Signs of the Times (3)

I ended the last forum article by calling our attention to the questions that the disciples asked of their Lord on the Mount of Olives. They were puzzled and dismayed at Jesus’ unmistakable words that Jerusalem with its beautiful temple would be destroyed so that “one stone would not be left on another.”

 

There were three questions, although two of them are really one. Question 1: “When shall these things be?” Question 2: “What shall be the signs of thy coming?” Question 3: “[What shall be the signs] of the end of the world?”

 

I said the last two really belong together, because it seems as if the disciples were so disturbed at the thought of Jerusalem and the temple being destroyed that they thought this could only happen at the end of the world.

 

That the disciples thought of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple as the end of the world is not so surprising, because they were still thinking that Jesus had come to this earth to re-establish the kingdom of Israel in all the glory that it had in the days of David and Solomon. They still thought this at the time the Lord ascended into heaven from Mount Olivet.  They had asked Him then, “Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”  And this was after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection!  The disciples did not really understand Christ’s work until they possessed the teaching power of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost.

 

Jesus did not answer this first question: When shall these things be?  Except this: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (verse 36).

 

In spite of these words of Jesus, many have, over the years, claimed to know the time of the Lord’s coming.  Recently in America a man established a radio network that covered the entire United States and many foreign countries.  He was born and raised a Reformed man and he claimed to remain Reformed all his life.  He was even instrumental in steering some people who were looking for a good church to our denomination.  But he was very foolish.  He claimed that God had revealed to him the time of Christ’s return.  He did this twice.  The first time he excused his mistake by saying he had erred in interpreting the numbers in Scripture in the wrong way and thus had made a mathematical mistake.  The second time he predicted that Christ was coming on September of 2012.  He even gave the time of the day, although I have forgotten what it was.  He succeeded in persuading hundreds of thousands to leave their churches and make preparations for going to heaven.  He asked for money and was sent, Time magazine reported, in the neighborhood of $70,000,000.  But, of course he was wrong.  He is still living, but has had a severe stroke.

 

But the second question Jesus answered at length, and the rest of the chapter deals with our Lord’s answer to that question.

 

Some have claimed that this entire discourse on the signs of Christ’s coming was a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD when the Roman armies under Titus completely destroyed the city.  And this interpretation is partly correct, for Jesus says, in verse 34: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”  And many of the things of which Jesus speaks in this chapter did happen when Jerusalem was destroyed.

 

But, while it is true that Jesus’ words refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, they also refer to the end of this present world.  This is clear because Jesus is answering the question of the disciples: “What shall be the sign of thy coming?”  And Jesus speaks of many signs that did not take place at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.  The sign described in verse 14 is proof of this.  One sign of the end of the world, Jesus says, is the spread of the gospel throughout the whole world as a witness to all nations.  This has not yet happened – although we are getting close!

 

In fact, the destruction of Jerusalem was a sign and picture of the end of the world.  The destruction of Jerusalem was a sign of the end of the world, because it was the destruction and final end of the whole old dispensation with all its types and shadows.  When our Lord came into the world and performed His work, He fulfilled all the types and shadows of the law.  God’s work was finished.  But because so many Jews still clung to that old dispensation and still practiced the types and shadows of the law, the Lord destroyed it all through the armed might of Rome.

 

I cannot go into that now, but Scripture itself proves that the work of Christ, begun in His incarnation and finished in His second coming, is the end of the world. Read, e.g., Peter’s quotation from the prophet Joel in Acts 2:16-21.  Peter, in quoting Joel, speaks of the same signs of Christ’s coming as Matthew 24 mentions.

 

So the conclusion is that Jesus is speaking both of the destruction of Jerusalem and of His coming again at the end of time, but is speaking about both, because the destruction of Jerusalem is a type of the end of the world.

 

In the next forum article, we will begin the discussion of the signs by discussing Matthew 24:4.

 

With warmest regards and love in the Lord,

Prof. H. Hanko