Signs of the Times (7)

In the last forum article on the signs of Christ’s coming, we discussed part of the signs Jesus mentions in Matthew 24:6-8.  These verses speak of different kinds of signs and we discussed “wars and rumors of wars” last time.  In this article we must discuss “famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places.”

 

I want to make a few remarks before we get into these signs in particular.

 

The first thing that needs mentioning is that all the signs of Christ’s coming that are mentioned and discussed in Matthew 24, the book of Revelation and II Thessalonians 2 can be divided into three different categories.  These three categories are:

1.     Signs in history.  These include the wars and rumors of wars I wrote about last time; the rise and activity of God & Magog, and the development and final manifestation of the Antichrist.

2.     Signs in the church.  Signs in the church include the rise of false prophets (Matt. 24:5, 11:23-25), apostasy, persecution, and the rise of Antichrist, for he will be the great false prophet.

3.     Signs in the creation.  Jesus mentions only the ones I will discuss in this (and, perhaps, a following article), but the book of Revelation discusses many more.

 

The second point that needs emphasis before anything else is Jesus’ rather strange expression in verse 8: “All these are the beginning of sorrows.”  And the last part of verse 6: “All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”  The emphasis in this expression is on the word “must;” And these things must come to pass.  So, let’s take a look at these expressions first of all.

 

The first and important statement is: “All these things are the beginning of sorrows.”  All the significance of this expression lies in the translation of the word “sorrows.”  Actually, a more literal translation would be “birth pains” – the pains a mother experiences when she is giving birth to a baby.  And that is how we must look at Jesus’ meaning here.

 

Jesus uses a powerful figure to describe famines pestilences and earthquakes – all signs that take place in the creation.  The figure is this.  The new creation that is ours when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again is like a baby that is born out of the womb of the old creation.  The new creation is “ín” the old creation from the very beginning of God’s work.  And that new creation was put there in the old creation by God when He created the heavens and the earth.

 

We must be careful that we have a correct idea of creation.  The teaching of Scripture is not that God chose to glorify Himself through the creation of Paradise I, with Adam at its head, then only to see His plan frustrated by Adam’s sin.  God did not watch from heaven the temptation of Adam wondering what Adam would do while wringing His hands as He watched first Eve and then Adam succumb to Satan’s temptation.  God did not have to fall back on Plan B because Adam had made plan A impossible, so that God decided that because Plan A was a failure, He would now have to send Christ to rescue a bad and unexpected situation.

 

God created the first creation with His purpose in mind to glorify Himself through Christ and the work of salvation in Christ.  God determined the fall of Adam and Eve so that room could be made for Christ.  Adam is only the figure of Christ (Romans 5:14-16).

 

The proof of this is abundant.  Man was created with an immune system before he needed it because of the fall.  Carnivorous animals were created with a digestive system to digest whole meat before there was death in the creation: what one poet called, “Nature red in tooth and claw.”  The first Paradise was created to pre-figure the temple: the garden of Eden = the Outer Court; Paradise = the Holy Place; the tree of life = the Most Holy Place, for it was at the tree of life that God and Adam had fellowship with each other.  And the temple, in turn, was a picture of Christ’s body (John 2).

 

More proof is that Christ was the one though Whom creation took place (Prov. 8:22-31, John 1:1-4, Heb. 1:2, Col. 1:16, 17).  This is the reason why Christ is present in the creation in many signs: Christ is the lion of Judah’s tribe, the rose of Sharon, the bright and morning star, the lily of the valley and the sun of righteousness that arises with healing in His wings.

 

More proof is found in Romans 8:20-23 where the creation itself is pictured and longing in hope for our salvation, for the creation knows that when we are saved, it shall be saved too.

 

And so, in Mathew 24 Jesus pictures the creation as pregnant with the new creation that God will give to us.  All the calamities and catastrophes that take place in the creation are the pains that are necessary for the creation to be delivered from the new creation that shall be born from it.

 

And so Jesus tells us that “these things must come to pass.”  They must come to pass first of all, for they are the fulfillment of God’s own eternal decree to glorify Himself through Christ Who rules over the whole creation from His throne in heaven. These things are the “must” of God’s own counsel.

 

They must come to pass because the new creation is inside this old one.  That means that this present creation will be destroyed.  It will not be destroyed in the sense that it will be annihilated; it will be destroyed in the sense that it will be burned with fire so that it can “get out of the way” of the new creation that will emerge from it.  There are creatures like this in God’s creation.  There are butterflies that die immediately after laying the eggs that will produce new butterflies – creatures whose only purpose it is to bring forth new creatures, and who then die to make room for the new ones.  God will make a new heavens and a new earth out of the ashes of this old creation, for the old creation is not needed any more when the new creation is “born” from it.

 

There is a remarkable difference between pain and birth pains.  If we suffer pain, it is because something is wrong in our bodies, and we hurry to the doctor.  Pain is a signal that our bodies are not functioning normally and that we need a cure, if possible.  But birth pains are a signal that all is well, that things are proceeding as they ought, that a mother is healthy.  It would be very wrong and something would be dreadfully bad if nine months came and went and the mother had no pains.  So it is with these signs of which Jesus speaks.  When catastrophes and calamities take place in the old creation, then we say, “All is well. Everything is happening according to schedule. The creation in which we now live is doing that for which God created it.”

 

No wonder that Jesus says, “See that ye be not troubled.”  Do not be troubled when tsunamis destroy thousands!  Do not be troubled when tornados wreck whole towns.  Do not be troubled when earthquakes destroy buildings, homes, businesses and hundreds of people.  All is well.  Things are taking place that “must” happen.  God is in heaven and all’s well in the world!  Christ is coming back!  The new heavens and the new earth will soon be our everlasting possession.

 

With warm regards,

Prof. Hanko