A very significant event that coincided with these events is the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, better known as the apostle Paul. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and we need to keep in mind that the "nations" that are referred to in the Great Commission were also Gentile nations. After Paul's conversion, the church enjoyed a time of peace (Acts 9:31).

If we can agree that Jesus was crucified in 30 AD/CE (see my article on The Crucifixion of Jesus), then Paul's conversion was probably in 33 or 34 AD/CE. According to historical dates for his books, Paul stated that the "Great Commission" had been fulfilled in every way that Jesus had proclaimed it to his apostles by the year 63 AD/CE. Don K. Preston does a great job of pointing this out in his book, Into All The World, Then Comes The End. Here is a similar example of what Don gives in his book:

Prophecy/Command	Greek	Word Fulfillment
whole world, Matthew 24:14	oikoumene	Romans 10:18
all the world, Mark 16:15	kosmos	Colossians 1:6, 1, Timothy 3:16
to all creation, Mark 16:15	ktsis	Colossians 1:23
all nations, Matt.24:14, 28:19	ethnos	Romans 16:26, 1 Timothy 3:16
ends of the earth, Acts 1:8	ge	Romans 10:18

According to my calculations, the Revelation was delivered to John from Jesus on the Feast of Trumpets or September 11, 63 AD/CE (see my article on Dating the Book of Revelation). And according to history, Nero began persecuting the Christians in 64 AD/CE. That would make the difference between that time of peace, for the church after Paul's conversion, and the persecution of Christians under Nero about 30 years. I'm sure that all of you who are pretty good at math have already figured out where I'm going with this. Please bear with me a little longer as I continue to hypothesize.

At this point, I want all of us to attempt to put ourselves in the apostle John's shoes. If you knew that a great persecution was about to break out against the church within the next year, would you use the words soon or near to describe the terrible events that were about to happen? I know that I would. Perhaps that is why these words are used twice in Revelation chapter 1 and five times at the end of the book in chapter 22. And, if you were going to send a letter (while banished or imprisoned under Nero, according to the Syriac version of Revelation) to The Church, that told of past, present, and very near future events (Revelation 1:19), would you have used symbols or plain language? I would have been very afraid to put Nero's name on anything that I wanted to make sure the intended recipients would receive. Also, I would have chosen a code names for Rome (beast of the sea or beast) and Jerusalem, (beast of the earth, Babylon or prostitute).

Now I will address how I get 30 years out of 1000 years. The number one thousand is the cube of the number ten (1000 = 10 x 10 x 10). Therefore, 1000 is nothing more than a code for three 10's or "30" years. Again, 30 years roughly covers the time of peace, which began shortly after Paul's conversion, in either 33 or 34 AD/CE, and lasted until the time of Nero's persecution in 64 AD/CE. This gave the apostles the time they needed to fulfill the Great Commission as Jesus had commanded them to do. So perhaps what John did was tell The Church that Satan was about to be loosed to attack them, in full force, through Nero, within the next year. John also made sure The Church understood that after their time of persecution was over, the destruction of Jerusalem was to follow (Revelation 17:9-18).