Eschatology – Page 3 – Gregory Scott Blog

The Beast Of Revelation-Part III

In two previous blog posts I gave the evidence from Revelation that the beast was Nero Caesar. I’ll conclude here with two more clues which point to Nero.

1. His Death. Revelation 13:8 says those who aren’t Christians will worship the beast. As I mentioned in a previous post, Nero was one of the first Roman Emperors (along with Caligula) who claimed to have become a god while still alive. Then comes these two verses:

“If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.”

Revelation 13:9-10. Sure enough, in 68 A.D., Nero died by the sword, his own; he committed suicide. Continue reading “The Beast Of Revelation-Part III”

The Beast Of Revelation-Part II (666)

I said in the blog post yesterday that Revelation was intended to make clear to the reader the identity of the beast of Revelation. I suggested the beast was Nero Caesar.

Revelation 13:18 contains another clue as to the identity of the beast:

“Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.”

In Hebrew, every letter has a corresponding number. The Hebrew spelling of Nero Caesar (represented here with English letters) was NRWN QSR.

Now if you take each Hebrew letter and add its corresponding number, here is what you get: N = 50 R = 200 W = 6 N =50 Q = 100 S = 60 R = 200 = Total: 666. Continue reading “The Beast Of Revelation-Part II (666)”

The Beast Of Revelation-Part I

If I was going to engage in speculation about the meaning of Revelation, I would never have taken up the task of blogging on the subject. There has been too much speculation already.

Do you really want to hear more about how everyone from Osama Bin Laden to President Obama is the Antichrist? Do you want to continue freaking out about having the numbers “666” on a social security card, credit card or driver’s license?

No doubt you’ve heard similar speculation about the beast of Revelation. I would like to suggest to you that the identity of the beast of Revelation is quite clear. Revelation contains clues intended to make his identity easy to discover.

One of those clues is found in Revelation 17. There the angel says to John, “I will tell you the mystery of the woman and the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns.” (Revelation 17:7). “The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits…” (Revelation 17:9). It is well-known Rome sits on seven hills. Continue reading “The Beast Of Revelation-Part I”

Was The Gospel Preached To The World Before 70 A.D.?

I recently blogged on Matthew 24, suggesting that in it Jesus was discussing the end of the age of the Jewish sacrificial system, not the end of the world.

A question that may arise in response to this interpretation is based on Jesus’ prophecy in verse 14: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

One might argue the gospel was not preached to the whole world before 70 A.D. Therefore, the end Jesus is talking about must mean the end of the world, not the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. and end of the Jewish sacrificial system. However, the Bible says the opposite. Continue reading “Was The Gospel Preached To The World Before 70 A.D.?”

The Theme Of Matthew 24

This post is the fourth in an unintentional miniseries. I initially blogged about the first three verses of Revelation, then verse 7, which confirmed the dating advanced in the first blog post, and then to further solidify the theme and timing of the events of Revelation I blogged about the phrase “coming with the clouds.” I explained in a previous post why all this matters if you are someone who is passionate about the kingdom of God. And that is how we got to Matthew 24.

Jesus and His crew are leaving the temple when His disciples point out the magnificence of the temple, to which Jesus responds by prophesying it will be utterly destroyed.

The disciples must have pondered Jesus’ prophesy because, when they got back to the Mount of Olives (about a 20 minute walk), they ask Jesus three questions: 1) When will these things happen?; 2) What will be the sign of Your coming?; and 3) What will be the sign of the end of the age? (Matt. 24:1-3). What follows in Matthew 24 is Jesus’ answer to those questions. It helps then to know what the disciples were asking if you want to understand what Jesus meant by His answer. Continue reading “The Theme Of Matthew 24”