Revelation and the Fall of Judea: A Comparison of Chapters 4 Through 16 to Historical Events of A.D. 27 Through 135 by Maurice A. Williams

From the Publisher

From The Author:
My book is a new interpretation of Revelation in which I view the visions from a different perspective than most other authors. I found a clue to interpret many of the visions from J. Massyngberde Ford in the Anchor Bible Series. Ford stated that many biblical scholars believe some visions came from the preaching of John the Baptist. Ford reviewed the evidence showing which visions came from John the Baptist. If true, then the early visions are the Baptist's announcement that the Messiah has arrived and the Baptist's warnings what would happen should his listeners not accept the Messiah and oppose him.

Some scholars claim that the earliest visions (Chapters four through eleven), were preached for about thirty years. A Christian disciple of John the Baptist revised and added more visions just before A.D. 66. Finally in A.D. 96, John the Evangelist added the letters to the churches and made the final redaction that we have today.

This caught my imagination. If many visions originated with John the Baptist warning the Judeans, then our perception of the historical events predicted by the visions would shift from modern times to a much earlier period. All commentaries interpret Revelation from a futurist, preterist, spiritual, or allegorical viewpoint. In addition, they also view the visions from a premillennial, postmillennial, or amillennial perspective. Plus the author´s own Christian faith influences what he thinks. This triple layer of conflicting viewpoints results in widespread disagreement on any concrete historical events that might have been predicted by the visions.

This frustrates the average reader, who then picks an interpretation that appeals to him based on what he sees happening today. The result is that futurist, premillennial interpretations are the most popular and the most widely read commentaries.

I show that Judea suffered a terrible tribulation through the four winds and three woes. I show that the four winds compare very well with historical events between the crucifixion of Christ and late A.D. 66, when Vespasian conquered all Judea except Jerusalem.

The Judeans trapped in Jerusalem suffered even more acutely during the first woe when their three-year civil war destroyed all the stored food in Jerusalem, stripping them of their sustenance, just like a plague of locusts would. Disaster came during the second woe when Titus reinforced the Roman army with local allies. In A.D. 70, this army brutally conquered the starving people. The soldiers demolished the Temple and most of Jerusalem. The third woe destroys Judea as an independent nation when Bar Kochba leads the Judeans to total defeat and exile. I provide more information about Bar Kochba and the war of A.D. 131-5 than any other book interpreting Revelation.

All of this is so harsh on Judea that, before I discuss the third woe, I try to get the reader to view Jerusalem through the eyes of history. I then describe seven important historical events that occurred on Mount Moriah, including the restoration of Israel, as God promised through Old Testament prophets.

My book then describes how the Judeans who survived Jerusalem´s destruction (the second woe) rebuild their nation over the next sixty years. While they are rebuilding their nation, Christianity spreads. The unbelieving Judeans once again try eradicating Christianity. At the same time, they accept someone who, in his own name, claimed to be the Messiah. Under his, Bar Kochba´s, leadership, the Judeans , with 400,000 fighting men, defeat two Roman legions, liberate Palestine, and establish a fully-independent Judean commonwealth.

Rome sends Septimus Severus to reconquer Judea. Severus destroys every fort and city that harbors Judean fighting men. Severus defeats the last remnant at Bethar. The dead are left to rot unburied, most survivors flee or are forcibly deported. Other peoples immigrate to occupy the land. A temple to Jupiter rises where the Israelite Temple once stood. Jerusalem is renamed "Aelia Capitolina" in honor of Hadrian and Jupiter. So total is this defeat that, even as late as 1856, only 10,500 Jews reside in all of Palestine (Harel, p. 147).

My book shows, in detail, (with long quotes from original sources) historical events that match Revelation 4 through 16, bringing the unbelieving Judeans into a condition where they no longer can frustrate the mission of the promised one. Judea then enters the "times of the Gentiles" until, as I outline in my book, the Jewish nation is restored. Are we now approaching the end of the "times of the Gentiles?" I wonder if the Gentile nations will be any more accepting of Christ when Christ comes the second time as the unbelieving Judeans were when Christ came the first time.

My last chapter presents an overview of previous interpretations. I review many interpretations and many cults and sects that have derived from various interpretations of Revelation. I start with Victorinus, Tyconius, and Saint Augustine. Augustine interpreted Revelation in his City of God. I go on to Joachim of Fiore and to Martin Luther, who wrote two interpretations of Revelation.

I continue with a review of 19th century interpretations: Adam Clarke, J. G. Wetstein, and Fr. Leo G. Haydock. I also describe 19th century millennial movements like the Mormons, the Millerites, the Seventh Day Adventists, and Jehovah´s Witnesses. I reviewed Babylon the Great has Fallen, an interpretation by Jehovah´s Witnesses.

I continue with 20th century interpretations by Catholic and non-Catholic authors: Robert Baldwin, William Barclay, Adela Collins, Billy Graham, Richard Jeske, Alan Johnson, Tim LeHaye, Hal Lindsey, H. M. Morris, Robert Mounce, Pheme Perkims, Patrick K. Sena, and Fr. John Tickle, to name a few. I finished researching my manuscript in the mid-eighties. I noticed that, from 1970 to the 1990´s, at least forty more commentaries have been published. This shows the average reader´s enormous interest in this subject. It also shows that, after so many conflicting interpretations, no one has come up with a believable idea of what might have been the original intent of Revelation.

I reviewed the interpretation of David Chilton and an interpretation of the signs contained in Fr. Stefano Gobbi´s book about locutions he claims to have received from the Mother of Jesus. I also comment on an Islamic interpretation and secular interpretations by D. H. Lawrence, Carl G. Jung, and Edgar Cayce.

I tried to present a scholarly and thorough overview of all these interpretations. Many references show my source materials. I make my observations in a fair-minded, unbiased fashion. I am the only author that shows, in depth, that Revelation can be interpreted in view of first and second century events. I am the only author to describe the early war with Rome in A.D. 60 to 66 and the final war in A.D. 131 to 135.

I am the only author to outline the history of Israel and Judea before Christ and the demise of Judea after Christ. I am the only author to outline the history of the Church before, during, and after the Reformation. I am the only author to show how the Jewish people, after seemingly total destruction, came back to their ancestral homeland, and, unparalleled in history, resurrected their original language that was already a dead language during Christ´s time.

I am the only author to outline the growth of Islam to show that all the descendants of Abraham eventually came to worship the God Abraham worshipped. I am the only author who prepared an easy-to-read, sensible, and logical linking of Revelation to the preaching of John the Baptist. —Maurice A. Williams

About the Author:
Maurice A, Williams is a technical writer experienced in researching literature. Coming from a different field, with no preconceived bias, he sees a more logical interpretation of Revelation than others have seen. He is a successful author explaining difficult subjects. He has forty-two articles published in scientific journals around the world and has contributed chapters to six international text books. Williams found a clue to interpret Revelation from authors who claim that chapters 4 through 11 came from John the Baptist as the Baptist announced Christ and warned of consequences should Christ be resisted. If true, then historical events predicted by the visions would shift from modern times to a much earlier period. Williams is the only author to thoroughly link these visions to events experienced by John´s audience. Williams traces Israelite and Judean history before Christ and Judea´s demise after Christ. He discusses Church history. He shows how the Jewish people came back to their ancestral homeland. He outlines the growth of Islam. Williams is the only author who prepared an easy-to-read, sensible, logical linking of at least half of Revelation to the preaching of John the Baptist.

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I have a reason for writing this book. I think most interpretations mismatch Revelation by at least seventeen hundred years. Many authors claim a future rapture of the saints, a tribulation of the wicked, and a thousand-year Christian kingdom. All this, they claim, has not yet happened. I do not believe their timetable. It seems strange that Revelation, written by an apostle, was not meant to guide the apostle's contemporaries faced with an uncertain future. If that were my only disagreement, I would not bother writing this book. I noticed that very few interpretations make any serious attempt to show that Revelation could be interpreted through events that happened during the lives of the apostles and early Christians. I found that most of Revelation can be interpreted this way. That is why I wrote this book.

I think the real tribulation and the millennium started when Christianity started. The real tribulation struck the Judean people who tried to destroy Christianity. That tribulation literally destroyed the Judean nation. With Judea no longer a threat, Christianity survived. I think the millennium is the Christian age. Primarily a spiritual kingdom of faithful souls, some already reigning with Christ, Christianity has an earthly dimension here with us. If I were to ignore the heavenly dimension and merely look for some earthly dimension in human history, I would choose the fourth century when Rome accepted the religion of Jesus Christ. Rome rejected all pagan religions. The whole Roman empire became a Christian society. This would be my nomination for the start of a political Christian kingdom. It was still in this world, so naturally it was not perfect.

At the end of the millennium, Satan and the fallen angels will be released. Jesus Christ bound them at the beginning. Many interpretations would have the release occur ten centuries from now. This is not a future event. I believe this happened in the past.

If I were to look for a time when Christendom seemed to come under attack from released demons, I would choose the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. During those centuries, the rise of nationalism undermined the unity of the political empire. The nations-Revelation also speaks of nations-the nations pursued their own agendas. Simultaneously, the unity of Christianity weakened. Scandal within Christianity led to the Reformation. The Reformation, combined with nationalism, tore apart Christianity and the Christian empire. That rupture, and the controversy still attached to it, eventually destroyed the credibility of all Christian groups. The political millennium, here on earth, would have lasted from the forth century to the fifteenth century, approximately one thousand years. Since then, what was once the Christian Empire fought war after war as its individual nations clashed. Christianity has steadily declined as a world influence due to contradictions and rebuttals of Christian doctrine by people within the Christian community. Today, all can see how little influence Christianity has on the nations, as nation after nation pursues its own rejection of Jesus Christ and his teaching. These same nations now tell us we are in the post-Christian Era.

Oh yes, the millennium started long ago. Christ bound the fallen angels at the beginning to insure that his kingdom becomes firmly established. Then Christ released them, not to wreak havoc for us, but for us to subdue and dominate them, for we all by now should be ready to subdue temptation and assert our own faithfulness to our king. If we fail in this great task given us, then we are the ones who-just like first and second-century Judeans before us-will bring tribulation upon our countries. Our failure will propel our own Gentile nations into history's great watershed when God will end all defiance and requite all persons according to their deeds. I first studied these matters in 1978 when I reexamined my faith in Jesus Christ. I read several books about the rapture, the tribulation, a Soviet invasion of Israel, and nuclear war. I remember when I first read these books, I felt that God would not bring this disaster. But after some thought, I could see that human beings could bring it. There was then good reason to worry that they would.

I, at first, believed these predictions. Believing them encouraged me to renew my Christian allegiance and deepen my understanding of Christianity. I focused on Revelation, what it might really mean, and where we might be today amid the various events prophesied.

I wound up not agreeing with the authors I first read and not accepting their assumption that most of the predictions are unfulfilled. However, the thought that we are at a new era in human history caught my attention and became a catalyst that motivated my investigation. Now, many years later, I am convinced that the human race is much farther down the road than I thought we were when I first began my investigation because-well, I wrote this book explaining why.

I learned, however, to appreciate how the Holy Spirit works through human efforts, even if our efforts are not 100% correct, to encourage others to take God's word seriously. I am not presuming to be 100% correct in my interpretation, but I would like to show you the historical events I discovered in my search, events that really happened and seem to fit just as well, if not better, with Revelation as do current events. Few past events are discussed today, so we tend to ignore the past. However, if we knew past events as well as we know current events, we might all be able to judge for ourselves how Revelation has been and is being fulfilled in history.

Some popular interpretations claim that nineteen of the twenty-two chapters in Revelation cover future events, like the rapture and the millennium. Only the first three chapters, the letters to the churches, cover events that already happened. I do not believe this. I think the millennium on earth ran its course long ago and that it, along with our present human condition, will close when Christ returns. Are there historical events that support this? I believe there are. I found the events.

If my understanding is true, then Christ will return not to start a new chapter in our exile from paradise, but to conclude our exile and commence his eternal kingdom. The rapture that applies to us has been going on all through the Christian era as Christ takes the souls of the departed righteous to the heaven he prepared for them.

The timing of these events is important to me. Whichever timing is wrong is out of synchronization with God's timetable by almost two thousand years. I have been the right guy in the right place at the wrong time before, but only by a few years. I do not want to miss God's timetable by twenty centuries. This is why I made my investigation. The reason I wrote this book is to make my data available to others to spare them, to spare you, the time and effort I took. I searched libraries to discover what other authors wrote. I tried to digest their words and describe what they think. I noted my sources so you can check up on me using short references that help you find the full reference in the Bibliography. I used quotations from the following public domain sources so that you need not hunt for the books yourself. I used long quotes so you can rest assured that I did not take short quotes out of context, These quotations are taken from:

1. The Holy Bible Translated From the Latin Vulgate (Baltimore: John Murphy Co., 1899). (Douay-Rheims Bible).
2. The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments (New York: American Bible Society, 1878). (King James Bible).
3. The Genuine works of Flavius Josephus in Two Volumes, translated by Wm. Whiston M. A. (Philadelphia: J. Grigg, 1829).
4. The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, with an English translation by J. C. Rolfe, Ph.D. (London: William Heinemann Ltd. & New York: The MacMillan Co., 1914).
5. Annals (originally written by Tacitus), translated into English by A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb (London & New York: MacMillan & Co., 1906).
6. The History of Tacitus, translated into English by A. J. Church and W.

Overlying all of this are three viewpoints regarding the millennium: premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillenialism. Premillenialism holds that the millennial kingdom is yet to come. Postmillennialism holds that the millennial kingdom has already happened. Amillennialism holds that there is no millennial kingdom.

Now that I have read several dozen interpretations, I suspect another set of viewpoints within the seven mentioned. It got so that I could predict what the interpretation might be as soon as I learned the religious faith of the author. I suppose it is impossible to divorce yourself entirely from everything else you believe in order to unprejudicially evaluate new information. I am not surprised, therefore, over the wide differences in interpretation. I am not surprised because these triple layers of viewpoints cause very wide differences of opinion. When I saw these differences, they caused me to review my own understanding of what I perceive to be true, my personal faith in what I understood to be the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The first books I read warned that Revelation predicts a nuclear war when the Soviet Union invades Israel. That caught my imagination. Today, the Soviet empire is gone, so a Soviet invasion of Israel is preposterous. It was possible, though, in the early seventies. The best-selling interpretations did predict that the Soviet Union would invade Israel. The Western nations would enter on Israel's side. Both sides would launch nuclear attacks. Among the many flaws in this interpretation, the most troublesome is the unlikelihood that civilization could survive the first nuclear exchange. Six were proposed.

The prediction that the European Economic Community will be the revived Roman Empire and that the Soviet Union will invade Israel was first voiced right after World War II. During the war, a different pattern had developed, a pattern involving a new Roman Empire under Mussolini (Rimmer, p., 171). When the Italian army conquered Ethiopia, Mussolini said he restored the Empire. In a May 1936 speech to his army he said: "Legionnaires! In this supreme certitude raise high your insignia, your weapons, and your hearts to salute, after fifteen centuries, the reappearance of the Empire on the fated hills of Rome." (Fermi, p. 327).

For those who then interpreted Revelation, this was the resurrected Roman Empire. Mussolini was the Roman dictator who revived the empire. Mussolini restored the fasces as his symbol of political power. The "fasces" was a cylinder of reeds, three feet by four inches, tied over an axe. Ancient Rome used it as a symbol of authority. Mussolini also restored the ancient Roman salute of the outstretched arm. Other leaders set up similar governments in their countries, notably Hitler in Germany.

Hitler started out admiring and imitating Mussolini. He soon surpassed Mussolini and wound up controlling the Axis coalition. Hitler's career abruptly ended when he lost the war. Knowing his character during the war, especially his conduct toward the Jews, he could, had he lived, easily have done many things expected of the antichrist.

Had the Axis won and Hitler continued his career until he was seventy, he would have controlled the Axis powers until 1959. This coalition of a victorious Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Finland, Japan, and the countries they conquered, would make a more believable revived empire than what might come out of the EEC.

The war, of course, destroyed the Axis coalition. I think the EEC nations found themselves in postwar interpretations as a substitute for the more believable Empire Mussolini revived. Now that the 1990's have brought the Gulf War, and the twentieth-first century has brought the war against terror, I can imagine what comes next: more interpretations that identify new groups of nations as the sea beast.

I wonder if Revelation predicted events that happened long ago. What would I think if I knew the "current events" of long ago? Might I see a closer fit between Revelation and those events than modern writers claim for contemporary events?

I studied the "current events" of the era when Revelation was composed, and I see a close fit. I am not a biblical scholar or a trained historian; I am an ordinary person like you. Like you I have had good exposure to modern events through the news media. Without needing to study, we are both familiar enough with modern events that someone could easily draw upon the scattered bits of information we know and weave them into conformity with Revelation. We would then miss the main point. We would spend our lives waiting for what has already happened.

In this book I will compare Revelation to the "current events" of the early Church age. I will explain how these events conform to Revelation. I will include the Biblical verses and historical quotes so you will not have to consult other books. I hope this will give you another viewpoint to consider. At the very least, it will allow you to see how I drew my conclusion. When Christ comes a second time, he will not come to start his kingdom. He will come for the final judgment. I did not start my commentary at Chapter 1 of Revelation where the prophet writes to the seven churches. I started at Chapter 4 where the prophet suddenly sees visions of things that are coming "soon." Notice that the prophet said "soon."

Chapters 4 through 11 are the earliest portions of this great Christian Apocalypse. There has always been speculation that someone other than John the Evangelist wrote them. Some scholars today believe that Chapters 4 through 11 had their origin in the preaching of John the Baptist. J. M. Ford explains why in The Anchor Bible's commentary on Revelation (Ford, p. 3). The theory is that John the Baptist preached the earliest portions of Revelation to anyone who would listen. His visions explained the Messiah John was sent to announce and warned his listeners what would happen to anyone who opposed the Messiah and tried to frustrate his God-given mission. The Baptist electrified his disciples, many of whom became Christian, one of whom was John the Evangelist. They also preached the Baptist's visions, repeating the visions in their original form, for approximately thirty years.

Around A.D. 66, a Christian disciple added more visions and preached the combined text during the Judean revolt against Rome (Judea's tribulation). Finally, around A.D. 96, John the Evangelist reorganized the visions and added the letters to the seven churches (Ford, p. 3). This was twenty-six years after the Temple's destruction, thirty-eight years before the final, disastrous defeat of Judea. This reorganized text is the text we read today. The possibility that Chapters 4 through 11 originated with John the Baptist, as the Baptist announced the Messiah, is the key I use to relate those visions to events when Christianity first started. I read many history books to see if Revelation could compare to historical events of first and second-century Judea. I believe I found a point by point relationship for Revelation chapters 4 through 16. When the Evangelist put the final completed text into writing, many events and disasters the Baptist warned about had already taken place. John the Evangelist was an eyewitness to them.

Perhaps the Evangelist included these visions in the final text to warn later-time Gentile nations that they will face similar disasters, not only as outlined in the visions, but as observed in Judean history, if they are not ready when Christ comes the second time as Judea was not ready when Christ came the first time. That does not, however, diminish the primary application of these visions to first-century Judea. Try to imagine the Baptist when he began his ministry. Coming from the hot desert, he might seek the cooler areas along the Jordan. He would, perhaps, set down his walking staff, motion to attract attention, and start describing his visions. What he had seen were vivid clues showing the relationship between the people God created and their creator. God sent an angel, even before John's birth, to announce John's special mission. After his birth, when he was still a child, John went to the desert. There he began preparation for his mission. His preparation could have included visions that clarified what he should proclaim. Symbols and images could teach him concepts that are true about God, not as the concepts are in themselves because John would not have understood them that way, but in a symbolic way that John could understand. Like, for example, the way we represent water by the symbol H2O.

Everyone knows that H2O is a molecule of water; yet, the visual symbol only partly resembles a molecule of water. One could go further and draw a symbol showing the nucleus of an oxygen atom surrounded by eight electrons. The oxygen nucleus lies between two nuclei of hydrogen atoms, each with one additional electron. All three nuclei share the ten electrons, which align to form two orbits around the oxygen. Two electrons are in the inner orbit, eight in the outer orbit. Now we have a more meaningful visual symbol that shows more detail about a molecule of water. Even if it is more meaningful, however, this new symbol is still not exactly like a molecule of water because a molecule of water cannot be seen by the human eye. This is a limitation of our human nature. We cannot see things that are that small. Even if we became small enough to see them, a molecule of water would still not look like the visual symbol. It would look more like the solar system with immense space between the electrons and the nuclei of the atoms.

In spite of our human limitations, however, God has no problem infusing knowledge into prophets' minds through visions and symbols and other ways. Nor do prophets have problems getting the knowledge across to their listeners. All we need do is listen with an open heart. John the Baptist is the Messiah's herald, the one sent to make the Messiah's arrival known so that people might recognize him. This voice in the wilderness speaking with Elijah's spirit saw visions similar to what earlier prophets had seen. John's visions made it clear that the awaited one had finally arrived. They showed John what the awaited one's arrival portends for the Judean people and for the whole world.

The first of these visions, a magnificent mental image, shows what God is like and what the relationship is between God and the promised Messiah.