People sometimes forget that Jesus made an appearance to the Apostle Paul to direct him to Rome. In Acts 23, when the Apostle Paul was brought on trial before a Council of Pharisees and Sadducees, he testified to being a Roman citizen and a Pharisee who believed in the resurrection of the dead. Some of the Pharisees realized that a spirit or an angel may have spoken to him, so they released him to the barracks. That night, the Lord Jesus stood before him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome.”
Paul’s destiny was in Rome. He spent two years there between 60 and 62 writing his letters to the churches in Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae, along with his letter to the slave Philemon. Soon thereafter, he was beheaded under the direction of the Roman Emperor Nero.
Peter also made his way to Rome, which he referred to as “Babylon” in 1 Peter 5:13. Peter was the first pope in Rome and his papal successors were named around 180 in St. Irenaeus’ book, “Against Heresies” and can be traced up to Pope Leo XIV today at the Vatican in Rome. St. Irenaeus also affirmed that the glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, built the foundation of the Church at Rome.
In Matthew 16, Jesus reaffirmed his name for Simon bar Jonah as Peter, the rock, upon which He would build his church. He promised that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. He also promised Peter the keys to the kingdom, harkening back to Isaiah 22 where Eliakim was installed as the master of the palace under King Hezekiah. God said, “And I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open” (Isaiah 22:22). Jesus used similar language to establish St. Peter’s primacy among His apostles. “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Peter was named more than all of the other apostles put together in the Gospels.
After Peter denied knowing Jesus and stood before Him after Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus twice asked him in John 21:15-19, “Peter, do you “agapate” (sacrificial love) me?” Peter responded each time that he “phileo” (friendship love) you.” When Jesus asked Peter whether he loved him the third time, he dropped down to phileo love, or friendship love. Then Jesus told him to feed his sheep. “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go.” John added, “This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.”
According to ancient tradition, Peter was crucified at Rome. His bones are still preserved at the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican in Rome today. Jesus kept His promise and the gates of Hades still haven’t destroyed the longest running institution in the world: the Catholic Church.
But why Rome? Why not Jerusalem? We do not know for sure why God chose to build His church in Rome, yet we do know Jesus’ timing in Rome was fortuitous given its infrastructure and roads of the time. Rome was a hub within the Roman Empire, which spanned over three continents.
The Prophet Daniel also predicted a fourth empire from which our Lord would initiate his eternal kingdom. When Daniel interpreted King of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in the 6th century B.C. (Daniel 2), he explained the symbolism of a great statue that had a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, and legs and feet of iron and clay. Gold represented Babylon and the kingdoms to follow were silver (Medo-Persia), bronze (Greece), and iron and clay (Rome).
Later, Daniel (7) had a dream and visions of four great beasts, which gave more specificity to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: the first beast was a lion with eagles’ wings (Babylon); the second beast was like a bear (Medo-Persia); the third was like a leopard with four heads and four wings of a bird on its back (Greece); and the fourth beast was exceedingly strong with great iron teeth and ten horns (Rome).
“I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. As I looked, thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; a court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.”
“I looked then because of the sound of the great words which the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
Daniel later had a vision of a ram with two horns and a goat, which the angel Gabriel interpreted as the Medo-Persian kingdom (ram) and the Greek kingdom (goat). Out of the Greek kingdom would come an evil abomination of desolation (Antiochus Epiphanes).
During Daniel’s time in 586 B.C., the first Temple that Solomon built was destroyed by the Babylonian kingdom, which took the two southern tribes of Judah into captivity. Following the conquest in 539 B.C., Kings Cyrus of Persia and Darius of Media reigned over Babylon and Jerusalem. King Cyrus permitted the Jews to begin to rebuild their temple, which they completed in 516 B.C. Following that, two calls went out to rebuild the city of Jerusalem in 457 and 444 B.C. This point is important because the Angel Gabriel prophesied the timing of an anointed one to follow this construction. In Daniel 9:24-27, he said that seventy sevens would follow the call to rebuild Jerusalem before the anointed one would appear “to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. This anointed one would be cut off and the “people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed.” Jesus was “cut off” in 33 A.D., which is in the window of time around 490 years after 457 and 444 B.C.
Prior to His crucifixion in 33 A.D. Jesus appeared in the 2nd Temple, as predicted by Malachi 3:1, to anoint and bless it. He fulfilled numerous prophecies, such as being conceived by a virgin (Isaiah 7:14); born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); born as a child within the Trinity of our Mighty God in the Everlasting Father, Wonderful Counselor, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6); from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). His hands and feet were pierced (Psalm 22) for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53) but He saw the light (Isaiah 53:11). The stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone (Psalm 118:22).
Following his crucifixion, an earthquake shook Jerusalem, as modern geologists have attested (see related references below from my blog Christian-Apologist.com). Matthew said the massive and heavy curtains of the Temple that separated the holiest of holy from the people were torn in two. 0
In his book, “The Jewish War,” the Jewish historian and military leader Josephus (37 – 100 AD) said the massive brass doors of the 2nd Temple began opening and shutting on their own, despite the usual need for twenty men to open and shut the doors (c.f., Tractate Yoma 39a of the Babylonian Talmud). Furthermore, a mighty portent appeared in the heavens, which foreshadowed its destruction. In 70 A.D., in the midst of war, the Romans destroyed the 2nd Temple and the city of Jerusalem, causing the death and destruction of thousands of Jews and the Jewish diaspora.
Around 362, the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate attempted to rebuild the Jewish Temple to challenge Christians and prophecies, but God would not have it. Ancient writers said great winds, earthquakes, and subterranean balls of fire burst its foundations and killed its builders. The Third Temple will never be rebuilt, since Jesus is our Temple, our vine, and our source of truth, meaning, and purpose.
We live in the fumes of the collapse of the Roman Empire, Daniel’s fourth kingdom where the Anointed One and Ancient of Days established the everlasting Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Heaven is in our midst, within us. Believe, love, and receive.
Video version of this blog: https://www.youtube.com/live/KKDy7Byb6Jw
References
Ben-Menahem, A. (2014) Geophysical studies of the crustal structure along the southern Dead Sea fault. In Garfunkel, Z., Ben-Menahem, Z., and Kagan, E. (2014). Dead Sea Transform Fault System: Reviews. Springer.
De Liso, G. & Fidani,C. (2014). Electrical charges associated with sky darkening and the Turin shroud. International Journal of Development Research, 4(12): 2790-2797.
Enzel, Y., Kadan, G., & Eyal, Y. (2000). Holocene earthquakes inferred from a fan delta sequence in the Dead Sea graben. Quat Res., 53: 34-48.
Garfunkel, Z. 1981. Internal structure of the Dead Sea leaky transform (rift) in relation to plate kinematics, Tectonophysics, 80, 81–108.
Hoehner, H.W. (1977). Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
Humphreys, C.J. and Waddington, W.G. 1985. The Date of the Crucifixion, JASA, 37, 2-10.