Redeeming Family

View Original

Q& A: Revelation Not Addressed in Paul’s Letters

From time to time we interact with questions. If you have a question you’d like answered, send it into redeemingfamily@gmail.com.

Question:

Another question for my postmil brothers: if Revelation was written pre-70, the letter to Ephesus would be to Timothy and his church presumably.  Why are none of those issues addressed by Paul in his letters to the same?

Answer:

The easiest partial preterist understanding and response to this would be to understand that Paul was writing to Timothy at LATEST in 64 AD. Revelation was then written between 64-68 AD. 

Many would put the letter to Timothy a bit earlier in the mid to late 50s, and Revelation potentially mid to late 60s. 

Given how quickly Acts shows the gospel transforming and spreading in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth, it is no difficult thing to see that over the course of 10 years, things would quickly change within the church at Ephesus.

In fact, Acts 20:29-30 points to a relevant number of warnings from Paul to the elders of the Ephesians regarding wolves rising up from within the church. 

When reading Acts 20, and taking the circumstances of rapid church growth and gospel spread, along with the warnings and instruction from Paul to Timothy regarding the character of Godly NT church elders, we see all these things working in concert, rather than in contradiction to Christ's letter to the Ephesians in Revelation, this supports exactly what Paul warned, and explains further why Paul so earnestly warned the elders during his final visit, and Timothy in his letters regarding false doctrines and immorality (the qualifications for elders are not mostly doctrinal, but instead detail the Christian character of the potential elder). 

So a potential timeline of events looks like this:
Gospel comes to Ephesus.
Gospel spreads out from Ephesus.
Paul warns the Ephesians (his final trip).
Paul writes Timothy letters while awaiting trials (either for Agrippa or in Rome, we have a couple of years of prison for Paul in multiple stops in Acts).
Timothy remains serving in Ephesus.
Paul is Executed under Nero (early to mid-60s)
Revelation is given to John on Patmos with a fresh warning for the Ephesians who have undergone serious shift and drift since the gospel first came.

Happy to engage and interact with those who have questions or comments. Please remember all this is a potential timeline and is open to correction as demonstrated biblically.