Fr. Mike Schmitz

A microcosm of the world, of the universe.

That's meant to be, that's what it is.

So in the year 70, when the Romans came into Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, all of

what this is a prophecy of destroying the world.

Because the temple, again, is the epicenter.

The temple is the epicenter not only of finance.

It's not only the epicenter of politics for the Jewish people.

It's the epicenter of worship.

It is the center of the world.

It is a microcosm of the world.

And so here is Jesus in Revelation.

Here is Jesus in the Gospels who's prophesying, yeah, the end of the world will happen in this generation.

It makes sense that we would say that this would be written in the year 60 so that

John is prophesying and getting the people ready for the destruction of the temple and that ransacking of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD.

That's my, it's an opinion.

Other people have different opinions that are informed as well, but that's also gonna inform us

a lot about what's going on for the next number of chapters.

So just FYI, with all of that in mind, one of the things we know is that regardless of what emperor this was under, this was a time of persecution for Christians.

And regardless of what year this was, this was a time of great persecution for Christians.

And so what is God doing?