Revelation 20: Interpretations

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Understanding the Preterist View

Revelation 20 part X
June 3rd, 2018
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Okay, folks.

I came to a realization last week and I think it has to serve us through the remainder of our study of Revelation. My realization is this: My personal view of the Bible is the Full Preterist view. I admit I may be wrong on it – especially on the full part because I DO believe that history repeats itself and we do see elements of Revelation and other end-time stuff playing out over and over again in world history. Having said that, however, I am thoroughly convinced that when it comes to the fulfillment of biblical prophecy everything has happened. This includes the ParousiaGreek for “presence”—refers to Christ’s fulfilled return in 70 A.D., not a future event. of Jesus Christ or what we call the Second ComingChrist’s return, fulfilled in 70 A.D., ending the old covenant—not the world.. This view is extremely influential on everything else a Christian believes relative to Christian doctrine and thought.

Thus far I have tried to explain and compare and justify everything that has popped up in the Book of RevelationA symbolic prophecy fulfilled in 70 A.D.—not a prediction of future global events. and tried to compare and contrast those things with fulfillment eschatologyStudy of “last things”—TGNN teaches all biblical eschatology was fulfilled in 70 A.D. More. And to be honest, it has been pretty simple thus far. But now we have come to chapter 20 and admittedly, there are events and teachings and doctrines herein that cannot be so easily explained.

The Complexity of Chapters 20-22

However, let me step back for just a minute. Since I am personally certain that Jesus was correct in how He explained His return in His Olivet Discourse with Peter, James, John and Andrew, and since I do not believe He was wrong when He said, “All of these things will happen within a generation.” And since I fully embrace the idea that His apostles who wrote letters were fully aware of the times and signs and when they said He was coming back SOON they were not wrong either, and since the secular writers' histories concur and validate most of what Jesus predicted, and since His return or Parousia is tied directly to the resurrection, the end of all things, the fulfillment of the MillenniumA symbolic period of Christ’s reign—fulfilled by 70 A.D., not a future thousand-year timeline. More, casting Satan and his angels into the Lake of Fire, casting deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. and hell into the same, and the Great White Throne Judgement (which may have just initiated it happening).

I am forced to admit two things relative to the content of Chapters 20-22. First, I am convinced that it all pertained to that day. If or since all of the aforementioned things HAVE occurred in that day, then a physical resurrection in the future is impossible – and so while there are many (even some of you) who aren’t sure (or who even reject a spiritual resurrection – (and admittedly have some scripture to support it depending on how you look at it) amidst ALL these factors it still makes the content of Revelation chapter 20, 21 and 22 . . . debatable. I admit this. And I am not going to debate anyone on anything that is not certainly understood.

Proceeding with Caution

So, that being said, we are going to proceed forward with chapter 20, and I am going to teach it from the position I have just described, and when we get to things that are “debated” I am not going to belabor them any longer. Instead, I am going to teach them as I see them in light of EVERYTHING we have already covered – and move on toward the finish.

What helped get me to this place was the abundance of frankly paradoxical views orbiting around the mention of Gog and Magog (which is coming up in a few verses). When I started in on them, after having just personally ran through the sixteen full Preterist views of the Resurrection, Parousia, Millennium and outlook, I said: “No more.”

So let’s move forward together with the rest of our verse by verseTGNN’s Bible teaching series—book-by-book, through the lens of fulfillment and spiritual liberty.. All I can do – without spending another year trying to tease apart all of these endless rabbit-trails, is to teach what we read from the foundation of evidence already presented or else what will happen is I will have to roll backward and recover everything we have already covered from another perspective – and if this is the case, we will NEVER finish the book of Revelation.

Alright, we left off at verse five where we read:

Revelation 20:5
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

At this point I suggest that the Millennium was the period of time from Jesus' inauguration into the flesh until around eight to ten years after his ascension as this period of time represented the time of peace in the Apostolic church where the Gospel was allowed.

The First Resurrection and the Spread of the Gospel

I suggest that those during that age who died in the faith were part of this first resurrection. Verse six:

6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Or during the period of peace when the Gospel spread without interception from the powers that be.

The Loosing of Satan and the Deception of Nations

7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison

We read about this loosing of Satan where he came down to earth and ravaged around knowing that his time was short. This was a period of time when MANY Christians (during the three and a half years prior to Jesus' return) were put to death at the hands of the Romans.

7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison 8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

So according to verse 8 Satan, during that time, went out “to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, (COMMA) God and Magog, and to gather then to battle – the number of them is as the sands of the sea.” So we must note that Gog and Magog as described here, in scripture, as “nations that are in the four corners of the earth.”

The Identity of Gog and Magog

That is what it says. So let’s first learn about Gog.

1st, he was a man, a Reubenite, according to 1st Chronicles 5:4 and was the father of Shimei.

It was also the name of the leader of the hostile party described in Ezekiel 38:1-23; and 39:1-29 which came from the "north country" and assailed the people of Israel to their own destruction. This prophecy has been regarded as fulfilled in the Old Testament age relative to the conflicts of the Maccabees with Antiochus Epiphanes, the invasion and overthrow of the Chaldeans, and the temporary successes and destined overthrow of the Turks.

In my estimation all of those things were pictures of the final invasions of several nations that had gathered together to wipe Israel (via Jerusalem) off the map – and this is what Revelation is talking about as the vision respecting Gog and Magog here in Revelation is in substance a reannouncement of this prophecy of Ezekiel. But while Ezekiel seems to contemplate the “great conflict” in a more general light and as applied to them firstly and the end afterward, John, on the other hand, describes the last struggles and victories connected to the cause of Christ and the end of that age.

In any case, Gog is believed to be the name of a district in the wild north-east steppes of Central Asia, north of the Hindu-Kush, now a part of Turkestan, a region about 2,000 miles north-east of Nineveh. Magog, then, is a “region of Gog,” as well as the second of the "sons" of Japheth (according to Genesis 10:2 and 1st Chronicles 1:5). In Ezekiel 38:2 and 39:6 it is the name of a nation, probably some Scythian or Tartar tribe descended from Japheth himself. They are described as skilled horsemen, and expert in the use of the bow. The Latin father Jerome wrote that this word Magog means, "Scythian nations, fierce and innumerable, who live beyond the Caucasus and the Lake Maeotis, and near the Caspian Sea, and spread out even onward to India."

Interpretations of Revelation 20

Now, from that basic information there spreads some really fantastic (and I don’t mean to use that word in a positive sense) notions tied to other interpretations of Gog and Magog. I am going to borrow from the studies of one Kurt Simmons to try and address the fulfillment approach to understanding these places.

As I have personally learned, Revelation twenty is among the most difficult passages in the Bible. Whether we realize it or not entire “interpretative schools” have grown up with names describing their particular approach to the chapter. Amillennialism, Premillennialism, and Postmillennialism describe these schools’ particular interpretation of Revelation’s millennia. And while we might disagree on what the millennium is and when it will or has taken place, almost every Bible scholar agrees that the battle of Gog and Magog has or will immediately precede Christ’s eschatological coming in judgment upon world or land.

Understanding the Symbols of Gog and Magog

Simmons points out that “if Preterists are to succeed in convincing others that the Book of Revelation is fulfilled,” then we must have a firm command on explaining the battle of Gog and Magog and be able to convincingly identify its historical place in the past. Simmons suggests that the term Gog and Magog were symbols that were employed to explain persecution under Nero and the Jews.

Old Testament Themes and the Prophetic Method

Simmons begins with explaining Old Testament Themes and the Prophetic Method. The three major themes of the OT prophets were:

1. the coming judgment upon Israel and Judah in which they would be carried into captivity;
2. the restoration of the nation to the land; and
3. the kingdom of the Messiah.

Although separated by several hundred years, prophecies about the return of the captivity and the nation’s political restoration were often woven together with prophecies about the kingdom of the Messiah and the spiritual restoration of man in Christ. It is the dawning of this latter realization (of a spiritual restoration of Man in Christ) that first helped me, independent of ANY knowledge of fulfillment eschatology, to see that Christ has had the victory and we are all in an age that is spiritually experienced not materially built.

Anyway, getting back to the Old Testament, the gathering together and return of the captivity under Zerubbabel became a type of the Messiah, who would gather together Israel and lead them unto spiritual Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem we have read about.

Hosea and the Prophecy of Zerubbabel

It is here, as we read in Hosea 1:11, 3:4 and 5 “that the children of Judah and the children of Israel were gathered together, and appointed themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land…For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.

In this example, the first part of the prophecy appears to have Zerubbabel in view. In its immediate historical context, Zerubbabel was the “one head” that would lead the captive out of Assyrio-Babylonian captivity. However, the prophecy has a “fuller sense” and looks beyond the return of the captivity unto Christ (“David their king”). In other words, as Zerubbabel, a type of Christ to come, gathered the captive home to the land of Canaan as Christ would gather the true Israel into his kingdom by proclamation of the gospel.

Zerebbubel is also known by the Persian name of Sheshbazzar (according to Ezra 1:8,11). In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, he led the first band of Jews, numbering 42,360 (not including a large number of servants) who had returned from captivity at the close of the seventy years. After their return, in the second year, he built an altar and laid the foundation of the temple on the ruins of that which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezra 3:8-13ch. 4-6). All through the work he occupied a prominent place, inasmuch as he was a descendant of the royal line of David.

The Prophecy in Amos

Another example of this sort may be seen in Amos 9:8-14 which says:

Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord. For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth…In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste…

Prophecies and Restoration

Cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

Simmons points out that this prophecy is “especially poignant because it inserts a prophecy of the restoration of the Davidic throne in Christ (“the tabernacle of David”) in between prophecies of the coming captivity (“sifting Israel among the nations”) and the restoration of Israel to its land (“I will bring again the captivity of my people”).

We know that the raising up of the tabernacle of David looked ahead to Christ because we have James’s inspired word for it in the book of Acts (15:16-17) when he said:

15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.

Return and Messiah

Now, the reason the prophets lumped together the return of the captivity and the coming of the Messiah in this way is that both were in Israel’s future and the former was a necessary precondition for bringing to pass the latter. The prophecies about Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, his flight into Egypt, his being raised in Nazareth, his rejection by Israel’s rulers, and his death, burial, and resurrection all required that the nation return from captivity. Thus, in bringing the nation back from Assyria and Babylon, God was fulfilling his promise of the Messiah.

Now, as I’ve mentioned, the imagery of Gog and Magog in Revelation is adapted from Ezekiel. Like other prophets, Ezekiel wrote about? That’s right—the coming captivity, the restoration to the land, and the coming kingdom of the Messiah.

The first half of Ezekiel addresses the coming captivity and is laden with prophecies of wrath and lamentation; the latter half is devoted to the themes of national restoration and the coming of Christ. Ezekiel’s most graphic portrayal of the return of the captivity is set out in his prophecy of the “valley of dry bones” (which is found in Ezekiel 37:1-17).

The Valley of Dry Bones

The nation was in captivity; the ten northern tribes had been carried away by the Assyrians and Judah had been carried away to Babylon. The temple was burned and the city lay in ruins. Ezekiel likened the nation of Israel unto a defeated army, whose bleached bones lay scattered across a vast plain. The question for the Jews of the captivity was did the nation have a future? The answer was, “Yes! Just look to the Valley of Dry Bones!” It would revive and come together in a resurrection of the nation – listen to verse 11-12 of it:

“Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off from our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.”

The prophecy of the dry bones would be fulfilled in the restoration of Israel to its land. Cyrus would allow the city to be rebuilt and the captives to return home. And this happened in the great migrations under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. But Ezekiel’s prophecy didn’t stop with the return of the captivity; like other OT prophets it looked beyond the return of the captivity and into the spiritual restoration of man in Christ. That’s why verses 21 and 24 say:

Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side…and David my servant shall be king over them.

Like Hosea’s prophecy of “David their king,” David here is a symbol for Christ and speaks to the restoration of the Davidic throne that had been usurped by Nebuchadnezzar and the Gentile powers. But this is key. Christ would not sit upon the throne of David on earth or the terrestrial Jerusalem, but in the heavenly Jerusalem above.

Conclusion

Peter made…

Christ's Resurrection and Prophetic Fulfillment

This abundantly clear in the very first gospel sermon after Christ’s resurrection, saying the following in Acts 2:29-34

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted…For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.

Peter makes it plain that the prophecies of “David their king” spoke to the resurrection of Christ and his coronation in the heavenly Jerusalem, where he sat down at the right hand of God.” Premillennial hopes of Christ seated upon David throne upon earth are empty and vain; they embody the very hope that led the Jews to crucify Christ; for they looked for a national liberator, not a Savior who would deliver from the bondage of sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. and death. Therefore, when Ezekiel and the prophets speak of David ruling over his people, we understand that they spoke of Christ and the church.

Ezekiel's Prophecies

Now listen – Ezekiel’s prophecies of the valley of dry bones and “David my servant” occur in Ezekiel thirty-seven THEN the prophecy of Gog and Magog occurs in chapters thirty-eight and thirty-nine. Thus, restored Israel (the church) under “David” (Christ) is the historical and chronological context of the prophecy about Gog and Magog.

Ezekiel describes the great battle of the end time in terms of a pagan hoard that invades the land of Israel; a host so numerous that they ascend like a storm and a cloud to cover the land. He writes:

“And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but is it brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.

The Invasion of Gog

Several points need to be made at this juncture. First, Gog has set himself as the enemy of God and his people and there is an historical account that the Lord wants to settle. When he says that “after many days thou shalt be visited,” the prophet indicates that God has abstained from vengeance for many years, but that Gog’s day would come. Gog’s war against restored Israel was divinely permitted or ordained, and would provide occasion for judgment and vengeance against the people symbolized by Gog.

Second, the invasion of Gog would occur in the latter times. This phrase speaks to the closing years of the world economy marked by the reign of sin and death. This places Gog’s attack upon restored Israel in the period immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, for the end of the mosaic age coincided with the end of the world order that obtained from the time of mankind’s fall. Third, the description…

Gog's Territory and the Roman Empire

Gog’s territory mirrors that of the Roman empire. Ethiopia and Libya were Rome’s south-western boundary, Persia beyond the Euphrates unto the Caspian sea was its eastern-most boundary, and the “north quarters” coasting along the Black Sea and the Danube unto the British Isles were its northern-most holdings.

Evidence that Ezekiel’s description of Gog’s territory answers to that of Rome is provided by Agrippa II’s famous speech attempting to dissuade the Jews from war with Rome, recorded by Josephus, and saying: “For all Euphrates is not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on the north, and for their southern limit, Libya has been searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on the west.” — Josephus, Wars, II, xvi, 4, Whiston ed.

Gog's Attack and the Historical Context

Having established the time of Gog’s attack and the extent of his territory, it remains only to show whom he attacked. Ezekiel describes the objects of Gog’s invasion as those “brought forth out of the nations;” in other words, “restored Israel under “David,” which is to say, the church under Christ.” But if Gog’s territory answers to the Roman empire, and the time of his attack upon the church preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, then what historical event did Ezekiel refer to? The Battle of Gog and Magog is a symbol of the eschatological persecution of the saints by Nero and the Jews.

All during Claudius’ reign the church enjoyed the protection of law; even banishing Jews from Rome for rioting against the church. (Acts 18:2) St. Paul alludes to Claudius in his second epistle to the Thessalonians as “he who lets” (or restrains). (II Thess. 2:6, 7) The persecution of the last day would not come so long as Claudius was upon the throne, repressing the mystery of iniquity and powers of persecution. When Claudius was taken out of the way, Nero would be revealed as the man of sin and son of perdition, and the church would be gathered in martyrdom unto Christ.

John's Vision of Persecution

John portrays this by the dragon and beast being loosed from the bottomless pit and the mortal wound to the beast’s head having healed. John described the beast in Rev. 17:8 as the beast that “was and is not and is about to ascend out of the bottomless pit.” That is, the persecuting power of the empire that suffered defeat by the collapse of the persecution over St. Stephen was about to manifest itself again, this time under Nero, whose name the beast bore.

This is the point at which the battle of Gog and Magog begins: "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." — Rev. 20:7

“Satan” is a generic term signifying an adversary. The character which here in verse seven is called “satan” in verse two is called the “dragon.” In other words, the adversary in this case was world civil power embodied in Rome, Nero, and the Jews.

In Rome, the beast was identified with Nero, who was its driving power (Rev. 13:1-10); in Asia and other parts of the empire, the Jews, at the behest of their leaders in Jerusalem, were the driving force. John portrays this by a harlot, riding the beast in a surfeit of blood and gore. (Rev. 17:3-6) In Palestine, the persecution was driven by the “false prophet,” the religious leaders of the Jews who bade them to make an inquisition against the church like unto the beast’s. (Rev. 13:11-18)

The dragon and beast make war against the church by surrounding the “camp of the saints” (the church). But fire comes down from God out of heaven and consumes Gog and his host, and the dragon, beast, and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire. (Rev. 19:20, 21; 20:9, 10) The harlot is also consumed. (Rev. 18) An angel calls to the birds of heaven to come and devour the carcasses of the slain. (Rev. 19:17, 18) This is a direct quote from Ezekiel. (Ezek. 39:17)

John's application of Ezekiel's prophecy is certain proof that the persecution under the dragon, beast, and false prophet.

The Symbolism of Gog and Magog

and harlot were the battle of Gog and Magog. Their destruction occurred in the cataclysmic events of the first century, including famines, earthquakes, and plagues, in which also Rome saw a succession of civil wars and four emperors in the space of little more than a year, and Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus.

Renewal After Destruction

Following the world-wide devastations of the last daysThe final years of the old covenant age—fulfilled in the first century, not future end times., God renewed the earth, in which the church reigns supreme with Christ and which we will read about in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. In my estimation, the battle of Gog and Magog was a symbol for the eschatological battle of the last days; the persecution under Nero and the Jews.

The End of Warfare

We will continue forward at verses 9-15, the end of the chapter and the end of all warfare in the Book of Revelation.

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