Mark Bradford's Bible Blog

²⁹He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. ³⁰When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. ³¹Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Just a day or two before, Jesus had cursed a fig tree which then withered. (Mark 11:12-14, 20-21, blog) This would still have been a vivid memory for the disciples, and Jesus used that to remind them to watch for the signs of what was to come. As I write this, it’s springtime in Colorado, and the trees began budding a few weeks ago. The peach tree in our back yard is in full bloom. When that happens, I know that it’s time to do yard cleanup, get the sprinkler system going, and that my allergies will start acting up! But Jesus chastised the people of his time for being able to interpret those sorts of signs, but not being able to discern the signs of the times. (Matthew 16:2-4) But I don’t think he meant this passage as a call to spend all of our time getting wrapped up in End Times scenarios. I think in these verses Jesus was especially talking to his disciples, and by extension, the early church. He was concerned that the church in Jerusalem be alert to what was going on so they could get safely out of the city before it was destroyed, which they did.

Jesus says in verse 31 that when they see all of these things happening, they will know that the kingdom of God is near. Jesus talked about the kingdom of God in two ways during his ministry, in both a present and future sense. I believe that the kingdom of God in the present sense refers to the presence of Jesus himself, and the soon coming (for the disciples) age of the church. When the disciples saw the signs that Jesus was predicting, and the temple was destroyed, it forced the church to move out of Jerusalem and into all the world. The kingdom of God began with Jesus and continued in his church, but that is a foreshadow of the kingdom to come, when Jesus returns in glory and rules in the flesh. Likewise, the calamity that the early church experienced is a foreshadow of the calamity that will precede Christ’s return, so Jesus’ warning to be watchful applies to us as well.

³²“I tell you the truth, this generation^[b] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Verse 32 is the main reason that the first century church believed that Jesus would return in their lifetimes. It’s easy to understand why, because they saw all of the other signs Jesus predicted come to pass, and he said this generation would not pass away until all of these things had happened. A Hebrew generation is 40 years. The destruction of the temple occurred 37 years after Jesus said this, just less than a generation. But he didn’t return during that time. The word Jesus used for generation can also be translated race, which leads some to say that Jesus meant that the Jewish race would not pass away before he returned, or that the human race would not pass away. Others have said that it means Jesus will return 40 years after one event or another occurs. When I was a kid, some thought that the reformation of Israel in 1949 meant that Jesus would return by 1989, or that Israel retaking Jerusalem in 1967 meant he would return by 2007, using the generation as 40 years principle. Most theories about what Jesus meant by this have been proven wrong so far. What should that tell us about whatever current theory is out there?

In verse 33, Jesus says that heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will never pass away. The term heaven, as used here, is not referring to the place where we spend eternity with God. It’s talking about the sky. The universe as we know it had a beginning, and it will have an end. Eternity existed before time, and when time ends, Eternity will remain. First, there was only God, who is eternal. Then God made the angels to serve him, who are also eternal, though not preexisting like God. Then he created the universe and time, which are temporary. The incredible miracle is that he created us as part of this temporal universe, but somehow, he made us into eternal beings as well. And when time is over, and the universe passes away, those who believe will remain with him in Eternity forever. By making this statement, Jesus is making clear to his disciples that he is God, preexisting and eternal, before the universe and after it, from everlasting to everlasting.

³⁴“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. ³⁵For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

What’s interesting to me about this passage is that Jesus puts the anxieties of life in the same category as drunkenness and dissipation, or carousing. Both things distract us from being alert to the things of God. We may not be guilty of drunkenness or carousing, but how about being weighed down by the anxieties of life? I hear testimonies in church all the time of people who were saved from a life of alcoholism or addiction, but somehow, victory over the anxieties of life never seems to rate a public testimony. We don’t treat those two things the same, but to Jesus, they were equally dangerous.

Some say that verse 36 indicates that we are to pray that we will be included in the Rapture and escape the Tribulation. I am no longer sure the concept of the Rapture is Biblical. If Jesus is talking to us as well as his disciples, it could just mean that we should pray that we will not live to see those days. In the case of the early church, it was meant as a warning to pray that they would be able to escape Jerusalem before the coming destruction. But we must all pray that we will be able to stand before the Son of Man. We all will kneel before Jesus and confess that he is Lord when that day comes, but only those who watch, pray, and are washed in his blood will be able to stand before him.

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²⁰“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. ²¹Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city.

Jewish historian Josephus tells us that the encircling of Jerusalem under the Roman general Titus took place in stages until finally troops from four legions surrounded the city, but people were still able to escape from the city or bring provisions into it. Most Jews expected the Messiah to return in glory when hostile Gentile armies surrounded Jerusalem. When the Romans circled the city in 70 a.d., there was a sense of rejoicing among many Jews in Jerusalem. However, Christians in Jerusalem heeded Jesus’ warning, fleeing across the Jordan River to a city named Pella. As a result, no Christians perished in the fall of Jerusalem. It occurs to me that since, as I mentioned yesterday, this entire account probably comes from Peter, he must have been the one who told the early church in Jerusalem about Jesus’ warning. Peter was head of the church in Jerusalem, and the Christian community in Jerusalem may well have been saved from destruction because Peter remembered Jesus’ warning from this private conversation that Jesus had had with him, Andrew, James and John. Peter must have made sure that Christians in Jerusalem were prepared to flee the city when the armies started to encircle it.

²²For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. ²³How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. ²⁴They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The siege of Jerusalem was a terrible tragedy, one of the worst calamities to ever come upon the Jewish people. 1.1 million Jews were killed, many of which died of starvation. 97 million more were taken into captivity. By the time the Romans finished their destruction of Jerusalem, not a single Jew was left alive in the city. The Romans eventually renamed the city Aelia Capitolina, and Jews were only allowed to visit the city once a year, on the anniversary of its destruction, when they were allowed to come and mourn. This began “the times of the Gentiles”, a phrase that appears here in Luke’s version, but not in Mark’s. Jerusalem was controlled by Gentiles until 1967, when the modern state of Israel retook control of it. But many believe that the “times of the Gentiles” that Jesus speaks of here will continue until Israel controls the Temple Mount, which is the now the site of the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites in Islam. Gentiles still trample on the site of the temple.

²⁵“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. ²⁶Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. ²⁷At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Jesus is paraphrasing some prophecies from Isaiah in this passage. (13:10; 34:4) There are many passages like this in prophecy regarding distress in the heavens and on earth, especially about the sky being darkened. (Ezekiel 32:7-9, Joel 2:30-31, Amos 8:9-10, Zephaniah 1:14-15) This could be talking about the sky being darkened by smoke, dust and ash from either meteor impacts, nuclear bombardment, or volcanic activity. If there is enough smoke, dust and ash in the atmosphere, the light from the sun and moon would be blocked. Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., destroying Pompeii, just 9 years after the destruction of Jerusalem. In Mark 13:24-25, Jesus said this would happen “in those days, following that distress”. Archaeologists have found that there were Christians in Pompeii. From the perspective of the believers there, this prophecy would have seemed to be literally fulfilled. That eruption would have darkened the sky of the entire region.

Mark’s account does not mention “the roaring and tossing of the sea” that Luke does in verse 25. But earlier in this chapter, Jesus predicted “great earthquakes”, and as I said yesterday, historians do tell us of great earthquakes in the Roman Empire before Jerusalem was destroyed. Earthquakes at sea cause tsunamis. There may well have been great tidal waves all around the Mediterranean coasts accompanying those earthquakes.

When Jesus talks about “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” in verse 27, he is paraphrasing Daniel 7:13. He also quoted that same scripture at his trial. (Mark 14:62). This seems to be the first time that Jesus mentions to his disciples that he will return. In Mark’s version of this prophecy, the line between when Jesus was talking about events during his disciples’ lifetimes and when he talks about his Second coming, which is still in our future, was not as clear to me. But after having studied this version of it in Luke, it seems to me that the key phrase is “until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Everything before that, I think, is only talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. After that, near future and far future get mixed up in our heads, because some of the things Jesus predicted did happen around the time of Jerusalem’s destruction, and that’s one reason why the first century church was so convinced that Jesus would return in their lifetimes. But the times of the Gentiles had not been fulfilled yet, and those times still have not been completed.

Many believe that when Israel controls the Temple Mount and begins rebuilding the temple, then the “times of the Gentiles” will have been fulfilled, and the final “week”, or 7 year period of Daniel 9 begins. But I still believe that it’s very dangerous to try to figure out the times of Christ’s return based on these scenarios. After all, if Jesus can’t return until the temple is rebuilt, then some could decide that they have lots of time left to repent, because that day doesn’t seem close at all. The Apostles themselves were wrong about this, and they spent 3 years sitting at Jesus’ feet. They heard him teach in person over and over! The men who had this private conversation with him were convinced that Jesus would return in their lifetimes. I guess what I’m saying is, if men who wrote books of the Bible could be so wrong in their interpretation of prophecy, then so can we. Don’t be so sure you know exactly how it’s going to happen. But make no mistake, Jesus will return in power and great glory, as he said he would.

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⁷“Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

According to Mark, the original comments regarding the impressiveness of the temple happened as he was leaving the temple (Mark 13:1). These two questions were asked later, as Jesus, Peter, James, John and Andrew sat on the Mount of Olives overlooking the temple. (Mark 13:3-4) Jesus shared these prophecies not with the crowd that had followed him to Jerusalem and was listening to him teach that week, or to the Twelve, but with these four disciples in a private conversation. Since the Gospel of Mark is generally regarded as Peter’s gospel, and the original version of this conversation is found in Mark, Peter must be the source of this account.

Notice that they are not asking when the end times will happen, or when Jesus would return. They are asking when the temple would be destroyed. Jesus had just shocked them by saying that the magnificent temple, first rebuilt by Ezra and Nehemiah after the exile, and only completed by Herod 7 years before, would be completely razed. How could this happen? This is why I think Jesus is mostly talking about that, and what was to come for the disciples, and not his return. In fact, at this point, Jesus had not yet mentioned to his disciples that he would return.

⁸He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. ⁹When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”

Jesus starts by warning his disciples not to be decieved by false Messiahs. There were many who appeared in Israel in the 39 years between Jesus’ ascension and the destruction of the temple, most notably Herod Agrippa, the nephew of Herod Antipas, who tried Jesus in a few days. Herod Agrippa, who succeeded Antipas, continued the expansion of the Temple until 63 A.D. and he believed himself to be the Messiah. Not that any of the disciples would have followed Herod, but after Jesus was gone, the early church believed Jesus would return during their lifetimes. It would have been easy for some of them to fall prey to one of these false Messiahs simply out of wishful thinking that it was Jesus. There never seems to be any shortage of those who claim to be the Messiah, even in our time, and there are always gullible people who will follow them. But for those of us who believe in Jesus, we have this warning not to be fooled. When Jesus does return, he won’t have to convince anyone who he is. It will be obvious to everyone.

It’s puzzling to me that people still to this day continue to use Jesus’ prophecy of “wars and rumors of wars” and “nation rising against nation” as a sign of the Second Coming, when Jesus plainly states in the same verse that “the end will not come right away.” He’s giving the disciples a list of things that are not signs of the end. And he’s not talking about the end of time, he’s talking about the end of the age. Which age? In talking about the destruction of the temple, he’s talking about the end of the age of law and sacrifices, and the beginning of the age of the church. That transition was about to occur in great destruction and bloodshed, beginning with the sacrifice of Jesus himself, the persecution of the early church which Jesus warns them about in the next verses, and culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. But often in prophecy and in God’s overall plan, what happens in one age foreshadows what happens in the next. For example, the Passover meal, so important in the age of law and sacrifices, was a foreshadow of the Lord’s Supper in the age of the church. The Lord’s Supper in our age is a foreshadow of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in the age to come. That’s why, in my opinion, some of the things Jesus said here applied only to his disciples’ immediate future, other things predict our future, and some statements apply to both. The difficulty is in telling which is which.

¹⁰Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

All of these things happened leading up to the destruction of the temple. The Romans were frequently at war with the Jews, the Samaritans, the Syrians, and others during this period. Historians tell us of great earthquakes in the Roman Empire before Jerusalem was destroyed. Acts 11:28 tells of a famine during this time. And how’s this for a “great sign from heaven?” Not long before Jerusalem was destroyed, a comet that looked like a sword hung over the city by night for a year. But honestly, there has hardly been a time in history without these kinds of things, and Jesus is telling them that when they see these things, the end is not yet imminent. So if anyone tells you that the volcanic eruptions in Iceland right now are a sign of the Second Coming, point them to Luke 21:9.

¹²“But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³This will result in your being witnesses to them. ¹⁴But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷All men will hate you because of me. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By standing firm you will gain life.

All of these things happened to the disciples during the 39 year period between Jesus’ ascension and Jerusalem’s destruction. They were delivered to synagogues and prisons, and brought before kings and governors. Early Christians were betrayed and put to death by their own families. All of that persecution did result in their being witnesses. The Book of Acts gives a detailed account of these things. Jesus repeats his warning to the disciples from Luke 12:11 not to worry beforehand what to say to their accusers in their hour of persecution, but to let the Holy Spirit give them the words to say. I have found many times when leading worship that if I prepare things to say between songs ahead of time, often those things fall flat. But if the Holy Spirit gives me something to say in the moment, it’s always powerful. I believe that’s the same principle at work. That’s not an excuse to be unprepared, but my preparation is to know my music ahead of time, and be spiritually prepared, rather than trying to come up with clever things to say between songs beforehand. The same applies to sermons or Sunday School lessons. Know your material ahead of time, and be spiritually prepared for inspiration in the moment.

In verse 18, Jesus says that not a hair of our head will perish. Insert your own bald joke here. That seems at odds with what he said in verse 16 about some of them being put to death. But that statement leads into verse 19, by standing firm you will gain life. In most of the western world, we don’t know what persecution is. But in many parts of the world, Christians are persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and put to death for their faith to this day. Not surprisingly, the church is exploding with growth in places where the church experiences persecution. It’s only in places where we have freedom of religion that the church often seems stagnant. What does that tell us? But even in places like 21st Century America, anyone who is out front about their faith in Jesus experiences rejection of some sort. If we don’t, we’re blending in with the world too much. But by standing firm, we will gain life.

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Signs of the End of the Age

⁵Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ⁶“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”

Here Luke gives us an abbreviated version of Jesus’ prophecy concerning the end of the age. The version of it in Mark 13 is much more complete. Read my posts on that chapter here. When I went through that chapter last November, I stared out thinking that Jesus was not talking about the “end times” as we think of them, but only of what was to come for the disciples, and the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem that was soon to come. I still think he was mainly talking about that, and that some verses in this chapter which are commonly used today as “end times” prophecies were not meant that way by Jesus. But by the time I got to the end of Mark 13, I realized that some of the events Jesus describes are still in our future, especially the part about the “Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” (Mark 13:26)

This is what makes prophecy so difficult. I also came across this problem when I blogged on the Book of Daniel. Often in prophecy, when it seems like it’s only talking about contemporary events for the writer, there are places where it also seems to be talking about future events, and past, present, and future are all mixed up together. That may be because, as I’ve talked about before, God and Eternity are outside of time. Prophets, when prophesying about the future, are given a glimpse of the foreknowledge of God, but they express their visions in language that’s bound by time. We read those prophecies, but our brains are bound by time. Even Jesus, when he was here in the flesh, was bound by time, and limited to human language. So it’s difficult to tell sometimes when a prophecy is talking about the near future, the far future, or both.

The main reason I think Jesus is mostly talking about the destruction of the temple and what was to come for the disciples he spoke to at the time is that the whole discussion started with the disciples marveling at the magnificence of the temple. The temple was an incredible structure, by far the largest in Jerusalem. It had been the center of Jewish life for a thousand years, and had become a sort of idol for them. It was considered blasphemy to insult the temple. That’s why one of the charges against Jesus at his trial was that he had supposedly said he could destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. (Mark 14:58) Of course, he was misquoted, and Jesus was talking about his own body, but that was an indication of how much Jews of that time revered the temple.

Less than a generation after this prediction, the temple was completely destroyed by the Romans. It was a capital offense under Roman law to destroy houses of worship, so the Roman army did not originally intend to destroy the temple. But according to history, a drunken soldier set a fire that eventually engulfed the whole Temple complex. All the ornate gold in the roof and walls melted and ran down in between the stones, so the Roman commander ordered the Temple dismantled stone by stone in order to retrieve the gold. Thus Jesus prophecy of not one stone being left on another was literally fulfilled.

Mark’s account of the Triumphal Entry does not mention Jesus’ weeping over Jerusalem, when Jesus mourned the city’s coming destruction, so when I blogged on Mark 13, I didn’t have that in mind. But after having done so in my post on Luke 19:41-48, I can’t help but see this discussion in that light. I imagine that Jesus’ mourning for Jerusalem did not end on Palm Sunday, but that it hung like a heavy weight over him all week as he taught in the temple courts. When his disciples gawked at the impressive stones in the temple walls like tourists, Jesus’ immediate response is to tell them it would soon be completely destroyed. I can imagine one of the smart aleck disciples (there must have been at least one) saying, “Well, thanks Mr. Buzzkill!” See, the disciples still did not understand what was about to happen. They were riding high on a wave of emotion from the Triumphal Entry and Jesus’ defeat of all his critics in the temple courts. Things were looking up, as far as they could see. As they walked though the temple grounds, they may have begun to feel that the world was their oyster, as the saying goes. But Jesus was mourning the temple’s coming destruction in his heart the whole time. So he was sensitive to any comments that indicated the sort of reverence for the temple that bordered on idolatry that was so common in that culture. We can be so impressed with the work of our own hands, but God is in the business of destroying our idols. If Israel would have been faithful in their worship of God, they could have avoided all of that destruction and grief. We too will avoid a lot of grief and heartache if we reserve our worship for God alone.

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The Day and Hour Unknown

³²“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³Be on guard! Be alert^[f]! You do not know when that time will come.

In the concluding verses of chapter 13, Jesus appears to be speaking both of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and his second coming. Maybe one is a foreshadow of the other. Jesus’ death on the cross eliminated the need for animal sacrifices for sin, and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem ended the practice. It was the end of one age, and the beginning of another, as will be the second coming of Christ. The great destruction and calamity that marked the end of the old order was a taste of the destruction and calamity to come, when the Age of the Church gives way to the Age of the Kingdom.

Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour, not even he. Only the Father knows. How can that be? Some say it’s because Jesus has limited himself in this area, the way God the Father limits himself by forgetting our sins after we repent. That could be, but I think it’s also possible that since Jesus was speaking in the present tense, he was saying that he didn’t know the time at that moment, while he was here in the flesh. Jesus was fully God and fully human, but he was limited in some ways while he was here in the flesh. He could not be everywhere at once, for example, and I don’t believe he was necessarily all-knowing then, either. The human brain cannot contain all the knowledge of God. It would kill us. If Jesus was fully human, he had a human brain which would have limited him to what’s possible for a human brain to absorb. I think it’s possible that Jesus did not know the day or time of his return at that moment, but since he ascended to Heaven, he now knows all things, including the time of his return.

³⁴It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’ “

Jesus is once again indicating to his disciples that he is about to leave. I wonder how much of this was getting through to them. Later, after his resurrection and ascension, they took these words literally. Many early Christians escaped the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. because they heeded this warning, kept watch, and fled to the hills when the Roman armies came to the city. But this warning was not just for them, as Jesus spells out in verse 37. It’s for everyone.

Jesus uses the illustration of the master of a house going on a journey and leaving his servants in charge. That is exactly what he has done. He ascended into Heaven, and has left us, his servants, in charge of his house, the church. Each of us has our assigned task. Are we performing our tasks with a sense of urgency, knowing our master will return? Or have we fallen asleep out of complacency or loss of passion for our ministry?

Some people have the attitude that since we don’t know when Jesus will return, it doesn’t matter. Others think because we don’t know when he’s coming back, we have to figure it out and set a date. I will confess I have been in the former camp at times. I’ve always thought it was more important to live for Christ and be ready than to be wrapped up in end times scenarios. While that is most important, Jesus tells us plainly in this passage, multiple times, to watch. It’s clear from what Jesus said here that it’s important to be aware of the signs of the times, and be ready for his return. I take being ready, in the context of these verses, to mean more than being saved. It means being about the tasks he assigned us, like going into all the world, making disciples.

After having gone through Mark 13 completely, I am less sure about my idea that Jesus is mainly talking about the destruction of Jerusalem than I was when I started. I now think it’s more likely that Jesus was foretelling the end of two ages, the age his disciples knew, and the one we know. As has often happened in God’s plan of redemption, God does one thing in one age that foreshadows what he will do in the next age, the way the sacrifices of bulls and goats foreshadowed the sacrifice of his Son. Unless I missed something, I also think this is the first time Jesus mentioned to his disciples that he would return. And he will, so watch!

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²⁴“But in those days, following that distress,
” ‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[d]

Now we get into a part of Jesus’ prophecy that does seem to talk about future events for us. Jesus is paraphrasing two passages from Isaiah (13:10; 34:4). There are many other passages like this in the prophets (Ezekiel 32:7-9, Joel 2:30-31, Amos 8:9-10, Zephaniah 1:14-15). Notice that they are all written in verse, like the Psalms, rather than in prose, like historical accounts. Prophecy is often written down like poetry, and it was apparently treated as such by Israel. That doesn’t make it any less true, but it does mean that it’s subject to interpretation more than straightforward prose. What sort of event is Jesus describing here? The first phrase,”the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light”, could be talking about the sky being darkened by smoke, dust and ash from either meteor impacts, nuclear bombardment, or volcanic activity. If there is enough smoke, dust and ash in the atmosphere, the light from the sun and moon would be blocked. The reference I gave from Joel 2:30-31 would support that idea.

The next phrase, “the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken”, is more difficult. This has to be poetic license, because the stars cannot literally fall from the sky. The sun is a star, and it’s 109 times larger than the earth. The reason the earth orbits the sun, and not vice versa, is because the sun is so much more massive than the earth. The earth could fall into the sun, but the sun, or any other star, could not fall to earth. This could just be a poetic way of describing balls of fire falling to earth, which again, could be meteor impacts or volcanic debris. The heavenly bodies being shaken could also refer to meteor impacts. The asteroids are heavenly bodies. Remember that these are not Jesus’ words, he is quoting from an Old Testament prophet who did not understand the universe the way Jesus obviously did, and who wrote down his visions according to his understanding at the time.

I have been saying throughout this chapter that I believe Jesus is, at least for the most part, talking about the disciples’ future, not our future, since he is answering their questions about the destruction of the Temple. So that made me wonder what event in the Apostle’s lifetimes could explain this passage, and there is one possibility that I know of; the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii. The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., and Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. Jesus said this would happen “in those days, following that distress”. If he is talking about the destruction of the Temple in verses 14-23, the destruction of Pompeii happened only 9 years after that. Archaeologists have found that there were Christians in Pompeii. From the perspective of the believers there, this prophecy would have seemed to be literally fulfilled. I’m not saying that this is definitely what this passage means, but I think it’s a possibility.

²⁶“At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

OK, we know for sure this hasn’t happened yet. If it did, I missed it! Those who believe Jesus is only predicting the disciples’ future have to explain what to do with these two verses, and I can’t, other than to say again that prophecy of the future is a glimpse of Eternity described in language that’s bound by time. So past, present, and future sometimes get all mixed up together because to God, they are all the same, but to the prophet, they are not. Those who buy into the Hal Lindsey/Left Behind scenario of the end times (which I don’t) believe this passage refers to Jesus coming to claim those who missed the Rapture but got saved during the Tribulation. But then they have to explain what Jesus meant by verse 30 in this next passage.

²⁸“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ²⁹Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁰I tell you the truth, this generation^[e] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Jesus has just laid out for the disciples signs that they must recognize. They had just seen Jesus curse the fig tree a few days before for giving false signs, and I’m sure that was in their minds when Jesus mentioned the fig tree again. He uses that vivid memory to illustrate the fact that if they are observant, they will recognize the signs when they happen. In verse 30, Jesus tells them that “this generation” would not pass away until all these things had happened. According to the footnote^[e], generation can also be translated race. But consider this; A Hebrew generation was 40 years. It was 33 A.D.when Jesus said this, and the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., 37 years later, just less than a generation. Jesus could have been saying that the whole human race would not pass away until all those things had happened, but the disciples did not believe he was saying that. Those who teach that this chapter is all about future events for us say that this generation means the generation that sees all these signs. But the disciple’s generation saw things that could have been fulfillment of every sign Jesus mentioned, except his return in the body. The disciples certainly believed Jesus was talking about their generation.

It’s easy to understand why, after seeing the destruction of the Temple, the great tribulation of the early church, and the eruption of Vesuvius, which would have darkened the sky for the entire region, they would believe Christ’s return was imminent for them. They were mistaken, and so may be those who believe Christ’s return is imminent for us. The real question is, what did the disciples do with this information? They evangelized the world. They sacrificed everything so that others could hear the Gospel. and that’s exactly what we should do also.

In verse 31, Jesus says that heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will never pass away. The term heaven, as used here, is not referring to the place where we spend eternity with God. It’s talking about the sky. The universe as we know it had a beginning, and it will have an end. Eternity existed before time, and when time ends, Eternity will remain. First, there was only God, who is eternal. Then God made the angels to serve him, who are also eternal, though not preexisting like God. Then he created the universe and time, which are temporary. The incredible miracle is that he created us as part of this temporal universe, but somehow, he made us into eternal beings as well. And when time is over, and the universe passes away, those who believe will remain with him in Eternity forever. By making this statement, Jesus is making clear to his disciples that he is God, preexisting and eternal, before the universe and after it, from everlasting to everlasting.

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¹⁴“When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’^[a]standing where it^[b] does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁵Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. ¹⁶Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. ¹⁷How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ¹⁸Pray that this will not take place in winter, ¹⁹because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again. ²⁰If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.

In this passage, Jesus refers to “the abomination that causes desolation”, quoting from Daniel. This refers to a vile desecration of the temple. When Daniel wrote that phrase, many scholars believe he was talking about Antiochus Epiphanes,  who tried to outlaw Jewish religious practices in 167 BC. He committed horrible desecrations of the temple, like sacrificing pigs on the great altar and setting up brothels in the temple courts. But that happened hundreds of years before Christ, so that can’t be what Jesus is talking about here. Another interpretation of Daniel’s vision regarding “the abomination that causes desolation” is that it refers to the Roman Empire and the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D., which fits with what I’ve been saying about Jesus’ words in this chapter. The first century Christians did take Jesus’ warning literally in 66 A.D. When Roman armies first came to Jerusalem, they fled to the mountains and were spared the destruction of Jerusalem 4 years later.

But many believe this passage is talking about our future, the rebuilt temple on the Temple Mount, the Antichrist, and the Great Tribulation. There is support for that belief, especially in the next few verses. It’s argued that what Jesus says in verses 19 and 20 shows that these events are still to come, because worse times have happened since Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans. The survival of everyone on the planet was not threatened by that event. Even the Jews, many would argue, experienced worse persecution and threat of extinction in Nazi Germany in the 1940’s. This is what is so difficult about prophecy. How can anyone know for sure?

²¹At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ^[c]!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. ²²For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible. ²³So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

Again, Jesus warns his disciples not to believe in false Messiahs. How could any of them, after having been with Jesus for 3 years, have done that? This wasn’t a sermon to a large crowd, or even to the Twelve. It was a private conversation with James, John, Peter, and Andrew. I think Jesus was warning about this because he was about to tell them of his return, and that he would say that “this generation” would not pass away until his prophecies had been fulfilled. So the disciples would be expecting his return during their lifetimes, and he did not want them to be so anxious for his return that they would believe one of these false messiahs was Jesus. He may have also been continuing his warning against the temptation to replace their testimony for Christ with Caesar worship in order to avoid persecution.

There are many today who focus so much on the Second Coming of Christ that they get wrapped up in every new idea about it, and see signs everywhere that reinforce their theories. The danger in this is that if their ideas are proved wrong, they can lose their faith over it, or even be deceived into joining an “end times” cult. Anyone who is convinced that they know when Christ will return would do well to remember the pamphlet that swept the Christian world in 1988, “88 Reasons That The Rapture Will Be In 1988“. Many were convinced by that book, and I read it myself. Personally, I am no longer convinced that we are living in the Last Days, except in the strict Biblical sense that we’ve been living in the Last Days since Pentecost. And I no longer believe that the Bible teaches the existence of an Antichrist figure, the way Hal Lindsay and the Left Behind books portray it. I do believe that Christ will return, however, and that we should be ready for his return. Whatever you believe about the end times, Jesus’ warning about false Christs remains true. We must be on our guard, and make sure that no one deceives us. When Christ does return, it will be impossible to miss. Nobody will have to be convinced that it’s happening. It will be obvious to everyone. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

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¹²“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. ¹³All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Jesus is describing to his disciples how they will be persecuted. Verse 2 has been literally true for millions of believers around the world for the last 2000 years. For the earliest Christians, who were Jewish, it was a major sacrifice to follow Christ. They were disowned by their families, who considered them “dead” to the family. In the Roman Empire, you could not both say “Jesus is Lord” and “Hail Caesar.” Early Christians were required, on pain of death, to say “Hail Caesar” and “Jesus be cursed”, because Caesar worship was the official religion of the Roman Empire. If members of a Roman household became Christians, their families would turn them in to the authorities to be arrested.

To this day, many thousands around the world are persecuted every year for their faith in Christ, particularly in Muslim and Hindu cultures. In China, Christians are only allowed to worship in official state churches, or they are persecuted. If you live in a country that has religious freedom, thank God for that.

I must confess that I have used verse 13 as an argument against the doctrine of “once saved, always saved.” There are other scripture passages that refute that idea, and this verse is not about that. I was taking this verse out of context. Jesus is talking about enduring persecution for his sake. He is encouraging his disciples, then and in the future, not to recant or buckle under persecution, but to endure to the end. The end was often death, but death is not the end. How often have we, in our cushy Western culture with all its advantages, buckled under mere peer pressure? How often have we compromised when the only penalty we faced was loss of popularity? If we do, the blood of millions of martyrs testifies against us. He who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Note: I am grateful to have had the time to continue this blog from my hotel room in Philadelphia, PA. I’ve missed doing it for the last 3 days, but God has blessed amazingly during this trip. To Him be the glory!

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³As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

From the Mount of Olives, there is a dramatic view of the Temple Mount. From that vantage point, the disciples must have been reminded of what Jesus had said about the Temple being destroyed. They asked Jesus two questions about that, when will it happen, and what will be the sign? One of the reasons I don’t necessarily believe that Jesus is talking about the “end times” as we think of them, but the disciples’ future over the next 40 years, is that the disciples didn’t ask him about the end times. They weren’t asking him about his return. He had not mentioned to them yet that he would return.  Jesus had just said something to his disciples that, to them, must have been inconceivable. The amazing Jerusalem Temple, the pride of Israel, would soon be completely destroyed. That was what was on their minds, and that was what they were asking about.

Prophecy is difficult. Often in prophecy, when it seems like it’s only talking about contemporary events for the writer, there are places where it also seems to be talking about future events, and past, present, and future are all mixed up together. That may be because, as I’ve talked about before, God and Eternity are outside of time. Prophets, when prophesying about the future, are given a glimpse of the foreknowledge of God, but they express their visions in language that’s bound by time. We read those prophecies, but our brains are bound by time. Even Jesus, when he was here in the flesh, was bound by time, and limited to human language. There are a couple of places in the rest of this chapter that seem to talk about events that haven’t happened yet. And I could be completely wrong about this. If someone thinks I am, please comment!

⁵Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁶Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. ⁷When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁸Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

First Jesus warns them not to be deceived by false messiahs. False prophets and “messiahs” were a dime a dozen in Israel at that time.Yeshua was a very common name then for that reason. Every Jewish mother hoped her son would become the Messiah, and they all knew what the Messiah’s name was supposed to be. They were all expecting the Messiah, and they were all looking for him. In that climate, many false messiahs will arise, and that was what was happening. But I believe the main false messiah Jesus was warning about was Herod Agrippa, the nephew of Herod Antipas, who tried Jesus in a few days. Herod The Great and Herod Antipas had expanded the Temple to its then current size. Herod Agrippa, who succeeded Antipas, continued the expansion of the Temple until 63 A.D. and he believed himself to be the Messiah.

Verses 7-9 are often quoted as end times prophecies, but whenever I hear them used that way, I always think, “Wars and rumors of wars? Earthquakes? Famines? Thanks, that narrows it down.” Has there ever been a time in history without those things?  Again, in my mind, there is no reason to believe that Jesus has suddenly skipped from talking about the destruction of the Temple to our future 2000 years later. Wars, earthquakes and famines all happened during the 40 years between Jesus’ death and resurrection and the Temple’s destruction. Again, I believe he is talking about the end of the Old Testament age of sacrifices and laws, and the beginning of the coming age of the Church of Jesus Christ and grace, not his second coming.

⁹“You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. ¹⁰And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. ¹¹Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

In verse 9, Jesus describes exactly what will happen to the apostles after Pentecost. They were handed over to local councils and flogged in the synagogues. They did stand in front of kings and governors as witnesses for Christ. Verse 10 is often quoted as a prophecy of the end times, and it may be. According to what many believe, this verse indicates that Jesus will not return until the gospel is preached to all nations. That may be what it means, and like much of prophecy, it may have two meanings, one near future and one far future. But I take it to mean that after Penticost, the early believers would spread throughout the known world at that time, spreading the gospel. Jesus did not say the gospel must be preached throughout the whole world, he said all nations. All nations at that time could well mean the Middle East, northern Africa, and southern Europe. Those were the only places that were known as “nations” by those people. Most of Europe was uncivilized then, as was most of Africa, at least to that culture’s way of thinking. Britain did not exist as a nation, and they didn’t know about China, Russia, India, and the Americas. It seems to me that to say verse 10 is end times prophecy is to take it out of context. What Jesus says in verses 9 and 11 are warnings to the disciples about their own near future. Why would verse 10 be something else? It looks to me like Jesus is saying that when the believers scatter throughout the known world, preaching the gospel, they will be brought before authorities to witness for him. And they were.

A powerful example of what Jesus describes in verse 11 can be found in Acts 4:1-22, when Peter and John testify before the Sanhedrin. If they had prepared a speech for that trial, it would not have had the power of the Holy Spirit that their testimony had. This part can definitely be applied to us. We must be prepared to defend our faith, but if we come at people with prepared speeches or scripts, they will see through them. And Jesus is talking about persecution here, not laziness in ministry. If we are persecuted for our faith, if our faith is challenged, we must rely on inspiration from the Holy Spirit to answer our accusers. But this verse should not be taken as a license not to prepare our sermon, Sunday School lesson, or song for ministry, because we’re “relying on inspiration from God”. God wants us to study, prepare for ministry, and “present ourselves as one approved, who correctly handles the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

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Signs of the End of the Age

¹As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

²“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

As they spend the week in Jerusalem for Passover, the disciples are like tourists expressing amazement at the Temple. The Temple, at the time of Herod, was a massive and incredibly impressive structure. This was the second temple, the first being Solomon’s. This Temple was originally rebuilt by Ezra (Ezra 6:15), and had been the center of Jewish life for a thousand years. Herod greatly expanded it, and by the time it was finished in 63 A.D., only 7 years before its destruction, it was nearly 500 yards long and 400 yards wide. The outside was covered with gold plates that blinded observers when the sun shone directly on them. In fact, the amount of gold used in the Temple’s construction ultimately led to its destruction.

The disciples were amazed at the stones used in the Temple, some of which can still be seen by visitors. Some of these stones are so large that they can’t be lifted by modern construction cranes, yet they were cut and placed so perfectly they didn’t need mortar. Archaeologists are still unsure how those stones were placed with such precision using only manual labor.

Forty years after Jesus made this prediction, there was a major uprising in Judea, and the Romans destroyed Jerusalem as a result. According to history, they did not originally intend to destroy the Temple, but a drunken soldier set a fire that eventually engulfed the whole Temple complex. All the ornate gold in the roof and walls melted and ran down in between the stones, so the Roman commander ordered the Temple dismantled stone by stone in order to retrieve the gold. Thus Jesus prophecy of not one stone being left on top of another was literally fulfilled.

There is a lot to talk about in this chapter, so I’m going to take it a few verses at a time. But let me finish today with two points. First, let me say up front that, unlike many, I do not necessarily believe that Jesus is prophesying about the “end times” as we think of them in the rest of this chapter. I believe he is talking about the “end of the age”. Which age? I think he’s talking about the end of the old covenant and the beginning of the new. From a Biblical perspective, Old Testament times can be considered one age, and New Testament times the next age. I believe he’s telling his disciples about what will soon happen to them, not to us. He starts by predicting the destruction of the Temple, so it follows that the rest of the events he describes are also events that must happen during his disciple’s lifetimes.

Finally, the point I want to make about the Temple is that it had become almost an idol for the Jewish people at that time. In Jesus’ time, it was customary to swear by the Temple. In his trial, one of the charges against Jesus was that he had promised to tear down the temple and raise it up again in three days. Of course, in that case, the temple he was talking about was his own body, but the Jewish leaders misunderstood, and used it against him. It was considered blasphemy to insult the Temple. The people of Israel at that time revered the Temple almost more than they revered God. That’s why God allowed the Temple’s destruction. God is in the business of tearing down our idols. We need to be careful that our devotion even to ministry does not replace our devotion to God. In the church, it’s easy to take our eyes off of God and only see our program. But like the Temple, our program is the work of our hands, and unworthy of our devotion. Only God deserves that.

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