Statement:
THE EVENTS OF 70 AD DO NOT FULFILL THE PROPHECIES ABOUT THE END TIMES
Discussion
The events of 70 AD do not fulfill the prophecies about the End Times. Jesus prophesied that the Great Tribulation will be the most severe time in world history. It will surpass all other times of crisis. Some seek to minimize this prophecy by reducing it to symbolism or by seeing it as being totally fulfilled in 70 AD. The Great Tribulation will be so severe that God shortens it to three and a half years to keep the entire human race from being physically killed (Matthew 24:21-22). One million people died in 70 AD and in World War II, 50 million died. Neither 70 AD nor World War II came close to threatening the existence of the human race as the Great Tribulation will, and neither of them was the worst time in history. The events of 70 AD were clearly a prophetic foreshadowing of the Great Tribulation. However, they did not fulfill most of the details given about the Great Tribulation in Scripture. For example, Jesus said the Great Tribulation would not happen until after we see the abomination of desolation that results in an unprecedented number of deaths (Revelation 6:8; Revelation 9:15). The details concerning the abomination of desolation in Revelation 13:11-18 include a talking image, the mark of the beast, a healed head wound, mandatory worship of the Antichrist that is worldwide, and a false prophet. None of these details were fulfilled in the Jewish revolt against Rome (66-70 AD). In that crisis, Jerusalem and the second temple were destroyed in 70 AD (Masada fell in 73 AD). Then in the Bar Kochba rebellion against Rome (132-135 AD), the Jews revolted against Rome again, resulting in 500,000 Jews being killed and 1,000 villages being destroyed. Israel was driven into exile (the Diaspora) and Jerusalem was rebuilt and renamed as Aelia Capitolina.
Answer
The events of 70 AD most definately DO NOT fulfill the prophecies of the End Times. However, the events of 60 AD through 476 AD do.
Development
Claims:
- [T]he Great Tribulation will be the most severe time in world history. It will surpass all other times of crisis
- 70 AD siege does appear to be the most severe time in world history. When one looks at numbers, one could compare WWII which had 50 million killed, 6 million of them Jews. This is only looking at quantity, however. The prophecy does not say it is the most killed, but that the time of trouble would not be surpassed. This must also look at proportion and degree of suffering (see here for another explanation of this). Also, even if it is the worst time to come up on the entire world up to that time, never to be surpassed, it still does not implicitly describe the calamity as being world-wide in itself. We could have the worst hurricane in the United States ever, and have it only hit one city. See here for another article on the scope of the Great Tribulation. Hitler’s brutality, as horrible as it was, came nowhere close to the masses of crucifixions daily outside of Jerusalem during the siege, nor the insane madness and torture of Nero. Additionally, the Olivet discourse indicates that the scope of the Great Tribulation is Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15; Luke 21:20). It may be an estimation, but since proportion (percentage) of populace in Jerusalem and degree of suffering both seem they would surpass anything other event. So, the 66-70AD events would suffice for the Great Tribulation.
- The Great Tribulation will be so severe that God shortens it to three and a half years to keep the entire human race from being physically killed (Matthew 24:21-22).
- The siege of Jerusalem was 3 and 1/2 years.
- For example, Jesus said the Great Tribulation would not happen until after we see the abomination of desolation that results in an unprecedented number of deaths (Revelation 6:8; Revelation 9:15).
- Speculation about the exact definition of the abomination varies, and is not given by scripture. Many equate it, and thus expect it, to be the same type of event as when an idol was set up in the Most Holy Place in the temple. Luke, as opposed to Matthew, uses a reference to the Roman army encompassing Jerusalem. Since they are substituted, many equate the army with the abomination. Whether it was this, or perhaps the rebel leader using the sanctuary as his center and defiled it with bloodshed, the exact representation of the abomination does not need to match the earlier one, merely its effect. As the abomination is not clearly defined in scripture, it must be defined in description, and, therefore, is subject to interpretation. If, in the course of all study, everything else points to a fulfillment, but the exact identity of the abomination is not fully clear, it is not the burden of scripture to produce sufficient historical records, nor does the lack of those historical records invalidate the scriptures, or, in this case, the interpretation. History is history, and gaps are possible. We should expect to see it, eventually, but the lack of the positive identification is not sure proof of prophetic failure. Specific association of the listed scriptures, the fourth seal and the sixth trumpet, is purely supposition, a product of the interpretation, and the direct linking is not directly supported by the text. The deaths indicated did happen in the years leading up to the siege, and during the siege, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, however their connection to the abomination is a product of their model, not the text.
- The details concerning the abomination of desolation in Revelation 13:11-18 include a talking image, the mark of the beast, a healed head wound, mandatory worship of the Antichrist that is worldwide, and a false prophet. None of these details were fulfilled in the Jewish revolt against Rome (66-70 AD).
- Again, the time of 70 AD does not fulfill this, but the time shortly after does. Domitian was the beast, who was considered Nero raised from the dead. Nero had died of a head wound (self inflicted sword to the neck), and the populace called Domitian a “beast”. Further, Domitian required a pinch of incense to be burned to himself and people to declare that Caesar was Lord, in exchange for a paper allowing people to buy or sell, which was called the emperor’s “mark”. The Cult of the Emperor would have been the false prophet, most likely, who mandated emperor worship. A statue of Domitian five meters tall was set up in Ephesus, and in the entire nation was required to worship the emperor. Thus, while the events of 70 AD do not fulfill the prophecies of Revelation 13, the events of 60 – 476AD amply do.