by Brian Godawa
Judgment
Wrath of the Lamb
Chronicles of the Apocalypse
Book Four
By Brian Godawa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Acknowledgments
Note to the Reader
Cast of Characters
Maps
Part One Azazel
Prologue
Year of the Four Emperors AD 68 – 69
Chapter 1
Mount Hermon December, AD 69
Chapter 2
Alexandria, Egypt
Chapter 3
Pella April, AD 70
Chapter 4
Jerusalem
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Caesarea Maritima
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Pella
Chapter 11
Jerusalem
Chapter 12
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
Chapter 13
Road to Jerusalem
Chapter 14
Pella
Chapter 15
Jerusalem
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Pella
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Jerusalem
Chapter 20
Transjordan Mountains
Chapter 21
Jerusalem
Chapter 22
Pella
Chapter 23
Jerusalem
Chapter 24
Pella
Chapter 25
Jerusalem
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Jerusalem
Chapter 28
Jordan Valley
Chapter 29
Jerusalem
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Pella
Part Two Armageddon
Chapter 32
Jerusalem May, AD 70
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Pella
Chapter 36
Jerusalem
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Pella
Chapter 39
The Valley of Hinnom
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Pella
Chapter 43
Jerusalem
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Mount Hermon
Chapter 46
Jerusalem July, AD 70
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
August, AD 70
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
August 29, AD 70
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Abomination of Desolation
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
September 26, AD 70 45 Days after the cessation of sacrifice
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
The Divine Council
Chapter 70
Qumran
Chapter 71
Pella
Chapter 72
Epilogue
Bibliography of Books on Bible Prophecy from a Preterist Perspective
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About the Author
Judgment: Wrath of the Lamb
Chronicles of the Apocalypse • Book Four
1st Edition
Copyright © 2018 Brian Godawa
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.
Embedded Pictures Publishing
Los Angeles, CA
[email protected]
www.godawa.com
ISBN: 978-1-942858-43-0 (ebook)
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001.
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Matthew 24 Fulfilled:
Biblical and Historical Sources
By Brian Godawa
The Research Notes behind the Novel Series Chronicles of the Apocalypse. 100 pages of Biblical and historical sources, with citations, proving the fulfillment of each verse in Matthew 24.
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You will jump to the back of the book where there is a link to get your FREE eBook.
The Chronicles of the Apocalypse series
is dedicated to
Ken Gentry and Gary DeMar.
Scholars and gentlemen, both.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for allowing me to combine my esoteric theological interests with my passionate love of storytelling. I never envisioned such privilege or ministry. I do not deserve it.
Perpetual thanks to my wife, Kimberly, my Cassandra, my muse.
I am so grateful for Jeanette Windle for making this entire series so much better because of her loving editorial ruthlessness. Jeanette, your theological understanding, your life experience in missions, your own storytelling choices, and your expertise convince me that God providentially led me to you. I could not imagine a more perfect editor for this project to make it what it needed to become.
My deepest gratitude goes to my long-time friend and scholar Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. for allowing me the privilege of early access to his Revelation commentary The Divorce of Israel, which served as a scholarly guide to unveiling the complexities of this most fascinating of all New Testament books.
I cannot neglect to thank Gary DeMar, another long-time friend and scholar whose eschatological work continues to be a trumpet call of sanity in this generation of last days madness.
I would also like to thank my newer friend and scholar Michael S. Heiser, whose work on the divine council, the Watchers, and the Deuteronomy 32 worldview constitutes the other major influence on my interpretation of Revelation.
I believe I have made opposites attract. Christus Victor!
NOTE TO THE READER
Chronicles of the Apocalypse is a standalone series. But this book you are reading is not a standalone novel. It follows Resistant: Revolt of the Jews and concludes the series.
In another sense, Chronicles of the Apocalypse is the sequel to my Chronicles of the Nephilim series about the biblical Cosmic War of the Seed and the victory of Christ over the Powers. One need not read the previous Nephilim series to be able to understand this Apocalypse series, but the literary and theological connections run deep.
This is the story of the apostle John’s writing of the Apocalypse during the time of the Roman Empire, the first major persecution of Christians, and the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66 that resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70. My hope is that the ancient world in all its symbolic glory will come alive to the reader as you encounter the imagery in Revelation dramatically unveiled through its Old Testament and first century literary lens.
I’ve included numbered endnotes for each chapter that provide detailed biblical and historical substantia
tion behind the fictional story. As it turns out, half of the text of this book is endnotes. This is my most heavily researched series of novels yet. Though using endnote numbers in a novel text is usually considered anathema, I chose to use them to provide biblical and historical context for those who want to “fact check” the eschatology and dig deeper.
I have tried to be as accurate as I can with the actual historical events and characters surrounding the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66 and the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. However, there are many details we simply do not know with certainty because either the Bible or other historical sources are silent or because there is disagreement over the facts. Because of this, I had to take some creative license to fill in the gaps and simplify for easier reading. But I have tried to remain true to the spirit of the text if not to the letter.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Some readers prefer to conjure pictures of what characters look like in their own imagination. But this is a sprawling epic with a lot of characters, so I wanted to help the reader keep all the characters straight in their minds as they read. See the color versions of these characters on the Chronicles of the Apocalypse website: http://wp.me/P6y1ub-1uH
I also have artwork of maps, paintings, and illustrations that relate to this story: http://wp.me/P6y1ub-1uJ
Brian Godawa
Author, Chronicles of the Apocalypse
MAPS
Aaron shall take the two goats and set them before Yahweh at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for Yahweh and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for Yahweh and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before Yahweh to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
Leviticus 16:7–10
And they assembled at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
– Apocalypse 16:16
PART ONE
Azazel
PROLOGUE
Year of the Four Emperors
AD 68 – 69
June, AD 68. Roman General Vespasian has subjugated Judea and its surrounding territories. He prepares to launch a final attack against Jerusalem.
In Rome, Nero Caesar loses control and commits suicide, ending the ancient Julio-Claudian line of Caesars and plunging the empire into chaos. The sixth head of the Beast is mortally wounded. Roman Governor Galba seizes the throne.1
Vespasian halts the Judean war and sends Titus to affirm allegiance to the new emperor. But Galba is toppled, and Titus returns to Judea with news of civil and political unrest.
Galba’s reign of six months is overthrown by Otho, whose reign of three months is overthrown by General Vitellius. Many fear this is the end of the empire, the death of the Beast.2
But a prophecy well-known in the eastern provinces had predicted that the future ruler of the world would go forth from Judea, currently occupied by Vespasian.3
July AD 69. Vespasian is declared emperor by his troops. He reluctantly accepts and leaves for Egypt to secure the food source of Rome before claiming the throne. The Beast is healed of its mortal wound.4
Vespasian leaves Titus in command of Judea with four Roman legions and ten client kings of the nations. These are the ten horns of the Beast.5 Titus is given the title of Caesar and leads the Imperial forces as that Beast of Rome in the holy land.6
Jerusalem remains divided three ways in civil war. Simon bar Giora maintains military control of the city with personal plans of revenge against John of Gischala, who retains control of the outer temple complex.7
The fanatic Eleazar holds the inner temple hostage with his Zealot forces.
Winter delays the wolves of war. A pall of silence hangs over Judea.
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw an angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the Land [of Israel], and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
Apocalypse 8:1-4
CHAPTER 1
Mount Hermon
December, AD 69
Apollyon, the Angel of the Abyss, sat brooding on his throne of stone in the cavernous mount of assembly in the heart of Hermon.
Seventy gods of the nations, called Watchers, and their divine allies surrounded him, awaiting his decision as he thought through his strategy for their next move. Winter would soon be over, and the armies of Rome, led by Flavius Titus, would finally be able to besiege Jerusalem.
The end of days was at hand.
Apollyon’s four strongest angels had been hostages to Yahweh and were recently freed by the enemy at the River Euphrates. The four principalities stood before him now. He looked thoughtfully at each of them: Ares, the Greek god of war, Ba’al, the Canaanite storm god, Ahura Mazda, Persian high god, and Hubal, Nabatean chief of the Arabian deities. All of them were muscular, brutish, and ruthless, exactly what he needed in the patron gods of the Roman legions in order to achieve his purposes. Azazel, patron genius of Titus, stood at Apollyon’s right side. Marduk, mighty Babylonian brawler, stood at his left.
Apollyon was the most powerful of all the Watcher gods. He had once been the satan of Yahweh’s divine council, a prosecuting adversary. He was a master of the law, Torah. But he impressed himself with the clever irony of taking the visual form of an emaciated, greasy-haired, androgynous cadaver. An incarnation of death and the denial of God’s created order.8
Apollyon had used that lawful order to his benefit. He had sued Yahweh in his heavenly court, thereby effecting the release of the four principalities and winning the right to punish the Jews based on Torah.
Serves him right, thought the Watcher. The tyrannical patron of Israel had written into the covenant curses for disobedience and was now having to suck it up and enforce those sanctions by punishing his own people seven-fold for their sins: plagues, war, and Apollyon’s favorite curse of all—desolation of her house, the holy temple in Jerusalem. It was the earthly incarnation of the covenant, and its desolation was proclaimed by the Nazarene Messiah as well.9 So now Yahweh had to follow through and allow Apollyon’s Gentile armies to fulfill that desolation and trample the Holy Place.
But his victory came at great cost to the Prince of the Power of the Air. A cost that made him boil with anger as he looked out upon his seventy principalities and powers, considering his next move. The great Despot in the Sky had placed a contingency upon the release of the demonic hostages. Apollyon first had to return the two hundred ancient ones that he had released from the Abyss. He had stolen the key to the Abyss from the Foundation Stone in the holy temple and had freed those bound Watchers from their imprisonment in Tartarus to help him accomplish his goal.
The two hundred were the original Sons of God who had rebelled against Yahweh and had come to earth on this cosmic mountain of Hermon. They had taught mankind forbidden knowledge and had violated the earthly heavenly divide by mating with human women. Their progeny were the Nephilim, the Seed of the Serpent who would wage a war against the messianic Seed of the Woman, Eve. But those two hundred original rebels had been judged at the Flood and bound in Tartarus.10
When Apollyon had freed them, he’d also freed an army of two hundred million demons. He’d been forced to return the ancient ones to Tartarus, but not the demons. And those demons were in his control, ready to do his bidding. They filled the land like a plague of locusts, and the Angel of the Abyss was about to call upon them.11
But something bothered him like a splinter in his talons. Whenever Yahweh had judged Israel for her unfaithfulness in the past, he’d always protected a remnant for himself. That Remnant was
the congregation of true believers. And he would use them like a small speck of leaven in a lump of dough to maintain his kingdom though all seemed lost.
When the antediluvian world was filled with violence, God had spared eight in the ark. When Elijah thought he was alone in contesting with Ba’al, God had spared seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to the false god. When Yahweh destroyed the first temple by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, he’d protected Daniel and others in the furnace of fire that was the Babylonian exile.12
So where was this Remnant now? Yahweh had supernaturally obscured the ability of Apollyon to find them. The Christians had left Jerusalem after Cestius Gallus first surrounded the city two years ago. They had done so in obedience to the Nazarene’s warning to flee to the mountains. But where did they go? The highlands of Judea and Samaria or the mountains across the Jordan? Apollyon wanted more than just desolation of the holy house. He wanted to kill the Remnant, the spiritual woman who had given birth to the Messiah and his Gospel. Apollyon the dragon wanted to eat them in a victory feast before Yahweh’s face.
But he had to find them first. And there was no one more familiar with the land of Israel than the Canaanite deities most beloved by the great harlot of apostate Israel.
Apollyon spoke up. “Molech and Asherah, scour the mountains on both sides of the Jordan and find me the Christians. Meet the rest of us at Caesarea Maritima. We will lead the Beast to war.”
The dragon who had been thrown down to the earth pursued the woman [Remnant Israel] who had given birth to the male child [Messiah]. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time [3 1/2 years].
Apocalypse 12:13–14
