Many Preterists are blind to Vespasian’s and Titus’ role in Revelation 19 and elsewhere because they assume that whoever the beast and false prophet are they must have been killed at the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This notion that the casting of the beast and the false prophet into a literal/symbolic lake of fire in A.D. 70 could be a sign of their impending fate in the true lake of fire after death sometime after A.D. 70 may seem foreign to many. However, this concept of employing omens symbolizing future realities is common in the Bible.1
One example is Isaiah 7:12-16. Here Ahaz, king of Judah (735–720 B.C.), is told that the Lord would give him a sign which would precede his deliverance from the two kings he dreaded. That sign was a virgin who would bear a child (Isaiah 7:14). This sign was fulfilled soon thereafter in Isaiah 8:3-4 when the prophetess bore a son which preceded Ahaz’s deliverance from his two enemies yet Isaiah 7:14 was also an omen ultimately pointing to the birth of Christ (Matthew 1:23).
A very similar example is found in the custom of baptism. Romans 6:4-5 reads, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Obviously Christians do not physically die in baptism. Though the Bible sometimes uses death as a metaphor for repentance, baptism is an act that ultimately symbolizes the future, literal death and resurrection of the saint as is made clear in Romans 6:5. The same can be said concerning the beast and false prophet being cast into the lake of fire/Abyss. Just as the Christian saint does not physically die the moment he or she is cast into the waters of baptism, the beast and false prophet also did not physically die when they were cast into the Abyss or lake of fire (notice the aquatic imagery in both omens). Both aquatic submersions are symbols of a future death, not a literal, physical demise at the moment of immersion. The fact that the beast and false prophet do not die when they are first cast into the Abyss/lake of fire is, I believe, why the beast and false prophet are said to be cast into the Abyss/lake of fire “alive” (Rev 19:20)–just as is the saint in baptism who is also obviously submerged alive and thus does not physically die at the time.
We see death equated with departure from the Promised Land even as far back as Genesis 2-3. In Genesis 2:16-17 God says to Adam, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die [emphasis mine].” When Adam ate the fruit he received the knowledge of good and evil that day. However, Adam did not die physically until hundreds of years later. The death that Adam was threatened with appears to have been exile from the Promised Land of God as Adam was, in fact, expelled from the Garden that day (Gensis 3:23). This exile from the Garden, like the Jews’ exile from Jerusalem in Ezekiel 37, appears to be the kind of death Adam experienced that day according to Genesis 2:16-17 and seemingly the kind of death the beast and false prophet experience in Revelation 19:20 as well.
- Some preterists believe that the lake of fire in which the beast and false prophet are cast is the burning city of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This verse is used as a selling point for those who believe the beast is apostate Israel. However, Rev 19:19 mentions the army of the beast. It is important to remember that the Roman army was also present in this burning city. The Jews were not alone at that time.
That having been said there is more to the lake of fire of v. 20 than just the burning of Jerusalem. This lake of fire is mentioned again in Revelation 20:10: “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever [lit. “age of ages].” Here we see that the devil, beast and false prophet are thrown into the same lake of fire where they are each tormented for the age of ages. Regardless one’s view of the millennium, this “age of ages” refers to an era—presumably a lengthy one–after A.D. 70. This means that the beast, false prophet and Satan are tormented in the lake of fire after A.D. 70 which means that this lake of fire cannot refer to the burning of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 or at least there is more to this lake of fire than just the burning of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
The fact that there is more to the lake of fire than just the burning of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 is also implied in Revelation 20:14 “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.” How was death and Hades thrown into a burning city? Here we see that according to Revelation 20:14 “[t]he lake of fire is the second death.” In other words, the lake of fire is at its root and core a spiritual realm of punishment.
Like Daniel 7:11, Revelation 19:20 appears to be an omen prophetically symbolizing the fate of the beast in the realm of the wicked dead after death (Luke 16:23-24, Rev 11) where according to Rev 20:10 they are tormented day and night for the age of ages. One omen pointing to the fate of the beast in the realm of the wicked dead may be the burning of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 which they were “alive” amidst as predicted in Rev 20:10. There appears to also be a second omen or portent that transpired during the Jewish War which also foreshadowed to the ultimate fate of the beast in the fiery realm of death (Luke 16:23-24, Rev 11).
Another omen foreshadows the casting of the beast and false prophet into the fiery realm of the wicked dead appears to be Titus’ and Vespasian’s living presence amidst the burning of Israel during the Jewish War which they themselves ordered as part of Rome’s scorched-earth policy. Notice that Revelation 19:20 says that the beast and the false prophet are cast “alive” into the lake of fire (for details see Since the Abyss is Rome, the Abyss is Continually Present with the Beast and False Prophet). (Furthermore, in light of some interesting historical coincidences and peculiarities it appears that Jesus also came in judgment after A.D. 70 at the deaths of each member of the Flavian Dynasty from Vespasian to Domitian. For a detailed explanation of this evidence see The Miraculous Historical Appearance of Christ at the Death of the Beast Fulfills 2 Thessalonians 2:8 and Revelation 19:19-20. See also The Fact that Israel Fell in A.D. 70 means Israel CANNOT be the Beast in light of Daniel 2:34-35 and 7:11-12 and Why All Prophecy Need Not be Fulfilled by A.D. 70 as Long as it All Wraps-Up Within the First-Century.)