
Augustus H. Strong
Systematic Theology (1907)
(Supporting
Early Date of Revelation)
"The Apocalypse was by far the earliest writing of the
Apostle John, and although it now constitutes the last book of the New
Testament, it was by no means the last book that was written. A very
considerable time interval came between the writing of the Apocalypse and
the writing of the Gospel and the Epistles. The Apocalypse was probably
written before the destruction of Jerusalem, perhaps in the year 68; it was
written under a persecution which had its greatest violence at Rome, but the
farthest circles of whose waves had reached out as far as Asia Minor to
Ephesus...." (Popular Lectures on the Books of the New Testament (1914)
p.383)
" Elliott's whole scheme [based on his "interpretation of `time and times and half a time' of Dan. 7:25, which according to the year-day theory means 1260 years..." p 1009, ed], however, is vitiated by the fact that he wrongly assumes the book of Revelation to have been written under Domitian (94 or 96), instead of under Nero (67 or 68). His
terminus a quo is therefore incorrect, and his interpretation of chapters 5-9 is rendered very precarious. The year 1866, moreover, should have been the time of the end, and so the
terminus ad quem seems to be clearly misunderstood--unless indeed the seventy-five supplementary years of Daniel are to be added to 1866. We regard the failure of this most ingenious scheme of Apocalyptic interpretation as a practical demonstration that a clear understanding of the meaning of the Prophecy is, before the event, impossible, and we are confirmed in this view by the utterly untenable nature of the theory of the millennium which is commonly held by so-called Second Adventists, a theory which we now proceed to examine. (Systematic Theology, A.H. Strong, ©1907, published 1912, The Griffith & Rowland Press, Boston, p 1010.)
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