Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.
Revelation 17:9-11
Of all the proofs for Revelation being contemporaneous to John is its own words, which also substantiates the “early date” for the book.
Plainly put, John recorded that there were seven horns, that five had fallen, one was, and one would come for a short time. And eighth would come, which would be the beast back from the pit.
Plainly put, these were:
- Augustus
- Tiberius
- Caligua
- Cladius
- Nero
- Vespasian
- Titus
- Domitian
Not counting Julius Caesar as the first, nor the three interim emperors in the “year of the four emperors” before Vespasian. Hence, Titus, who reigned for 2 years and three months, remained only for a little while, and Domitian was Nero back from the dead, who died of a head wound.
Whether one agrees with the omission of the three interim, non-real emperors (who never ruled of Judea), John says the sixith one, Vespasian, was alive when he was writing. Without a hard readjustment of the text, one of these kings was alive during his writing, and five were prior. Only one king was yet to come, and hence, the fulfillment of Revelation was in the time of John.
This contradicts both the dispensationalist and the futurist, as well as the partial preterist claiming a full 70 AD culmination of all these things.