An effort is made by preterists and scholars after 1831
to date Revelation as early, and all in it come to pass
already. External and internal evidence shows it was
written late.
The sections that cover John's time to near future and now
are Rev. chapters 1-6, with part of the latter unfulfilled
but the context for it is lining up.
The article shows that the attempt to interpret Nero
as the antichrist "is possible only by pursuing the most irresponsible form of exegesis.
To come up with such an interpretation one must:
- add the title “Caesar” to Nero’s name;
- compute the letter-number arrangement on the basis of Hebrew, whereas the book was written in Greek; and
- alter the spelling of “Caesar” by dropping the yodh in the Hebrew.
All of this reveals a truly desperate attempt to find a reference to Nero in the text.
Additionally, Leon Morris has pointed out that Irenaeus discussed a number of possibilities for deciphering the 666, but he did not even include Nero in his list, let alone regard this as a likely conjecture (1980, 38). Noted critic Theodor Zahn observed that Nero was not even suggested as a possibility until the year 1831 (447)."
No comments:
Post a Comment