniel 11:2). Darius the Great helped the Jews complete the Second Temple, married Esther, and sponsored Nehemiah’s effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Media-Persia is the ram of Daniel 8, whose two horns represent Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great. Darius was richer and more glorious than Cyrus (Daniel 11:2), which is why he was higher, and he “came up last” because he was the final king of Persia before Greece conquered it. Neither Cambyses II nor Pseudo-Smerdis are shown as horns because they were both inconsequential to the spiritual narrative (neither is mentioned by name in the Bible).

Cambyses II is, however, mentioned as the “prince of Persia” in Daniel 10. Cambyses was an enemy of the Jews, which is why, when Cyrus made him governor of the region of Babylon in Cyrus’ first year (the same year Cyrus released the Jews), the angelic overlord of Persia “stood up to confirm and strengthen” Cyrus (Daniel 11:1), which resulted in Cyrus abruptly dismissing Cambyses from that post.

Two years later, Cyrus established Cambyses as co-regent of Persia, which sent Daniel into mourning (Daniel 10:2-3). While the angel of Persia contended spiritually with Cambyses, Cambyses’ co-regency was not revoked. Instead, the counselors hired by the enemies of the Jews to frustrate the temple rebuilding efforts (Ezra 4:4-5) must have been collaborating with Cambyses until Cambyses died and Darius the Great overthrew Pseudo-Smerdis. After that transition, Darius the Great was the second horn of the ram because he was friendly to the Jews.

The 70 Weeks of Years

In Daniel 9, Gabriel informed Daniel that starting in Cyrus’ first year, there were 70 weeks determined for the Jews (70 “Weeks of Years,” i.e., 490 years). From the decree of Cyrus returning the Jews to Judah, there would be 7 weeks, in which the city of Jerusalem would be rebuilt, then 62 weeks until the coming of the Messiah. After the 69^th week the Messiah would be “cut off” (i.e., crucified).

I will address the rest of this prophecy later, but for now we can note that the decree of Cyrus occurred in 3431 in a Jubilee year. 3431 would therefore be the first year of a 49-year Jubilee cycle (seven weeks of seven years). We know from John 2:20 that the Second Temple took 46 years to build. Examining the chronological data carefully reveals that this time included the glorification of the temple, not just its initial construction that finished in the sixth year of Darius the Great (Ezra 6:15). For example, Haggai 2:6-9 is a prophecy about the enriching of the temple with the spoils of the enemies of the Jews in Esther (the Book of Esther repeatedly says the Jews “did not lay a hand on the plunder,” because the plunder was sent to beautify the temple).

The glorification efforts for the temple, the rebuilding efforts for Jerusalem, and the overall establishment of Second Temple Judaism wrapped up in the 32^nd year of Darius the Great (Nehemiah 13:6). That year would be 46 years after 3431, or 3477. But we know from secular history that Darius the Great reigned for 34 years, which means until 3479. That means Persian rule over the nations lasted exactly 49 years (7 Weeks of Years).

Based on information in the Bible about the 70 years in Babylon and about the latter days, we can see that the Jews were given a special three-fold job during the time of Second Temple Judaism:

• Serve as spiritual advisors to Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and Darius, all of whom worshipped God under the direction of first Daniel, then Mordecai.
• Offer sacrifices for the Gentile emperors (and by extension the entire world) at the Second Temple.
• Be missionaries in Gentile lands to teach them about the one true God. This was aided by the unique characteristics of an imperial system, such as peace amongst member nations, unrestricted travel throughout the empire’s territory, and universal elements throughout the empire such as language, currency, high-level laws, etc. This global evangelism explains why the New Testament depicts so many Gentiles as supportive of Jews and open to the saving message of the Jewish Messiah.

Bronze / Leopard – Greece / Alexander

The belly and thighs of bronze and the leopard with four heads and four wings was Greece, whose rule started with Alexander the Great and lasted until the Maccabees achieved independence for the Hasmonean kingdom. Alexander notably engaged in extensive conquest (which explains the “ruling over all the earth” in Daniel 2:39).

Darius the Great “stirred up all against the realm of Greece” (Daniel 11:2), which explains the rage of the goat from the west (Greece) in Daniel 8:7. The goat trampled the ram when Greece conquered Media-Persia. The goat’s “notable horn” (Daniel 8:5) was Alexander the Great, who conquered Darius the Great.

The kingdom of Greece was broken up after Alexander’s death and divided into pieces amongst his successors, called Diadochi. Amongst the pieces were four significant kingdoms/empires, which explains the four heads and the four wings and also the four winds of heaven in Daniel 11:4. These four significant kingdom/empires were run by the four main Diadochi (Ptolemy, Antigonus, Cassander, and Seleucus), the four notable horns coming up toward the four winds of heaven that replaced Alexander’s horn (Daniel 8:8).

The First Hanukkah

In the flow of the Book of Daniel, Daniel 7 provides more detail about the prophecy of Daniel 2. Daniel 8, which was given in the third year of Belshazzar king of Babylon (Daniel 8:1), then provides a very high-level overview of one particularly important aspect of Greek rule over Israel, which was the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the subsequent revolt against him by the Maccabees, which led to the restoration of proper temple worship that is celebrated on Hanukkah (to interpret some of Daniel, we have to use the historically important but not divinely inspired deuterocanonical book of 1 Maccabees).

Daniel 8 gives some information about this conflict, but then Daniel is instructed to seal up the vision (Daniel 8:26), which is about the “time of the end” (Daniel 8:17). To properly understand this, we have to realize that the “time of the end” had two sections: a beginning (the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes in the second century BC) and an end (the Jewish-Roman wars in the first and second century AD).

Thus, Daniel 8, which is primarily about the beginning of the time of the end, was unsealed in Daniel 10-12 in the third year of Cyrus (Daniel 10:1). Daniel 10 provides context for the prophecy, Daniel 11 provides much more detail on the conflict between Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabees, and Daniel 12 provides a high-level overview of the end of the time of the end, which then gets sealed up like Daniel 8 did (Daniel 12:4). This vision is later unsealed in Revelation 5, by which time the events of the Hasmonean dynasty and the conquering of Israel by Rome had already happened, which is why neither Daniel nor Revelation records them.

Therefore, we can understand the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanies by looking at Daniel 8 and Daniel 11 side-by-side. Daniel 11 references the “king of the North” and the “king of the South.” The North and the South were the two kingdoms that arose in the wake of Alexander’s death that most affected Israel: the Seleucid Empire was just north of it, and the Ptolemaic Kingdom was just south of it. Daniel 11:5ff records the events in those two kingdoms from the time of Ptolemy and Seleucus to the death of Antiochus Epiphanes (who was a Seleucid king and ruled in the North).

The brief reign of Heliodorus, who during his tenure as chancellor of Seleucus IV Philopator attempted to tax the Second Temple, is referenced in Daniel 11:20. The “vile person” of Daniel 11:21 is Antiochus Epiphanes, who deposed Heliodorus and took power through a deceptive arrangement that ignored the fact that he was not the rightful heir of Seleucus Philopator, as described in the same verse. Antiochus is also the “little horn” of Daniel 8:9 and the “king with fierce features” in Daniel 8:23.

In 171 BC (according to the mainstream timeline), Antiochus deposed the high priest Jason and replaced him with a sympathetic high priest named Menelaus, which represented the beginning of Antiochus’ oppression of the Jews and eventual attempts to stamp out Jewish worship and the Second Temple sacrificial system. Jason is the prince of the covenant from Daniel 11:22, and his removal began the 2300 days of Daniel 8:13-14. The “league” of Daniel 11:23 is the “renegade covenant” of 1 Maccabees 1:11. The remainder of Daniel 11 describes the conflict between Antiochus and the faithful Jews up to Antiochus’ death, as documented from the remainder of 1 Maccabees 1 through 1 Maccabees 6:16.

Note that Antiochus was prophesied to be “broken without human means” in Daniel 8:25, and he “shall come to his end, and no one will help him” (Daniel 11:45). In 1 Maccabees 6, Antiochus is said to have died from his deep disappointment in failing to eradicate the Jewish religion.

1 Maccabees puts exactly three years from the setting up of the “desolating sacrilege on the altar of burnt offering” and the offering of an abominable sacrifice on that “altar that was on top of the altar of burnt offering” (1 Maccabees 1:54-59) to the restoration of proper sacrifice (1 Maccabees 4:52-54). Assuming that the timeline of 1 Maccabees is accurate, to explain the 1290 days of Daniel 12:11 and the 1335 days of Daniel 12:12, I would posit that the 1290 days started with the initial defiling of the sanctuary in 1 Maccabees 1:27 and ended with the conquering of Jerusalem and the beginning of the process of cleansing the sanctuary in 1 Maccabees 4:42-43. I would also posit that the cleansing took 45 days, such that the 1335 days ended with the restoration of proper sacrifice in 1 Maccabees 4:52-53. The 2300 days of Daniel 8:14 would have ended with either the beginning or completion of the cleansing process (probably the beginning, based on the language).

Note: When the Maccabees cleansed the sanctuary and restored Second Temple Judaism, they created a new altar of burnt offering and new holy vessels (1 Maccabees 4:44-51). God’s presence in the Old Covenant was tied closely to the holy vessels, which is why it matters that Nebuchadnezzar took the original holy vessels to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:7, 36:18), as this represented God moving to Babylon with the “good figs” of Jeremiah 24:5. When the Jews returned to Judea from exile, they took the holy vessels with them (Ezra 1:7-11).

Hence, the transition to a new set of holy vessels moved Israel into the “time of the end,” as referenced in Daniel 8:17, Daniel 8:19, and Daniel 11:40. This time period started with Antiochus stealing and/or defiling all the original holy vessels (1 Maccabees 1:20-24) and also defiling the sanctuary (1 Maccabees 1:37). These new holy vessels were later destroyed in 70 AD and were never replaced, having been superseded by the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:13).

Iron / Terrifying Beast – Rome / Julius Caesar

After triumphing over Antiochus, the Maccabees established an independent kingdom (ruled by their descendants, the Hasmonean dynasty) that was originally semi-autonomous under Seleucid rule but later became fully independent. However, Daniel had prophesied that a fourth empire would rule Judea and that during that empire the Messiah would arise. This empire was Rome.

Rome conquered the Hasmonean kingdom in 63 BC, initially allowing the Hasmoneans to remain in power, but eventually setting Herod the Great over Judea in 37 BC. Rome was the iron legs and feet of Daniel 2 and the terrifying beast of Daniel 7. Even though Augustus was technically the first “emperor,” it was his great-uncle and adoptive father Julius Caesar who set the stage for the establishment of the Roman Empire and from whom the first five emperors traced their lineage. Therefore, he was the initial mighty king of Rome.

A couple notes:

• In Daniel 7, there is a break between the vision of the third beast and the vision of the fourth beast. This represents the break between the rule of Greece and the rule of Rome during the independent phase of the Hasmonean kingdom.
• The clay mixed with iron in the feet of the image in Daniel 2:33 was the Herodian dynasty. The iron strength of Rome was mixed with the clay weakness of the Herods: they were mingled together, yet did not adhere to one another (Daniel 2:42-43), as we can see in the hostility between Herod and Pilate (Luke 23:12).
• The iron kingdom of Daniel 2:40 would “break in pieces and crush all the other [kingdoms],” which is similar to the way the fourth beast was “devouring [with iron teeth], breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet” in Daniel 7:7.

As Daniel prophesied, Jesus the Messiah was born during the reign of the iron Roman Empire and the clay Herod the Great.

The Rest of the 70 Weeks

As previously mentioned, Daniel 9:25 said there would be 62 Weeks of Years after the initial 7 weeks that ended when Greece conquered Media-Persia. Jesus was born in spring of 6 BC, became a rabbi at the age of 30 in the fall of 25 AD, was baptized in early 30 AD, and was crucified in spring of 32 AD. He therefore had a rabbinic ministry from 25 AD to 30 AD and the miraculous ministry recorded in detail in the Gospels from 30 AD to 32 AD.

This means His entire ministry was seven Biblical years long. The 69 weeks of Daniel 9 therefore ran up until Jesus became a rabbi, and His seven years of ministry represented the 70^th week of Daniel 9. The final year of the 70^th week of Daniel ran from spring of 31 AD to spring of 32 AD (the Biblical year starts and ends in spring at the beginning of the month of Nisan, which is roughly March/April, and then Passover is celebrated halfway through Nisan), which was the 80^th Sabbath of Sabbaths, or 3920 (80 x 7 x 7). Jesus was crucified right at the beginning of the following year, 3921, the 80^th Jubilee from creation, during the Passover of 32 AD.

The Last Days

Jesus’ first cleansing of the Second Temple (John 2:14-22) occurred in Nisan of 30 AD. In so doing, He was symbolically performing the first removal of stones, scraping, and plastering of a house infected with a leprous plague (Leviticus 14:33-53). He then returned for a follow-up inspection two years later (Matthew 21:12-13), in Nisan of AD 32, at which point, it was clear the plague had returned, and so He determined that the temple would need to be dismantled (as described in Leviticus 14:45). Jesus’ return / Second Coming / Parousia occurred in Nisan of AD 70, when the Roman army laid siege to Jerusalem in the midst of the First Jewish-Roman War, which led to the sacking of the city and the burning of the Second Temple.

The 40 years from Nisan of 30 AD to Nisan of 70 AD were the “last days” of the Old Covenant (AKA the “end of the age” of the Old Covenant). The timing of Jesus’ visitations on Jerusalem in 30 AD, 32 AD, and 70 AD match the pattern of “2 years + 38 years = 40 years” seen with the generation of Israelites Moses led out of Egypt, Saul’s reign, etc. During the 38 years after Jesus’ ascension, He was seated at the right hand of the Father, while His Father made His enemies His footstool.

Many of the parables in the Gospels are metaphors for the responsibilities Jesus entrusted His followers with while He was in heaven and the judgment He would enact upon His return. Indeed, on the “Last Day” of the Old Covenant (the last day of the last days), Jesus returned, resurrecting all those who died and rapturing all who still lived as part of the New Covenant (i.e., Christians), both true and false believers. Jesus then judged all first-century Christians in the judgment described in Matthew 25:31-46. Note: this judgment is not mentioned in Revelation 20.

Many letters in the New Testament included warnings from the apostles to Christians to persevere in faithfulness until the Second Coming. As the Second Coming drew near, many Christians became skeptical that Jesus would return and fell away, pursuing their own fleshly desires (Acts 20:29-30; 2 Timothy 3:1-9, Jude 1, 2 Peter 2-3). Those who pursued the love of the world and denied Jesus in the last hour were antichrists (1 John 2:18-19).

See the end of this article for a list of Scripture passages that prove that Jesus’ Second Coming was expected by the apostles and the first-century Church to occur in their lifetimes.

The First Jewish-Roman War

After the prophecy of the 70 Weeks of Years, Daniel 9:26-27 describes an additional week containing a war that would result in the destruction of the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Second Temple), bringing an end to sacrifice and offering. This is the seven-year First Jewish-Roman War that ran from spring of 66 AD to spring of 73 AD. In the midst of the week, in the fall of 70 AD, the “people of the prince who is to come” (i.e., the Roman army under the control of the Roman prince Titus) destroyed Jerusalem and burned down the Second Temple.

Daniel 9:27 mentions that “he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.” The “he” in this sentence is the Messiah, not the prince to come. The First Jewish-Roman War confirmed the New Covenant made with the first-century Church in several ways:

• It rescued (via rapture) Christians who were being persecuted.
• It resurrected Christians who had died, just as Jesus promised them.
• It brought judgment on the faithless Jews who murdered Jesus and had been persecuting Christians after His ascension.
• It destroyed the Second Temple worship system, proving the New Covenant was sufficient to stand on its own.
• It ended the Roman emperor’s special role as spiritual king of kings, replacing him with Jesus as the Messianic King of kings.

Daniel 9:26 also mentions that the end of the city and the sanctuary would be “with a flood.” Jesus compared His return to the Flood of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39).

The destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple represented the destruction of the heavens and the earth in place at that time (i.e., the Old Covenant) with fire (2 Peter 3:7): the “elements” of 2 Peter 3:10 refer to the elements of the Old Covenant worship system (temple, holy vessels, priestly garments, etc.), which the Romans burned up, such that they “melt[ed] with fervent heat.”

Jesus as King of kings

Daniel 2:44-45 mentions that in the days of the Roman empire, the Messianic kingdom would be established and would consume the previous kingdoms. This does not refer to a military destruction, but rather a transfer of the spiritual authority over the nations from human emperors to Jesus.

Daniel 7 mentions the fourth beast (Rome) having ten horns (kings), and then a little horn coming up, before which three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. The little horn speaks pompous words; makes war against the saints of the Most High for a time, times, and half a time; intends to change times and law; and then loses his dominion to the saints of the Most High.

If you count Mark Antony as a horn, then Vespasian was the eleventh king of Rome from Julius Caesar (alternately, the eleventh horn might be Titus, or else Vespasian could have been both the tenth and eleventh horns, based on how the language is phrased). Vespasian took control of Rome after three emperors fell before him in quick succession during the Year of the Four Emperors (he “subdued three kings” – Daniel 7:24). Vespasian ran the war effort against the Jews starting in spring of AD 67, around the time the Jews established a provisional independent government in Judah. Vespasian later left to go seek control of Rome in July of 69 AD, leaving the war effort in the hands of Titus.

The provisional independent government fell when Titus’ siege broke through Jewish defenses in the fall of 70 AD. Thus, Vespasian and Titus’ tag-team suppression of Jewish revolt, as well as the Jews’ attempts to rule themselves independently, lasted 3.5 years (“time, times, and half a time” = 1 + 2 + 0.5 = 3.5 years). During this time, by warring against God’s holy people, Vespasian and Titus were speaking pompous words and seeking to change times and law.

This 3.5-year military tribulation of the Jews is described in Revelation 6-11. In Revelation 11:15-18, we see Jesus’ return just after the sounding of the seventh and final trumpet (Matthew 24:31, 1 Corinthians 15:52, and 1 Thessalonians 4:16 connect the rapture of living Christians and resurrection of dead ones with the sounding of a trumpet, or the “last trumpet”). According to Revelation 11:15, Jesus became King over the kingdoms of the world at that time. Note: The third woe (Revelation 11:14) was the siege and sacking of Jerusalem.

We see the same coronation of Jesus in Daniel 7:9-14, when the Son of Man (Jesus) is presented to the Ancient of Days (God the Father) and receives dominion over all peoples, nations, and languages. The thrones refer to the thrones set up for the apostles, who would help Jesus judge the tribes of Israel during the siege of Jerusalem and the remainder of the time of the end (Matthew 19:28). The description of God the Father in Daniel 7:9 is similar to the description of Jesus in Revelation 1:12-16 because “he who has seen Me [Jesus] has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Critical to understanding Daniel 7 is that the “saints of the Most High” in Daniel 7:25 were the Jews, but the “saints of the Most High” in Daniel 7:27 were Christians. At the time of Jesus’ Second Coming, the Jews of national Israel ceased to be God’s covenantal people, replaced by Messianic Jews and their faithful Gentile counterparts (see Romans 2:28-29 and Galatians 6:15-16).

Daniel 12:2-3 predicted that after the first resurrection, when true Christians would awake to everlasting life but false Christians to shame and everlasting contempt, “those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.” Jesus confirmed this would happen with His Second Coming, at the time of the rapture (Matthew 13:40-43). Paul confirmed that Christians were already shining and would thereby affirm his hard work on the day of Christ (Philippians 2:14-16).

In Daniel 12:1, “Michael” is a reference to Jesus, probably His angelic name as archangel (Jude 1:9), i.e., the one who commands the angelic armies of heaven (Matthew 26:53). Note: In His role as leader of God’s angelic forces, the pre-incarnate Jesus in the Old Testament is often referred to as “the angel of the Lord.”

Michael is described as “the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.” Note that in Revelation 4-5, we see that God is on a throne but is a separate entity from the Lamb (see especially Revelation 5:7). The God on the throne is God the Father, who in the New Heaven and the New Earth shares His throne with the Lamb (Revelation 22:1; Revelation 22:3). Thus, when Daniel was written, Jesus was a heavenly prince, who now co-reigns as a heavenly King with His Father.

The Abomination of Desolation

Daniel 9:26-27 also mentions desolations associated with the seven-year war. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the inciting event for the First Jewish-Roman War was when the Jewish rebels ceased offering sacrifices on behalf of the Roman emperor. This was the abomination of desolation Jesus referenced in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14. The reason both verses say “let the reader understand” is that this second abomination of desolation was not what most first-century Jews were expecting.

Most Jews at the time expected a repeat of the events of the Maccabean Revolt (which was initiated by the first abomination of desolation, when the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes erected a desolating sacrifice on the Jewish altar), in which the fourth empire would be the villain and the Jews would heroically overthrow them and establish independence once and for all under the earthly rule of a Messianic king.

Jesus, however, never challenged the legitimacy of Roman rule during His ministry, because Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 declared that the authority God had given Babylon in Jeremiah 27:4-6 would be passed down to Rome by the will of God. Instead, He knew that Second Temple Judaism was set up in such a way that the Jews would be a priestly people for the entire world by offering sacrifices to God on behalf of the emperor (and by extension his empire), which was required by Darius the Great as his main motivator for assisting the Jews in finishing the Second Temple (see Ezra 6:9-10). Because of this special job, the Jews were allowed (except during their persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes) to maintain their own system of worship that didn’t acknowledge the divinity of the emperor or his gods, and they also were free to travel throughout the empire to spread Yahweh worship to Gentiles of all nations.

Unfortunately, by the time of Jesus many Jews had lost sight of this mission, coming to see Gentiles as unclean to the point that even Christian Jews were scandalized when Peter witnessed to Cornelius (Acts 11:2-3). Most Jews saw their Gentile overlords as a burden and couldn’t wait to overthrow them. But Jesus warned them that to do so was to risk removing the necessity of the Jewish nation altogether.

And indeed, the first-century Christians worshipped in the temple while it was still being used for its original intended purpose (Luke 24:52-53). But once the Jews abandoned their divine mission by stopping the sacrifices on behalf of Caesar, and the Romans responded with an invasion, Christian Jews would have recognized that the time had come for Jerusalem’s desolation and would have followed Jesus’ warning to flee immediately (Matthew 24:15-21; Mark 13:14-19; Luke 21:20-24).

Because the faithless Jews left in Judah did not understand that Daniel 7:21-27 represented a shift from earthly Jews to faithful followers of Jesus and from an earthly kingdom to a spiritual one (recall Jesus saying that His kingdom “is not of this world” in John 18:36), they incorrectly thought this passage called them to fight the Romans for national independence, which ultimately resulted in their destruction. In fact, just before the end of the siege, after 42 months of provisional self-rule and war with Vespasian and Titus, the Jews in Jerusalem believed themselves to be on the cusp of divine deliverance, only to be met with absolute devastation (the insanity and immorality of what was happening inside Jerusalem during the war served as a witness the entire time against this heretical interpretation of Scripture).

The Great Tribulation

To interpret the “Great Tribulation,” we must realize there were two Great Tribulations: as previously mentioned, the Jews experienced intense tribulation under Vespasian (Daniel 7:25; Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21; Mark 13:19; Luke 21:23-24), culminating with the Second Coming and the siege of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27; Luke 21:25-28). However, there was a second Great Tribulation, mentioned in Revelation 1:9 and Revelation 7:14, which was the persecution and martyring of Christians under Caesar Nero after he blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome that happened in 64 AD. This persecution lasted until Nero died in 68 AD (about 3.5 years) and claimed the lives of Peter and Paul, among many others.

The idea of two Great Tribulations, the first of Christians and the second of the Jews who rejected Jesus, is reflected in 1 Peter 4:12-19, when Peter mentions that judgment starts with the house of God and then falls on His enemies. The first Great Tribulation purged the Church of all false followers and brought the faithful who persevered to great glory, while the second destroyed the old system of worship that sustained the Jews who rejected Jesus and led to many of them being starved, killed by the sword, or being sent into captivity.

The Third Jewish-Roman War

After the Second Coming is described in Revelation 11, the book goes back to the birth of Jesus in chapter 12. The woman giving birth is the Jewish church, the body of Jewish believers from the time of Abraham to the time of Jesus (the twelve stars on her garland represent the twelve tribal patriarchs). The imagery here reinforces the idea that for faithful Jews, Jesus’ coming was a culmination of Jewish history, not something new.

Jesus is born, then caught up to God and His throne, which is a reference to the ascension. The woman (the body of Messianic Jews) then flees into the wilderness, which is an ironic reference to Jerusalem, where the Jewish church was headquartered (it is ironic because just as the “true Jews” were the Jewish Christians who would be persecuted by the earthly Jewish nation, the “true Jerusalem” had transitioned from the capital of earthly Israel to the heavenly capital, leaving the old Jerusalem as a spiritual wilderness).

Satan and his demons, who apparently still had some purchase in heaven up to this point, are then cast out (just as Jesus predicted in Luke 10:18). This would be just after the resurrection, when the blood of the Lamb had been shed and could be used against them. The “word of their testimony” and the bravery of “not loving their lives to the death” is a reference to the Old Covenant prophets who had the Holy Spirit in the days before He was poured out on all believers (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17). Such prophets endured various torments, up to and including martyrdom (Hebrews 11:35-38). Many members of the Jewish Church would experience similar persecution and martyring in the century after the ascension.

The “short time” of the devil refers to the time between the resurrection and the beginning of the millennium, at which point Satan would be cast into a bottomless pit for a very long time (Revelation 20:1-3). During that short time, Satan persecuted the Jewish Church (the “woman who gave birth to the male Child”), but she was protected from him for a time and times and half a time, which as we’ve previously seen means 3.5 years.

The serpent spewing water like a flood after the woman was Satan’s attempt to murder the apostles shortly after the ascension, while the “earth helping the woman and opening its mouth and swallowing the flood” is a reference to Gamaliel thwarting the Jewish plot to kill the apostles in Acts 5:33-41 (the “earth” in Revelation is a reference to Israel, while the “sea” is a reference to the Gentiles).

The end of Revelation 12 mentions Satan shifting his focus from the apostles to “the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” This refers to the persecution and scattering of the Jewish church under Saul in Acts 8.

After his conversion, Paul went to Jerusalem for Passover in Nisan of 33 AD. At that point, “the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified” (Acts 9:31). The 3.5 years of Revelation are therefore a reference to the later event of Cornelius’ conversion, which marked the official spread of the gospel to the Gentiles.

Revelation 13 shifts abruptly to the Third Jewish-Roman War (AKA the Bar Kokhba revolt), which started in 132 AD. The “beast from the sea” was Simon bar Kokhba, the false Messiah who attempted to establish Jewish independence from Rome a second time during the Third Jewish-Roman War (the Second Jewish-Roman War being the less significant Kitos War). The beast being from the sea and having the body parts of the various Gentile empires from Daniel 7 probably represent the fact that by attempting to establish an independent Jewish kingdom on earth, Bar Kokhba was godlessly gathering the scraps of the beasts that Jesus had overcome in 70 AD, instead of pursuing the spiritual heavenly kingdom of Jesus that never ends.

Bar Kokhba was a charismatic leader, which would explain Revelation 13:4. His effort at independence lasted 42 months (Revelation 13:5), from spring or summer of 132 AD to fall or winter of 135 AD, when he was killed in the fall of Betar.

Bar Kokhba declared war on any Jews who refused to support him, which primarily meant Jewish Christians who rejected his claim to be the Messiah. This persecution and slaughter of Jewish Christians was the war with the saints of Revelation 13:7. All the other Jews (“every tribe, tongue, and nation” – Revelation 13:7, compare Acts 2:5-11 / “all who dwell on the earth” – Revelation 13:8) worshipped him as Messiah and followed him. But God assured the suffering saints that those who killed them or sold them into captivity would suffer the same fate (Revelation 13:10).

The “beast from the earth” was Rabbi Akiva, who as a rabbi was involved in spiritual shepherding (hence the horns like a lamb in Revelation 13:11) and promoted Bar Kokhba as Messiah (he “caused the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast” – Revelation 13:12). Note also that Bar Kokhba’s rebel government minted coins that declared him to be the “Prince of Israel.” By using the coins (“buying and selling”), a Jew would be accepting Bar Kokhba as Messiah, thereby receiving a spiritual mark on his right hand or forehead (Revelation 13:16-17; compare Deuteronomy 6:6-8, Deuteronomy 11:18).

In Revelation 14, angels declare that the final judgment of Jerusalem and the Jews is at hand and that those who follow Bar Kokhba will be harshly judged. The text then begins a more detailed description of the judgment, which came in the form of the suppression of the Jewish revolt by the massive Roman forces sent to Judea by the Roman emperor Hadrian.

Revelation 16:15 implies that there was a “Third Coming” of Jesus, which was similar to the Second Coming in that Jesus would visit Israel in judgment as the heavenly supervisor of Roman armies sent to put down a Jewish rebellion, just as He did during the First Jewish-Roman War.

Archaeologists have found evidence of a strategic Roman military base and camp near Megiddo (AKA Armageddon), which is probably where the Romans mustered before their second conquest of Jerusalem (Revelation 16:16). Jerusalem is referred to as Babylon in the Book of Revelation (see also 1 Peter 5:13), which explains Revelation 16:17-21 (possibly the hailstones are stones from Roman catapults). Babylon being drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus (Revelation 17:6) refers both to the martyring of Christians by Bar Kokhba specifically and more generally the slaughtering of prophets and saints by the Jews throughout history. Jerusalem’s ultimate destruction by Hadrian’s forces is described in Revelation 18 and 19.

As the Romans finished suppressing the revolt, Bar Kokhba holed up in the fortress of Betar, which was besieged by the Romans (similar to the siege of Masada at the end of the First Jewish-Roman War); he finally died there in 135 AD. This final defeat is referenced in Revelation 19:17-21, which also references the aftermath of the revolt, which was the slaughtering of Jews throughout Judea on a near genocidal level, the expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem, and the effective end of the nation of Israel until it was re-established in 1948.

This final campaign of devastation ended in 136 AD, in the Biblical year 4025, which was a Sabbath year. Note also that there were exactly 70 years of judgment from 66 AD to 136 AD.

Why the gap between 35 AD and 132 AD in the transition from Revelation 12 to Revelation 13? Because the 3.5 years of Revelation 12:6 and the 3.5 years of Revelation 13:5 form a sort of “final week” of Judaism before the end of the end times.

In the first 3.5 years after Jesus’ ascension, the Gospel was exclusively for Jews (as Romans 1:16 and Romans 2:10 say, it was for the Jew first and also for the Greek). However, Cornelius’ conversion extended the Gospel to the Gentiles to make the Jews jealous, as described in Romans 11. While Paul promised that one day all Israel would be saved (Romans 11:25-27), the Jews in 132 AD failed to obtain that promise, instead pursuing the nationalistic goals of a false Messiah.

Therefore, Jesus visited them again for “a time, times, and half a time,” the 42 months of Bar Kokhba, after which “the power of the holy people [would be] completely shattered” and “all these things [i.e., the end times] shall be finished” (Daniel 12:7). While the Second Temple was destroyed in the First Jewish-Roman War, the complete judgment and destruction of Judea didn’t occur until the end of the Third Jewish-Roman War.

The time of the Gentiles separated these two halves of the final week of Judaism, which started with salvation and ended with destruction and desolation.

The Millennium

In Revelation 7:1-8, we see faithful Christian Jews (symbolically estimated as 144,000) being sealed before the First Jewish-Roman War, which allowed them to be spared from judgment. Revelation 7:9-17 shows the Gentile Christians who would also be brought to heaven in the first resurrection of 70 AD; Nero’s persecution encompassed both Gentiles and Jews, which is why the Great Tribulation is mentioned in Revelation 7:14.

In Revelation 13, the same 144,000 Jews appear with the Lamb as final judgment looms over Israel. These are the previously raptured Jewish Christians, who are virgins now that they are in heaven (Revelation 14:4; see Matthew 22:30 and Mark 12:25). The first generation of Christians was a firstfruits offering to God (James 1:18), which explains why the raptured and resurrected Jews are called “firstfruits” (Revelation 14:4). This original batch of Jewish saints welcomed to heaven the newly resurrected Christian Jews who died opposing Bar Kokhba, and together the two groups joined Jesus in judging Israel.

In Revelation 20:1-6, we see Satan bound for a thousand years, and at the same time, thrones are set up for judgment, and certain saints are resurrected. There are two types of saints mentioned:

• Those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God
• Those who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands

The “beheading” seems to be a reference to John the Baptist, who died via beheading (Matthew 14:10; Mark 6:27). Therefore, at the beginning of the millennium, I believe two groups of saints were resurrected:

• All the Old Covenant prophets who had the Holy Spirit prior to Him being given to the church on Pentecost. John the Baptist was described by Jesus as the last and greatest of these, the last saint “born of woman” prior to the beginning of the Last Days, after which saints live in the kingdom of God (Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28; for the meaning of being “born of woman,” see John 1:12-13).
• All Christians who died between 70 AD and the beginning of the millennium, including the Messianic Jews who were martyred for refusing to support Simon bar Kokhba. Possibly any Jewish Christians still living in Israel when the Third Jewish-Roman War began were raptured to heaven to save them from the judgment and allow them to participate in the judgment with the rest of the Jewish Christians.

Revelation 14:12-13 says, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”’”

This statement is followed by the description of the judgment of Israel during the Third Jewish-Roman War. That language connects to Revelation 20:6, implying that the millennium started and the second resurrection (the “first resurrection” of the millennium) occurred in 132 AD, before the war, which makes sense when you consider that God would have wanted the Jewish Christians who died opposing Bar Kokhba to participate in his destruction.

Note that in discussing Vespasian’s tribulation of the Jews during the First Jewish-Roman War, Jesus mentioned that it would be cut short before the Jewish nation was completely destroyed, and this would be done “for the elect’s sake” (Matthew 24:22; Mark 13:20). The “elect” in these verses refers to the Jews who would embrace Jesus as Messiah between 70 AD and 132 AD. Had Jesus completely destroyed Israel during the First Jewish-Roman War, this second round of Christian Jews would never have arisen.

Anyone who had had the Holy Spirit in their lifetime was placed on a throne with Jesus at the beginning of the millennium (if they hadn’t already been placed there in 70 AD), and any Christian who would die from that point forward would go directly to heaven to join Jesus as well, which is why God said, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

As for the nature of the millennium, during that time, Satan would “deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:3). From this, we can see the following model in play:

Early church:

1. The gospel came to the Jews from the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist until the conversion of Cornelius. This was the first phase of the Great Commission (Matthew 24:14; Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 13:10), which was originally understood by the apostles as applying to the Jews scattered amongst the nations.
2. The gospel and the Great Commission were extended to the Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy. The Gentiles proved more receptive than the Jews (see Romans 10:18-21). Eventually the Great Commission was fulfilled when the gospel was preached throughout the nations of the Roman Empire to both Jew and Gentile (Colossians 1:5-6, 23).
3. The Jews had an opportunity to respond with conversion, but only a remnant did. The remnant was saved, while the Jewish nation that was beyond hope was destroyed.

The Church Age reflects the same paradigm on a larger scale:

1. The church from Jesus’ baptism in 30 AD to the beginning of the millennium in 132 AD was founded on Judaism and primarily focused on Jews, with Gentiles being allowed in to provoke the Jews to jealousy.
2. Israel as a nation was destroyed, while the Christian faith was taken over by Gentiles and is being spread throughout the entire globe, to the literal ends of the earth, aided by Satan being bound and therefore unable to deceive the nations of the world. Jesus said that after the old heavens and the old earth passed away (which happened in 70 AD), His words would become the directing force for God’s followers (Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33). They are therefore our guide in the time between Second Temple Judaism and the Great White Throne Judgment of Revelation 20:11-15, as the Gospel spreads throughout the world like leaven in meal (Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:20-21). Note: I call this spread of the Gospel the “Greater Commission,” as it is similar to the original Great Commission but much vaster and more thorough in scope.
3. Once the “fullness of the Gentiles has come in, all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-26), implying that the Jews will finally convert en masse to Christianity prior to the Great White Throne Judgment. The Great White Throne Judgment is “the judgment” of Matthew 12:41-42, Luke 10:14, and Luke 11:31-32, because except for the prophets of the Old Covenant (who went to heaven) and the false believers of the first-century Church (who went to hell), all the righteous who died before Christ and all the wicked who have died or will die outside of Christ have gone or will go to Hades upon death until that great judgment, when Hades and Death (which represent separation from God’s presence after death) will be destroyed. Note: the righteous members of the Old Covenant are waiting in the “good part” of Hades, while all the unjudged wicked are waiting in the “bad part,” as seen in Luke 16:19-31.

The Future

No eschatological analysis is truly complete without some kind of attempt to predict the future, even an analysis like mine that puts so much of Daniel and Revelation in the past. I freely acknowledge that we may still be in the millennium, and thus Revelation 20:7-15 may be completely in our future, with us having no idea of what those events will look like until they happen. However, I have a speculation I will simply present as a possibility.

The resurrection of Jesus happened on the 80^th Jubilee from creation, which as I’ve previously discussed represented the end of the connection between every tenth Jubilee and the portion of Israel’s history that started with the Exodus. However, we are currently in the Jubilee cycle that started the year after the 120^th Sabbath of Sabbaths of 5880 (120 x 7 x 7), with the 120^th Jubilee having begun in the spring of 1992 AD. The number 12 is strongly associated with Israel, and thus the 120^th Jubilee (the 12^th tenth Jubilee) could have been the beginning of the time period that would bring in the salvation of all Israel mentioned in Romans 11:25-27.

There is a second layer of numerological symbolism here. Many theologians have speculated that if every 1000 years of history symbolically corresponds to a day (as suggested in Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8), there might be a “Sabbath millennium” beginning around the Biblical year 6000. As I also mentioned, for the 50^th, 60^th, and 70^th Jubilees, each one was preceded and/or followed by a corresponding number (50, 60, or 70) of years or Sabbath year cycles before or after another significant event. Mathematically, the 120^th Jubilee of 5881 would be the first year of 120 years that would end in exactly the Biblical year 6000. This potentially connects the idea of the conversion of the Jews after the 120^th Jubilee to the Sabbath millennium that would begin around 2111 AD.

Furthermore, in Revelation 20:7-15, the release of Satan is connected to two ideas:

• The deceiving of the nations and the gathering of the nations for war.
• Some kind of final assault on “the camp of the saints and the beloved city.”

The beginning of the world wars of the early 20^th century, which represented a global gathering of all nations for war (hence the term “world war”) and transitioned the global political system from imperial colonialism to the globalist world order in place today, was two Jubilee cycles ago. The completion of those wars and the re-establishment of Israel as a nation was one Jubilee cycle ago. If Jerusalem is “the beloved city” of Revelation 20:9, then the re-establishment of national Israel would be a necessary precondition to Jerusalem becoming “the camp of the saints” and thus also to the final battle.

Furthermore, part of the aftermath of the two world wars was the disintegration of Christendom, reflected by an almost complete official abandonment of Christianity as a moral and political system in the West. This would certainly be emblematic of a world in which Satan has been released from the bottomless pit.

If there will indeed be a mass conversion of the Jews before the year 6000, Jews from around the world being gathered within the borders of the historical nation of Israel would be a very obvious precursor. The final battle of Revelation 20:7-10 may therefore represent some kind of final assault on a converted Israel by the remaining unconverted forces from nations around the world.

Thus, my speculation is that the Jews in the nation of Israel will experience a massive national conversion before spring of 2041.

What Does Eternity Look Like?

Concerning the New Heavens and the New Earth of Revelation 21-22, consider Genesis 1:1-2: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

When the original heavens and earth were created on Day 0 of the initial creation, the heavens were created fully formed, while the earth was in an immature form. Per James Jordan:

“The earth as it was made was good, of course, but not yet developed. It lacked structure, was empty, and was dark. Nothing like this is said of heaven. Indeed, it is clear from the rest of the Bible that heaven was made structured, full, and bright from the beginning. The angelic host does not multiply, and so new angels do not appear in the process of time. Humanity was created as a race that matures into a host, while the angels were created as a host from the beginning.

The earth matures in a way that heaven does not. Heaven is thus the model or paradigm for the earth. The earth is to grow more and more heaven-like. In the rest of the Bible, when heaven opens, men see the models they are to reproduce on the earth, as when Moses was shown the model for the tabernacle.”

Revelation 19:7 indicates that the marriage supper of the Lamb followed immediately after the end of the Third Jewish-Roman War. However, in Revelation 21:2, the marriage supper is connected to the giving of the New Heaven and the New Earth. Moreover, the picture of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22 is seen as a perfect eternal existence, while the picture of Jerusalem in the New Heavens and the New Earth in Isaiah 65:17-25 still contains references to death and sinners in verse 20.

I believe the best way to reconcile all this information is as follows:

• The marriage supper of the Lamb occurred immediately after the Third Jewish-Roman War.
• The depiction of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22 is of the Jerusalem in the New Heaven, which represents the eternal dwelling place of the resurrected saints. It was created to be perfect right away, without sin or suffering.
• As the original earth was physically formless, void, and dark, the New Earth (the world under the full force of the New Covenant) was spiritually formless, void, and dark when it was given after the Third Jewish-Roman War. However, it has been maturing through the spread and development of the Church over the last two millennia to become increasingly like the New Heaven. During this time, the leaves of the Tree of Life have been for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2).
• The final 120 years of the current Biblical millennium will encompass the progression from the conversion of Israel to the final Satanic assault and defeat.
• After the defeat of Satan, the Great White Throne Judgment will bring all those in Hades out for judgment and eliminate the eternal waiting place once and for all.
• The defeat of Satan and the destruction of the military forces of God’s enemies will usher in a Sabbath millennium of global faithfulness to Christ and the peace and prosperity described in Isaiah 65:17-25. That passage describes the Jerusalem of the New Earth, which will be inhabited by the converted Jews of the Sabbath millennium.
• Isaiah 66 describes the final judgment of God’s enemies (the Satanic assault and the Great White Throne Judgment), the gathering of Jews from around the world to the restored faithful Jerusalem, and the final happy state of the Jews (verses 22-23). Note that Isaiah 66:24 describes the Lake of Fire from Revelation 20:14-15, which will be the eternal resting place of the wicked, while the righteous first dwell in the New Earth, then go to the New Jerusalem when they die.
• The New Heavens and the New Earth will never end, which means there will be no end to the birth and death of saints, which is why the gates of the New Jerusalem will never be shut (Revelation 21:25). After the Great White Throne Judgment and the final defeat of Satan, suffering and sin will be greatly minimized in the New Earth. I would speculate that eventually humans will spread to other habitable planets (possibly we will develop terraforming technology), and the Church will encompass Christian empires that span galaxies.

Two comments on this paradigm:

First, Revelation 1:1 and Revelation 22:6 mention that the Book of Revelation is describing things that would take place shortly. However, Revelation 20 describes a period of at least 2000 years, which is also glossed over in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28.

How could such a long time be accounted as so short? There are two options:

• The “things that would take place shortly” extend only through the end of the Third Jewish-Roman War, and Revelation 20 is meant to be an additional look forward to the distant future.
• 2 Peter 3:8 says, “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Thus, the millennium before the climax of the history of God’s conflict with Satan are/were as but a day to God.

Second, the idea of there being no discrete “end” to the earth raises the question of how there can be true worldwide peace and prosperity under Adam’s curse. I would propose that the curse pronounced on Adam in Genesis 3:17-19 actually represented a curse on the production of vine-grapes. The model presented in the Bible is that men eat bread in the morning before working and then drink wine at night to relax. Wine is an essential part of rest.

When Adam was cursed, the ground would only bring forth thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:18), not the grapes required to make wine. Therefore, the antediluvian patriarchs had no true rest – they could only eat the herbs of the field and the bread that would nourish them while they toiled (Genesis 3:18-19).

Noah’s father Lamech predicted that Noah would bring comfort from Adam’s curse (Genesis 5:29). Therefore, it is probable that during the Flood, the water from below (Genesis 7:11) changed the nature of the soil, allowing for vine-grapes to finally be growable. And indeed, the Bible draws attention to Noah planting a vineyard after the Flood (Genesis 9:20).

Thus, I would suggest that what we suffer from today is not Adam’s curse, but rather the devastating immediate and generational consequences of individual and societal sin. If Satan and the unrepentant sinful authorities in the world were to be suddenly removed (as depicted in Revelation 20:7-10), the world could soon heal to a place of widespread shalom.

Appendix: Evidence for a First-Century Parousia

If the Second Coming and associated end time events are in our future, and not the near future of the first-century Church…

1. Why did John the Baptist and Jesus say that the kingdom of heaven was “at hand” (Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17), and Jesus said that some of the people standing in front of Him would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God present with power (Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27), when the establishment of Jesus’ kingdom occurs in the midst of the events of Revelation (Revelation 11:15)?
2. Why did Jesus say that not one jot nor tittle of the Old Covenant Law would pass away until heaven and earth pass away (Matthew 5:18)? Significant sections of the Law became impossible to observe after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. How could those jots and tittles continue to apply, unless heaven and earth did indeed pass away at that time?
3. Why did Jesus say that his disciples would not finish going through all the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes (Matthew 10:23)? This mission was cut short by the First Jewish-Roman War that devastated Israel. Has this mission continued for 2000 years nonetheless?
4. Why did Jesus say that some of the people standing in front of Him would not taste death until they would see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom (Matthew 16:28)?
5. Why, in the Gospel of Matthew, when asked about the destruction of the temple and the sign of His coming and the end of the age, did Jesus describe the end-time events and His Second Coming, and then say that “this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place” (Matthew 24:1-34; cp. Mark 13:30, Luke 21:32)? A generation in the Bible is 40 years (confirmed in Hebrews 3:9-10), and there were exactly 40 years between Jesus’ first cleansing of the temple and the siege of Jerusalem that resulted in the destruction of the temple. What better interpretation of “generation” is available that accords with both Biblical use and the events of recorded history?
6. Why, in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, did Jesus describe the end time events in response to a question solely about the destruction of the temple (Mark 13:1-4; Luke 21:5-7)?
7. Why did Jesus instruct his listeners to “watch” (Matthew 24:42; Matthew 25:13; Mark 13:33; Luke 21:36), if they were not to experience the coming of the Son of Man?
8. Why did Peter, when told by Jesus to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man, interpret Jesus’ intended audience as including Peter himself (Luke 12:40-41)?
9. Why did Jesus tell the high priest that he would see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62)?
10. Why did Jesus say that “now” (meaning, in His very near future) the ruler of this world (i.e., Satan) would be cast out, when after the same event is described in Revelation 12:9, the devil is described as having a “short time” (Revelation 12:12)? Similarly, why did Paul say that God would crush Satan under the feet of Christians “shortly” (Romans 16:20)? Must not then either Revelation 20:1-3 or Revelation 20:10 have occurred shortly after Jesus’ speaking and Paul’s writings?
11. Why did the apostles believe that John could survive until the Second Coming (John 21:23), based on Jesus’ comment in John 21:22? Did they expect John to roam the earth for 2000 years, never aging and never revealing his true identity after the first century?
12. Why did Peter explicitly tie the speaking in tongues on Pentecost to the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy about the Last Days (Acts 2:16-17)? Is this not a straightforward statement that Peter was living in the Last Days?
13. Why did Paul say that it was “high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11)?
14. Why did Paul say that “the night is far spent; the day is at hand” (Romans 13:12)?
15. Why did Paul say that the Corinthians were eagerly waiting for the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:7)?
16. Why did Paul say that the “time is short… for the form of this world is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:29, 31)?
17. How can some preach the cessation of tongues and prophecies in the first century, when the cessation of these things, according to Paul, happens “when that which is perfect has come” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10)? Does this not mean that either there are divine prophecies of such specificity as the binding of Paul in Jerusalem (Acts 21:11) and the coming of a worldwide famine (Acts 11:28) today, as well as tongues that can be interpreted by other Christians (1 Corinthians 12:10), or else the perfect has come already?
18. Why did Paul say that the Lord was at hand (Philippians 4:5)?
19. Why did Paul commend the Thessalonians for turning from idols to wait for the Son to deliver them from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10)?
20. Why did Paul say that the Day of the Lord would have overtaken the Thessalonians if they had remained in darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:4) and that the Thessalonians were to watch and be sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6)?
21. Why did Paul say that God would give the Thessalonians rest when Jesus was revealed from heaven (2 Thessalonians 1:7)?
22. Why did Paul warn the Thessalonians not to prematurely expect the coming of the Lord before certain signs were fulfilled (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2)? Does this not mean Paul was priming them for the expectancy of His coming during their lifetimes? Would he have not otherwise told them not to expect His coming at all?
23. Why did Paul say, regarding the revelation of the man of sin that would directly precede the Lord’s coming (2 Thessalonians 2:3; 8), that the mystery of lawlessness was already at work and that someone was at that time actively restraining the lawless one but would be taken out of the way (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7)?
24. Why did Paul urge Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith until the appearing of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 6:12-14)?
25. Why did Paul command Timothy to “turn away” from the people who would come during the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1-5)? Why did he contrast Timothy’s continuance in the faith with the proliferation of evil men and impostors (2 Timothy 3:13-14)? Why did he connect Timothy’s ministry with the coming of those who would not endure sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:2-5)? Does this not indicate that Timothy was living in (or about to live in) the Last Days?
26. Why did the writer to the Hebrews say that in “these” Last Days, God had spoken to them by His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2)? If the writer was not living in the Last Days, is there more revelation from the Son to come in our future?
27. Why did the writer to the Hebrews give them instructions to perform “as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25)?
28. Why did the writer to the Hebrews say that in a “little while” He “who is coming will come and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10:37)?
29. Why did James accuse the rich members of his audience of heaping up treasures in the Last Days (James 5:3)? Does this not mean that he was living in the Last Days?
30. Why did James exhort his listeners to be patient until the coming of the Lord (James 5:7)?
31. Why did James say that the coming of the Lord was at hand (James 5:8)?
32. Why did James say that the Judge was standing at the door (James 5:9)?
33. Why did Peter refer to the time his listeners were living in as the “last times” (1 Peter 1:20)?
34. Why did Peter say that the end of all things was at hand (1 Peter 4:7)?
35. Why did Peter refer to the dawning of the day and the morning star rising in the hearts of his listeners (2 Peter 1:19)? What could he be referring to except the Second Coming?
36. Why did Peter urge his listeners to look for and even hasten the Day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:11-12)?
37. Why did John say that it was the Last Hour, as evidenced by the fact that antichrists had already come (1 John 2:18)?
38. Why did Jude refer to the men who had crept into the church (Jude 1:4) as the mockers of the last time (Jude 1:18)?
39. Why do Revelation 1:1 and 22:6 refer to the events of the Book of Revelation as “things which must shortly take place”?
40. Why does Revelation 1:3 say that “the time is near”?
41. Why does Revelation 22:10 say that “the time is at hand”?
42. Why does John say that those who pierced (i.e., crucified) Jesus would see Him coming on the clouds (Revelation 1:7)?
43. Why did Jesus tell the church of Thyatira to “hold fast what you have till I come” (Revelation 2:25)?
44. Why does Jesus say repeatedly in Revelation that He is coming quickly (Revelation 3:11; 22:7; 22:12; 22:20)?
45. Why is there not a single reference to the Second Coming or the associated end times events as being in the distant future of the listeners or readers anywhere in the New Testament? Note: As discussed, the 1000 years of Satan’s binding in Revelation 20 started after the Second Coming.
46. Why does every other reference to the Second Coming or the associated end times events that does not include an explicit time frame reference either make as much or more sense when considered as being fulfilled shortly instead of fulfilled in our future?

Appendix: A Pretermillennialist Timeline for the New Testament Canon

The mainstream Christian belief is that some of the New Testament, including John’s writings, was written after the First Jewish-Roman War. However, that cannot be possible if the model I’m proposing is correct.

There are three reasons we can be confident that the entire New Testament canon was completed before 70 AD:

• You had to be an apostle to write Scripture, and Paul described himself as the last apostle (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). All the apostles who hadn’t died before Jesus’ return would have been raptured when Jesus returned in Nisan of 70 AD.
• The “speaking by the Son” happened in the Last Days (Hebrews 1:1-2). Thus, the canon would be closed after the Last Days, which ended in 70 AD.
• Depending on the interpretation of Matthew 16:17-19, it is also possible that all New Testament Scripture required Peter’s official approval (or delegated approval, in Paul’s case – note that Peter approved Paul’s writings in 2 Peter 3:15-16) and thus must have been completed before the deaths of Peter and Paul in the AD 60s.

There is supporting evidence for this in the content of the New Testament books:

• No New Testament books reference the First Jewish-Roman War or the destruction of the Second Temple as past events.
• The Book of Revelation shows the temple as still in existence (Revelation 11:1-2).
• Peter references symbolism from Revelation at least once (1 Peter 5:13) and possibly a second time (2 Peter 3:8 might be a reference to the millennium of Revelation 20). Therefore, Revelation was written while Peter was still alive.

I therefore propose the following possible timeline for the composition of the New Testament that would allow for all the books to be completed during the Last Days.

Matthew

The apostles would have had to write a Gospel immediately after Jesus’ ascension (or even during His 40 days on earth after His resurrection) to help capture and communicate the story of Jesus’ life and ministry to the converts who joined the Church. This Gospel would have had to be Matthew or Luke, because neither Mark nor John record Jesus’ birth. Luke introduces his Gospel by suggesting that early accounts of Jesus’ ministry came from eyewitnesses, whereas his book was a result of a later investigation intended to produce an orderly account. As Matthew was an apostle and therefore an eyewitness, his Gospel would therefore be the natural candidate for first account.

Indeed, Matthew seems particularly geared towards Jews, which would make sense if it was written before the conversion of Cornelius. It also opens with a record of Jesus’ genealogy, implying that it is the beginning of a new deposit of Scripture, just like in multiple places in Genesis, in Numbers 3:1, and in Ruth 4:18.

Matthew ends his narrative before the ascension, so it was probably written during the 40 days between the resurrection and the ascension. Mark and Luke, by contrast, end after the ascension, implying they were written later. John, not being synoptic, ends where thematically appropriate.

Bonus: Putting Matthew first allows for my suggested order of the Gospels to match their traditional ordering.

Mark

In 44 AD, Saul and Barnabas were commissioned officially by James and Peter and John in Jerusalem to minister to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:9), which was confirmed by the Holy Spirit in Antioch (Acts 13:2). When Saul and Barnabas left Jerusalem, they took Mark with them (Acts 12:25).

The Gospel of Matthew was both written toward Jews and very long (because of Jesus’ many speeches). This meant it was not ideal for a traveling ministry to both Jews and Gentiles. Therefore, Mark probably wrote his Gospel as a condensed, action-packed (heavy on the word “immediately”) alternative to Matthew for use on their mission trip.

Alternatively, Mark may have already been writing it on Peter’s orders before Saul and Barnabas arrived with the financial gift, and it was taken with them for their purposes, along with its author to help with its use. Either way, Peter and the apostles had the opportunity to give the Gospel their official blessing before it was taken on the trip.

Luke

After their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas eventually returned to Jerusalem, where the first church council resolved the issue of whether Gentiles had to keep the Law of Moses. The two apostles then went with a company of saints to Antioch to deliver the letter written by the apostles and the elders of Jerusalem to clarify the commandments applicable to Gentile Christians.

However, at that point they split up, because Barnabas wanted to bring Mark on their next journey, while Paul did not. Barnabas probably continued using the Gospel of Mark on his missionary travels (Acts 15:39), but Paul at this point probably would have wanted a new Gospel, one tailored specifically for his purpose of visiting and strengthening previous converts (Acts 15:36; Acts 16:5).

Note that the Gospel of Luke is addressed to “Theophilus.” There is disagreement about who or what “Theophilus” is, but I posit it simply refers to a Christian reader, so that Luke 1:3-4 literally says, “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent lover of God, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.” This would align perfectly with a ministry to the previously converted (at least as an initial intent).

Based on the use of the pronoun “we,” starting in Acts 16:10, we know that Luke, the author of Acts, accompanied Paul and Silas and Timothy on this trip. Just like Mark, Luke had written his Gospel either at Peter’s urging or with his blessing, gotten a seal of approval from the apostles in Jerusalem, then gone with Paul as he used the Gospel in his ministry (possibly Paul bringing Luke with him so his book could replace Mark’s initiated the tension between him and Barnabas).

Note that in 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul refers to Luke 10:7 as Scripture while writing to Timothy (whom Paul picked up as a ministry assistant just after splitting with Barnabas). This suggests that Luke was the Gospel they were accustomed to referencing in their work together.

John

John is not a synoptic Gospel. It contains no reference to Jesus’ early years, and it covers largely different ground than the other Gospels. Furthermore, Luke’s Gospel declared itself to be a sufficiently thorough and orderly account of the life of Jesus, making another such Gospel unnecessary. Therefore, John must have been written for a completely different purpose than the other Gospels.

Up to this point, a Gospel had been written every single time Paul went to Jerusalem (except for his first trip in 33 AD, when the Gospel of Matthew was still being used for the entirely Jewish church). Therefore, it’s plausible the Gospel of John was written during his last visit in Acts 21.

According to Acts 24:27, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem two years before Porcius Festus succeeded Felix as procurator, which happened around 59-60 AD. Therefore, we can know for certain that Nero was emperor when Paul was arrested. Paul also knew that he was going to speak to the emperor (he requested this in Acts 25:10-11, and God confirmed this mission in Acts 27:24).

Therefore, Paul would have needed a special Gospel for this purpose. Instead of being a thorough account of Jesus’s life, it would need to be an account that would make an impact on Caesar himself. Reasons why the text of the Gospel of John supports this:

• It begins with a meditation on Jesus’ role as the Word (Logos), which struck right to the heart of Greco-Roman philosophy. Roman kings considered themselves philosophers to some extent (based on Plato’s Republic), so this would have been deeply impactful to one.
• The last verse of John contains a reference to books being unable to capture all the deeds of Jesus. This alludes to the multiple times the Old Testament (primarily in 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles) mentions that all the deeds of a specific king are recorded in more comprehensive historical books. Jesus is presented here as the highest of kings, greater than any earthly king (because His reign cannot be thoroughly summarized), which would be how an apostle would finish a Gospel written for a king.
• John states toward the end of his Gospel that he chose to relay certain miracles of Jesus “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). I posit that John was originally speaking to a specific person, Caesar Nero, not to a generic person (although it served a broader purpose later).
• John recounts Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s martyrdom at Nero’s hands (John 21:18), showing Nero that God was completely sovereign over history and all of the emperor’s decisions.

Unfortunately, Nero responded by killing the messenger (Paul) and the person recorded as the leader of the Christian church at the end of the book (Peter). Nero did not, however, kill John himself, but instead imprisoned him on Patmos (Revelation 1:9). Possible reasons:

• He may have been strangely touched by the message of John’s Gospel and wanted to spare him.
• He may have been spooked by John 21:22-23 into believing John could not be killed, and thus he chose to lock him away instead of risking a direct encounter with Yahweh’s providence, in some kind of mystical fear of God’s power.

The Gospel of John would therefore have been written and blessed by the apostles at some point between Paul’s final visit to Jerusalem and his departure for Rome.

Acts

Some time passed between Festus starting his time of service and Paul being sent to Italy. The journey to Rome took months, and then Paul spent an additional two years preaching and teaching before his trial (Acts 28:30-31). His trial was therefore probably around 62 AD, although it could have been 63 or even 64 AD (it had to be before the Great Fire of Rome, because in using Christians as scapegoats, Nero showed that he had already heard the Gospel preached to him by Paul, knew who they were, and had decided to oppose them instead of joining them).

It is hard to believe Luke would not have recorded an account of the trial if he had written Acts after it had taken place, so Acts had to have been completed just as the trial was about to start.

Other Books

Revelation would have been written somewhere between the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD (as the Great Tribulation under Nero had already started) and the start of the First Jewish-Roman War in 66 AD, which was described as still in the future in Revelation 4:1.

As the first epistle of Peter references the symbolism of Revelation, both 1 Peter and 2 Peter would have been written after Revelation was written. They also would have been written before Nero’s death in 68 AD, as Peter mentioned his own impending death in 2 Peter 1:13, which happened during Nero’s persecution of the Church.

1 John says it was written during “the last hour,” implying that all three of John’s epistles were also from that time and that the falling away of fake Christians had already begun (1 John 2:18-19), which was a sign of the end being very near (2 Timothy 3:1-9).

Jude’s whole letter was also about this falling away, which was happening at the time he wrote. His letter was quite possibly the last book of the New Testament to be written.