Comments on Prophecy Fulfilled by Crews

In Capter 4 of "Prophecy Fulfilled," Crews identifies the abomination of the desolation of Matthew 24:15 with the presence of "Roman standards - the flag-like banners" in the Jerusalem temple at the time of its destruction in 70 AD. He wrote:

Jesus was using this imagery as another warning sign for the disciples to watch out for. At the first instance of this activity by the Romans, they were to react. What were the disciples supposed to do? Verse 16 makes it plain -

"Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains."

It was time to run - run for their physical lives! They had to get out of the city of Jerusalem and the political country of Judea if they were to be saved from the Roman invasion and destruction. When they saw the signs, they were to get out fast and not even take time to gather their personal belongings. It should be plain that this has nothing to do with us today.

However, by the time the Roman standards were set up in the temple, the city had fallen, and much of its population, reduced to starvation, had perished, either by famine, or fire, or sword. It would have been too late to flee to the mountains then. And, Jesus also said,

Matthew 16:25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

So when Jesus said, "flee into the mountains" he clearly was not referring to people fleeing for their physical lives, as Crews claimed. His warning does not fit the events of 70 AD, as the "sign" of "Roman standards - the flag-like banners" in the Jerusalem temple, that Crews identifies as the abomination of desolation would have appeared too late for anyone to flee.

It is revealing to see just how these prophecies and predictions actually came true during the first part of the war. According to Josephus, the first attack on the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 66, led by the Roman general Cestius Gallus, got the Romans into the city and up to the walls and gate of the Holy Temple itself, which had been commandeered as a fortress by the radical Jews who wanted to fight it out with the Romans. This act of turning the Temple into a military fortress, full of armaments and violence instead of reverence and prayers, was one of the greatest abominations of it.

The Romans advanced under their shields to the actual gates of the Temple, which they intended to burn open. Then, something very strange happened. Gallus, at the verge of military success, decided for some unknown reason to retreat - and he took his men out of Jerusalem entirely! As a Jewish historian, Josephus was at a loss to explain this withdrawal by Gallus, whom he stated "retired from the city, without any reason in the world." Importantly, Josephus states that after this event, many people "swam away from the city, as from a ship when it was going to sink."

We can turn to the history by Eusebius once again to discover what really happened. He wrote:

"The whole body, however, of the church at Jerusalem, having been commanded by a divine revelation, given to men of approved piety there before the war, removed from the city, and dwelt at a certain town beyond the Jordan, called Pella. Here, those that believed in Christ [had] removed from Jerusalem, as if holy men had entirely abandoned the royal city itself, and the whole land of Judea."

The town of Pella was near the Sea of Galilee, but it lay outside of the country of Judea, in the political region called Decapolis. This was out of the path of the invading Romans.

If accurate, the account indicates some escaped to Pella, which is located not in the mountains, but in the Jordan Valley, so it does not fit the prophecy of Jesus, who specified mountains. Crews continues:

Can we explain why the Roman general withdrew so unexpectedly and suddenly from Jerusalem? Josephus actually stated the correct answer earlier in the passage quoted above when he states:

"It was, I suppose, owing to the aversion God had already at the city and the sanctuary, that he [Gallus] was hindered from putting an end to the war that very day."

Indeed, it was God who was making war on Judea. In Zechariah 14:2, we hear God say:

"I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it..."

[NIV]

God had brought forth the Romans as his tool of punishment and it was God who arranged that a period of time should be provided, as he had promised, for the escape of the believing Christians. That time was provided, and the Christians did flee!

Zechariah 14:2 does not fit the events of 70 AD, because in Zechariah's prophecy all nations were to come against Jerusalem. In the siege of Jerusalem in the first century, the armies were Roman armies, not those of all nations. And neither was half the city taken, but the entire city was destroyed. And neither did Christ come, and fight against the Romans, and deliver the Jews. Neither did the Mount of Olives cleave in the midst, forming a great valley, through which the people could flee. None of these prophecies of Zechariah fit the events of 70 AD.

Zechariah 14:2-3
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

How could Crews mistake the events Zechariah wrote about, as applying to 70 AD? He must have been blinded by his obsession with the preterist paradigm! Zechariah did not say the nations coming against Jerusalem were a punishment from God. It plainly says God was going to fight against those nations. And Crews must have read this, but apparently, his mind was blinded to what it says.

"Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle."

Is that a description of events in 70 AD? Hardly. Those who say that God gathered "all nations against Jerusalem to battle" in 70 AD are simply deceived! And to claim that God fought against the invaders, but then changed his mind, and decided to annihilate the Jews instead, makes him appear weak, and fickle. And it is blasphemous, IMHO.

No wonder Crews abandoned his faith! No wonder he prefers disbelief, to such an absurd doctrine!

When Jesus said to "flee to the mountains" in Matt. 24:16 and Luke 21:21, he was not referring to literal mountains! Rather, he meant seek God's righteousness, and the promises of God that the mountains represent. David said, "Thy righteousness is like the great mountains." [Psalm 36:6] The mountains were prominent parts of the promised land, so they represent the promises of God, and all the scriptures. Isaiah said, "And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted." [Isaiah 49:11] The mountains Jesus refers to represent the great promises of God, and they help us find the way, if we keep our objective, and our promised inheritance in mind. In Zechariah's prophecy, the "way" we should flee lies through the valley formed in the midst of the Mount of Olives, when it cleaves in the midst. The two halves of the mountain represent the two popular but flawed interpretations of the Olivet Discourse of Jesus, which is represented by the Mount of Olives.

[Daniel 12:7]

"It will be for a time, times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed."

[NIV]

Here is a prophetic vision of these times when the power of the "holy people" would be broken (that is, the religious authority would be removed from them), and a specific time frame is placed on the process. In the type of symbolic language used in the Hebrew prophecies, the term "time" when used in this way means "one year." The amount of time that was prophesied for the destruction of the Jews was: 1 year ("time") + 2 years ("times") + 1/2 year ("half a time"), equaling 3 1/2 years total. Numerous other references in Daniel, like "thousand two hundred and ninety days," confirm that he means 3 1/2 years for the prophetic time span.

This is incorrect, IMO. Crews insists that "time" has to be interpreted as "year," when in fact the word "time" is indeterminate. It can represent a day, an hour, a month, a year, or several centuries. Crews has based his interpretations on unsound premises.

Now let us examine the other place in the Bible that has reference to this event and this prophesied time. Let us look for a moment at Revelation, chapters 11 and 12. In 11:2, we read:

"[the Temple of God] has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months."

[NIV]

and the next verse:

"And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days...."

[NIV]

and verse 9:

"For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial."12

[NIV]

and chapter 12:6 -

"The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days."

[NIV]

and verse 14:

"The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half time, out of the serpent's reach."

In all of these prophecy passages the same time period is repeatedly spoken of. The period was to be 3 1/2 years and this would be the times of the Gentiles to overcome the city and people of Jerusalem and Judea. Was the prophecy accurate? Did the Romans take this particular amount of time to accomplish their destructions? The answer is yes. From the date, February of A.D. 67, when the Roman emperor Nero gave the official order to his general Vespasian to go and subdue Judea, to the final destruction of the Temple of Herod and the city, in August of A.D. 70, was in fact three and one-half years.

The prophecy about the 2 witnesses has a spiritual meaning, that the treatment by Crews quoted above fails to grasp. The temple represents the saints, and the Gentiles who trample the city, and occupy the outer court, represent those who claim to be Christians, but are not. These are spiritual Gentiles, who dominate those who are sincere believers, and Jews in the spirit. [Romans 2:29] The prophecy describes [i.e., measures] much of what is called Christianity.

In my view, the two witness in the prophecy are not literal humans, but they are symbolic of the scriptures, and the Spirit of God. Jesus identified these as things that would testify of him. After their ministry, they are killed by the beast from the bottomless pit, and their bodies lie in the street of the city, called Sodom, and Egypt. Both were places from which God's people escaped.

The great city in Revelation 11:8 is not Jerusalem, as Jesus was crucified outside the gate, which represents the world. So the great city where our Lord was crucified [Hebrews 13:12] The city of Jerusalem is symbolic of the saints, and the church, and represents the world, and mystical Babylon.

I suggest that the warfare between the two witnesses and the beast from the bottomless pit, and their being overcome, and killed by him, is symbolic of widespread disbelief, and the demise of faith, caused by false interpretations of the scriptures, and of prophecy.

The popular systems of interpretation have killed the true message of prophecy as they deny its application to the church in the present age. One view says it applies to Jews in the first century, and another says it applies to Jews in a future seven year tribulation. These opposing views are known as preterism, and dispensationalism. These both deny the application of prophecy to the church in the present age. And more serious, they deny that the church is the Israel to which prophecy applies!

The corpses of the two witnesses lying unburied in the street pictures the attitude of the world to scripture and the Spirit of God. They make jokes about it! And there are many who fit the prophecy of Peter:

2 Peter 2:2
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

The revival of the two witnesses, I suggest, pictures the Spirit of God revealing the true interpretation of prophecy, and imparting the gift of faith to the saints.

Verse 19 of the chapter reveals that the temple of this chapter is located in heaven. So it cannot refer to the one destroyed by the Romans.

The verses in Revelation 12 about the woman fleeing to the wilderness have no connection to the events of 70 AD, but allude to the Exodus. I think the woman fleeing to the wilderness is more likely symbolic of the saints departing from evil, as the Israelites escaped from bondage in Egypt. It is interesting that she flees twice, and I may post something on it later. The wings of eagles, I think, represent the gift of prophecy. And the "time, times and a half" does not refer to a literal three and a half years, but is symbolic. It is half of seven times, which is a prophetic week. It is the week in which Christ confirms the covenant, which in no way fits the period of 70 AD.

Comments on Prophecy Fulfilled, by David P. Crews