Maurice A. Williams
Revelation and The Fall of Judea
Prophet and Historian: John and Josephus
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REVELATION: FALL OF JUDEA, RISE OF THE CHURCH
Maurice A. Williams Revelation and The Fall of Judea Prophet and Historian: John and Josephus |
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Welcome to my personal Website. I have links to all my books,
articles, poems, book reviews, all my writings, including references to scientific
articles and patents I did for my employer. I hope there is something here of interest for
everybody. I hope you find my Website interesting and visit it often. The links on the
left column can direct you to my different writings. "Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of The Church" compares Rev. chapters 4 through 16 to historical events of the 1st and 2nd centuries. This book also contains an overview of what many commentators have written about Revelation. "Prophet and Historian: John and Josephus" is a condensed version of the above book meant to serve as a companion voulme for people interested in Hank Hannegraaff's "Last Disciple" series. “Revelation: Fall of Judea, Rise of the Church” gets its initial inspiration from the work of J. Massyngberde Ford who proposed that the early visions in Revelation were preached by John the Baptist. John the Evangelist, a disciple of the Baptist, was very familiar with the Baptist’s ministry and incorporated those visions into the Evangelist’s own Book of Revelation. If this is correct, it provides a significant key to interpreting the early visions in Revelation. There’s no real reason to doubt it. The Baptist certainly had a lot to say announcing Christ, but very little of what he said has been passed down in history. It makes sense that the Evangelist would have known what the Baptist preached. Ford cites other Biblical scholars who also think the early visions were first preached by the Baptist. If the early visions came from the Baptist, then they must have been meant for first-century Judeans, a warning to them that the promised Messiah is finally here. It’s too late to reject him. Rejecting and opposing him will only provoke God to intervene to insure the Messiah’s mission is accomplished. Are there historical events that would match the early visions? I searched historical works and think there are such events. “Revelation and the Fall of Judea” outlines historical events between A.D 27 and 135 and compares them to the visions in Rev. 4-16. Judea experienced the great tribulation when that nation tried to destroy the mission of Jesus Christ. Very few commentaries on Revelation mention Bar Kochba and the destruction of the Judean nation and the dispersal of most of its inhabitants in A.D. 135. This, I think, would be the fulfillment of Rev. 16: 17 when the angel pours the last vial, and a great voice says “It is done!” Judea ceased to exist as a nation. Its inhabitants were dispersed throughout the Roman Empire. Other peoples were moved in. So thorough was this dispersal that, seventeen centuries later, in 1856, only 10,500 Jews resided in their ancestral homeland. Revelation indicates that similar harsh treatment will be experience by the Gentile nations if they try to defeat Christ when he returns at the end of the world, but that does not diminish the observation that it happened to Judea first. Nobody before me ties the history of Judea with the visions in the first half of Revelation the way I did. Revelation also warned that, after 1000 years, Satan would be released to seduce the nations (Rev. 20: 2-3). Nobody points out that the Roman Empire, after trying to eradicate christianly for 300 years suddenly became Christian, the whole Empire did, and, approximately 1000 years later, The events leading to the Reformation split up Christendom into many warring nations and the thousands of conflicting Christian sects we have today. This certainly looks like the nations being deceived. These same previously Christian nations today tell us we are in the post-Christian era. Not well publicized is the fact that while Christendom disintegrated in Europe, the Spanish attempt to evangelize the New World and bring those nations into participation into what was left of the political Christian Empire involved the first big public apparition of the mother of Jesus at Guadalupe, and that apparition resulted in the conversion of virtually all Indians in Central America. My book relates the splintering of the Church and the destruction of the Christian political Empire (Christendom) to the release of Satan to deceive the nations. Who else but Satan would tempt clerics to betray their vows and ordinary Christians to react to that betrayal by dismantling the Church? Christianity splintered into thousands of conflicting sects, each opposing and refuting the claims of rival sects so that almost every Christian teaching once revered by our ancestors is now refuted by some Christian sect. This rivalry and argumentation has, I think, neutralized the effectiveness of all Christian groups to bring the Gospel to non-Christian nations, a big victory for Satan! Worse than that, formally Christian nations have adapted many non-Christian and occult practices that are so prevalent today, not just Nazism and Communism, but bizarre aberrations of what was once the Christian message. I describe this trend thoroughly in my book. At the same time, Christ has been sending his mother to urge people to return to her son and to warn people that their sins are leading to catastrophic consequences. The message at Fatima is an outstanding example. Had people complied with the request made at Fatima, World War II and the rise of the Communist Empire might have been averted. How much human suffering might have been averted if World War II had not occurred and Communism had not annexed thirty-four nations in its 70 year atheistic career? The world would be much more peaceful today had the war and Communism not occurred. There were similar apparitions and warnings made at Medjugorge and Rwanda. Had those warnings been taken seriously, the Bosnian-Serbian wars and the Rwanda genocide might have been averted. I discuss these and other lesser known apparitions in my book. I write all my works (except the scientific works) for the average reader. I state my case in plain, non-technical English so that my audience can easily follow my thinking. I use direct quotations from Revelation plus some quotes from the Bible. I quote long sections from Revelation except I omit Chapters 1 through 3. I also use long quotations from Josephus, Suetonius, and Tacitus for events leading to the fall of Judea. I also quote other sources including The Internet. I included many long quotes so my readers need not consult other reference works to verify what I say as they read my books. I quote sufficient text to show the quotes in context. I hope you decide to read my writings. I hope you find them interesting and informative. |
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