Hermeneutics Pt. 5: Prophecy

What Prophecy Is and Its Basic Definition

Hermeneutics. Tonight, we're looking at prophecy. First, what is prophecy? Prophecy may simply be defined as the proclamation of that which God has revealed. The prophet received special revelations from God and, in turn, conveyed them to the people.

That's probably the simplest, most straightforward definition of prophecy. That's given by Louis Burckhoff in his systematic theology. But there are different dimensions of prophecy. The main dimension is foretelling, moral and ethical exhortation.

Everybody's looking at the foretelling, which is the second one, but prophecy does not have to be predictive in nature. Prophecy, in its simplest form, is revelation from God which is imparting some truth from God to the people.

Jeremiah 11 as a Covenant Lawsuit

An example is Jeremiah 11, 1 to 17. And I'm going to read through this because I think this is an excellent example of what prophecy is. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying. There you see it right up there.

Hear the words of this covenant and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Here we have God speaking to Jeremiah. And say to them, notice relaying it to the people, and say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant, which I commanded your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice and do all according to which I command you, so you shall be my people and I will be your God.

In order to confirm the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then I said, Amen, O Lord. And the Lord said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the words of this covenant and do them.

I hope as we're going through this, you see some words that are key. Covenant, proclaim in the streets. Keep those in mind. We're going to review them in a little bit. I solemnly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning persistently saying, Listen to my voice.

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked each one in the stubbornness of the evil heart, his evil heart. Therefore, I brought them brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.

Then the Lord said to me, A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors who refuse to hear my words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them.

The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers. Therefore, says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster on them, which they will not be able to escape, though they will cry to me, yet I will not listen to them.

That is... Oh, and then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they surely will not save them in the time of their disaster. For your gods are as many as your cities, so Judah and as many of the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to this shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.

Therefore, do not pray for this people. Isn't that interesting? Do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not listen when they call to me because of their disaster.

What right has my beloved in my house when she has done many vile deeds? Can this sacrificial flesh take away from your disaster so that you can rejoice? The Lord called your name, a green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form, with the noise of a great tumult.

He has kindled fire on it and its branches are worthless. And then the Lord of hosts who planted you has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke me by my offering of sacrifices to Baal.

Foretelling and the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31

All right, now, this is a classic form of prophecy. Notice there's somewhat of a predictive element to it, but basically it's just telling the truth about the covenant. Now, notice this prophecy is a moral and ethical judgment for disobedience to the commands of God.

In its simplest form, that's the structure of most prophecy. The second dimension of prophecy is foretelling, a predictive declaration. And the example of this is Jeremiah 31, 27 to 34. You can actually look at the book of Jeremiah almost as one big prophecy.

So let's look at this. Behold, days are coming. There you see right at the very beginning of this, a predictive element. Days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast, as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy, and to bring disaster.

So I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord. In those days, they will not say again, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge, but everyone will die for his own iniquity.

Each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.

But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

They shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.

Now notice, this is in the future. So this is the predict of God saying what he will do. But there's a third dimension to prophecy, and that is God bringing a covenant lawsuit against Israel. Now I want you to pay close attention to this.

This is God, the main, you'll see this element in virtually every prophecy of scripture. And it contains both foretelling and foretelling. It's speaking the truth, and in many cases, as in Jeremiah 11, we saw how he was declaring judgment, all right, upon them.

And in Jeremiah 31, we see the foretelling. This is what's going to happen in days that are coming, not that are here as yet. So, well, I'll stop there for a minute. The prophets are God's prosecuting attorneys, all right?

God speaks to the prophet. He comes to the people and he says, as a prosecutor, he says, this is what God says, this is what's going to happen unless you do this, all right? So remember the five-point covenant model.

How many people remember the five-point covenant model that we've gone over in many different Bible studies? How many people know what I'm talking about with the five-point model? So you just, all right, I'm going to direct my comments at this table then.

Your father started it. Ma 'am? In general, the covenant model. You'll see it in the Old Testament. You'll see the new covenant model, and this is the model. This was actually a model that the ancient kings would use when they conquered another land.

They would enter into a covenant with the opposed ruler, all right? So figuring that not that many people knew the covenant model, I'm going to give you the five-point covenant model, all right? First point is transcendence.

What we mean by transcendent is the person who is enacting the covenant sets himself up as being above transcendent. In the case of a biblical covenant, God, I am the Lord, your God. He's speaking from a position of transcendence.

Nobody can question the person who is the ruling king. Second is hierarchy. There's a structure to the covenant and who is mediating the covenant, okay? In the case of an ancient king, what he would frequently do is when he deposed another king, he would allow him to rule in his own land underneath his rulership.

You see, Rome did this frequently, even at the time of Christ. You had Herod who was a Jew and he was king under Caesar, but he had to answer to Caesar, so there would be a hierarchy. In the case of a biblical covenant, God has put an authority structure into his church.

Jesus Christ is the head of the church, but he appoints under shepherds to mediate the covenant, all right? Ethics. Ethics is there are rules and regulations or laws, all right, which you must do or you must not do.

And if you go back to Jeremiah 11, what was the complaint that God had? He had given them the covenant. God had entered into covenant with Israel and had given them laws and what happened to the laws?

They violated them. They were sacrificing on the altars of Baal and other gods. So ethics is the standard of behavior that is acceptable in the covenant. Oaths. This basically says, all right, if you listen to the terms of the covenant, you'll be blessed.

If you don't, you'll be cursed. So blessings and cursings come. We see this. What Deuteronomy passage is famous for laying out the blessings and cursings of the curse? 28. Deuteronomy 28. And then you have succession.

What's going to happen to you or what's the future of the covenant, all right? Now you can see if you apply this to the new covenant, what is the succession in the new covenant? Eternal life, okay? For those who are outside the covenant or violate the covenant, eternal destruction.

So that's basically the covenant structure, and it's unfortunate that it's just so glossed over, even in many systematic theologies. You just don't hear too much about it anymore. Yet, if you're really going to understand prophecy.

Yes, Joe?

How would you define exhortation, and could that be part of a prophecy?

Yes. Exhortation would come under blessings. If you obey the terms of the covenant, all of this will happen to you. What does Deuteronomy 28 say? If you obey the terms of the covenant, blessed will you be in your house, blessed will you be in the country, blessed will you be in the city, blessed will be the fruit of your womb, blessed will be the beast of the field.

If you disobey, cursed will you be in the city, cursed will you be. You follow? That was the promise to Israel, and that would come under here, under the oaths section, all right? So that's the basic covenant model.

If you examine the prophecy in Scripture, you will find this covenant structure either explicit or implicit in virtually every prophecy because, well, let me ask you this. Why do you think that would be?

Why can you find this covenant structure in virtually all of prophecy? Because what? Yeah, because that's how God deals with his people. When we're born again, we are partakers in the new covenant. Back in Israel's days, they were partakers of that old covenant, and there were actually many covenants.

Remember when we went through covenants? There were many different covenants, all part of the greater covenant of redemption, but nonetheless, there were two major covenants, the old covenant and the new covenant, all right?

You will also find the essence of the covenant, all right? I will be your God, you will be my people. If anybody ever asks you, what's the essence of the covenant relationship that we are in with God?

This is it. I will be your God, you will be my people. Because that's the essence of the covenant, that's how he sets down stipulations. These are the laws, the regulations, the rules of the covenant.

There's blessings if you obey them, cursings if you disobey them, okay? What's the blessing of the new covenant, and how do we get that? Sure. The blessing of the new covenant is, I don't have to keep all of those rules and regulations.

Why? Because Christ did, and he imputes that to the believers. Bless you. That's why you notice in Jeremiah 31, you don't have to teach it, they will all know me. We are all partakers in that covenant through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Yes? So there's no curses in the new covenant? Yeah, in essence there isn't really. There are cursings, but they were handled by Christ. For the old covenant? Huh? There were curses under the old covenant, right?

There's no curses in the new covenant? Christ took the curse for you and I in the new covenant, right? Okay, that's the difference, because the tablets are written on our heart, and what happens, he regenerates, gives us a new heart.

Jeremiah 11 is a perfect example. You see the essence of the covenant, all right? The word which came to Jeremiah, here I am. There's the essence of the covenant, so you shall be my people, I will be your God.

Explicitly, right there. Transcendence. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. You're not going to see it. Did you notice the acronym? I didn't point that out. Notice the acronym? Theos. What does theos mean?

God in Greek. Just a little acronym to help you remember. But notice, you might not see it in the exact order, but in all of these prophecies, you're going to see the essence of the covenant. Here's transcendence.

Thus says the Lord, God of Israel. God is the one who is setting the terms of the covenant. He's the one who is the executor, if you will, of the covenant, of each covenant. Hierarchy. The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

Jeremiah was commissioned by God to give the terms of the covenant to the people. So there you see a hierarchy set up. How does that apply in the New Testament church? God appoints under-shepherds. What's the under-shepherd's job?

To preach the word, to teach the word, to equip the saints. Ethics. Here are the words of the covenant. What are the words of the covenant? Go back to Deuteronomy. Wait a minute. Listen to my voice and do all according to which I command you.

See, there's commands. Oaths. What happens if you disobey? Curse is a man who does not heed the words of this covenant. And do all according to which I command you, so you shall be my people and I will be your God.

Succession. In order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as it is to this day. In the old covenant, that was the promise. Now granted, just so that somebody doesn't catch me here, the promise of the land was a part looking forward to the essence of the new covenant.

But the promise of the land of Israel was very important in the old covenant. So the second point we're looking at, what is the purpose of prophecy? Not to wow or entertain people. Anybody here watch America's Got Talent?

You ever see their mentalists? Amazing, isn't it? I don't know how they do some of those things. I don't even have a clue. And what's the reaction? Wow. That's not why God predicts things. It's primarily to move the heroes of the prophecy to repentance.

You'll see that in almost everything if you repent. How about Jonah? The word of the Lord came to Jonah. Notice. Who's the transcendent God? The Lord. That's Yahweh, by the way. Everybody realize how this is translated?

If you see all capital letters, 99 of the time that's translation of Jehovah or Yahweh. If you see it with its L, small o, small r, small d, usually that's the word Adonai. Both translated Lord. In Psalm 110, the Lord, Yahweh, said to my Lord, Adonai.

That's how you can tell the difference. But here's the transcendent God. Came to his prophet who was supposed to go to the people. Arise, go to Nineveh, to the great city, and cry against it, for the wickedness has come up before me.

The wickedness, God has promised destruction if they do not repent. Jonah is the prophet who is commissioned to go to Nineveh. Jonah 3. Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. This is after he decided he was going to run away from God.

Like God couldn't find him in the hold of that ship. Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you. So Jonah rose, went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city, one day's walk. And he cried out and said, yet 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown. Okay, you can see all the terms of the covenant.

You see the elements of the covenant there, the transcendence, the hierarchy. The oaths, they disobeyed the word of God. The ethics coming, there's curses that are going to come upon them. All right. Then the people of Nineveh believed in God and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on ashes. He issued a proclamation in Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles.

Do not let man, beast, herd, flock, taste the thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. Notice. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth. Do you think he took it serious? I mean, this is the purpose of prophecy, is it not?

To bring about repentance. Who knows God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we will not perish. When God saw the deeds, you know the story. I'm going to, but notice how Jonah responds.

But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, please, Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and one who relents concerning calamity.

Two, I can't get into that, but you see it. Okay. Fulfilled prophecy. Verifies the authenticity of the prophet and his message. Remember, even when it came to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ said, you know, if you don't believe me for what I tell you, believe me for the works that I do.

Fulfilled prophecy edifies the church. We're still under the purpose of prophecy. Matthew 13, 11. Jesus answered them to you. It has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them, it has not been granted.

The church is edified when he teaches and gives prophecy. All right. Fulfilled prophecy also strengthens faith. As you go through and you read the scriptures and you see how, how specifically the prophecy is fulfilled.

I'm going to pause there for a minute. This is not on the slides, but a pet peeve of mine. You have many churches today that get where the host of a TV show or a pastor says, I have a word of prophecy or a word of knowledge.

Okay. And they say, somebody out there is being healed of back pain right now. You know, is this what you see in scripture? What you see in scripture is specifics. God says, this is what's going to happen if you do not do this.

And if you don't do that, it's not, it happens. We have three times in scripture that names of people have been given. Josiah was prophesied by name. Cyrus was prophesied by name. And of course, Jesus was prophesied by name of what they were going to come and what they were going to do.

So fulfilled prophecy demonstrates God's providence. As you look through scripture and you see the prophetic word and then see how God brought about that prophetic word. And he uses all different means.

It's different at times. Sodom and Gomorrah had fire from heaven, fire and brimstone come down. How did he defeat Israel? By using the Babylonian army. How did he defeat Babylon? Using the Mede Persian army.

Different things, but so you can see the providence of God in prophecy. Third, what is the language of prophecy? Usually figurative language using many different figures of speech. Usually very highly symbolic, which is why you have to understand biblical symbolism.

That's why we looked at typology and types and symbols. Isaiah 53, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was like a lamb led to slaughter, like a sheep that is silent before his shearer, so he did not open his mouth.

See how this is a prophecy concerning Christ and how was he likened to a lamb, to a sheep? Parables can be prophetic. Most of the parables in Matthew 13 have prophetic or eschatological elements to them.

Just think about it. Parable of the sower. What's going to happen in the future? Why should we not be surprised when we see somebody come into the church, make a profession of faith, get all excited, and then wander away and never come back again?

Parable of the sower. Jesus told us it's going to happen, so don't be surprised. Parable of the wheat and tares. Talking about the end of the age, the judgment. Parable of the mustard seed. Mustard seed, one of the smallest of seeds.

It's going to become the largest tree in the garden. Parable of the leaven. Parable of the dragnet. All of these are in Matthew 13. They all have eschatological or prophetic elements to them. Symbolism and typology is the language of prophecy.

Symbolic Language in Prophecy

Example, the sun, the moon, and the stars. Matthew 24, 29. But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of heavens will be shaken.

Now, most churches today say that this is going to happen at the end of the age. Just prior to judgment day, or the second coming of Christ. And they say because this has never happened before. But there's a couple of problems.

One, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky. What would happen if the stars, the real stars, fell from the sky? Realize that our sun is a star.

Do you know it's one of the smallest of stars? We look at it so big, actually it's one of the smallest of stars. Anybody ever see Luke Giglio? You know, if the earth were the size of a golf ball. If you haven't seen it, you've got to see it.

He does a great job. My favorite is Canis Majoris, the big dog star. It's a big one. If the earth was the size of a golf ball. Anyway, so there's a problem. So when you see that this is obviously figurative language, quoting the Old Testament.

That's why it's in capital letters here. So you want to do just a little exercise in hermeneutics. We looked at those. Notice what it says. Sun, moon, stars fall from the sky. The powers of the heavens will be shaken.

There's a clue for you right there. So let's go back. Ezekiel is told by God to prophesy against Egypt and Pharaoh in Ezekiel 32. And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, darken their stars, cover the sun, and the moon will not give its lights.

All the shining lights in the heavens, I will darken over you. I will set darkness on your land. Now notice, this was a prophecy against Pharaoh in Egypt. This happened. This is fulfilled prophecy. Did the sun stop?

Was the moon darkened? Did stars fall? No. Is the Bible wrong? Did this prophecy go unfulfilled? No. What we have to do is say, what does that mean, sun, moon, and stars? So let's go back a little bit further.

Isaiah is told by God to prophesy against Babylon. Look at the language. The day of the Lord is coming. The stars of heaven and the constellation will not flash forth their light. Same type of language.

Something's going on here. So we need to find out what he's talking about if it's not really the physical stars. We have to go back to the purpose of the heavenly bodies, the fourth day of creation. God said, let there be lights from the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.

Let them be for signs and seasons. All right. So it's not just for seasons, but it's for signs. For days and years. And let them be for lights to the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.

Look at that. To govern the day. To govern the night, the sun, the moon. And the expanse of the heavens to give light to the earth and to govern the day and the night. Separate the light from the darkness.

How about that? Besides the physical reasons for the sun, moon, and stars, they were given for symbols. Specifically as symbols of authority, governments, or leaders. Leaders are supposed to bring light to the people.

When nations fall, darkness follows. It's decreation. All right. So, oh, you know what I didn't include here? I should have. Shame on me. Joseph has several dreams. And, yes. Oh. Had several dreams. One of them has to do with he sees the sun, the moon, and the stars.

And they're bowing before him. And he goes and he tells it to his father. What does his father say? Does his father say, what are you talking about? Is the sun, the moon, how are they going to bow before you?

Is that what he says?

What does he say? Go ahead. He instantly knows that it's a prophecy against him, Leah, and the other brothers. And he interprets, I believe, himself as the sun and Leah as the moon. Because the moon is almost like an archetype for women.

Because it is a reflection of the sun's light.

Yeah. And the other patriarchs. In other words, the sun, the moon, and the stars, well-known biblical language to symbolize rulers and leaders. So when the prophecy against Babylon comes from Isaiah, what is it talking about?

Babylon's going to fall. Did Babylon fall? Were the rulers deposed? Yes. By the Pedes. The Medes and the Persians. Okay. Did it happen to all those other times that we see the sun, moon, and the stars?

So when we come to Matthew 24, should we immediately, well, now this time it means the real rulers who are alive? No. It means that it's prophecy against Israel. It's a covenant lawsuit against Israel.

And that's what Jesus is doing. He says Israel is going to be deposed. It's going to fall. Did Israel fall? When? How about that? Before the generation that Jesus spoke to had died. When he says all these things will come upon this generation, and it all happened.

Interpretive Principles for Prophecy

Fourth interpretive principles of prophecy. The general principles of hermeneutics apply. Scripture interprets scripture. Grammatical historical exegesis. We went through this at the beginning of this study.

Obscure in light of the clear. You know, just something appears to say something. Is there clear teaching on it someplace else? The implicit in light of the explicit. All right. And then context, context, context.

A couple of questions you need to ask. Who were the primary targets of the prophecy? That's important because whoever the prophet is is speaking to them primarily, so it has to be something that they would understand.

What did it mean to them? Example of Matthew 24. Don't change the meanings of words. All right. In fact, back in Matthew 24 when Jesus says truly this generation will not pass away before all these things take place.

That's right after the sun, moon, and stars are falling. The word that's used there is genea, G-E-N-E-A. If you do a word study and you look at how many times has Matthew used that, what does it mean, and then what does it mean when used in scripture as a whole?

You'll find out that it always means the people to whom he is speaking. It doesn't mean some future generation 2 ,000 years later. All right. That's changing the meanings of words. Words such as soon or near retain the grammatical meaning.

For example, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his bond servants the things which must soon take place. We have people who say that these things didn't take place yet. This is soon for the time is near, and also here you see communicated.

You know what this word is up there? Signifies, using signs and symbols. So it's not talking about sun, moon, and stars in physical sense, but it's signifying something. Revelation 22, 6, things which must soon take place.

Behold, I am coming quickly. Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near. Behold, I'm coming quickly, and the reward is to every man according to these. I'm coming quickly.

Are the symbols used elsewhere in scripture? We find that those very symbols are used elsewhere. Christ and his kingdom are always the centerpiece of prophecy. If you're looking at prophecy and somebody is prophesying some sort of event that has not Christ at the centerpiece, you know right off the bat that they're misinterpreting that prophecy.

The End of Prophecy and Questions from the Class

Questions?

I know that was a lot. Yes, Joe. Professor, from all of this, am I to assume that there's no prophecy today in the church and there are no prophets? Do we know any prophets? No.

There's... The prophecy that was given during the time of Christ was always under apostolic authority. When the last of the apostles passed from the scene, their gifts, the gifts of the apostles faded with them.

Yes. Well, the prophecy has always been about the gospel. Yeah. The Old Testament was given because it was giving to Jesus and then after Christ's ascension it was... So, you do have a prophecy. It's a gospel, right?

Yeah, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2. I'm sorry, Hebrews 1, 1 and 2. You know that God spoke to the fathers and the prophets in various and sundry ways, but in these last days has spoken to us in His Son. Jesus Christ is the last of the prophets.

How could you verify a prophet? There had to be... There was very specific details for a man to be considered a prophet. Remember when Paul came and was said that he was a prophet or an apostle and the other, they didn't believe it.

They had to examine him to see that he fit the criteria and that is that he was called by Christ himself.

Yes. I have a question. I heard from somebody that prophecy in the New Testament can be kind of... can come aside with a teaching. Is that necessarily true? Like today there's prophecy that's not foretelling, it's foretelling.

Yeah. No, that's exactly right.

The prophetic element... Anytime somebody stands in a pulpit and preaches the word, you could say in one sense that that is a word of prophecy as long as you're defining your terms the right way and not meaning that it's a predictive element because I only have the authority to say, thus says the Lord when I'm quoting scripture.

If I get up and say, you know, my opinion is this, thus sayeth the Lord. Carve me and feather me and carry me out to the city gates. You don't have to be so enthusiastic about that. Well, I don't know.

We don't know. We don't know exactly when it... I can tell you... What's that? No. We know that in 70 AD, and this is one of the reasons I believe that the entire canon of scripture was completed by 70 AD.

When Jerusalem was destroyed, that definitively, officially, completely made the Old Covenant null and void. Remember, for 40 years, the two covenants were parallel because the word of the New Covenant had to get there.

Remember, as Paul went out and he would tell people, have you heard of the Holy Spirit? No, we didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit. But by 70 AD, when Jerusalem is destroyed, the temple is destroyed, that's the definitive end of the Old Covenant.

And I believe that all scripture was complete by that time, including the book of the Revelation. And there's a lot of other reasons why I believe that. Any other questions?