For the life of me, I never understood why so many people think The Book of Revelation applies to the present day and age. Apocalyptic literature was a common genre in the several centuries before and after the birth of Christ. Consider. Do you honestly believe the people living in say the second century AD were reading Revelations and worrying about the world 2000 years into the future? These types of writings were written for the people living then, not now.
Apocalypse, or Revelation, is the name of the last book in the Bible, written toward the end of the first century C.E. In view of the prophetic nature and highly symbolic language of this book, the adjective “apocalyptic” came to be applied to a form of literature that began long before the Bible book of Revelation was written....
as you correctly stated!
The mythological symbolism of this literature goes back to ancient Persia and even beyond. Hence, The Jewish Encyclopedia speaks of “the distinctly Babylonian character of most of the mythological elements incorporated in this [Jewish apocalyptic] literature.”
Jewish apocalyptic literature flourished from the start of the second century B.C.E. to the end of the second century C.E. Explaining the reason for these writings, one Bible scholar wrote: “The Jews divided all time into two ages. There was this present age, which is wholly bad .*.*. The Jews, therefore, waited for the end of things as they are. There was the age which is to come which was to be wholly good, the golden age of God in which would be peace, prosperity and righteousness .*.*. How was this present age to become the age which is to come? The Jews believed that the change could never be brought about by human agency and, therefore, looked for the direct intervention of God. .*.*. The day of the coming of God was called The Day of the Lord and was to be a terrible time of terror and destruction and judgment which would be the birth pangs of the new age. All apocalyptic literature deals with these events.”
The Bible book of Revelation speaks of “the war of the great day of God the Almighty,” or Armageddon, wherein the wicked will be destroyed, followed by a thousand-year period (sometimes called the Millennium) during which Satan will be abyssed and Christ will judge humankind. (Revelation 16:14, 16; 20:1-4)
Since it is an irrefutable historic fact that many, if not most, of the early Christians hoped in the Millennial Reign of Christ over a paradise earth, how did it occur that such “chiliastic views” were “eventually rejected”?
Augustine was undoubtedly the Church Father who did the most to fuse Greek philosophy with what was by his time only a semblance of Christianity. Initially an ardent advocate of millenarianism, he eventually rejected any idea of a future Millennial Reign of Christ over the earth.
He gave Revelation chapter*20 an allegorical twist.
The Catholic Encyclopedia says: “Augustine finally held to the conviction that there will be no millennium. The first resurrection, of which this chapter treats, he tells us, refers to the spiritual rebirth in baptism; the sabbath of one thousand years after the six thousand years of history, is the whole of eternal life.” The New Encyclopædia Britannica states: “Augustine’s allegorical millennialism became the official doctrine of the church .*.*. The Protestant Reformers of the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican traditions .*.*. remained firmly attached to the views of Augustine.” Thus, the members of Christendom’s churches were deprived of the millennial hope.
In his book Highlights of the Book of Revelation, Bible scholar George Beasley-Murray wrote: “Largely owing to the
immense influence of Augustine on the one hand and the espousal of millenarianism by the sects on the other,
Catholics and Protestants have united in rejecting it. When asked what alternative hope they have for man in this world the official answer is: None at all. The world will be destroyed at the advent of Christ to give place to an eternal heaven and hell in which history will be forgotten. .*.*. The church has lost its message of hope.”
As the Apocalypse quite clearly shows, the Creators purpose is to bring an end to the present wicked system! He will not bring in a righteous system of things without ridding the earth of those who are
presently ruining it!
So the Revelation account DEFINITELY has it's fulfillment,
not at the time of it's writing, but in our day and time, since
back in the 1st Century no "ruining of the earth" was in progress or even possible!
(Revelation 11:17, 18) 17 saying: “We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun ruling as king. 18 But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time came for the dead to be judged and to reward your slaves the prophets and the holy ones and those fearing your name, the small and the great,
and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.. . .