Revelation Was Written Before A.D 70.

Revelation was written in 95 AD. First, I would like to thank Pro for agreeing to this debate. Pro states Revelation in the Bible was written before A.D. 70 (during the reign of Nero) and has burden to prove it. I, on the other hand, have the burden to prove Revelation was written ANY time after A.D. 70, but will be specifically advocating 90-95AD (during the reign of Domitian). You may be wondering why the date is important. A pre A.D. 70 date for Revelation is crucial to my opponent’s Preterist views. If Revelation was written after 70AD, then the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem could not be a prophecy as my opponent’s views hold. The date is only crucial to a Preterist view, and has no bearing for any other interpretation of Revelation (Idealist, historicist, and futurist). I do not personally hold to any of these beliefs, but I intend to defend my case with conviction. I defend this date, not because it is a necessity to me or to my position, but because I believe it is the correct date judging from the preponderance of the evidence. So let us start with my evidence for a post A.D. 70 date from external sources. External Evidence 1.Irenaues Irenaues, an early church father, was an acolyte of Polycarp who was an acolyte of John the Evangelist. Irenaues was the bishop of Lyons and was from Smyrna (one of the churches in Revelation). He has a unique perspective into the authorship of Revelation since he has a direct tie to the author and the subject matter. His testimony was clear and unambiguous: Revelation was written near the end of Domitian’s reign. Irenaues stated: “We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing positively as to the name of Antichrist; for if it were necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision. For that was seen not very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign.” [1] Domitian reigned from 81AD to 96AD. This easily puts the writing of Revelation well after 70A.D., but more specifically John wrote Revelation between 90-96A.D. according to Irenaues. 2. John’s exile in Patmos Revelation 1:9 - I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. It is believed John was exiled by Domitian as stated earlier in the Irenaeus argument. In about 270 AD, Victorinus corroborates this while illustrating how Revelation made it out of Patmos. “...when John said these things he was in the island of Patmos, condemned to the labour of the mines by Caesar Domitian. There, therefore, he saw the Apocalypse; and when grown old, he thought that he should at length receive his quittance by suffering, Domitian being killed, all his judgments were discharged. And John being dismissed from the mines, thus subsequently delivered the same Apocalypse which he had received from God.” It is also important to point out my opponents early date would have John being exiled by Nero. Nero was known for his cruelty. In fact, he was responsible for the deaths of the disciples Paul and Peter, and he was well known for his persecution of Christians. It eludes me why Nero would choose to exile John, “the beloved disciple of Jesus”, instead of having him put to death. Executing John surely would have brought pleasure to Nero with his sadistic blood lust pertaining to Christians. Pro would have us believe Nero went soft and exiled a ‘general’ in the Christian army. It is possible, but there is no history to support he did. However, we have history to show Domitian did indeed use exile as a punishment. Flavia Domitilla, who was also a Christian, was banished to the island of Pandataria during the reign of Domitian around 95AD. [6] This chart reflects estimates of the authorship ranges of the New Testament according to most traditional Biblical scholars. [2] Of course, I do not intend to cite the date of Revelation here as evidence, but I do intend to use some of the other uncontested dates in just a bit. Internal Evidence 3. Condition of the Churches in Revelation In the book of Revelation, Jesus reveals himself to John, and Jesus is none too pleased with five of the seven churches mentioned. If we are to use Pro’s 65-70 AD, the conditions of the three churches I list below would have deteriorated very quickly considering they were founded between 55-64AD. In the case of the church in Ephesus [Rev. 2:4-5], the apostle Paul founded the church in 50-52 in his second missionary journey, and returned during his third journey in 53-58. He gave them a commendation (Ephesians 6:22-24) in early 61-62AD. We know he could not have written this earlier because of the accepted composition date of Ephesians by Biblical scholars. (shown above). Basically, this church would have had to fall out of the Lord’s favor in less than 8 years. The church at Smyrna [Rev 2:8-11] was not thought to have been established until 61-64AD [3], and would not have existed long enough to fully mature and deteriorate to such an extent to warrant a rebuke from Jesus. The church of Laodicea [3:14-22] was devastated by an earthquake in 60AD. It would take them another 25 years to rebuild, and assuming the early date, they would not have been able to fulfill the description in Revelation 3:17,” I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing". A pre-70 date does not allow enough time for the churches mentioned in Revelation to mature and decline. The 90-95 AD composition of Revelation is a better explanation and more probable since the churches would have had more than thirty years to decline as described in Revelation. 4. Prophecy of Revelation Pro claims the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem was the fulfillment of prophecy in Revelation. Assuming this is true, then there are obvious flaws related to the fulfillment (or lack thereof) of Revelation 13. There is no image of the AntiChrist. [Rev 13:14-15] There is no mark for buying or selling on the hand or forehead. [Rev 13:16-17] There is no false prophet. [Rev 13:11-12] Revelation could not have been completely fulfilled in 70AD since there is no historical or Biblical record of these events. To be consistent with his interpretation, the book of Revelation must be completely fulfilled. Pro must establish why this did not happen in 70AD if his burden is to be met. 5. Language in Revelation Some of the Greek vernacular used in in Revelation does not support pre-70 date. “The Lord’s Day” – Prior to 70 AD, “the first day of the week” terminology was still used, and the ‘Lord’s day’ was not used until around the turn of the century. “The angel of the church” – refers to church leader. There is no evidence of this term being used until the beginning of the second century. (after 100 AD) Unusual expressions - The wording of Rev 2:9 and Rev 3:9 points to a separation of church and synagogue. This was not common until after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.I will make my rebuttals to Pro's arguments in the next round. Thank you for reading! [1]http://www.biblestudying.net... [2 http://www.hwhouse.com... [3]https://archive.org... page xlviii [4]http://www.thingstocome.org... [5]http://cranfordville.com... [6]http://books.google.com...