"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in," (Mat 23:13).
This same character flaw still thrives in the heart of man, even today, and is witnessed on a regular basis in quite a number of individuals, whose actions exemplify their contemptible lack of reverence for God's Holy Word; whose eyes are blinded by the fog of arrogance, and whose ears are deafened by the very nonsense they utter! Occasionally, the progenitors of this attitude, in the attempt to thwart all consideration of Realized Eschatology, will go to the un-Biblical extremes of slandering those with whom they disagree, and even some elders, employ the threat of being 'disfellowshiped,' to discourage Christians from studying their Bibles to, "prove all things" (1 Thess 5:21), and thus, by their actions, they too are "taking away the key of knowledge" (Luk 11:52), and, "shutting up the kingdom of heaven against men."
Having dealt with this reprehensible attitude for the better part of my life has actually taught me to stand on my own, and to study the scriptures for myself, with the attitude of allowing proper exegesis and consistent hermeneutics to illuminate my path; therefore, I want to share with you, some keys to understanding the New Testament. The failure to acknowledge these keys will consistently leave one's interpretation flawed due to the false paradigm created by ignoring things like audience relevance and the time statements which permeate the scriptures.
"And when you see Jerusalem being encircled by army camps, then recognize that its destruction has come near....For these are days of vengeance when all things that have been written are to be fulfilled," (Luk 21:20-22, KJ3).
In order to place the teachings of the New Testament in their proper context, it is absolutely critical to understand that Jesus, in predicting the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, said that with the fall of "the great city...where also our Lord was crucified" (Rev 11:8), would come the fulfillment of all things written, i.e., all prophecies of the Old Testament.
"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand," (Rev 1:1-3).
This is another vital key to placing the contents of the New Testament in their proper context. The failure to recognize the time statements of imminence in this visional Prologue, has, and will continue to create innumerable fanatical theories. Nearly all, I suppose, would agree that when this book was written delineates what the subject matter pertains to, i.e., if it can be shown that the vision was penned after the fall of Jerusalem, then obviously, the vision pertains to something else; however, most will agree, that if it can be substantiated that the Revelation vision was written prior to the end of the Jewish age, then its contents pertain specifically to the utter destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, Judaism, and the fleshly nation of Israel at the consummation of the Jewish age. In the following paragraph, I will list all of the internal evidence which supports the "late date" of the writing of Revelation.
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Then, the only external evidence, found solely in books written by men, such as the Patristics, encyclopedias, and commentaries, which 'supports' the late date is one, second-hand, ambiguous statement made by Irenaeus in AD 175.
One needs to look no further than the Bible itself at the overwhelming internal evidence which corroborates the early date of writing, and thereby concurs with the time statements in the prologue, that these things must shortly come to pass, for the time IS at hand!
"And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months," (Rev 11:1-2).
If the Revelation vision was written near the end of the first century, why would John be told to measure the temple and altar, which had been destroyed nearly 3 decades earlier?
"And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space," (Rev.17:10).
The seven kings are the Caesars, of which Nero was the sixth, i.e., the one that is, or is reigning, thereby assigning the date of the writing of this vision during the reign of Nero, which was from AD 54-68.
"And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth," (Rev 18:24).
"Her" is Mystery Babylon, the Mother of Harlots, named in the previous chapter, which Jesus specifically and irrefutably had already identified as being Jerusalem:
"Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O JERUSALEM JERUSALEM, thou THAT KILLEST THE PROPHETS, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house←[temple] is left unto you desolate," (Mat 23:34-38).
Since all of the righteous bloodshed can't be found in 2 separate entities, especially separated by two millennia to infinity, this demonstrates the synonymity of Jerusalem and the Mother of Harlots, which provides indisputable internal evidence that the Revelation vision is dealing solely with the downfall of Judaism, the greatest enemy of Christianity at that time, bringing the Mosaic age to its consummation.
"Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" (Mat 24:1-3, NKJV).
Until Mat 24-25 and its parallels (Mar 13; Luk 17:20-37 & Luk 21) are understood in their proper context of the end of the Jewish nation, and the destruction of their temple, consummating the end of Old Covenant age, the Bible student will never be able to overcome the confusion, misunderstanding, blatant textual contradictions, and false theories that arise out of the Greek phrase, "ho sunteleia ho aiōn" translated in the KJV as "the end of the world." This single blunder by scholars in misinterpreting the phrase as, the end of the world gave rise to the idea of the end of time and the material universe which has created, no doubt, the worst theological disaster of all time! This blunder has fostered a plethora of denominational doctrines, secular novels and movies, as well as countless unscriptural gospel songs, lines, and thoughts in our hymn books.
The Greek term, "sunteleia" defined, means "completion" or "consummation," not the end of existence. The Mosaic law did not cease to exist, for we still have it for our learning, (Rom 15:4); however, that law and era, which was to bring us to the fulness of Christ, (Gal 3:24; Eph 1:10), was completed, and is no longer binding upon God's people. Likewise, the Greek term "aion" translated to the ambiguous English term "world," is defined as an "age" or "period of time," and is the equivalent of the English term, "eon", which does not refer to the physical / material universe.
"For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world←[kosmos]: but now once in the end of the world←[aion] hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself," (Heb 9:26, KJV).
We find in this passage the identical phrase that is found in Mat 24:3; therefore, this begs the question, when did Jesus appear to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself: NOW, in the end of the Christian age? Was Jesus crucified in the end of eternity; or, did Jesus appear, now, as the writer penned the words, in the end of the Jewish age, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself?
Speaking of Christ, Paul said, "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world←[aion], according to the will of God and our Father:" (Gal 1:4). Note the irrefutable specificity of Paul's words, that Christ, "gave Himself for our sins," (which corresponds with, "...he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself"), that He would deliver us from THIS PRESENT evil age. Did Jesus deliver them from this present evil Christian age? Did Jesus give Himself to deliver them from eternity? The only plausible interpretation here is that Jesus gave Himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil [Jewish]age.
Paul said, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:" (Col 1:13). Again, Paul said, "for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor messengers, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things about to be..." (Rom 8:38f, YLT). Notice the contrast between things present versus things about to come! It is irrefutable; it is unanswerable, and it is indisputable that the consummation of the Jewish age had come upon Paul and his audiences: "Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come," (1 Cor 10:11). In no stretch of the imagination could it be argued that the ends of the Christian age had come upon them!
"Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world←[kosmos]; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world←[aion]; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of THIS world←[aion]. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear," (Mat 13:36-43).
Another key to understanding the New Testament is realizing that Jesus was a Hebrew; He taught Hebrews; He preached from the Hebraic scriptures, in Hebraic thought, and here in this text, He elucidates such prophecies as Dan 12:1-7 and Joel 3:13ff in parabolic language, in which He states the harvest is the end of the age, and then specifies that it will be in the end of THIS age! Since the Christian age had not begun when Jesus this statement, He, unquestionably, identifies His present age, i.e., the Jewish age.
"Jesus said to them, Have you understood all these things? They said to Him, Yes, Lord," (Mat 13:51).
Since the disciples understood all those things Jesus taught them pertaining to the end of the Jewish age, then when Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Jesus when these things would be, and what sign there would be of the end of the Jewish age (Mat 24:3), it is facetious for anyone to suggest that the disciples were confused and assumed Jesus was speaking of the end of time.
When scientists discovered how to split the atom, we saw the dawn of the Atomic Age; also, we can identify the dawn of the Industrial Age, the Space Age, the Computer Age, etc., and yet, none of those ages were fully established until many years later. Likewise, when those "about 3000 souls" were baptized for the remission of sins on Pentecost day, the world saw the dawning of the Christian age, but it would be many years later before the kingdom would become fully established, "...when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished," (Dan 12:7).