Red Meat for Christian Rebels

Did Revelation Already Happen—or Are We Still Waiting?

Red Meat for Christian Rebels

Did Revelation Already Happen—or Are We Still Waiting?

If Revelation is mostly about AD 70, then we’ve been living in the after-credits for 1,900+ years.

That’s the claim of full (and a lot of partial) preterism:

John’s visions are essentially a coded description of the fall of Jerusalem, the end of the old covenant order, and the “coming” of Christ in judgment on Israel. According to them, we’re already past most of what’s in the book.

But there’s one enormous problem:

If Revelation describes AD 70,

why did John write it around AD 90 as future?

Preterists know that’s a fatal question. That’s why almost all of them insist Revelation must have been written before 70.

Let’s put this on the table and cut into it.

1. The Entire Preterist House Sits on the Date

Preterism stands or falls on one thing:

Revelation has to be written before AD 70.

If it’s written after the destruction of Jerusalem, the whole “this is about 70 AD” reading collapses.

So preterists push a Nero-era date (around AD 65–68), and they have to do some heavy lifting to get there:

• Reinterpret the early church testimony (especially Irenaeus).

• Force the “temple” in Revelation 11 to be Herod’s temple.

• Read “soon” and “near” in Revelation 1:1, 3 as “within a few years,” not “when it begins, it will be sudden and certain.”

Because if John is writing in the 90s, under Domitian:

• AD 70 is already history.

• John calls his visions “things which must take place after this” (Rev. 1:19, NKJV), not “things you all just lived through.”

Preterism doesn’t just wobble at that point.

It drops dead.

2. Why the Late Date (AD 90–95) Actually Makes Sense

I’m dispensational, pre-mil, pre-trib. I’m not neutral here. But the case for a late date isn’t flimsy apologetics—it’s actually the historic mainstream.

a. The Early Church Witness

The key voice is Irenaeus (late 2nd century), who wrote that the vision of Revelation was seen “toward the end of Domitian’s reign.” Domitian ruled AD 81–96.

Eusebius, Victorinus, Jerome—later writers—follow that same line. You have to work hard to explain that away.

Could they all be wrong? Theoretically, yes. But preterism needs them to be wrong, and misunderstood, and consistently misquoted for 1,800 years. That’s a lot to ask.

b. The Drift of the Churches

Look at the seven churches in Revelation 2–3:

• Ephesus has left its first love (Rev. 2:4).

• Sardis has a name that it is alive, but it is dead (3:1).

• Laodicea is lukewarm, complacent, and self-satisfied (3:15–17).

These aren’t brand-new church plants in the first flush of apostolic ministry. They look like second-generation churches—exactly what you’d expect a few decades after Paul.

That lines up much more naturally with AD 90s than with a date barely 30 years after Pentecost.

c. The Rebuilt Wealth of Laodicea

History tells us Laodicea was hammered by a massive earthquake around AD 60–61 and rebuilt itself without imperial money because it was so wealthy.

In Revelation 3:17, Jesus has the church saying:

“I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing…”

That fits post-earthquake wealth recovered, not pre-70 timing during upheaval.

Put it simply:

The internal evidence looks late.

The external testimony says late.

If that’s true, AD 70 is already in the rearview mirror when John writes—and Revelation is still looking forward.

3. “Soon” Doesn’t Mean “It All Happened in 70 AD”

Preterists love the language of “shortly take place” and “the time is near” (Rev. 1:1, 3).

They argue:

• “See? This all had to happen within a few years. That fits 70 AD, not some distant future.”

But Scripture uses “near” and “soon” in a broader, prophetic way:

• From God’s perspective, “a thousand years is as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8).

• The “last days” began at Pentecost (Acts 2:17; Heb. 1:2) and have stretched across centuries.

• Peter addresses scoffers who say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” and tells them God is not slow as we count slowness (2 Pet. 3:3–9).

“Near” in prophetic literature is about certainty and imminence, not always about “within one election cycle.”

Futurism doesn’t have to play games with those words; it just has to read them in the whole biblical context of prophetic imminence.

4. Why It Matters That Revelation Is Still Future

Some people shrug and say, “Who cares? Maybe it’s 70 AD, maybe it’s future—Jesus wins anyway.”

I get the impulse, but it misses something huge:

Revelation is the final chapter of God’s story with Israel, the nations, and the Church.

If you stuff most of it into AD 70, then:

• You’ve effectively said Israel’s story is over.

• You’ve blurred or erased the distinction between Israel and the Church.

• You’ve dulled the warning and comfort Revelation gives to the last-days Church.

Scripture is clear:

• God still has promises to keep to Israel (Rom. 11:25–29).

• There will be a literal tribulation (Matt. 24:21).

• There will be a literal return of Christ in glory, in the clouds, with the nations gathered (Rev. 19).

• There will be a literal kingdom on this earth where Christ rules (Rev. 20:1–6).

AD 70 was real, horrific, and important.

It was a day of the Lord—not the Day of the Lord.

If Revelation was written in the 90s, it’s not an obituary of something God already did; it’s a warning label and hope banner for what He will do.

5. The Red Meat Bottom Line

Here’s the blunt version:

If Revelation was written in the 90s,

AD 70 is already history.

John didn’t write,

“Let me exegete last month’s headlines.”

He wrote,

“Here is what must take place after this.”

Preterism bets the farm on rewriting the timeline so it can tame the text.

I’m not saying everyone who leans preterist is a heretic. I’m saying the system:

• shrinks prophecy down to one Roman siege,

• sidelines Israel,

• and numbs the Church to the very real, very future judgments and glories still ahead.

We were not appointed to wrath (1 Thess. 5:9).

There will be a Rapture.

There will be a Tribulation.

There will be a literal return of Christ in glory.

There will be a kingdom on this earth.

And whether my charts line up perfectly or not, this much is non-negotiable:

Jesus is coming.

His Word will stand.

And God will take care of His own.