Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Signs of the Times (2)


Dear Young People,
 
In the last forum article I started a discussion of the signs of the times.  I began the discussion by introducing the subject and attempting to show how important it is to know the signs of Christ’s coming.  Christ Himself does not simply speak of these signs as a lecture in eschatology (the doctrine of the last things).  He spends many verses at the end of Matthew 24 and the whole of Matthew 25 impressing on our minds how important it is to know and understand these signs and adjust our lives in keeping with them.
 
So, let us get on with our discussion.
 
It is, I think, quite important, first of all, that we pay attention to the occasion at which Jesus began this discussion.
 
The whole discussion took place during the last week of Jesus’ life here on earth.  On the Thursday of this week Jesus would celebrate the Passover Feast with His disciples, and on Friday He would be crucified.  You can imagine that Jesus’ thoughts were filled with His suffering and death, but that He was also looking beyond His awful death on the cross to the time when He would come again at the end of the world.  After all, He was going to die so that He could come again and save His people.  The thought of saving His people and His great love for them made the thought of His death on the cross endurable.  So Jesus welcomes a discussion of this subject.
 
It was not only the last week of Jesus’ life on earth, but it was also the last day of His public ministry.  He was teaching in the temple, and He had been, according to Matthew 23, angrily pronouncing curses on the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees.  He left the temple with His words, “Woe unto you . . . ! ringing in the court of the temple.  Now He and His disciples were leaving the temple (Matt. 24:1).
 
Jesus had ended His angry condemnation of the hypocrisy with the words, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
 
The words, “your house is left unto you desolate” had burned their way into the mind and heart of the disciples.  You must remember that the disciples still expected Christ to establish an earthly kingdom, like the great and glorious kingdom of Israel during the times of David and Solomon (See Acts 1:6).  Even after Christ’s death and resurrection, they still expected an earthly kingdom.  Only the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost gave them an understanding of the true significance of the work of God in Christ.  And so they could not imagine that these beautiful buildings of the temple were going to be totally destroyed.  That to them seemed impossible.
 
That is why, as they leave the temple, the disciples came to Jesus, “to shew Him the buildings of the temple.“  It was as if they were asking Him a question: “If our house is left to us desolate, do you really mean that all these beautiful buildings are going to be destroyed?”  There was shock and amazement in their implied question.
 
But Jesus made it very clear that He meant exactly what He said: “See ye not all these things?  Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (24:2).
 
The disciples must have mulled over that for a while, because it was not till later in the day, when they were together on Mount Olivet that they came to Him again with another question: “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world” (24:3)?
 
These were important questions.  Jesus himself considered them important and He took the time, as the sun was setting over the Mediterranean Sea, to answer them in detail. So I think we had better take a long and hard look at these questions.
 
I think it is better, however, to wait with our hard look at these questions till the next article, for I want to say a few things about them that, I think, are important.
 
In the meantime, you take a long look at them as well.
 
With warmest regards,
Prof. Hanko

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