That All May Be Fulfilled

THAT’ALL MAY BE FULFILLEDby Grady Brown

Copyright © 2005 by Dayspring Bible Ministries Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The Dayspring Bible.Copyright © 2002, 2005 by Dayspring Bible Ministries Inc.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical review, no part of this bookshall be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechan-ical, magnetic, photographic including photocopying, recording or by any informa-tion storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from:

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Printed in the United States of AmericaPrinted on Recycled Paper

Published August, 2005

Unless otherwise noted,all Scripture quotations are from the

author’s own paraphrase of the Scriptures

THEDAYSPRINGBIBLE(a work in progress)

TTable of Contentsable of ContentsFOREWORD INTRODUCTION—BEYOND Y2K 1CHAPTER ONE—

Background to the Olivet Discourse—1 27Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem 30The Cleansing of the Temple 41The Cursing of the Fig Tree 44The Challenge to Jesus’ Authority 52The Parable of the Two Sons 54The Parable of the Wicked Sharecroppers 57

CHAPTER TWO—Background to the Olivet Discourse—2 65

The Parable of the Wedding Feast 65The Question of the Pharisees and the Herodians 76The Question of the Sadducees 84The Question of the Scribes 89Jesus’ Question for the Pharisees 91

CHAPTER THREE—Background to the Olivet Discourse—3 97

Jesus’ Description of the Religious Leaders 97Jesus’ Indictment of the Religious Leaders 113Jesus’ Lamentation over Jerusalem 137

CHAPTER FOUR—The Olivet Discourse—1 145The Setting for the Discourse 147The Disciples’ Question 149Prelude to Disaster 156Personal Warnings and Encouragements 163The Coming Seige of Jerusalem 170

CHAPTER FIVE—The Olivet Discourse—2 197“The Times of the Nations”

Israel and the Nations 198A Quick Review of Some Traditional Interpretations 206

God’s Covenantal Plan of Redemption 212God’s Message to the Gentiles through Daniel 218The Concurrency of the Various Prophesies 226The Times of the Nations 229

CHAPTER SIX—The Olivet Discourse—3 235How to Identify the Parousia of the True Messiah 236The Parousia of the Son of Man 251

CHAPTER SEVEN—The Olivet Discourse—4 289The Imminence of the Parousia

and the Kingdom of God 289The Passing Away of Heaven and Earth 310The First Warning—The Days of Noah 332The Second Warning—the Advantage of

Being “Left Behind” 334The Third Warning—the Homeowner and the Thief 229The Fourth Warning—Wise and Worthless Slaves 341

CHAPTER EIGHT—The Olivet Discourse—5 347The Fifth Warning—the Parable of the

Ten Bridesmaids 350The Sixth Warning—the Parable of the

Measures of Money 365The Seventh Warning—the Judgment Seat

of Messiah 372CHAPTER NINE—How Should We Then Live? 403

The Crisis of Unfulfilled Prophecy 405Preterism and the Creeds 411The Hope of the Christian 427God and Time 439The Unfinished Work of Christ 445That ALL May Be Fulfilled 450

SCRIPTURE INDEXAbout the Author

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INTRODUCTION

Beyond Y2K HHHOW MANY TIMES will predictions have to fail before a system of thought finally surrenders and dies? If I did not already believe in resurrection, I would become convinced of its truth simply by studying the history of chiliasm. But maybe it is not so much that it “rises from the dead”—it just stubbornly refuses to give up the ghost!

No matter how many failed deadlines are pronounced for the “second coming,” no matter how many world leaders are erroneously fingered as the “antichrist,” no matter how many false portents are presented concerning a revived Roman Empire and a One‐World‐Government, futurists—and the advocates of dispensa‐tionalism, in particular—never seem too embarrassed to set a new deadline for cataclysm, identify a new demon‐leader, or foist a new conspiracy theory on an unwitting public.

And that is what upsets, frustrates, frightens (pick your term) me the most. It’s not just the false prophets dealing in their marketplace sensationalism that alarms me. It’s the gullibility and ignorance of the Christian public devouring their tripe and drivel—that’s what really has me bewildered.

THAT ALL MAY BE FULFILLED

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How in the world can someone like Edgar C. Whisenant publish a best‐selling book entitled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Is In 1988,1 and not be shamed into silence when he turns out to be wrong on every single one of his 88 reasons? What’s worse, how can a Christian reading public claim to be intelligent and spiritually astute, witness such a prediction that fails so miserably, and then turn around and buy enough copies of his next book, The Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989,2 to send it also to the top of the best‐seller charts? In 1993, Mr Whisenant was still at it, but seemed to be losing momentum when he wrote 23 Reasons Why a Pre‐tribulation Rapture Looks Like It Will Occur on Rosh‐Hashana 1993.3

We all watched, some with alarm and some with cynicism, as the Y2K scare gripped the world. Some of our finest and most profound Christian teachers and leaders were swept up into this “end‐time” frenzy.

Then Y2K turned out to be Y2‐kaput…and I thought surely this will finish the madness—surely this will end the reign of the doomsayers—surely this will mark the demise of these irrespon‐sible predictions and ludicrous heresies.

But I had forgotten to read my history book. There I would have seen the endless litany of doomsday predictions that have flourished since before New Testament times and have thrived at every period of Church history.4

There I would have seen that apocalypticism experienced a virtual heyday in the inter‐testament period with scores of pseudo‐prophesies concerning the coming of Messiah and an end‐of‐the‐world cataclysm. Typical of the writings of this period was the Book of Jubilees that re‐wrote history based on cycles of seven.5 This piece of apocalyptic literature was the first document to present the idea

INTRODUCTION – BEYOND Y2K

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that the history of the earth could be divided into six 1000‐year “days,” and proffered the notion that the end of the sixth day would usher in the reign of Messiah, a golden age that would last a millennium. This fanciful exercise in numerology persists in many eschatological schemes to this day. For example, in a review entitled “Sword Over America,”6 Richard Ruhting, M.D., was quoted as saying, “…the 50th jubilee in 1994 correlates with Usher’s Chronology that our world will be 6,000 years old in 1996…The seventh millennium will begin shortly thereafter.”

If I had read my history, I would have seen that the apocalyptic tradition in Judaism continued even into the Christian era. A Galilean, Rabbi Jose, of the third generation of the Tannaim,7 is said to have predicted that Messiah would come three generations, or 60 years, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, namely A.D. 130, and Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah is said to have thought the Messiah would come 70 years after the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 140.8 Rabbi Jose believed the rule of the Romans over Israel would only last 206 years;9 so if the Roman occupation started in 63 B.C., then that would have it ending about 143 A.D. (In all fairness to Rabbi Jose, he is also recorded as saying, “One who sets a definite time for the redemption of Israel through Messiah will have no share in the world to come.”10 Rabbi Hanina, in the third century, is said to have thought Messiah would come 400 years after the Temple destruction, while one of his contemporaries, Rabbi Judah ha‐Nasi is said to have believed the number to be 365 years.11

In Christendom, I would have seen that Maximilla, an adherent of Montanism, a second‐century sect that named the imminent


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expectation of the end of the world as one of the primary tenets of their faith, said, “After me there is no more prophecy, but only the end of the world.”12

In A.D. 249 a North African clergyman, Commodian, wrote a poem that expected “the end of the world will soon come with the seventh persecution [of the Christians by the Roman Empire]; the Goths will conquer Rome and redeem the Christians; but then Nero will appear as the heathen ‘antichrist,’ re‐conquer Rome, and rage against the Christians three years and a‐half; he will be conquered in turn by the Jewish and real ‘antichrist’ from the east.”13

Hippolytus, a Roman priest and theologian, in the second and third centuries, predicted Christ would return in A.D. 500, based on, of all things, the dimensions of Noah’s ark! And both Hyppolytus (A.D. 170‐236)14 and Lactantius (A.D. 250‐330)15 agreed that around A.D. 500 would be the time for the “second coming.”

I would also have discovered that there was a Y1K crisis just before the year A.D. 1000. Augustine had offered the interpretation of the millennium as beginning with the commencement of the Christian era. Consequently, there was widespread “expectation of the end of the world at the close of the first millennium of the Christian Church.”16

In A.D. 950 Adso of Montier‐en‐Der wrote a treatise on the “antichrist” which was a response to a number of mid‐century crises that had provoked widespread alarm and fear of an end‐time apocalypse.17

Abbo of Fleury heard a preacher in Paris who announced that the “antichrist” would be unleashed in the year 1000 and that the Last Judgment would soon follow.18 Abbo was “influential in calming the excitement and fear about the end of the world which was widespread in Europe in 1000.”19 He was delegated “the task of


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refuting a Lotharingian belief that when the Annunciation (March 25) and Good Friday fell on the same day the world would end.”20

At about that same time a panic occurred in the German army of Emperor Otto I because of a solar eclipse that the soldiers mistook as a sign of the end of the world.21

The Carolingian dynasty fell with the death of King Louis V in 987, and the new regime, the Capetians, began to oppress the Frankish peasantry. In response, the peasants developed and embraced the apocalyptic trends of their day. According to Adso, the Carolingian dynasty constituted the final hindrance to the arrival of “antichrist.”22 Consequently, King Otto II of Germany had Charlemagne’s body exhumed on Pentecost in the year 1000, supposedly to forestall the apocalypse.

In A.D. 964 Cartulaire de Saint‐Jouin‐de‐Marnes wrote, “As the saeculum passes, the end of the world approaches,”23 and the appearance of Halley’s Comet in A.D. 989 was interpreted as a sign of the end.

The year A.D. 1000 went down in history as one of pronounced hysteria over the expected return of Christ.24 All members of society seemed affected by the prediction that Jesus was coming back on January 1, 1000. None of the so‐called “signs of the times” were happening at that time, and the sole reason for the expectation seemed to be the magical number 1000. During December of A.D. 999, everyone was on their best behavior; worldly goods were sold or given to the poor, swarms of pilgrims headed east to meet the Lord at Jerusalem,25 buildings went unrepaired, crops were left unplanted, and criminals were set free from jails. Adso, along with thousands of others frenzied hopefuls, left on a one‐way trek to Jerusalem.


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The year A.D. 999 turned into A.D. 1000—and nothing happened. One would think that things would have settled down after the

passing of that significant date, but no! A super nova in A.D. 1006 was interpreted as a sign of the end, and the sign‐seeking frenzy continued.

About the same time, A.D. 1009‐1010, the Moslem caliph, Al Hakim, himself a chiliast, destroyed the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem prompting apocalyptic fear in the West as well as violent anti‐Jewish outbursts.26

The year A.D. 1033 was cited as the beginning of the millennium because it marked 1000 years since Christ’s crucifixion. Just as in the year 1000, A.D. 1033 saw a mass pilgrimage to Jerusalem.27

The writings of the Calabrian monk, Joachim of Fiore (ca. A.D. 1135‐1202) influenced a wide range of medieval thinkers, some of whom concluded that the “age of grace” would end and the “age of the Spirit” would begin in A.D. 1260.28 This prophecy, mixed with German social unrest, created a myth that Frederick II was the “emperor of the last days” who would usher in the new millennium. The myth gained force when Frederick seized Jerusalem in 1229. Then when he died in 1250, a new myth started that Frederick would return from the dead. The influential Book of a Hundred Chapters stated that the “Emperor from the Black Forest,” the resurrected Frederick would lead a fight against corruption in the state and the Church.29 Two pseudo‐Fredericks were burned at the stake by Frederick’s successor to the throne.

The Taborites, founded in A.D. 1415, also looked back to Joachim for their prophetic beliefs. They believed that once their persecutors were defeated, Christ would return and rule the world from Mount Tabor, a mountain they had renamed south of Prague. Their communal activities eventually turned bloody, and after a crushing defeat at the hands of the German army, the group quickly disbanded.30


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In 1524‐1526, Münzer, a leader of German peasants, announced that the return of Christ was near. After he and his men had destroyed the high and mighty, the Lord would return. This belief led to an uneven battle with government troops where he was strategically out‐numbered. Münzer claimed to have a vision from God where the Lord promised that He would catch the cannon balls of the enemy in the sleeves of His cloak. The vision turned out to be false when Münzer’s followers were mowed down by cannon fire and he was captured and executed.31

Benedictus Aretius of Berne (1505‐1547) calculated that 1260 years added to the year Constantine made Christianity the official religion (312+1260=1572) would be the year of the “second coming.”32

In 1650, the Fifth Monarchy Men looked for Jesus to establish a theocracy. They took up arms and tried to seize England by force. The movement died when the British monarchy was restored in 1660.33

Christopher Columbus predicted that the end of the world would occur in 1656.34

Then in London, in 1666, a bubonic plague outbreak killed 100,000, and the Great Fire of London struck that same year. The world seemed at an end to most Londoners. The fact that the year ended with the Beast’s number (666), didn’t help matters either. In fact, it generated much discussion because it was a combination of 1000 + 666!

In 1809, Mary Bateman, who specialized in fortune telling, had a magic chicken that laid eggs with end time messages on them. One message said that Christ’s coming was imminent. The uproar she created ended when she was caught by an unannounced visitor forcing a marked egg into the hen’s oviduct. Mary later was hanged for poisoning a wealthy client.35


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In 1814, spiritualist Joanna Southcott made the startling claim that she, by virgin birth, would produce the second Jesus Christ. Her abdomen began to swell and so did the crowds of people around her. The time for the birth came and passed. She died soon afterward, and an autopsy revealed it had been a false pregnancy.36

John Wesley wrote that “the time, times and half a time” of Revelation 12:14 were the years 1058‐1836, “when Christ should come.”37

Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687‐1752) also declared that the millennium would begin in 1836. He came up with this date by using a formula that divided 666 by 42 (months) making each month equal 156/7 years.38

William Miller founded an end‐times movement that took on his name—Millerism. From his studies of the Bible, Miller determined that the “second coming” would happen sometime between 1843 and 1844. A spectacular meteor shower that had occurred in 1833 gave the movement tremen‐dous impetus. The build up of anticipation continued until March 21, 1844, when Miller’s one year time table ran out. Some followers set another date of October 22, 1844. This too failed, collapsing the movement.39

Charles Taze Russell proclaimed an invisible return of Christ in 1874. This was the original position of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.40

In 1910, the revisit of Halley’s comet was, for many, an indication of the Lord’s “second coming.” The earth actually passed through the gaseous tail of the comet. One enterprising man sold comet pills to people for protection against the effects of the toxic gases. (So the sale of generators and 55‐gallon “survival” drums during the Y2K scare was nothing new after all!)


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Russell, after being exposed to the teachings of William Miller, founded his own organization—the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He predicted the rapture in 1910, followed by the end of the world in 1914. The Jehovah’s Witnesses computed 1914 from the prophecy in Daniel 4 that referred to “seven times.” They interpreted each “time” as equal to a lunar year of 360 days, giving a total of 2520 days. This was further interpreted as representing 2520 years, measured from the starting date of 607 B.C., giving 1914 as the target date for Armageddon. When nothing of significance happened, this also was later interpreted as an invisible return of Christ and a defeat of Satan by Michael in the heavenly realm.41

In 1918 Arthur Pink wrote in his book, The Redeemer’s Return: “Brethren, the end of the Age is upon us. All over the reflecting minds are discerning the fact that we are on the very eve of another of those far‐reaching crises world which make the history of our race…Those who look out on present conditions are forced to conclude that the consummation of the dispensation is at hand…The sands in the hour glass of this Day of Salvation have almost run out. The signs of the Times demonstrate it…[T]he Signs are so plain they cannot be misread, though the foolish may close their eyes and refuse to examine them.”42

David Davidson wrote a book entitled The Great Pyramid, Its Divine Message. In it, he predicted that the world would end in August, 1953.43 This was probably based on the writings of Piazzi Smyth, a past astronomer royal of Scotland, who wrote a book circa 1860 entitled Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid.44 It was responsible for spreading throughout the world the belief in pyramidology—the belief that secrets are hidden in the dimensions


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of the great pyramids. Smyth concluded from his research that the millennium would start before the end of 1960.

When the city of Jerusalem was reclaimed by the Jews in 1967, prophecy watchers declared that the “times of the Gentiles” had come to an end.45

The late Moses David (formerly David Berg), the founder of the Christian religious group, The Children of God, predicted that a comet would hit the earth, probably in the mid 1970s and destroy all life in the United States.46

The last quarter of the 20th century brought about a plethora of doomsday books such as Tim LaHaye’s 1972 book, The Beginning of the End, in which he wrote: “There is no question that we are living in the last days…[W]e are the generation that will be on the earth when our Lord comes…”47

In 1967 the Watchtower Society predicted 1975 as a likely date for the end since it was computed as the 6000th anniversary of the creation of Adam in the Garden of Eden in 4026 B.C., a date that can be determined with no accuracy whatsoever!48

Hal Lindsey, in 1980, declared in his book The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon: “The decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it.”49

In 1981, Lindsey made references to the “Jupiter Effect,” a planetary alignment that occurs every 179 years, that would supposedly lead to earthquakes and nuclear plant meltdowns. It was all going to end in 1982, when the nine planets would not only be on the same side of the sun, but in perfect alignment, creating magnetic forces that would disrupt radio and television communication; disturb magnetic activity in the sun, creating huge firestorms on earth; cause vast changes in wind, rainfall, and


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temperature patterns; induce multitudes of earthquakes, both large and small; affect the earth’s rotation, changing the length of days; and ultimately bring Armageddon to the earth. Lindsey continued to push this hoax even after the authors he was quoting had publicly refuted their earlier findings.50

A group called the Tara Centers placed full‐page adver‐tisements in many major newspapers for the weekend of April 24‐25, 1982, announcing: “The Christ is Now Here!” and predicted that He was to make himself known “within the next two months.” After the date passed, they said that the delay was only because the “consciousness of the human race was not quite right...”51

In 1983, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Guru of the Rajneesh movement predicted that the years 1984‐1999 would bring massive destruction on earth, including natural disasters and man‐made catastrophes. Floods larger than any since Noah, extreme earth‐quakes, very destructive volcano eruptions, and nuclear war would all be experienced. Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Bombay would all disappear.52

The Jehovah’s Witnesses again predicted the end of the world in 1984, setting the record of most wrong doomsday predictions. The Witnesses’ record is currently holding at nine. The years are: 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984.53

Moses David of The Children of God faith group predicted that the battle of Armageddon would take place in 1986. Russia would defeat Israel and the United States. A worldwide communist dictatorship would be established. Then seven years later, in 1993, Christ would return to earth.

The return of Christ was predicted for May 14, 1988 by Bill Maupin and The Lighthouse Gospel Tract Foundation of Tucson, Arizona,


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based on one generation passing since the founding of the State of Israel on May 15 or June 28, 1948 (depending on your source). Maupin promised his followers that all those who were to be saved by God would be “spirited aloft like helium basllons.” About fifty people had gathered to experience the realization of the vision of their leader—a vision, according to Maupin, resulting from 16 years of careful Bible study and meditative prayer. With Maupin were an owner of an ornamental ironworks business, a doctor, a surgical technician, a painting contractor, and other members of suburbia who had quit their jobs, sold their homes and cars, all waiting for the fulfillment of what they called “rapture day.” On that day, except for an electrical storm, nothing happened. The news media left, but a few months later a follow‐up story appeared. Maupin admitted that obviously he had gotten the date wrong. He wanted to make it clear, however, that God was not to blame. His followers’ faith in Jesus was still strong, and “some day” they were “going up.” All the members agreed, it was their mistake, not God’s.54

Despite his identification of the decade of the 80s as the “last decade of History,” in the next decade at the time of the 30‐day Gulf War, Hal Lindsey wrote: “At the time of this writing, virtually the entire world may be plunged into a war in which this city [Babylon] may emerge with a role and destiny that few have any inkling of…This is the most exciting time to be alive in all of human history. We are about to witness the climax of God’s dealing with man.”55

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan proclaimed the Gulf War would to be “the War of Armageddon…the final War.”

A local group in Australia predicted Jesus would return through the Sydney Harbor at 9:00 a.m. on March 31, 1991.


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Menachem Schneerson, a Russian‐born rabbi, called for the Messiah to come by September 9, 1991, Rosh Hoshana, the start of the Jewish New Year.

In 1992, David Koresh of the Branch Davidian group in Waco, Texas (an off‐shoot of the Seventh Day Adventists) changed the name of their commune from Mt. Carmel to Ranch Apocalypse, because of his belief that the final all‐encompassing battle of Armageddon mentioned in the Bible would start at the Branch Davidian compound. They had calculated that the end would occur in 1995. After a 51‐day standoff with the U.S. government, on April 10, 1993, 76 members died as a result of a deliberately set fire.

A Korean group called Mission for the Coming Days had the Korean Church abuzz in the fall of 1992. They foresaw October 28, 1992, as the time for the rapture. Numerology was the basis for the date. In addition, several camera shots that left ghostly images on pictures were thought to be supernatural confirmations of the date.

A number of prophecy writers determined that the rapture must take place in 1993, because if the year 2000 is the end of the 6000 year cycle and the beginning of the millennium, then you would have to have seven years of the tribulation preceding it.

When Rabin and Arafat signed their peace pact on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, some saw the events as the beginning of the great tribulation. With the signing of the peace agreement, the prophet Daniel’s 1260 day countdown was underway, and by adding 1260 days to September 1993, you get February 1997 as the date for the “second coming.”

The Watchtower Society interpreted Psalms 90:10 as defining the length of a generation to be 80 years, and since 1914 plus 80 equals 1994, they predicted Armageddon would occur around that


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year. Thus they broke their own record of the most wrong dates set by any single group.

Pastor John Hinkle of Christ Church in Angels caused quite a stir when he announced he had received a vision from God that warned of an apocalyptic event to occur on June 9, 1994. Hinkle, quoting God, said, “On Thursday June the 9th, I will rip the evil out of this world.”

Harold Camping in his book Are You Ready?56 predicted the Lord’s return in September 1994. The book was full of numerology that added up to 1994 as the date of Christ’s return. In his 1992 book Last Day and Return of Christ, he had written: “…Last Day and return of Christ sometime on or between September 15, 1994…and September 27, 1994…I will be surprised if we reach October 1, 1994.”

In early November 1995 Jehovah’s Witnesses made newspaper headlines around the world by announcing the postponement of the End. A headline read: “Armageddon Not Coming,” and the related article stated that Jehovah’s Witnesses had announced that “Armageddon [had] been delayed and [that] the end of the world [was] no longer nigh.”57

1996 was seen by many as significant because it marked 2000 years from the time of Christ’s birth in 4 B.C. Since 1658, many Christians have accepted the calculations of James Ussher, an Irish archbishop, who estimated that the first day of creation occurred on October 23, 4004 B.C., thus making the interval between the creation of the world and a common estimate of the birth of Christ to be precisely 4000 years (although many suspect that Ussher fudged the data to make it come out neatly). Ussher also had estimated that the end of the world would occur exactly 6000 years later, in the fall of 1996.


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Stan Johnson of the Prophecy Club58 saw a 90 percent chance that the tribulation would start September 12, 1997. Basing his conclusion on several end‐time signs, he zeroed in on the date of September 12, which would be Jesus’ 2000th birthday. Johnson also believed this date to be the Day of Atonement (although not what is currently the official Jewish Day of Atonement).

Romanian pastor Dumitru Duduman (associated with The Prophecy Club), in several heavenly visions, claimed to have seen the Book of Life. In one of his earlier visions, there were several pages yet to be completed. In his last vision he noticed that the Book of Life only had one page left. Doing some rough calculating, Stan Johnson and friends figured the latest time frame for the completion of the Book of Life would have to be September 1997.

Some prophecy buffs took the magic number 1331 and added 666, the “number of the beast” from the Revelation, to get the year 1997 as the arrival of the “antichrist” and the end of the world. Why is 1331 a magic number? Because it is the same backwards as forwards. It displays the unlucky number 13 when read in either direction. And it is 11 cubed. It is the fourth row in Pascal’s Triangle:

1 1 1

1 2 1 1 3 3 1 1 4 6 4 1

The year 1998 was significant to other prophecy buffs because 666 x 3 = 1998. Still others found 1998 significant because this year marked the fiftieth anniversary of Israel as a nation. (Did somebody just say, “Jubilee”?)


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Monte Kim Miller, who used to run an anti‐cult network in Denver and later came to believe that he was the last prophet on Earth before Armageddon, predicted that he would die on the streets of Jerusalem in December 1999, but would rise from the dead three days later. In the fall of 1998, dozens of people gave up professional careers and comfortable homes in Colorado, Kansas, and Texas to follow Miller on his apocalyptic journey. The whereabouts of Miller and approximately 60 of his followers remain largely a mystery.59

The year 2000 was thought by many to be prophetically significant for a host of reasons including the fact that if you divide 2000 by 3 you get the devil’s number—666.6666666666666…ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

Grant Jeffrey, in his 1989 book Armageddon: Appointment with Destiny,60 suggested that “the year A.D. 2000 is a probable termination date for the ‘last days.’”

Michael Drosnin, author of The Bible Code,61 found a hidden message in the Pentateuch that predicted that World War III, involving a worldwide atomic holocaust, would start in 2000 (or perhaps 2006).

Lester Sumerall in his book I Predict 2000 AD wrote: “I predict the absolute fullness of man’s operation on planet Earth by the year 2000 A.D. Then Jesus Christ shall reign from Jerusalem for 1000 years.”

Hal Lindsay revised his prediction for the rapture, pinpointing the year 2000. He had first said 1948 (Israel’s birth as a nation) +40 (length of a generation) = 1988. Later he revised his timetable saying that Israel did not have the land (old city of Jerusalem) until the 1967 War; therefore, 1967 + 40 = 2007. But the rapture must occur seven years earlier, that is, the year 2000.


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Finally realizing that January 1, 2000 was not the beginning of the new millennium but instead the beginning of the last year of the old millennium, many refocused after Y2K passed uneventfully, and targeted January 1, 2001, as the date for the end of all things.

Noah’s Ark was reported to have been discovered intact in undamaged form on a slope near Mount Ararat in Turkey. Inside were a group of six copper, gold, and silver scrolls, each 12 inches square. Scroll two revealed that the sun will superheat the earth, melting both polar ice caps, and creating a world‐wide flood. Scroll three revealed that Doomsday was set for January 31, 2001.62

Did the embarrassments of Y2K end the madness? NO! Have we learned anything at all from over two millennia of irresponsible lunacy? Apparently not! Not a single one of the above‐mentioned debacles of prognostication has caused the zeal of the doomsayers to flag. On we go from one thrill‐seeking crisis to the next.

In the aftermath of Y2K, Hal Lindsey has adopted the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ definition of a generation as being 60‐80 years. So now he can postpone all his bogus dates another 30‐40 years and keep the prophecy cash‐cow producing at least for rest of his natural life.

Already the years 2007, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2034, 2040, and 2047 are being bandied about.

Isaac Newton, who died in 1727, won immortality for formulating the law of gravity, but he also was a theologian who wrote well over a million words on Biblical subjects and studied the Bible for more than 50 years, trying to unravel what he believed were God’s secret laws of the universe.

Isaac Newton’s somber prediction was unearthed by a Canadian researcher as part of a British Broadcasting Corporation documentary, ‘‘Newton: The Dark Heretic.’’


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In a statement promoting the program, aired on March 1, 2003, the BBC said it would show a handwritten Newton document predicting the end of the world in 2060, according to calculations he made based on the Bible. The BBC said the document was found in a Newton collection in the Jewish National Library in Jerusalem.63

I love the scheme by John Denton of Bible Research and Investigation64 that targets the year 2034. It is based on a number of assumptions that cannot be substantiated. For instance, it assumes that the duration of both the Old and the New Covenants are identical—2000 years long—and there is no Biblical evidence to warrant such an assumption. It also assumes that dates in the ancient past (such as the call of Abraham) can be pinpointed with accuracy—they cannot! But the scheme is interesting, nonetheless, if for no other reason than to show the lengths that some will go in order to make currents dates prophetically relevant.

THE TWO COVENANTS PLUS 371/2 YEARSPIVOT EACH SIDE OF THE DATE A.D.33 / 34

Abraham called End of Start of Great Crowd calledout of Babylon Circumcision Kingdom out of BabylonGen 12:1 Covenant Covenant Rev 18:4

1968BC 1931BC AD33/34 AD1997 AD2034Start of Maturity ofCircumcision KingdomCovenant Covenant

PERIOD OF PERIOD OF PERIOD OF PERIOD OFCALLING OUT OLD COVENANT NEW COVENANT CALLING OUT

37.5 1963 1963 37.5YEARS YEARS YEARS YEARS

2000 YEARS 2000 YEARS

Something significant was supposed to have happened in 1997 according to this scenario—the Kingdom came to maturity and a


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“great crowd” began to be called out of Babylon the Great. But where is the evidence? The answer is that it does not exist. There was no significance to the year 1997 except in this chart. But I guess we can wait and see what happens in 2034.

However, the key word in any of these prognostications is “soon.” Right now, no one is concerned about the year 2047, but 2007 sounds absolutely tantalizing!

On January 15, 1999, an Associated Press article entitled “Falwell: Antichrist May Be Alive” stated: “In a speech about the concern people have over the new millennium, the Rev. Jerry Falwell said the Antichrist is probably alive today and is a male Jew. Falwell also told about 1,500 people at a conference in Kingsport, Tennessee, that he believes the “second coming” of Christ probably will be within 10 years.”

In order to be relevant, it has to be “soon”! I have finally concluded that there is something inherent in

human nature that is titillated by impending doom. We absolutely love the macabre. We will stand in line to see the latest Freddy Krueger odyssey. We love the yellow journalism rags at the supermarket check‐out. (Do you really think that Elvis and Hitler can actually still be alive? Oh, my!)

We delighted at telling ghost stories in the dark when we were kids, and the simple truth is we simply haven’t grown up. We still want somebody to sneak up on us and scare the living daylights out of us.

So now we can get our Stephen King fix by settling back with the latest Left Behind episode, and delude ourselves that this is a part of a well‐balanced “devotional” reading program.

Are we eternally chained to this perennial end‐time madness? Probably so. Unfortunately, I see no evidence from history that


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human beings will ever kick their addiction for the sensational. But you and I do not have to follow the lemmings over the cliff. And if we begin to talk more about real Bible prophecy and begin to call the hand of those who ignorantly repeat the garbage spewed out by the popular prophecy pundits, we just might make a difference. At least, after a while, they might learn not to talk about it in front of us!

The amazing thing is that all of this “end‐time” ballyhoo is based on a simple misreading (or non‐reading) of the Scriptures. I do not even call it an interpretation, because no sophisticated or esoteric interpretation is required. If readers of the Scripture would simply allow the plain grammar of the text to express itself, the foundations for all this end‐time hysteria would be utterly destroyed.

That is what I seek to do in this book—simply lead the reader through an examination of one of the keystone passages that the dispensational system is based upon—and let the Bible speak for itself.

Jesus’ last prophecy during His earthly ministry, given during the week before He died and recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, is perhaps one of the most specific and straightforward messages He ever delivered. Yet its convoluted interpretations are without number.

However, I truly believe that an honest and impartial examination of Jesus’ words will reveal that the current end‐time frenzy is all sizzle and no steak. It is simply the froth and foam created by the unenlightened followers of delusional prophets.

As they say on FOX News—we report and you decide!


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INTRODUCTION ENDNOTES 1 Edgar Whisenant, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be In 1988: The Feast of

Trumpets (Rosh Hoshana—September 11-12-13), World Bible Society, 1988. 2 Edgar Whisenant and Greg Brewer, Final Shout: Rapture Report 1989, World

Bible Society, 1989. 3 Edgar Whisenant, 23 Reasons Why a Pre-tribulation Rapture Looks Like It Will Occur

on Rosh-Hashana 1993: Also what about the rapture date 10/28/92? What happened? What is the explanatipon?, self-published, 1993.

4 Much of the material in this introduction is enumerated on the web page “220 Dates for the End of the World!!!” at http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm. I have footnoted as much of this material as possible.

5 The Book of Jubilees is also known as the lepto-Genesis, micro-Genesis, or “little” Genesis, not because of its size, since it is considerably larger than the canonical book. Two explanations are given for this designation. One is that the Book of Jubilees is taken up with minutiae. The other is that the Book of Jubilees is not being compared to the book of Genesis itself, but with a rabbinic book known as Bereʹshith Rabbaʹ in which the whole of Genesis is expanded by Midrashic additions, amplifications, and explanations, and is many times the size of the Book of Jubilees. “The most marked characteristic of the book is that from which it has its most common name, ‘The Book of Jubilee,’ the dating of events by successive Jubilees. The whole history of the world is set in a framework of Jubilees and every event is dated by the Jubilee of the world’s history in which it had occurred, and the year-week of that Jubilee and the year of that week. The writer has carried his septenary principle into the year and made the days in it, as did the writer of one of the En books, a multiple of seven, 364 = 7 x 52 days.”—“Apocalyptic Literature,” International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia.

6 Chattanooga News – Free Press, October 21, 1989. 7 The Tannaim (plural of tanna – one who studies) were those Jewish sages of the

period that extended from the time of Rabbi Hillel to the final compilation of the Mishna, circa A.D. 10 to A.D. 200. After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, the Jerusalem academy was reconstituted at Jamnia where the work of the Tannaim flourished. Their opinions and rulings were eventually compiled and redacted to form the Mishna which is accorded


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canonical status and forms the basis for all subsequent rabbinic discussion, i.e., modern Judaism.

8 Luther W. Martin, “Date Setters,” Guardian of Truth, September 15, 1994. 9 Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Abuda Zara (Idolatry), Chap. 1: “Does not a Boraitha state in the name of R. Jose the great: ‘Palestine was under the dominion of Persia 430 years; under the Greek, 180 years; the house of the Makabaius reigned 103 years and the house of Herod reigned likewise 103 years. Now, according to this chronology there will be 206 years for the dominion of Rome over Israel.’”

10 Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Derech Eretz—Rabba. (Worldly Affairs), chap. 11. 11 Luther W. Martin, “Date Setters,” Guardian of Truth, September 15, 1994. 12 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 2, chap. 10, §111. 13 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 2, chap. 13, §201. 14 The Ante‐Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, The Interpretation by Hippolytus, (Bishop) of Rome, of the Visions of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, Taken in Conjunction, § 16, “For, since the first covenant was given to the children of Israel after a period of 434 years [referring to the 62 sevens of Daniel’s Seventy Sevens], it follows that the second covenant also should be defined by the same space of time, in order that it might be expected by the people and easily recognized by the faithful.” Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 2, chap. 13, Hippolytus, His

Writings: “In his commentary on Daniel he fixes the consummation at A.D. 500, or A.M. 6000, on the assumption that Christ appeared in the year of the world 5500, and that a sixth millennium must yet be completed before the beginning of the millennial Sabbath, which is prefigured by the divine rest after creation.”

15 The Ante‐Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, Lactanius, The Divine Institutes, Book 7, Of a Happy Life: Chap. 25, Of the Last Times, and of the City of Rome: “Perhaps some one may now ask when these things of which we have spoken are about to come to pass? I have already shown above, that when six thousand years shall be completed this change must take place, and that the last day of the extreme conclusion is now drawing near. It is permitted us to know respecting the signs, which are spoken by the prophets, for they foretold signs by which the consummation of the times is to be expected by us from day to day, and to be feared. When, however, this amount will be completed, those teach, who


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have written respecting the times, collecting them from the sacred writings and from various histories, how great is the number of years from the beginning of the world. And although they vary, and the amount of the number as reckoned by them differs considerably, yet all expectation does not exceed the limit of two hundred years.” [Lactanius was writing in the late third or early fourth century, and expected the consummation to occur at around the turn of the sixth century, i.e., A.D. 500.]

16 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 2, chap. 12, §101. 17 Adso of Montier‐en‐Der, “Letter on the Origin and Time of the AntiChrist,” written at the request of Queen Gerbera of France for clarification on the details of the rise and life of the “antichrist.” This treatise can be found at http://www.apocalyptic‐theories.com/theories/antichrist/antichristtext.html. See also Apocalyptic Spirituality: Treatises and Latters of Lactanius, Adso of Montier‐en‐Der, Joachim of Fiore, the Franciscan Spirituals, Savonarola, Richard Payne, ed., Paulist Press.

18 Abbo of Fleury, Apologetic Work: “When I was a young man, I heard a sermon about the end of the world preached before people in the cathedral of Paris. According to this, as soon as the number of a thousand years was completed, the “antichrist” would come and the last Judgment would follow in brief time. I opposed this sermon with what force I could from the passages in the Gospels, the Apocalypse, and the Book of Daniel.”

19 Article in Wikipedia at http://www.answers.com/topic/abbo‐of‐fleury. 20 Old English Online Editions: Edmund of East Anglia: Life of Abbo of Fleury (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/research/rawl/edmund/abbo.html).

21 Professor Felix Just, et al., Theological Studies 398, “The Book of Revelation and Apocalyptic Literature,” Loyola Marymount University/Los Angeles, Year 1000 Apocalypticism and Millennialism (http://myweb.lmu.edu/fjust/students/ year1000/main.html).

22 Ibid., (http://myweb.lmu.edu/fjust/students/year1000/intro.html). 23 A saeculum, according to William Strauss and Neil Howe of LifeCourse Associates (http://www.fourthturning.com/html/history_ _ _turnings.html) is a series of four “turnings” (usually about twenty years for each “turning”), a cycle of euphoria‐awakening‐unraveling‐crisis. Thus a saeculum is about eighty


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years in duration. According to the Hutchinson Encyclopedia, however, a saeculum is a “generation, age, aeon.” Helicon Publishing LTD, 2000.

24 Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds: “An epidemic of terror of the end of the world has several times spread over the nations. The most remarkable was that which seized Christendom about the middle of the tenth century…The delusion appears to have been discouraged by the church, but it nevertheless spread rapidly among the people. The scene of the last judgment was expected to be at Jerusalem. In the year 999, the number of pilgrims proceeding eastward, to await the coming of the Lord in that city, was so great that they were compared to a desolating army. Most of them sold their goods and possessions before they quitted Europe, and lived upon the proceeds in the Holy Land. Buildings of every sort were suffered to fall into ruins. It was thought useless to repair them, when the end of the world was so near. Many noble edifices were deliberately pulled down. Even churches, usually so well maintained, shared the general neglect. Knights, citizens, and serfs, traveled eastwards in company, taking with them their wives and children, singing psalms as they went, and looking with fearful eyes upon the sky, which they expected each minute to open, to let the Son of God descend in his glory. During the thousandth year the number of pilgrims increased. Most of them were smitten with terror as with a plague. Every phenomenon of nature filled them with alarm. A thunderstorm sent them all upon their knees in mid‐march. It was the opinion that thunder was the voice of God, announcing the day of judgment. Numbers expected the earth to open, and give up its dead at the sound. Every meteor in the sky seen at Jerusalem brought the whole Christian population into the streets to weep and pray… Fanatic preachers kept up the flame of terror. Every shooting star furnished occasion for a sermon, in which the sublimity of the approaching judgment was the principle topic.”

25 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 4, chap. 14, §179. 26 Professor Felix Just, et al., Theological Studies 398, “The Book of Revelation and Apocalyptic Literature,” Loyola Marymount University/Los Angeles, Year 1000 Apocalypticism and Millennialism (http://myweb.lmu.edu/fjust/students/ year1000/intro.html).

27 Ibid.


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28 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 5, chap. 16, §135. 29 University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center, “Millenarianism,” in Dictionary of the History of Ideas (http://www.etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi‐local/ DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv3‐26).

30 “Hussites” and “Hussite Wars,” Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, 2003.; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 6, chap. 5, §47.

31 “Münzer, Thomas” and “Peasants’ War,” Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, 2003; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 7, chap. 4, §66.

32 Luther W. Martin, “Date Setters,” Guardian of Truth, September 15, 1994. 33 Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 7, chap. 4, §66. 34 Quoted in 99 Reasons Why No One Knows When Christ Will Return, by B.J. Oropeza, foreword by Hank Hanegraaff, InterVarsity Press, 1994.

35 Article “Mary Bateman” in the “Who’s Who of Witches” website (http://shanmonster.com/witch/witches/bateman.html).

36 Joanna Southcott, English Prophetess, The Woman Clothed with the Sun (http://www.btinternet.com/~joannasouthcott); “Joanna Southcott” in The Apocalypse in English Romantic Literature, University of Rochester, New York (http://rochester.edu/college/eng/eng529/aeza/southcott.htm).

37 Quoted in The Prophecies Unveiled; Or, Prophecy a Divine system, by A. M. Morris, Courier Press (out of print).

38 Luther W. Martin, “Date Setters,” Guardian of Truth, September 15, 1994. 39 “Miller, William” and “Adventists” in Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, 2003. 40 “Russell, Charles Taze” and “Jehovah’s Witnesses” in Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, 2003.

41 Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults, rev. ed., Bethany House Publishers, 2003. 42 Arthur W. Pink, The Redeemer’s Return (http://www.pbministries.org/books/ pink/Redeemers_Return/return.htm).

43 David Davidson, The Great Pyramid – Its Divine Message, Kessinger Publishing reprint 1997; the original 1924 edition is hard to find.

44 C. Piazzi Smyth, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, Time‐Life Education (1993); the original 1890 edition is hard to find.

45 Hal Lindsay, Israel and the Last Days, Harvest House, 1983 46 The Children of God now call themselves simply The Family (http://www.thefamily.org)


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47 Tim LaHaye, The Beginning of the End, Tyndale House, 1972. 48 Public Address by District Overseer Bro. Charles Sunutko in 1967 (http://www.freeminds.org/history/sunuko.htm).

49 Hal Lindsay, The 1980’s: Countdown to Armageddon, Bantam, 1981. 50 John R. Gribbin and Stgephen H. Plageman, Jupiter Effect: The Planets as Triggers of Devastating Earthquakes, Random House, 1976; Gribbin and Plageman, Jupiter Effect Reconsidered, Vintage Books, 1982.

51 For an in‐depth expose of Benjamin Creme (the forerunner of Maitreya, the New Age re‐incarnated Christ) and the Tara Centers, see the Let Us Reason website (http://www.letusreason.org/NAM15.htm).

52 Just before he died in 1990, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh changed his name to Osho. A summary of his movement, including the false prophecies of 1983 can be found at the Religious Tolerance website (http://religioustolerance.org/ rajneesh.htm.)

53 An exhaustive list of failed Watchtower prophecies can be seen at the Watchers of the Watch Tower World website (http://www.freeminds.org/history/ history.htm).

54 Professor Ronald C. Pine, Science and the Human Prospect, University of Hawaii – Honolulu Community College (http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/~pine/book1‐2.html).

55 Hal Lindsey, “The Rise of Babylon and the Persian Gulf Crisis: A Special Report,” 1991.

56 Harold Camping, Are You Ready?, Vantage Press, 1993. 57 Victoria Times‐Colonist, Sunday, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, November 12, 1995,

58 The Prophecy Club, Topeka, Kansas, http://www.prophecyclub.com. 59 Sandy Shore, “PROFILE: Cult ‘mastermind’ Monte Kim Miller,” Associated Press, January 9, 1999.

60 Grant R. Jeffrey, Armageddon: Appointment with Destiny, WaterBrook Press, 1997.

61 Michael Drosnin, The Bible Code, Touchstone, 1998. 62 Sun Magazine, October 14, 1997. 63 Newton: The Dark Heretic, Blakeway Production for BBC TWO, March 1, 2003. 64 John Denton, Bible Research and Investigation (http://bric.users.ftech.net).

CHAPTER ONE

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CHAPTER ONE

Background for the Discourse – 1 RRRECENTLY A FRIEND GAVE ME A COPY of Jim Bakker’s book Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse.1 I did not get past the first chapter. I was attracted to the message of a portion of the book’s subtitle, “Avoiding the Dangers of Materialistic Christianity…” And I believe Jim Bakker to have a very vital message from God concerning the perils of the “name‐it‐and‐claim‐it,” “blab‐it‐and‐grab‐it,” “tag‐it‐and‐bag‐it” “gimme‐God‐gospel” of the prosperity pundits. But for this message to be enfolded in the shroud of a flawed eschatology made it impossible for me to read any further than chapter one. There Bakker says,

Most important, as I studied the words of Jesus for hours on end in prison—often sixteen hours a day, not closing my Bible until the sun came up and it was time for me to go to work—I came to a conclusion that shook me to my very foundation, a conclusion that was contrary to the teaching I had always accepted as fact and had presented to millions of people on television. But when I studied the Scripture and allowed it to speak for itself, I realized, to my horror, that


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Jesus was not coming back before all these catastrophic calamities came upon the earth.

I had always believed that Christians would escape the difficult days our world is about to endure. I had been taught, and had preached, that before the awful tribulation period takes place, there would be a rapture, a great “catching away,” in which all Christians would be caught up together to meet Jesus in the air. From there He would take us to heaven and we would, of course, all live happily ever after.

But as I pored over the Word of God, the Holy Spirit used the Scriptures to convince me that I, like so many of my former colleagues, had merely been preaching what I had heard other preachers say. I passed along things I had read in somebody else’s books, rather than carefully examining the Scriptures to see what God had to say about the days in which we are now living. I had to admit that my hope in a pretribulational rapture was not based on an accurate understanding of the Bible, but on other people’s opinions and ideas.

I read no further. I had already heard Jim Bakker in person preaching in a meeting in Los Angeles in 1998. In a sermon that lasted almost two hours, Bakker did a superb job of summarizing his best‐selling book, I Was Wrong,2 and in the most transparent manner imaginable confessing the misdeeds of his PTL empire. But then he spoiled the entire presentation by predicting that a meteor would strike the earth within the next two years.

I thought to myself, “Oh no, why are you undermining your credibility by making such a rash prediction. The world needs to hear your confession, but why pollute it with these senseless dramatics?”

CHAPTER ONE

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Of course, no meteor ever threatened the earth in the next two years (nor has any in the many years since that sermon). Now here I was holding a book‐length version of the same sermon. I decided not to subject myself to reading a whole book of the same nonsense.

All Bakker has done is to convert from a “pre‐trib” dispensationalist to a “post‐trib” one. His overall mindset, however, is still steeped in the erroneous teachings of others, a practice that he decries in the above paragraphs.

He claims to have “studied the words of Jesus for hours on end.” I suggest that all he has done is to continue to rehearse what he has heard and read from others, and apparently all Bakker’s mentors have been dispensationalists of some stripe. “Pre‐trib” and “post‐trib” and “mid‐trib” theologies all make the anachronistic flaw of applying the Olivet Discourse to a present day setting. A careful reading of the passage will reveal that it has absolutely nothing to do with our present day, or any time period beyond the first century A.D.

Do you want to know what message the Olivet Discourse really conveys?

The logical starting point for understanding the Olivet Discourse is not Matthew 24:1, but rather Matthew 21:1, the account of Jesus’ spectacular entry into Jerusalem. We should consider everything He said during that last week of His life as the proper context of the Olivet Discourse, with that discourse being the climax of His teachings that week.

Any passage of Scripture is dependent on its context if we expect to truly understand it. I teach my Bible school students that the interpretation of the Bible is a lot like golf. No golfer ever expects to achieve maximal yardage on a drive simply by making


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contact with the ball. The golfer will continue the swing after contact is made with the ball. This is called “follow‐through.”

Understanding a passage of Scripture requires backing up to the previous section and reading “through” the passage being studied all the way through to the next section. This guarantees that at least the immediate context of the passage is taken into consideration.

We will follow this principle in our examination of the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) and include Matthew chapters 21 through 25 in our discussion. We will also compare Matthew’s account with the parallel passages in the other Synoptic Gospels.

So let’s begin with an overview of Matthew, chapters 21 to 23, always keeping before us two pertinent ideas: 1) that what Jesus said prophetically in His Olivet Discourse was an integral part of all His other sayings that week, and 2) that the week of Jesus’ Passion was not just the inauguration of God’s redemption through the New Covenant—it was also the beginning of the end of the Judaistic economy of the Old Covenant.

We will, therefore, devote the first three chapters of this book to an exposition of the three chapters in Matthew leading up to the Olivet Discourse. We will not be ready to attempt an understanding of Jesus’ most important prophecy until we adequately understand this preliminary material.

Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1‐11) 1As Jesus and His disciples approached Jerusalem and had

reached the suburb of Bethphage on the Olivet Hills, He sent two of them on ahead.

2“Go on to the next village,” He instructed them. “Right way you will see a donkey tethered there with her colt beside

CHAPTER ONE

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her. Untie them and lead them back here to me. 3If anyone objects to what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and that person will immediately send them to Me.”

4This all happened in fulfillment of the prophets’ sayings: 5“Declare to the daughter of Zion: ‘Look! Your King is coming to you, Humbly riding on a donkey— Even the colt of a beast of burden.’”

6So the disciples went and did just as they had been instructed, 7and they brought back the donkey and her colt. Then they threw their cloaks over them, and Jesus mounted the colt. 8A huge crowd had gathered, and many of them began to ceremoniously cover the path ahead of Jesus, some with their cloaks, others with boughs cut from the nearby trees.

9The crowd surrounded Him as He made his way into the city, and both those going before Him and those following after kept shouting, “Hosanna—hail our Savior—the Son of David! Blessings on the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna—hail our Savior—in the highest heaven!”

10When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city erupted with wild excitement. The question on everyone’s lips was: “Who is this?”

11And the answer rippled through the crowd: “It’s Jesus—the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee!”

—MATTHEW 21:1‐11

Jesus’ spectacular entry into the city of Jerusalem is perhaps one of the most misunderstood events in Jesus’ entire life and ministry. Traditionally the event has been called “The Triumphal Entry.” But


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to view it thus is really a mistake, and puts us squarely in the company of the spiritually blinded crowd that hailed Him as their Savior that day.

Jesus had resisted the pressure of the populace throughout His ministry when they wanted to proclaim Him their political leader. Now as He entered Jerusalem for His last extended visit, it would seem that He finally was succumbing to their demands.

But Jesus had repeatedly told His disciples that the purpose of His final visit to Jerusalem was not to ignite a political revolution, but rather to submit Himself to imprisonment and death. So we must look for some other motivation on Jesus’ part for instigating this spectacular procession that swept into the Holy City that day.

Matthew’s account places great emphasis on the fact that this event was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, particularly Zechariah 9:9, which he quotes (blending it with a salutation from Isaiah 62:11). The prophecy itself holds the key to understanding what Jesus was really doing that day.

“Declare to the daughter of Zion: ‘Look! Your King is coming to you, Humbly riding on a donkey— Even the colt of a beast of burden.’”

First of all, Matthew used a salutation—“declare to the daughter of Zion”—that was a common poetic expression used by the Old Testament prophets to indicate the entire nation of Israel—a nation whom YAHWEH had often called his bride, but also one whom He had often threatened to divorce because of her unfaithfulness. We could refer to dozens of passages from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea as examples of this repeated message from God to His chosen

CHAPTER ONE

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people, but perhaps this message was proclaimed most graphically by the prophet Ezekiel.

1This message came to me from YAHWEH: 2“Son of man, make Jerusalem aware of her disgusting

wickedness. 3Tell her what the Lord YAHWEH is saying: ‘You originated in the land of Canaan—your father was

an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite. 4When you were born, no one was there to cut your umbilical cord or to wash you with water to make you clean. You were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped with swaddling cloths. 5Not a single person cared enough for you to do these things. Instead you were thrown out in an open field and left to die. You were unwanted and despised from the day you were born.

6‘Then I passed by and saw you writhing in your own blood. I proclaimed to you, while you lay there in your own blood, “Live!”

‘That’s right! While you were lying there in your own blood, I spoke life to you! 7I caused you to abound ten‐thousandfold, to blossom like the flowers of the meadow. You grew strong and tall and you came to the time of love. You developed full breasts and your hair grew long, but you were still standing bare in your nudity.

8‘Then I passed by again and saw that, indeed, you had reached the age for conjugal love. So I spread my cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I swore my fidelity to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you. You became mine, declares Lord YAHWEH. 9Then I bathed you in water, washing away all the blood, and I applied soothing oil to your skin. 10I had you clothed with the finest needlework, and gave you


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sandals of supple leather. I folded fine linen about your head and covered you with silk. 11I adorned you with jewelry—bracelets for your arms, a necklace for your neck, 12a ring for your nose, earrings for your ears, and a tiara for your head.

13‘You were adorned with gold and silver; your clothing was the best linen and silk and needlework; your food was the finest flour and honey and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and you flourished as a royal governess. 14You were so beautiful that you became a celebrity among the nations. But you were completely beautiful because of My splendor which I imparted to you, declares Lord YAHWEH.’”

—EZEKIEL 16:1‐14

But YAHWEH’s special bride did not remain faithful, and YAHWEH explicitly denounced Israel’s conduct.

15“‘But you became over‐confident because of your beauty and fame, and you began to lavish your wantonness on every man passing by. If he wanted you, he could have you! 16You took some of your brightly colored garments and decorated your high places of idol worship where you carried on your prostitution.

‘Such things should never have happened—and they will not happen ever again!

17‘You even took your beautiful jewels, and My gold and My silver that I had given to you, and you fashioned images of the male sex and engaged in sex with them.’”

♦ ♦ ♦ 22In the midst of all your disgusting wickedness and

prostitution, you forgot where you came from. You forgot the

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days of your infancy when you were naked and writhing in your own blood.

23‘Now, after all your evil‐doing, I, Lord YAHWEH, say to you, “How terrible it is going to be for you!”

24‘For you built yourself mounds for your idolatrous altars, and you erected high places of pagan worship in every plaza. 25You built your high places at the foremost location on every street and put your beauty on disgraceful display. You spread your legs to every passer‐by and multiplied your whoredoms endlessly.’”

—EZEKIEL 16:15-17, 22-25

Then YAHWEH compared Jerusalem (who stands in this passage as a representative for the entire nation) to other cities who are also referred to in the feminine gender.

44“‘Now, look! You will be remembered in the proverb: “Jerusalem—like mother, like daughter.” 45You are indeed your mother’s daughter, for your mother despised her husband and her sons; and you are the just like your sisters who did the same. Truly, your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46Your older sister is Samaria who lives with her daughters to the north, and your younger sister is Sodom who lives with her daughters to the south.

47‘Were you content to follow their course of life with all their disgusting immorality? No! That was not enough for you! You followed an even more depraved path. 48As surely as I live, declares Lord YAHWEH, your sister Sodom and her daughters never engaged in such debauchery as you and your daughters.’”



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All this is to be kept in mind when the nation of Israel is addressed as the “daughter of Zion.” Because of Israel’s spiritual prostitution, YAHWEH divorced her, a metaphor used to indicate their destruction and captivity by foreign powers.

6When Josiah was king of Judah, YAHWEH said, “Jeremiah, have you seen what has been done? Wayward Israel has gone up on every high hill and whored under every green tree. 7Yet even after all that she had done, I said, ‘She will come back to Me.’ But she did not return. Her sister, Judah, who is also unfaithful, saw what Israel did, 8and also saw how I divorced Israel and sent her away because of her adulteries. But Judah, even after seeing this, showed no fear. She, too has given herself to prostitution.”

—JEREMIAH 3:6‐8

The Northern Kingdom’s demise at the hand of the Assyrians is shown to be YAHWEH’s divorce decree against her. He sent her away. Judah also would be divorced when the armies of Babylon brought God’s judgment against the Southern Kingdom.

Judah, however, would later be restored in her relationship with YAHWEH, but her inability to be faithful to God would bring about another time of impending doom when another foreign power—the Romans—would become the agent of another divorce decree, this time without the promise of restoration.

Those who interpret the founding of the modern state of Israel with the Old Testament’s promises of restoration for Israel are misguided in their handling of the Scriptures. All the promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Christ on a spiritual plane, not through national Israel on the material plane, as Paul made clear:

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18As surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No,” 19because the Son of God, Jesus Messiah, the One who was proclaimed among you by us—by myself as well as Sivanus and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No.” To the contrary, He has always been God’s “Yes”! 20He is the “Yes” and the “Amen” to every one of God’s promises. By Him all the words of God are made certain and put into effect through us to the glory of God.

—2 CORINTHIANS 1:18‐20

In Biblical times the punishment for adultery was stoning. We should keep this in mind when we consider the prophecy of Jesus on the Olivet Hills when he said that Jerusalem would be destroyed and “not one stone will be left on another” (Matthew 24:2).

Now notice the content of the prophecy which comes directly from Zechariah 9:9. Israel is told that “your King,” not just “a king,” would one day come to them. Their King, of course, was none other than YAHWEH Himself.

But observe the incongruity of the description. This King would come “humbly riding on a donkey—even the colt of a beast of burden.” Lord YAHWEH, who rides the clouds like a chariot (Deuteronomy 33:26; Psalm 68:4), would send His Messiah to them riding the lowliest of all the beasts of burden.

That’s the point Jesus was making when He entered the Holy City that fateful day. He was not acquiescing to the mad wishes of the throng for a political deliverer—He was trying to get them to see how ludicrous their expectations were.

Zechariah’s prophecy had always been there to prepare Israel for the true nature of her King. He would not come in the form of a mighty warrior, riding a steed or driving a chariot—He would


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come in the lowest form of humility. Some translations render the Hebrew word yn]u� {àaniy—aw‐nee´} as “gentle,” but Keil and Delitzsch in their Old Testament Commentary observe: “àaniy does not mean gentle, but lowly, miserable, bowed down, full of suffering. The word denotes the whole of the lowly, miserable, suffering condition, as it is elaborately depicted in Isaiah 53.”3

There was no intention on Jesus’ part to portray Himself as a victorious conqueror. He came as the suffering servant to pay the awful price of redemption, and that’s what His entry into Jerusalem was all about.

One other observation will help us to see that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem did not in any way symbolize the offer of a political, earthly kingdom to the nation of Israel. Although not reported in Matthew’s account, Luke records that “as Jesus came near and saw the city, He wept over it” (Luke 19:41).

How ridiculous is the dispensationalist teaching that Jesus was in the process of legitimately offering a literal, earthly kingdom to the nation of Israel, and that if the Jews would have accepted Him at that moment as their Messiah, then the entire subsequent story of redemption would have been one without a Cross or a Church! That is what they teach, you know. Unfortunately, most who embrace this flawed system of theology have never thought through to the logical conclusion of some of the dispensationalist statements. For instance, they claim that the Church is nowhere prophesied about in the Old Testament, but rather is a “parentheses program” that God initiated because the Jews rejected Jesus’ offer of an earthly kingdom. The Church of Jesus Christ is no “plan B” in the purposes and plans of the Almighty—but that’s a subject that will have to be discussed in another forum.

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The point here is simply this: Jesus was suffering from no illusion that the throngs that escorted Him into the city that day had any notion of what the Kingdom that He was offering actually consisted. He came to offer a spiritual Kingdom, one that fulfilled all the ancient promises to Israel, but on a vastly higher plane.

What the “palm Sunday” mob wanted was an earthly conqueror who would lead them in battle against their tyrannical Roman oppressors. This same crowd would continue to press for this kind of futile political action until finally they forced the hand of the Romans who marched on the city 40 years later and razed it to the ground.

If Jesus had, in actual fact, been offering such a kingdom to the Jews, how inappropriate it was for Him to stop the parade and mar the joyous occasion by weeping over the very city that was ready to push Him forward as their answer to the Roman oppression.

No, Jesus wept because the whole ordeal, the so‐called “triumphal entry” was a farce! He indeed had a Kingdom to offer, but the crowd could not see past their own self‐centered noses. They cried, “Hosanna!” which had come to be an expression of praise, but which originally was a cry for help and simply meant, “Lord, save us!”

That was their honest desire—they wanted deliverance, but they wanted it their way. They really weren’t interested in what Jesus actually had to offer. They just wanted Him to fit the mold of their own theology—a theology that was mired in the material and the temporal and could not see the greater Kingdom of the spiritual and the eternal that had always been God’s highest intention for them.

The foolishness that surrounds so much of the misinter‐pretation of the Olivet Discourse stems from this same fatal error.


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The dispensationalist system is wrong, not because it misinterprets a Scripture here and there, but because its sights are set too low. Expecting that God is still intent on fulfilling His promises to natural Israel in a physical way, they wrest the Scripture to their own hurt by trying to force the Scriptures into a materialistic mold of their own making. It is one of the saddest commentaries on human nature that 2000 years after the Incarnation, Christians persist in making the same errors of judgment that the first‐century Jews made. The Jews could not recognize Jesus because of their flawed materialistic expectations, and dispensationalists have led far too many Christians into similar false expectations.

If Jesus wept over the situation then, surely He weeps today over the blindness that keeps people from enjoying His bounty. We will leave for the moment, however, any further commentary on Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem. Matthew arranged his material topically, not chronologically, and his record of Jesus’ words of lamentation are found at the end of chapter 23. We will get there in due course.

One other observation about Jesus’ mode of transportation into Jerusalem merits our attention before we move on to the next section of Matthew 21. The Judges of Israel rode on donkeys, this being a sign of distinguished rank during a time when Israel had no horses. In fact, all we know of the judge, Jair, is the fact that he had thirty sons riding on thirty donkeys and ruling over thirty cities (Judges 10:4). And all we know of the judge, Abdon, is that he had forty sons and thirty grandsons riding on seventy donkeys (Judges 10:4; 12:14). That these would be the most pertinent facts in the record of two men’s lifetimes, the only written legacy that they left behind, have led some to conclude that donkeys and judgeship were

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synonymous. I would not want to press too vigorously this meaning on the symbol of the donkey that Jesus rode, because I am leery of such fanciful interpretations. But there can be no denying that Jesus came into Jerusalem that week for the purpose of judgment.

31“Now God’s judgment will come to this world, and its ruler will be overthrown. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the ground, I will draw it all toward Myself.”

—JOHN 12:31‐32

Whether the donkey Jesus rode was a symbol of such judgment is mere speculation. If it is not, then it is still quite an interesting coincidence.

The Cleansing of the Temple (Matthew 21:12‐17) 12Jesus entered the Temple courts and proceeded to drive

out all those who were buying and selling commodities used in the Temple sacrifices. He turned over the tables of those who exchanged ordinary money for Temple currency, and He upset the benches of those selling sacrificial doves.

13“It is written,” He proclaimed, “‘My house is to be known as a house of prayer.’ But you have turned it into a lair for bandits!”

14Afterwards many blind and crippled people came to Him in the Temple courts, and He healed them. 15But when the leaders of the priests and the experts in the Law saw the wonders He performed, and when they heard even the little children shouting in the Temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they became indignant, 16and accosted Jesus. “Are you aware of what they are saying?” they asked.


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“Yes, I am” Jesus replied. “Surely you have read in the Scriptures, ‘Out of the mouths of children and infants You have brought forth perfect praise.’”

17Then Jesus departed from the Temple courts to go spend the night in Bethany.


Our purpose here is not to get entangled in the controversies surrounding the differences of chronology in the various Gospels regarding Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple courts. Both Matthew and Luke record it as an event that occurred on Jesus’ first day in Jerusalem after His spectacular entry. Mark records that He went to the Temple area and just looked around that first day, and then came back the following day to “clean house.” John’s Gospel places the incident at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry rather than during the last week—unless, of course, there were two times that Jesus chased the money exchangers away.

All we want to do here is examine this event to see if there are any pertinent facts that will better prepare us for understanding Jesus’ Olivet Discourse later that week.

The first fact that we observe is that Jesus proceeded immediately (whether the first day or the next is immaterial) to dispense judgment on a perverted religious system whose time had come to an end. His Olivet Discourse later that week would be in perfect keeping with this dramatic demonstration against the religious establishment.

Second, we note that immediately following the cleansing of the Temple courts, Jesus healed the blind and the lame who came to Him there. This is significant in view of the fact that, according to 2 Samuel 5:8, “The blind and crippled cannot enter YAHWEH’s house.”

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This was a display of the nature of the Messianic Kingdom He had come to inaugurate, not the establishment of the rich and powerful—which was what the Jews thought the Messianic Age would be about—but rather the elevation of the lowliest strata of society to favor with God. The Jews had interpreted the Messianic prophecies as predictions that Israel would once again have top status as a ruler among the nations. They looked forward to the day that they would be the “top dog” instead of the Romans’ underdog—to the day that they would be in charge and could “kick some tail” instead of being the “kickee” as they had been for so many years. They really weren’t interested in a Messiah who would ignore the world situation and devote His energies to reaching out to the blind and crippled. They were perfectly satisfied with the way they had been running things for centuries, excluding the imperfect from the Kingdom.

Thirdly, Jesus confirmed the exclamations of the children as being the epitome of perfect praise, not because He was swayed by the declarations of the crowds. He knew that these children were simply echoing what they had heard the adults saying, but He also knew that behind their innocent repetition of these words were not hearts of selfishness and blind arrogance as was the case with so many of the adults. Coming from their lips, these expressions of praise were perfected.

Once again, this element in Matthew’s account symbolized something basic and vital about the Kingdom that Jesus was offering and was a reflection of Jesus’ previous teachings:

3“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “unless you are changed to become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!”

—MATTHEW 18:3


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So as we work our way through the material that Matthew collected and recorded for us, we find Jesus continuing to reiterate that the nature of the Kingdom He was offering was one of lowliness and compassion. There is not one scintilla of evidence of any intention on His part of offering a physical kingdom of any kind. This offer of an earthly kingdom, which the dispensationalists are convinced was withdrawn because the Jews rejected it, is but a figment of their overactive imaginations. There was no withdrawal of the offer of an earthly kingdom simply because Jesus never offered such a kingdom. There was the offer, and the repeated demonstration, as we have just seen, of the true spiritual Kingdom of God. But even though that offer was rejected by most of the Jews, it was not withdrawn—instead it was confirmed and sealed in blood before this week was finished!

The Cursing of the Fig Tree (Matthew 21:18‐22) 18Early the next morning, Jesus started back to the city,

and He was hungry. 19He saw one certain fig tree by the side of the road and went over to it. Finding nothing on it but leaves, He said to the fig tree, “I declare that you will never again bear fruit.”

And then and there the fig tree dried up. 20The disciples were astounded when they saw this, and

they asked, “What caused the fig tree to dry up so quickly?” 21Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you truly believe in

God, and do not waiver, you will be able to do what I have done to this fig tree. Not only that, you will even be able to say to this hill, ‘Get up and throw yourself into the sea,’ and it

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will happen. 22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”


We come now to one of the most perplexing passages in the Scriptures. There is, of course, the discrepancy between the two accounts of Mark and Luke as to the chronology of the events. Matthew has the incident happening the second morning of week and the cursing and the withering of the fig tree happening together. Mark, on the other hand, has the cursing happening on the morning of the second day, but the results, the withering of the tree, not being observed by the disciples until the following morning. However, the content of the incident, not the chronology, is our concern at this point.

A cursory reading of this story here in Matthew and in the parallel passage in Mark tends to leave one with the idea that Jesus at times acted unreasonably, perhaps even irresponsibly. Mark adds the explanatory information that “it was too early in the season for the figs to be ripe” (Mark 11:13). Consequently many have been perplexed that Jesus would curse a tree for failing to do something that was out of the natural order of things. As we shall see, however, there was a very valid reason for Jesus’ actions, and it had everything to do with the theme of judgment that pervaded all His words and actions throughout this last week of His life.

First, however, let’s look at some details in the phrases the Gospel writers used to tell this story—details that tend to be overlooked. Both Matthew and Mark, albeit in different ways, indicate to their readers that this fig tree was not just any fig tree. Mark records that Jesus saw the tree “in the distance” (Mark 11:13), and Matthew calls it “one certain fig tree” (Matthew 21:19). The


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Greek word translated “one certain” is mi/an {mian—meeʹ‐ahn} which means “one, first, single, or only one.” In other words, Jesus was already familiar with this particular tree.

This, in turn, leads us to the observation that in both accounts, Jesus’ examination of the tree was prompted by His hunger. Now, we have to believe that Jesus would not be unreasonable and approach the tree for the purpose of collecting some figs to assuage His hunger when He knew full well that figs were not due to be ripe for at least another couple of months. What happened was that Jesus’ hunger that morning caused Him to remember “one certain” fig tree that He knew was in the vicinity, and looking up, sure enough, He saw it “in the distance.” He thought to Himself, “I wonder if that tree is going to produce any figs this year,” and He approached it to examine it, searching for any green figs that might be developing under the leaves. But His examination proved what He feared: there was no developing fruit—only leaves.

When Jesus cursed the tree, His action was not due to an irrational expectation, looking for fruit where it was impossible for there to be any. Neither was it an impulsive response to His irritation at not finding something there to eat.

As always, Jesus’ words and actions were measured responses to issues that transcended the petty concerns of the temporal realm. Such is surely the case in this incident, and we find the key to the puzzle when we recall one of Jesus’ parables—the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree.

6Then Jesus told them this story: “There was a man who had a fig tree growing in his

vineyard. He kept looking for it to produce fruit, but there were never any figs. 7So he said to his gardener, ‘Look, for

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three years now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, but there has not been a single fig. This tree is just taking up space. Cut it down.’

8“But the gardener pleaded with the man, ‘Master, give it one more chance. Let me work with it for one more year. Let me dig around it and fertilize it. 9Then if it bears fruit next year, we will be glad we waited, but if not, then you can have it cut down.’”

—LUKE 13:6‐9

Jesus is portrayed in the Scriptures as our advocate, and in this parable it is evident that YAHWEH is the owner of the vineyard and that Jesus is the gardener. The fig tree—the nation of Israel—is about to be cut off and destroyed in judgment, but the gardener intercedes and pleads for one more year. It is not coincidental that it was after three years of fruitlessness that the gardener asks for just one more season.

Jesus began His ministry by being baptized by John the Baptist at a critical juncture in the divine chronology—at the beginning of the seventieth of Daniel’s Seventy Sevens. That final period of seven years of the prophecy was to be the culmination of YAHWEH’s dealings with recalcitrant Israel. But, in His grace, He promised them that seven year period.

We cannot afford to go too far afield with a detailed examination of Daniel’s prophecy. That exposition requires a book within itself. However, we will allude to it throughout this study of the Olivet Discourse because the two prophecies are integrally related. Suffice to say, at this point, that the modern popular interpretation advocated by the dispensationalist viewpoint, that sees in Daniel’s prophecy a prediction of a coming “antichrist” at


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the end of time, is an innovation of the last century and a half and is a travesty of exegesis.

Keil and Delitzsch comment on the history of the interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy: “Most of the church fathers and the older orthodox interpreters find prophesied here the appearance of Christ in the flesh, His death, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.”4 The views in this book concur with this historical, orthodox position.

Let’s take a quick peek at the prophecy because we will be referring to it from time to time throughout this book.

24Seventy sevens have been marked out regarding your people and your holy city—

• to restrain the rebellion • to complete the measure of sin • to atone for inequity • to usher in age‐long righteousness • to confirm the prophetic vision • to consecrate the holy of holies.

25Here is instruction and insight for you: from the issuing of the decree to return and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of God’s Anointed—the Chosen Prince—seven sevens and sixty‐two sevens shall pass. The city will be rebuilt with broad streets and strong defenses, but the times will be filled with distress.

26Now after the sixty‐two sevens, the Anointed One will be cut down and left with nothing.

(As for the city and the sanctuary, they eventually will be laid waste by the troops of the prince who will come against them. When the end finally comes, it will be like a sudden,

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overwhelming flood, and until the end, war will continue, for these devastations have been irrevocably determined by God.)

27The covenant will be confirmed with the mass of the people for one seven, but in the middle of that seven, both the bloody and bloodless sacrifices will be terminated.

At last, from the outermost point will come the detestable thing that brings devastation until the complete destruction that has been decreed has been poured out.

—DANIEL 9:24‐27

Notice that the first verse of the prophecy (verse 24) lists six purposes for the span of time covered by the prophecy, and all six of these find their fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah.

The first—“to restrain the rebellion”—speaks of God’s intention to place a limitation on Israel’s waywardness, to at some point say, “Enough is enough. Your time for repentance has expired.”

The second—“to complete the measure of sin”—is synonymous with the first, except that this purpose has in view Israel filling up her cup of iniquity.

The third—“to atone for inequity”—speaks directly of Christ’s coming as the sacrificial Lamb of God.

The fourth—“to usher in age‐long righteousness”—speaks of the justification that comes to those who believe on Jesus Christ.

The fifth—“to confirm the prophetic vision”—speaks of the fulfillment of all the promises of God in Jesus Christ.

The sixth—“to consecrate the holy of holies”—speaks of the anointing of a new sanctuary, the new Temple of God made up of the living stones of New Testament believers.

Next, we see that the chronology specifically points to Jesus Christ. The total span of time of the prophecy—seventy “sevens” or


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weeks of years, that is, 490 years—takes us to and through the period of the culmination of the redemptive plan of the ages, the ministry of Jesus Christ and the opening period of the Christian Church.

The total prophetic program is broken down into three sub‐periods. The first—seven “sevens” or 49 years—extends from the decree

by Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem to the actual completion of the terms of that decree. Under Ezra and Nehemiah, the wall of the city and the Temple were reconstructed.

The second sub‐period—sixty‐two “sevens” or 434 years—extends from the rebuilding of Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah, the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist and the inauguration of Christ’s earthly ministry.

The final sub‐period—one “seven” or seven years—is further broken down into two halves of 3½ years each. The first 3½ years cover the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry ending at the Cross. The prophecy declares that “after” the period of the sixty‐two “sevens” that Messiah would be “cut down and left with nothing.” The prophecy furthermore states that “in the middle” of the final “seven” the Old Covenant sacrificial system would be terminated. This was fulfilled when, during the crucifixion of Jesus, the veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom.

The second half of the final “seven” covers the 3½ years of the apostles’ ministry to the Jewish nation and ends with the Samaritan revival which occurred 3½ years after Pentecost and marked the entrance into the Kingdom of the first non‐Jewish believers.

The entire final “seven” was ordained by God to be devoted to the Jews only. For 3½ years Jesus preached the message of the Kingdom of God to the Jews only, even telling one Canaanite mother, “I have only been sent to the lost sheep of the nation of

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Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Jesus said that to this desperate mother, not because He was uncaring of her plight, but because He was operating under the constraints of a covenantal promise that YAHWEH had made through Daniel to His chosen people, Israel.

The prophecy clearly declared: “The covenant will be confirmed with the mass of the people for one seven.” True to YAHWEH’s word, Jesus devoted His entire attention to the nation of Israel throughout the 3½ years of His earthly ministry, even though the nation was standing under the impending doom of God’s wrath because of their disobedience and spiritual adultery. And His apostles completed this covenantal obligation by restricting their evangelistic efforts to Jews only for an additional 3½ years, even though their Master had told them to take the Gospel to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

In the metaphoric language of the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, Jesus is pictured as forestalling God’s wrath. The owner of the vineyard had watched for three years as the tree failed to produce a crop of figs. When he ordered the tree cut down, the gardener pleaded, “Please, just one more year.” And now we see Jesus in the last week of His ministry, in the middle of His fourth year as YAHWEH’s earthly gardener, acquiescing to YAHWEH’s demand for judgment and agreeing that Israel would forever be barren and should justly be destroyed.

It is evident that this parable was not only one that was told, but one that was acted out in Jesus’ ministry. Each year, apparently, when He came to Jerusalem for the festivals, this tree, so close to the home of His friends—Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany—caught his attention and became a symbol of the barren, covenant nation. Finally, at the end of His ministry, He approached the tree


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one final time, looking for the evidence that would make the judgment of God unnecessary. But sadly, He found none. So dutifully, as YAHWEH’s gardener, He kept His word and destroyed the tree with the power of His word.

The entire scene that was played out before the eyes of the disciples was for them simply an astounding demonstration of Jesus’ authority and supernatural prowess. “Wow! How did you do that? What caused the fig tree to dry up so quickly?” was their infantile response. They never even thought to ask, “What does this mean?” It would not be until later that week that Jesus in the Olivet Discourse would verbally articulate the impending doom awaiting backslidden Israel, and even then, it is doubtful that the disciples made the connection with that “one certain” withered fig tree standing forlornly on the side of the road to Bethany.

The Challenge to Jesus’ Authority (Matthew 21:23-27) 23Jesus returned to the Temple courts and while He was

teaching, the leaders of the priests and the elders of the people confronted Him. “Who do you think You are to come in here like this?” they asked. “Who authorized You to do the things you are doing?”

24Jesus replied, “I have one question for you. If you give Me an answer to My question, then I will tell you what right I have to do what I am doing. 25Tell Me, did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven or from men?”

At this the leaders began to deliberate among themselves. One said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe Him?’”

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26Another said, “But if we say, ‘From men,’ there is no telling what the crowd might do. Surely they would turn on us, for they all believe John was a true prophet.”

27Finally they said to Jesus, “We don’t know.” So Jesus replied, “Then neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”


This first confrontation with the leaders of the Jewish community that week was an unsuccessful frontal assault on Jesus’ authority. Later there would be other confrontations of a more subtle variety. In fact, Matthew arranged his material to show all the various leadership and religious groups coming to Jesus in rapid succession, and we will deal with that series of questions in the next chapter.

In answer to this direct challenge to His ministry, Jesus chose to respond with a question of His own. In the two statements, “I have a question for you,” and “I will tell you,” the pronoun “I” is stated emphatically. This indicates that Jesus was placing Himself on equal status with the Jewish leaders who had come to question him.

Mark, in his account, structured the information about the fear the leaders had for the people as a parenthetical comment and not as a direct statement of the Jewish leaders.

31At this they began to deliberate with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32But if we say, ‘From men,’ well…” (They feared the people, for all the people considered John to be a true prophet.)

—MARK 11:31‐32


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By structuring this as a direct statement of Jesus’ opponents, Matthew laid greater stress both upon the fear that the Jewish leaders had of the masses and upon their alienation from the ordinary folk.

Very few questions could have so completely revealed the wicked intentions of the Jewish leaders. Jesus’ question revealed the true motivation of the religious and ruling elite and exposed them for what they really were—hypocrites. They indicted themselves when they cited only two options and chose neither of them.

Our main observation, as we move past this incident, is that the Jewish priesthood was perverted and the Jewish leaders were reprobate. Later in the week Jesus would denounce them openly, but here He simply allowed their own words and actions to reveal their moral decay and spiritual bankruptcy.

The Parable of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32) 28Then Jesus said, “What do you think about this? There

was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” 29The son replied, ‘No, I won’t go.’ But later he regretted his decision, and went.

30“The father went to the other son and said the same thing. This one said, ‘Yes sir, I will go,’ but he did not go. 31Now, which of the two sons did what his father wanted?”

The leaders answered, “The first.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes

are taking your place in the Kingdom of God! 32For John came to you showing you the way of righteousness, but you did not believe. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did! But even when you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe.”

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The Parable of the Two Sons is the first in a series of three parables which deal with the theme of Jesus’ rejection by the Jewish authorities, who should have been the first to have received Him and His message.

Jesus contrasted the Jewish leaders with the two most despicable classes within Jewish society—tax collectors and prostitutes—because it was commonly held that such persons would not be worthy to participate in the coming Messianic Kingdom. Yet Jesus gave them preferential status over the religious elite because of their faith.

The religious leaders (and, consequently, the Jewish population at large) understood the coming Messianic Kingdom to be one based on bloodline and merit. They saw it only as an earthly establishment that would elevate the Jewish race to universal dominance. And within the Jewish race, its special favors would be reserved for those with the finest pedigree. They could only understand a top‐down hierarchy. Jesus’ teachings about the last being first and the servant being the greatest flew in the face of all the expectations that the Jews held dear concerning the coming Messianic Kingdom.

And now Jesus had the audacity to tell these leaders that they were being displaced by the very ones that they held in the lowest regard. This was unthinkable! No wonder they hated Him! No wonder they wanted Him dead!

At the very heart of the conflict between the religious establishment and Jesus lay this misunderstanding of the nature of the Kingdom of God. They rejected Him because His was not the kind of kingdom they envisioned and had for centuries cherished in their hearts.

The Parable of the Two Sons brought to light the grand scheme of redemption, the plan whereby God through the ages had chosen


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Israel—the “second” son (think of Isaac instead of Ishmael and Jacob instead of Esau)—to be a channel of blessing for the rest of the world. God had directed them, “Go and work in My vineyard.” And initially they had responded affirmatively.

3Then Moses ascended the mountain to meet with God, and YAHWEH spoke to him from the mountain,

“This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob, the people of Israel:

4‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you here to Me. 5Now then, if you will faithfully obey Me and keep My covenant, then you will be My special possession from among all the other nations. Although all the earth is Mine, 6you will be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.’

“Moses, give this message to the children of Israel.” 7So Moses descended from the mountain and summoned

the elders of Israel. He presented to them all that YAHWEH had commanded him to speak.

8And all the people responded in unison, “We will do everything that YAHWEH has said!”

So Moses brought the people’s answer back to YAHWEH. —EXODUS 19:3‐8

But they did NOT do everything that YAHWEH said. The history of the nation of Israel was one long litany of failure. They were the son who said, “Yes sir, I will go,” but did not go.

In contrast were those who initially made no pretense about their refusal to follow God and do His bidding. These were the 70 pagan nations of Genesis 10; these were the descendants of the

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“first” sons, Ishmael and Esau; these were the outcasts and dregs of Jewish society like the tax collectors and prostitutes. They had all initially said, “No way! We refuse to submit ourselves to any rigorous life of holiness. We will follow instead our sensuous passions. We will live for today. We are only interested in what we can get out of life for ourselves.”

But by the time Jesus appeared on the scene, the paganistic system had proven to be a dismal failure, a horrific bondage to the flesh and demonic powers, and the hearts of men everywhere were ripe for a new message of hope. When they heard the message of Jesus, they joyfully received it. Despite the fact that they had previously declared, “No, we will not go,” they now were having a change of heart and were on their way to the vineyard.

The self‐righteous religious elite, however, thought they needed nothing other than the religious system they had concocted for themselves. Their initial agreement to the plan and purposes of God had evolved into the traditions of men. Thus Jesus “came to His own, but His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

The Parable of the Wicked Sharecroppers (Matthew 21:33-46) 33Then Jesus told the leaders to listen to another story: “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put

a wall around it. He dug a pit where the juice could be pressed from the grapes, and he built a watchtower so his vineyard would be secure. Then he leased it to some sharecroppers and left to go on a long trip. 34When vintage time came, he sent his servants to the sharecroppers to collect his share of the harvest. 35But the sharecroppers apprehended the servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.


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36“So the landowner sent more servants, even more than the first group, and they were treated the same way. 37Finally the landowner sent his son to them. He said to himself, “Surely they will respect my son.”

38“But when the sharecroppers saw the son, they said to one another, “This is the landowner’s heir. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves.” 39So they grabbed him , threw him out of the vineyard and murdered him.

40“Now, what do you suppose the landowner will do to those sharecroppers when he himself comes?”

41“Well, surely he will destroy those wretches!” the leaders replied. “He will then lease out his vineyard to other sharecroppers who will promptly turn over to him his share at vintage time.”

42Jesus said to them, “Surely you know what the Scriptures say, ‘The stone that the builders culled out Has turned out to be the cornerstone. This is something the Lord has done, And it is wonderful to behold.’

43“And so I tell you, that God will take away from you the privilege of being in His Kingdom and give it to another people who will produce the fruits of the Kingdom. 44Anyone who stumbles over this stone will be broken to pieces and on whomever it falls, the stone will grind to powder.”

45The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees began to realize that Jesus was speaking about them, 46and they wanted to arrest Him. But they feared to take that risk, because the people regarded Jesus as a true prophet.


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The theme of conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders is continued in this second parable—the Parable of the Wicked Sharecroppers. The introduction to the parable (verse 33) is a strong allusion to the Song of the Vineyard from the prophet Isaiah, especially as it occurs in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint.

1Now, let me sing about one who is well‐loved—a song to my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved situated his vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2He dug the soil and cleared out the stones, then planted the very best vines. In the middle he built a tower and a winepress. Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but instead his vineyard produced only sour grapes.

3My beloved says, “So now, residents of Jerusalem and people of Judah, you be the judge between me and my vineyard—4what more can I do to my vineyard beyond what I have already done? When I expected it to produce sweet grapes, why did I get sour grapes? 5Here is what I am going to do with my vineyard: I will remove its fence and tear down its wall. I will turn it into a pasture and let the animals graze there and trample it down. 6I will let it become a wasteland. I will not prune the vines or hoe out the weeds. I will let it become overgrown with briers and thorns. I will even forbid the clouds to rain upon it.” 7Indeed Israel is the vineyard of YAHWEH, leader of vast legions. The people of Judah are the vines He planted and in which He took delight. He expected them to produce justice, but instead they produced oppression. He looked for righteousness, but instead He heard only their victims’ cries for mercy.

—ISAIAH 5:1‐7


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The two passages have similar elements, although the stories are quite different. However, the message of both is identical. Whether seen as an unproductive field or as a band of dishonest and murderous sharecroppers, the message is that Israel was a major disappointment to God and would be judged severely for her failure.

The Parable of the Wicked Sharecroppers reveals definite allegorical characteristics: the landowner is God; the vineyard is Israel; the sharecroppers are Israel’s rulers and leaders; the servant‐messengers are the prophets; the son is Jesus Himself; the punishment (verse 43) is God’s rejection of Israel; and the people to whom the vineyard will be given are the nations. In all likelihood, the two groups of servant‐messengers probably represent the pre‐exilic and post‐exilic prophets, the underlying message being that even through the long decades of captivity and servitude under the oppressive hand of Gentile tyrants, Israel did not learn its lesson.

The most important statement in this part of Jesus’ teachings in the Temple courts that day was that the Kingdom of God, Israel’s rightful inheritance as the covenant nation, would taken from them and given to someone else. This crucial period—the last week of Jesus ministry culminating in His execution by the stewards of the covenant trust—marked the beginning of a transition period in which the nation of Israel would cease to have a place in the redemptive program, and others would take her place. All the rights, privileges, and blessings of the covenant would be transferred to the safe‐keeping of other stewards. All of the promises and prophecies intended to be fulfilled in Israel would instead be fulfilled in a different way and with a different people.

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The Jews rejection of Jesus was not a minor mistake. It was not a mere “oops!” It was singularly the greatest mistake in her long history of failures. Other failings would be forgiven and second and third chances would be granted. But this mistake was fatal. Long before, Moses had warned of catastrophic consequences if Israel should ever fail at this point.

15“YAHWEH your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your countrymen. You must listen to that Prophet. 16On the day that you were gathered at Mount Sinai, you begged not to be forced to hear directly the voice of YAHWEH or to have to look directly at His fiery presence. You were afraid it would kill you.

17“So YAHWEH said to me, ‘Fine, I will give them what they have asked for. 18I will raise up a Prophet like you, Moses, from among their countrymen. I will put My words in His mouth and He will speak to them all that I want them to hear. 19I Myself will call to account any person who does not pay attention to the words that Prophet speaks in My name.’”

—DEUTERONOMY 18:15‐19

One of Israel’s first failures as a nation was the refusal to have the kind of intimate relationship with God that He desired. He wanted to communicate with them personally, not through an intermediary. In fact, He wanted them to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6)—a whole nation of intermediaries who would represent Him before the nations. They themselves were to have direct access to Him.

But they were afraid because of the mighty manifestation of God’s presence on Mount Sinai. So they propositioned Moses: “You


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be our intermediary—our prophet. You go talk to God and then come back and tell us what He has said. We promise: whatever He says, we will do it. Just don’t make us have to face Him personally.”

In response, God said, “Okay, we’ll do it that way. But that means that now they will need an intermediary, in fact, a whole tribe of intermediaries.” Thus the tribe of Levi was separated out from the rest of the tribes of Israel to fulfill the priestly function that God had intended for the entire nation. And so the people of Israel became one step removed from the position that God had originally intended for them. What is worse, so were the heathen nations. The priests that God had ordained to represent the nations before His throne had abdicated their power and position. Instead of being a channel of blessing for the nations, they now needed the ministry of others to be a conduit of God’s blessings and messages to them.

No wonder Isaiah prophesied, speaking for YAHWEH to the Messiah, “I will give You as a covenant to the people, and as a light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6). One of the Messiah’s missions was to do the work that had been intended for Israel.

When God acquiesced to Israel’s demand for an intermediary, however, He very explicitly spelled out the consequences of such an arrangement. “One of these days,” He said, “I will raise up a Prophet like Moses. He with be The Prophet—My final word on the subject! When He speaks, you had better listen. You have asked for Him, so when He comes, I will cut you no slack. If you reject Him, I will personally call you to account!”

When Peter quoted this verse (Deuteronomy 18:19) in one of his sermons, his words were even more emphatic.

22“Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your countrymen. You must

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obey Him in everything He tells you. 23Every person who does not obey that Prophet will be removed from the covenant people and completely destroyed.’”

—ACTS 3:22-23

All this is the background that we must have in mind when we study such passages as the Parable of the Fig Tree and the Parable of the Wicked Sharecroppers, and especially when we get to the Olivet Discourse. Israel as a nation had filled the cup of iniquity to full measure. She had failed to produce justice and righteousness. She had been disobedient and spiritually adulterous. But when the Prophet came and she rejected Him, there was no room for leniency or mercy. Her doom was sealed. God was going to tear from her hands the covenant promises and provisions and give them to someone else. Then He was going to destroy her as a nation. CHAPTER ONE ENDNOTES 1 Jim Bakker and Ken Abraham, Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse, Thomas

Nelson, 1998. 2 Jim Bakker and Ken Abraham, I Was Wrong, Thomas Nelson, 1996. 3 Carl Friedrich Keil, Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament

(Zechariah 9:1-10), New Updated Edition, Hendrickson Publishers, 1996 (originally published 1900).

4 Ibid., (Daniel 9:24).


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CHAPTER TWO

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CHAPTER TWO

Background for the Discourse – 2 MMMATTHEW 22 CONSISTS of a parable, a series of three questions posed to Jesus—one from each of the major religious entities of the day—and finally one question Jesus put to his adversaries.

The parable is the third in a trilogy that began in the previous chapter. The Parable of the Two Sons (which contrasted the adamant covenant nation of Israel with the acquiescing pagan nations) and the Parable of the Wicked Sharecroppers (which depicted Israel as the unjust and ungrateful stewards of the covenant promises) lead naturally to the third parable in the series.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1‐14) 1Jesus continued to address the crowd by telling another

story: 2“The Kingdom of the Heavenlies is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son, 3and sent his servants to summon those who had been invited to the feast. But they refused to come. 4So he dispatched another group of servants, instructing them, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look! The feast I have prepared for you is ready. My steers and


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grain‐fed calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”’

5But they disregarded the invitation and continued about their business—one to the fields, another to the marketplace. 6Still others grabbed the messengers and assaulted them. Some of the king’s servants were even killed.

7The king was furious! He ordered his soldiers to put those murderers to death and burn down their town.

8Then he said to this servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but the ones on my guest list don’t deserve to come. 9Now, go to every major intersection and up and down all the roadways and invite everyone you meet to come to the feast.’

10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find—good and bad alike—until the banquet hall was filled with guests.

11However, when the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there who was not properly attired for a wedding, 12and accosted him, ‘Friend, how is it that you have come here dressed in such unbecoming clothes?’

But the man offered no reply. 13The king turned to his servants and said, ‘Restrain him

and throw him out! There in the darkness he can weep with remorse and clench his teeth in resentment.’”

14Then Jesus concluded, “Many are invited, but few actually make it.”


In light of the two previous parables, the message of this third story is plain. Once again, the covenant nation of Israel is depicted as

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rudely disregarding the wishes of the king. This time the situation is an invitation to a wedding banquet the king is giving for his son.

Jesus likened the Kingdom of God to a variety of earthly things—a sower (Matthew 13:24), a mustard seed (Matthew 13:31), leaven (Matthew 13:33), treasure (Matthew 13:44), a pearl merchant (Matthew 13:45), a fishing net (Matthew 13:47), a king settling accounts (Matthew 18:23), a landowner hiring laborers (Matthew 20:1). But none of these captures the essence of the Kingdom like this story a king giving a marriage feast.

For that is what the Kingdom of God is—a joyful festival, a bountiful overflow of good things!

The prophets foretold the Kingdom in these very terms: 6On Mount Zion, YAHWEH, leader of vast legions, will

prepare a lavish banquet for all the nations—a delicious feast of the richest foods and the finest wine—tender, marbled meat and aged wine strained to beautiful clarity.

—ISAIAH 25:6

The essential characteristic of a banquet is joyous celebration. 19Feasts are made for laughter, And wine makes the heart merry.

—ECCLESIASTES 10:19

Those who insist on long faces and somber spirits as characteristic of the Christian life have missed one of the foundational concepts of the Kingdom of God—it’s all about joy!

17…for the Kingdom of God is not about rules concerning eating and drinking—it is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

—ROMANS 14:17


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4Always be full of joy in the Lord. Let me repeat myself—be joyful!

—PHILIPPIANS 4:4

Mary comprehended the meaning of the Kingdom when she was chosen to be the physical vessel that would convey the Messiah into the world, and she sang: “He has filled the hungry with good things!”(Luke 1:53).

Jesus’ first miracle was not raising the dead, cleansing a leper, or opening a blinded eye—it was turning water to wine at a wedding feast (John 2:1‐11). As Mark Lowery, the Christian comedian, quips, “Jesus performed His first miracle just to keep the party going!”

John, in the Revelation, depicted the great ingathering of the Gospel as a wedding feast.

6Then I heard what sounded like the voice of a vast throng of people—like the roar of cascading waterfalls and like rolling peals of thunder.

“Hallelujah!” they were shouting, “for the Lord God, the All‐powerful, reigns! 7Let us rejoice and delight in Him and give Him glory! The wedding day of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. 8She has been privileged to clothe herself in delicate linen, pure and shining.”

(For the fine linen represents the upright actions of God’s holy people.)

9Then the angel said to me, “Write this down: Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb! These are the true words of God.”

—REVELATION 19:6‐9

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Always remember, the One who bids us to come to the Kingdom banquet is known as El shaddai—the One who is more than enough!

Actually, there may be more involved in this parable than just a marriage of the king’s son to his new bride. The Greek word gamous {gamous—gamʹ‐os} can refer not only to the normal nuptials of a bride and groom, but also to the feast of inauguration in which the king’s heir was “put in possession of the government, and thus he and his new subjects became married together.”1

This is probably the meaning Jesus was conveying to his hearers, making the import of this story that much more insightful. YAHWEH, in sending His Son to this planet, inaugurated a new epoch in the “unfolding drama of redemption”2—the announcement that the “Kingdom of the Heavenlies is near!” (Matthew 4:17). The parable refers to more than an event in the family calendar (a wedding feast to which the attendees are guests), but rather a new economy of administration in God’s reign as King of the Universe (a royal inauguration in which the attendees are subjects).

The wording of the story indicates that a previous announcement had foretold the approaching feast, possibly with the admonition to prepare for the event, and that the current message was the announcement that the event was imminent and those invited should immediately proceed to the festival. “Those who had been invited” comprised the whole of the Hebrew nation. From the beginning, theirs had been the privilege being the “insiders” to God’s great redemptive plan. Paul described them as:

3…my countrymen, my own flesh‐and‐blood kin, 4the people of Israel. They were the ones whom God placed as His sons in the earth. They are the ones to whom God revealed His


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glory. They are the ones with whom He established His covenants, and to whom He committed His law. They were the ones appointed to establish His temple and its service of worship. They are the ones to whom He gave His promises. 5They are the ones who descended from the patriarchs, and from whom, by human descent, Messiah came…

—ROMANS 9:3‐5

In other words, of all the people on the face of the earth, they were the ones who had been especially invited to God’s great wedding banquet.

This marriage feast, then, is a picture of the Messianic Kingdom, and if the scene describes a marriage that involved the recognition of the son as heir, then refusal to attend showed not just discourtesy, but disloyalty as well.

Perhaps the word “invitation” is somewhat of a misnomer. Perhaps the better word is “summons.” In those days, the desire of a king was not a suggestion to be considered, but a decree to be obeyed. To ignore the summons to the inaugural feast was not just an impolite snub, it was a flagrant act of disobedience.

As Israel’s true king, YAHWEH had given Israel a choice, if indeed the word “choice” can be used.

19Today I am calling heaven and earth to be witnesses to the fact that I am offering you a choice between life and death, between blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, so that you may live—both you and your descendants!

—DEUTERONOMY 30:19

God, in choosing of Israel to be the trustee of the cove‐nant promises, left her no middle ground of indifference. Her

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subsequent choices were restricted to two polar extremes—either do as God commanded and reap the highest rewards, or refuse God’s destiny for them as a nation and suffer the direst consequences.

All of this is the background for the Parable of the Wedding Feast, a story depicting, once again, God’s rejection of the Jews and His call of grace to the nations.

In this story the recipients of the invitation respond to the king’s messengers in the same manner as did the sharecroppers of the previous parable—by abusing and even murdering them.

The response to the summons was as varied as was the response Jesus received to His announcement concerning the imminent Kingdom of God. Some simply ignored the invitation and went about their usual business. Others, however, reacted violently to the summons, attacking the messengers, and even killing some of them.

Those who simply ignored the summons could be said to correspond to the common folk who could not see beyond their own workaday world. In all likelihood, however, Jesus intended to use the picture of those who reacted violently to illustrate the arrogant hostility of the religious leaders of His day. The messengers, of course, correspond to the prophets sent to Israel throughout her history. These had encountered the same maltreatment as did the king’s servants in the parable.

Two groups of messengers were sent out with the summons. Some have suggested that these represent the pre‐exile and post‐exile prophets, and it is true that when the Jews were restored to their land after their Babylonian exile, they were in effect being given a second invitation to join God in His redemptive program


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and fulfill their divine destiny. But in spite of some bright spots here and there in the historical record, all in all, Israel’s story was one of repeated failures to measure up to all that God had in store for them.

The king in the parable responded with fury. It almost seems that the negligence of those who gave their attention to their fields and the marketplace only caused disappointment in the king, but the outright murder of his messengers caused him to burn with white‐hot indignation. He dispatched his army with orders to execute the insurgents and incinerate their town.

This doubtless refers to the Jews and to Jerusalem. They were murderers, having slain the prophets, and God was about to send forth the armies of the Romans under His providential direction to execute judgment. The punishment inflicted by the king in Jesus’ story was literally fulfilled in A.D. 70 when the Romans razed the city of Jerusalem to the ground and reduced it to ashes.

The king’s remark, “The wedding banquet is ready, but the ones on my guest list don’t deserve to come,” is but a mild indictment compared to the expression of God’s judgment toward recalcitrant Israel. They would not only be deemed unworthy of inclusion in God’s Kingdom, they would be practically annihilated and scattered over the whole world.

Later we will examine the evidence that links the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 with the warnings in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26. But for the present, let us just keep in mind the punishment that the king inflicted on the evil‐doers in this parable and remember that this parable was spoken just days before the prophecy we call the Olivet Discourse was given and is directly related to it.

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The next instruction that the king gave to his servants was to go throughout the land, specifically to the cross‐roads, the major intersections, and invite everyone they met to come to the banquet. This they did, inviting everyone, both good and bad, until the banquet hall was filled.

This part of the story, of course, corresponds to the carrying of the Gospel to the nations following Israel’s rejection of their Messiah. This repeats the message of the Parable of the Wicked Sharecroppers that we studied in the previous chapter. There Jesus concluded:

43And so I tell you, that God will take away from you the privilege of being in His Kingdom and give it to another people who will produce the fruits of the Kingdom.

—MATTHEW 21:43

And so those who had a priority claim to a place in the Kingdom of God—“those who had been invited”—found themselves being displaced by anyone and everyone passing through the cross‐roads. No criterion of nobility or pedigree would be used to judge admissibility. The good and bad alike would be equally welcome.

This was the heartbeat of the Gospel as presented by Jesus during the last week before His crucifixion. It is still the heartbeat of the Gospel today.

The religious leaders either could not or would not understand. They would jealously guard their supposed place of preeminence until the entire system came falling around their ears.

Previously Jesus had clearly stated what he implied in this parable. A Roman centurion had come to Him seeking healing for his servant. Jesus offered to accompany the officer to his home and heal the servant. Amazingly, the officer declined Jesus’ offer, but


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went on to explain that he understood authority and expressed the confidence that if Jesus would but say the word, he believed that his servant would be healed.

Here was a pagan who apparently better understood the principles of the Kingdom of God than did many of Jesus’ Jewish followers.

10When Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to His followers, “I tell you the truth, in all of Israel I have not found such tremendous faith as this! 11And I also declare that many will come from the east and west to take their places at the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of the Heavenlies, 12but the sons of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the dark, and there will be much weeping with remorse and clenching of the teeth in resentment.”


The story continues with an account of one banquet attendee who did not dress appropriately for the occasion and was evicted by the king. The lesson to be learned here is that even though God’s grace reaches to the worst of sinners, there are still divine expectations to be met. These are not “standards” to which we try to measure up. Rather, what is in view here is a matter of attitude. This attendee, by not dressing for the occasion, showed his lack of regard for the privilege he had been afforded, and consequently was seen as being ungrateful, and thus undeserving.

He was thrown out of the banquet hall, and it is interesting to note that his fate was the same as those Jews who lost their place at the Kingdom banquet table to those coming “from the east and west”—remorse and resentment.

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A quick comment is in order here concerning the fate of those evicted from the banquet. The original KING JAMES VERSION uses the expression “cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” One commentator equated the “outer darkness” with a dungeon and then proceeded to make the illogical leap to equating this with hell and eternal torment.

No such absolute doom is in view here. Those evicted may weep with regret for their foolishness in not prizing the privilege of Kingdom living. They may even clench the teeth with resentment toward those who are enjoying the privileges of the Kingdom. But re‐entry into the Kingdom is always available with a subsequent change of heart.

Paul made it very clear that whereas Israel had been displaced in the Kingdom by the people of the nations, this does not mean that God has permanently turned His back on the Jews. Further‐more, as this parable teaches, and as Paul clearly states, those of the nations who have displaced the Jews should not get caught away in arrogance and contempt for the Jews. The same God who rigorously expected much from the Jews, has not diminished His expectations simply because He has opened the doors to the people of all the nations. Here’s the way Paul explained it:

1So I ask then, has God totally rejected His people? Certainly not! For I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the family of Benjamin. 2God has not totally rejected His people whom He foreknew!

♦ ♦ ♦ 11So I ask then, have they stumbled into an irrevocable

fall? Absolutely not! Their failure has made it possible for the nations to be saved. This, of course, has made Israel jealous.


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12Now if their failure means riches for the world and their loss means gain for the nations, how much more will their full restoration bring?

♦ ♦ ♦ 17Now, just because some of the branches of the cultivated

olive tree have been broken off, and you, a wild olive branch, have been grafted in among the natural branches, so that you now share as a full participant in the richness of the olive tree, 18do not be arrogant toward the natural branches who were broken off. Remember, you do not support the root—the root supports you!

—ROMANS 11:1‐2, 11‐12, 17‐18

But at the time that Jesus was telling this story about the king’s wedding banquet, the Jewish religious leaders were not concerned about being restored. They did not consider themselves to have forfeited their position in the first place. All they were concerned with was getting rid of this self‐appointed upstart prophet who was undermining their religious system.

The Question of the Pharisees and the Herodians (Matthew 22:15‐22) 15Then the Pharisees met together and plotted to entrap into

saying something for which they could accuse Him. 16They sent some of their followers to Him, along with some supporters of Herod.

“Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are straight‐tforward, and that you teach the way of God in accordance with truth. You are not swayed by human opinion, and show no partiality. 17Tell us then, what do you think? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

18But Jesus realized their ulterior motive, and said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to entrap Me? 19Let me see

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one of the coins used for paying taxes.” So they brought Him a silver coin, 20and He asked, “Whose picture and title is inscribed here?”

21“Caesar’s,” they replied. “Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to

Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” 22Now when they heard His answer, they were

dumbfounded, and walked away. —MATTHEW 22:15‐22

The first of three trick questions was posed by a group of Pharisees. They brought along some of the Herodian party, hoping that Jesus would say something against the ruling faction. The Herodians were there to haul Jesus away to the authorities in case the Pharisees were successful.

The chicanery of the Pharisees is so transparent. Ordinarily, the Pharisees would have little to do with the Herodians. The Pharisees were zealous for the Law, and sought political power only for the sake of their religious goals; the Herodians were zealous for political power, and used religion only as a tool to enhance their standing with the people. The Pharisees were the conservative keepers of tradition; the Herodians were the progressive instruments of Hellenization, introducing Greek refinements to Jewish society, such as the theater and athletic games. Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees compromised and tolerated the Herodians because they viewed this party as the safeguard against the direct pagan rule of the Romans which all the Jews loathed. This falsely presumed necessity was their justification for supporting the Herodian dynasty, even to the point of considering Herod the Great, Antipus, and Agrippa successively as Messiah.


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But as the old saying goes, “Politics makes strange bedfellows,” and here we see the Pharisees and the Herodians joining forces for the common goal of ridding themselves of Jesus who seemed to pose a threat to both parties.

The question the Pharisees posed was indeed a tricky one: “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” If Jesus said that taxes should be withheld from the Roman oppressors, the Herodians were standing by, ready to accuse Jesus before Herod as an insurrectionist and an enemy of Roman authority. The Pharisees, and the populace at large, wanted this to be the answer. The whole country was ripe for revolution. Zealots all across the land were advocating not only a tax boycott, but an armed revolt as well.

If, on the other hand, Jesus said that taxes should indeed be paid to Rome, these very Zealots would be more than ready to incite a riot among the masses who were at that moment followers of Jesus. They would immediately brand Him as a Jewish traitor.

Jesus’ answer satisfied neither group. “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God,” was His reasoned response, but this was a pivotal moment in the events of the last week of Jesus’ ministry. One can easily measure the decreasing support Jesus had among the people from the instant that these words were uttered.

For the moment, He had defused the idea that He was a political insurgent whose words could lead to an accusation of treason against Rome. But the throng that had welcomed Him into the city the day before felt betrayed by Jesus’ unwillingness to publicly and boldly stand up to Rome. They thought He was their long‐hoped‐for deliverer, and they seemed ready to immediately take up arms and commence the revolution if only Jesus would say the word.

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There is even the speculation that this was the turning point for Judas, and Jesus’ refusal to take a stand against Rome is what made him a turncoat. There is evidence that Judas was politically a Zealot, and would have reacted to Jesus’ remark in just this way.

His name, Judas Iscariot, is usually thought to mean “Judas, man of Kerioth” (ish in Hebrew meaning “man”), a city of Judah. If this is true, then Judas was the only one of the Twelve Disciples who was not a Galilean, making him an outsider and explaining much of the tension that existed between him and the other disciples.

Other commentators, however, have advanced the idea that it does not make sense that Jesus would have chosen a non‐Galilean as one of the Twelve, and that Judas’ name has a different etymology. The name “Iscariot,” or as it is in Greek, Iskariwh$ {Iskariotes, is‐kar‐ee‐oʹ‐tace}, they say, is the result of a transposition of the first two characters and should actually be “Sicariot” and would indicate someone who was a member of the Sicarii. This party was so called from the Greek word sikario$ {sikarios— sik‐arʹ‐ee‐os} meaning “assassin” or “dagger‐carrier.” These were intense Zealots who carried little knives called “sicae” under their robes and were advocates of political assassination as the most direct and effective means of fighting foreign domination. This group of radical Zealots is mentioned in Acts 21:38 where Paul was mistaken for an Egyptian who stirred up a rebellion and led 4000 “sikarioon,” or assassins, out into the desert.

Before we dismiss as too far‐fetched the idea of such a one being numbered in the company of the Twelve, let us remember that another of the Twelve was also a Zealot. Otherwise known as Simon the Canaanite (Matthew 10:4), he is identified in another list of the disciples as “Simon who was called the Zealot” (Luke 6:15).


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If Judas was a Galilean and not from Kerioth, then he might legitimately be called “Judas the Terrorist,” and if we accept this version of the meaning of his name, it helps give a useful interpretation to these events in the career of the “historic Jesus,” bringing into focus a logical motive for Judas’ betrayal of Jesus.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry there had been mixed signals as to Jesus’ political intentions. On the one hand, there was His claim to be the Messiah, identifying Himself as such for the first time to the Samaritan woman He met at Jacob’s Well (John 4:25‐26) and later validating Peter’s identification of Him as such (Matthew 16:16‐17). For the Jews, the Messiah was not to be primarily a spiritual leader; rather they were expecting a Messiah who would be primarily a political revolutionary that would deliver them from Roman oppression.

On the other hand, there were Jesus’ repeated actions and statements that contradicted this view of Messiah. When the crowds would have made Him king after the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, he slipped away from the crowd in order to prevent just such an illegal coronation (John 6:15).

His teachings were full of admonitions concerning appeasing rather than confronting the Romans. A couple of examples from the Sermon on the Mount will suffice:

25“Settle matters quickly with your accuser while on the way to court. Otherwise, he will hand you over to the judge, the judge will hand you over to the warden, and you will find yourself in prison. 26You will not get out, I tell you, until you have paid your last cent.”


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This was not just good general advice about “settling out of court.” Jesus was warning His followers not to buck the Roman judicial system because as citizens of a vassal state, it was certain that the courts would not be inclined to render judgments in their favor. Paul, the apostle, you will remember, used his Roman citizenship to obtain preferential treatment, even to the point of appealing his case to Caesar. Other Jews, without this advantage, could not expect to fare so well.

A second example: 41“If someone in authority presses you into service

against your will to carry a load for a thousand paces, carry it two for him.”

—MATTHEW 5:41

This statement has been watered down through misinterpre‐tation as a “universal truth” that Christians ought to do good, even going beyond what is requested of them. The fact is that this statement was a direct reference to the Roman law that empowered soldiers to compel citizens of a subjugated nation to carry their packs for one thousand paces (one mi/lion {milion—milʹ‐ee‐on}, erroneously translated “mile” in our English Bibles). Rather than resisting their oppressors, Jesus taught His followers to cooperate and to do double what was demanded.

So while Jesus allowed the title “Messiah” to be applied to Him, and while He included as least one, and possibly more, disciples with radical political views in His inner circle of Twelve, His actions and teachings never even once hinted at political revolution.

Here is a fact that the dispensationalists consistently overlook—Jesus never, ever, intended to offer Israel, or anyone else, a


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temporal, material, political kingdom. He never, ever, intended to restore the nation of Israel back to its Davidic and Solomonic glory. His offer of the Kingdom of God so far surpassed anything that could be envisioned in the temporal realm that it is embarrassing to see Christian theologians still striving to concoct some eschato‐logical scheme that places natural Israel and the earthly city of Jerusalem at the heart of God’s redemptive program.

It would be like a father who promises his daughter the dollhouse of her dreams, but because of budgetary circumstances is never able to keep his promise. The years go by and finally the daughter grows up and marries and leaves home, never having obtained the dollhouse that she so longed for.

Then a set of fortuitous circumstances brings a windfall of prosperity to the father, and now that he has the ample means that he never before was privileged to possess, he sets out to be a blessing to all his children.

Remembering the pictures of the elaborate dollhouse that his daughter had cut from the catalog and had kept taped to the wall beside her bed, he commissions an architect and contractor to construct a full‐size dwelling for his daughter and her family, an exact, but enlarged, duplicate of the dollhouse she had always wanted.

On day that the construction is completed, he loads up his entire extended family to go to the new homesite and show his daughter her new “surprise” home.

Now wouldn’t it be tragic, not to mention ludicrous, if the daughter were to take one look at her new home and suddenly throw herself hysterically to the ground screaming, “But I wanted a dollhouse!”

Can you imagine the father trying to convince her that now that she is an adult, a dollhouse would really be inappropriate and impractical,

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that a real home that she could enjoy with her husband and children was a much better gift than a toy, no matter how elaborate?

Why is it then that some insist on an earthly, temporal fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Israel’s restoration, “God having provided something far better for us” (Hebrews 11:40)? The Jews of Jesus’ day failed to recognize their Messiah and His offer of a spiritual Kingdom and consequently missed out on God’s destiny for them as a nation.

The writer to the Hebrews repeatedly spoke of “better” things—a better covenant, a better sacrifice, a better temple, a better priesthood, a better mediator. He stressed that the earthly, temporal things of the Old Covenant were only a shadow compared to the reality of the New Covenant. Yet many of these Jewish converts to Christianity were on the verge of forsaking the “better” way and returning to the old system that was tied to the earthly realm. That’s the whole reason for the writing of the epistle to the Hebrews.

Many today are still making the same mistake. They are enamored with the modern‐day state of Israel and modern Judaism, apparently not realizing that God has long since abandoned the Jews as an ethnic group. (Later in this book, I will reveal some reasons why Judaism is despised by God.) Individual Jews are cherished by God, and He longs to reinstate them in His Kingdom through the shed blood of Jesus, the Messiah they rejected. The folly of dispensationalism has helped perpetuate this travesty of God’s resplendent provision of grace.

Israel today, as an earthly nation, has absolutely nothing to do with God’s program of redemption. They mean no more in the eschatological scheme of things than do Bora Bora or Timbuktu.


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Their role as a conduit of God’s glory expired with their rejection and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

They did not understand the kind of Kingdom that Jesus was offering, one that is “within you” (Luke 18:21), one that is “not of this world” (John 18:36). If they had understood Jesus’ Kingdom, then His answer concerning the tax question would not have surprised them at all. They would have known that Jesus had no interest in overthrowing the Romans through a tax boycott, an armed revolt, or any other temporal or political mechanism.

Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees’ question dumbfounded them, for they were certain that his answer would be one that would link Him to a plot of sedition. They went away, and, for the time being, Jesus had forestalled their efforts to entangle Him in their subterfuge. But there were other questions being concocted and soon would be posed in further attempts to sabotage Jesus’ mission.

The Question of the Sadducees (Matthew 22:23-33) 23The same day some Sadducees (who say there is no

resurrection) approached Jesus with another question: 24“Teacher, according to Moses, if a man who has fathered

no children dies, his brother must marry his widow and have children who will be considered the dead man’s heirs. 25Now then, once there were seven brothers among us. The first one died, and since he had no children, his wife was left to his brother. 26The second also died before he had fathered any children by her, then the third, and so on down to the seventh brother. 27Finally the woman died also. 28Now, in the resurrection, whose wife will this woman be? She had been married to all of them.”

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29Jesus replied, “You are in error because you neither know the Scriptures nor anything about God’s ways. 30In the resurrection, there is no marriage; rather the resurrected are like the angels of God in the heavenly realm.

31“Now, speaking of the resurrection, haven’t you ever read what God has said? 32‘I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,’ but He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 33When the crowd heard this, they were amazed at His teaching.


The Sadducees were a religious sect characterized by conservatism. Many commentators have wrongly associated them with liberalism because of their apparent skepticism, especially concerning subjects such as the resurrection. But they were a party that held that only the written Scriptures were to provide the basis for faith and practice. The “traditions of the elders,” that fence that had been erected around the Law, was not to be considered. Because the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets did not explicitly teach the resurrection, they did not make it a part of their theology. Unlike the Pharisees, who were actually the innovators of their day, the Sadducees were not concerned with the minutiae of the details of the Law. Theirs was a much more utilitarian, almost secular, religion. They had no interest in the hereafter; they concerned themselves only with their position and power in the present.

They primarily came from the ruling upper class, the elite of society. Many from the ranks of the priesthood, being the only Jewish civil authority allowed by the Romans, were Sadducees. Theirs was a very comfortable lot in life, even under the Romans, and they had no interest in seeing the status quo disturbed.


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Consequently, they also were nervous about any so‐called Messiah who might incite an insurrection and upset the delicate balance between the Roman authorities and the Jewish ruling class.

However, their question was not about politics, but about theology. They posed a ridiculous hypothetical scenario, the intent of which was simply to say, “See how silly all this talk of an afterlife is!”

This is not the place to indulge in a detailed examination of the subject of the resurrection. We will only note the aspects of the subject that bear on our purpose of providing a prelude to the Olivet Discourse. Two ideas merit our attention in this regard.

First, Jesus made it clear that those who view the afterlife in terms of natural understanding miss the point. Just as the Kingdom of God is not about the temporal and the material, neither is the resurrection. The institutions and even the relationships of this earth do not relate to the realm of the heavenlies. There is no marriage, no husbands or wives, no betrothals or divorces. Instead, whatever that heavenly dimension is, it can only be likened to the angelic state, and about that we know so little, further speculation is pointless. All we know is that it is not like material, earthly conditions.

Second, Jesus expanded the topic of the resurrection raised by the Sadducees’ ridiculous question, and made the point that YAHWEH had proclaimed Himself to be the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” yet the patriarchs were long since dead. Jesus made it clear, however, that is was not the life after death that should be one’s immediate concern.

Jesus once told a would‐be disciple who wanted to delay his discipleship until after his father’s funeral, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60).

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On yet another occasion, after His resurrection, His disciples demonstrated how little they had learned about God’s purposes in the earth by asking for more information about events they considered to be yet in the future.

6So when they had gathered together, they began to ask Him, “Lord, is it at this time that You will restore the Kingdom to Israel?”

7Jesus replied, “The Father has set time and order of events by His own authority. These things are not yours to know. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

—ACTS 1:6‐8

You can almost hear Jesus’ sigh of exasperation as He responds to this query of the disciples. They still were expecting a restoration for natural Israel to her former state of pomp and power. They still didn’t get it.

Jesus simply said, in other words, “Stop worrying about what you do not understand. Just follow My instructions. Go to Jerusalem and wait. Once the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will understand, and you will be able to take My Gospel around the world. But right now, stop trying to figure out the future. Concern yourselves instead with God’s present intent to bring you into a closer relationship with Himself.”

“God,” Jesus instructed his Sadducee questioners, “is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

God aligned Himself with the patriarchs because during their lifetimes, He had a vital, significant relationship with them.


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Whatever the hereafter holds, God, in His providential mercy and grace, will take care of it. What should concern us is ensuring that we have such a selfsame, vital, significant relationship with God during our earthly lifetimes.

That was the Good News of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed, “Repent, for the Kingdom of the Heavenlies is near!” (Matthew 4:17). The rule and reign of God in the lives of men and women is a here‐and‐now reality. All the provisions and privileges of God’s Kingdom are available right now to those who will embrace His will, His Word, and His ways.

That’s why Jesus chided the Sadducees by saying, “You are in error because you neither know the Scriptures nor anything about God’s ways.” In other words, “Stop trying to figure out the future. Learn what God has in store for you right now.”

One of the reasons there is so much confusion about the prophecy that Jesus gave on the Mount of Olives is the utter fascination that so many have about the future. God, in His wisdom, has ordained that we not be able to know the future. He has set it off limits. It is not ours to know; it belongs solely in the hands of the Father.

Yet humans continue to seek for a crystal ball, a deck of cards, or a pattern of tea leaves that will open up this forbidden terrain. In spite of what God has said, they want to see into this prohibited realm.

So beguiling is the prospect of knowing the future, they even seek it where it does not even exist, particularly in Scriptures. The Olivet Discourse does not have, as we shall see when we get there, not a single thing to say about events future to our time. It is only the craving for forbidden fruit that causes people to twist the Scriptures in their quest for answers to the unknown.

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The record of Jesus’ encounter with the Sadducees in Matthew, chapter 22, says that the people “were amazed at His teaching.” Simple truth should always stimulate our deeper sensitivity, in contrast to the tabloid fodder that only titillates our surface emotions.

The Question of the Scribes (Matthew 22:34‐40) 34Now when the Pharisees heard how Jesus had muzzled the

Sadducees, they got together, 35and one of them, an expert in the Law, attempted to trip Jesus up with this question: 36“Teacher, what is the preeminent commandment in the Law?”

37Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God completely in all that you feel, in all that you are, and in all that you think.’ 38This is the preeminent commandment. 39The second is equally important: ‘Love your fellowman as you love yourself.’ 40The whole Law of Moses and all the words of the prophets are summed up in these two precepts.”


Once again an attempt to throw Jesus off‐balance with a trick question only provided Jesus with an occasion for presenting the simple truths of the Kingdom. This time the questioner thought that Jesus would be at a loss to choose a single commandment from the 613 mitzvot (commandments) that were all equally important to the Pharisees, and especially their religious attorneys, the scribes, the experts in the Law. Jesus, of course, did not fall for this trick. He did not stoop to arguing with the scribe about the merits and demerits of the minutiae of their legal tradition.

Instead, He drove directly to the heart of the matter by repeating the Shema, the passage from Moses that all devout Jews repeated every day of their lives:


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4Pay attention, Israel! YAHWEH our God, YAHWEH is one! 5You must love YAHWEH your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your energy.

—DEUTERONOMY 6:4‐5

Now, who could argue with that? What this encounter amounts to is that a trivia aficionado had come up against a spiritual and mental giant. It was no contest. Jesus had no concern for wasting time arguing the fine points of the Pharisaical tradition. He was concerned about getting YAHWEH’s message of righteousness and grace to the people. Fifteen hundred years had passed since Moses had repeated God’s message to His covenant people, but in spite of the threat of contamination through humankind’s traditions, the command remained uncomplicated and undefiled: “Love your God with all that you have and all that you are. And love others just as yourself.”

That’s it. That’s all there is to it! It’s not complicated. It requires no esoteric insights or profound theologizing. That’s the message of the Kingdom, pure and simple.

That’s the message that cost Jesus His life. That’s the message the Jews couldn’t swallow. Oh, they were faithful to recite it every day. Some even inscribed it on parchment and wore it on their foreheads or on their arms. But to truly embrace it and live it was despicable to them. They would rather shake their fists in the face of the Almighty than bow to these simple demands.

That’s the message that YAHWEH had intended for the nation of Israel to carry to the nations of the world. But instead of exulting in that glorious purpose, they swelled with egotism and vanity over their status as the “chosen people.” They swaggered in their vainglory, and even as a vassal state enslaved to Rome, they denied their indentured status and looked condescendingly on all other races as dogs.

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Jesus had repeatedly encountered Jewish pride and had seen it as an almost insurmountable obstacle to reaching them with the Kingdom message.

31Jesus said to His followers, particularly those who were Jews, “If you continue to follow My teachings, then you are indeed My disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33They answered, “We are the descendants of Abraham, and have never been anyone’s slaves! How dare you say, ‘You will be set free.’?”

—JOHN 8:31‐33

This obstinacy, this arrogance, was the direct cause of the Jews’ rejection of Jesus and the reason for the judgment that was prophesied upon them in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse. Jesus confronted them over their attitude throughout the last week of His ministry, giving them chance after chance to repent and soften their hearts toward their Redeemer and toward the world around them, but all He succeeded in doing was to give them more opportunities to display their inflexible self‐will.

We will examine the subject of the Pharisees’ attitude toward Gentiles in greater detail when we get to chapter five in connection with the “times of the Gentiles.”

Jesus’ Question for the Pharisees (Matthew 22:41‐46) 41While the Pharisees were still gathered near Him, Jesus

asked them a question: 42“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He?”

“The Son of David,” they answered.


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43“How then,” Jesus continued His query, “does David, speaking by the Spirit, call Him ‘Sovereign Master’ when he said, 44‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I have put all who are against You under Your feet.”’ 45If David then called Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be his Son?”

46No one was able to give Jesus an answer, and from that day on, no one dared to ask Him any more questions.


Jesus finally turned the tables on His detractors and posed a question of His own. This question bore right the very heart of the issue on everyone’s mind—the Messiah. Jesus knew that was what they really wanted to know—if He thought Himself the Messiah, and if so, what did He intend to do, especially during this holy week in the holy city.

In order to see how Jesus deflected their intended inquiry, we ought to explore what the word “Messiah” meant to most Jews in the first century. Some, of course, considered the Messiah to be nothing more than a mythical figure and a foundationless dream of the deluded.

Others, however, fervently believed and hoped for His appearance. But what, exactly, were they looking for?

The Hebrew word “Messiah,” jy?!m {mashiyach, maw‐sheeʹ‐akh}, and its Greek equivalent “Christ,” Kristo$ {Christos, khris‐tosʹ}, means “the anointed.” Because of the definite article “the,” and because this word is an appellation for Jesus, the Son of God, many expand this definition to “the Anointed One.”

Many Christians think that the Messiah for the Jews means the same thing that most Christians mean when they use the word. This, however, is not so at all. The Jews were not looking for a divine figure at all. They were looking for an individual

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whom God would anoint and send on a divine mission, but the Messiah himself would not be divine; rather, he would be altogether human. During the post‐exile period, messianic expectations were extremely high, and the prophet Haggai ended his short prophetic document by naming Zerubbabel as that deliverer.

20Once again YAHWEH spoke to Haggai on the twenty‐fourth day of the month: 21“Tell Zerubbabel, governor of Judah: ‘I am about to shake heaven and earth. 22I will overthrow kingdoms and their power. I will overturn war chariots with their drivers. Both cavalrymen and their horses will fall, each one slain by the sword of his brother.

23“I, YAHWEH, leader of vast legions, declare that on that day I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, My bond‐slave, and I will make you as the signet ring on My finger. I, YAHWEH, leader of vast legions, have chosen you.’”

—HAGGAI 2:20‐23

Zechariah, another post‐exile prophet, saw in a vision two anointed ones. In chapter four of his prophecy the two figures are seen as two olive trees dripping oil into the bowl of a lampstand with seven lamps. One of these “anointed ones” is definitely identified as the ruler Zerubbabel, who although he was not the king of Israel since Israel was still under the jurisdiction of the Persians and could not have a king, was still a direct descendant of King David and could have legitimately been the king if such had been possible at the time.

The second “anointed one,” identified in chapter six, is Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the High Priest. Both Zerubbabel and Joshua


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are declared to be responsible for the completion of the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem.

From these prophecies we learn a number of things about the Jews’ messianic expectations.

First, he would be the conqueror of Israel’s enemies, a fearsome warrior who would lead Israel back to victory and glory.

Second, he would be a king, a direct descendant of King David. Third, he would fulfill the duties of the High Priest. However,

because the offices of king and priest emanated from two different families, the royal line from Judah and the priestly line from Levi, and because the Mosaic law strictly forbade either of these offices transgressing the jurisdiction of the other, many Jews expected two Messiahs, or at least a pair of leaders, one who would take the political role, the other the religious role.

Fourth, both the royal Messiah and the priestly Messiah would be instrumental in rebuilding YAHWEH’s Temple and restoring it to the measure of glory it had enjoyed under Solomon’s reign.

Zerubbabel and Joshua, as it turns out, failed to rise to the occasion, and Israel did not experience political liberty under their administration. Neither was the Temple restored to its former glory. So in Jewish eschatology, Zerubbabel and Joshua became symbols of a Messiah yet to come rather than being the fulfillment of Haggai’s and Zechariah’s prophecies.

When this Messiah came, the Jews thought, a new age would be ushered in, a golden age that would see the realization of all the restoration prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures. Those who believed in a resurrection also believed that the righteous dead would be raised to life and would then enjoy the bounty that had not been available in their lifetime.

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Jews, looking for such a Messianic age, often spoke of the “end of the age,” referring to the current period in which they were living, and the “age to come,” meaning, of course, the Messianic age.

These expectations were all legitimate, seeing that they were based on the inspired Scriptures, except for one thing—their fulfillment in terms of the natural or the material or the political. When Jesus came offering a better fulfillment than what they were expecting, the Jews simply couldn’t change tracks. They were locked into a mindset that robbed them of God’s best for them.

Most Christians, of course, when they use the term “Messiah” or “Christ” are referring to Jesus whom they believe to be both human and divine. Most Jews would have considered that to be a pagan concept and would have rejected it out of hand.

Yet this was exactly the point of Jesus’ question to the Pharisees that day in the Temple. How could the Messiah be both David’s Son and David’s Lord? The Pharisees could see that their own Scriptures declared Him to be both, but the only way to reconcile the two concepts was to admit that the Messiah was not just a human deliverer that God would send, it was God Himself who had come as their deliverer in human form.

And that was unthinkable! No wonder no one had any more questions for Jesus. The thought of a God‐man was more than they could comprehend, or at least more than they were willing to entertain. The only solution was to get rid of Jesus, but this option only led to judgment and the destruction of the Hebrew economy.

This theme of judgment and destruction runs consistently through every word and every action of Jesus leading up to His most significant prophecy delivered that week on the Mount of Olives.


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CHAPTER TWO ENDNOTES 1 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible Containing the Old and New

Testaments (Matthew 22:2), World Publishing, reprint 1997 (originally published as six volumes 1826). See 1 Kings 1:5-9, 19, 25, etc., where such a feast is mentioned.

2 W. Graham Scroggie, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption: an Indictive Study of Salvation in the Old and New Testaments, Kregel Publications, reprint 1995, (originally published in three volumes 1953)—I highly recommend this book as an excellent overview of the Scriptures, and often borrow its title to express the scope and purpose of God’s dealings with humankind through the ages.

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CHAPTER THREE

Background for the Discourse – 3 MMMATTHEW 23 IS THE RECORD of a speech Jesus made right on the heels of the Pharisees inability to answer His question about the nature of the Messiah. What He had alluded to in parables, He now states explicitly. Heretofore, the Jewish authorities may have only guessed their role in the cryptic stories Jesus had told. Now there could be no mistaking what Jesus’ message was. In this speech, He both named them and scorned them.

But this chapter of Matthew’s Gospel should not be construed just as a diatribe against the evils of the day. Instead, it should be seen as the official indictment against Israel, and this would be followed by the punishment phase that took place on the Mount of Olives overlooking the doomed city of Jerusalem.

Jesus’ Description of the Religious Leaders (Matthew 23:1-12) 1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2“The

experts in the law and the Pharisees have the authority of Moses; 3therefore, follow what they tell you to do. But don’t follow their example, because they don’t practice what they

THAT ALL MIGHT BE FULFILLED

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preach. 4They bundle up heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of others; yet they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to help them carry the load. 5Everything they do is just to be seen by people. They wear over-sized Scripture boxes on their arms and foreheads, and they make the religious fringe on their cloaks extra long. 6They love to sit in the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogue. 7They love to be greeted in the marketplace and have people address them as ‘Rabbi.’

8“But don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ because you have only one Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9And don’t call anyone on earth ‘Father,’ because you have only one Father who is in heaven. 10Nor should you be called ‘Leader,’ because you have only one leader, the Messiah. 11The one who is the most important among you shall be the one to serve the others 12If any of you put yourself above others, you will be brought down. But if you humble yourself, God will exalt you.”

—MATTHEW 23:1-12

In this address that Jesus gave within the Temple courts during His last week before His crucifixion, His subject was the corruption of Israel’s religious leaders. In His opening remarks, directed to the crowds gathered there along with His disciples, He talked about these leaders. Later in the discourse, He would speak directly to the scribes (experts in the Law) and the Pharisees that were standing in the crowd.

The role of the scribe initially was simply that of making copies of the Scriptures, but in the course of time, because they were so intimately acquainted with Scriptures, they came to be looked upon as religious attorneys. Their role expanded from simply copying

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the Scriptures to interpreting the Law. In Jesus’ day, their voice carried tremendous influence in the community.

The Pharisees were a religious sect within Judaism that was characterized by its zeal for the Law. They were ultra-literalists. They considered themselves the guardians of the Law, and as such they called for increasingly strict obedience to their religious code of conduct. As guardians they considered it their duty to build a “hedge” or a “fence” around the Law. In other words, they would call for an adherence to the Law that went beyond the actual requirements of the Law itself. Over the course of time, these stricter measures became their tradition and needed protection, so another hedge, or fence, was erected around the tradition. By the time that Jesus appeared on the scene, the web of hedges and fences was so intricate and convoluted that it was virtually impossible to “keep the Law.”

For example, the Ten Commandments given to Moses has evolved in our present day to the 613 mitzvoth or traditional commandments of Judaism. We don’t know how many there were in Jesus’ day because at that time the “traditions of the elders” was still in oral form. It would be centuries after Jesus’ day before the Mishna (the written record of the oral traditions), the Gemara (the commentary on the Mishna), the Talmud (the document that comprises the Mishna and the Gemara), the Halakhah (the body of traditional law that supplements the scriptural law), the Halakhah Midrash (the deduction of the traditional law from the written law), and the Haggada (legends, sermons, and interpretations of the narrative parts of the Bible) would appear. But its seminal form was in existence in Jesus’ time and He soundly condemned it.

The Jews just seem to have a penchant for taking the minutiae of the Law and expanding it almost endlessly. For example, the one


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instruction that Moses gave concerning not boiling a kid goat in its own mother’s milk has evolved into an elaborate system of kosher dietary laws.

Many misunderstand Jesus’ teachings in His sermon on the mountain (Matthew, chapters 5-7) when He said several times, “You have heard…but I say to you…” They think that He was contradicting Moses. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Jesus’ words here in Matthew 23 clearly show that Jesus was a staunch defender of the Law given to Moses. What he contradicted in His teachings was the mass of tradition that had grown up around the Law that obscured its meaning and message.

Those who were responsible for this corruption of God’s Law were the Pharisees whose “love” of the Law actually strangled it to death, along with their professional collaborators, the scribes—the religious attorneys.

Jesus’ description of these leaders to the crowd in the Temple that day was explicit and derogatory, but when He addressed these leaders directly, His words became even more harsh and scathing. No wonder they wanted to kill Him! He had unmasked them in public.

First, however, He was careful to acknowledge their position of authority. He said that they occupied “Moses’ seat” (NKJV), or as the DAYSPRING BIBLE expresses it, they had “the authority of Moses.”

Jesus never counseled His followers to rebel against their leaders. He very clearly said, “Follow what they tell you to do.”

But it was the abuse of their authority that drew Jesus’ criticism. Their exploitation of the people by imposing regulations on them that they themselves ignored is what elicited Jesus’ ire. So Jesus advised the crowd, “Follow what they say, because they have

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authority. But don’t follow their example, because they don’t practice what they preach.”

The “hedge” around the Law was described by Jesus as “bundling up heavy burdens and laying them on the shoulders of others.” That, of course, was bad enough. But what was worse was for the leaders to refuse to “lift a finger to help them carry the load.”

Furthermore Jesus accused them of doing everything for “show.” They called attention to any visible identification of their ecclesiasticism by exaggerating its importance.

Supposedly following Moses’ instructions, they wore phylacteries, small leather cases containing the script of religious texts, on their arms or foreheads. This in itself was evidence of their misunderstanding of the Scripture and of their carrying its instructions to literalistic extremes. The practice was based on instructions to Israel in Deuteronomy 6:8 and 11:18.

18Firmly establish these words of mine in your heart, in your very being. Bind them as sign on your open hand, and let them be as a mark on your forehead.


Following the classical structure of Hebrew poetry, this admonition is given as a couplet wherein the first line, “Firmly establish these words of mine in your heart, in your very being,” is repeated in the second line, “Bind them as sign on your open hand, and let them be as a mark on your forehead.” In this instance, the first line carries the essential message. Moses wanted his instructions to be integrated into the very warp and woof of Israel’s daily life. The second line reinforced this idea by stating the same concept in symbolic language. His words were to be emblazoned on their hands


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and their foreheads just like a slave was branded in those days. This was not to be taken as a literal physical mark, but rather this was a symbolic way of saying that Moses’ instructions were to influence their every action (hand) and every thought (forehead).

Actually the word “forehead” comes from the Hebrew phrase .<k#yn]yu /yB@ {beyn àynaykem—bane ah -yin-ahy-kem} which literally means “between your eyes.”

It is interesting that this same symbolism was used by John in the Revelation. Those who received the “mark of the beast” would be marked on “their right hand or on the foreheads” (Revelation 13:16). The language in this instance is symbolic also, and not to be taken as a literal, physical mark. To the contrary, taking the beast’s mark means adopting the behavior (actions, hands) and value system (thoughts, forehead) of the enemy.

The symbolic nature of Moses’ admonition can be seen from the way this concept is expressed in the Proverbs:

1My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands;

2For length of days and long life And peace they will add to you.

3Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.

—PROVERBS 3:1-3

Here the place of binding is not the arm or the forehead, but the neck. The concept is still the same, but the symbolism is slightly different. Here the neck is symbolically used to represent a yoke, which is exactly what the Jew considered the Law to be.

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The figure of the yoke is frequently employed of the Law. The saying of R. Nehuniah ben ha-Kanah (end of the first century) is familiar: “Every one who takes upon himself the yoke of the Law (the obligations of religion) is liberated from the yoke of empire (the burden of foreign government) and from the yoke of the way of the world (the cares of daily life); but whoever throws off the yoke of the Law is subjected to both of these.” In reciting the first sentence of the Shema’ (Deut. 6, 4f.), a man takes upon him the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven (sovereignty of God), and proceeds in the following to take upon him the (specific) commandments. The throwing off of the yoke of God may be understood either of the law, with which the law-giver is implicitly renounced, or more immediately of the deliberate rejection of God’s rules and dominion.1

The Jews, with their woodenly literalistic approach to the Scriptures, took the words of Moses in a corporeal manner and made an ostentatious display of this concept by tying to their arms and foreheads phylacteries containing Scripture verses.

The word “phylactery” comes from the Greek word fulakterion {phulakterion, foo-lak-tayʹ-ree-on} signifying “to keep, preserve, or guard.” It derives from the root word fula/ssw {phulasso—foo-lasʹ-so}, which means “to watch, to be on guard.” The word phulakterion means primarily “an outpost or fortification.” Later it came to mean “any kind of safeguard,” and finally it came to be used especially to denote “an amulet.” The name was given because phylacteries were worn as amulets or charms, and were supposed to have potency against evil spirits and demons and would defend or preserve those who wore them.


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When Jesus criticized the Jews for wearing phylacteries, it was not only because these were symbols of their religious ostentation. No, it was much worse. They had taken the pure word of God given by Moses in the Pentateuch and changed it to a magical talisman. They had corrupted the words of the same Moses who admonished them:

10Let no one ever be found among you who sacrifices a son or daughter in the flames of Molech, nor anyone who practices witchcraft, nor fortunetellers, nor astrologers, nor whisperers of magic chants, 11nor users of magic charms, nor mediums, nor clairvoyants, nor those who aspire to occult knowledge, nor those who talk to the dead.

—DEUTERONOMY 18:10-11

One kind of phylactery, called a “frontlet,” was worn on the forehead and was composed of four small slips of parchment or vellum on which were written in square letters, and with a special ink made for this purpose, certain portions of the Old Testament. On the first was written Exodus 12:2-10—the Institution of the Passover. On the other three were written the three passages containing Moses’ admonition concerning binding his instructions to the hand and the forehead—Exodus 13:11-21 (the Law of the Firstborn), Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (the Shema), and Deuteronomy 11:18-21. These pieces of parchment were then rolled up to a point and enclosed in a piece of tough black calf-skin. This was then put upon a square piece of the same leather, from which hung a thong, also of the same material, about a finger in breadth and about 2 feet long.

The phylactery could be attached either to the forehead or at the bending of the left arm, over against the heart, to remind the

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wearer of the duty of keeping the commandments of God in the head and in the heart. The phylacteries were particularly worn when going to the synagogue. Some Jews wore them evening and morning; others only at the morning prayer.

The Pharisees enlarged their phylacteries, or made them wider than those worn by other people, either that they might make the letters larger or write more on them, or more probably, to render conspicuous their superior eagerness to be mindful of Godʹs Law. This propensity to draw attention to their outward devotion was what elicited Jesus’ scorn.

Jesus also pointed out that they also drew attention to themselves by enlarging the special fringe or tassels that Jews sewed to the hems of their outer garments that identified them as Jews. This practice was based on the instructions given by Moses just after the Israelites had refused to enter Canaan. God purposed to destroy the entire nation, but Moses interceded for them and God relented. Then the Israelites proposed to invade Canaan, but Moses warned them they had waited too long. God was no longer with them and they would be defeated. They decided to go forward with their plans anyway, and sure enough, they suffered a defeat at the hands of the Amelekites and the Canaanites. It was at this juncture that Moses gave a series of new instructions that included the following:

38Say to the sons of Israel that throughout their generations they are to attach to the hems of their outer garments tassels at the corners sewn with violet thread. 39These tassels will serve as reminders of your obedience to the commandments of YAHWEH so you will not follow after your own heart and eyes which tend to lead you to spiritual prostitution.

—NUMBERS 15:38-39


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Apparently the purpose of this ordinance was to provide Israel with a visual reminder of their covenant relationship with God so they would not make the mistake again of refusing to move when God told them to go or trying to move when God told them to stay. This visual reminder should have been a source of humility, and even shame. God said their natural inclination seemed always to be going in the direction of unfaithfulness to God, a trait that God called “spiritual prostitution.”

As always, however, instead of accentuating the real message of the tokens that God gave the Israelites, they used them as an occasion to bolster their own egos. By the time Jesus came, these corner tassels were no longer memoranda of obedience to God’s will, but instead were badges of spiritual pride.

An underlying theme in these words of Jesus in Matthew 23:5 that we do not want to miss is this reference to spiritual prostitution in Numbers 15:38. We have already looked at the passages in Ezekiel 16 and seen the intense sexually-oriented language that God used to describe Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him. Even in this reprimand concerning their ostentatious display, there is the echo of something more sinister going on beside just the exhibition of liturgical pride.

How these religious tokens, especially those violet tassels (which He wore Himself), must have irked Jesus when He saw them on the Pharisees! What symbols of Israel’s degenerate condition they must have been to Him!

Jesus continued his upbraiding description of them by turning His attention from their attire to their actions and behavior. Their desire to have the positions of prestige both at special festivities and in the regular synagogue services is illustrated by the following quotation

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from the Talmud that indicates the importance to the Pharisees of ensuring that proper honor was given to their dignitaries.

Our Rabbis taught: When the Nasi [Prince, Patriarch, President of the Sanhedrin] enters, all the people rise and do not resume their seats until he requests them to sit. When the Ab-beth-din [Chief Justice, Vice-president of the Sanhedrin, head of any important school] enters, one row rises on one side and another row on the other [and they remain standing] until he has sat down in his place. When the Hakam [the Sage] enters, every one [whom he passes] rises and sits down [as soon as he passed] until the Sage has sat down in his place.2

This, of course, was diametrically opposed to Jesus’ teachings concerning Kingdom etiquette.

7When Jesus noticed how some of the guests were choosing the most prestigious positions around the table, He made the following remarks by way of contrasting what they were doing with true Kingdom etiquette:

8“When you are invited to a festival such as a wedding, don’t presumptuously proceed to the place of honor. Someone more distinguished than yourself may have been invited, 9and then your host, who invited both of you, will have to come and say, ‘Let this person have the place where you are sitting.’ You will be so embarrassed as you get up to move to the less important place. 10Instead, when you accept an invitation, go ahead and take the least prestigious place. Then when the host comes to you and says, ‘Friend, I have a better place for you,’ you will be honored in front of all the guests at the table with


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you. 11Those who elevate themselves will be brought low; and those who are modest will be promoted.”

—LUKE 14:7-11

Their haughty acceptance of the special recognition of their authority by the commoners as they parted the crowds with their passage through the city streets was antithetical to the teachings of the One who said:

28Come to Me, all of you who are weary from trying so hard and are burdened down with cares. I will give you rest 29if you take My yoke, put it on, and learn My ways. You will find that I am humble and gentle by nature, and in Me you will be refreshed. 30My yoke is easy to bear, and My load is not hard to carry.”

—MATTHEW 11:28-30

The scribes’ and Pharisees’ love for the title “Rabbi” provided Jesus the occasion to instruct His followers concerning the dangers of seeking prestigious ranks and titles.

First He decried the acceptance of the title “Rabbi.” His reasons? Because there is already One who is the Teacher, and because we are all brothers and sisters. James, the Lord’s brother, repeated this concept in his letter to Jewish Christians:

1My brothers and sisters, not so many of you should aspire to become teachers, because we who teach will be judged more severely than others.

—JAMES 3:1

Instead of the grandeur of office that so mesmerized the Pharisees, James emphasized the gravity of office. A more severe

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judgment is in store for those who accept the awesome responsibility of speaking for God and breaking the bread of life to God’s people. It is truly not a matter of empty bluster and pork barrel politics.

John, the apostle, also repeated Jesus’ words, but he emphasized the aspect of the Holy Spirit as our Teacher:

20Nevertheless, you have an anointing from the Holy One, and now all of you have understanding.

♦ ♦ ♦ 29Now you have received the anointing from Him—the

promised Holy Spirit—and as long as His Spirit resides in you, you do not need any other teacher. The Holy Spirit teaches you all things—and what He teaches you is true; it is not a lie—and thus you abide in Him.

—1 JOHN 2:20, 29

Of course, we understand that John was not advocating that there is no need for human teachers at all in the church. Other Scriptures correct that idea clearly. Paul listed teachers in the gift ministries (Ephesians 4:11) and in his explanation of the priority of the spiritual gifts.

28And God has placed in His Redeemed Community first apostles, second prophets, and third teachers…

—1 CORINTHIANS 12:28

Also Paul in his letter to the Ephesians addressed the aspect of Christ’s words in Matthew 23 which speak of teaching and understanding in the context of Christian fellowship:

17I pray that Christ may reside in your hearts through faith, so that you, having your roots and foundation in love,


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18may be enabled, in the company of all the believers, to grasp how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Christ’s love really is, 19and how His love surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.

—EPHESIANS 3:17-19

Notice that this understanding of Christ’s love is accomplished “in the company of all the believers.” The Kingdom of God is a community, not a hierarchy. It only works in the environment of mutual submission under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

I have probably already gone too far afield with this exposition, but I thought it was necessary in order to show the contrast between the operation of true Kingdom principles and the modus operandi of the Pharisees and why Jesus protested against them so vociferously.

Rather than community, they sought hierarchy. An elevated position among their people, the Jews, gave them power and prestige. From their exalted perches they could dominate the masses, and as Lord Acton said back in 1887, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely…There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”

Positions of power tend to make the officeholders lose contact with reality. Leaders often actually start believing their own press releases.

According to Paul’s description of true love, one of its characteristics is that it is not “puffed up” (1 Corinthians 13:4, KJV), or as J.B. Phillips paraphrased it, “does not have an inflated idea of its own importance.”

Jesus’ scathing remarks in Matthew 23 were intended to deflate the Jewish elite. He knew they would not respond positively to His criticism. He knew they would hate Him all the more. He knew He

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had come to Jerusalem to die. He also knew that the Jews would eventually pay a terrific price for rejecting their Messiah. That’s why it was important that during His last week, Jesus used every available opportunity to unmask the empty pretenders that were leading the covenant people to ruin.

Jesus went further to say that the title “Father” should be reserved for the Father in heaven alone. The issue at stake here is the presumption of taking to oneself divine prerogatives. It need not be as blatant as calling oneself the “vicar of Christ” and deigning to “speak in God’s stead.” It can be anything we do presumptuously claiming to have God’s authority. To see how seriously God takes such behavior, He told Moses that “any prophet who presumes to speak in My name a word that I have not authorized him to speak—that prophet must die!” (Deuteronomy 18:20).

The implications for Jesus’ injunction against using the title “Father” is that the Pharisees had for years been positioning themselves as the final word on spiritual and religious matters in Israel. In their rise to power in the inter-testament period, they had essentially commandeered the spiritual authority of the priesthood and displaced them as the focal point of authority among the people.

One of the reasons the Sadducees argued against issues such as the resurrection was that they seized any opportunity to oppose the Pharisees, especially when they felt they had an argument that was exegetically sound. They appealed for a return to the Scriptures alone and for an abandonment of the traditions that were becoming more complex and taxing as the years went by. The only problem was that the Sadducees’ sola scriptura was not backed by the genuine righteousness that characterized the Christian Reformers


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of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Sadducees were as corrupt in their own way as were the Pharisees.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the only surviving party of the Jewish nation was the Pharisees. The Sadducees and Herodians disappeared forever. Despite the tragedy of the fall of Jerusalem, the Pharisees seemingly learned nothing from the experience, and as soon as they could possibly do so, they began a Jewish reconstruction program in which they intensified their devotion to the Law, or to be more accurate, their traditions that hedged the Law.

The truth of the matter is that through their convoluted explanations, which they eventually committed to paper in the Talmud, they actually undermined the Law of the Scriptures and explained it away. Every conceivable violation of the Law had some rabbi who found a way to justify it. The Talmud is replete with directives that are diametrically opposed to the Law of God. Everything from murder to bestiality is condoned and justified. And what is more alarming, modern Judaism holds the Talmud to be as authoritative, if not more so, than the Scriptures themselves.

Modern Judaism in its incipient form is what Jesus was opposing in the chapters of Matthew that we are exploring.

Jesus applied the same principle to the matter of being called “Leader.” This time He was touching on the subject that was on everybody’s mind in Jerusalem that week—that of the Messiah.

This is the only place where the Greek word kaqhghth/$ {kathegetes—kath-ayg-ay-taceʹ} is used in the Scriptures. In most translations it is rendered either “Leader” or “Master.” But the significance of the usage of this word has to do with the current trends in the usurpation of titles and authority in that day.

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Adam Clarke remarks on this passage:

Though the title of Rabbi, mentioned above, was comparatively recent in the time of our Lord, yet it was in great vogue, as were the others—father and master, mentioned in this and the following verse: some had all three titles, for thus in Bab. Maccoth, fol. 24: “It is feigned,” says Dr. [John] Lightfoot, “that when King Jehosaphat saw a disciple of the wise men, he rose up out of his throne, and embraced him, and said, ʹAbiy, ʹAbiy! Rabiy, Rabiy! Mowriy, Mowriy!—Father, Father! Rabbi, Rabbi! Master, Master!” Here then are the three titles which, in Matthew 23:7, 9-10, our blessed Lord condemns; and these were titles that the Jewish doctors greatly affected.3

So the Pharisees had taken to themselves three significant titles, none of which met with Jesus’ approval. It is also interesting that these three titles are all related to deity:

“Father” Heavenly Father “Leader” or “Master” Messiah or Son of God “Rabbi” or “Teacher” Holy Spirit

The Pharisees had usurped every aspect of the Godhead. No wonder Jesus did not quibble when He invaded the domain of their “holy city.” No wonder their judgment was to be of such great magnitude when that city came crashing down!

Jesus’ Indictment of the Religious Leaders (Matthew 23:13-36)

At this juncture, Jesus stopped talking about the scribes and Pharisees, and started talking directly to them.

This is a rather lengthy passage, and I do not want to belabor the point. There is the temptation to simply say that Jesus’ words


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are self-explanatory, and that the one-word-summary of all He said was “judgment.” But at the same time I do not want to give this section short shrift either. In order to fully understand the judgment spoken of in the Olivet Discourse, we really need to fully absorb what Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees.

This is the indictment phase of the trial. These are the charges that justify the severe punishment that is promised in the next chapter. The magnitude of the punishment that was wreaked on the Jews cannot be properly understood without giving sufficient attention to this section.

The subtitle that is given these verses in our English Bibles is usually something like “Jesus Pronounces Seven Woes on the Scribes and Pharisees.” The language used in the standard versions (KJV, ASB, RSV, etc.) is “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” Seven times Jesus repeats these words (verses 13, 14, 15, 23, 25, 27, and 29); thus most commentators see each repetition as the beginning of a new subsection.

Actually there are eight subsections, for verses 16-22 should be separated from verse 15. The standard identification, “O, you experts in the Law and you Pharisees—you pretenders—what a terrible fate awaits you!” is changed to “O, you blind guides—what a terrible fate awaits you!” but these words definitely signal a change of subject, as we shall see.

The FIRST article of indictment is that although the scribes and Pharisees had absconded the “keys to the Kingdom,” they refused to unlock the door and go in. They only wanted control over entrance into the Kingdom; they didn’t actually want the Kingdom itself. Furthermore, they refused to let anyone else go in if they could help it.

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13“But you experts in the Law and you Pharisees—you pretenders—what a terrible fate awaits you! For you use your keys to lock the door to God’s Kingdom! You won’t go in yourselves, and you block the way for others who want to enter.”

—MATTHEW 23:13

As the covenant people, they had been designated by God to show fallen man the way back into God’s graces. As Paul said,

4They were the ones whom God placed as His sons in the earth. They are the ones to whom God revealed His glory. They are the ones with whom He established His covenants, and to whom He committed His law. They were the ones appointed to establish His temple and its service of worship. They are the ones to whom He gave His promises. 5They are the ones who descended from the patriarchs, and from whom, by human descent, Messiah came.

—ROMANS 9:4-5

What a tremendous privilege! What an awesome responsibility! But when one studies their history and sees what how they

squandered their privilege and shirked their responsibility, one can only say, “O, what a wasted opportunity! O, what dereliction of duty!”

The SECOND article of indictment has to do with their fraudulent treatment of the disenfranchised, the weak, and the helpless, in this case, specifically, the widows whom they drained of all their resources. And then to add insult to injury, at the same time they intoned self-righteous prayers as if they were holiness personified.

14“O, you experts in the Law and you Pharisees—you pretenders—what a terrible fate awaits you! For you take from widows everything they have, even while you make a


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show with your long-winded prayers. Therefore, God will punish you all the more!”

—MATTHEW 23:14

God’s concern has always been for the oppressed, the underdogs, the down-and-outers, the nobodies. And those whom he entrusts with authority are judged based on their care for those at the bottom of the ladder.

1What a terrible fate awaits you who make unjust laws and hand down unjust verdicts 2that deprive the needy of their rightful claim, that make prey of helpless widows, and take what little the orphans have. 3What will you do on the day of reckoning when I send desolation upon you from a distant land. To whom will you run for help? Where will you hide your wealth for safekeeping? 4You will have no choice but to cringe among the prisoners or be prostrated with the slain. And yet despite all this, God’s anger will not be spent; His hand will be poised to strike again.

—ISAIAH 10:1-4

This harbinger of doom was written to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and described the fate that awaited them at the hands of the Assyrians. The injustice in the land was one of the issues that brought God’s judgment upon them. But even in the midst of this warning God foresees that this example of His indignation will not be the final solution. His hand would have to remain poised to strike again.

The Southern Kingdom of Judah did not learn anything from the calamity of her sister to the north, and century-and-a-half later she met the same fate at the hands of the Babylonians. Unlike the

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Israelites of the Northern Kingdom who disappeared completely from the pages of history, totally absorbed into the Gentile nations, the people of Judah were given a second chance and were allowed to return to their homeland after their exile in Babylon.

But they did not learn anything from their own calamity. The exploitation by the rulers of those whom they were enjoined to protect raged on, until now Jesus stood before these oppressors of the weak and warned that this third stroke of judgment by the hand of God would be the last. Strike one—the Assyrians! Strike two—the Babylonians! Strike three—the Romans! Three strikes and you’re out!

Unfortunately (to quickly fast-forward past the A.D. 70 judgment on Jerusalem), the Jews did not learn anything from this calamity either. As evidenced by its official documents, modern Judaism is a continuation of the very things that Jesus decried in His day and for which the Jews were punished a generation later. They still despise the Messiah who came to them. Their version of the story of Jesus, Toldoth Jesu: The Gospel According to the Jews,4 paints the picture of a bastard son of a prostitute who became one of the three greatest enemies of the Jewish people alongside of Balaam (from the book of Numbers) and Titus (the general who laid the siege to Jerusalem in A.D. 70). And they still oppress the weak any time they are given the opportunity, as their actions against the present-day Palestinians demonstrate.

The THIRD article of indictment deals with the issue of making proselytes.

15“O, you experts in the Law and you Pharisees—you pretenders—what a terrible fate awaits you! For you travel over land and sea to make a single convert to your


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religion; then when you have persuaded him to believe your way, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.”

—MATTHEW 23:15

There had always been a provision in God redemptive plan for non-Hebrews to be accepted into the commonwealth of Israel and share all the provisions of God’s covenant. But here again, the Pharisees had taken a good thing and perverted it. Jesus declared that their far-reaching evangelistic efforts (“traveling over land and sea to make a single convert”) did not result in true Kingdom citizens, but rather produced duplicates of themselves with all their perversions and distortions of God’s Law. In fact, Jesus said the Pharisees were “sons of Gehenna,” and that their converts were just like them.

What did Jesus mean when He used this expression, “sons of Gehenna.” Its true meaning has been lost in the obscurity of the unfortunate choice of words by the translators in some of our standard versions, the word “hell.” This word should never have been used in our English translations. It is a carry-over from pagan influence in the Church and from the papal darkness of medieval times.

There are three Greek and one Hebrew word translated “hell” in our English versions. In every case the actual Greek or Hebrew word should be transliterated rather than an attempt made to translate because each of these words serves as a technical theological term. The use of the ambiguous and misleading word “hell” renders these technical terms not just less precise, but completely erroneous.

In the Greek, the word a%|dh$ {haides—hahʹ-dace} or hades, and in the Hebrew the word loav= {sheʹowl—sheh-oleʹ} or sheol, stands for the idea of “the place of the dead.” Sometimes the word “grave” is

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used in certain passages as a translation equivalent, and that is certainly more accurate than “hell,” but still misses the mark.

Hades (also known as Pluto), in Greek mythology was the god of the dead, and in this traditional folklore, he was awarded the “underworld” when his father Titan Cronus died, his other two brothers, Zeus and Poseidan, receiving as their portions the sky and the sea respectively. Hades was also the name of the abode of the dead, Hades’ domain as it were. It was said to be divided into two regions: Erebus (where the dead were thought to pass as soon as they die) and Tartarus (the deeper region where Zeus as the father of the gods imprisoned the Titans, including his father Cronus).

These fanciful stories of Greek “gods,” of course, have nothing to do with the God of the Bible or the teachings of the Scriptures. But when the land of the Bible was Hellenized during the inter-testament period and Hebrew thought began to be expressed in the Greek language, these terms were adopted in order to express the theology of the Hebrew Scriptures. “Hades” was adopted to signify and stand for the Hebrew word “sheol.”

Sheol, among the early Jews (as well as for all Semitic peoples), was also, just as the Greek hades, the place of the dead. Existence in sheol was regarded as “a shadowy continuation of earthly life where all the problems of earthly life came to an end. Later the dictum of the prophet Isaiah that the king of Babylon shall be ‘brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit’ (Isaiah 14:15) gave rise to the concept of various depths of Sheol, with corresponding degrees of reward and punishment.”5

The idea of sheol was that it was a holding place for the dead, and that the righteous dead would some day be resurrected to a


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new life in the Kingdom of Messiah. For the righteous, at least, it was only a temporary abode.

The important point here, however, is that there is nothing in Hebrew theology that speaks of “hell-fire and brimstone.”

A second Greek word used in the new Testament is “tartarus.” As already mentioned, in Greek mythology, this was the lower region of hades, the place of the imprisonment of the Titans, and was supposed to be enclosed by iron gates. If the Hebrew sheol did indeed have multiple levels, then in the Hellenization of the Jews, the word “tartarus” was a logical choice for identifying these lower regions. In the New Testament, tartarus is the place where God consigned the angels that sinned, holding them in chains of darkness (2 Peter 2:4).

Once again, there is nothing here to indicate “hell-fire and brimstone.”

The only passages in Scripture where fire enters the picture are those places where the word “hell” has been used in translation with reference to the word “Gehenna.”

Actually the word “Gehenna” is the English transliteration for the Greek word ge/enna {geena—ghehʹ-en-nah} which when accurately translated into English would be rendered “Valley of (the son of) Hinnom.” When geena is translated “hell” (such as in the KJV) or when it is defined as “a name for the place (or state) of everlasting punishment” (as in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance), it is indicative of a presupposition on the part of the translator or the scholar, because, once again, there is nothing about endless punishment indicated by the technical term “Gehenna”

The Valley of Hinnom, just southeast of Jerusalem, had been in Old Testament times the seat of the idolatrous worship of Molech

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(or Moloch), the tribal deity of the Ammonites, to whom children were sacrificed by murdering them with fire. The specific place was called Tophet (which means “a place of fire”) in the southeast end of the valley. Some scholars have described the idol Molech as a human-like statue with arms stretched outward and forward creating a cradle on which an infant would be laid. The fire at the base of the statue would consume the baby and, burning, it would pass through the arms of Molech and into the waiting fire below.

Because of the repugnant and piteous history of this valley, it was sometimes called the Valley of Lamentation. King Josiah during his reign declared the location defiled (2 Kings 23:10), and consequently it became a symbol of divine judgment.

31“They have also erected the pagan shrines of Tophet in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. I certainly did not command them to do this! Indeed it never even crossed My mind! 32Therefore, look! The days are coming,” says YAHWEH, “when this place will no longer be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. Instead they will call it the Valley of Slaughter. They will bury so many people in Tophet that they will run out of room. 33The corpses will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. There will not be any people left to scare them away.”

—JEREMIAH 7:31-33

Jeremiah was prophesying concerning the slaughter that would accompany the fall of Jerusalem when it was overrun by the Babylonians, but as we have already seen, all the prophecies of judgment concerning Israel and Judah, and Jerusalem in particular,


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were understood by Jesus to also apply to the impending destruction of Jerusalem that occurred in A.D. 70. Of course, I am not implying that these prophecies have double meanings or double fulfillments. Prophecies with more than one meaning have no meaning at all. But when Jesus used the same terminology as that found in these ancient prophecies, the Jews, being steeped in the lore of the Hebrew Scriptures, knew exactly what He was talking about.

Furthermore, the Valley of Hinnom, just outside the city walls became the city dump. It could be used for nothing else. It was defiled land. There the offal and waste of the city was heaped and set on fire. There the fires continuously burn, and the maggots continuously crawled and fed among the refuse and debris.

On another occasion, when Jesus referred to Gehenna, quoting Isaiah 66:24, this is the word picture He was painting for His audience.

43“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have two hands and go to Gehenna—the fire that never goes out.

44‘Where the maggots never die, And the fire never goes out.’”

—MARK 9:43-44

Being properly buried on “holy ground” is a most important item in Judaistic culture, even to this day. To not be allowed to be “buried with one’s fathers” would be one of the most disgracing things a Jew could imagine. To not be buried at all would be even worse. To have the wild animals and bird desecrate one’s body—worse yet. But worst of all was the idea of having one’s body cast

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on a heap of garbage at Gehenna and be ravaged by the fires and crawling maggots.

When Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees “sons of Gehenna,” He was not using a profane expletive, and the scribes and Pharisees did not understand him to be saying that they were the sons of a “fire and brimstone” hell. That concept was not even a part of their religious culture. If that is what Jesus had in mind, then He might as well have been speaking a foreign language as far as their understanding was concerned.

But they understood Him, and understood Him well! Jesus was in cryptic Old Testament language calling a number

of things to their minds. First, He was telling them they were the offspring of the garbage heap. Second, He was equating them with the perverted idolatrous practices of the worshipers of Molech and all the defilement that that entailed. Third, and most importantly, He was predicting their doom, the same kind of doom that Jeremiah had prophesied for Jerusalem in his day—a day of slaughter and total defeat at the hands of their enemies—a slaughter so great that there would be no one left to bury the dead.

As with everything that Jesus said and did that last week of His life, the subject was judgment!

The FOURTH article of indictment deals with the matter of oath-taking. At issue in these remarks were the inequities of the logic of the explanations that the scribes and Pharisees concocted as they developed their “traditions.”

16“O, you blind guides—what a terrible fate awaits you! For you teach that if someone makes a solemn promise and calls on the Temple as a witness, then that person is not bound to keep that promise, but if someone takes an oath by


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the gold of the Temple, that person is obligated to do what was promised. 17You blind fools! Which has more value—the gold or the Temple that distinguishes the gold as something set apart for God’s service?

18“You teach that if someone makes a promise and calls on the altar as a witness, that person is not bound by that oath, but if someone takes an oath by the gift on the altar, that person is obligated to do what was promised. 19Are you blind? Surely the altar has more value than the gift itself. It is because it is there on the altar as an offering to God that the gift has any value at all? 20Anyone who makes a promise and calls on the altar as a witness also calls as a witness every gift that has been placed on the altar. 21And anyone who makes a promise and calls on the Temple as a witness also calls as a witness the One who dwells in the Temple. 22And anyone who makes a promise and calls on Heaven as a witness also calls as a witness the Throne of God and the One who sits on it.”

—MATTHEW 23:16-22

The Law that was given to Moses did not introduce vows or oaths, but it did give instruction concerning the keeping of them.

2If a man makes a promise to YAHWEH or takes an oath binding himself to some agreement, then he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised.

—NUMBERS 30:2

Yet the Pharisees had built loopholes into the system making it possible for a person to make a promise but not keep it, and suffer no consequences for his dishonesty or unfaithfulness. Jesus pointed out this inequity in this article of indictment. For instance, the rabbis

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taught that if one took an oath and called on some certain institution in the Jewish culture, that oath would not be binding. Among the things mentioned by Jesus that fell into this category was the Temple, the Altar, and even Heaven itself. The religious leaders didn’t care. If someone made a promise to another, or even to YAHWEH Himself, and failed to keep his word, they felt that they were unaffected.

But, if the person made vows or took oaths and swore by other things, then the rabbis ruled that those vows or oaths were irrevocable. In this category was the gold of the Temple and the gifts offered on the Altar. Why did they make these distinctions? The answer is simple—MONEY!

The operative word is korba=n {korban—kor-banʹ}, or “corban,” a Hebrew word that made its way into the Greek New Testament and into our modern English versions essentially unaltered. In the Mosaic Law (particularly Leviticus and Numbers), this word is used for anything devoted to God—any gift, any offering, any oath, any vow, any promise. Corban was of two basis forms—positive and negative.

The negative had to do with vows to abstain from doing or performing certain things. An example would be the Nazarite vows of not cutting one’s hair and not drinking wine.

The positive had to do with vows to do or perform some action or had to do with things of value that were dedicated to be given to God through the Temple. This could be animals, land, houses, even persons, and, of course, cold hard cash. In Leviticus 27 guidelines were laid down for the redeeming of these gifts in the event a person gave a house, for example, to the Temple and then decided that he wanted it back. Without getting bogged down in the details, the general rule was that the redemption price was the original value of the gift plus an additional 20 percent.


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Corban, however, eventually came to be synonymous with the Temple coffers and had more to do with money than with animals or property, and certainly more than vows and oaths. There was no money to be made off Nazarites, and things of value other than cash were of limited value because of their limited liquidity. Of course, persons who wanted to redeem property and pay the additional 20 percent had the Temple elders rubbing their hands with glee.

A perfect example of the misuse of corban is seen when Jesus, earlier in His ministry, confronted the scribes and Pharisees about the subject.

4“God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’ 5But you teach that children do not need to respect their parents by taking care of them in their old age if, instead, they give the money to God. 6This certainly does not honor the parents! By your traditions you set aside God’s actual commandments. 7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right about you when he spoke for God:

8 ‘These people pay lip service to Me, But their hearts are far from Me.

9 They worship Me to no purpose, Because instead of My laws they teach human rules.’”

—MATTHEW 15:4-9

The ruling concerning corban was that once the gift had been dedicated to the Temple, it could not be withdrawn. However, delivery to the Temple did not have to be made immediately. The owner could continue to use his property. In fact, the Temple did not

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even have to know about the gift. All the owner had to do was declare, “This is corban,”and it immediately became Temple property. And once that was done, the owner could not rescind his decision.

What was happening in the situation in Matthew 15 was that adult children were using the rules concerning corban in order to avoid having to care for their aged parents. They would say, “I would really like to help you, but I have dedicated my wealth to the Temple. It is now corban. I’m so sorry, but I am not allowed to spend any of it for your benfit.” In fact, if the Temple elders were privy to the dedication of the resources as corban, they would enforce the fact that they had first dibs on the wealth ahead of the parents.

This incensed Jesus, for in this way the scribes and Pharisees had set aside the Law of God (in this case, the fifth commandment) in favor of their “traditions.”

In this fourth article of indictment, Jesus laid bare their inconsistencies. There was no difference in swearing by the Temple or the gold of the Temple (the corban). There was no difference between swearing by the Altar and the gift on the Altar. And if people were to swear by Heaven, they needed to know that they were also swearing by the One who sat on the Throne in Heaven.

Such blatant disregard for and twisting of God’s Law and such greedy machinations were the reasons that Israel was facing her greatest disaster. Halfway through His articles of indictment, Jesus already had presented enough evidence to convict. But there was more.

In the FIFTH article of indictment, Jesus honed in on the scribes’ and Pharisees’ ridiculous obsessions to the minutia of the Law while at the same time ignoring the priority issues. This has been well called “majoring in minors, and minoring in majors.”


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23“O, you experts in the Law and you Pharisees—you pretenders—what a terrible fate awaits you! For you are so careful to give God a tenth of everything—even the small herbs you have grown. Yet you have abandoned the really important aspects of the Law—fairness and compassion and faithfulness. These are the principles you should have been following while at the same time attending to the lesser matters as well. 24You blind guides! You strain what you drink to eliminate even the smallest insect; then you turn around and swallow a camel!”

—MATTHEW 23:23-24

If you want to solve the case of the destruction of Jerusalem, then, as they say in the movies, “Follow the money!”

Here again, the scribes’ and Pharisees’ devious greed is in view. They made sure that the tithing laws were enforced, right down to paying a tenth on the smallest of the herbs. Why? Because that brought money onto the Temple coffers.

But at the same time they neglected their main duty. As the Jews’ spiritual leaders, they were supposed to set the example in matters of ethics and morals. They were supposed to encourage the people to pursue the great values of “fairness and compassion and faithfulness.” But these they had neglected. Why? Because these things did not swell the Temple coffers.

These Jewish leaders seemed to have forgotten the timeless truths of their Hebrew heritage.

16It is better to have little with the fear YAHWEH, Than to have great wealth with trouble.

—PROVERBS 15:16

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18It is better to have a little, honestly earned, Than to have abundance, deceitfully gained.

—PROVERBS 16:18

They seemed to have also forgotten the admonitions that the disregarding of these principles produced negative consequences.

4Riches will do you no good when you face God’s wrath; But righteousness will deliver you from mortal danger

5Righteous persons, because they are blameless, walk a straight path; But wicked persons are brought down by their own wickedness.

—PROVERBS 11:4-5

Knowing the disaster that the Jews would be facing before that generation has passed the scene, these proverbs are elevated beyond just wise statements of timeless truth; they are ominous warnings of doom.

Jesus’ scathing criticism of the scribes’ and Pharisees’ inordinate fixation on the material at the expense of the spiritual pointed out the basic flaw of their character that made them ripe for judgment. If only these Jewish leaders could have heeded the words of their prophets, they might have avoided their terrible doom.

8What is good has been demonstrated, so what does YAHWEH really desire of you?—simply dealing with others justly, loving covenant faithfulness, and walking humbly with your God.

—MICAH 6:8

God’s expectations had nothing to do with the pomp and circumstance of ostentatious public displays of religion. Neither was He looking for holiness “bean-counters.” What He wanted was


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a sincere dedication to the “weightier matters of the law” (Matthew 23:23, NKJV). This is precisely what the phrase “loving covenant faithfulness” in Micah 6:8 is referring to.

But this is precisely what Jesus failed to find in the Pharisees, and this deficiency is what elicited the harshest words that ever crossed His lips. “You blind guides!” He said, “You strain what you drink to eliminate even the smallest insect; then you turn around and swallow a camel!” In His subsequent indictments, His words became increasingly harsh.

The SIXTH article of indictment was very similar to the fifth. This time Jesus focused on external versus internal holiness.

25“O, you experts in the Law and you Pharisees—you pretenders—what a terrible fate awaits you! For you are so careful to ceremonially wash the outside of a cup or plate, but the food and drink inside it you obtained by blackmail and greed. 26You blind Pharisee! First be sure that what in inside the cup and plate is clean, and then the outside will be truly clean.”

—MATTHEW 23:25-26

Actually “external holiness” is a misnomer, because there is no such thing as “external holiness.” All holiness is of the heart, or it is not holiness at all.

But heart holiness cannot be measured by anyone but God, and that does not suit our human desire to measure others. It’s really hard to judge the invisible.

Misdirecting attention to the externals serves a number of other purposes as well. It provides a great cover for our own shortage of holiness. We can fool a lot of folks when we wear the right holiness “costume.”

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Regulating the externals gives us control over others. We can intimidate effectively when there is an external “standard” by which to measure.

Externals, especially when practiced homogenously, provide us with a sort of holiness “uniform” as well as a “costume.” It becomes our badge, our identity. It demonstrates that we are a part of the group. It gives us a sense of belonging.

While it shows we belong to “our” group, it also serves to exhibit the fact that we don’t belong to those “other” groups, and this is not only a source of security, but also a wellspring of spiritual pride.

The only problem is that God hates it! 6All of us have become defiled as one who is a leper. All

our so-called righteous acts are like menstrual rags in Your sight. All of us have been disgraced like leaves that wither away. All our perversities have swept us away like the wind.

—ISAIAH 64:6 12“So now,” YAHWEH says, “return to Me with all your

heart, fasting and weeping with godly sorrow. 13Don’t tear your clothes to demonstrate outward emotions—rather let your hearts be torn by genuine repentance. Turn back to God, for He is generous with His favors, is full of compassion, is slow to anger, abounds in goodness, and is ever ready to be turned from His purpose of punishment.

—JOEL 2:12-13 7God does not view things the way humans do. People

look on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. —1 SAMUEL 16:7


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When Jesus castigated the scribes and Pharisees for having an apparently clean dish with a dirty inside, what did He identify as the contents of their dirty dishes—food and drink “obtained by blackmail and greed.” My observation is that all too many so-called “holiness” folks may be decked out in the appropriate religious garb, but they’ll cut your heart out and eat it alive for position or possessions.

Over and over we see Jesus reiterating this theme—His disgust for the way these religious leaders had plundered His people while at the same time putting on a show of “holiness.” Yes, they were ripe for judgment.

The SEVENTH article of indictment continued this outside-inside theme.

27“O, you experts in the Law and you Pharisees—you pretenders—what a terrible fate awaits you! For you are like white-washed tombs that may appear outwardly to be ceremonially clean and seasonally appropriate, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of every kind of rottenness. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear upright to others, but inside you are full of deceit and lawlessness.”

—MATTHEW 23:27-28

All that has been said concerning the sixth article of indictment could be repeated here. The picture is much the same except the metaphor is heightened. Now instead of a dish that has dirty, ill-gotten food in it, now we are seeing the picture of white-washed tomb full of dead bones and “every kind of rottenness.” The symbol is the same, however. The dish was full of “blackmail and greed”—the tomb was full of “deceit and lawlessness.”

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The reason for the whitewashing of tombs is interesting. It was more than just a matter of beautifying them. Adam Clarke gives us this insight:

As the law considered those unclean who had touched anything belonging to the dead, the Jews took care to have their tombs white-washed each year, that, being easily discovered, they might be consequently avoided.6

The irony here is so apparent. Touching a body or a tomb would make one unclean—but so would violating God’s moral law. So the picture of the scribes and Pharisees here is one of them taking special precautions to ensure that their external appearance measured up to the laws of cleanness and uncleanness, and all the while they were guilty internally of all sorts of sins that made them unclean.

It is also a picture of a dead religion, decaying and disinter-grating internally, while on the outside its advocates busily keep it propped up and polished. This is exactly how the writer of Hebrews depicted Judaism after the resurrection of Christ—a system tottering and unsteady and about to fall (which it did in A.D. 70 just a few years after the writing of the book of Hebrews).

25Be very careful that you in no way reject the One who has been speaking to you! Those who declined to hear the earthly messenger—Moses—did not escape. How then can we expect to escape if we turn back from the One who is speaking from heaven? 26At Mount Sinai, God’s voice caused the land to shudder. But now He has promised, “Yet once for all I will shake not only the earthly realm, but also the heavenly.” 27Now this expression, “yet once for all,” plainly denotes the termination of that which is tottering and unsteady—those


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things that have been done with—so that what cannot be overthrown will remain and continue.

—HEBREW 12:25-27

How tragic it is that the first mention of whitewash in the Scriptures was a command to Moses to whitewash stones with lime for a memorial of His covenant with Israel (Deuteronomy 27:2, 4). Now here is Jesus using it as a picture of the bankrupt Judaic religious economy that was shaking and about to be destroyed.

The EIGHTH and final article of indictment is even more pointed in its reference to Jerusalem’s impending doom.

29“O, you experts in the Law and you Pharisees—you pretenders—what a terrible fate awaits you! For you build elaborate tombs for the prophets of old and decorate the monuments of your godly ancestors, 30and you say, ‘If we had lived in our ancestors’ times, we would not have joined them in murdering the prophets.’ 31But by your very statement you provide evidence against yourselves that you are indeed by heredity the sons of the murderers of the prophets. 32Go ahead then, and finish what they started, 33you treacherous serpents, you offspring of venomous snakes! How do you think you will ever escape the doom of Gehenna?

34“So, look! I will surely send you inspired prophets, wise leaders, and knowledgeable teachers. Some of them you will murder; others you will have nailed to crosses. Some of them you will flog in your meeting-houses; others you will pursue from town to town.

35“And so you will be held responsible for all the godly people who have been murdered in the land beginning with godly Abel all the way to Zechariah the son of Berechiah,

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whom you Jews murdered between the sanctuary and the altar of burnt offerings. 36I tell you the truth, the judgment for all these things will fall on the generation living today.”

—MATTHEW 23:29-36

With these words Jesus lashed out more fiercely than at any prior point in His speech, calling the scribes and Pharisees snakes and the sons of snakes!

Picking up on the idea of the decorated tombs in the previous article of indictment, Jesus gave them yet another of example of their hypocrisy, a veneer that He could see straight through. This time He talked about the way they especially maintained and decorated the tombs of the prophets, the very prophets that previous generations of their ilk had murdered.

Even before they could offer their justifications and denials, Jesus presented their arguments for them, “We didn’t kill anybody. Our fathers did that. If it had been us, nobody would ever have been killed!”—and then swiftly eradicated their defenses. “You have already proved by your actions,” He said, “that you are just like your fathers. Their rebellious, murderous blood runs in your veins as well. And all your tending of the tombs is just a futile pretence.”

Then Jesus challenged them to proceed with their plans to kill Him as well, “Go ahead then, and finish what they started!” The KING JAMES VERSION says, “Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.” This is a direct reference to Daniel’s prophecy of the Seventy Sevens. There one of the purposes for which the prophecy was given was “to complete the measure of sin” (Daniel 9:24). In this challenge, Jesus was identifying Himself as the Messiah who had come to fulfill this purpose of the Daniel’s prophecy. And the scribes and Pharisees knew exactly what He was talking about!


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With our 20-20 hindsight, we might be tempted to think that they would have responded, “Wow, Jesus, you’ve really pegged us. Let’s start over and see if we can’t get this right.” But we know that they didn’t. Even with the challenge hanging out there in the open air, they gathered their self-righteous robes about them and before the week was out they did exactly what Jesus had challenged them to do—they killed Him!.

Some have been perplexed by Jesus’ assigning the guilt of previous generations to that present cadre of leaders. How could they be responsible for murders that their ancestors had committed? There are two answers to that question—a short one and a longer one.

The short answer is that Jesus saw their hearts and knew that they were even more vicious than their ancestors and would prove it before the week was out. As the culminating generation of a long lineage of murderers, they would be the one upon whom the execution decree would be declared.

The longer answer is that under the Old Covenant, God did not deal so much with individuals as He did with corporate Israel as a single person.

22This is what YAHWEH says, “Israel is my firstborn son.” —EXODUS 4:22

After Abraham received the promise from God, he passed it as an inheritance to his son Isaac, who in turn passed it to his son Jacob. Jacob, however, distributed it amongst his sons and two of his grandsons, and it remained fragmented in this way for more than four centuries while the Israelites were in Egypt. But when God called Moses to deliver Israel from Eqypt, He began to change the way that He intended to deal with His covenant people. The entire nation, as a corporate body, became God’s firstborn son.

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A corporation is a new legal entity that performs many of the same legal functions as that of an individual. It can hold property and it can be sued, for example. Unlike an individual, however, it cannot die. Its life extends over into future generations unless the corporation is legally dissolved.

The most important point for our present discussion is that all the members of the corporation are liable for the actions of the other members, and as individuals can be prosecuted. This is why is was not unfair for Jesus to tell the Jews of His generation that they would be held accountable for the murder of every prophet going all the way back to righteous Abel.7

Finally, Jesus gave a time for the execution associated with these articles of indictment: “I tell you the truth, the judgment for all these things will fall on the generation living today!”

Can there be any doubt concerning His meaning? The indictment is complete: “Here’s are the crimes of which you are guilty! Judgment is going to fall! And it’s going to happen in your lifetimes!”

Jesus’ Lamentation over Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37-39) 37“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who murder the prophets

and stone the messengers sent to you. Again and again I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen takes her young ones under her wings, but you would not let me. 38Now look! Your habitation is forsaken and desolate. 39For I tell you, you will see me next only when you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

—MATTHEW 23:37-39

Suddenly the atmosphere changed. The intense emotions of Jesus’ seething revulsion of the scribes and Pharisees was redirected,


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and He began to lament over the city He loved. The murder of the prophets, for which he castigated the religious leaders, became a point of grieving identification of the Holy City: “you who murder the prophets and stone the messengers sent to you.”

Jesus could see prophetically the circling Roman eagles, and His heart was bursting with longing to protect His covenant people. Yet He knew that nothing short of their conversion to His Gospel would save them. For three-and-a-half years He had been preaching that Gospel throughout the land, like a hen calling for her chicks to come to safety, but they would not assemble. They saw Him as the threat, not as their Savior.

But this was not the first time that the call had gone out for God’s covenant people to turn from their wickedness. When Jerusalem was destroyed at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the people had been duly warned. Jeremiah wrote after the fact to the Jews in Egypt who has escaped the disaster:

2“This is what YAHWEH, leader of vast legions, says: ‘You have seen the destruction that I brought on Jerusalem and all the other towns of Judah. They now lie in ruins and are deserted 3because of the wickedness the people did. They riled My anger by burning incense in worship to other gods—gods who were not their gods or yours or the gods of their fathers.

4‘I sent My servants the prophets to them, rising early and sending them, saying, “O, do not do this detestable thing that I hate.”

5‘But the people of Jerusalem and Judah would not listen or pay attention. They refused to stop the wickedness they were doing; they refused to stop worshiping other gods. 6So my indignation boiled over and burned like fire through the

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towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. That is why they have become the desolate ruins they are today.’”

—JEREMIAH 44:2-6

How could the scribes and Pharisees not hear what Jesus was saying? The same voice that had mourned, “O, do not do this detestable thing that I hate,” was now grieving, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!”

Because of all the things for which He had upbraided them in this chapter, Matthew 23, Jesus declared, “Now look! Your habitation is forsaken and desolate.” Their terrible internal depravity had been censured, their empty façade of religion had been exposed, and their house of cards was about to fall.

The Greek word translated “house” is oi@ko$ {oikos—oyʹ-kos}. In everyday life this word would be used to refer to a dwelling, and by implication, a family. In Israel’s national life, it referred to the Temple, and by implicaton, the entire Jewish nation in their religious interrelationship. This is what Jesus said was about to fall.

More specifically, He said that it was “forsaken and desolate.” But it was not that the people had left the house—God had left the house! Ezekiel had years before drawn a picture of the Spirit of God departing the Temple in the days of the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. In a complex vision involving the cherubim with four faces who bear and transport the Spirit of the Lord, Ezekiel saw God display His displeasure with Israel by withdrawing his presence from them.

18Then the glory of YAHWEH departed from the threshold of the Temple and hovered above the cherubim 19who lifted up their wings, and as I watched, they rose up from the earth and


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the wheels went with them. They paused at the entrance—the east gate of YAHWEH’s Temple—as the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.

—EZEKIEL 10:18-19

The departure of the symbol of God’s presence from the Temple was preparatory to the destruction of the city. This had been foretold by Moses:

17“On that day My anger will flare up against them and I will leave them and hide myself from them until they are devoured. Terrible trouble will come down on them and cause them to say, ‘These disasters have come on us because our God is no longer among us!’”


In the days of Samuel, Israel suffered a terrible disaster at the hands of the Philistines who not only defeated them in battle, but also captured and took possession of the Ark of the Covenant. When the news came to Eli, the priest, that the ark had been taken and that his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, had been killed, he had an apoleptic stroke and fell off his seat and broke his neck. At that same moment, his daughter-in-law died in childbirth, and as she was dying, she prophesied:

20As she was dying the women who were with her said, “Everything is alright—you have given birth to a son!” But she did not respond or even pay any attention to them. 21She named the boy Ichabod—“Where is the glory?” She said, “The glory has departed from Israel.”

—1 SAMUEL 4:20-21

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Once again “Ichabod” was being written over the door of Israel’s house. How could they NOT know that the same judgment that had visited their nation repeatedly was about to visit them again.

The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 should not have come as a surprise to anyone, and it should not perplex us today. It was not as if Israel had not received sufficient warning. As a matter of fact, that very judgment had occurred before and very precise reasons had been given by God for bringing His wrath upon them.

In His indictment of them, Jesus was once again giving them fair warning concerning the coming judgment, even giving them the timeline for the coming destruction: “All these things will fall on the generation living today!”

But of course, they didn’t believe anything that Jesus said to them, and continued their plots to kill Him. This would be the ultimate crime for which God would forever abandon them as a nation. Indeed, their house would be “left unto them desolate.”

Jesus concluded by saying, “For I tell you, you will see me next only when you say, ‘Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

From this point onward, Jesus said their only hope of redemption would be their acknowledgement of Him as their Messiah—not in their standing as the “chosen people,” not in their pride in being of the bloodline of Abraham, not in their claiming the prophecies of Scripture about being restored to their own land and former status, not in the building or rebuilding of temples. Only through the acknowledgment of Jesus of Nazareth as their Redeemer would there be any hope for them.

Yet the Jews either did not understand then that Jesus was their Messiah, or they knew it and refused Him. Either way, the Jews to this present day still await the Messiah’s coming. Even the


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destruction of their holy city and its Temple in A.D. 70 did not vindicate Jesus in their eyes and cause them to turn to Him. Instead they have a teaching that on “the very day that the Bet Hamikdash [the Temple] was destroyed, was born one who, by virtue of his righteousness, is fit to be the redeemer.”8

Their teaching is that there is one living in every generation who is fit to become the Messiah, and only the merits of the world-wide Jewish community determines whether or not he will be brought forth by God as their deliverer—merits such as Teshuvah (turning back to God), Shabbat (Sabbath-keeping), Torah-study, and Tsedakah (acts of righteousness).9

That is why it was possible for there to be another Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire 65 years after the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. The leading teacher of that time, Rabbi Akiva declared that Simon ben Kosiba (popularly known as Bar Kochba, “son of the star” in reference to Balaam’s prophecy in Numbers 24:17) was the Messiah. The Romans once again savaged the land of Palestine and that rebellion was crushed just like the Great Revolt of A.D. 66-73. This time the Emperor, Hadrian, issued a decree that any Jew found in the land of Palestine would be immediately killed. The events of A.D. 70 that brought about the dispersion of so many Jews from the land of Israel into the nations of the world was completed when every single Jew was banished from the land in A.D. 135.

The reason that Jews continue to this day to believe that Bar Kochba was a legitimate Messiah is this teaching that the people have to be worthy of Messiah, or he will not be announced, or, if he is announced, he will be unsuccessful in delivering Israel from her enemies.

Because of our sins many such tzadikim [righteous ones] passed away already. We did not merit that the Messianic

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spirit was conferred upon them. They were fit and appropriate for this, but their generations were not fit.10 And so the Jews history through the succeeding centuries has

been one great disappointment after another as they have futilely looked for their Messiah. They have been pursued and harassed all over the world and have been banned from almost every country in which they have tried to settle. But no deliverer has arisen to change their plight. And they will never find their Messiah until they recognize that, as a nation, they rejected Him two millennia ago, and that only by returning to the God of their fathers and the true Messiah that He sent to them will they ever achieve the longing of their troubled spirits. Individually, one by one, they must turn to Jesus their Messiah and make the declaration, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.”

But the beautiful truth is that anyone—Gentile or Jew—who makes that confession obtains redemption. Jesus’ promise, regardless of history and personal or generational past sins, is this:

37Everyone whom the Father gives Me will come to Me, and those who come to Me I will by no means send them away.

—JOHN 6:37

CHAPTER THREE ENDNOTES 1 George Foot Moore, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era: The Age of

Tannaim, vol. 1, pg. 465-466, Hendrickson Publishers, reprint 1997 (originally published 1927).

2 Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Horayoth, folio 13b, Soncino English translation, Jew’s College, 1961.


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3 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible Containing the Old and New

Testaments (Matthew 23:10), World Publishing, reprint 1997 (originally published as six volumes 1826).

4 Toldoth Jesu: The Gospel According to the Jews, first published in English by R. Carlile, London in 1823

5 “Hell,” Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, 2003. 6 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible Containing the Old and New

Testaments (Matthew 23:27). 7 This concept of corporate Israel can be further pursued in the excellent book by

Larry D. Harper, Not All Israel is Israel, The Elijah Project, 1991. 8 Jacob Immanual Schochet, Mashiach: The Principle of Mashiach and the Messianic

Era in Jewish Law and Tradition, pg. 40, S.I.E., 1991, 1992 9 Ibid., pg. 49-50. 10 Ibid., pg. 40-41.

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CHAPTER FOUR

The Olivet Discourse – 1 SSSO, AT LAST, here we are at the passage that is the heart of our investigation in this book—Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse. If you have stayed with me thus far, thanks for patiently plodding through all the material I have presented.

If you chose to skip over to this chapter and get right to the exposition of our Lord’s prophecy concerning the “end‐times,” I will try to make this and the four subsequent chapters as self‐contained as possible. After reading and studying this portion of the book, however, you will probably want to go back at some point and gain the insights of the previous “background” chapters.

The Olivet Discourse is a lot of things to different people. For some it is a schedule of the “signs of the times” relating to our future, maybe our immediate future.

For others it is a cryptic address of Jesus that also contains certain “timeless truths” that are applicable to every generation.

Others see this prophecy as being totally fulfilled in the first century, and its value to us today is not in its present applicability,


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but the contribution it makes to our present understanding of the way things are.

Others combine the features of two or all of the preceding perspectives. They see Jesus’ words as addressing both the conditions of first‐century Judea and giving us an insight into the events of our own time.

Which viewpoint is correct? The only way to decide is by examining the documentary evidence in the Gospels and “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, KJV).

In the DAYSPRING BIBLE, I chose to render this phrase in 2 Timothy 2:15 as “accurately handling God’s message of truth.” The word translated “rightly dividing” or “accurately handling” is the Greek word o)rqotome/w {orthotomeo—or‐thot‐om‐ehʹ‐o} which means “to make a straight cut.” It comes from two Greek root words, o)rqo/$ {orthos—or‐thosʹ}, meaning “straight or upright, that is, perdendicularly erect” and tomw/tero$ {tomoteros—tom‐oʹ‐ter‐os} which means “more keen or sharp.” The compound word orthotomeo, then, conveys the word picture of cutting as with a single stroke, as opposed to hacking at something until it separates.

As much as possible, that is what we want to do as we examine Matthew 24—not “hack” away with guesses and ambiguities, but rather come to some clear, clean‐cut resolutions as to what Jesus’ words meant when He spoke them.

Our guideline will always be to discover the “original intent” of these words and try to understand them, not only in the sense that Jesus spoke them, but also in the sense that they were understood by His disciples. Only in ardently pursuing this goal can we have any hope of finding meaning in these words for us today.

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The Olivet Discourse has been subjected to various attempts at dissection. It can only be truly understood by allowing it to maintain its integrity. So rather than “slicing and dicing,” I want to approach this section of Scripture as if it is a seamless whole. If we find evidence to the contrary, so be it—we’ll try to divide it up according to its natural and logical partitions. But to assume that there are such partitions going in will be to weight the passage down with presuppositions that only serve to obscure its true meaning.

The Setting for the Discourse (Matthew 24:1‐2) 1Now as Jesus departed from the Temple grounds, His

disciples who accompanied Him began to point out the grandeur of the Temple buildings. 2But Jesus responded by saying, “Yes, look at all these buildings! I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. They will all be torn down!”

—MATTHEW 24:1‐2

The break in chapters in Matthew in our modern Bibles may be misleading to some, causing them to think that this marks the beginning of a completely different subject. But there is no break in the continuity of Matthew’s narrative.

Jesus completed His address to the scribes and Pharisees and exclaimed His lamentation over the city of Jerusalem (both of which we examined at the end of Matthew 23 in the previous chapter). Apparently He then immediately proceeded to leave the Temple grounds (the beginning of Matthew 24).

As He and His disciples were departing, the disciples made some remarks about the grandeur of Herod’s Temple. What brought them to make these comments, we’ll never know. Perhaps it was the contrast of this beautiful edifice with the description of


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the scribes and Pharisees that had been the subject of Jesus’ scathing remarks.

Whatever it was that prompted them to start talking about the Temple, it is almost certain that they did not expect the response that Jesus gave. “Yes, look at all these buildings! I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. They will all be torn down!”

This is the remark that then prompts their follow‐up discussion with Jesus once they were out of the city and had stopped to rest on the Mount of Olives overlooking the city.

This is the remark that we must keep foremost in our minds as we investigate their discussion, remembering at all points that this was what was foremost in their minds. If Jesus made any remarks concerning any other subject, He would have had to have been adding information to the conversation that was, to say the least, off the subject, because this and this alone was what was in the minds of His hearers

The other Synoptic Gospels (Mark and Luke) record essentially the same exchange between Jesus and His disciples as they were leaving the Temple, so we can be sure that no other subject was on their mind when they came questioning Jesus on the Mount of Olives.

Both Mark and Luke insert the incident of Jesus watching the widow put her offering into the treasury containers between Jesus’ remarks about the scribes and Pharisees and His disciples comments on the beauty of the Temple. But since the treasury containers were located in the Temple courts, it is understandable that this incident would happen as Jesus and His disciples were departing just as Matthew records.

But Mark’s and Luke’s records of the disciples comments about the Temple and Jesus’ extraordinary remark about it being torn

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down stone by stone are essentially the same as that found in Matthew’s Gospel.

1Now as Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, look! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

2Jesus answered, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left on another. They will all be torn down!”

—MARK 13:1‐2 5Now while some were talking about the Temple and how

its was adorned with such beautiful stones and about the gifts offered to God that made it possible, Jesus said, 6“As for these things that you are gazing at, the days will come when not one stone will be left on another. They will all be torn down!”

—LUKE 21:5‐6

The Disciples’ Question (Matthew 24:3) 3As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, His

disciples came to Him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

—MATTHEW 24:3

Were it not for Mark’s and Luke’s versions of this conversation, we might be lead to think that Jesus’ disciples were here asking Him a series of three questions. But in actuality it was but one question.

3So while He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him


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privately, 4“Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to take place?

—MARK 13:3‐4 7So they asked Him, “Teachers, when will these things

happen, and what will be the sign that these things are about to take place?”

—LUKE 21:7

Notice that in neither Mark’s nor Luke’s version is there any mention of “Your coming” or of “the end of the age.” This is not to say that the disciples didn’t say those words. They did. Rather, I simply point this out in order to show that all of Jesus’ remarks as recorded in the Gospels of Mark and Luke answered the disciples’ question in this abbreviated form. Their more simple question in Mark and Luke should guide us in understanding the way the question was posed as recorded by Matthew.

It is easy to see that the Mark’s and Luke’s accounts have only one question. It was about the destruction of the Temple and nothing else. It was directly related to Jesus’ remark that all the stones of the Temple were one day going to be torn down. The disciples wanted to know two things about this one event—1) the timing (“when will these things happen”) and 2) the forewarning, if any (what will be the sign that these things are about to take place?”).

As to the three aspects of the disciples question as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, let’s examine them carefully.

1) “When will these things happen? This first aspect of their question was identical to the way their question was recorded in Mark and Luke. It is easy to see that this part of their question was directly related to Jesus’ remark about the Temple’s destruction.

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2) “What will be the sign of Your coming?” This, on the surface, sounds like a totally different question. And it is so interpreted by many Bible expositors, especially futurists such as dispensationalists. But can it really be broken out from the rest of the question?

One of the errors that we must always guard against when we interpret Scripture is being guilty of using anachronisms—the placing of certain events in their wrong timeframes. For instance, if we were watching a western and the cowboy took out his butane lighter to light his cigarette, it would jar us out of the “suspension of disbelieve” that we all enter into in order to enjoy a book or a movie. We would immediately say, “That’s not right! They didn’t have butane lighters in the Old West—they used matches.” The lighter in that setting is an anachronism.

The subject of the “second coming” of Jesus has been such a popular topic, especially for the past two centuries, and we have heard so many sermons and songs about it, that when we read the disciple’s question, “What will be the sign of your coming?” we almost instinctively impose all those songs and sermons anachron‐istically on the wording in that question.

When we do, however, we are sure to misinterpret what they were asking. Modern understanding of the “second coming” was not even a possibility for the disciples at this juncture. Remember, this occurred before the Crucifixion, before the Resurrection, and before the Ascension. The disciple’s had yet to see the two messengers when Jesus ascended to heaven and to hear them say, “This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven—just as you saw Him go, He will return!” (Acts 1:11). They simply


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did not have this level of understanding concerning Jesus’ return at this juncture.

To be more accurate, they had NO understanding of Jesus’ return—they didn’t even know that He was going away!

It was not until the night before His crucifixion that He instructed them about His soon departure.

33“My dear children, I am still with you but only for just a short while. You will look for Me, but just as I said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ now I am saying the same to you.”

♦ ♦ ♦ 36Simon Peter said, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus

replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow later.”

♦ ♦ ♦ 28“You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and I

am coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it happens you will believe.”

—JOHN 13:33, 36; 14:28‐29

But on this occasion, they couldn’t have asked Him a question about His “coming” in the sense of a “return” as most modern Christians understand this term. So what were they asking?

The Messianic expectations of the Jews had nothing to do with “comings” and “goings” and such. They were looking for a deliverer, sent by God, who would do a number of things including 1) destroy their Gentile oppressors, 2) erect a new Messianic Temple to replace the tainted Herodian Temple, 3) usher in the

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golden age of the Messiah, and 4) set up an everlasting kingdom for the Jewish people. This is an oversimplification, but it will suffice to make our point.

The word “coming” is translated from the Greek word parousi/a {parousia—par‐oo‐seeʹ‐ah} which means “a being near, presence, or to be in person.” It can also mean “arrival or advent.” In order to get a feel for the word, notice that the Greek word a)pousi/a {apousia—ap‐oo‐seeʹ‐ah} (which is basically the word parousia with a negative prefix) means “absence.” While parousia might mean “presence after absence” it never means “return.”

In Hellenistic Greek it was used to denote “the arrival of a ruler at a particular place.” In archeological finds in Egypt and Asia Minor, inscriptions use this word to record a ruler taking his rightful place.

In the context of Messianic expectations, it should not be strange that such a word, already complete with full‐fledged regal concepts should be picked up and used regarding the coming of the Messiah.

So basically, what the disciples were asking was not, “When are You leaving and then coming back?” They were asking, “When will You declare Yourself as the Messiah and take Your rightful place of leadership?”

Since the building of a more glorious Temple to replace the Herodian one was a part of the Messianic package, so to speak, it was only natural that Jesus’ prediction of the very stones of the Temple being overthrown would cause them to jump to the conclusion that this must mean the inauguration of the Messianic Age. Well, they were right, as far as that goes. What was deficient in their understanding was exactly what the Messianic Age was really all about—which was not the establishing of a natural Jewish


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kingdom on earth. That part the disciple had a terrifically hard time understanding. Even after the Resurrection and a 40‐day crash course in Bible prophecy interpretation, they still didn’t get it.

6So when they had gathered together, they began to ask Him, “Lord, is it at this time that You will restore the Kingdom to Israel?”

7Jesus replied, “The Father has set time and order of events by His own authority. These things are not yours to know. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

—ACTS 1:6‐8

The conversation took place just moments before Jesus ascended into the heavens. After they were baptized with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, their understanding was fully opened and they clearly preached Jesus as the Messiah and Kingdom of God as a present spiritual reality. But at this point, when the disciples revealed their total lack of comprehension with their question, “Lord, is it at this time that You will restore the Kingdom to Israel?” one can almost see Jesus slapping His forehead and muttering, “When will you fellows ever get it?” Instead He said, “Don’t worry about that right now. Just go to Jerusalem and wait.”

The point to be made here before we move on is that the disciples were using the word parousia in a technical sense to refer to Jesus’ advent as Messiah, not to some “coming” in the far distant future.

3) “…and of the end of the age?” We can be so thankful that our modern English translations have all abandoned the terminology of the KING JAMES VERSION and other older versions with regard to the

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phrase in Matthew 24:3, “the end of the world.” In 1611 this terminology may have conveyed the proper sense of the term, but not in our language today.

The Greek word from which “age” or “world” is translated is ai)w/n {aion—ahee‐ohnʹ} which indeed means “age” or “eon” or can be transliterated as “aeon.” It is not ko/smo$ {kosmos—kosʹ‐mos} meaning the physical universe.

The disciples’ question was, “When will this present age end and the Messianic Age begin?”

The Israelites talked about two ages—“this present age” and “the age to come.” The “age to come” did not refer to the afterlife or heaven. It was a very “this‐worldly” expression. It was simply seen as future. It should be understood with the emphasis on the definite article—the age to come. Because of its importance as the hope of all Israelites, it did not have to be further denominated as the “Messianic” age.

In contrast to “the age to come” was “this present age,” sometimes even called “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4) The idea was that the present state of things with all its sorrow and woe could not even be compared to the excellencies of the Messianic age when all wrongs would be put right, especially Israel’s servitude to her Gentile oppressors. In the new world coming, Israel would be back on top. It was seen as a coming “golden age” when the scattered tribes of Israel would all be brought home and the righteous dead would be resurrected to enjoy the joys of Messiah’s reign on the earth.

Some saw only a temporary role for Messiah, possibly as little as forty years. After that the world had been made right and a new and more glorious Temple had been built, the Jews would be able


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to ascend to their rightful place as the rulers of the world, God’s special people, a kingdom of priests in the earth.

At least some of these ideas were a part of the disciples’ thinking when they posed this aspect of their question, “…and of the end of the age?” They certainly had no anticipation of the “end of the world as we know it.” Their expectation, and in this they were right, was that God’s program would lead to the triumph of God’s people in time and history. The part they missed was how God was no longer going to need a natural or earthly nation to administrate His new world order. They could not imagine Gentiles being their equals in the Kingdom of God.

All this third part of their question did was emphasize another aspect of what they expected to happen when the Temple came tumbling down. That is all they had in mind when they asked this question, and, if we were to make any assumptions at all as we study Jesus’ answer, we would have to assume that is all Jesus was referring to in His answer as well.

Let’s see if that is the case.

Prelude to Disaster (Matthew 24:4‐8) 4Jesus answered, “Be careful that you are not misled,

5because many will come in My name saying, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will indeed mislead many. 6You will hear of wars and threats of wars, but do not let that alarm you. These things have to take place, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom will rise up against kingdom, and there will be destitution and commotion everywhere. 8All these things are just the beginning—like birth pangs.”

—MATTHEW 24:4‐8

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At the very beginning of Jesus’ answer we encounter what some call “the signs of the times.” That’s even the subheading for this section in some Bibles. But how anyone can come to that conclusion is beyond me. Even the most cursory reading of the passage informs us that Jesus is not giving His disciples any signs. If anything, these are “non‐signs.”

Basically two things are mentioned here—false Messiahs and political turmoil. Of the first, Jesus said, “Don’t be misled.” Of the second, He said, “Don’t be alarmed.”

The list of false Messiahs who made their appearance during this period has been catalogued in a number of good books on the subject.1 But we have no further to look than in the book of Acts to we see our Lord’s words about false Messiahs fulfilled. There we meet with the appearance of such deceivers and revolutionaries as Theudas (Acts 5), Simon the Magician (Acts 8), Bar‐jesus (Acts 13), and the Egyptian whom Paul was mistaken for by the Roman commander when Paul was arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 21).

Remember that false Messiahs in Jesus’ day were not necessarily would‐be religious leaders. In most cases they were brigands and insurrectionists who tried to stir up the people to riot against Roman authority. A prime example is Barabbas, the insurrectionist who was given his freedom instead Jesus (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 18).

Josephus deals with this kind of turmoil in his history of the events leading up to the Great Jewish Revolt of A.D. 66‐73.

This Felix took Eleazar the arch‐robber, and many that were with him, alive, when they had ravaged the country for twenty years together, and sent them to Rome; but as to the number of the robbers whom he caused to be crucified, and of


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those who were caught among them, and whom he brought to punishment, they were a multitude not to be enumerated.2

But there was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews more mischief than the former; for he was a cheat, and pretended to be a prophet also, and got together thirty thousand men that were deluded by him; these he led round about from the wilderness to the mount which was called the Mount of Olives, and was ready to break into Jerusalem by force from that place; and if he could but once conquer the Roman garrison and the people, he intended to domineer over them by the assistance of those guards of his that were to break into the city with him. But Felix prevented his attempt, and met him with his Roman soldiers, while all the people assisted him in his attack upon them, insomuch that when it came to a battle, the Egyptian ran away, with a few others, while the greatest part of those that were with him were either destroyed or taken alive; but the rest of the multitude were dispersed every one to their own homes, and there concealed themselves.3

The political turmoil that Josephus described eventually led to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus when Herod’s Temple was razed to the ground in direct fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy and “not one stone left standing on another.”

But in the early stages, Jesus told His disciples, “Don’t be alarmed about the wars and threatenings.” In other words, these were NOT the signs that the end had arrived. He would get around to a specific sign later in the prophecy, but here His words are so plain that it is amazing that anyone would not stumble over them on their way to trying to find modern “signs of the end‐times.” In

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the language of the KING JAMES VERSION, He said, “The end is not yet…All these are the beginning.”

Most translations have Jesus speaking not only of “wars and rumors of wars” but also of “famine, pestilences, and earthquakes.” A careful study of the original text, however, reveals that apparently some presuppositions were responsible for this particular wording in our translations.

The Greek word translated “famine” in most translations is limo/$ {limos—lee‐mosʹ} is probably a derivative of the Greek word lei=pw {leipo—liʹ‐po} which means “to be destitute.” So limos means “a scarcity of food through the idea of destitution.” In context it is not talking so much of famine due to lack of rain or failure of harvests, but rather the scarcity of food brought on by the disruption of a nation’s supply systems because of war. The brigands who terrorized the roads of Judea during this period were directly responsible for many food shortages.

Concerning “pestilences,” the KING JAMES VERSION and other older versions that used later manuscripts rather than the oldest and, therefore, the best, includes this word, but all the best textual authorities agree that no such word was even in the original.

Finally, the word translated “earthquakes” in most translations is seismo/$ {seismos—sice‐mosʹ} which means “a commotion.” Although our English word “seismic” (which means “of, subject to, or caused by an earthquake”) comes from this Greek word, in the Greek it can refer to either a shaking of the ground or a tempest on the sea when it is used to speak of natural phenomena. It is also frequently used as a figure of speech just as we do in English when someone might say, “That was an earth‐shaking announcement that was made today” or, “His tantrums are like a tempest in a teapot.”


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In context, this is the way that seismos is being used by Jesus, a figure of speech that describes the turmoil produced by “nation rising up against nation, and kingdom rising up against kingdom.” It has nothing to do with physical earthquakes, although, historically, there is evidence of plenty of earthquake activity during the 40 years between Jesus’ prophecy and its fulfillment in A.D. 70 as there is for any other 40‐year period in history.

One of the most ridiculous things that has been a part of the arsenal of the sensationalistic doom‐sayers has been the idea that before the coming of the Lord, earthquake activity on earth will increase. First of all, this passage says nothing about these things escalating. Second, all the reports of more and harder earthquakes in recent years has proven to be pure fabrication. Historical records indicate that there have always been earthquakes of every magnitude throughout history, and we can expect that to be a condition of planet earth right on into the future. Earthquakes have nothing to do with the “second coming” of Christ. Third, going back to our understanding of this passage, Jesus didn’t consider the things we are presently considering to be signs at all. And finally, the context indicates that physical earthquakes are not what is in view here anyway, but rather political turmoil.

If, however, one is more comfortable with the wording of the traditional texts—“famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places”—then there is plenty of documentation for such events occurring in the timeframe between Jesus prophecy and its fulfillment in A.D. 70 by the major ancient historians—Josephus (Jewish), Eusibius (Christian), and Tacitus (Roman).4

Either way, in this preliminary section Jesus was pointing out some things that would precede the sign that the disciples were

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actually asking about. Concerning these things He simply said, “Don’t be deceived, but don’t be alarmed either.” One could draw the conclusion that those who were most apt to become alarmed at these preliminary events would also be the ones most likely to be misled by false Messiahs as well.

Finally, Jesus said, “All these things are just the beginning—like birth pangs.” Most Messianic hopefuls believed that with the appearance of Messiah there would be tremendous turmoil and upheaval in all aspects of society and that these troubles would be the “travail” that birthed or ushered in the Messianic Age. Take, for example this passage from the pseudepigraphal Book of Enoch, an apocalyptic work believed to have been written during the inter‐testament period:

1And thus the Lord commanded the kings and the mighty and the exalted, And those who dwell on the earth, and said:

‘Open your eyes and lift up your horns if ye are able to recognize the Elect One.’

2And the Lord of Spirits seated him on the throne of His glory, And the spirit of righteousness was poured out upon him, And the mouth of His word slays all sinners, And all the unrighteous are destroyed from before His face. 3And there shall stand up in that day all the kings and the mighty. And the exalted and those who hold the earth, And they shall see and recognize how He sits on the throne of His glory, And righteousness is judged before Him, And no lying word is spoken before Him.


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4Then shall pain come upon them as on a woman in travail, [And she has pain in bringing forth] When the child enters the mouth of the womb And she has pain in bringing forth.

—ENOCH 62:1‐4

Although this passage actually describes the sufferings of those who are judged by Messiah (the Elect One), writings such as this fostered the idea of a time of suffering out of which the new Messianic Age would emerge.

Jesus used this same kind of language in His Olivet Discourse, knowing that His hearers were familiar with the popular apocalyptic language of that day (after all, Jude quoted the Book of Enoch in the New Testament), and knowing that they would fully understand the allusion. This would not be the last apocalyptic imagery that Jesus would use in this prophecy, as we shall see.

Mark and Luke used essentially the same language as does Matthew, but for the sake of completeness, I will give their versions of the passage:

5Jesus began by saying, “Watch out! Don’t be misled! 6Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and will mislead many. 7When you hear of wars and threatenings, don’t be alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is till to come. 8For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be commotion here and there, and there will be scarcity of food. These are but the beginnings of birth pangs.”

—MARK 13:5‐8

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8Jesus said, “Watch out that you are not misled. For many will come in My Name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time has come!’ Do not follow after them. 9You will hear of wars and insurrections, but do not be afraid. These things must happen first. The end will not come right away.”

10Jesus continued, “Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11There will be great turmoil and in many places people will be starving and plagued by terrible conditions. There will be terrible frightenings and the air will be charged with threatening portents.”

—LUKE 21:8‐11

Personal Warnings and Encouragements (Matthew 24:9‐14) 9“Then you will be arrested and tortured and even put to

death. You will be pursued with hatred among all the nations because of My name. 10Then many will fall away from the faith. They will come to despise other believers and will give incriminating information to the authorities about each other. 11Also at that time many pseudo‐prophets will emerge and will lead many astray. 12Because of intensified lawlessness everywhere, the love of many will grow cold.

13But the person who remains faithful throughout this ordeal will be delivered from the coming destruction. 14And this Good News about the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.


In His next remarks, Jesus turned from the overall conditions of tumult that would embroil the nation, and addressed the things


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that would directly affect His disciples. The state of unrest and disorder would affect them personally in a number of ways.

First, there would be persecution. They would be arrested, tortured and even put to death. The book of Acts is replete with the record of the fulfillment of this portion of the prophecy. The stories of Peter and John in prison (Acts 4); the apostles imprisoned, delivered by an angel, and then arrested again (Acts 5); the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7); the persecutions of Christians by Saul of Tarsus (Acts 8); Saul’s escape from the Jews after his conversion by being let down over the wall of the city in a basket (Acts 9); the martyrdom of James, the brother of John, at the hands of Herod, and Peter’s deliverance from prison (Acts 12); Paul’s escape to Derbe after being stoned and left for dead (Acts 14); Paul and Silas’ imprisonment at Philippi (Acts 16); the attack by a mob on Jason’s house at Thessalonica (Acts 17); the riot led by Demetrius the silversmith in Ephesus (Acts 19); Paul’s arrest in the Temple at Jerusalem (Acts 21); the plot of the Jerusalem Jews to kill Paul (Acts 23); Paul’s arraignment before Felix (Acts 23) and before Festus and Agrippa (Acts 25); and Paul’s eventual imprisonment at Rome (Acts 28) all testify to the accuracy of Jesus’ words.

Second, Jesus warned of the disheartening effects that this persecution would have on the community of believers. Many would apostatize from the faith. They would yield to the pressure and go back to Judaism. The book of Hebrews was written for the express purpose of encouraging Jewish Christians who were on the brink of defection. The writer pleaded with every possible argument for them to stand fast and see the tribulation through.

More than just being discouraged, some Christians would not only leave the faith but would turn on their former fellow‐

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Christians and give them up to the Jewish authorities who were pursuing them.

This time of turmoil would be a prime opportunity for false teachers and false prophets to infiltrate the churches and sow discord. The Book of Acts and Paul’s epistles are full of references to the Judaizers who constantly pursued him, coming in behind him into the churches he founded and leading his converts back into Judaism.

Jesus warned that many Christians would lose their zeal for their new‐found faith in the midst of such upheavals. The combination of doctrinal and spiritual unrest within the Church and persecution from Jewish authorities empowered by the Roman government would prove to be just too much for them.

But on the heels of these warnings, Jesus had some words of encouragement. Even though the tribulation would at times almost seem too much to bear, “the person who remain[ed] faithful throughout this ordeal [would] be delivered from the coming destruction.”

Here is a prime example of a specific admonition given to specific audience at a specific time and place being taken by some interpreters of the Scripture and revised into a universal “timeless truth.” The words of the KING JAMES VERSION—“he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”—taken out of context, might sound like some profound universal truth. But it is not. Although it may be true in a general sense that those who remain faithful will one day be “saved” in the sense of dying and going to heaven, that is NOT the message this verse of Scripture is intended to convey. The salvation in view here is the very real deliverance that the Christians would be crying for during those black days of the siege of Jerusalem. Jesus’ words were very


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specific, “Hang in there. Don’t give up! The ones who endure this trying time can expect to be delivered.

However, Jesus was not encouraging His followers to just “tough it out,” to hide until the storm passed by. To the contrary, He promised that in the midst of all this hardship—arrests, imprisonments, martyrdom, backsliding, and spiritual unrest—they would not just survive, they would be superlatively successful! “This Good News about the Kingdom,” He said, “will be proclaimed throughout the inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations.”

And that is exactly what the record demonstrates. During the days of the book of Acts the Gospel was preached all over Judea, Samaria, Syria, Asia Minor, and Europe all the way to the capitol city of Rome. And it was not just a witness here and a convert there. The first‐generation Church was a huge success. Even their opponents acknowledged their effectiveness.

5But the Jews became jealous, and gathered together some troublemakers from the marketplace to incite a riot and set the city in an uproar. They attacked Jason’s house, and sought to haul Paul and Silas out before the mob. 6When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the other Christian brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These people have turned the world upside down. Now they have come here as well.”

—ACTS 17:5‐6

Paul declared the commission to “tell the world” was accomplished during his ministry.

5You do this because of your confident expectation of receiving what is reserved for you in heaven—the reward you have heard about in the message of truth. This Good News 6that

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has come to you is growing and bearing fruit throughout the whole world just as it has among you since the first day you heard it and began to understand the grace of God in truth.

♦ ♦ ♦ 23 But you must continue in the faith, firmly established

and steadfast, not allowing yourselves to be moved from the hope of the Good News that you have heard, and that has been proclaimed to every living being under heaven. It is to this Good News that I, Paul, have become a slave.

—COLOSSIANS 1:5‐6, 23

Notice the expressions he used. The Gospel was “growing and bearing fruit throughout the whole world.” The Gospel “has been proclaimed to every living being under heaven.”

Does this mean that the work of the Great Commission was completely finished in the first century. Of course not! But is does mean that the Gospel had been proclaimed throughout the civilized world—the Roman Empire—before the events that Jesus was referring to took place.

He said precisely, “And this Good News about the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” What “end” was he talking about? The same “end” that the disciples had been asking about! Not the “end of the world as we know it,” not the “end of time,” but the end of that “present age,” the age of the old Judaistic economy that must come to a close before the fullness of the Messianic Age could be ushered in.

Even if Jesus’ words were referring to a time in our future (which they, of course, do not), dispensationalists and others who hold the futurist position still make the most egregious error within


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their own system of eschatology. On the one hand they insist that this verse of Scripture has not been fulfilled (despite Paul’s words to the contrary), then on the other hand they insist that “the rapture could happen at any moment.” Well, which is it? Can Jesus come back “at any time now,” or must the Gospel be preached to all the world before He comes back? Apparently this contradiction has never occurred to them, or they just ignore it.

There is no contradiction, however, when we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. Jesus said the Gospel would be preached to the world within that generation, and Paul said that it had been accomplished. What other fulfillment should we insist on? For myself, I take courage in finding yet another example of God’s word proving itself true!

Mark’s and Luke’s versions of this passage have Jesus offering advice about how the disciples were to conduct themselves when brought before a tribunal, and in their versions, the discord among Christians is spelled out a little more clearly by pointing out the relationships that would be affected by this time of trouble. But overall, their accounts are in perfect harmony with Matthew’s Gospel.

9But be on your guard, for you will be handed over to the sanhedrins and beaten in the synagogues. You will even stand before the tribunals of governors and kings because of Me. This will serve as a testimony to them. 10Before the end comes, the Good News must be preached to all the nations.

11“When they arrest you and hand you over for trial, do not worry about what to speak. Just say whatever is given to you at that time, for it will not be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. 12Brothers and sisters will betray each other knowing it

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will mean their deaths. Fathers will do the same to their children and children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13You will be hated by everyone because of Me, but the ones who endure to the end will be delivered.”

—MARK 13:9‐13 12But before all this, they will arrest you and persecute

you, handing you over to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before the tribunals of kings and governors because of Me. 13But this will be your opportunity to testify about Me. 14Make up your mind beforehand not to rehearse what answers you will give 15because I will give you the words to say and wisdom in dealing with your adversaries so that they will be frustrated in their efforts to refute you.

16“Even your parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, and friends will betray you and they will have some of you put to death. 17You will be hated by everyone because of Me, 18yet ultimately you will lose nothing—not even a single hair of your head. 19By standing firm you will gain your life.”

—LUKE 21:12‐19

These last words of Jesus in the passage from Luke deserve a comment. Jesus’ assurance that they would “lose nothing—not even a single hair of your head,” did not mean that they would not lose their possessions or that they would not be killed, because He had just said that some would be put to death. Obviously, then, these words of words of assurance transcend the realm of the physical and address the big issue. Even if they lost everything, even their lives, He was telling them, they would actually be losing nothing. This was an echo of His previous teaching:


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23Then He said to all of them, “Anyone who wants to become a follower of Mine must repudiate personal interests, take upon oneself the Cross, and daily join Me on the road that I travel. 24Those who desire to keep their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for My sake will keep them.”

—LUKE 9:23‐24

One might interpret the passage in Luke 9 as a universal “timeless truth” about becoming a Christian, but when we see it applied in the very real context of Jesus’ disciples about to face arrest, torture, and even death in Luke 21, the message hits home in an entirely different way. These words of Jesus were not just pious platitudes, nice ideas for a Sunday sermon, or nifty clichés for a bumper sticker. For these first‐century Christians this was a terrible reality, and these words can only be applied to our lives in any authentic way after we come to grips with what they meant to the first persons who heard them.

The Coming Seige of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15‐22) 15“So when you see what Daniel the prophet spoke about

(reader, make sure you understand this!)—‘the abomination of desolation’ occupying holy ground—16then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17If you are on the roof of your house, do not even go down to get any belongings from your house, 18and if you are in the field, do not go back home to get your cloak.

19“It will be terrible for those who are pregnant or who are nursing babies in those days! 20Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath, 21for there will be great tribulation unlike anything that has happened since the beginning of the world until now or that will ever happen

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again. 22In fact, if it were not for those days being curtailed, no one would survive. But for the sake of the Redeemed Ones, those days will be curtailed.”


We now come to the heart of Jesus’ prophecy. This is the section containing the much debated phrases “abomination of desolation” and “great tribulation.” Volumes have been written and speculation has run rife concerning these matters. Some have despaired that anyone can ever make sense of it all.

But I am convinced that these words of Jesus are straightforward and can be readily understood if one will but pay close attention to what He said. The simple principles of grammatical/historical hermeneutics are all that is necessary to understand their meaning. (I almost wrote “unlock the meaning,” but then I realized that those words would only perpetuate the myth that these words are an esoteric mystery written in cryptic language that only those with special revelation can unravel. And such is simply not the case!)

The sign for which the disciples asked back at the beginning of this incident was now finally given to them. That sign was the “abomination of desolation” that Daniel had spoken of in His prophecy 500 years before. The disciples did not have to reach for a scroll and look up the reference. They were intimately acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures, and especially those of the prophet Daniel who was particularly popular in this time of Messianic expectation.

15Because there was such an atmosphere of expectancy, and the people were all wondering whether John could possibly be the Messiah, 16John answered, “I baptize you with water, but One more powerful than me is coming. I am not


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worthy to even untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

—LUKE 3:15‐16

All the people knew that the time for the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the Seventy Sevens had arrived, and the appearance of John the Baptist coincided precisely with these expectations. He, of course, was only a part of the fulfillment, serving as the forerunner for Daniel’s “Messiah the Prince.”

When Jesus told his disciples that the sign to look for was the “abomination of desolation,” they knew exactly what he was talking about, but Matthew, aware that the readers of his Gospel might not know, added the disclaimer, “Reader, make sure you understand this!”

That warning should still guide us today. Rather than jumping to conclusions about what the “abomination of desolation” might be, we would do well to immerse ourselves in the background information so that we can have the same advantage of understanding that Jesus’ disciples had when they heard these words.

At the very least, we should examine the prophecy of Daniel to see what was said there.

26Now after the sixty‐two sevens, the Anointed One will be cut down and left with nothing.

(As for the city and the sanctuary, they eventually will be laid waste by the troops of the prince who will come against them. When the end finally comes, it will be like a sudden, overwhelming flood, and until the end, war will continue, for these devastations have been irrevocably determined by God.)

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27The covenant will be confirmed with the mass of the people for one seven, and in the middle of that seven, both the bloody and bloodless sacrifices will be terminated.

At last, from the outermost point will come the detestable thing that brings devastation until the complete destruction that has been decreed has been poured out.

—DANIEL 9:26‐27

For the sake of brevity, we are taking up the prophecy midstream, at the point of the beginning of the Seventieth Seven and continuing through to the end of the prophecy. This portion of the prophecy covers a specific time period and an extended time period.

The specific time period is the seven years of the Seventieth Seven. As I explained earlier in this book, the events described here did not occur “at” the end of the Sixty‐two Sevens, but sometime “after” the Seven Sevens (the first 49‐year period) and the Sixty‐two Sevens (the second 434‐year period).

Sometime “after” the first two periods (that is, during the Seventieth Seven or final 7‐year period), the Anointed One would be “cut down” or killed. This we know to be Jesus the Messiah who was crucified.

At this point in the prophecy, Gabriel points Daniel ahead to the extended period beyond the specific 7‐year period of the Seventieth Seven and gives a foreview of the fate of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple. Remember, this prophecy was in response to Daniel’s prayers concerning his people the Jews and their holy city Jerusalem. So the prophecy would have been incomplete if it had only predicted the advent of the Messiah and had failed to address the future of the people of Israel and their holy city.


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Parenthetically, the prophecy looked ahead to what would eventually happen to the city of Jerusalem, and what Gabriel told Daniel must have crushed his heart. The Holy City and the Temple were going to be destroyed yet again!

The city would be laid waste by troops who would come against it. It would be the “end” of the city, and when that end came, it would be a “sudden, overwhelming flood” of devastation.

Returning to the specific period of the Seventieth Seven, the prophecy described how the Messiah would confirm YAHWEH’s covenant with the whole of the Jewish people for seven years, but that in the middle of that period (because of the Messiah being “cut down”), the sacrifices of the Temple would be terminated. This occurred when the veil in the Temple was torn by God from top to bottom. Of course, we know that the Jews kept right on with their Temple worship and animal sacrifices for another forty years, but from God’s perspective, the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were “terminated” the day Jesus died on the Cross.

Now, in the last part of verse 27, the prophecy moves on into the extended period beyond the seven years of the Seventieth Seven. The reason I call this an “extended” period is because God had every right to not only cause the earthquake to tear the veil in the Temple—He could have brought the whole Temple down right then. But in His grace, He allowed it to stand for another entire generation in order to give the Jews more than ample time to hear the message of His New Covenant and turn to Him in repentance.

This extended period takes us to the end of that “terminal generation” and the destruction of Jerusalem. This destruction would be wrought by “the detestable thing that brings

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devastation,” or to use the words of the KING JAMES VERSION, “the overspreading of abominations” that “make it desolate.”

This was the sign Jesus was referring to—a mass of troops that would besiege the Holy City and lay it waste—a time when devastation would come in like a “sudden, overwhelming flood.”

Because his primary audience was Jewish Christians, Matthew simply used the terminology straight out of the book of Daniel. They would, in all likelihood, know what he was talking about. Luke, on the other hand, writing primary to Gentile Christians, knew his audience would probably not understand the cryptic language of the Old Testament. So he gave them Jesus’ words using verbiage that would be more readily understandable.

Let’s go ahead and look at Luke’s version of this section of the Olivet Discourse.

20“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time for its destruction has come. 21Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Those inside the city must depart, and those in the countryside must not enter into the city.

22“These will be the days of God’s vengeance when all the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled.

23“It will be a terrible time for those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath on this people. 24They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away as captives into all the nations of the world. Jerusalem will trampled by the nations until the times of the nations are complete.”

—LUKE 21:20‐24


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Luke did not use the words “when you see…the abomination of desolation” but instead said, “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time for its destruction has come.”

It is obviously clear that Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts are perfectly parallel passages, so we can draw the conclusion that the “abomination of desolation” was the Roman army that would one day in the near future surround the city of Jerusalem.

Mark, like Matthew, used the phrase “abomination of desolation.” 14“But when you see the abomination of desolation

standing where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 15If you are on the roof of your house, do not go down and enter to take any of your possessions out of the house. 16If you are in the field, do not return home to get your cloak.

17“It will be a terrible time for those who are pregnant or those who are nursing babies in those days! 18Pray that these things will not take place during the winter, 19because in those days there will be tribulation unlike anything that has happened since God created the world until now, nor will ever happen again. 20As a matter of fact, if the Lord does not curtail those days, no one will survive. But for the sake of His Redeemed Ones, He will curtail them.”

—MARK 13:14-20

Mark adds a detail not mentioned in the other Synoptic Gospels. He described the “abomination of desolation” as “standing where it ought not to be.” In order to counter the widely held opinion of so many, if not all, dispensationalists that the

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“abomination of desolation” is the act of a future antichrist setting up an idol in a supposedly rebuilt temple in Jerusalem in the future, let’s examine this phrase a little more closely.

The dispensationalist construct is based on the actions of one of the Jews’ most vicious enemies, Antiochus Epiphanes, who does indeed play a part in Biblical prophecy. Daniel foretold the blasphemies he would commit (Daniel 11). Antiochus Epiphanes slaughtered a pig on the Brazen Alter of the Temple (168 B.C.). After the uprising of the Jews led by the Maccabees, their first order of business was to cleanse the Altar and Temple of these “abominations.”

On the basis of this historical event, dispensationalists teach that a future antichrist will do the exact same thing. Also the wording of Matthew’s account in the KING JAMES VERSION—“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place”—reinforces this interpretation for them.

But where exactly is the “holy place” referred to here. The Greek word translated “place” in the KJV is to/po$ {topos—topʹ‐os} from which we get our English word “topography.” It means a “spot or location.” In the KJV it is variously translated, depending on the context, as “place,” “room,” or “quarter,” indicating smaller places, but also as “coast” or “plain” to indicate wide geographical areas. Because it is linked with the word “holy” the assumption is made by dispensationalist that what is indicated is the section of the Temple known as the “Holy Place,” or even, in their opinion, the “Most Holy Place” or “Holy of Holies.”

But this passage does not demand this specificity. All of the land of Israel was considered “holy ground.” It is still to this day called


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the “Holy Land.” For Israelites in Jesus’ day the “holy land” consisted of Judea in the south, Galilee in the north, and Perea on the east side of the Jordan River. The land of Samaria, lying between Galilee and Judea was considered “unclean,” and travelers from north to south would not travel through Samaria if at all possible. Instead they would cross the Jordan and travel along its eastern bank through the land of Perea and then recross the Jordan into Judah. Traveling north back to Galilee, they would reverse the process.

The “holiness” of the land was considered to vary by degrees along the idea of concentric circles. Outside the land, that is, the countries of the Gentiles, was considered not to be holy at all. The outermost circle of the “holy land” would have been Galilee, often designated “Galilee of the Gentiles” because of its proximity to such places as the lands of the Phoenicians (for example, the cities of Tyre and Sidon) and country of Syria. Moving toward the innermost circle, one comes next to area Perea and then to the area Judah. Within the holy land of Judah, the city of Jerusalem was considered even more holy. Within Jerusalem, the Temple grounds were considered more holy still. And the Jews’ perception of holiness increased as one moved further within the Temple complex until, finally, the most holy spot of all was the Holy of Holies.

But any of the above mentioned areas was relatively holy to one degree or another, and for Roman armies to occupy any of this territory was considered a matter of shame and disgrace for Jews. During the days of the Great Revolt (A.D. 66‐73), Vespasian and his son Titus began their sweep across Palestine, taking the towns of Galilee first and then moving southward. Except for their forays into Samaria, the Jews considered them to be causing greater and greater desecration as they moved further and further into “holy” territory.

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This is the sense in which Jesus used the expressions in conjunction with His warning about the “abomination of desolation.” That is why I have chosen to render topos as “ground” in the DAYSPRING BIBLE. When we encounter the expression in Mark—“the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not to be”—we must understand that as far as the Jews were concerned, for the Roman army to be anywhere in Palestine, from Judah to Galilee, would have them “standing where it ought not to be.” In any of this territory, they were “standing in the holy place,” or, to be more clear, “occupying holy ground.”

By using this terminology we disassociate the sign Jesus gave from the inner regions of the Temple. Titus and his army eventually made it even into this sacred spot. Josephus tells us that Titus satisfied his curiosity by proceeding right into the Holy of Holies and was so surprised to find it to be nothing more than an empty room. His soldiers set their ensigns or standards up in the courts of the Temple and offered their sacrifices. So it was that they committed acts of profanation that met all the criteria of “abomination” in Jewish eyes.

And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the Holy House itself, and of all the buildings round about it, brought their ensigns to the Temple and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus imperator with the greatest acclamations of joy.5

But Jesus was giving a sign that would precede the destruction of the city in order to give the Christians a chance to escape before the devastation proceeded to the point that their doom would be


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sealed. They couldn’t wait until Titus and his army were already in the courts of the Temple. The Christians needed to escape as soon as they saw the armies approaching. This is exactly what Jesus told them to do, and in biblical shorthand, He called these armies the “abomination of desolation” or “the detestable thing that brings devastation.”

The Synoptic Gospels are unanimous in their record of what Jesus instructed His followers to do as soon as they saw “the sign.” Leave Jerusalem post haste. Flee to the mountains. Don’t lose your life by going back home to get your possessions. Even in you are on the roof of your own house, don’t even go down inside to gather your things. Instead run across the roofs of the buildings to get to the city gates as quickly as possible. Luke’s version adds that anyone in the countryside should certainly not be running in the wrong direction and try to enter the doomed city.

All of these instructions were so practical considering the culture and customs of first‐century Judea. None of these instructions have any application to our times in the 21st century. These admonitions were written to them, not us!

Jesus further observed that it would be a terrible time for pregnant women and nursing mothers. Of course it would! Fleeing a city under siege on foot was a daunting task for the ablest of men. What chance would women burdened with little children have!

He advised His followers to pray that their flight would not occur in winter. Again, the practicality of this is obvious. Winter meant inclement weather, reduced food supplies, and the need for certain traveling supplies and equipment. One might forego returning home to get one’s cloak in summer, but in winter, to leave it behind might prove fatal.

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Their prayer was also to include the request that their flight not be necessary on the Sabbath. Traveling on the Sabbath would draw unnecessary attention to themselves. The eagle eyes of the legalistic Jewish leaders would certainly take note of this kind of activity. Jesus was by no means concerned about profaning the Sabbath by traveling more that a so‐called “Sabbath day’s journey.” He was not asking them to pray that their flight would not be on the Sabbath because He was concerned about them breaking God’s Law. He had already demonstrated that He had no qualms about breaking the Sabbath according to the traditions of the Pharisees when the exigencies of the moment necessitated such a course of action, whether it be plucking grain (Mark 2:23‐28) or healing the sick (Matthew 12:9‐14). He as the Lord of the Sabbath had declared that the Sabbath had been instituted for humans, not humans for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27‐28). No, His instructions about fleeing on the Sabbath were strictly utilitarian.

The reason that flight was absolutely necessary was that “great tribulation” was about to come on the city of Jerusalem. This time of distress would be so great that it could only be described with superlatives—“great tribulation unlike anything that has happened since the beginning of the world until now or that will ever happen again.”

Futurists insist that the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was just not of sufficient magnitude to merit this level of description. There just hasn’t been a event yet that is the greatest since the world began and the greatest that ever shall be. Therefore, they argue, “the Great Tribulation” has to be a yet future event.

But the people that lived through those terrible days would not have agreed. The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, opens his eye‐witness account of the Great Revolt of the Jews against the power of the Roman Empire with these words:


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Whereas the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the greatest of all those, not only that have been in our times, but, in a manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities have fought against cities, or nations against nations…6

Josephus practically quoted Jesus verbatim, and he had no reason to. He certainly had no affinity for Christianity. He barely mentions Jesus in his history.

Luke’s version adds some detail about those terrible days, “They will fall by the edge of the sword and…Jerusalem will trampled by the nations.” But it really takes a thorough reading of Josephus’ 500‐page tome, The Wars of the Jews, to fully appreciate the magnitude of the suffering and horror of those terrible days.

Considerable restraint is required to keep my remarks to a minimum on this subject. Entire books could be written just on this aspect of the Olivet Discourse alone. It would be tempting to simply offer a bibliography of the many other fine books that have tackled this subject, but you and I are here at this point, and if I have your interest at all, I must make some attempt to convey the importance of this event in the history of the world.

I grew up in churches that were quasi‐dispensational and there was never a word mentioned about the Fall of Jerusalem in all the thousands of sermons and Bible lessons I heard as a child. When I finally encountered this information, I was staggered. Of all the extra‐biblical events that the world should know about, this is the most important one, bar none.

To fully understand what was going on at this point in history, we really need to review some of the Old Testament

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prophecies that pointed to it. Through Moses, God had forewarned Israel of the consequences of not keeping His covenant. Deuteronomy 28 enumerates both the blessing of keeping the covenant and the curses that would attend its neglect or violation. The first 20 percent of the chapter (verses 1‐14) lists the blessings. The last 80 percent (verses 15‐68) details the cursings. While we do not want to take the time to repeat them all, some of the more pertinent warnings to our present study include the following verses:

43The foreigner who resides among you will become positioned higher and higher above you, and you will find yourselves positioned lower and lower.


This verse is interesting because it describes the political set‐up that prevailed in first‐century Palestine that led to the great Revolt of the Jews against the Romans. It speaks particularly about the Herodian dynasty of Idumean (Edomite) rulers that governed Palestine under the Romans for almost a century‐and‐a‐half. These rulers were detested because they were not Jewish, and the more the Herods tried to ingratiate themselves to the Jews (such as the marriage of Herod the Great to the Jewish High Priest’s daughter Mariamne and the building of the magnificent structure known as Herod’s Temple), the more they were resented. The Jews chafed under the yoke of the Herods, and hated them as much as they hated the Romans themselves.

48…Your enemies will place an iron yoke on your necks until they have destroyed you. 49-50YAHWEH will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the end of the earth, a


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people whose language you will not understand. This fierce and heartless nation will swoop down on you as swift as the eagle flies, and will show no mercy to anyone, old or young.


Obviously the “distant nation” who “swoops down…as swift as the eagle flies” can be none other than the Romans, especially when we remember that their ensigns and standards displayed the eagle as the imperial symbol. Every Roman shield and spear carried this emblem.

52They will besiege all your cities until all your towering, fortified walls collapse throughout the land—those same walls in which you have placed your trust. They will mount a siege at the gate of every city throughout the land that YAHWEH your God has given to you.

53You will become so desperate that you will eat your own children, the very flesh of the sons and daughters that YAHWEH your God has given to you. 54Even the most tender‐natured and sensitive man among you will become hostile toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children, 55and will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating because there is nothing left to eat due to the bitter siege with which your enemy is oppressing you.

56Likewise, the most gentle and delicate woman among you, who would never think of putting the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement, will turn against her beloved husband and children, refusing to share with them 57even the afterbirth from her womb and her newborn baby, for she will

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eat them secretly since there is nothing else to eat due to the bitter siege with which your enemy is oppressing you.


Josephus records the fulfillment of all these prophecies in his description of the siege of Jerusalem.

It was now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly bring tears into our eyes, how men stood as to their food, while the more powerful had more than enough, and the weaker were lamenting [for want of it.] But the famine was too hard for all other passions, and it is destructive to nothing so much as to modesty; for what was otherwise worthy of reverence was in this case despised; insomuch that children pulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating out of their very mouths, and what was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers do as to their infants; and when those that were most dear were perishing under their hands, they were not ashamed to take from them the very last drops that might preserve their lives: and while they ate after this manner, yet were they not concealed in so doing; but the seditious every where came upon them immediately, and snatched away from them what they had gotten from others; for when they saw any house shut up, this was to them a signal that the people within had gotten some food; whereupon they broke open the doors, and ran in, and took pieces of what they were eating almost up out of their very throats, and this by force: the old men, who held their food fast, were beaten; and if the women hid what they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor was there any commiseration shown either to


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the aged or to the infants, but they lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the morsels they had gotten, and shook them down upon the floor.7

Concerning those who tried to escape the city during the siege, he says:

The severity of the famine made them bold in thus going out; so nothing remained but that, when they were concealed from the robbers, they should be taken by the enemy; and when they were going to be taken, they were forced to defend themselves for fear of being punished; as after they had fought, they thought it too late to make any supplications for mercy; so they were first whipped, and then tormented with all sorts of tortures, before they died, and were then crucified before the wall of the city. This miserable procedure made Titus greatly to pity them, while they caught every day five hundred Jews; nay, some days they caught more: yet it did not appear to be safe for him to let those that were taken by force go their way, and to set a guard over so many he saw would be to make such as great deal them useless to him. The main reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this, that he hoped the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they might themselves afterwards be liable to the same cruel treatment. So the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest, when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies.8

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Perhaps the worst atrocity that Moses predicted was that of parents eating their own children.

There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was Mary; her father was Eleazar, of the village Bethezob, which signifies the House of Hyssop. She was eminent for her family and her wealth, and had fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with them besieged therein at this time. The other effects of this woman had been already seized upon, such I mean as she had brought with her out of Perea, and removed to the city. What she had treasured up besides, as also what food she had contrived to save, had been also carried off by the rapacious guards, who came every day running into her house for that purpose. This put the poor woman into a very great passion, and by the frequent reproaches and imprecations she cast at these rapacious villains, she had provoked them to anger against her; but none of them, either out of the indignation she had raised against herself, or out of commiseration of her case, would take away her life; and if she found any food, she perceived her labors were for others, and not for herself; and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself; nor did she consult with any thing but with her passion and the necessity she was in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, “O thou miserable infant! for whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they


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preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by‐word to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews.” As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them, and withal uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them, “This is mine own son, and what hath been done was mine own doing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also.” After which those men went out trembling, being never so much affrighted at any thing as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while every body laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves. So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those

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already dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to see such miseries.9

According to Josephus, the condition of the people within the walls of the doomed city was so piteous that even the hardened Roman soldiers were appalled by what they witnessed.

So the Romans being now become masters of the walls, they both placed their ensigns upon the towers, and made joyful acclamations for the victory they had gained, as having found the end of this war much lighter than its beginning; for when they had gotten upon the last wall, without any bloodshed, they could hardly believe what they found to be true; but seeing nobody to oppose them, they stood in doubt what such an unusual solitude could mean. But when they went in numbers into the lanes of the city with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook without and set fire to the houses whither the Jews were fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laid waste a great many of the rest; and when they were come to the houses to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is, of such as died by the famine; they then stood in a horror at this sight, and went out without touching any thing. But although they had this commiseration for such as were destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same for those that were still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men’s blood.10


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Even allowing for hyperbole such as that found in that last sentence, the horror described is almost too great to imagine. This sampling from the pages of Josephus’ history should be enough to substantiate that this horror fulfilled in every way Moses’ “cursings” on those who broke God’s covenant as well as Jesus’ “great tribulation.”

There is really no need to anticipate a future period of “the Great Tribulation” for three reasons: 1) The Bible does not use a definite article with the phrase “great tribulation.” In other words, there is no “the Great Tribulation” referred to in the Bible. 2) The doctrine of “the Great Tribulation” as a period of seven years of carnage and mayhem out in the future is based on a totally erroneous interpretation of Daniel’s Seventy Sevens. The Seventieth Seven immediately followed the 69th Seven as we have briefly demonstrated in this book. The seven‐year period was fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus and His Apostles. That seven‐year period was not a time of terror but of redemptive fulfillment. But it set the stage for a time of terror forty years later. The cutting off of Messiah by the Jews in the middle of the Seventieth Seven is the primary reason that God’s wrath was poured out on Jerusalem in A.D. 70. 3) The phrase “great tribulation” is nothing more, and certainly nothing less, than a description of the horrors that accompanied the Fall of Jerusalem fulfilling both Moses’ and Jesus’ prophecies.

Luke’s version of Jesus’ prophecy indicates that this event was the complete fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Jesus said, “These will be the days of God’s vengeance when ALL the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled.” I didn’t write that—I only emphasize it. Futurist exegetes may choose to limit or restrict the meaning of that word “all” if they choose. I find that ironic since dispensationalists pride themselves on being the

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defenders of the literal method of interpretation. In this particular instance, with this particular word, there is no other way to interpret it than literally—and “all” means ALL!

In other words there are no prophecies left to be fulfilled. When Jesus came in the Incarnation, He fulfilled many of the Old Testament Messianic prophecies—being born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), living in Egypt (Hosea 11:1) and Nazareth (Matthew 2:23) and in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1‐2), and dying on the Cross (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53). When He returned in judgment on the Jews in A.D. 70, He fulfilled the remainder of the prophetic Scriptures according to Jesus’ words in Luke’s Gospel.

Even before the final fulfillment of all of the prophecies, Paul could write only a few short years before the Fall of Jerusalem:

20He is the “Yes” and the “Amen” to every one of God’s promises. By Him all the words of God are made certain and put into effect through us to the glory of God.


Undoubtedly, Paul’s words were proleptical in this verse. How much more true would these words be after A.D. 70! According to Jesus’ words in Luke, at that time ALL of the prophecies would be fulfilled.

We will revisit this verse from Luke’s Gospel (which provided the title of this book) when we sum up in the last chapter. Right now, let’s move on with our exposition.

Luke’s account also adds to our understanding the information that the Fall of Jerusalem would be followed by the Romans taking many Jews captive and selling them into slavery. “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away as captives into all the nations of the world.” Moses prophesied concerning this also.


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37The people in the nations where YAHWEH will drive and scatter you will be horrified by what happens to you; nevertheless, you will still be a proverb and a byword of ridicule to them.

♦ ♦ ♦ 41You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose

them, because they will be taken away as prisoners of war. ♦ ♦ ♦

64YAHWEH will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other.

♦ ♦ ♦ 68YAHWEH will send you back to Egypt in ships, even

though He said you would never have to return there again. There you will offer to sell yourselves as slaves, but no one will buy you.”

—DEUTERONOMY 28:37, 41, 64, 68

Josephus said that 97,000 Jews were sold into slavery after the Fall of Jerusalem, most of them into Egypt.

Two other prophetic passages by Moses that bear on this event are found in Leviticus 26 and in Deuteronomy 31 (The Song of Moses). Time and space prohibits an exposition of these passages, but your own personal study of them will reveal that they underscore and corroborate everything that we have examined in this study so far. I highly recommend that you explore them thoroughly.

Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts end this section of the Olivet Discourse with the information that if the days of the siege of Jerusalem were not curtailed, no one would survive. Josephus records that when Titus finally entered the city in triumph, he was amazed that his army had been able to take the city at all. Considering its naturally fortified position, he attributed his success

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to God and to the discord among the warring factions of Jews within the city itself.

Now when Titus was come into this [upper] city, he admired not only some other places of strength in it, but particularly those strong towers which the tyrants in their mad conduct had relinquished; for when he saw their solid altitude, and the largeness of their several stones, and the exactness of their joints, as also how great was their breadth, and how extensive their length, he expressed himself after the manner following: “We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications; for what could the hands of men or any machines do towards overthrowing these towers?”11

So according to Titus’ own estimation, Divine Providence had shortened the length of the siege of Jerusalem, in fulfillment of Jesus’ words, “As a matter of fact, if the Lord does not curtail those days, no one will survive. But for the sake of His Redeemed Ones, He will curtail them.”

But there has to be more to the fulfillment of Jesus’ words than Titus’ speedy conclusion of the siege. The curtailment of the siege was for the sake of the “Redeemed Ones,” the Christians, not the unbelieving Jews. Eusibius, the third‐century Christian historian, in his Eccelsiastical History said that all the Christians, without exception, were able to escape the city to Pella.

But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ


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had come thither from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.12

It is the story of this escape that best answers to Jesus’ prophetic words. The Roman proconsul over the province of Syria, Cestius Gallus, besieged the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 65 in order to put down the revolt that was occurring in reaction to the inflammatory rule of Judean governor Florus. Cestius was right on the verge of successfully subduing the city when he unexpectedly withdrew his forces and departed back to Syria.

And now it was that a horrible fear seized upon the seditious, insomuch that many of them ran out of the city, as though it were to be taken immediately; but the people upon this took courage, and where the wicked part of the city gave ground, thither did they come, in order to set open the gates, and to admit Cestius as their benefactor, who, had he but continued the siege a little longer, had certainly taken the city; but it was, I suppose, owing to the aversion God had already at the city and the sanctuary, that he was hindered from putting an end to the war that very day

It then happened that Cestius was not conscious either how the besieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the people were for him; and so he recalled his soldiers from the place, and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, without having received any disgrace, he retired from the city, without any reason in the world.13

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But there was a reason! Christians were trapped in Jerusalem, and Jesus had promised them that if they would be faithful to Him, they would be delivered. The withdrawal of Cestius’ forces provided the window of opportunity the Christians needed in order to flee the city just as Jesus had instructed them.

This was the true “curtailing of the days” of the siege of Jerusalem that Jesus was talking about in the Olivet Discourse. The Christians, the “Redeemed Ones,” would have perished in the city right along with the unbelieving Jews were it not for this fortuitous interruption. The siege for the Christians had indeed been cut short.

However, the siege was resumed shortly thereafter by Vespasian and his son Titus, and for the Jews trapped in the city that time, there was no relief. By the time the bitter end came 1,100,000 Jews had perished.

So here we see that Jesus’ words, the ones right at the very heart of the Olivet Discourse that foretold the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and its Temple, were fulfilled to the letter and documented historically for the world to know forever afterwards.

Before we move on to the next section of the Olivet Discourse, there is one final item in this section that requires our attention. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus made a statement that has been the center of controversy throughout the history of Bible interpretation—“Jerusalem will trampled by the nations until the times of the nations are complete.” In out traditional translations the phrase that is used is “the times of the Gentiles.”

To try to include this subject in this chapter would make the chapter too lengthy (as if it were not already!), and it would place an unnecessary constraint on the scope of the information that needs to be covered. I have chosen, therefore, to make this the


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subject of a chapter all its own, not because it is more important than the other components of the Olivet Discourse, but because of the unique treatment that I want to give it. Most of the other information in this book has been presented by other authors in some form or another. However, the manner in which I deal with “the times of the Gentiles” has, to my knowledge, never before appeared in print. It is not a radical innovation, and I submit it to the students in the Christian community for their consideration and critique. For this reason it deserves a chapter of its own. CHAPTER FOUR ENDNOTES 1 John L. Bray, Matthew 24 Fulfilled, John L. Bray Ministry, 1996

Philip Mauro, The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation, first published 1923, available in the Dayspring Scriptorium at http://www.dayspring.org. Ralph Woodrow, Great Prophecies of the Bible, Ralph Woodrow Evangelistic Association, 1971 —, His Truth is Marching On: Advanced Studies in Prophecy in the Light of History, Ralph Woodrow Evangelistic Association, 1977

2 Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book I, chap. 13, para. 2. 3 Ibid., Book I, chap. 13, para. 5. 4 The books cited in note 1 take this approach and cite the ancient historians. 5 Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book VI, chap. 6, para. 1. 6 Ibid., Preface, para. 1. 7 Ibid., Book V, chap. 10, para. 3. 8 Ibid., Book V, chap. 11, para. 1. 9 Ibid., Book VI, chap. 3, para. 4. 10 Ibid., Book VI, chap. 8, para. 5. 11 Ibid., Book VI, chap. 9, para. 1. 12 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, chap. 5, “The Last Siege of the Jews after

Christ.” 13 Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book II, chap. 19, para. 6, 7.

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CHAPTER FIVE

The Olivet Discourse – 2 “The Times of the Nations”

TTTHROUGHOUT MY DAYSPRING BIBLE, I have tried to avoid the use of certain words because of their pejorative nature—words such as “Gentile,” often used derogatorily.

The Greek word translated “Gentile” in our traditional English Bibles is e&qno$ {ethnos—ethʹ‐nos} from which we get our English word “ethnic” and which means “a race, a tribe, a nation, or a people‐group.” In the KING JAMES VERSION it is translated variously as “Gentile,” “heathen,” “nation,” or “people.”

The most accurate equivalent word is “people‐group,” but this would be an awkward‐sounding word to just about everyone except missiologists (experts in the field of world missions). Of the other available choices, the next best is the word “nation,” but this word has some limitations. When we hear the word “nation,” most of us think of a particular geographical territory with its own independent government. There are 200 or so recognized “nations” in the world today, by that definition.


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However, in the one nation of India alone there are over 1100 distinct people‐groups. Worldwide there are over 11,250 distinct people‐groups.1

It is really in this sense that the word ethnos is used in the New Testament.

Israel and the Nations

The word “Gentile” meant to the Jews “everybody else.” In Genesis 10 the “nations” of the world are catalogued genea‐logically. These are the ancestral people‐groups from which all the peoples of the world are derived. There are approximately 70 of these ancestral people‐groups, and Israel always considered the “nations” to be 70 in number regardless of their subsequent divisions and mergings since the time of Genesis 10.

In fact, during the Feast of Tabernacles, which lasted eight days, bullocks were offered for the “nations.” According to Numbers 29, on the first day of the feast 13 bullocks were to be offered, then each succeeding day one less, so that by the seventh day of the feast 70 bullocks would have been offered for the “nations.”

Day One 13 Day Two 12 Day Three 11 Day Four 10 Day Five 9 Day Six 8 Day Seven 7 TOTAL 70

On the eighth day, “the last day, that great day of the feast” (John 7:37, KJV), a single bullock was offered for the nation of Israel.

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This distinction between Israel and the rest of the world was established by God with the intention that Israel would be a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6) and a “light to the nations” (Isaiah 49:6). The offerings of the Feast of Tabernacles were to commemorate that high calling.

But somewhere along the line, the Jews lost their way, and by the time of Jesus, the “traditions of the elders” held that non‐Jews were sub‐human, and not to be considered fit for anything. To be more precise, the Jews considered themselves to be the only ones who were “human.”

The Talmud is the written documentation of these oral “traditions of the elders.” Rabbinic Judaism, the direct descendant of Pharisaism, recorded these sentiments in its compilation of the wisdom of the Jewish sages.

Although not compiled until the third to the fifth centuries A.D., it quotes some of the rabbis who lived both before and during Jesus’ time. It is altogether representative of the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus encountered in the chapter of Matthew we are considering.

The only difference is that in Jesus’ time the tradition was oral; it would be committed to paper a few centuries later, but the content was the same.

The Rabbis to this very day take pride in the fact that the Talmud is the embodiment of the teachings of their religious ancestors, the Pharisees, going back to pre‐Christian times.

The Talmud, then, is the written form of that which, in the time of Jesus, was called the Traditon of the Elders, and to which he makes frequent allusions.

—RABBI MICHAEL L. RODKINSON2


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The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent, without a break, through all the centuries, from the Pharisees.

—RABBI TRAVERS HERFORD3 With regard to the idea that non‐Jews are considered to be

subhuman, here’s are some sample quotations from the Talmud and other published Jewish writings:

It was taught: And so did R. Simeon b. Yohai state that the graves of idolaters do not impart levitical uncleanness by an ohel, for it is said, And ye My sheep the sheep of My pasture, are men (EZEK. xxxiv, 31); you are called men but the idolaters are not called men.4

Said he [Rabbah] to him: Art thou not a priest: why then dost thou stand in a cemetery?—He replied: Has the Master not studied the laws of purity? For it has been taught R. Simeon b. Yohai said: The graves of Gentiles do not defile, for it is written, And ye my flock, the flock of my pastures, are men (EZEK. xxxiv, 31), only ye are desginated ‘men.’5

These two quotations represent the central concept from the Talmud that establishes the idea of Gentile inferiority. In typical Pharisaic fashion, the statement from Ezekiel is stretched way beyond any reasonable interpretation. A close examination of this passage shows that its obvious intent is to simply convey the message that God considers humankind to be His “flock”—not animals nor angels, but human beings. There is absolutely nothing to lead one to the conclusion that one race would be considered to be “human” and all the rest just “humanoid.” Here’s another quotation that expands on the idea of Gentiles as “non‐men.”

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R. Hanina also said: He who smites an Israelite on the jaw, is as though he had thus assaulted the Divine Presence; for it is written, one who smiteth man [i.e. an Israelite] attacketh the Holy One.6

This next example contains the assertion that Gentiles are not just “non‐men”—they are actually called “beasts.”

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, etc. (GENES. III, 1). ‘More subtle’ that is towards evil; ‘than all the beasts,” that is, the idolatrous people of the earth. For they are the children of the ancient serpent which seduced Eve. (ZOHAR 1:28b)7

Such racially motivated contempt for non‐Jews naturally extends to the idea of murder. Something as minor as a physical assault is said to deserve capital punishment, and that determination is based on nothing more than the story of the murder Moses committed as a young man. Instead of Moses’ sin being condemned, it is held up as model behavior.

R. Hanina said: If a heathen smites a Jew, he is worthy of death, for it is written, And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian.8

For a Gentile to even read Judaism’s sacred book is a capital crime, deemed to be on the same level with rape and subject to death by stoning.

R. Johanan said: A heathen who studies the Torah deserves death, for it is written, Moses commanded us a law for an inheritance; it is our inheritance, not theirs. Then why is this


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not included in the Noachian laws?—On the reading morasha [an inheritance] he steals it; on the reading meʹorasah [betrothed], he is guilty as one who violates a betrothed maiden, who is stoned.9

Because all Gentiles are considered to be idolaters, all of the condemnations against idolatry found in the Old Testament as still to be acted upon legally.

Do not eat with idolater, nor permit them to worship their idols; for it is written: Make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them (DEUTER. 7:2). Either turn them away from their idols or kill them.” (HILKOTH AKUM X, 1)10

Simon ben Yohai is preeminently the anti‐Gentile teacher. In a collection of three sayings of his…is found the expression…“Tob shebe‐goyyim harog” (“The best among the Gentiles deserves to be killed”).11

In other words, the only good Gentile is a dead Gentile! Haven’t we heard that somewhere before?

Frankly, I find no difference between this language against idolaters by the Rabbis and that against “infidels” by the Muslims in their Qurán:

When you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads, until ye have made a great slaughter among them… (QURÁN SURA 47:4)

No wonder the Jews could not fulfill their commission to be a “light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; Acts 13:47). They did not even believe the Gentiles to be human beings! They considered them to be deserving of execution, not grace!

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The attitude of the Jews toward non‐Jews had changed radically from the time that YAHWEH had called them to be His “special possession from among all the other nations” (Exodus 19:5) at Mount Sinai. By the time of Jesus, they had become despisers of the nations. They considered themselves, based on their perverted exegesis of Exodus 34:31, to be the only true humans on the earth, as the passage from the Talmud above demonstrates.

The Mosaic Law had provisions for rectifying the “unclean” condition which one became upon the touching of a corpse or a grave. But the Pharisees taught that to touch a corpse or the grave of a Gentile did not make one unclean because they were not really humans anyway. Apparently, the contradiction of this position did not occur to them, or they just willingly ignored it. The same traditions of “clean” and “unclean” forbade them to handle wine touched by Gentiles. They called it yen nesek, literally “wine of libation.” And it is defined as “wine forbidden to the Jew because it has been handled by an idolater who may have dedicated it as an offering to his deity.”12 However, the admonitions in the Talmud include restrictions not only against receiving wine from a Gentile, but also selling wine to one. The moment the wine comes into the possession of the Gentile, it becomes yen nesek, even wine that has been touched by only Jewish hands prior to the transaction.

That which Rab told the [Israelite] wine‐sellers, viz., ‘When you measure wine for Gentiles, first take the money and then measure for them, and if they have not the cash with them, lend it to them and get it back later so that it should be a loan [of money] with them; for should you not act in this manner, when it becomes yen nesek it will be in your possession and when you receive payment it will be for


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yen nesek.’ Now should it enter your mind [argued Rab Ashi] that acquisition by meshikah does apply to a Gentile, then as soon as the Gentile drew [the wine] to himself he acquired it and it did not become yen nesek until he touched it!—It would indeed not be so if the wine was measured and poured [by the Israelite] into the Israeliteʹs vessel; but it is necessary [to suppose the circumstance] where [the Israelite] measured and poured it into the Gentileʹs vessel. At all events when [the wine] enters the interior of the vessel [the Gentile] acquired it, and it does not become yen nesek until it reached the bottom of the vessel.13

The absurdity of such picking of nits is what so riled Jesus against the Pharisees. Their teachings on every subject was always carried to ridiculous extremes. This interaction with the unclean Gentile world is only one example of hundreds that could be given.

One can somewhat understand, however, their attitude toward non‐Jews, considering the oppression they had suffered at the hands of the nations. From the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar to the time of Christ, they had endured six centuries of unrelenting hardship and servitude.

Only during the brief period of the Maccabees had they experienced any kind of independence, and during that short period (168‐105 b.c.) their independence was only tenuously held. The extent of the Maccabean or Asmonean dominion never extended anywhere near the proportions of the glory days of David and Solomon. The Jews during this time were constantly threatened by the mightier powers that surrounded them. In fact, one would not be incorrect to view the Asmonean rule as parochial rather than truly national.

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The Jews’ racism is particularly seen in one haughty exchange they had with Jesus over His teachings:

31Jesus said to His followers, particularly those who were Jews, “If you continue to follow My teachings, then you are indeed My disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33They answered, “We are the descendants of Abraham, and have never been anyone’s slaves! How dare you say, ‘You will be set free.’?”

—JOHN 8:31‐33

Their statement—“we… have never been anyone’s slaves”—of course, was patently untrue. They were at that very moment the subjugated vassals of the Roman Empire. The rendering of this verse in the KING JAMES VERSION—“We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man”—coupled with their understanding of Ezekiel 34:31, however, brings the situation into clearer focus. They didn’t consider their Roman oppressors to even be “men”—they alone were “men”! All others, not just the Romans but also the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, Seleucids, and Ptolemies that had been their superiors going all the way back to Nebuchadnezzar, were not “men” but “beasts.”

These insights into the Jews attitude toward Gentiles at the time of Christ not only helps us to better understand how they chafed under Gentile rule, but also helps us to understand why they failed in their God‐given destiny as being “lights to the Gentiles.” Furthermore, their blindness to God’s love for the Gentiles as well as for themselves kept them from understanding how God could have actually appointed the “times of the nations.”


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A Quick Review of Some Traditional Interpretations

The phrase “the times of the Gentiles” has been variously interpreted through the years, but most of the interpretive schemes seem to fall into one of two categories.

First, there are those who interpret the phrase soteriologically, that is, in reference to salvation. Basically, the idea is something like this: Under the Old Testament economy, the Jews were God’s exclusive people. God had no plan or regard for any other people. This was the “times of the Jews.” When Christ came, the doors were flung open for the entire world, and a provision was finally made for the Gentiles. Unfortunately, the Jews chose not to cooperate with God’s plan, so this New Testament economy has become the “times of the Gentiles.” According to this interpretation, when the full number of Gentiles have been saved (a special number that God has in the back of His mind), then the doors will close for the Gentiles and God will turn back to the Jews. In the meantime Jerusalem will suffer at the hands of the Gentiles (the ungodly ones, I suppose) until the “times of the Gentiles” is complete.

Second, there are those who interpret the phrase politically. This interpretation is very similar except that the salvation of the Gentiles is not the issue and there is no special number waiting to be completed. This scenario is based strictly on the fact that because the Jews rejected God’s offer of a kingdom, we are all living in a limbo state until the Jews decide to cooperate with God again. During this time, as part of their punishment, God is allowing the Gentiles to run rough‐shod over Jerusalem. At the end of time, or somewhere close to it, there will be a great Jewish revival, and the “times of the Gentiles” will be over. God will reward the Jews for

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their obedience by rescuing Jerusalem from the Gentiles and restoring it to its rightful owners.

Some examples of various interpretations follow:

[Of the Gentiles be fulfilled.] Till the different nations of the earth, to whom God shall have given the dominion over this land, have accomplished all that which the Lord hath appointed them to do; and till the time of their conversion to God take place. But when shall this be? We know not. The nations are still treading down Jerusalem, and the end is known only to the Lord.

—ADAM CLARKE14

The meaning of the passage clearly is, 1. That Jerusalem would be completely destroyed. 2. That this would be done by Gentiles—that is, by the

Roman armies. 3. That this desolation would continue as long as God

should judge it proper in a fit manner to express his abhorrence of the crimes of the nation—that is, until the times allotted to ʺthemʺ by God for this desolation should be accomplished, without specifying how long that would be, or what would occur to the city after that. It “may” be rebuilt, and inhabited by converted Jews. Such a thing is “possible,” and the Jews naturally seek that as their home; but whether this be so or not, the time when the “Gentiles,” as such, shall have dominion over the city is limited. Like all other cities on the earth, it will yet be brought under the influence of the gospel, and will be inhabited by the true friends of God. Pagan, infidel, anti‐


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Christian dominion shall cease there, and it will be again a place where God will be worshipped in sincerity—a place “even then” of special interest from the recollection of the events which have occurred there. “How long” it is to be before this occurs is known only to Him “who hath put the times and seasons in his own power.”

—ALBERT BARNES15

What, then, is its import here? It implies, first, that a time is coming when Jerusalem shall cease to be “trodden down of the Gentiles;” which it was then by pagan, and since and until now is by Mohammedan unbelievers: and next, it implies that the period when this treading down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles is to cease will be when “the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” or “completed”…“till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled”—does not mean “till the general conversion of the world to Christ,” but “until the Gentiles have had their full time of that place in the Church which the Jews had before them.” After that period of Gentilism, as before of Judaism, “Jerusalem” and Israel, no longer “trodden down by the Gentiles” but “grafted into their own olive tree,” shall constitute, with the believing Gentiles, one Church of God, and fill the whole earth. What a bright vista does this open up!

—JAMIESON, FAUSSET, AND BROWN 16

The “times of the Gentiles” has been determined by the Lord as that period of time in which Jerusalem was under the dominion of Gentile authority (Luke 21:24). This period began with the Babylonian captivity when Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Gentiles. It has continued unto the present time

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and will continue through the tribulation period, in which era the Gentiles powers will be judged. The dominion of the Gentiles ends at the second advent of Messiah to the earth.

—DWIGHT PENTECOST17

Ironically, the dispensational viewpoint of Dr. Pentecost actually comes closest to being the correct answer among the four examples given here. He correctly identifies the beginning of the “times of the Gentiles”—the Fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. He also correctly identifies the termination of the “times of the Gentiles” as occurring at the Second Coming of Christ. The only problem, and it is a big one, is that he misses the timing of the Second Coming, but this is a subject that we will cover in a later chapter.

The problem with each of these four interpretations is that the “times of the Gentiles” is extended right up until the present day and sees the old earthly city of Jerusalem as still having significance in the divine scheme of things in spite of what the New Testament clearly teaches. Both Paul and John as well as the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews are all in accord that the time of earthly Jerusalem’s significance has passed.

21Tell me, you who wish to be under the Law, can’t you hear what the Law says? 22It says that Abraham had two sons—one by a slave woman, the other by a free woman. 23Now the son of the slave was born through human efforts. But the son of the free woman was born through God’s promise.

24These things, indeed, may bear another meaning, for these two women represent two covenants. One covenant proceeds from Mount Sinai and produces children of


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slavery—this is Hagar 25who represents Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds, however, to the earthly Jerusalem who, like Hagar, is in slavery with her children. 26But the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and she is our mother.

—GALATIANS 4:21‐26

These Scriptures can speak for themselves, but because they have been so misconstrued in the past, it becomes necessary to comment on them from time to time. In Galatians Paul drew a contrast between the Old covenant under Judaism and the New Covenant under Christianity. The Old, he said, corresponds to Mount Sinai, Hagar, and the earthly Jerusalem. The New corresponds to Mount Zion, Sarah, and the heavenly Jerusalem. This must have really chapped Paul’s Judaizing readers—being linked with Hagar and Ishmael, the outcasts from the family of Abraham.

But Paul’s contrast is so distinct that it is hard to miss the point. Everything that he spoke about with reference to the Old Covenant were things that were characterized by the shortcomings of the flesh, whereas everything that he mentioned with regard to the New Covenant were loftier and more desirable.

Paramount for our discussion here is that he declared that our allegiances should no longer point to the earthly city of Jerusalem with its bondages. Rather our focus should be on the heavenly Jerusalem who is our true mother. And he wasn’t talking about heaven, as we shall see.

John was invited in the Revelation to come up with the angel for a close‐up view of the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. We would expect from this terminology that He was going to get to see the Church. She is, after all, the Bride of Christ. When he got up there, what did

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he see? He saw a city, the New Jerusalem—the same heavenly Jerusalem that Paul wrote about.

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the previous heaven and earth had come and gone, and the sea was no more. 2I saw the Holy City—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God like a bride beautifully arrayed for her husband, 3and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s home is now with his people! He will live among them and they will be His people! God Himself will be with them and be their God!”


Guess what!—John was indeed seeing a picture of the Church, this time depicted as a beautiful city with foundations of precious stones. The New Jerusalem is not a picture of heaven—it’s a picture of the Church! We are the New Jerusalem! When you read this description of God’s glorious Church, why would you ever think that the earthly city of Jerusalem has any longer any real significance.

But, some may say, John was describing something in the future—something in the afterlife. I don’t think so, but let’s let the Bible decide if the New Jerusalem is present or future.

22But you have come • to Mount Zion, • to the city of the living God, • to the heavenly Jerusalem with its myriad of

messengers in joyful assembly 23 • to the congregation of the first‐born ones whose

names are written in heaven


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• to God the Judge of all, • to the spirits of those whose righteousness has been

fulfilled, 24 • to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant

• to the sacrificial blood that speaks of forgiveness—a better message than that of the blood of Abel that cried out for vengeance.

—HEBREWS 12:22‐24

Notice the tense of the verb—“We have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem!” I’m not going there one day when I die. I’m living there rigtht now! The New Jerusalem is a present reality! It is the Church of Jesus the Messiah!

All interpretations of the phrase “the times of the Gentiles” that place emphasis on Jerusalem after its destruction in A.D. 70 are missing what God is doing in the world today. He has called His Church to an arena of activity that is no longer material and physical, but one that is spiritual and eternal.

What is God up to? Let’s see if we can answer that question.

God’s Covenantal Plan of Redemption

In order to fully understand the phrase “the times of the nations,” we need to back up and take a bird’s eye view at redemption history and we need to view it through the prism of God’s covenant.

God has offered no other way of interacting with humankind than through covenant. To try to understand what God is up to using any other paradigm will cause us to miss His purpose and intention not only for us personally, but for the whole of humankind.

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Another principle that needs to be established at the outset is that God has had only one covenant with mankind. There is continuity from Creation to the present. The dispensationalists are wrong in their basic premise that Biblical history is best understood in the light of a number of successive economies or administration under God wherein each so‐called “dispensation” represents a different way in which God deals with humans and tests human according to the tenets of the particular dispensation in which one lives.

This perspective of the Scriptures promotes an understanding of discontinuity. It presents a picture wherein God appears to be experimenting with different models of administration and relationship and never seems to quite get it right. It disconnects present day believers from their Old Testament roots. And, worst of all, it portrays the Church as a “plan B” program, hastily inserted into history because the Jews did not accept the kingdom He offered them. They call the Church a “parenthesis” in the plan of redemption.

Much to be preferred is the teaching that demonstrates that God is sovereign, that He has never made a mistake, that He has never had to say “Oops,” that He has never had to resort to a “plan B,” and that He has never “experimented” with humankind. To the contrary He has orchestrated a glorious progression from the Fall of Adam onward, a majestic redemptive program that culminated in the offering of Jesus as the ultimate Lamb of God and the establishing of His radiant bride, the Church, in the earth.

I often use the title of a book by W. Graham Scroggie that I think best describes the progressive plan of God through the ages. That book is called The Unfolding Drama of Redemption.18 Scroggie presents the entire scope of the Bible as a dramatic production


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divided into acts, scenes, and interludes. It is a great book that stresses the continuity of the Scriptures.

When I was beginning my transition out of pre‐tribulation dispensationalism over a quarter century ago, I came upon a great old book called The Divine Program of the World’s History.19 Published in 1889, it was authored by H. Grattan Guinness, who was one of the stalwarts of the historicism school of prophecy interpretation.

I was going through my “historicism phase” of eschatology research at that time, and I was distinctly impressed with much that I read in that arena. I later laid aside the basic ideas of the historicists because I found them to be just as guilty of date‐setting as were the dispensationalists. The only difference was that many of the dates set by the futurist had not yet rolled around and could not necessarily be conclusively regarded as false. The historicists, writing in the 19th century, set dates that for me (reading their books in the mid 1970s) were long past.

Though I finally rejected historicism as a viable answer to my eschatological questions, I remained impressed with Dr. Guinness’ Divine Program. In this book he presented God’s prophetic revelations to humankind as a series of ever‐widening programs that successively revealed more and more details of His redemptive intentions.

Guinness’ book has the following chapter headings:

1. The Adamic Foreview of Human History 2. The Noahic Program 3. The Abrahamic Program 4. The Mosaic Program 5. The Davidic Program 6. The Daniel Program 7. The Christian Program

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Guinness’ basic idea was that at every major juncture in God’s dealings with humankind, an unfolding of His prophetic program accompanied the unfolding of His administrative program. Later I made the connection that these “administrative programs” were God’s covenantal dealings humankind, and wrote a course on Bible prophecy for our Bible schools overseas that followed this same approach.20 Guinness’ “programs,” I observed, basically paralleled the various covenants of the Bible:

1. The Adamic Covenant (sometimes called the Edenic Covanant or the Creation Covenant)

2. The Noahic Covenant 3. The Abrahamic Covenant (sometimes called the

Covenant of Faith or the Covenant of Promise) 4. The Mosaic Covenant (sometimes called the Sinai

Covenant, but otherwise known simply as The Law) 5. The Davidic Covenant (sometime called the Kingdom

Covenant) 6. The New Covenant (sometimes called the Christosic

Covenant or Christian Covenant) Some scholars break the Adamic Covenant into two parts, the

covenant before the Fall being called the Edenic Covenant and the covenant after the Fall being called the Adamic Covenant.

The dispensationalists insert a Palestinian Covenant after the Mosaic Covenant, contending that in Deuteronomy 29‐30, in the words of J. Sidlow Baxter,

…another covenant is set forth which is additional to the Sinai covenant, and that it was under this covenant that Israel entered Canaan. The Scofield Bible teaches this, and calls the supposed extra covenant the “Palestinian” covenant.


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We refer our student to the Scofield footnote going with chapter 30. In our own judgment, to see in these chapters a new and different covenant is to see what is not there. Why should it be thought that we here have a further covenant, different from that at Sinai?21

Amen, Bro. Baxter! The only difference in Guinness’ “programs” and the standard

list of Bible covenants is Guinness’ inclusion of the “Daniel Program.” Apparently in all the other cases—with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with Moses, with David, and finally with our Lord Himself—when a fresh prophetic word was revealed it was as an accompaniment to the unfolding of fresh insights into God’s covenant.

Let’s review them briefly: God’s covenant with Adam provided the foreview that from Eve

would come a Deliverer who would crush the head of the serpent. God’s covenant with Noah provided the foreview that through

one of his sons, Shem, would come the righteous line (the Hebrews), but that eventually another son Japheth (the ancestor of the Western nations), would dwell in the tents of Shem—a picture of Gentiles being grafted into the Jewish olive tree (Romans 11:16‐18).

God’s covenant with Abraham promised that he would be the father of a multitude of descendants, but that one in particular would be called the “Seed” and that through Him all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

God’s covenant with Moses established Israel as the covenant nation chosen to be the channel of blessing for the rest of the world. God’s covenant provided that if they obeyed their mandate, blessing would overtake them, but if the disobeyed, cursings would

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overtake them. We have examined in detail that aspect of the covenant earlier in this book. Through Moses, God also told Israel that he was going to send them “The Prophet,” and if they rejected this messenger, they were going to be destroyed.

God’s covenant with David established David’s descendants as a divinely royal line, One of whom would reign over an ever‐increasing kingdom that would never pass away—this, of course, pointing to Jesus, the greater Son of David and the Kingdom of God that was the heartbeat of His earthly ministry.

Finally there was to be a New Covenant. Jeremiah prophesied about it (Jeremiah 31:31‐34). Jesus, Israel’s Messiah, came to confirm that covenant with the Jews as a fulfillment of Daniel’s Seventy Sevens (as we have already discussed), and on the last before His Crucifixion, He elevated the Old testament Passover meal to a new status—the central sacrament of the New Covenant.

So, what about the “Daniel program”? Why wasn’t this prophetic revelation associated with a fresh unveiling of God’s covenant? My question is, who said it wasn’t?

Nowhere in the opening chapters of Genesis that deal with God’s dealings with Adam is the word “covenant” used. Yet all the aspects of covenant are there. We can prove it Scripturally by applying the words of one of the Old Testament prophets, Hosea:

7Like Adam they have broken the covenant; They have betrayed trust with Me.

—HOSEA 6:7

In the KING JAMES VERSION the word used to translate the Hebrew word <d*a* {adam—aw‐dawmʹ} is “men,” but just as in the opening chapter of Genesis, when this Hebrew word is encountered, the


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translator has to make a decision whether to translate the word generically as “men” or as the proper name “Adam.” The context governs the choice.

The passage in Hosea is an appeal to Ephraim (the northern kingdom of Israel) and Judah (the southern kingdom) to forsake their impenitence and unfaithfulness. What sense does it make for God to say, “Like men they have broken the covenant.” They were men, so what would be the point? But to say, “Like Adam they have broken the covenant,” gives the utterance a point of reference. “Adam” is definitely the correct translation.

The point, however, is that in Genesis a covenant (some say two covenants) is made with Adam without the word itself appearing in the narrative. Can that be what is happening in the Daniel program?

God’s Message to the Gentiles through Daniel

The twelve chapters of the book of Daniel are evenly divided into six of narrative and six of prophecy. In the first section are some of the all‐time favorite Bible stories—“Daniel in the Lions’ Den” and “The Three Hebrew children.”

But included in this narrative section is a story of a supernatural revelation given to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The story is so familiar that it hardly needs repeating. The king had a dream that he did not understand. Only Daniel, of all his royal advisors, could interpret it for him. The dream was a panoramic foreview of vast movements on the world stage. It not only involved Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom, but succeeding empires far into the future.

27Daniel replied, “The king’s secret is such that no wise men, be they conjurers or magicians or astrologers, are able to tell the king what he is asking for. 28But there is a God in

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heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has disclosed to you, King Nebuchadnezza,r what will take place in the days of the end. Now I will tell you what you saw in dreams and visions as you lay on your bed. 29As for you, O king, while you were lying on your bed, your thoughts turned to future things. The One who reveals such secrets has showed you what is going to take place. 30For my part, this secret was not revealed to me because I possess more wisdom that anyone else. Rather it was made known to me in order that the king might make sense of what he saw and comprehend the thoughts of your heart.

31“You, O King, were watching, and suddenly there was standing before you a great statue—colossal in size and extraordinary in splendor—and its appearance was formidable. 32Its head was made of the finest gold; its chest and arms were of silver; its waist and abdomen were of bronze; 33its legs were of iron; its feet were a composite of iron and clay.

34“You were watching and suddenly there was a stone quarried without human hands, and it crashed against the statue on its iron and clay feet, and shattered them. 35Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were all pulverized and became like the dust and husks of wheat on the summer threshing floors that the wind blows away until no trace of it can be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a huge mountain the filled the entire earth.

—DANIEL 2:27‐35

Daniel realized the magnitude of the king’s dream and informed him that what he had seen was a foreview of things that were to “take place in the days of the end.” This is a significant phrase. Consistent with its use in other places in the Scriptures,


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such as the Olivet Discourse, the “end” in this passage was not talking about the “end of the world as we know it” or the “end of time.” It was referring to the same time period as the other prophecies—Daniel’s Seventy Sevens and the Olivet Discourse. It was simply addressed to a different audience. Whereas Daniel’s Seventy Sevens was a prophecy for the Jews, this prophecy was directed to a Gentile ruler.

The dream consisted of a colossal statue composed of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay. Almost all Bible expositors are agreed that these metals correspond to the following Gentile empires:

The gold head Babylon The silver chest and arms Medes and Persians The bronze belly Greece The iron legs The Roman Empire The feet of iron and clay The disintegrating Roman Empire

The vision concluded with a “stone quarried without human hands” crashing against the feet of the statue and shattering not only the feet, but the entire statue. This, too, is significant! Although the dream showed the progressive change of kingdoms on the world scene, the vision should not be interpreted linearly. The statue as a whole represents the totality of the Gentile domination of the world from the time of Nebuchadnezzar until the “Stone,” Jesus Christ came and brought about the “end.”

This story of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar is strikingly similar to the story of Joseph and the Pharaoh of Egypt. The characters are similar and the plots are similar. The message of the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar and the Pharaoh are totally dissimilar. This message to Nebuchadnezzar is without precedent in the pages of Scripture. Never before or since has God sent a message to a Gentile ruler of

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such scope and such far‐reaching implications. The dreams of the Pharaoh only predicted events 14 years into the future, and compared to the vast scale of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream one could almost call the Pharaoh’s dream local in nature, or at the most, regional.

Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, on the other hand, predicted an odyssey of world domination that would last for half a millennium. Its influence would span from India to the British Isles.

Daniel had another revelation that paralleled Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. It was the Vision of the Four Beasts.

2“As I was watching the vision during the night, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 3Then four beasts came up out of the sea—four beasts that were entirely different one from the other.

4“The first one was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings pulled torn off and it was lifted up from the ground until it was standing on its two hind legs like a human and a human mind was given to it.

5“Then a second beast appeared that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and there were three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, “Rise up and eat your fill of flesh.”

6“After that I continued watching, and another beast appeared that looked like a leopard with four bird‐like wings on its back. It also had four heads, and mastery was given to it.

7“I was still watching in the night vision, and a fourth beast appeared. This one was dreadful and immensely powerful. It had two rows of iron teeth, and with them it devoured and crushed. Anything left was trampled with its feet. It had ten horns and was unlike all the beasts that preceded it.”

—DANIEL 7:2‐7


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Now we can expand our matrix to include the elements of this vision:

The gold head Lion with eagle’s wings Babylon The silver chest and arms

Bear with three ribs in its mouth

The Medes and Persians

The bronze belly Leopard with four wings and four heads

Greece

The iron legs Terrible beast with iron teeth

The Roman Empire

The feet of iron and clay

The disintergrating Roman Empire

Obviously, I am not taking the time to do a full exposition of these passages from Daniel. That will have to be done in a place of its own. All we need for our purposes here is to get a broad overview of the prophecies in their entirety and to see the correspondences of the major elements.

Notice that both of these visions conclude with a picture of triumph for the people of God. In Daniel 2 it was a Stone that pulverized the statue:

34“You were watching and suddenly there was a stone quarried without human hands, and it crashed against the statue on its iron and clay feet, and shattered them. 35Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were all pulverized and became like the dust and husks of wheat on the summer threshing floors that the wind blows away until no trace of it can be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a huge mountain the filled the entire earth.”

—DANIEL 2:34‐35

In Daniel 7, it was a courtroom scene in which the Son of Man and the Saints prevailed:

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13“During this vision in the night I saw One like the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, and as He approached He was presented to the Ancient of Days. 14He was given dominion and honor and kingship. All the people of every nation and race were made to serve Him. His age‐lasting dominion shall never pass away, and His kingdom shall never be destroyed.

♦ ♦ ♦ 21“While I was watching, that horn began to wage war

against the holy ones and was defeating them 22until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was rendered in favor of the people of God Most High. Then the time came for the holy ones to take possession of the kingdom.

♦ ♦ ♦ 26“But the court will come to order and his dominion will

be taken away to be consumed and destroyed forever. 27Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be delivered over to the holy people of God Most High. His kingdom is an age‐lasting kingdom, and all powers serve Him and obey Him.”

—DANIEL 7:13‐14, 21‐22, 26‐27

There are definite time limitations on these prophecies. The four metallic parts of the statue and the four beasts represent time from Nebuchadnezzar to the Caesars. The Stone that pulverizes the statue takes us to the time of Christ (who is the Stone). The Stone that becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth is a picture of the Body of Christ expanding and extending it influence to the ends of the earth. We have already seen how this was accomplished in the days of the apostles fulfilling Jesus’ words, “And this Good News


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about the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

The appearance of the Son of Man before the Ancient of Days is a picture of Jesus’ Ascension to the Father and the delivery of the Kingdom into His hands. Peter testified to this reality on the Day of Pentecost:

32“This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses to this fact. 33So then, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Spirit from the Father, He has poured out what you are both now hearing and seeing.”

—ACTS 2:32‐33

This is not to say that the “promise of the Holy Spirit” is the direct equivalent of the “Kingdom,” but it is certainly a part of the Kingdom, and this portion of Peter’s sermon demonstrates in a very practical way how the delivering of the Kingdom by the Ancient of Days to the Son of Man played out in this aspect of its prophetic fulfillment.

This was the time, says Daniel, “for the holy ones to take possession of the kingdom.” Follow the ministries of Peter and Paul in the book of Acts and see how the advancing of the Kingdom of God plays a central role in their ministries. The book of Acts ends with:

30Paul lived there for two entire years in his own rented house, and welcomed all who came to him, 31declaring the Kingdom of God and teaching about Lord Jesus the Messiah without fear and without restrictions.

—ACTS 28:30‐31

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The one peculiar horn on the head of this fourth beast was seen by Daniel waging war against God’s people. This horn was none other than the Emperor Nero Caesar whom John identified in the Book of Revelation as the Beast with the number 666 (Revelation 13:18). Nero was the first Emperor to persecute the Christian Church and the atrocities that he committed with regard to Christians is legendary. Feeding them to the lions in the arenas, soaking them with oil and using them to light his gardens for his nightly orgies, and having them skinned alive are just some of the heinous barbarities he committed.

As to his identification associating him with the number 666, this is simply a matter of applying the ancient technique known as gematria. This was the practice of the Hebrew numerology of the Kabalah, and was much misused and abused by Jewish mystics who tried to find hidden coded messages in the words and letters of the Scriptures.

However, John used it legitimately as a device to point to the Emperor that his readers would be able to decipher, but that the Roman police would only find confusing.

In Hebrew, as in Greek and Latin, the letters of the alphabet also served as numerals. Thus each letter has a numerical value. Adding the value of all the letters in a word determined the word’s numerical value. Even the value of phrases and entire sentences can thus be calculated.

All Jews were familiar with gematria, including the Jewish Christians who were among those who initially read John’s book of Revelation. John used this technique to identify Caesar Nero as the arch enemy of the Church, using code in order for his book to pass under the radar of the Roman officials who were looking for


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subversive literature. The following shows how the Emperor’s name in Hebrew—Caesar Neron—totals 666:

Interestingly, in some of the older Greek manuscripts, the

number is not 666, but 616. Sometimes Nero’s name was spelled without the final “n”—Caesar Nero. In that case, the numerical value of his name is 616. Apparently some scribe who knew the correct interpretation of the passage in Revelation, but whose contemporaries were accustomed to the spelling without the final “n,” altered the manuscript he was working on in order that the true message of the Scriptures would be retained.

The Concurrency of the Various Prophesies

We are now ready to draw some conclusions about these prophecies in relation to the Olivet Discourse and Daniel’s Seventy Sevens.

FIRST, the Olivet Discourse was a prediction of events Jesus’ disciples could expect to happen in their lifetimes (provided they didn’t meet a martyr’s death before its final fulfillment, which is exactly what happened to many of them). The time limitation for the Olivet Discourse was within “this generation.” And sure

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enough forty years after the Jesus delivered this prophecy, it was fulfilled with the A.D. 70 Fall of Jerusalem.

SECOND, Daniel’s Seventy Sevens was a prophecy with a 490‐year timeframe and an undetermined extended period. We have seen how Jesus, Messiah the Prince, appeared on the scene at the River Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist right on time at the beginning of Daniel’s Seventieth Seven. He was “cut down” three‐and‐a‐half years later just as the prophet foretold. Another three‐and‐a‐half years later his apostles, at last released from the constraints of the prophecy (which promised the confirmation of God’s New Covenant with them for seven years) began to preach the Good News to non‐Jews. Waiting in the wings, and held back by the grace of God for one full generation was the “abomination that makes desolate,” the Roman army that sacked Jerusalem.

THIRD, Daniel’s Vision of the Four Beasts depicted a series of images that symbolized the march of history through the reigns of the Babylonians, the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks under Alexander the Great and its four‐fold division after his death, and, finally, the iron‐toothed terror known as the Roman Empire. During the reign of this fearsome beast, the Son of Man would appear before the Ancient of Days and receive His Kingdom which He would in turn share with His followers, His “holy ones.” During this same period, one of the Roman Empire’s rulers, or “horns,” would make war on God’s holy people until the Ancient of Days convened His court and pronounced judgment against the “horn,” destroy him, and fully deliver the Kingdom over to the holy people of God Most High. We know the dates for Christ’s Ascension and Nero’s reign and thus we know the terminal point of this prophecy.


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FOURTH, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the metallic statue also symbolized the same march of history paralleling the Vision of the Four Beasts. Nebuchadnezzar’s vision terminates with the appearance of the Stone that pulverizes the statue and then grows into a mountain and fills the whole earth. This we have seen to be a picture of Christ and His Church. Thus we know the terminal point of this prophecy as well.

The conclusion is simply this— ALL THREE OF DANIEL’S PROPHECIES RUN CONCURRENTLY AND DOVETAIL PRECISELY

WITH THE OLIVET DISCOURSE! The terminal point of all four of these prophecies is at or near

the A.D. 70 date of the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish Temple!

This is one of the most significant events in all of human history. It marked not just the passing of one of the great cities of the world—no, it was much more significant than that. This was the city that symbolized God’s dealing with humankind under the Old Covenant, under the Law, under the Mosaic/Judaic economy. It meant the full passing away of the Old and the full ushering in of the New Covenant.

All the descriptions that Daniel used to tell of the visions he saw demonstrate the significance of this event:

• This was the time when the Stone came and the “iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were all pulverized.” (Not the Roman Empire, but the conclusion of the dominion of Gentile rule in the plan of God.)

• This was the time when the Church was released to become the “huge mountain that would fill the entire earth.”

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• This was the time when “judgment was rendered in favor of the people of God Most High.”

• This was the time “for the holy ones to take possession of the kingdom.”

• This was the time for the “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven to be delivered over to the holy people of God Most High.”

• This was the time that Nebuchadnezzar saw when his thoughts had “turned to future things.”

• This was the time that Daniel called “the days of the end.”

The Times of the Nations

It perhaps is a stretch to call God’s message to Nebuchadnezzar a “covenant.” And it was not a covenant in the sense of God’s covenant with Israel at Sinai that had well defined provisions and sanctions, that was inaugurated by an oath, and that depended on Israel’s cooperation for its success.

But it was in some respects like God’s covenant with Abraham wherein Abraham was given the promise of a multitude of descendants, especially One particular Seed who would bless all the nations of the earth. When God cut covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15) he asked Abraham to make the preparations and keep the sacrificial animals safe until evening. But then God did a mysterious thing.

12Then as the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a deep and dreadful darkness came over him.

♦ ♦ ♦


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17So it came about that when the sun had set, and it was very dark, a smoking fire and a flaming light appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses. 18On that very day, YAHWEH cut covenant with Abram and proclaimed, “To your descendants I give this land, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River.”

—GENESIS 15:12, 17‐18

Rather than the two of them passing through the severed carcasses of the sacrificial animals (as was the normal way of two parties cutting covenant), God put Abraham to sleep and passed through the carcasses all by Himself. He was saying to Abraham, “We are cutting covenant, but I am not depending on you to keep My covenant with Me. However, you can depend on Me to keep My covenant with you. I am taking full responsibility for making this happen.”

Now, the covenant with Abraham was not an unconditional covenant. No covenant is unconditional. God still expected Abraham’s obedience, and He tried Abraham maximally when He asked him to sacrifice Isaac, his son of promise.

But God’s covenant with Abraham is as close as you can get to an unconditional covenant. The aspect of the Abrahamic covnenant that we are talking about is that it was unilateral. God took full responsibility for its fulfillment. He made the promise and then gave Abraham a foreview of what the future held. And everything came to pass just as God predicted.

It is in this unilateral way that God brought his message to Nebuchadnezzar and allowed him a glimpse into the future. “You are this head of gold,” God told him, and as the head of this new prophetic era, God graced Nebuchadnezzar with foresight not only

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concerning himself personally, but for the fate of the entire Gentile world for the next 500 years.

God’s message to Daniel as he prayed concerning his people the Jews and their holy city Jerusalem was, “I am going to give you your promised Messiah within the next 500 years. This prophecy of the Seventy Sevens is for your people and your holy city. This prophecy for the Jews will lead you right up to the end, and then I am going to do something entirely new.”

God’s message to Nebuchadnezzar was, “I am giving the next 500 years to the Gentiles. One after another successive Gentile regimes will have dominion over the earth. This prophecy for the Gentiles will lead you right up to the end, and then I am going to do something entirely new.”

When Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives and declared, “Jerusalem will trampled by the nations until the times of the nations are complete,” this is what He was referring to. The “times of the nations” was rapidly drawing to a close just as the time of the old Judaistic economy was drawing to a close. Only forty years remained. For over five hundred years Gentiles had trampled on the city of Jerusalem. Even while Jesus was speaking the thud of Roman boots could be heard in the Holy City.

Nebuchanezzar had trampled it in 587 B.C. Alexander the Great would have trampled it in 332 B.C. if the Jews had not come out of the city to meet him and pledge their allegiance. Antiochus Epiphanes had trampled it in 168 B.C. Pompey the Great trampled it in 62 B.C. Herod the Great trampled it in 37 B.C.

When the Romans under Titus trampled Jerusalem in A.D. 70, it was the final time for Jerusalem to be trampled during the “times of the nations”—not the last time in all of history, because other


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Romans such as Emperor Hadrian would do so, followed by the tramplings of the Arab Muslims, the Christian Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks, and the League of Nations. But as far as God was concerned, the “times of the Gentiles” ended at the same point that the “times of the Jews” ended.

Nothing—absolutely nothing—that would happen to that piece of earthly real estate called the city of Jerusalem would ever again have any significance in the plan of God. It was not really the Romans that destroyed Jerusalem. They were just the instrument that God used to bring His judgment. When we look back historically at the smoldering remains of that once proud city, where not one stone of the Temple was left standing on another, what we are actually seeing is a city that had been flattened by the feet of God, fulfilling yet another prophecy, the most often quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament:

YAHWEH said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I have put all your enemies under Your feet.”

—PSALM 110:1

From the time of Jerusalem’s destruction onward, God would be doing a totally new thing wherein no distinction would be made between Jew and Gentiles. It was now time for all men to be made “one in Christ.” That’s our challenge today—to take the word of reconciliation to the world. The middle wall of partition has been broken. Like the walls of the Jewish Temple, not one stone has been left standing on another of that middle wall of partition. Instead God desires that all men everywhere be reconciled to Him

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CHAPTER FIVE ENDNOTES 1 The website http://www.peoplegroups.org has complete lists of people-groups

arranged, geographically, linguistically, and religiously. 2 Rabbi Michael L. Rodkinson, History of the Talmud, Vol. II, pg. 70, New Talmud

Publishing Company, 1903. 3 Rabbi Travers Herford, “Pharisees” in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 8,

pg. 474, The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc., 1939-43. 4 Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yebamoth, folio 60b-61a, Soncino English

translation, Jew’s College, 1961. 5 Ibid., Tractate Baba Meziʹa, folio 114b. 6 Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, folio 58b. 7 Quoted in Iustinus Bonaventura Pranaitis, The Talmud Unmasked, St.

Petersburg, Russia, 1892. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid, folio 59a. 10 Quoted in Pranaitis. 11 “Gentiles” in the Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk and Wagnells Co., 1906. 12 Glossary to the Soncino Babylonian Talmud. 13 Babylonian Talmud, Tractate ʹAbodah Zarah, folio 71a-b 14 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible Containing the Old and New

Testaments (Luke 21:24), World Publishing, reprint 1997 (originally published as six volumes 1826).

15 Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old and New Testamenst (Luke 21:24), Baker Books, reprint 1983 (originally published 1847-1872).

16 Robert Jamieson, Andrew Fausset, and David Brown, A Commentary Critical, Experimental and Practical on the Old and New Testaments (Mark13:20), Zondervan, reprint 1999 (originally published 1877).

17, J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology, Zondervan, 1958.

18 W. Graham Scroggie, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption: an Inductive Study of Salvation in the Old and New Testaments, Kregel Publications, reprint 1995 (originally published as three volumes 1953)


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19 H. Grattan Guinness, The Divine Program of the World’s History, Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, London, 1889. This book is, of course, out‐of‐print, but can be found online at http://www.historicism.com/Guinness

20 Grady Brown, A Sure Word of Prophecy: An Overview of Biblical Prophecy, Dayspring Publications, 1999.

21 J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book, Zondervan, 1987 (originally published as six volumes in 1960).

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CHAPTER SIX

The Olivet Discourse – 3 III TRUST YOU PROFITED from our excursus on the subject of the “times of the nations.” We can now return to our consideration of the remainder of the Olivet Discourse.

Our interpretation of Jesus’ words up to this point has been relatively uncomplicated and for the most part non‐controversial. Of course , not all scholars agree with the interpretation presented here (the most notable example being the dispensationalists), but many do embrace this view or something very close to it, including a lot of post‐tribulation rapturists and moderate futurists. Of course, this interpretation is the “meat and potatoes” of the historicists and preterists.

But as we move deeper into these prophetic passages, the way may not seem so clear‐cut, and we will have to risk venturing into areas that are somewhat controversial. Don’t let that deter you. The Olivet Discourse is the single most important passage in Scripture for proving or disproving the claim that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. His reputation is on the line. Either what He said came to pass just as He said that it would, or He is a fraud.


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Of course, I have every confidence that He is indeed the Son of God, and I hold that conviction because I am convinced that the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 vindicated Jesus and proved conclu‐sively that He was not a failed Messiah and a disgrace to His followers. When His words came to pass just exactly as He said they would, all the world should have been convinced of His lordship over heaven and earth.

One of the great tragedies of Church history has been the loss of this great piece of the Good News. Instead of heralding the wonderful truth about Jesus’ victory over His enemies, the Church, for the most part, has chosen to continue looking for something that has already taken place. And as the years (no, the centuries) roll by, this creates a serious problem for our credibility in the eyes of a skeptical world.

How to Identify the Parousia of the True Messiah (Matthew 24:23‐28) 23Then if anyone says to you, “Look! Here is the Messiah”

or “There He is!” do not believe it. 24For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear and will perform great signs and wonders. They will deceive, if possible, even the Redeemed Ones. 25Remember that I have told you all this ahead of time. 26So then, if someone says to you, “Look! He is out in the desert!” do not go out there. Or if they say, “Look! He is in some secret place,” do not believe it.

27“For when the son of Man arrives it will be just as the lightening flashing from the east to the west, 28and the vultures will flock to wherever there is a dead body.”


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Luke did not record these particular words of Jesus, but Mark did and they are essentially identical to Matthew’s account, albeit somewhat more brief.

21Then if anyone says to you, “Look, here is the Messiah!” or “Look! There He is!” do not believe it. 22For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear performing signs and wonders. They will deceive, if possible, even the Redeemed Ones. 23I am telling you all this ahead of time, so be careful!”

—MARK 13:21‐23

With these words, Jesus addressed the second aspect of His disciples’ question—“And what will be the sign of Your coming?”

As we saw when we discussed the nature of the disciples’ question, they were not even aware of any “going away” or “return,” so they could not have been asking about the “second coming,” especially in the sense that Christians in subsequent eras would use that term.

They were specifically asking when Jesus intended to present Himself publicly as Israel’s deliverer—their long awaited Messiah.

In answer to this aspect of their question, Jesus first gave them some false indicators to avoid. False Messiahs, He said, would arise with mainly two approaches.

First, there would be some who would lead their crowds out of the cities into the deserts, a pattern that even John the Baptist had followed. Josephus described the escapades of one such rabble‐rouser named Jonathan:

And now did the madness of the Sicarii, like a disease, reach as far as the cities of Cyrene; for one Jonathan, a vile person, and by trade a weaver, came thither and prevailed


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with no small number of the poorer sort to give ear to him; he also led them into the desert, upon promising them that he would show them signs and apparitions. And as for the other Jews of Cyrene, he concealed his knavery from them, and put tricks upon them; but those of the greatest dignity among them informed Catullus, the governor of the Libyan Pentapolis, of his march into the desert, and of the preparations he had made for it. So he sent out after him both horsemen and footmen, and easily overcame them, because they were unarmed men; of these many were slain in the fight, but some were taken alive, and brought to Catullus. As for Jonathan, the head of this plot, he fled away at that time; but upon a great and very diligent search, which was made all the country over for him, he was at last taken. And when he was brought to Catullus, he devised a way whereby he both escaped punishment himself, and afforded an occasion to Catullus of doing much mischief; for he falsely accused the richest men among the Jews, and said that they had put him upon what he did.1

Most of these Messianic pretenders would come from religious groups like the Essenes who had already condemned the current Temple practices and leaders and had retired to desert communes seeking purification from the defilement of a hopelessly wicked world.

Most Essenes, and members of other groups like them, were not trouble‐makers. They were content to lead their quiet lives of contemplation and hard work. However, this counter‐culture lifestyle was also attractive to rabble‐rousers and misfits. They were not just content to withdraw from the culture—they wanted to

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reform the culture. And when reform took too long, they were willing to start a revolution in order to bring about change.

A typical community was the one near Khirbat Qumran on the Dead Sea in modern‐day Jordan. Details concerning the practices of this particular community only came to the attention of scholars with the discovery of the highly publicized Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. These 600 or so Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts from the scriptorium of the Qumran community were the most important discovery of ancient writings in the history of archeology. Complete copies of the books of Isaiah and Habakkuk were found. These and the other fragmentary copies of the Hebrew Scriptures demonstrated that our present Hebrew texts, which are about a thousand years younger than the Qumran Literature, are essentially identical with these oldest of known manuscripts.

Also among the discoveries were two documents—the Manual of Discipline and the Order of Warfare (also known as the War Scroll).

The Manual of Discipline provides a wealth of information about the practices of the Qumran brotherhood, and when compared with the descriptions of the Essenes written by Josephus and Philo, many scholars tend to believe that the Qumran brotherhood was indeed an Essene community.

The Order of Warfare speaks frankly about the desired overthrow of not only the Roman Empire, but also the then reigning Jewish religious leaders. This was to be accomplished through a “Teacher of Righteousness to lead them [the Remnant, the Children of Light] in the way of His heart and to make known to the last generation, the congregation of the faithless” (CD 1:11‐12). It was this Teacher of Righteousness “to whom God has made known all the mysteries of the words of His servants the prophets” (1QpHab. 7:5). He would


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lead the battle of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness. This would be “the vengeance of His [God’s] anger against the Sons of Darkness” (1QM 3:9).

This, of course, all sounds very Messianic. To the Romans it would be interpreted as highly subversive. Many scholars believe that the Qumran community was destroyed by Vespasian on his march to take the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 65, and that the hiding of the manuscripts in the caves nearby was a desperation measure on the part of the Qumranians to preserve their sacred treasures from certain destruction.

To those who have asked why the Roman general would detour from his march to Jerusalem in order to destroy a commune of pacifists, the answer is the Order of Warfare. It would only be seen by the Romans as an integral part of the overall insurrection, the Great Jewish Revolt. Of course, this had to be stamped out.

The second approach that would‐be Messiahs used to present themselves to the public was to make their whereabouts secretive, leaking the information to the gullible people that some inner chamber even now housed the long‐awaited Messiah, and before very long they could expect a grand public appearance. This would titillate the expectant Jews and stir no end of insurrection and unrest. The inner chambers of the Temple itself was a prime location for such a residence.

During those crucial days of the actual siege of Jerusalem the various seditious leaders of the insurrectionist factions inside the city—Eleazer ben Simon, John of Gischala, and Simon ben Gioras—fought over possession of the Temple, considering it not only the best position strategically because of its height, but also psychologically because of its religious and political preeminence.

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For Eleazar, the son of Simon, who made the first separation of the zealots from the people, and made them retire into the temple, appeared very angry at Johnʹs [of Gischala] insolent attempts, which he made everyday upon the people; for this man never left off murdering; but the truth was, that he could not bear to submit to a tyrant who set up after him. So he being desirous of gaining the entire power and dominion to himself, revolted from John, and took to his assistance Judas the son of Chelcias, and Simon the son of Ezron, who were among the men of greatest power. There was also with him Hezekiah, the son of Chobar, a person of eminence. Each of these were followed by a great many of the zealots; these seized upon the inner court of the temple and laid their arms upon the holy gates, and over the holy fronts of that court. And because they had plenty of provisions, they were of good courage, for there was a great abundance of what was consecrated to sacred uses, and they scrupled not the making use of them; yet were they afraid, on account of their small number; and when they had laid up their arms there, they did not stir from the place they were in. Now as to John , what advantage he had above Eleazar in the multitude of his followers, the like disadvantage he had in the situation he was in, since he had his enemies over his head; and as he could not make any assault upon them without some terror, so was his anger too great to let them be at rest; nay, although he suffered more mischief from Eleazar and his party than he could inflict upon them, yet would he not leave off assaulting them, insomuch that there were continual sallies made one


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against another, as well as darts thrown at one another, and the temple was defiled every where with murders.

But now the tyrant Simon, the son of Gioras, whom the people had invited in, out of the hopes they had of his assistance in the great distresses they were in, having in his power the upper city, and a great part of the lower, did now make more vehement assaults upon John and his party, because they were fought against from above also; yet was he beneath their situation when he attacked them, as they were beneath the attacks of the others above them. Whereby it came to pass that John did both receive and inflict great damage, and that easily, as he was fought against on both sides; and the same advantage that Eleazar and his party had over him, since he was beneath them, the same advantage had he, by his higher situation, over Simon. On which account he easily repelled the attacks that were made from beneath, by the weapons thrown from their hands only; but was obliged to repel those that threw their darts from the temple above him, by his engines of war; for he had such engines as threw darts, and javelins, and stones, and that in no small number, by which he did not only defend himself from such as fought against him, but slew moreover many of the priests, as they were about their sacred ministrations. For notwithstanding these men were mad with all sorts of impiety, yet did they still admit those that desired to offer their sacrifices, although they took care to search the people of their own country beforehand, and both suspected and watched them; while they were not so much afraid of strangers, who, although they had gotten leave of them, how cruel soever they were, to come into that court,

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were yet often destroyed by this sedition; for those darts that were thrown by the engines came with that force, that they went over all the buildings, and reached as far as the altar, and the temple itself, and fell upon the priests, and those that were about the sacred offices; insomuch that many persons who came thither with great zeal from the ends of the earth, to offer sacrifices at this celebrated place, which was esteemed holy by all mankind, fell down before their own sacrifices themselves, and sprinkled that altar which was venerable among all men, both Greeks and Barbarians, with their own blood; till the dead bodies of strangers were mingled together with those of their own country, and those of profane persons with those of the priests, and the blood of all sorts of dead carcasses stood in lakes in the holy courts themselves.2

All three of these insurrectionist leaders were purporting to be Israel’s deliverer. The truth is that while Titus waited outside the walls of the city, the Jews were killing each other inside.

Foreknowledge of this pitched battle over possession of the Temple may have been a part of the reason Jesus would warn of Messiahs who would house themselves in “secret chambers” (KJV).

In contrast to these flamboyant but utterly futile attempts to lead the people of Israel to victory over the Romans, Jesus said His arrival, or parousia, as Messiah would be of a different nature altogether. His arrival would be like “just as the lightening flashing from the east to the west, and the vultures will flock to wherever there is a dead body.”

These two ideas—the flashing lightening and the gathering vultures—are found in two separate verses in our modern Bibles, and usually they are rendered as two separate sentences. Written


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this way, there is a decided sense of discontinuity between the two ideas, and the remark about the vultures almost seems to be out‐of‐place and unrelated.

But remember that in the original Greek text there were no chapter and verse divisions. While greatly aiding in our navigation of the Scriptures, these chapter and verse divisions sometimes also create unnecessary barriers to understanding.

These two ideas are integrally related. After giving his disciples two identifications of the parousia of false Messiahs—deserts and secret places—He then gives them two identifications of the parousia of the true Messiah—sudden judgment like lightening and certain doom like vultures gathered on a carcass.

Let’s examine each in its turn. Throughout the Olivet Discourse we encounter what is known

as “apocalyptic language.” This was a common literary device used by the Old Testament prophets when they would declare the coming doom of the cities or nations to whom their words were directed. This imagery was never intended to be taken literally. It was highly figurative language used to show how important the warning of the prophet really was.

How much more emphatic is the prophet’s message when it is couched in terms such as these:

4All the celestial lights will fade away; The expanse of the sky will disappear like a scroll being rolled up; The stars will fall like a leaf or a fig that withers and falls from the tree.

—ISAIAH 34:4

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And yet we know that what is being described is not the “end of the world as we know it.” The very next verse tells us specifically for whom these words were intended:

5 My sword from the heaven shall be satiated with blood; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, On the people I have devoted to destruction.

—ISAIAH 34:5

So all of the grandiloquent verbiage of the prophecy is really referring to the downfall of a nation of people, but not by the heavens literally disintegrating. Edom is no more; therefore we know the prophecy has been fulfilled. But the literal heavens are still intact.

When Jesus described His “coming” as lightening shining from the east to the west, He was using the same kind of literary device as did Isaiah in the previous passage. He never intended His disciples, or us today for that matter, to understand that He would physically come to earth riding a bolt of lightening.

His purpose in using this metaphor was to indicate its suddenness and its decisiveness. Like His “sword from heaven… satiated with blood” that would fall suddenly and decisively on the Edomites, so would His judgment on the city of Jerusalem be swift and terrible.

During the days of the American Civil War, the northern Unionists believed their war against the southern Separatists was a war of righteousness. They viewed themselves as the bringers of God’s judgment on the wickedness of the institution of slavery. As brother fought against brother, the North sustained many more casualties than did the South, especially at the beginning of the


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conflict. Their superior numbers eventually enabled them to win the war, but what kept those men marching to almost certain death? One of the strongest motivating factors was this sense of righteous duty, and this emotion was stirred up to monumental proportions by Julia Howe who visited a Union Army camp on the Potomac and was inspired to write the lyrics to The Battle Hymn of the Republic:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath

are stored; He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on.

Another verse not quoted or sung quite so often as the first verse (above) clearly shows that Mrs. Howe believed that she was on God’s side fighting against His enemies:

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel; “As you deal with My contemners, so with you My grace

will deal”; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel, Since God is marching on.

Of course, being born and reared in the South, it’s hard for me to agree with Mrs. Howe’s assessment of the Civil War, but this is the same use of language that we find in the Scriptures. This is apocalyptic language. It is startling; it is dramatic; it is moving. It effectively communicates the epic proportions of the subject at hand.

One other remark on the use of figurative versus literal language in the Scriptures is in order before we examine what exactly Jesus was saying about His “coming.”

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There is an immaturity that we can witness in children as they are growing up and are beginning to learn to think abstractly instead of just concretely. When a child is very young, it is impossible to convey abstract concepts such as “love” or “faith” to them. These ideas have to be packaged as concrete expressions. Instead of saying to Johnny, “You must love your sister Mary,” the parent will be much more effective by saying, “Johnny, you must share your toys with Mary.” “Love” will have to wait until the mind is more mature.

Another example is the question a young child might ask after having heard the story of Peter Rabbit: “Is Peter Rabbit real? Can rabbits really talk?”

The answer that is usually given is: “No, sweetheart, this is just a story.”

“Then it’s a lie, isn’t it?” “No, its not a lie, its fiction.” “Well, if it isn’t true, then it has to be a lie!” The abstract concept of “fiction” will also have to wait until the

mind is more mature. With all due respect, I many times feel that those who so rigidly

insist on interpreting the Bible literally are a lot like these little children. “I just believe the Bible says what it means and means what it says!”

Well, I do too. But that does not keep me from being a staunch defender of the faith and still having the understanding that much of the Bible is written in figurative language and was meant to be interpreted that way. That is truly what the Bible means—whatever the writer originally intended for his original audience. If he meant it figuratively and we insist on a woodenly literal interpretation, then we do NOT “believe what it says.”


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The rule that is so often given for interpretation of the Scriptures is that the literal meaning is the preferred meaning unless it is impossible to do so. In other words, the only legitimate use of figurative language would be the “slap you in the face” variety. The correct principle for determining whether a passage should be interpreted literally or figuratively is brought into sharper focus by Professor Louis Berkoff:

There is an old and oft‐repeated Hermenuetical rule, that the words [of Scripture] should be understood in their literal sense, unless such literal interpretation involves a manifest contradict‐tion or absurdity. It should be observed, however, that in practice this becomes merely an appeal to every man’s rational judgment. What seems absurd or improbable to one, may be regarded as perfectly simple and self‐consistent by another.3

When I was writing my course in hermeneutics4 for our Bible schools overseas, I grappled with this issue until I came up with a term that I felt expressed the balanced ideas I was trying to convey to our young ministry students. Instead of emphasizing either literal or figurative interpretation, I stressed the use of requisite interpretation, that is, interpreting either literally or figuratively depending on what the text under consideration requires.

Of course this idea still falls under Professor Berkhof’s rubric that left to one’s own devices, one student may determine that a particular passage requires a literal treatment while another may insist that it requires a figurative interpretation. Other objective principles must be set in place in order to avoid interpreting the Bible subjectively and having it say anything the interpreter might wish it to say. But just having some new terminology seemed to help my students deal with this issue.

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One of the indicators that a figurative interpretation is required by a passage is when that passage employs the same type of verbiage that is obviously figurative in other similar passages of Scripture.

Now, having said all that, what do these words of Jesus require? In the next section we will encounter a similar expression—

“coming on the clouds.” At that point we will more fully deal with the use of this particular apocalyptic expression in the Scriptures. Suffice for now to say that the expression—“when the son of Man arrives it will just as the lightening flashing from the east to the west”—is typical apocalyptic language and does not require that we understand it literally in the sense that Jesus was saying He would return riding a bolt of lightening any more than His second metaphor in the sentence—“and the vultures will flock to wherever there is a dead body”—requires that see interpret it as being about literal vultures gathering over a literal carcass.

The requisite interpretation for both of these expressions is figurative. He was saying His arrival as Messiah would be as swift and decisive as lightening and its result would be certain doom, as certain as that of a body that has been so long dead that it has attracted the vultures.

The KING JAMES VERSION renders the Greek word a)eto/$ {aetos—ah‐et‐osʹ) as “eagle,” and according to W.E. Vine, the word can be translated either “eagle” or “vulture” seeing that this word can refer to any of eight different species of birds in Palestine.5 The Greek word aetos is akin to a)h/r {aer—ah‐ayrʹ} meaning “air.” The word picture of aetos is that of the soaring wind‐like flight of eagles and vultures.

The primary, and, in all likelihood, the only, meaning of Jesus’ words was that of vultures gathering over a corpse and signifying the doomed state of the city of Jerusalem after the infliction of God’s


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wrath upon it. But the word “eagle” deserves at least some consid‐eration if our examination of this passage is to be complete.

In answer to the objection that vultures must be meant here because eagles do not gather to feed on carcasses, the encyclopedia says, “If live food is in short supply, golden eagles will eat carrion.”6 One could assume, I suppose, that Palestinian eagles would have similar characteristics.

The figure of the “eagle” is used in Ezekiel 17 to represent the great powers of Egypt and Babylon, as being employed both to punish and assist corrupt and faithless Israel. In this prophecy Ezekiel is asked to pose a riddle about two eagles, one that clips the uppermost branch of a cedar tree and sets it out in a foreign land where it becomes a vine, and a second eagle that the vine tries to bend its roots toward, but without success. In answer to the question, “Will it grow and flourish?” the answer is, “No, it will not. It will wither away.”

12“Now speak to this rebellious house, ‘Don’t you know what these things mean? The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and carried off her king and his officers and brought them to Babylon.’”

♦ ♦ ♦ 15“‘But he rebelled against the king of Babylon by sending

emissaries to Egypt to obtain horses and armies. Will he succeed? Can he hope to regain his independence by doing such things? Can he break the treaty and hope to be safe? 16As I live, declares Lord YAHWEH, in the very city where he was crowned by the king of Babylon—the very king he despised and whose treaty he broke—he will die in that city of Babylon.’”

—EZEKIEL 17:12, 15‐16

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If Jesus intended the word “eagle” to be understood in His prophecy, then perhaps he was alluding to the two eagles of the Old Testament prophecy that played such strategic roles in the first Fall of Jerusalem at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Now once again, we see another eagle, this time the Roman eagle, swooping in for prey. This is not entirely implausible, since we are seeing numerous examples of the same symbols used in association with the first Fall of Jerusalem being repeated in these warnings of a second and final destruction of that city.

I am more satisfied, however, with the simpler and more straightforward answer that Jesus’ intended picture is that of vultures circling over their wounded and dying victim ready to pluck it to pieces as soon as it is dead.

What an accurate portrayal of the siege of Jerusalem! The Roman vultures sat outside its walls for months until the warring factions inside had destroyed each other. Then they swooped into the city to pluck the very stones from on top of each other.

The Parousia of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:29‐31) 29“Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun

will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of heaven will be shaken.

30Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. All the tribes of the land will mourn for they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31He will dispatch His messengers with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather in His Redeem Ones from everywhere, as far as one end of the sky is from the other.”



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There are some slight variations in Mark’s and Luke’s account, so let’s get those on the table for consideration along with Matthew’s.

24“In those days after the tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of heaven will be shaken.

26“Then the Son of Man will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27And He will send His messengers and they will gather in His Redeemed Ones from the four winds, from the farthest end of earth to the farthest end of heaven.”

—MARK 13:24‐27 25“There will be portents in the sun and moon and stars,

and on the earth the nations will not know which way to turn as one who is caught in a roaring and tossing sea. 26People will be fainting from fear and from the dread of what is about to happen, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.

27“They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

28“Now when these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads because your deliverance is approaching.

—LUKE 21:25‐28

Jesus declared that right on the heels of the “great tribulation” the captives inside the city of Jerusalem would have to endure, there would be some momentous events that can only be described using apocalyptic language. The sun would be darkened, the moon would not shine, and the stars would fall from heaven.

Once again, there is no reason to break from the pattern set in the Old Testament prophets and insist that these words have to be referring to the physical universe.

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We have already examined one passage in Isaiah that spoke of the stars fading away, the sky itself rolling up like a scroll, and the stars falling from the sky like a leaf or a withered fig falling from a tree. When the judgment on Edom (which is what that prophecy is referring to) came about, not a single star fell from the heavens.

Let’s look at another passage: 10The earth quakes before this people; the heavens rumble;

the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars withdraw their light. 11YAHWEH thunders as He leads His forces. His battle camp is enlarged with those who obey His word. Indeed the great Day of YAHWEH is awesome! Who can endure it?

—JOEL 2:10‐11 7When I put out your light, I will cover the sky and will

make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. 8All the bright lights of the heavens I will cause to be dark over you. I will spread darkness over your land, declares Lord YAHWEH.

—EZEKIEL 32:7‐8

Examples such as these could be multiplied, but this is sufficient for making the point that when Jesus used language concerning turmoil in the celestial sphere, He was NOT talking about the physical universe. These were common expressions used in the Hebrew Scriptures to depict judgment. In the two examples given above, the prophetic words were directed at Jerusalem and Egypt respectively. No cosmic catastrophe took place in either case.

The Jews of Jesus’ day were familiar with such language. People today seem not to be, as some of the far‐fetched end‐times scenarios testify. But in all fairness, even some of the preeminent Bible scholars


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of the past and present are guilty of jumping to the conclusion that this sort of language can only mean the “end of the world as we know it.” How tragic! What chance does the average Christian have of understanding the prophetic Scriptures when their teachers are ignorant of what is found in the Old Testament.

In the book of Revelation there is not a single symbol or figure that cannot be traced back to its Old Testament roots. Only failure or refusal to take these Old Testament passages into account can explain the confusion in the world of Bible prophecy interpretation today. Shame on us! We can do better.

In addition to His apocalyptic language using the sun, moon, and stars as symbols (what Luke records as “portents”), Jesus also said that “the powers of heaven will be shaken.” This could be simply another way of saying and meaning the same thing as He just said about the sun, moon, and stars. However, a comparison of Scripture with Scripture reveals a deeper meaning in this expression.

The writer to the Hebrews also talked about a shaking: 25Be very careful that you in no way reject the One who has

been speaking to you! Those who declined to hear the earthly messenger—Moses—did not escape. How then can we expect to escape if we turn back from the One who is speaking from heaven?

26At Mount Sinai, God’s voice caused the land to shudder. But now He has promised, “Yet once for all I will shake not only the earthly realm, but also the heavenly.” 27Now this expression, “yet once for all,” plainly denotes the termination of that which is tottering and unsteady—those things that have been done with—so that what cannot be overthrown will remain and continue.

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28Therefore, since we are in the process of obtaining possession of an indestructible Kingdom, let us hold fast to grace and please God by serving Him with reverence and awe.


The writer was trying to persuade Jewish Christians not to abandon their faith in Jesus and return to Judaism, which he described as “tottering and unsteady,” but to stay the course and hold on to what he described as that which would “remain and continue.”

In order to convince them, he used an Old Testament quotation from the prophet Haggai:

6For this is what YAHWEH of vast legions declares, “Once more, and that in just a short while, I will once again shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land. 7I will also shake all the nations, and the Desire of All Nations will come. Then I will fill this temple with My glory.”

—HAGGAI 2:6‐7

Albert Barnes comments:

By the word “yet” he looks back to the first great shaking of the moral world, when Godʹs revelation by Moses and to His people broke upon the darkness of the pagan world, to be a monument against pagan error until Christ should come; “once” looks on, and conveys that God would again shake the world, but once only, under the one dispensation of the Gospel, which should endure to the end.7

And yet we know that the shaking that would establish this “dispensation of the Gospel” did not occur during Jesus’ earthly ministry, nor in connection with His Death, Resurrection, or


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Ascension, because the book of Hebrews was penned after these events, and yet the author was still anticipating an event that would “shake the world.”

That event was right on the brink of breaking in on the world at the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews which was just before the great cataclysm of A.D. 70. The message of that book was, “Just hold on a little while longer. Relief is in sight. Don’t give up now.”

That the writer to the Hebrews was talking about something that would happen in their lifetime is the only way to make sense of his arguments. For him to be referring to some other “shaking” thousands of years down the road would truly have been to deceive his audience in the most egregious way.

But the shaking he was referring to was the shaking down of the old Judaistic economy that was tottering on its last legs and would soon go down in flames in just a short while.

Even though he did not quote all of the passage in Haggai, he still alluded to it just by quoting the portion that he did use. His hearers would be familiar with the rest of it and would know that he was encouraging them to hang in there, because when the shaking happened, it would bring “the Desire of All Nations” to mankind in all His Messianic glory. Furthermore there would be the refilling of the Temple with glory on the order of what had happened at the dedications of Moses’ Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple.

What Haggai could not know, but which the writer of the book of Hebrews knew very well, was that the Temple in question would not be one of physical stones and mortar. Instead it was to be a spiritual temple made up of “living stones.” What Haggai did know, however, is that this last great shaking would usher in the “Desire of All Nations” and the golden age of Messiah. That is why the author

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of Hebrews declared, “Therefore, since we are in the process of obtaining possession of an indestructible Kingdom, let us hold fast to grace and please God by serving Him with reverence and awe.”

The shaking of the powers of heaven that Jesus referred to in the Olivet Discourse was the same shaking as in the apostolic message of the book of Hebrews. Both referred to the destruction of Jerusalem that would, on the one hand (negatively), bring to a final end, both in heaven and on earth, the old Judaistic system, and, on the other hand (positively), usher in the Messianic Age in all its glorious potential. The indestructible Kingdom of the Desire of All Nations would forever be established in the earth. Messiah’s enemies—those who had rejected Him and executed Him as a rabble‐rousing insurrec‐tionist and enemy of the state—would be flattened under His feet. At the same time His followers would be released into the glorious liberty of the sons of God (Romans 8:19‐23). (The temptation is great to follow this tangent and elaborate further on the liberty of the sons of God in light of the culminating events of A.D. 70. Instead I will just refer you to chapter 5 of my book That’s What I Have…That’s Who I Am! entitled “God’s Sons Revealed.”)8

It wasn’t just on earth that the great shaking was taking place back then. It was also taking place in heaven. A new divine adminis‐tration was being inaugurated. In other words, heaven itself was shifting gears, and earth was feeling its reverberations! Luke records Jesus’ words: “On the earth the nations will not know which way to turn as one who is caught in a roaring and tossing sea. People will be fainting from fear and from the dread of what is about to happen, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.”

This leads us to the next statement in the Olivet Discourse: “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven.” What does this


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mean—signs and portents in the skies or something going on the heavenlies? Among preterists, both options have their proponents.

Some point to the words of Josephus concerning some truly unusual events that took place during the siege of Jerusalem.

Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year. Thus also before the Jewsʹ rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also, a heifer, as she was led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple. Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner [court of the] temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it; who then came up thither, and not without great difficulty was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open to them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was

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opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared that the signal foreshowed the desolation that was coming upon them. Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun‐setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, ʺLet us remove hence.”9

Others see significance in the wording of the Scripture indicating that the sign of the Son of Man would not be in the “heavens,” as in the sky, but in heaven itself, that is, in the heavenly realm.

Daniel had a vision of a heavenly event that bears such close resemblance to the words of Jesus that it demands an examination.

13During this vision in the night I saw One like the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, and He as He approached He was presented to the Ancient of Days. 14He was given dominion and honor and kingship. All the people of every nation and race were made to serve Him. His age‐lasting dominion shall never pass away, and His kingdom shall never be destroyed.

—DANIEL 7:13‐14


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This vision of Daniel’s was the last part of his Vision of the Four Beasts which we have already examined in connection with our discussion of the “Times of the Nations.” There we saw that this vision concluded with a foreview of victory for the Messianic Kingdom.

Here we want to emphasize a phrase that we passed over in the previous chapter—“the Son of Man.” This was a common expres‐sion in both the Old and New Testaments. Prophets such as Daniel and Ezekiel used it to refer to themselves (Daniel 8:17, Ezekiel 2:1). Sometimes it is simply a designation of humanity, speaking of a man as being the descendant of another man. In other instances it is a title, as, for example the two references above from Daniel and Ezekiel. And in still other instances it serves particularly as a Messianic title, as, for example, the passage in Daniel 7 that we are presently exploring.

In the New Testament, it is used exclusively to refer to Jesus with one exception, and that is a verse in Hebrews that quotes an Old Testament passage (Hebrews 2:6, quoting Psalm 144:3). In every instance when used of Jesus, it is a title.

Unfortunately, this title of Jesus is usually taken to be nothing more than a designation of His humanity, in contrast to the title, Son of God, which is seen to be a designation of His deity.

But this explanation is superficial. It’s just the first thought that comes to mind, and is not based a full reading of the Scriptures.

The title, “Son of Man” is used only once outside the four Gospels in Acts 7:56 where Stephen declared as he was dying that he could see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

In the Gospels, the title is only used by Jesus as a reference to Himself in the third person. He was not just referring to His own

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humanity when He used this designation for Himself, because in that sense all humans are “sons of men.” As you look at all the times that Jesus used this expression, it becomes clear that He was using it in a special way. The fact that He was speaking in the third person leads one to think that He regarded it as a title of special honor, even nobility. Many cultures use this manner of speaking for those of high rank to indicate themselves. In the final analysis, this title seems to refer to someone who comes with, gives, and/or experiences divine authority.

As a matter of fact, the evidence points back to its use in this very vision of Daniel that we have under consideration. This use of the title “Son of Man” as applying to a divine personage is unique to this passage. Nowhere else is it so used in the Old Testament. And yet when we move to the New Testament, we find an established nomenclature based on this single passage.

Actually, in the Old Testament, two entirely different Hebrew expressions are translated “Son of Man.” In Ezekiel 2:1, the Hebrew phrase is /B@ <d*a *{ben ʹadam—bane aw‐dawmʹ}, “son of Adam.” The word ʹadam denotes humans in their natural physical condition, that is, as created beings. It appears that the use of ben ʹadam addressed to Ezekiel was a reminder to the prophet that he just a man like all the rest of us.

The “Son of Man” in Daniel 7:13, however, is rB vona ${bar ʹenowsh—bar en‐osheʹ}. The word ʹenowsh derives from the common Hebrew word for “man”—vya! {ʹiysh—eesh} which denotes “weakness” or “sickness” and is the ethical designation for humans. The expression “son of Man” translated from bar ʹenowsh and applied to anyone would be to denote that that person had partaken of the weakness and infirmities of the race. And used with


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the definite article, “THE Son of Man,” as we find it in the New Testament, it is a reference to the fact that Jesus sustained a peculiar relation to our species. He was in all respects a human—He was one of us. He had so taken our nature on Himself that a special title was appropriate to be given Him. This title is the one He took for Himself, and was only used by Him when speaking of Himself. It was a title that made Him a part of us, and at the same time singled Him out as being the altogether unique One.

This unique phrase used in Daniel 7:13, therefore, refers to someone in human form who sustains a peculiar relation to the human species as if human nature were embodied in him.

Who then, could this designation refer to? In whom would the fulfillment of this vision be found? The answer can be none other that the Messiah. This was the common and obvious understanding of all the Jewish writers that came after Daniel. So when Jesus appropriated this title for Himself, He was self‐consciously announcing with its every usage that He was indeed the Messiah!

When He spoke of the “sign of the Son of Man in heaven,” He could only have been referring to this vision of Daniel.

What exactly happened in this vision? One “like” the Son of Man was seen approaching and being

presented to the Ancient of Days, an obvious designation of YAHWEH as Supreme Being. The Son of Man is then given a Kingdom with all its attendant authority and honor. All people on earth are given over to His dominion, and it is declared that this age‐lasting Kingdom would never be destroyed.

A number of other Scriptures elucidate this passage for us. Immediately after Jesus’ Resurrection we are told that He received an audience in the heavenlies for the purpose of having title and

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authority conferred upon Him. Paul said that Jesus was “declared with power in the spirit of majesty to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).

Yes it is true that He was called the Son of God at His conception in the womb of Mary. He was declared to be the Son of God at His baptism by John at the River Jordan. He was declared to be the Son of God yet again at His Transfiguration. But according to Paul, He was REALLY declared to be the Son of God by His Resurrection!

Before His Resurrection, He repeatedly said, “I do not operate on my own authority. I only do and say what the Father tells Me to do and say” (John 5:19; 12:49; 14:10; etc.)

But after His Resurrection He confidently asserted, ““All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth!” (Matthew 28:18). What made the difference? Simply this—in that interim He had appeared before the throne of the Ancient of Days and had received His Kingdom!

John saw a vision of that throne room scene: 2Immediately I was in the Spirit, and a throne was

standing in heaven with One seated on it. ♦ ♦ ♦

1Then I saw in the right hand of the One seated on the throne a scroll with writing on both front and back and sealed with seven seals. 2And I saw a mighty messenger proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and the break its seals?”

3But no one in heaven or on earth was able to open the scroll to look into it. 4I began to weep bitterly because no one could be found who was worthy to open the scroll to look into it. 5Then one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look!


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The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David has over‐come! He can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

6Then I saw standing in the center of the throne room surrounded by the four living creatures and the twenty‐four elders, a Lamb that appeared to have been slaughtered. He had seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God dispatched into all parts of the earth.

7He came and took the scroll from the right hand of the One who was seated on the throne, 8and when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty‐four elders bowed to the ground before the Lamb. Each of them had a harp and golden bowls full of incense (which are the prayers of God’s holy people), 9and they were singing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were put to death, and with Your own blood You have pur‐chased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation. 10You have appointed them as kings and priests to serve our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

♦ ♦ ♦ 1Then I saw the Lamb break open the first of the seven

seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice of thunder, “Come!” 2So I looked, and here came a white horse! The One who rode it had a bow, and He was given a crown, and as a conqueror He rode out to conquer.

—REVELATION 4:2; 5:1‐10; 6:1‐2

I don’t think I need to connect the dots for you. The parallel is so obvious. Daniel’s vision seems quite spartan compared to John’s rich description. But there can be no doubt that we are seeing the same scene through two different sets of eyes.

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The One on the throne in John’s vision is none other than the Ancient of Days in Daniel’s. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah/Lamb of God in Revelation is the Son of Man in Daniel.

The Son of Man/Messiah/Lion/Lamb is worthy to take the scroll from the Ancient of Days/One on the throne because of the sacrifice of His own shed blood. Nobody else has earned the right. The scroll is the commission entitling Him to His Kingdom and licensing the overthrow of His enemies. The Kingdom He receives is an age‐lasting non‐destructible Kingdom. His victory is assured. His ene‐mies are doomed.

No wonder He could say with such supremacy, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth!”

Next we see that authority being delegated. “You have appointed them as kings and priests to serve our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Or, to use the words from the Great Commission, “Go, then, and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19).

No wonder the writer to the Hebrews could say, “We are in the process of obtaining possession of an indestructible Kingdom.” This writer knew what Daniel and John had seen, and he knew what Jesus had experienced in the heavenlies.

Jesus on at least two occasions in His earthly ministry told parables about a nobleman who went on a long journey to obtain a kingdom (The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25; the Parable of the Minas, Luke 19). These stories had their basis in a real life incident of first‐century Judea as well as in the spirit realm of Daniel’s and John’s visions.

In the real‐life events of Jesus’ day, these stories were based on the incident of Herod who traveled to Rome to obtain the kingship


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of Judea from Gaius Octavius, also known as Emperor Augustus. When Herod returned to Judea with his commission, he was not able to immediately assume leadership. Many of his subjects were hostile to him and three years after receiving his commission he was still outside Jerusalem waging war against that city. He eventually prevailed and had a long and prosperous reign.

So the nobleman in Jesus’ stories discovered that not all his subjects had been dutifully loyal to him while he was away. Some were diligent and made good investments. Others squandered their resources and were belligerent when the noble man returned.

This familiar historical account of Herod’s kingship would have automatically been the point of reference when Jesus told these two parables. The picture of a potential ruler going before the supreme potentate in Rome to be approved for rulership was common knowledge among those who made up Jesus’ audiences.

This same picture was easily transferable to the spiritual realm, and the audiences of Jesus and later His apostles would be able to relate to the Son of Man going before the Ancient of Days to receive a Kingdom. They would also understand the delegation of that Kingdom to the King’s servants after He received his commission and returned.

We in modern democracies do not have that built‐in background for understanding these stories like first‐century Judean folk were able to. But a little effort in background studies makes these stories come alive with meaning.

So, we can understand the appearance of the Son of Man before the Ancient of Days, the receiving of the Kingdom, and the delegation of that Kingdom to the loyal subjects of the realm. But what about those Seven Seals, especially the first one? Who is this riding a white horse?

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Tragically, our dispensational friends have designated him as the “antichrist.” Because he goes out to conquer, and is followed by three other horses that represent war and famine and death, surely he must be one of the “bad guys.”

But listen, everybody knows that the “good guys” wear white hats! It is not for nothing that the first horse is white. This is one of the “good guys”! In fact, this rider appears later in the book of Revelation and there He is plainly identified as “KING OF KINGS AND

LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11‐16). Someone may ask, “How can Jesus be the Lamb who opens the

seal and at the same time be the one who comes riding on the white horse that is a part of the seal?” That’s easy—in the same that Jesus can be both Sacrificial Lamb and also High Priest who sprinkles His own blood on the heavenly mercy seat—in the same way He can be both the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

“As a conqueror,” John said, “He rode out to conquer.” It is at this point that we need to learn to view Jesus in a totally different light than the way He is usually projected in sermon and song. We hear a lot about the meek and lowly Nazarene. We don’t hear a lot about the conquering King.

If the story of the Fall of Jerusalem was as much a part of our Christian heritage as the stories of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection (as it absolutely should be!), then we would be well on our way to understanding that Jesus is no longer the Servant of YAHWEH who only does what the Father tells Him to do. Not so any longer! He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and immediately upon receiving His Kingdom commission, He broke its seals and began to act on its authority. And one of the first orders of business


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was to take care of some old unfinished business—His enemies, the ones who had scorned Him and executed Him.

Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus and the Roman army. That’s what the history books say, so it has to be true, right?. No, the real truth is that King Jesus came back to take the land that was rightfully His. In mockery the Romans and Jews had crucified Him calling Him “The King of the Jews.” But those words were really no joke. He was all that and more. When He came striding back into town He was more than just King of the Jews—He was Master of the Universe! And He had come back to town to take names and kick some hiney!

That’s why the next words that Matthew records Jesus as saying are, “All the tribes of the land will mourn.” The vengeance that God exacted on them for their wickedness, especially their rejection of “The Prophet,” was certainly an occasion for mourning.

All of the major words in this sentence deserve explanation. First, the Greek word translated “tribes” is fulh/ {phule—foo‐layʹ}

and means “kindred.” Some translations render this word as “nations,” but this is incorrect. The Greek word for “nations” is e&qno$ {ethnos—ethʹ‐nos}. The ones who mourn in this verse are not all the nations of the earth, but all the tribes of Israel. They are the ones upon whom God was specifically sending His judgment.

Second, the Greek word translated “land” is gh= {ge—ghay). This word can be translated using a variety of equivalent English words including “land,” “earth,” “ground,” or “country.” The translator has to make a decision concerning which word to use based on the context of the passage. A basic rule of thumb is that the word “land” is to be preferred because so much of the Bible is dealing with the subject of Israel and its land. When, however, the word ge

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is being contrasted with the idea of heaven, for example, then the word “earth” may be the better choice.

In this particular verse in Matthew, the best word equivalent is “land” because it is the Israelites that are being discussed. They did not have claim to the whole “earth,” only their “land.”

This is important because futurists tend to interpret this verse as describing the conditions surrounding the event of some future “second coming,” and this word is read to indicate that the entire population of the whole planet will be in deep sorrow over that event because they will not be ready for it.

But this broad generalized interpretation is simply wrong. This verse is addressing the reaction of the Jews to the tragic events accompanying the destruction of their beloved city and its Temple. This verse is not global and general—it is local and specific. Furthermore, it is past, not future!

Third, the Greek word translated “mourn” is ko/ptw {kopto—kopʹ‐to}, a primary verb meaning “to chop,” and in this context it specifically means “to beat the breast in grief.”

I wish that I could report that this mourning was the kind of sorrow that leads to repentance, but it was not. It was only the wailing of self‐pity. The Jews did not learn from this experience. They did not turn back to God with open hearts. They did not acknowledge Jesus as Messiah. From the smoldering ruins of Jerusalem, the Pharisees moved their base of operations to Jamnia and established a new academy and set about the task of reviving and preserving their perverted religious system.

There at Jamnia the decision was made that a new central focal point of their religion was necessary now that the Temple lay in ruins. They chose the Torah as that new point of focus. They


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declared that the study of Torah would henceforth be the equivalent of animal sacrifice. This might have been profitable if by “torah” (law) they had meant the Pentateuch, or even the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures. But the Pharisees had for centuries defined the Torah as not only the written Scriptures but also all of their own oral “Traditions of the Elders.” Consequently, the academy at Jamnia, and more particularly, the academy at Babylon with its superior manpower and other resources began the mammoth task of codifying these oral traditions. This effort eventually produced the holy book of Judaism, the Talmud.

It was in this environment of rebellion, while they were stubbornly and adamantly working to solidify their condemned system, that they established the Hebrew canon of Scriptures in A.D. 90. Many Christians simply assume that such a canon existed in the time of Jesus and the apostles. I have often heard remarks made such as: “The Christian Church has always had a Bible. Before the New Testament was written, they had the Old Testament.” And this is partly true. However, the idea behind such a statement is that the Old Testament as we know it today existed at the time of Christ, and that simply is not true. The establishment of the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures had the ulterior motive of being a tool for the new solidarity of the revised Jewish religion, the forerunner of modern Judaism.

So, unfortunately, history proves that their “mourning” was not of the godly sort that leads to repentance. Instead of seeing that the terrible destruction of their city and Temple was a judgment at the hand of God, they have immortalized that event in their culture and have used it as a focal point of ethnic self‐pity. In many different ways they commemorate the events of A.D. 70.

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For example, when Jews celebrate the Passover Seder, there are two items that are placed on the Seder Plate that commemorate the destruction of the Temple—a hard‐boiled egg and a lamb shank bone.

Many Christians do not know this, but Jews do not eat roast lamb at the Passover meal. Because the lamb cannot be taken to the Temple and properly sanctified, they do not serve lamb; they usually serve chicken instead. The lamb shank bone on the Seder plate symbolizes their inability to carry out the instructions of Moses concerning the Passover meal.

The hard‐boiled egg serves the same symbolic purpose. It stands in the place of the animal sacrifices that the Jews are not able ot offer because their Temple is no longer standing. The hard‐boiled egg is eaten during the Seder meal after being dipped on salt water which represents the tears that they shed over their lost Temple.

Another Jewish tradition that we see repeatedly in the movies is the stamping of the wine glass by the groom at a Jewish wedding. This, too, is a symbolic gesture commemorating the destruction of the Temple—just as the glass is crushed, so was Jerusalem and the Temple crushed by the Romans in A.D. 70.. The rationale behind this custom is that even at joyous occasions, such as a wedding, there should always be a gesture of remembrance concerning the Temple and the Jewish exile. Psalm 137:5‐6 is then sometimes recited: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem , let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.”

But instead of developing an elaborate culture based on this event, how much better it would have been for the Jews through the centuries if they would have acknowledged their tragic mistake of rejecting Messiah Jesus.


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Yes, it is true that all the tribes of the land mourned when they saw the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. But their sorrow was that of self‐pity, not that of repentance.

What does this expression mean—“coming on the clouds of heaven.” Most Christians never get beyond relating this verse to the words of the two angels at Jesus’ Ascension:

9After He had said this, while they were watching, He was taken up from their sight in a cloud. 10While they were still staring into the sky as He went away, suddenly there were two men standing near them 11who said, “You of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven – just as you saw Him go, He will return!”

—ACTS 1:11

So, the argument goes, He went away on a cloud and He will return on a cloud; therefore, the “coming on the clouds” of the Olivet Discourse is just another prophetic description of the coming back of “this same Jesus.” He left from the Mount of Olives and He will return to the Mount of Olives. So far so good, but as the argument goes on, Jesus ascended personally and bodily, and He will return personally and bodily.

But what really is the significance of the angels’ words—“just as you saw Him go, He will return”? What detail of that event was in view? It was not about those who saw Him go away. That crowd of 500 or so witnesses are long dead in their graves, so any future return of the Lord would not duplicate that aspect of His ascension. What other aspects could also be different? Is it necessary to insist

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that a “personal” and “bodily” ascension means a “personal” and “bodily” return?

But what about the prophecy in Zechariah that His Second Coming will be to the Mount of Olives? someone might ask. To answer that question will take us quite far afield, but the question is a good one and deserves an honest answer.

1Look! The Day of YAHWEH is coming! Your possessions will be divided as plunder right before your eyes. 2I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to wage war against her. The city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will be taken into captivity, but the remainder of the people shall be left in the ruins of the city.

3Then YAHWEH will go forth to fight against those nations, just as He has fought battles in times past. 4On that day He will stand on the Mount of Olives which lies to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will split in half from east to west creating a great valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south.

5Then you will escape through My mountain valley for the valley will run all the way to Azal. Indeed you will flee from the earthquake as you did in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah. Then YAHWEH will come with all His holy ones with Him.

—ZECHARIAH 14:1‐5

This passage opens with a description of the ravages of the Roman army and its siege of Jerusalem. Zechariah prophesied after the Fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, so, looking forward, the event that he was referring to was the next great conflagration of the city at the hands of Titus. Zechariah only


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provided a minimal description of that terrible time, but it is enough for us to make the connection with the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

The selected passage closes with the statement that when YAHWEH comes He will be accompanied by His holy angels. This also directly corresponds to Matthew 24:31—“He will dispatch His messengers with a loud trumpet blast.” That is the next verse in the Olivet discourse that we will be examining. It is mentioned here just to help us establish the context of Zechariah 14.

Between these two obvious references to the events of A.D. 70, we are informed that YAHWEH will come to battle the nations on behalf of His people, and that He will stand on the Mount of Olives causing it to split down the middle, creating a way of escape for the Redeemed Ones trapped in the city.

YAHWEH’s battle with the nations signals the end of the “times of the nations” and also indicates whose side YAHWEH is really on. While it is true that God used the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Romans to chastise His people, He always told them that they would be punished for their actions against His people. This is not a contradiction, but it is a paradox.

Josephus interpreted those terrible days in which he lived as a sure sign that God had “gone over” to the Romans.

Now Josephus was able to give shrewd conjectures about the interpretation of such dreams as have been ambiguously delivered by God. Moreover, he was not unacquainted with the prophecies contained in the sacred books, as being a priest himself, and of the posterity of priests: and just then was he in an ecstasy; and setting before him the tremendous images of the dreams he had lately had, he put up a secret prayer to God, and said, “Since it pleaseth thee, who hast created the Jewish nation, to depress the same, and since

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all their good fortune is gone over to the Romans, and since thou hast made choice of this soul of mine to foretell what is to come to pass hereafter, I willingly give them my hands, and am content to live. And I protest openly that I do not go over to the Romans as a deserter of the Jews, but as a minister from thee.”10

God’s affinities lay not with the Jews (who had become His enemies) nor with the Romans (who were His instruments of vengeance), but rather with those who had received the Messiah in the days of His earthly ministry, who believed His teachings, and who were waiting for His salvation.

We should be well enough acquainted with apocalyptic language to readily see the shift from the literal language of Zechariah 14:1‐2 to the figurative language of verses 3‐4. The expression, “YAHWEH will go forth to fight,” is figurative. So is the following statement about the earthquake on the Mount of Olives.

Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, warned His followers that when they saw the “abomination of desolation,” then they “must flee to the mountains.” We know from Eusebius’ history that the Christians fled to Pella in the region of Perea east of the Jordan, and on this basis some have argued that there are no mountains in that area, only a plain; therefore, this verse in the Olivet discourse about fleeing to the mountains couldn’t be talking about the Christians’ escape from Jerusalem in A.D. 70. But what lay in their path as they fled from Jerusalem to Pella? Mountains!—the mountains directly east of Jerusalem, the highest of which was the Mount of Olives.

This prophecy of Zechariah gives an indication of the events surrounding the rescue of the Christians from certain death in the destruction of Jerusalem. In a very real sense, a miraculous road was opened for them to escape.


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But there is a still greater significance to the role of the Mount of Olives in this epic drama. For this we need to consult the prophecies of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel had witnessed in a vision the departure of the Spirit of God from the Temple of Jerusalem in the days of its siege by Nebuchadnezzar. We touched on this in chapter three. Let’s set that Scripture passage out again:

18Then the glory of YAHWEH departed from the threshold of the Temple and hovered above the cherubim 19who lifted up their wings, and as I watched, they rose up from the earth and the wheels went with them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of YAHWEH’s Temple as the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them.


When the Spirit of God departed the Temple it did not immediately disappear in its marvelous conveyance of creatures and wheels—it hovered momentarily over the city.

22The cherubim lifted up their wings, with their wheels alongside them, while the glory of the God of Israel was conveyed above them. 23Then the glory of YAHWEH ascended from within the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.


Before finally departing the Spirit of God stopped and stood on the “mountain that is on the east side of the city.” This is significant, because this mountain is none other than the Mount of Olives, as we have mentioned, the highest hill in the mile‐long range of hills to the east of Jerusalem.

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Later in Ezekiel’s prophecy, he saw the glory of God return to an enlarged and more magnificent Temple.

1Then he brought me to the Eastern Gate, 2and there I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. The sound was like that of rushing waters, and the earth was bathed in His glory. 3It was just like the vision I had seen when He came to destroy the city—the vision I saw by the river Kebar—and I threw myself face downward on the ground.

—EZEKIEL 43:1‐3

The New Temple described in Ezekiel, chapters 40‐44, cannot be referring to a future rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. The dimensions of Ezekiel’s Temple are physically impossible—a building one mile square sitting on a parcel of land 60 miles in length and 24 miles in breadth. Obviously, then, since Ezekiel’s Temple is of such proportions that cannot be sustained by physical architecture, this Temple must be a figurative description of a spiritual Temple.

In other words, God’s Spirit left the physical building, Solomon’s temple, but when He returned it was to be to a spiritual building, the Temple of the Greater Solomon.

Just as Ezekiel saw the Spirit depart the Temple and pause dramatically on the Mount of Olives, so Zechariah saw His dram‐atic return to that same mountain. Interestingly, he related what he saw to his previous vision, that of the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar. Thus we see once again, these two destructions of the city being tied together prophetically.

In this latter vision of Ezekiel, not only was the New Temple filled with glory, the whole earth was bathed in the glory of God.


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In like manner, Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, the scene of His greatest anguish just before His death—the Garden of Gethsemane—and it was promised that He would return victor‐iously to the same place. The place the triumphant Spirit, in fact, came was the New Temple, the one not made with hands, but instead made up of “living stones” (1 Peter 2:4). The demolition of the earthly Temple of the Jews at the hands of the Romans marked the filling of the New Temple of God with this even greater glory. So here we see another dovetailing of ideas concerning the filling with glory of the new and improved spiritual Temple by the Desire of All Nations, just as Haggai prophesied.

The other significant part of the angels’ statement—“This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven—just as you saw Him go, He will return!”—had to do with Jesus’ being received up in a cloud. That was a literal, physical event that foreshadowed the spiritual reality of His coming again—a coming that also would be “on the clouds.” However, His coming back “on the clouds” would be of a much more vast magnitude than His Ascension. At His Ascension, He simply went away. When He returned, however, it was to be dynamically with great power and glory, and its purpose was to finally defeat His enemies and pave the way for the full operation of His Kingdom in the earth.

Judgment—that’s what the expression “coming on the clouds” means. That’s what it has always meant in the language of the Scriptures.

1Look! YAHWEH rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before Him, and the Egyptians’ heart melt within them as He approaches.

—ISAIAH 19:1

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3YAHWEH is slow to anger, but He is mighty in power. He will by no means allow the wicked to go unpunished. His highway is the whirlwind and the raging storm. The clouds are the dust of His feet.

—NAHUM 1:3

Sometimes the clouds of judgment relate only indirectly to God. In this next passage, the clouds are metaphors referring to the fierceness of the approaching Babylonian armies, but the message is still the same—judgment.

13Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. The advance of his chariots is like a whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. We are doomed! We are ruined!

—JEREMIAH 4:13

Because we know that God uses earthly forces to execute His judgment—as He did using the Babylonians against Jerusalem in 586 B.C. and as He did using the Romans against Jerusalem in A.D. 70—we can readily see that this passage from Jeremiah, where the Babylonians army is the one stirring up the war clouds, carries the same message as the passages in Isaiah and Nahum that depict YAHWEH as the One actually riding on the clouds Himself.

This imagery was so familiar to the Jews of Jesus’ day that He needed no interpreter when He used it in His public teaching.

27“For the Son of Man will come with His angels in the glory of His Father, and then He will repay each person according to what he has done. 28I tell you the truth, some of you standing here will not taste death before you see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.”



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He used the same sort of language at His trial before the Caiaphas, the High Priest:

63The high priest said, “I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

64Jesus answered, “You are the one doing the talking! But I will say this to all of you – from this moment forward you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming in judgment on the clouds of heaven.”


All of these passages from Matthew’s Gospel are referring to the same event—Jesus’ coming in judgment at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70. Notice how clear His language is with reference to the timing of the event—“some of you standing here will not taste death before you see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.” We see Jesus repeatedly remarking that the time of His coming was imminent—not thousands of years way off in the future, but before some of those in His audience would die.

This is identical to His statement to the Pharisees when He delivered His indictment of them—“I tell you the truth, the judgment for all these things will fall on the generation living today” (Matthew 23:36).

Even Jesus’ statement to Caiaphas, the High Priest, during His trial before the Sanhedrin, had a time restriction on it, because Jesus made His statement not just to the High Priest, but to the entire assembled Sanhedrin court—“from this moment forward YOU will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming in judgment on the clouds of heaven.” The pronoun “you” when Jesus

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said, “You are the one doing the talking,” is singular in the Greek. However, when He said, “You will see the Son of Man…” the word “you” in the Greek is plural. Jesus was thus addressing the entire Sanhedrin. He was talking to all of them.

Caiaphas had to be at least forty‐two years old at this time. One had to be at least age thirty in order to hold the office of High Priest. His father‐in‐law, the previous High Priest, had been deposed in A.D. 18, so Caiaphas had been in office for about twelve years at the time Jesus was brought before him. Caiaphas himself was deposed in A.D. 37 by Lucius Vitellius, the governor of Syria, over another Messianic uprising led by an unnamed prophet in Samaria. Pontius Pilate had also been relieved of office the previous year over the same uprising.

We do not know when Caiaphas died, but he would have been a very old man at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. There is the outside possibility that he was alive at that time, but probably not. What is thought to be the remains of Caiaphas’ body was unearthed by archaeologists in 1990. An elaborate ossuary bearing the name “Caiaphas” held the bones of an old man, a woman, two children, and two infants. The old man was estimated to have died at about age 60.

But Caiaphas’ death before the events of A.D. 70 does not invalidate Jesus’ prophecy, because He was talking to all of the members of the Sanhedrin, and some of them certainly lived to witness that event.

What we do know for sure is that Jesus told them they would see the coming judgment. Jesus said it to them directly. Jesus’ words could not have been addressed to subsequent generations and certainly not to people living thousands of years after the


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statement was made. This is a sure indication that the phrases “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30) and “the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming in judgment on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64) are parallel expressions and refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Whereas Matthew’s account reads “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” Luke’s account reads, “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” The point is that regardless of whether the expression is “on” or “in,” or whether it refers to “clouds” (plural) or “a cloud” (singular), it is all apocalyptic language that was never intended to be understood literally as a physical coming on physical clouds. It is instead the rich portrayal of a cataclysmic event that transcends the actual events of the earthly temporal realm.

What went on in the temporal realm was that the armies of the Romans besieged the city of Jerusalem and then razed it to the ground. What went on in the higher dimension of the spirit was that God poured out His wrath on His enemies, brought an end to the old administration of His dealings with humans in the earth, and removed the final barriers for the release of His sons to take His glory to the ends of the earth.

This great harvest of souls into the Redeemed Community is the subject of Jesus’ words, “He will dispatch His messengers with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather in His Redeem Ones from everywhere, as far as one end of the sky is from the other,” or as Mark records them, “And He will send His messengers and they will gather in His Redeemed Ones from the four winds, from the farthest end of earth to the farthest end of heaven.”

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Our modern tradition in eschatology informs us that these words describe the “rapture” of the Church. The angel will sweep across the heavens and around the world “catching up” believers form every nook and cranny of the globe. But this is not the intent of these words at all.

What is in view here is the great evangelistic harvest that would follow the bringing to a close of the old Judaic system. The destruction of Jerusalem and its centerpiece, Herod’s Temple, removed the greatest obstacle to the advancement of the Kingdom of God that the Church has ever encountered in its 2000‐year history. The Church could never be all that God intended—the New Israel and the New Temple in which He intended to dwell—as long as the old Israel and the old Temple remained.

But once that obstacle was removed, then God’s messengers (whether angels or human preachers is irrelevant—I have rendered the Greek word a&ggelo$ {aggelos—angʹ‐el‐os} as “messengers” in the DAYSPRING BIBLE for that reason) could circle the globe with the Gospel of the Kingdom and gather His Redeemed Ones “from every tribe, language, people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9)—“ from everywhere, as far as one end of the sky is from the other” (Matthew 24:31)—“from the four winds, from the farthest end of earth to the farthest end of heaven” (Mark 13:27). Then His followers would be able to fulfill His directive to “be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The point is simply this: Jesus promised on the Mount of Olives that He would come back, and in the days of the Great Jewish Revolt, specifically in A.D. 70, He kept His promise and returned, and all the attendant elements of His Olivet Discourse happened at that very same time.


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If that crosses our theology, then our theology must be changed. Our presumptions about what characterizes the “second coming,” whether it be its timing or its nature, these presumptions must not be allowed to stand in the face of the obvious meaning of Scripture. It matters not how sincerely these presumptions have been held, either by ourselves or by those who taught us. It matters not how many proof‐texts have been produced to prove a particular system of theology. When it flies in the face of the abundantly clear statements of the Word of God, then these presumptions have to go.

The hardest thing to do with reference to our study of the Scriptures is to admit we are wrong, especially in an area of thought where we have held such strong convictions and have made such heavy emotional investments in the believing of them.

For example, the phrase in Luke’s version of this section of the Olivet Discourse—“Now when these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads because your deliverance is approaching,”—or in the more familiar words of the KING JAMES VERSION—“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” These words have thrilled the hearts of Christians through the years. The only problem is they were getting excited about a deliverance that was already past, not one that was still in their future. To relegate such verses to the past (where they belong) seems to deprive Christians of their hope. (We will talk about what the true hope of the Christian is in the final chapter of this book.)

We have no problem asking the Muslims or the Jews to abandon their equally sincere and emotionally vested beliefs in order to accept Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the World. Yet

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when we are confronted with Biblically sound ideas that are in conflict with our own beliefs, we resist them without even giving these ideas the benefit of a hearing in many cases.

But our beliefs and convictions are no more sacrosanct than anyone else’s when they do not measure up to “thus says the Lord”! The Bible must be our final and only rule of faith and practice, NOT somebody’s notes in their Study Bible or somebody’s elaborate prophecy charts or somebody’s best‐selling fiction series.

In a very real sense, Jesus the Messiah and the Holy Scriptures are of trial, and have been for almost two millennia, over this matter of Bible prophecy. The veracity of our common faith hangs on the question, “Was Jesus a true prophet?”

Bertrand Russell, a typical skeptic and critic, used the argument of Jesus’ supposedly failed prophecies concerning His return as one of the reasons for his rejection of Christianity.

I am concerned with Christ as He appears in the Gospels… For one thing, He certainly thought that His second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at that time.11

Even the great medical missionary Albert Schweitzer had his doubts.

The whole history of “Christianity” down to the present day, that is to say, the real inner history of it, is based upon the delay of the Parousia, the non‐occurrence of the Parousia…12

Schweitzer’s conclusion was “that Jesus’ own eschatological expectations had been unfulfilled. The historical Jesus believed that the kingdom would be inaugurated by a catastrophic act of God, but this divine act did not materialize.”13


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But it did materialize! His prophecies were fulfilled to the letter! He was not a failed or a false prophet.

The eminent Christian philosopher, C. S. Lewis, also understood what Jesus said, but did not understand that Jesus’ prophecies were fulfilled.

‘Say what you like,’ we shall be told by the skeptic, ‘the apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have been proved to be false. It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own lifetime. And, worse still, they had a reason, and one which you will find very embarrassing. Their Master had told them so. He shared, and indeed created, their delusion. He said in so many words, ʺthis generation shall not pass away till all these things be done.ʺ And He was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else.’ʺ

It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible. Yet how teasing, also, that within fourteen words of it should come the statement, ‘but of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.’ The one exhibition of error and the one confession of ignorance grow side by side.14

No, what is embarrassing is that a Christian thinker of the magnitude of C.S. Lewis could get it so wrong. Jesus is not an embarrassment! He was fully vindicated when every word that spoke came to pass just as He said they would.

I can appreciate the honesty of a Russell or a Schweitzer or a Lewis who assesses the Gospels and comes to the conclusion that Jesus was wrong. They, at least, understand the impending nature

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of what Jesus was saying in His prophetic message. What I do not appreciate are those who twist the words of Jesus and proclaim a delayed “second coming,” now going on two millennia, simply because they have preconceived ideas concerning what the “second coming” must be like, and just because no event has taken place that matches their preconceptions, they have the audacity to say that God has changed His mind, or some other such foolishness.

The dispensationalists may tout themselves as the defenders of the literal interpretation tradition, but in the final analysis, they really don’t believe what Jesus said, literally or otherwise.

The preterists, on the other hand, at the risk of being scorned by the rest of Christendom as heretics, have the courage to say, “I really believe that Jesus meant what He said, and said what He meant. And He’s already done what He said He would do!” CHAPTER SIX ENDNOTES 1 Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book VI., chap. 11, para. 1. 2 Ibid., Book V., chap. 1, para. 2, 3. 3 Louis Berkof, Principles of Biblical Interpretation, Baker Book House, 1950. 4 Grady Brown, Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: Principles of Biblical

Interpretation, Dayspring Publications, 1999. 5 W.E. Vine, Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, Thomas

Nelson Publishers, reprint 1997 (the original work on the New Testament only first published in 1939).

6 “Eagle” in Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, 2003. 7 Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old and New Testaments (Luke 21:24), Baker Books,

reprint 1983 (originally published 1847-1872). 8 Grady Brown, That’s What I Have…That’s Who I Am!, Infinity Publishing, 2002.


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9 Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book VI., chap. 5, para. 3. 10 Ibid., Book III, chap. 9, para. 3. 11 Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other essays on Religion and Related Subjects, Simon & Schuster, 1957

12 Albert Schweitzer, The Quest for the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede, Macmillan, 1956.

13 R.C. Sproul, The Last Days according to Jesus, Baker Books, 1998. 14 C.S. Lewis, Essay “The World’s Last Night” (1960), found in The Essential C.S. Lewis, Touchstone Books, Simon & Schuster, 1996.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

The Olivet Discourse – 4 TTTHE FACT THAT YOU ARE READING this page probably means that you did not get so offended by the content of the preceding chapter that you slammed the book shut.

I would tell you to relax—that there aren’t any more bomb‐shells. But that simply wouldn’t be true. Once we pinpoint Jesus’ parousia at A.D. 70, it changes how we view a lot of things, as we shall see. From this point to the end of the Olivet Discourse at the end of Matthew 25, Jesus continued to admonish His disciples in a number of ways about being vigilant in light of His approaching parousia and the approaching judgment.

The Imminence of the Parousia and the Kingdom of God (Matthew 24:32‐39)

32“Now, learn a lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs become tender and put out its leaves, then you know that summer is near. 33In the same way, when you see all these things I’ve told you about, then you know that the time is near—right at the door!


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34I tell you the truth, by no means will this generation pass away before all these things shall happen.


This section begins with Jesus offering a simple analogy between recognizing the coming natural seasons and being able to know when to expect the things He had been talking about.

His example was so commonplace. Every year all us, as did the people in Jesus’ day, watch the bare trees for the first green sprouts that signal to us that winter is over and warmer days lie ahead. It’s not rocket science—it’s just common sense. In the same way, Jesus told his disciples, they would be able to process the information about the approaching judgment.

He had given them the “sign” just as they had asked. Now it was up to them to watch and be prepared for what they now knew was coming.

Unfortunately, the dispensationalists have taken this simple directive and concocted a full‐blown theology out of it. The fig tree for them is not just an ordinary illustration used to make a simple point. For them, it has become allegorically profound. These friends of ours who makes such a big deal about interpreting the Scriptures literally violate their own principle at this point and make the fig tree a figurative centerpiece of their eschatology.

The fig tree, they say, is Israel. And not Israel at any point in history, but Israel as it will exist right before the “second coming.” More specifically, it means the new nation of Israel that came into existence in 1948. As soon as the Jews began to settle in their so‐called “ancestral homeland,” that meant the fig tree had budded, and that, in turn, meant that all the cataclysmic events of the Olivet Discourse were about to take place.

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But the fig tree was not the only tree that Jesus talked about in this context. Let’s look at Luke’s account:

29Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “Look at the fig tree, and all the other trees, for that matter. 30When they start to bud, you can see for yourself that summer is near. 31In the same way, when you see these things I have told you about begin to happen, you will know that the Kingdom of God is near.

—LUKE 21:29‐31

In Luke’s version, Jesus said, “Look at the fig tree, and all the other trees, for that matter.” It was almost as if Jesus had a premonition that to single out the fig tree was to expose His words to the folly of over‐interpretation, so almost as an after‐thought, He added, “and all the other trees.”

You just cannot make a big deal out of the fig tree if Jesus was actually talking about all trees. And according to Luke’s Gospel, He was! It’s like the story of the fellow who buried his gold at the base of a tree in the forest, and tied a ribbon on the tree to mark the spot. He had gained a promise from his enemy that the ribbon would not be removed. When he returned to get his gold, however, he found that although his ribbon had not been removed, all the other trees of the forest now had a ribbon on them. By marking all the trees, his enemy had ensured that in reality no tree was marked.

For years I worked in commercial art and typography studios. Every day we had a lot of jobs that had to be completed on a “rush” basis. These were either correcting mistakes that we had made, or changes that the client ordered and was willing to pay double to get the work back promptly. We attached a red tag to these jobs and the company policy was for these jobs to be


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pushed ahead of all the other work. One day was unusually hectic, and there were about thirty jobs in the shop—and every single one of them was a “rush” job. One of my co‐workers was really getting stressed out over the situation, and he started sounding off: “How can you push the ‘rush’ work to the head of the line when all the jobs are ‘rush’ jobs?” And he commenced to go through the shop and remove the red tag from every single job. “When EVERY job is a ‘rush’ job,” he exclaimed, “then there are NO ‘rush’ jobs!”

This same principle is at work in this prophecy. If the only resource we had was Matthew’s Gospel or Mark’s Gospel, we might have to concede the point to the dispensationalists. Only the fig tree would have a ribbon on it, so to speak. Therefore, they could claim some significance beyond just a simple illustration.

But when Jesus added the phrases, “and all the trees, for that matter,” He virtually tied a ribbon to all of them, or “red‐tagged” all of them, so to speak, making none to have any allegorical significance.

So, let’s follow the reasoning of the dispensationalists just a little ways to see how it plays out. If the fig tree is Israel, and if the budding of the fig tree is the establishment of Israel as a new nation in 1948, then what do all the other trees represent? What other new nations were put on the map in 1948? We need at least two more in order to make this work theologically. Jesus used the word “trees” (plural) after all. Well, to be honest, we need many more than two others. He said “ALL the trees” and there are hundreds of species. So according to this line of reasoning there should have been a plethora of new nations springing up and putting out their green sprouts in or around the year 1948. But no such phenomenon took place.

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You know why? Because Jesus never intended His words to be misused in such a ridiculous way. It may make good press. It may sell a lot of books. But it’s terrible exegesis.

All Jesus intended for these words to convey is the idea that we have already expressed: “Just as you use your common sense to anticipate the seasons, use that same skill set to know when this time of trouble is approaching.”

Luke records something else interesting that Jesus said. Whereas in Matthew and Mark, Jesus said that “you will know the time is near,” Luke’s account has Him saying, “you will know that the Kingdom of God is near.” The former emphasizes the negative impact of the coming events; the latter emphasizes the positive.

This is very important. Because of the seriousness of the traumatic time that was upon them, it was only natural for them to focus on the terrors coming their way. But it was not all gloom and doom. In the midst of the raining down of God’s wrath, there was also the pouring out of His Spirit and the full inauguration of His Kingdom.

This positive aspect of this prophecy—the outpouring of the Spirit and the preaching of the Kingdom—had been going on at the time of the A.D. 70 event for forty years. The Good News had swept the then‐known world. Multiplied thousands had pressed their way into the Kingdom of God. Not only Jews but the pagan Gentiles were also now becoming a part of God’s covenant people. A fresh hope had appeared. It was a brand new day for Planet Earth.

When John the Baptist was was circumcised and given his name, his father, Zacharias prophesied about the coming Redeemer for whom his son would be the Forerunner. He said:

78Because of our God’s heart of mercy, The Dayspring from heaven will break upon us;


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79To give light to those who dwell in darkness – the very shadow of death; To guide our steps to the path of peace.

—LUKE 1:78‐79

With the coming of the “Sun of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2), the Dayspring, the “dawn from heaven,” had begun to spread His light over a darkened world.

But the events of the book of Acts, as great as they were, did not measure up to the fullness of what God had in store. It was only the beginning. As John expressed, “The darkness is passing away and the real light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

The writer of the book of Hebrews hinted at some better things to come when he wrote:

4For it is impossible in the case of those who were once for all enlightened—who have tasted of the gift of the heavenlies, who have been made partners in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God, and the powers of the age that is just about to come—6and then have fallen back, to again be remolding them into a change of heart. They themselves are re‐crucifying the Son of God and holding Him up to public contempt.

—HEBREWS 6:4‐6

Notice the things that the writer mentions in passing as he encouraged these Jewish Christians to remain true to the Christian faith. He said that those who have a relationship with Jesus had 1) tasted of the gift of the heavenlies, 2) been made partners in the Holy Spirit, 3) tasted of the goodness of the word of God, and 4) tasted of the powers of the age that is just about to come.

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Pay close attention to that last item. And remember that when the New Testament writers spoke of the “age to come,” they wer not talking about the “hereafter” or “heaven.” They were talking about the Messianic age that was just about to burst upon them.

The phrase, “the age to come” in the New King James Version translates from the Greek phrase me/llonto$ ai)w=no$ {mellontos aionos—mel‐lonʹ‐tos ahee‐ohnʹ‐os}. We have already studied the word aion and we know that it means “age,” but what about the word mello? Well, it means “to be about to do or be something,” and has the idea of imminent expectation. When it is translated simply as “to come,” this sense of imminency is not captured. The idea that this word conveys is “to be right on the verge or brink of something.” That’s why in the DAYSPRING BIBLE I rendered this phrase as “the age that is just about to come,” which is considerably more accurate.

So the message that is conveyed in these verses is that those who had come to know Jesus in that interim period between the Crucifixion/Resurrection/Ascension of Jesus and the Fall of Jerusalem/Parousia/Kingdom had “tasted” of some things. The implication is that what the firstfruits Christians experienced in the apostolic period was “just a taste” of what was Christians could expect in the in the age that was just about to come.

Something else needed to happen in order to make these glorious facts an even greater reality. That something was the full arrival of the Kingdom of God.

Now make no mistake, the Kingdom of God was already in the earth. From the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Kingdom had been a present reality. Jesus declared, “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then surely the Kingdom of God has come to


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you” (Luke 11:20). Did He cast out demons? Yes, He did! Was the Kingdom of God present in the earth? Yes, it was!

In principle it was like the point we made earlier about Jesus being declared to be the Son of God. This declaration had been made on various occasions prior to His resurrection—His Conception, His Baptism, and His Transfiguration—but Paul said was REALLY “declared with power in the spirit of majesty to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).

In the same way the Kingdom of God was already operating in the earth prior to A.D. 70, but after that momentous event the Kingdom could be said to have arrived in all its fullness. What made the difference. What else was added to the equation in A.D. 70? The answer is that nothing was added, but something very significant was taken away.

You see, there was a malevolent force in the earth that was a major hindrance to the advancement of the Kingdom of God. That force was Pharisaic Judaism.

In order to fully understand the situation, we need first to make a distinction between Judaism and Old Testament Hebrew Monotheism, for they are not the same.

Pharisaic Judaism arose in the post‐exile period of Jewish history. The Israel that emerged from the 70 years of captivity in Babylon was not the same Israel that had been taken there. In Babylon, the Jews made some significant changes to their culture and to their religion.

Prior to their punishment by God through Nebuchadnezzar, their besetting sin was idolatry. They just could not resist the allure of the religions of the pagan nations around them. Their practices were so despicable that God called Israel’s involvement with them

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“spiritual prostitution.” However, when the Jews returned to their homeland under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, it appeared that the Jews had learned their lesson. We no longer read of any major transgressions in this area after the exile.

But had they really conquered this proclivity for paganism? Many of the elements of the Babylonian religion—Zoroastrianism—were adopted by the Jews. It was during this period that the ideas that would be written down in what is now known as the Kabbalah (also spelled Cabala).

The word Kabbalah in Hebrew means “received tradition,” but this designation does not do justice to what this system of thought is really all about. The Kabbalah is esoteric theosophy—“the designation for any religio‐philosophical system purporting to furnish knowledge of God, and of the universe in relation to God, by means of direct mystical intuition, philosophical inquiry, or both.”1 The word Kabbalah is used generically to speak of Jewish mysticism in all its forms.

The earliest known form of Jewish mysticism dates from the first centuries A.D. and is a variant on the prevailing Hellenistic astral mysticism, in which the adept, through meditation and the use of magic formulas, journeys ecstatically through and beyond the seven astral spheres. In the Jewish version, the adept seeks an ecstatic version of Godʹs throne, the chariot (merkava) beheld by Ezekiel (see Ezekiel 1).2

These were the kinds of ideas that Israel brought home from Babylon. So essentially, they traded their fascination with idolatry for a fascination with sorcery, another abomination as far as God was concerned.


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The point is that there is not a straight line relationship between modern Judaism and Old Testament monotheism. The religious sect of the Pharisees deviated from that straight‐line path as they rose to power, both politically and religiously, in the inter‐testament period.

When Jesus came, He called them to task for their straying from the ancient paths. Over and over in His teaching, He said, “By your tradition you know it has been said,… But My word to you is…” (Matthew 5:21‐22, 27‐28, 31‐32, 33‐34, 38‐39, 43‐44). Many have misunderstood Jesus’ words and thought that He was contradicting Moses, but nothing could be further from the truth. He was contradicting the tradition that had grown up around the Law of Moses obscuring its plain teachings and making the Jewish system an intolerable burden.

Jesus, through the establishment of His Church, reconnected to the heritage of the Old Covenant and gave it new life and new power as the New Covenant.

Judaism, on the other hand, was running on a different track that had deviated from the main course. It retained enough of the elements of Old Testament monotheism to escape detection as a parody of the covenantal faith. But it incorporated enough of the perversions of the Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, to disqualify it as a true descendant of the Abrahamic faith.

Zoroastrianism was also a monotheistic religion, worshiping Ahura Mazda (the “Lord Wisdom”). It was also based on a philosophy of dualism, pitting the “good” of Spenta Mainyu (“the Holy Spirit” or “Incremental Spirit,” a creative force) against the “evil” of Spenta Mainyu’s evil twin, Angra Mainyu (“the Fiendish Spirit”). Aligned with Ahura Mazda and Spenta Mainyu were the

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six assisting entities, Good Mind, Truth, Power, Devotion, Health, and Life.

One can readily see how these entities could be easily aligned with the elements of monotheistic Hebraism and incorporated into the Jewish faith. But when one digs deeper, one discovers that Zoroastrianism also involved the worship of both natural objects and mythical creatures, as well and ancestral spirits.

All these things can be verified by carefully researching the Kabbalah, the Talmud, and other officially‐sanctioned Jewish literature. Christians who do a thorough study of these books usually come away asking, “What do we have in common with these people?” The answer is, “Very little!” The concept of the “Judeo‐Christian Ethic” is a myth!

Most Christians think that Judaism is primarily based on the Ten Commandments, the Five Books of Moses, and the Old Testament Prophets. Not so! Judaism’s primary “holy book” is not the Hebrew Bible—it is the Talmud. They consider it superior to the Bible in every respect.

The Bible under Talmudic Judaism is considered to be a collection of simple tales fit only for fools, women and children. The Talmud ʺsagesʺ thus must find new meanings in it by letter and number tricks which reverse the plain meaning and create out of it the permission to do otherwise forbidden crimes and misdeeds. The words of the Bible are continually misused and misquoted for purposes of blasphemy and reversal.3

As will be seen on [folio] 37a, Scripture was generally regarded as the study of children only, adults usually investigating the deeper meaning too.4


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From this we see that it was usual to teach the Bible to girls, in spite of the Talmudic deduction that daughters need not be educated (Kid. 30a). The opposition of R. Eliezer to teaching Torah to oneʹs daughter (Sot. 20a: He who teaches his daughter Torah is as though he taught her lewdness) was probably directed against the teaching of the Oral Law, and the higher branches of study. [V. Maim. Yad. Talmud Torah, I, 13.]5

The Pharisees have the reputation of being strict keepers of the law of Moses, but on further investigation, one discovers that their only real love for the law was the control it gave them over the people. Remember, this was one of the criticisms that Jesus had for them in Matthew 23:

2“The experts in the law and the Pharisees have the authority of Moses; 3therefore, follow what they tell you to do. But don’t follow their example, because they don’t practice what they preach. 4They bundle up heavy burdens and lay them on the shoulders of others; yet they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to help them carry the load.

—MATTHEW 23:2‐4

In addition to using God’s law to browbeat God’s people and infiltrating God’s Church and sow discord, they also fiercely persecuted the Church, imprisoning and even killing the followers of Messiah.

1At that time [the martyrdom of Stephen] intense persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

♦ ♦ ♦

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3But Saul went on wreaking havoc with the Church, entering one house after another, and dragging off both men an women to prison.

—ACTS 8:1, 3

This was the malevolent force that was an obstruction to the Kingdom of God having full sway in the earth. It was a fearsome enemy of Christianity that had to be removed.

With this background, we can now examine some of the writings of Paul describing his confrontations with the Judaizers in a much clearer light. It was not just about whether or not Christian men should be circumcised or whether Christians should keep the Sabbaths, New Moons, and other feasts and fasts of Judaism. It was the invasion into the infant Christian Church of spiritual agitators who would have liked nothing more than to pollute the new religion with its perverted ideas.

4Now this matter of circumcision for Christians arose because of false brothers using false pretenses to slip in among us unnoticed in order to spy on the freedom that we have in Messiah Jesus and make us slaves.

—GALATIANS 2:4 13For such as these are false apostles, deceitful workers,

disguising themselves as apostles of Messiah. 14And no wonder! Even Satan himself disguises Himself as an angel of light. 15Therefore, it is not surprising that his servants would also disguise themselves as godly servants. Someday they will get exactly what they deserve!

—2 CORINTHIANS 11:13‐15


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Lest you think I am too harsh with the Jews, take a look at one more thing that Paul said about them. He certainly did not mince any words!

12I only wish that those who are troubling you over circumcision would go all the way and castrate themselves!

—GALATIANS 5:12

It was as much God’s love for His Church as it was His wrath against the Jews that produced the horrors of the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. If God had not excised this scourge, the Church might very well have died in its infancy.

But more than just being a direct external enemy of the Church, Judaism was integrally entwined in the lives of those first Christians, all of whom were Jews for that first decade. Judaism had to be taken away in order for it to cease to be an internal negative force. At first, the Jewish Christians did not comprise a new religion—they were simply a sect of Judaism. They still participated in the cultural and spiritual life of the Jews around them.

As long as the Temple stood, they would never have been able to divorce themselves from the old way of life and thinking. God had to remove it in order for His purposes in the earth to be fulfilled.

The removal of the old Judaistic system left the way open for the Church to what it had been commissioned to do—take the glory of God to the ends of the world. With the removal of this obstacle, the only barrier that was left standing in its way was the pagan Roman Empire, and in less than three centuries this seemingly indomitable force would succumb before the advancing Church as well. (Of course, the embrace of the Church by the Roman Emperor Constantine was both boon and bane, and may very well have been

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one of the worst things that ever happened to the Church, but that’s a topic for another time.)

From the time that the Temple in Jerusalem crashed to the ground, the only temple and the only city that has mattered is the New Temple in the New Jerusalem in the ever‐expanding, ever‐increasing Kingdom of God.

Before we move on to the next verses, let’s take note of a detail that is found in both Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts. Here is the passage from Mark—almost word for word identical to Matthew.

28“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree. When its twigs become tender and begins to put out their leaves, the you know that summer is near. 29In the same way, when you see these things beginning to happen, you know the time is near—right at the door!”

—MARK 13:28‐29

This expression—“right at the door”—was picked up by James, the brother of Jesus, in his epistle:

7So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s arrival. Consider how the farmer waits for the precious harvest—waiting patiently for it to ripen—waiting until it receives the early and the late rains. 8You also must be patient and set your heart on the Lord’s soon approaching arrival. 9Do not make it hard on one another, brothers and sisters; otherwise you will be condemned. Look! The Judge is standing right at the door!

—JAMES 5:7‐9

Dates for the writing of James’ epistle range from A.D. 48 to A.D. 62. Some scholars think it was the earliest of all the New Testament


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epistles. But early or late, the message of these verses is clear. James and his audience were expecting the parousia very soon. The fact that there had been even those few years since Jesus’ prophecy motivated James to exhort his audience to be patient just a little longer. Like the farmer who is so eager for his crops to come in, but has to wait, so these Christians were being told to “hang in there” just a little longer.

It would not be but just a little while, because the Judge even at that moment was “standing right at the door!”

How cruel it would have been to write such words of encouragement if the Lord’s arrival was not going to take place for hundreds, even thousands, of years! And for us who are living in the distant future time, how can we have any confidence in the Scriptures if such a person as James, the Lord’s own brother, could misunderstand what Jesus said, and think that the Lord’s coming was so near when it was, in fact, so the futurists tell us, so far away.

No, the only way to make any sense of it all is to take these words at face value and realize that Jesus and the apostles predicted that the parousia would happen very soon. Only a few years would separate the prophecies from the fulfillment. To a man, the apostles all predicted and believed that the coming of Jesus would happen in their lifetime. And with good reason—that’s what Jesus had told them—“I tell you the truth, by no means will this generation pass away before all these things shall happen.”

This “generation”—what an obviously clear expression! It meant that before all of those living right then would die, the prophecies would be fulfilled.

The dictionary definition for “generation” is 1) all of the offspring that are at the same stage of descent from a common

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ancestor; 2) the average interval of time between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring; 3) a group of individuals born and living about the same time; 4) a group of generally contemporaneous individuals regarded as having common cultural or social characteristics and attitudes.6 The definition of the Greek word genea/ {genea—ghen‐eh‐ahʹ} that translates to the English word “generaton” is “the whole multitude of men living at the same time.”7

But some interpreters, trying to find a way to push the fulfillment of these words of Jesus into the future have sought to redefine the word genea to mean “race,” making Jesus’ words to mean, “The Jewish race shall not pass away unti all these things are fulfilled.” Even the eminent commentator Adam Clarke, whose preterist position on prophecy is so otherwise consistent, makes the mistake of re‐inventing the meaning of genea.

[This generation shall not pass] Hee genea autee, this race; i.e. the Jews shall not cease from being a distinct people, till all the counsels of God relative to them and the Gentiles be fulfilled. Some translate hee genea autee, this generation, meaning the persons who were then living, that they should not die before these signs, etc., took place: but though this was true, as to the calamities that fell upon the Jews, and the destruction of their government, temple, etc., yet as our Lord mentions Jerusalemʹs continuing to be under the power of the Gentiles till the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, i.e. till all the nations of the world should receive the Gospel of Christ, after which the Jews themselves should be converted unto God, Romans 11:25, etc., I think it more proper not to restrain its meaning to the few years which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem; but to understand it of the care


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taken by divine providence to preserve them as a distinct people, and yet to keep them out of their own land, and from their temple service.8

But, with all due respect, Dr. Clarke is simply wrong! His mis‐understanding of the “times of the Gentiles,” extending them into present times (either his or ours), colors his thinking with regard to the word “generation.” Had he understood that the “times of the Gentiles” ended concurrently with Nebuchadnezzar’s metallic statue, the Vision of the Four Beasts, and Daniel’s Seventy Sevens, he would not have let the current status of the earthly city of Jerusalem influence his interpretation of Jesus’ prophecy.

As we have stated elsewhere, nothing happening with the earthly city of Jerusalem or with the modern‐day nation of Israel has one iota to do with Bible prophecy. God has been finished with those things ever since He flattened them in A.D. 70. What I cannot understand is why we Christians persist in trying to resurrect these dead “shadows” now that the real substance is here? And how more emphatically would God have to speak in order to get us to understand that He is finished with natural Israel as a nation? If we cannot hear the rolling thunder still rumbling from A.D. 70, then we are simply deaf to God’s voice and blind to His works. I cannot think of any other way that He could speak and we would get the message.

But back to the subject at hand—nowhere in the Scriptures is genea to be understood as “race.”

What did Jesus mean when He said: 38“Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this

unfaithful and sinful generation [genea], the Son of Man

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will also be ashamed of that person when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

—MARK 8:38 What did He mean when He said:

24Just like the lightening flashes across the sky and lights it up from one end of heaven to the other, so also will the Son of Man be in His Day. 25But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation [genea].

— LUKE 17:24‐25

What did He mean when He said: 16To what can I compare this generation [genea]? It is

like children seated in the market and calling out to one another, 17“We played the flute for you, but you did not dance; we wailed with sorrow, but you did not beat your chest.”

— MATTHEW 11:16

What did He mean when He said: 39“So,” He answered, “this evil and unfaithful generation

[genea] is looking for a sign! Well, no sign will be given to it except for one—the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

— MATTHEW 12:39‐40

What did He mean when He said: 34“So, look! I will surely send you inspired prophets, wise

leaders, and knowledgeable teachers. Some of them you will murder; others you will have nailed to crosses. Some of them you will flog in your meeting‐houses; others you will pursue from town to town. 35And so you will be held responsible for


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all the godly people who have been murdered in the land beginning with godly Abel all the way to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, whom you Jews murdered between the sanctuary and the altar of burnt offerings.

36“I tell you the truth, the judgment for all these things will fall on the generation [genea] living today.”

— MATTHEW 23:34‐36

To understand the word genea in any of these instances to mean “race” would be ludicrous. In the last example, Jesus was obviously telling the Jews of His day that they were culpable in the deaths of all the prophets going all the way back to the first murder, that of Abel. He further said that those who were presently listening to Him would be punished for those murders.

This same meaning is intended when in the next chapter He said, “I tell you the truth, by no means will this generation [genea] pass away before all these things shall happen.”

On another occasion Jesus made a similar yet more emphatic statement:

28“I tell you the truth, some of you standing here will not taste death before you see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom.”

— MATTHEW 16:28

Here He did not use the word genea; instead He described one of its meanings, “a lifetime ending in death.” The only reasonable conclusion that one can draw from Jesus’ words are that all the things He said in the Olivet Discourse found their fulfillment before many, if not most, of those listening to Him died. Less than 40 years later (one generation) Titus destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple and vindicated Jesus as a true prophet.

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J. Stuart Russell remarked in The Parousia:

Imagine a prophet in our own times predicting a great catastrophe in which London would be destroyed, St. Paul’s and the House of Parliament leveled with the ground, and a fearful slaughter of the inhabitants be perpetuated; and that when asked, ‘When shall these things come to pass?’ he should reply, ‘The Anglo‐Saxon race shall not become extinct till all these things be fulfilled’! Would this be a satisfactory answer? Would not such an answer be considered derogatory to the prophet, and an affront to his hearers? Would they not have reason to say, ‘It is safe prophesying when the event is placed at an interminable distance!’ But the bare supposition of such a sense in our Lord’s prediction shows itself to be a reductio ad absurdum.9

I think Adam Clarke is a prince among commentators, and I always chuckle when I see his commentaries included with so many Bible software programs. I doubt seriously that the producers of such computer tools even know Clarke’s position on eschatology. If they knew he was a partial preterist, would he be excluded? In all likelihood, his work is included because it is free and there’s a lot of it and it beefs up the program. But I doubt they have often read what he has to say.

However, like everyone else I have studied, I find places where I disagree with Clarke. But that’s what makes this whole theology endeavor so exciting. It’s not “cut and dried.” There is a lot of wiggle‐room. Truth is not like a railroad track where if you make a minute mistake, you crash and burn. It is more like a deep wide river where there is plenty of room to navigate. There are, however,


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buoy markers on either side of the river to keep us from running aground in the shoals

To try to force the fulfillment of the Olivet Discourse beyond “that generation,” however, is to run aground. The language simply will not support the idea of Jesus’ coming in His Kingdom way off in some distant future. The plain meaning of His words restricts us to “that generation.”

The Passing Away of Heaven and Earth (Matthew 24:35‐39) 35Heaven and earth will pass from existence, but never

My words. 36But as for that day and hour, no one knows it—not even the angels in heaven—only the Father.


To seal and validate His own words—“ I tell you the truth, by no means will this generation pass away before all these things shall happen”—Jesus then added, “Heaven and earth will pass from existence, but never My words.” Mark and Luke record Jesus as saying these exact same words.

What did Jesus mean by “heaven and earth passing away”? Was He talking about the physical universe? No, He couldn’t have meant that, because His predictions have all been fulfilled, yet “heaven and earth” is still with us.

To understand this expression “heaven and earth,” we must go all the way back to the beginning.

1First God created heaven and earth. —GENESIS 1:1

Much misunderstanding has resulted from interpreters insisting that every time the expression “heaven and earth” occurs

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in the Scriptures that it must be referring to the physical universe. In many cases, it does. Instances would include the verses in the Creation Account, such as Genesis 1:20:

20Then God said, “Let the waters abound with living things, and let birds fly above the earth across the open expanse of heaven.”

Obviously, nothing but the physical earth and heavens should be understood here. Other passages of this nature include: Genesis 6:17, 1 Chronicles 21:16, Job 28:24, Job 35:11, Psalm 79:2, Jeremiah 7:33, Ezekiel 38:20, Daniel 4:15, Haggai 1:10, and Revelation 11:6.

Another way that the expression “heaven and earth” is used in the Scriptures is to speak of the totality of the created universe.

4This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. —GENESIS 2:4

Other passages that illustrate this use include: Genesis 14:19, Genesis 24:3, Exodus 20:11, 4:36, 2 Kings 19:15, 2 Chronicles 2:12, Ezra 5:11, Psalm 69:34, Psalm 134:3, Isaiah 37:16, Matthew 11:25, Acts 4:24, and Philippians 2:10.

But beyond the idea of the physical universe, the expression “heaven and earth” holds tremendous symbolic power. In addition to the two types of usage mentioned above, there are at least two other ways in which the expression is used symbolically rather than physically.

Sometimes the expression “heaven and earth” is used to emphasize the separation between what is high and what is low.

9Just as the celestial soars above the terrestrial, so are My direction and My deeds superior to yours.

—ISAIAH 55:9


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Other instances of this usage would include the following passages: 10:14, 1 Kings 8:27, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 50:4, Psalm 102:19, Psalm 103:11, Matthew 16:19, Matthew 23:9, Luke 11:2, John 3:31, and 1 Corinthians 15:47.

The most significant symbolic use of the expression “heaven and earth” occurs when it denotes the establishment of order by God. This usage is seen in passages where God speaks of creating new heavens and earth or destroying heaven and earth. In these instances the focus is not on the physical universe at all, but on the transition from one order of things to another. Let’s explore some of those passages.

In , heaven and earth are personified and are called as witnesses against the Israelites if they should fail to obey God’s law after they entered and possessed the land of Canaan.

26“Today I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you. You will be surely and swiftly eradicated from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. Your days will not be extended in the land. You will come to a complete end.”

— 4:26

The idea here is that heaven and earth represents the totality of God’s creation, and thus He emphasizes the gravity of the statement that follows. But more than that, this language is introduced to indicate that the expression “heaven and earth” has significance regarding the order that God has established in His creation. The Israelites were in a time of transition, and as we shall see through this examination of the Scriptures, these times of transition are many times described in terms of things going on in “heaven and earth.” Here “heaven and earth” are only invoked as

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witnesses. Later we shall an escalation of this significance. (Two other references where heaven and earth are called as witnesses are 30:19 and 31:28.)

That escalation of meaning occurs in the experience of David. 8The earth heaved and quaked; the foundations of heaven

shook. They were shaken because He was angry. —2 SAMUEL 22:8

In this passage David is extolling God for giving him the victory over his archenemy, King Saul. The kingdom of Israel was going through the throes of transition. God had rejected Saul because of his overstepping his authority and presuming to carry out the duties reserved for the priesthood. David had been anointed by Samuel, and it was only a matter of time until he would ascend the throne of Israel. But Saul intended to resist God’s will and sought to take David’s life. The result was turmoil for the nation and well as the two antagonists. In describing the ordeal, David waxed poetic and said, “The earth heaved and quaked; the foundations of heaven shook.”

Did the physical heavens and earth actually shake? No, this is simply a literary device, first used here by the poet David, to describe the transition of the kingdom of Israel from one administration to another. The enemies of Israel succeeded in killing Saul and he was toppled from his throne. David was blessed by God and rose to power. The language used to describe the events was intensely apocalyptic. The magnitude of the events merited such grandiloquent language.

What David said was true, but it wasn’t literal. The Old Testament prophets used this same kind of language:


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13Yes, I will make the heavens tremble, and cause the earth to be shaken loose from its foundation. YAHWEH of vast legions will vent His fury in that day of His burning anger.

—ISAIAH 13:13

The setting for this passage is the eighth century B.C., shortly after the fall of the northern kingdom of Samaria to the Assyrians, but over one hundred years before the fall of the southern kingdom of Judah to the Babylonians. Yet the passage is not about current events, but rather that coming destruction still over a century away. This prophetic utterance of Isaiah looks past the time of Babylon’s siege and destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple to the time when God would wreak vengeance on Babylon for its bloody aggression.

The downfall of Babylon is described in apocalyptic terms; the heavens tremble and the earth is shaken loose from its foundation. Did this literally happen? No, the empire of Babylon was swallowed up by the Medes and Persians. But this political and military takeover is described by the prophet as the work of YAHWEH, the one who leads mighty armies. Just as God led the Babylonians against the inhabitants of Judah in punishment for their forsaking the law of God, so God would lead the forces of the Medes to overwhelm the Babylonians.

What Isaiah wrote was true, but it was not literal. 6Look up at the heavens above! Look down at the earth

below! For the heavens will vanish like smoke; the earth will wear out like old clothes; and its people will die like gnats. But the deliverance that I bring will last; My vindication will be final.

—ISAIAH 51:6

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This prophetic utterance is found in the so‐called Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40‐66) which some scholars think was written by an unknown author sometime during the Babylonian captivity. Regardless of its authorship, the whole section is a continuous address to Israel on the topic of the coming of Messiah. In the verse before us, God was assuring the Jews that their deliverance from Babylon was a settled fact, and this was based on the higher deliverance of the whole world through Messiah.

This verse may be nothing more than a hyperbolic expression stating that even if the heavens and earth were to be physically destroyed, God’s unfailing love for His people and the salvation He has in store for them can never be destroyed. However, in the light of all the other “heaven and earth” passages where it is so evident that this is a literary device used to describe the passing away of one order of things and the inauguration of a new order, this passage must be re‐evaluated to determine if, indeed, this is not what is being addressed here as well.

A few verses later in this same chapter, this point is reiterated: 15“I am YAHWEH, your God, who restrained the roaring

waves of the sea (YAHWEH of vast legions is His name). 16I put My words in your mouth, and covered you with the shade of My hand in order that I might establish the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth when I said to Zion, ‘You are My people.’“

—ISAIAH 51:15‐16

This is a difficult passage to translate because it contains a word which can be translated at least two ways with words that are direct opposites of each other. That word is ugr* {raga`—raw‐gahʹ) which is a primitive root that means “to toss violently and


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suddenly” (as the waves of the sea or the skin with boils). However, it can also mean “to settle or quiet” (usually as a figurative expression) or “to wink” (from the motion of the eyelids). So how should this word be translated in Isaiah 51:15? Should it be “who stirs up the sea” as in the NASB, the NRSV, the NLT, and the TEV, or “who churns up the sea” as in the NIV or the NET? The BBE (CAMBRIDGE BIBLE IN BASIC ENGLISH) translates the phrase, “who makes the sea calm,” the translators choosing the second definition. The KJV renders the phrase “who divided the sea,” and most of the older commentators, using this translation, see this as a picture of God dividing the Red Sea at the Exodus.

Since the first part of the sentence of the next verse seems also to allude to this event, almost as if speaking directly to Moses (“I put My words on your mouth, and covered you with the shade of My hand”—see Exodus 19:3‐6 and Exodus 33:22), in all likelihood, the older translation is very accurate. In THE DAYSPRING BIBLE, I have chosen to allude to this event using the word “restrain” as suggested by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown.10

A third clue that this refers to the Exodus and the giving of the Law at Sinai is found at the end of Isaiah 51:16: “when I said to Zion, ‘You are My people.’“ This clearly refers to God’s words to Israel at Sinai:

3Then Moses ascended the mountain to meet with God, and YAHWEH spoke to him from the mountain, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob, the people of Israel: 4‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you here to Me. 5Now then, if you will faithfully obey Me and keep My covenant, then you will be My special possession from among all the other nations. Although all the earth is Mine, 6you will

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be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.’ Moses, give this message to the children of Israel.”

—EXODUS 19:3‐6

Now notice the part of Isaiah 51:16 that says: “in order that I might establish the heavens and the lay the foundation of the earth.” Surely this is not talking about the original Creation. It is something that happened in conjunction with the giving of the Law and the setting apart of Israel as the Chosen Nation. This world‐changing transition to a new order of divine government is called the “establishment of the heavens” and the “laying the foundation of the earth.” The sense is that symbolically an older “heaven and earth” was set aside in order that a new “heaven and earth” could be established or founded.

In the overall context of Isaiah 40‐66, it is clear that what Isaiah is dealing with is the new order that would attend the coming of Messiah, and that this tremendous transition can be best described as the passing away of one “heaven and earth” (of the Law) and the giving way to a new “heaven and earth” (of the Messianic Kingdom). And, in fact, that is exactly what Isaiah says in the next two passages we will examine.

17“Look! I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth! The former ones will no longer be regarded, or even brought to mind.”

—ISAIAH 65:17 22“For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am

about to create will remain standing before Me,” says YAHWEH, “so will your descendants and your name endure.”

—ISAIAH 66:22


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To interpret these verses as pertaining to a yet future destruction of the physical universe and its replacement with a “new” physical universe is to wrench them from their context and pour a meaning into them that is foreign to anything the prophet had in mind or that his original audience would have understood.

Remember, the entirety of Isaiah 40‐66 deals with the coming of the Messianic kingdom. Both the suffering and the glory of Messiah are asserted in this magnificent prophecy. Why would this expression, “new heavens and new earth,” be thought to pertain to anything other than the Messiah’s coming. Of course, dispensationalists, with their “gap” approach to theology, have advanced the idea that the first coming of the Messiah was inconclusive and did not achieve all that the prophets foretold. They believe that God’s program was interrupted and that the “new heavens and new earth” are yet future (and physical, of course).

But look at the language of imminence used in the prophecy: “...I am ready to create…” and “…the new heavens and the new earth that I am about to create…” If indeed this prophecy was written during the Babylonian captivity, then it was contemporaneous with the prophecies of Daniel which foretold the coming of Messiah within 490 years. Even if they were written by the Isaiah who lived in the in the eighth century B.C., we are still only talking about centuries, not millennia!

We are on solid exegetical ground to interpret these passages as describing a total reordering of divine government with the advent of the Messiah. God totally fulfilled His word through Isaiah when Messiah came to earth as the suffering Savior in 4 B.C. and when Messiah returned as conquering King in the destruction of Jerusalem

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in A.D. 70. Since then we have been living under a new divine regime, appropriately called “new heavens and a new earth.”

This theme was not original with Isaiah. Joel, probably the earliest of the writing prophets, addressed it also:

16YAHWEH roars from Zion! From Jerusalem His voice thunders! The heavens and the earth are shaken! But for His people, YAHWEH is a refuge; He is a stronghold for the people of Israel.

—JOEL 3:16

Once again we encounter the literary device of a shaking of heaven and earth. This prophecy by Joel was declared to be fulfilled during the days of the apostles. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter quoted a previous passage, Joel 2:28‐32. A quick look at that portion of Peter’s sermon will help us understand Joel 3:16 better.

16“But this is what was prophesied by Joel: 17‘In the last days, it will be’, says God, ‘that I will pour out My Spirit in abundance on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your ancient men will dream dreams; your youngsters will receive revelatory visions. 18Even on the slaves, both male and female, I will abundantly pour out My Spirit in those days. 19I will set portents of judgment to be seen both in the celestial and the terrestrial realms. There will be blood and fire and billowing clouds of smoke. 20The sun will be transformed into darkness and the moon transformed into blood as a prelude to the coming of the Day of the Lord—that awesome and terrible day! 21And so it will be that anyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.”

—ACTS 2:16‐21


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Note carefully the apocalyptic language from Joel 2:28‐32. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was to occur just before the Day of YAHWEH. This equates to God’s coming in judgment on the recalcitrant Jews and their doom when the city of Jerusalem with its Temple was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.

Now when we proceed to Joel 3:16, it is easy to see that this is a description of Messiah roaring from Zion and thundering from Jerusalem. It is a description of that great transition from the old Judaic economy to the “new” thing that God was doing in the earth. And so here again, the “shaking of heaven and earth” is the motif, by now familiar, that describes this tremendous transition.

One more verse, and we will wrap up this Old Testament treatment (that is anything but exhaustive) of the symbolism of “heaven and earth” before we move on to the New Testament.

21“Tell Zerubbabel, governor of Judah: ‘I am about to shake heaven and earth. I will overthrow kingdoms and their power. 22I will overturn war chariots with their drivers. Both cavalrymen and their horses will fall, each one slain by the sword of his brother. 23I, YAHWEH, leader of vast legions, declare that on that day I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, My bond‐slave, and I will make you as the signet ring on My finger. I, YAHWEH, leader of vast legions, have chosen you.’“

—HAGGAI 2:21‐23

This is a particularly difficult passage, since no specific nation is mentioned. If the Persian empire is in view, then this prophecy remains unfulfilled. The passage is extremely vivid, but is open‐ended, even in the opinion of Jewish scholars.

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For this reason, many Christian scholars see this passage as reaching far beyond the time of Zerubbabel and pointing ultimately to the Messiah. This interpretation is certainly valid, since Zerubbabel was the legitimate ruler of Judah, being a direct descendant of David’s royal line. While encouraging Zerubbabel on a personal level during that trying time in Judah’s history, the encouragement on an eschatological plane would even be greater. Zerubbabel is being asked to look beyond his present situation to a time when God would vindicate His people, when He would “shake heaven and earth,” when He bring about the great transition to a “new day.”

Zerubbabel was in the lineage of Jesus according to Matthew 1:12, so God declared that he was YAHWEH’s “chosen one,” and that on the great Day of YAHWEH, he would be vindicated through his descendant, the Messiah. Therefore, Zerubbabel is depicted as a “signet ring” on the finger of YAHWEH.

This interpretation concurs with the overall tenor of Old Testament prophecy and its fulfillment in the New Tesatament, to which we now turn.

18“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth passes away, not the smallest letter or stroke of the pen will pass from the Law until everything written in it takes place.”

—MATTHEW 5:18

These words of Jesus are all too often taken as a “universal truth” that simply expresses the idea that the Word of God is more long‐lasting than even the physical universe. But a closer examination of Jesus’ words reveals that He is making a much more profound statement than this so‐called “universal truth.”


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First of all, note that the Word of God that is in view here is the Old Covenant—the Law. Second, notice that Jesus declares that everything in the Old Covenant is due to be fulfilled. Third, notice that the smallest detail of the Old Covenant would be fulfilled before “heaven and earth passes away.” That leads us to the undeniable conclusion that “heaven and earth” will, indeed, at some point, pass away.

This verse puts most Christian interpreters on the horns of a dilemma. If every small detail of the Law has been fulfilled in Christ, then nothing more is required before the passing of heaven and earth can happen. On the other hand, if the Law has not been fulfilled, then we are still living under its statutes. This, of course, contradicts what Paul the apostle wrote in his epistles, particularly to the Galatians.

18But if the Spirit leads you, then you are no longer subject to the Law.

—GALATIANS 5:18

The provision of the New Covenant is that God’s Law is written on the heart (Jeremiah 31:31‐33). This means that the Law written on tables of stone is no longer our guideline for faith and practice. This does not mean that the Law has been abolished. The Law that God writes on the heart is the same Law He wrote on tables of stone, albeit on a much loftier spiritual plane. But the Law of the Old Covenant has “passed away,” right down to even the “smallest letter and stoke of the pen.”

The fulfillment of the Old Covenant was completely accomplished through Christ. Jesus said of himself:

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44“This is what I told you while I was still with you—that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, in the books of the Prophets, and in the Psalms must all come true.”

—LUKE 24:44

Paul the apostle said: 20He is the “Yes” and the “Amen” to every one of God’s

promises. By Him all the words of God are made certain and put into effect through us to the glory of God.


Once “the smallest letter or stroke of the pen” of the Law was fulfilled in Christ, the “old heaven and earth” of the Old Covenant did indeed pass away, and the “new heaven and earth” of the New Covenant was inaugurated.

35“Heaven and earth will pass from existence, but never My words.”

—MATTHEW 24:35

Once again, this is not the expression of a “universal truth,” but a warning from Jesus to His followers that the “heaven and earth,” or divine administration, with which they were familiar would one day no longer exist. But His words of the New Kingdom of God would never pass out of existence. The “new heaven and earth” was to be a permanent state of affairs.

The New Testament writers fully understood Jesus’ words and elaborated on them in a manner that can scarcely be misconstrued. (We have looked at this passage a couple of times already, but we need to examine it once again in light of this discussion of “heaven and earth.” (Obviously, we are seeing that


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this passage is particularly crucial to our overall understanding of Bible prophecy.)

25Be very careful that you in no way reject the One who has been speaking to you! Those who declined to hear the earthly messenger—Moses—did not escape. How then can we expect to escape if we turn back from the One who is speaking from heaven? 26At Mount Sinai, God’s voice caused the land to shudder. But now He has promised, “Yet once for all I will shake not only the earthly realm, but also the heavenly.” 27Now this expression, “yet once for all,” plainly denotes the termination of that which is tottering and unsteady—those things that have been done with—so that what cannot be overthrown will remain and continue. 28Therefore, since we are in the process of obtaining possession of an indestructible Kingdom, let us hold fast to grace and please God by serving Him with reverence and awe. 29For our God is indeed a devouring fire!


As we have previously noted, the writer of Hebrews was encouraging Jewish Christians who were being severely tested for their faith in Christ and were contemplating returning to Judaism in order to escape the fiery trials they were enduring. The entire book of Hebrews is a dissertation on the better benefits of the New Covenant, and a plea that these Jewish believers would not apostatize from Christ (who was the substance and fulfillment of the Old Covenant) and return to Judaism which was nothing more than a mere shadow.

In this passage the writer is reminding them of the time when God established His covenant with Israel at Sinai and how the ground shook when the Law was given. Now he tells them that a

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New Covenant is being set in place, and that once again there is a shaking—a shaking on earth just as at Sinai, and also in the heavenlies. In other words, God was up to something, and that something was the displacement of the old Judaic economy with His new Messianic administration.

He described the old system as “tottering and unsteady” and just about to fall. Written just before the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in A.D. 70, he was divinely inspired to describe the situation as the winding down of a system that had gone past its expiration date. He urged his hearers to resist discouragement and the urge to go back to that old system that was on its last legs. Instead they were to embrace the revelation that the new thing that Messiah Jesus had brought was indeed the system that God intended to remain permanently. If they were concerned about not rejecting Moses, who had only spoken from earth, how much more should they be attentive to Messiah Jesus who was speaking to them from the heavenlies.

The writer told them that they were “in the process of obtaining possession of an indestructible Kingdom,” a Kingdom that in one sense had already come, but in another sense would not consummately arrive until the old “tottering, unsteady” Judaic system had fallen. Therefore, they were to “hold fast to [the] grace” they had received through Christ, being aware that “our God is indeed a devouring fire” and would soon come in flaming vengeance against those who had rejected His New Covenant.

Was this “shaking” in the earthly and heavenly realms a physical shaking of the created universe? Of course not! The writer to the Hebrews was using the same apocalyptic language with which his Jewish audience was so familiar, and it is a settled fact that even if they did not fully understand his words at the time


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they were written, they surely did just a few short years or months later when Jerusalem fell, and that old system was swept away forever as far as God was concerned.

Of course, Judaism is still with us today, but a careful scrutiny of its precepts and practices reveal that it is only a shell of even the corrupt system that prevailed in the time of Christ. It seems that regardless of how forcefully God sends his message, there is an adamancy in human nature that tries to continue on no matter what message God sends. When Jesus died on the Cross, the huge veil in the Temple was ripped apart from top to bottom. But the Jewish religious leaders just didn’t get the message. Somebody sewed that veil back together and animal sacrifices continued for another generation.

Then again, when Jesus returned in judgment on the city of Jerusalem and used the Romans to tear the entire Temple down stone by stone, they still didn’t get the message. Instead of seeing that Jesus had been entirely vindicated through His prophecy on the Mount of Olives, and turning to Him, saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” (Luke 13:35), the Rabbis fled to Jamnia and established a new academy. There they established the precept that the study of Torah was a substitute for the Temple sacrifices, a precept that guides Judaism even to this present day, a precept that justifies them in adamantly refusing to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah.

But their religion is an empty shell, a house abandoned by God, a system that was tottering on its last legs almost 2000 years ago, and that finally fell under the scourgings of Titus’ Roman armies.

From Hebrews we move on to the writings of Peter the apostle: 3Above all, understand this: In these last days, there will

be scoffers driven by their own yearning for self‐gratification,

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who will mock you, 4saying, “Where is the Messiah’s promised coming? Nothing has changed. Things go on just as they have since the beginning of the world.”

5They deliberately suppress the fact that the heavens came into existence by the Word of God, and the land was formed out of water and came up out of the water at the Word of God. 6It was also by the Word of God that by water the world existing then was destroyed. 7By this same Word of God, the present heavens and earth are preserved until they will be destroyed by fire at the day of judgment and the destruction of those who have failed to heed God.

8Dear ones, do not allow this one thing to escape your notice: With God a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some seem to think, but He is slow to anger because it is not His will that any should be destroyed, but that all should turn to Him.

10The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and when it comes the heavens will vanish with a great roar, and its fundamental principles will melt as in a blaze. The earthly realm and its doings will be laid bare. 11Since all these things will be deprived of authority, how should we then live? Our lives should be carried on as set apart for God with utmost reverence. 12At the same time we eagerly anticipate and earnestly desire the Day of the Lord when the heavens will be burned up and vanish, and its fundamental principles will melt away in a blaze. 13According to His promise, we are eagerly anticipating new heavens and a new earth where we can fully live in right standing before God.

—2 PETER 3:5‐13


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A full exposition of this passage will have to wait until it can be dealt with in its appropriate place. For our purposes here, we want see what significance the expression “heaven and earth” has in this context.

To fully understand this expression, the entire context needs to be considered. First of all, this passage was written with the understanding that the Christians living then (just before A.D. 70) considered themselves to be living in “these last days.” Once again, we cannot fully explore here the subject of the meaning of “the last days.” Suffice to say, every time this expression is used in the Scriptures, it is not “the end of the world as we know it” that is in view. Without exception, when the Bible writers used this expression, both in the Old and New Testaments, they were referring to the last days of the old Judaic system and the inauguration of the Messianic age.

Peter leads us through a couple of references to Old Testament stories—the Creation and the Great Flood—that have two points of emphasis. One, God created different “worlds” for different epochs, and, two, all was accomplished by the Word of God. He then expresses his anticipation of yet another change in which the then present “heaven and earth” would vanish and “new heavens and a new earth” would take their place.

Unfortunately, most commentators accept without question the phrase: “the elements shall melt with fervent heat” (2 Peter 3:10, KJV). And on countless occasions I have heard sermons explaining this as the elements of the periodic table melting in a cosmic nuclear explosion. But really, did Peter and his audience have any idea that there things like oxygen, carbon, mercury, or plutonium? Not in an era when the leading Greek philosophers thought the basics of nature were wind, water, earth, and fire! The Greek word translated

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“elements” in the NKJV, the NASB, the NRSV, and the NIV is stoixei=on {stoicheion—stoy‐khiʹ‐on} which according to Thayer, means “any first thing from which the others belonging to some series or composite whole take their rise” or “a first principle.” This is the same word used in Hebrews 6:1 which I render “the basic teachings of Christianity” in the DAYSPRING BIBLE and which in the KING JAMES

VERSION is translated “the principles of the doctrine of Christ.” So what we are talking about is not in the physical realm,

despite the fact that the BBE erroneously translates stoicheion as “the substance of the earth”—the CEV “the whole universe”—the TEV “the heavenly bodies”—and the NET “the celestial bodies.” What the Scriptures are talking about are divinely ordained systems, which after they have served their purpose, God destroys and replaces them with something better.

Notice also that Peter declares that “...by water the world existing then was destroyed.” The Greek word rendered “world” is ko/smo$ {kosmos—kosʹ‐mos} which when taken in a literal sense is usually considered to indicate the entire universe. But was the planet earth itself destroyed in the Great Flood? No, only what was on the surface (and that only regionally).

Thus Peter immediately continues by saying, “...the present heavens and earth are preserved until they will be destroyed by fire.” The “cosmos” of the antediluvians that was destroyed was the system of divine administration that existed then. The “present heavens and earth” of Peter’s time was the last days of the old Judaic economy that was about to be destroyed in the blaze of Roman occupation. The “new heavens and a new earth where we can fully live in right standing before God” that Peter and his audience was “eagerly anticipating” was the full entrance of God’s


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new administration—the New Covenant—that had already arrived and would fully come into its own once the “old heaven and earth” had been destroyed and taken out of the way.

So this then is what John is referring to in the final chapter of his prophetic saga (which in its entirety is a prediction concerning the fall of Jerusalem).

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the previous heaven and earth had come and gone, and the sea was no more. 2I saw the Holy City—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God like a bride beautifully arrayed for her husband, 3and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s home is now with his people! He will live among them and they will be His people! God Himself will be with them and be their God!”


After our survey of all these passages, both from the Old and New Testament, the idea of the phrase “heaven and earth” being mainly symbolic, and furthermore, that symbolism representing the transition from one divine order of administration to another, seems to me obvious. In that “the new heavens and the new earth” represents the transition from the Old Covenant to the New, the evident conclusion is that there is to be no future destruction of the physical universe—no “end of the world as we know it.”!

What God created in Genesis 1:1 will never be destroyed. No wonder the Preacher declared, “One generation comes and another goes, but the earth is age‐lasting” (Ecclesiastes 1:4).

Now, after adding yet another feature to the events that would be fulfilled concurrently with the destruction of Jerusalem—the

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passing away of heaven and earth—Jesus then declared, concerning all these upcoming events, “But as for that day and hour, no one knows it—not even the angels in heaven—only the Father.” He was even more explicit in the words recorded in Mark’s Gospel:

32But as for that day or hour, no one knows—not the angel in heaven, nor even the Son—only the Father. 33So pay attention! Be on your guard! Because you do not know when that time will be.

—MARK 13:32‐33

That’s a secret of the highest magnitude. Not even the Son knew the timing of His coming in vengeance and glory. Those who over‐emphasize the deity of Jesus at the expense of His humanity have trouble understanding and explaining this verse. But when we remember that these words were said before the Son of Man/Lamb of God appeared before the One Who Sat on the Throne/Ancient of Days to receive His Kingdom, it makes perfect sense. At this point in time, Jesus could not yet declare, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” No wonder He would admit, “There are some things that I don’t know as well.”

Jesus did say His followers could know the general time‐frame—“this generation”—and they could know by the accumulation of the events that He enumerated when the time would be “right at the door.” But the specific date and time would remain unknown. Only the Father possessed that information.

That is why Jesus could exhort His disciples to pray that their flight would not be in the winter or on the Sabbath. They simply had no way of paring it down that any more closely than that. All they were given were broad generalities. The most specific


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indicator—in fact, the very sign for which they were to watch—was the “abomination of desolation,” and even that was something that would slowly develop. The Roman armies started their campaign in northern Galilee and worked their way southward toward Jerusalem. Even after the Christians had seen the “abomination of desolation” in the “holy land,” they still would have no way of knowing precisely when those armies would arrive at Jerusalem. It is certain, however, that as the events raced toward their dramatic conclusion, the disciples would be able to see ever more clearly what was developing and be able to more accurately predict when they should make their escape from Jerusalem.

They were warned in so many different ways in the remainder of the Olivet Discourse that they should be alert, that they should not slumber or sleep, that they should always be watching.

The First Warning—The Days of Noah (Matthew 24:37‐39) 37For just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the

coming of the Son of Man. 38In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking and getting married right up to the very day that Noah went into his boat. 39They had no idea what was about to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. It will be just like that when the Son of Man comes.


Once I learned that the Olivet Discourse was not about events in my future, I started revisiting in my mind all the things I had heard in Bible lessons and sermon and songs throughout my life. I remembered hearing updates on the current international conflicts of the day and being told that these events were fulfillments of Jesus’ words, “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom

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against kingdom.” Of course, nobody seemed to put two‐and‐two together and ask, “What ever happened with the war you were talking about last month of last year or ten years ago? It’s over and out of the news. So, was it a prophetic fulfillment or not?” No, we just blissfully skated on to the next “big story.”

I remembered hearing reports any time an earthquake made the news in supposed fulfillment of Jesus’ words about “earthquakes in divers places.” In fact, it was reported that scientific evidence showed that earthquake activity was increasing both in frequency and magnitude. Of course, this was an erroneous report. The seismology records indicate no such thing!11 But it made for some quite sensational sermons.

But even if statements of Jesus were indeed referring to wars and earthquakes in our future, then it still doesn’t matter because Jesus did not say that these were the signs of anything. Instead He said, “This is the beginning,” and “The end is not yet.” But nobody ever mentioned that. Why mess up a perfectly good sermon with facts!

I also remembered references being made to these remarks of Jesus about the “days of Noah,” and the increasing divorce rate being touted as a sure fulfillment that this was a fulfillment of the words “marrying and giving in marriage.” Of course, even back then, I failed to see any divorce in that phrase. In fact, it seemed to me to be speaking of exactly the opposite.

But is was all “much ado about nothing” (as William Shakespeare would say). As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Jesus was not giving “signs of the end‐times” when He talked about wars and earthquakes. He essentially said, “Don’t worry about these things. You will always be hearing about things of this sort.”


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And the same perspective applies to his remarks about the days of Noah. He was NOT giving His followers a heads‐up about some unusual activity as an indicator of the approaching cataclysm. Just the opposite! He was saying that in the days of Noah ordinary activity went on right up to the time of the flood. Despite the preaching of Noah, the populace went on about their everyday routines—eating and drinking and marrying—blissfully unaware of their impending doom.

In the same manner, Jesus said, those living in the time of the destruction of Jerusalem would also be ignorant of the significance of the warning signals that the Christians would know about because of Jesus’ teachings. They would be stupefied when events around them avalanched out of control.

But Jesus’ followers, He declared, should not be caught off guard in this manner if only they would heed what He was telling them. And that is the sum and substance of His words about the days of Noah—nothing more, and certainly nothing less.

The Second Warning—the Advantage of Being “Left Behind” (Matthew 24:40‐42)

40“Then there will be two men in the field—one will be taken, the other left alone. 41There will be two women grinding at the mill‐house—one will be taken, the other left alone. 42Therefore, be on your guard, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

— MATTHEW 24:40‐42

Luke adds another scenario. Although this verse does not appear in Matthew’s version of the Olivet Discourse, it certainly must be considered a parallel passage.

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34“I tell you, that in that night, there will be two in bed—one will be taken, the other left alone.”

—LUKE 17:34

The recent publishing success of the Left Behind fictional series12 has had preterists wagging their heads in amazement. How could such a patently wrong interpretation of Scripture become so popular? Despite objections from various segments of the Christian communities, the series has continued to grow in popularity until at this writing its sales have meant a more than doubling of the profits of the already successful Tyndale House Publishers. More than 65 million copies (75 million counting the graphic novels and children’s versions) have been sold generating more than $650 million in sales. In addition to the books themselves, Tyndale House has sold more than 10 million related items, such as computer screensavers, postcards, calendars, board games, music, apparel, collectibles, an audio series, a television series, and two movies.

And yet all this foofaraw is based on a total misunderstanding of what Jesus said. In fact, the premise of LaHaye’s series is exactly the opposite of what Jesus said. So how could so many people get it wrong? I saw a bumper sticker recently that said, “Never underestimate the power of fools in large groups.” And I remember the graffiti I saw scratched on the wall of an outhouse in a national park in Colorado about 25 years ago, “Ten thousand flies can’t be wrong!” But I don’t think I’ll follow that crowd! Just because an idea has popular support does not mean it is correct, accurate, reasonable, or prudent.


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So what did Jesus’ words mean? Well, He certainly was NOT talking about a “rapture.” There is absolutely nothing in these verses about people being “caught away” to be with the Lord.

Remember that the consistent theme of Matthew’s Gospel from the point where we picked it up in our studies in this book (Matthew 21:1) up to the point where we are presently (that is, nearing the end of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24) has been JUDGMENT. And there is no reason to think that these three verses now before us would be on any other topic as well.

The “taking” in these three examples—the men in the field, the women at the grindstone, and the two in the bed—is a being TAKEN IN JUDGMENT! Jesus was simply using different verbiage to express the same idea that He had been talking about all along—the coming devastation of the nation of Israel, their city and their Temple.

In light of this very plain meaning of this passage of Scripture, if I had been living in that day, I would WANT TO BE LEFT BEHIND! The one “left behind” (or “left alone,” the better understanding) was the one who was “passed over” when judgment came, just as the houses with the blood on the doorposts and lintel were “passed over” when God delivered His people from Egyptian (Exodus, chapters 12‐15).

The one “taken” was the one who felt the brunt of God’s vengeance as He visited the land of Israel with judgment. Some were “taken” in death; some were “taken” into captivity as slaves. None were rescued via a “rapture.”

Tim LaHaye’s and Jerry Jenkins’ novels are nothing more than a glorified version of the skits that we used to put on in our youth

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services when I was a kid. We scared ourselves silly writing and producing these little plays.

The Left Behind series just takes this adolescent mythology to a new level. Now we can see the “rapture” in Technicolor®!

Many preterists, though they are dismayed at the Christian public’s gullibility, have felt that it is altogether appropriate that the most popular version of dispensationalism is fiction, because it has always been an imaginary eschatology. Why not go ahead and put it in novel format. It has always been nothing more than fiction anyway.

But this particular iteration of the dispensationalist message is particularly malignant. Millions who would never pick up a book of theology and study the issues seriously are gobbling up every new installment of these mesmerizing novels. My son, who is a Stephen King aficionado, really loves them. I have tried to tell him that they do not reflect what the Bible really teaches in any shape or form. His response is, “But they are such good books.”

Good fiction they may be. So is The Da Vinci Code,13 but therein lies the danger. Underneath an exceptionally well written mystery‐adventure story is an agenda that is diabolical.

As usual, the dispensationalist have made something of Jesus’ words that He never intended. These three mini‐scenarios of judgment were simply a different way of describing the coming judgment that would fall on Jerusalem, and it gave Jesus another way to get His disciple’s attention so He could warn them yet once again about the looming holocaust.

Jesus’ admonition for them to “be on your guard” was amplified in Luke’s account, and, in fact, these words close out Luke’s version of the Olivet Discourse:


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34“Be on your guard! Don’t allow events to oppress your hearts to the point of hangovers and drunkenness and anxiety. If you do, that Day will assail you unexpectedly. 35Like a snare it will seize all who live on the face of the whole land. 36But you stay alert at all times, and pray for strength to prevail against all these things and to stand without condemnation before the Son of Man.”

—LUKE 21:34‐36

Here He specifically warns them that the coming events could easily lead to the escapism of intoxication, but to yield to that temptation would only dull their senses and keep them from being watchful. Therefore, they were not to fall victim to anxiety. While others would be “fainting from fear and from the dread of what is about to happen,” they should be praying for strength to withstand the trials of that terrible time.

Jesus then alluded to the individual judgment that would accompany His parousia. His disciples were to pray to be able “to stand without condemnation before the Son of Man.” The words “without condemnation” have no equivalent in the original Greek, but the idea is implied. As judgment before the Son of Man was to be a part of every human being’s future, they did not have to pray to be able to participate. In that they had no choice. They would eventually stand before Him. Their praying should be about standing before Him in a favorable condition, thus the addition of the words “without condemnation.”

This introduces the subject of the individual and national judgment proceedings that would be a part of these climatic events. For the moment, let’s leave it at that. Other statements in Jesus’ words will make the subject more clear.

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The Third Warning—the Homeowner and the Thief (Matthew 24:43‐44) 43“Understand this: The homeowner who knew exactly

what time of the night the thief was coming would have been waiting and watching and would not allow his house to be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

— MATTHEW 24:43‐44

These words of Jesus, and the statements of the apostles that draw from this metaphor (which we will look at shortly), are the basis for much of the dispensational doctrine of a “secret rapture.” But, once again, these interpreters make too much of what Jesus said. Jesus never one time taught that He would come secretly. To the contrary, He very plainly taught that His coming would be dramatic and open—“when the son of Man arrives it will be just as the lightening flashing from the east to the west.”

The totality of Jesus’ point here is that just as a thief does not send out announcements concerning his nightly schedule, neither will the exact day and hour of His coming be announced. That’s all. Jesus did not intend any more in this statement that that simple illustration. If it needs any more elaboration, then all we can say is that if the homeowner in story had had any foreknowledge of a break‐in, he would have been prepared and would have foiled the efforts of the thief. Because Jesus’ followers were receiving ample warning concerning the approaching time of trouble, they would not be caught unawares like the unmindful homeowner, but instead would be waiting and watching.

When the apostolic writers referred to these words of Jesus, this is exactly the way that interpreted what Jesus had said.


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1Now as to the times and what those times will bring, you really do not need any written admonition 2for you already know quite well that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. 3When prophets are declaring, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will assail them, like labor pains suddenly seizing a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape. 4But you, my brothers and sisters, are not in the dark so that the Day will overtake you like a thief.

—1 THESSALONIANS 5:1‐4 10The Day of the Lord will come like a thief…11Since all

these things will be deprived of authority, how should we then live? Our lives should be carried on as set apart for God with utmost reverence. 12At the same time we eagerly anticipate and earnestly desire the Day of the Lord…

—2 PETER 3:10‐12 15“Look! I am coming like a thief. Blessed are those who

are watching and guard their clothes so that they will not have to walk around naked and their shame be seen.”

—REVELATION 16:15

All of these passages from Paul, Peter, and John demonstrate that they had no expectation of a “secret rapture,” but rather took Jesus’ metaphor of the homeowner and the thief as a promise that if they were alert, no expected events would surprise them. The same could not be said for those who refused Jesus and His teachings. They would be devastated by the horror of those coming events like a pregnant woman who is suddenly doubled over with sharp contractions. Christ’s followers, however, would not be surprised

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by these events because as Sons of the Light, they would see these things clearly as they approached.

The Fourth Warning—Wise and Worthless Slaves (Matthew 24:45‐51) 45Who then is the faithful and wise slave whom his

Master can put in charge of his household and who can administer care to all the others? 46It will be good for that slave when the Master returns and finds him doing his job. 47I tell you the truth, the Master will put him in charge of all his possessions.

48But if he should be a worthless slave, one who says, ‘My Master won’t be back for a long time,’ 49and he begins striking his fellow‐slaves, and begins carousing with drunkards, 50then the Master will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, 51and will tear that slave apart and will banish him with the hypocrites where he will weep with remorse and clench his teeth with resentment.”

— MATTHEW 24:45‐51

Mark’s version of the use of this analogy by Jesus is much more succinct:

34It is like a man going to a far country. He left his house and put his slaves in charge, assigning work to each of them and commanding the doorkeeper to stand guard.

35So keep a sharp lookout, because you do not know when the Master of the house will come—whether in the evening, at midnight, at dawn when the rooster crows, or in the morning. 36Otherwise he might find you asleep should he unexpectedly return. 37What I say to you, I say to all—Stay awake!

—MARK 13:34‐37


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And with these words, Mark’s account of the Olivet Discourse ends. Matthew’s account has quite a bit of additional information (which we will cover in the next chapter), but the message does not deviate from the words of this section we are now examining: “Always be watching. Don’t fall asleep. Keep your guard up. Don’t let the coming events catch you unprepared.”

This analogy of a home owner taking a long trip and leaving His slaves in charge is a perfect picture of the interim between Jesus’ Ascension and His Parousia forty years later. This timeframe was long enough that it was possible that His followers would become disillusioned, and, indeed, many did. He have examined the Scriptures that talked about the apostasy that would occur before Jesus would return.

10Then many will fall away from the faith. They will come to despise other Christians and will give incriminating information to the authorities about each other. 11Also at that time many pseudo‐prophets will emerge and will lead many astray. 12Because of intensified lawlessness everywhere, the love of many will grow cold.


We have also talked about how the book of Hebrews was written for the purpose of encouraging Jewish Christians who were on the brink of defection. The writer pleaded with every possible argument for them to stand fast in the faith in Jesus.

Paul also addressed this vital concern with these words: 1You must understand that in the last days difficult times

will come. 2People will be selfish, greedy, arrogant, conceited, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

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3unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, undisciplined, brutal, unjust, 4conniving, indifferent, egotistical, loving pleasure rather than loving God. 5They will maintain the outward appearance of godliness, but will reject its real power. Avoid people like this!

—2 TIMOTHY 3:1‐5 3Don’t be fooled by any means concerning this! First

there must occur the falling away from the faith… —2 THESSALONIANS 2:3

The “last days” that Paul wrote about has nothing to do with us in the present time. We have no “last days.” He was speaking with reference to the “last days” of the old Judaic era, an age that ended in A.D. 70. His description of those days is a litany of wrongdoing. While it is descriptive to some extent of any age, including ours, it was only his age that Paul had in mind, and it was his opinion that the time just before the coming of the Lord and the destruction of Jerusalem was particularly malevolent.

A part of this upsurge of evil was the apostasy that occurred throughout the Church in that first generation. Jesus had predicted that it would happen in the Olivet Discourse. The apostolic writers verified its fulfillment in their day.

There were those especially who ran out of patience waiting for the end. Forty years is a relatively short period in the overall scheme of history, but it is an extremely long time when one is in the midst of tribulation and waiting for relief. It would only be natural that some would give up prematurely and say, “Well its just not going to happen. Jesus didn’t know what He was talking about.” Did that happen? It most certainly did!


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3Above all, understand this: In these last days, there will be scoffers driven by their own yearning for self‐gratification, who will mock you, 4saying, “Where is the Messiah’s promised coming? Nothing has changed. Things go on just as they have since the beginning of the world.”

—2 PETER 3:3‐4

Peter does not identify who these scoffers were, whether discouraged Christians or unbelieving Jews, but by the use of the word “scoffers,” it was probably the latter. In any case, it is easy to imagine unbelief arising from both camps in those “last days.”

In His story of the nobleman who took the long trip and left His slaves in charge, Jesus painted the picture of a worthless slave who had been given responsibility and authority, but because he thought he had plenty of time before the Master’s return, he took advantage of his superior position and abused the other slaves. At the same time he gave himself license to live a life of debauchery.

Jesus knew that some He left in charge would not be worthy of the status that had been conferred on them. This story was a warning. Paul, in his dealings with the Church across racial and national lines, encountered the very things Jesus had warned about.

18There are many who live as enemies of the Cross of the Messiah. (I have told you about them before, and I now tell you again as I weep). 19Their end will be destruction because their god is their belly. They are actually proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they only think of things that belong to this material world.

—PHILIPPIANS 3:18‐19

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Just as Jesus taught—that the punishment for the worthless slave would be that the Master would “tear that slave apart” and “banish him with the hypocrites where he will weep and clench his teeth”—so Paul taught that these worthless leaders’ “end will be destruction.” This destruction was only a few short years away. CHAPTER SEVEN ENDNOTES 1 “Theosophy” in Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, 2003. 2 “Cabala” in Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, 2003. 3 Elizabeth Dilling, The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today, chap. 1, pg. 3, The

Elizabeth Dilling Foundation, 1963. Also available as The Plot Against Christianity, Noontide Press, 1983

4 Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Nedarim , folio 35b, note 5, Soncino English Translation, Jew’s College, 1961.

5 Ibid., note 6. 6 American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin Co.,

1992. 7 Joseph Henry Thayer, New Testament Lexicon, Harper & Bros., 1889 8 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible Containing the Old and New


9 J. Stuart Russell, The Parousia: A Critical Inquiry into the New Testament Doctrine of Our Lord’s Second Coming, Baker Books, reprint 1999, (originally published 1878, 1887). Also available in the Dayspring Scriptorium at http://www.dayspring.org.

10 Robert Jamieson, Andrew Fausset, David Brown, A Commentary Critical, Experimental, and Practical on the Old and New Testaments (Isaiah 51:15), Eerdman’s, reprint 1993 (originally published 1877)


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11 A most interesting report showing that earthquake activity had not increased, but rather has its ups and downs like all other natural phemonema, can be found in the article “Earthquakes and Historical Facts” at http://www.preteristarchive.com/dEmEnTIA/jonsson‐herbst_dd_01.htm. this article is thoroughly footnoted and has charts and graphs to illustrate the fact that “there is no indication that seismic activity has increased or diminished appreciably throughout historic time.” (Seismologists J. Milne and A.W. Lee, Earthquakes and Other Earth Movements, London, 1939, pg. 155, quoted in the website article). I chose not to address this topic in this book because I believe that the Olivet Discourse is talking about political commotion and not physical earthquakes. For those interested in pursuing the other line of reasoning—that physical earthquakes are what Jesus was talking about, this article is a good place to start.

12 Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days (number 1 in the series) through Glorious Appearing: the End of Days (number 12 in the series as of this writing) Tyndale House Publishers, 1996‐2004.

13 Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, Doubleday, 2003.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

The Olivet Discourse—5 WWWITH THIS CHAPTER we move into Matthew 25, the final chapter of Matthew’s Gospel that we will be doing an exposition of in his book. This chapter in Matthew continues and completes the Olivet Discourse. However, when most scholars speak of the Olivet discourse, they seldom reference Matthew 25. Most Christians, even those who accept that Matthew 24 is primarily addressing the subject of the destruction of Jerusalem, have been taught to accept that the end of Matthew 24 and all of Matthew 25 is no longer talking about the A.D. 70 event, but is rather talking about a future “second coming” of Christ.

It is as if Jesus’ remarks just keep getting more and more off the subject that by the time we get to chapter 25, these remarks are not even connected to the early verses of chapter 24. But there is no break in the Olivet Discourse, and chapter 25 is directly related to chapter 24. The end of the prophecy does not come until the last verse of chapter 25. This is clearly seen when we read the first verse of chapter 26—“ When Jesus had finished teaching all these things…”—obviously linking all the words in red in your Bible


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from that point all the way back to Matthew 24:3 as a contiguous whole. The only reason that people try to see a break anywhere in the Olivet Discourse is that the continuity of these two chapters does not fit their theology.

I have tried in this book to demonstrate that there is no multiplicity of subject matter in the Olivet Discourse. There is only one topic, the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in direct answer to the three‐fold question asked by Peter, James, John, and Andrew. To have injected information about a distant future “second coming” (which would actually turn out to be a “third coming,” which, of course, the Bible nowhere teaches) would have only confused the disciples and would have obscured the answer to their question, which was, “Tell us, when will these things [the destruction of the Temple] happen? And what will be the sign of Your coming [Your public presentation as Messiah], and of the end of the age [the end of the age of the Old covenant]?”.

I used to teach, as a partial preterist, that there were parentheses passages in the Olivet Discourse where Jesus deviated from His main topic, the destruction of Jerusalem, and added tidbits of information about the more important event, His “second coming” which would not take place for thousands of years.

For instance, I pointed out Matthew 24:13—“But he who endures to the end shall be saved”—as such a deviation from the main topic because “the end” here had to be the “end of the world as we know it.” Therefore, since the world did not end in A.D. 70, then this verse had to be talking about something else.

I could go through the entirety of Matthew 24, and give you all of my so‐called “parentheses” passages. But that would serve no useful purpose, because I was in error. (If you are of a mind to

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teach Matthew 24 this way, you’ll have to figure out your own parenthetical schema.)

I can candidly admit at this point in my journey in eschatology that the only reason I “found” these parentheses was because I came to the study of the Olivet Discourse with the presupposition that there was a “second coming” of Christ out there in my future somewhere. So I did my exegesis in such a way that this presupposition would be accommodated. As the old saying goes, “Pound it to fit, and paint it to match.”

The full preterist explanation is the only one that truly follows the basic grammatical‐historical principles of hermeneutics. It is the only explanation that truly applies requisite interpretation, honestly identifying literal and figurative passages where they occur. It is the only explanation that allows the text to say what it means without an artificial eschatological grid superimposed on it.

As we said at the outset, our intention has been to examine the Olivet Discourse contextually. That is why we backed up to Matthew 21 to begin our study. That is also why we are “following through” (the golfing terminology that we mentioned at the beginning) and including an exposition of Matthew 25, even though many scholars do not link this chapter with Matthew 24. (Perhaps the reason for this is that Mark’s and Luke’s accounts of the Olivet Discourse end without including the material in Matthew 25.) We will be examining this chapter, however, because even though there is a chapter break in our English Bibles, there is no such break in the original manuscripts. For the sake of continuity and completion, we should not ignore this chapter.

Matthew 25 is composed of three parables—the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, the Parable of the Measures of Money, and the Parable of


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the Sheep and the Goats. (I am exercising considerable latitude in calling this final section of the Olivet discourse a “parable,” but if you will examine the use of this word throughout the Gospels, you will discover that Jesus also used considerable latitude in the use of this word.) All of these three final sections of the Olivet Discourse continue the warnings with which Matthew 24 ended. These three sections with the four warnings we looked at in Matthew 24 make up the significant number of seven warning scenarios that are serve as the addenda to the prophetic portion of the Olivet Discourse.

As we explore these sections, we will discover that they are not “just” follow‐up warnings, but indeed contain vital information for our understanding of eschatology.

The Fifth Warning—the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1‐13)

1“At that time, the Kingdom of the Heavenlies will be like ten bridesmaids who took their oil lamps and went to wait with the bride for the bridegroom to arrive. 2Five of the maidens were scatterbrains, but the other five were sensible. 3The silly ones took their lamps, but did not take any extra oil with them, 4but the sensible ones took along flasks with extra oil. 5Because the bridegroom took so long in coming, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

6“Then at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! The bridegroom is on his way! Get ready to welcome him!’ 7Then all the maidens woke up and prepared their lamps. 8The silly ones said to the sensible ones, ‘Give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’

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9“‘No indeed!’ the sensible ones replied. ‘If we do, there won’t be enough for ourselves. Go to the oil merchants and see if you can get them to sell you some.’

10“But while the silly maidens were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom arrived, and those who were ready entered with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. 11Finally the other maidens arrived and cried, ‘Sir, sir, open the door and let us in!’

12“But the master of the banquet replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I do not know who you are.’

13“Therefore, stay awake and watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”


This parable is unique to Matthew’s Gospel, but despite it not appearing in the other Synoptic Gospels, I do not suppose there is a single passage of Scripture that has been more over‐worked by theologians. Calvinists have used this parable to prove predestination; Arminians have used it to prove free will; Pentecostals have used it to prove the necessity of Spirit‐infilling. Every single detail has had some spiritual meaning (or several meanings) attached to it. A typical interpretation is found in the comments of Adam Clarke:

[Virgins] Denoting the purity of the Christian doctrine and character. In this parable, the bridegroom is generally understood to mean Jesus Christ. The feast, that state of felicity to which he has promised to raise his genuine followers. The wise, or prudent, and foolish virgins, those who truly enjoy, and those who only profess the purity and


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holiness of his religion. The oil, the grace and salvation of God, or that faith which works by love. The vessel, the heart in which this oil is contained. The lamp, the profession of enjoying the burning and shining light of the Gospel of Christ. Going forth, the whole of their sojourning upon earth.1

But such assignment of significance to each and every detail in the story actually obscures its primary meaning, which is identical to the Boy Scout motto: “Be prepared!”

The celebrated 19th‐century Professor of Christian Doctrine, Dr. Milton Terry, give the following principles for interpreting parables.

…the hermeneutical principles which should guide us in understanding all parables are mainly three. First, we should determine the historical occasion and aim of the parable; secondly, we should make an accurate analysis of the subject matter, and observe the nature and properties of the things employed as imagery in the similitude; and thirdly, we should interpret the several parts with strict reference to the general scope and design of the whole, so as to preserve a harmony of proportions, maintain the unity of all the parts, and make prominent the great central truth.2

Using Dr. Terry’s principles as our guide, let’s first determine the “occasion and aim” of this parable. It was delivered as a part of our Lord’s Olivet Discourse and its purpose was to reinforce His predictions concerning His imminent parousia and to urge His followers to not sleep but to watch and wait in full preparedness for that event which would happen within that generation.

Second, let’s “make an accurate analysis of the subject matter.” The story is based on the first‐century Eastern cultural practices

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surrounding wedding festivals. The wedding of a young man and woman was a tremendously important event, the festivities usually lasting a full week. It began by the bride making herself ready and then waiting with her attendants, or bridesmaids, at her parents’ home for the bridegroom to come to take her to the wedding banquet, usually held at his parents’ home. These events always started on the evening of the first day of festivities.

The bridegroom was always late. This was a matter of honor with regard to the bride. A dowry was always paid to her family by the family of the groom, and always involved haggling over the amount. For the negotiations to be concluded too soon was an indication of the value of the bride being in question. A lengthy negotiation meant that her value was being truly appreciated by all parties, and the successful conclusion of the negotiations meant the festival could proceed.

When at last the bridegroom arrived, he was received with great rejoicing. Then the bride’s attendants lit lamps or torches and the wedding party along with all the guest invited to the banquet would proceed in a grand parade through the streets to the wedding banquet. There the festivities would be conducted under the direction of the host, usually a family member, perhaps a brother of the groom, or even one of the servants of the household. His duty was to see to the provisions for the feast and to regulate who was and who was not allowed to be admitted as guests.

Those are the facts of the custom that we need to have in order to make our “analysis” of the story. That leads us to the third and final consideration, actually interpreting the parable.

According to Dr. Terry this means keeping four things in mind: 1) interpreting with strict reference to the general scope and design


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of the whole, 2) maintaining the unity of all the parts, and 3) making prominent the great central truth.

Notice that nowhere does he mention making sure that we assign a meaning to every detail. Instead, our priority must be to discover what the “great central truth” of the parable is.

The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids has nothing to do with predestination, free will, or Spirit‐infilling. It has everything to do with Jesus’ followers being prepared for the climatic events that were to come upon them within their lifetimes, the most important of which was the parousia, or “coming,” or public presentation, of Jesus as Messiah.

There are basically two elements in the parable that have symbolic meaning. The bridegroom is, of course, Jesus Himself, the One who would be gone from His followers for an undetermined period of time and who would return as Master of His Kingdom. The second element with meaning is, of course, the ten maidens. They represent Jesus’ followers who would be waiting for His arrival as Bridegroom.

No inferences should be made about the number “ten,” nor about the bride (who is only mentioned peripherally in the story), nor about the lamps or the oil. These are simply the details that accompany a credible story. The number could have been seven or twelve. That would not have changed the “great central truth.” The bride, the lamps, and the oil are all an integral part of the story, but do not demand interpretation.

No one should make a fuss about the fact that Jesus’ followers in this story are the bridesmaids and not the bride. That isn’t the issue. Jesus could have told the story about the bride being the one who needed to be prepared, but He didn’t. He probably chose to

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focus on the bridesmaids because there would be several of those in the wedding party instead of only the one bride. That, in turn, allowed Him to differentiate between the silly and the sensible maidens, and, in doing so, paint a word picture of two different possible responses to His warnings about the coming events.

Of particular importance is the way that Jesus introduced this parable, “At that time, the Kingdom of the Heavenlies will be like…” The Greek word rendered “at that time” is to/te {tote—totʹ‐eh}. It is translated “then” in the KING JAMES VERSION, and that plus the chapter break tends to obscure the fact that Jesus is referring directly to His previous remarks concerning the impending calamity that would befall Jerusalem.

Another important expression that Jesus uses is “the Kingdom of the Heavenlies,” or the “kingdom of heaven” as it is translated in our traditional English versions. This expression is only found in Matthew’s Gospel, and is a euphemistic concession to his Jewish audience. It was simply a way for him to avoid the use of the word “God.” Of course, he was not entirely punctilious in this usage. In five places in his Gospel, he used the expression “Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33; 12:28; 19:24; 21:31; 21:43). But even to this day, in Jewish literature the word “God” is given as “G‐d,” and Matthew’s use of the term “Kingdom of the Heavenlies” is a concession to this Jewish predilection.

For dispensationalists to insist that there is a difference between the two expressions—“Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven”—is pure nonsense. In parallel Scriptures from the Synoptic Gospels, it is obvious that these expressions are synonyms. For example, compare the following two passages:


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3“How fortunate are the poor in spirit—the Kingdom of the Heavenlies belongs to them.”

—MATTHEW 5:3 20Jesus looked up at His disciples and said, “How fortunate

are you who are poor—the Kingdom of God belongs to you.” —LUKE 6:20

In the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, Jesus said that at the time of the coming of the Kingdom in its full power and authority, there would be some who would be sensible, earnestly anticipate it, and dutifully prepare themselves accordingly.

Others would not be so prudent. He called them “foolish” (KJV) or “scatterbrains” (DAYSPRING BIBLE). The Greek word is mwro/$ {moros—mo‐rosʹ} and means “dull, stupid, a blockhead.” It is the Greek word from which we get our English word “moron.” To use the word “scatterbrains” is certainly not too strong a term.

Given the two extremes presented in this story, the disciples would be certain to choose the more prudent path and take whatever measures were necessary in order to meet the coming trials with a hope of coming through them victoriously.

The Kingdom of God, not only here in this parable, but throughout Jesus’ teachings was presented as a great wedding feast, and the point of this story was to be prepared in order to ensure that one would be included in the joys of that occasion.

In order to fully appreciate the underlying message of this parable, we need to examine the importance of table fellowship in first‐century Jewish culture and in the teachings of Jesus.

Table fellowship is a meaningful part of any culture, but it was particularly so for the Jews of Jesus’ time. Whom they would or

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would not consent to eat with was a major issue. They, of course, would never be caught eating with a Gentile. But the extreme piety of the Pharisees would not allow them to eat even with some Jews, particularly certain classes readily identifiable as outcasts, such as lepers or tax gatherers or prostitutes.

The protocol of table fellowship revolved around a number issues, the first and least significant being social respectability. In this regard, the Jews were just like any other society. Whom we eat with is an indicator of social status. Many of us would not be entirely comfortable at a state dinner at the White House. At the same time, while we might give the bum on the street some money for a meal, we probably would not, as a general rule, sit down to eat that meal with him.

A more important issue related to Jewish table fellowship was proper ethnic behavior. There was a distinct line drawn around the Jews racially, and their culture and religion forbade eating and drinking with non‐Jews. In fact, for a Gentile to even touch food made it “unclean” and not fit for Jewish consumption. Remember our discussion in chapter 5 about wine becoming yen nesek when a Gentile bought it from a Jew.

Still more important, but associated with the previous issue, was loyalty to tradition. It was not just that the current practice forbade inter‐racial table fellowship, there was a long‐standing tradition involved. Their parents and grandparents and great‐grandparents going back for centuries had conducted themselves according to these rules. To disregard tradition was to disrespect one’s ancestors.

Also related to the above was the issue of religious uprightness. These traditional rules were more than the regulation of cultural


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practices; they lay at the very heart of the Jews’ religion. To eat or not eat with someone was a matter of morality and of one’s place in the covenant community. Relationship with Israel’s God was at stake in all these observances, or so they thought.

Finally, the most important issue of all, which embraced and elevated all of the above to its highest level, was the issue of covenant aspirations. The Jews thought of themselves as superior to all other humans because they were the covenant people of God and were destined to have dominion over all the other peoples of the world. When Messiah came, He would set things right and elevate them to their rightful place as rulers of the world. Therefore, they were duty bound to keep themselves separate from non‐Jews and even unworthy Jews in order to be the proper receptacle and channel of the covenantal promises.

For the Jews, table fellowship was more than a social statement. It reflected a world view. Jesus’ association with all of kinds of outcasts marked Him as an impious person and worthy of the Pharisees’ condemnation. These associations were not accidental. Jesus sought them out.

14As He walked along, Jesus saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me!” He told him, and so he got up and went with Jesus.

15Later, Jesus was having a meal at Levi’s home. There were many tax collectors and other outcasts sitting at table with Jesus and His disciples, for many of them were followers of Jesus. 16But when the experts of the Law and the Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they confronted His disciples. “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”

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17On overhearing this question, Jesus said to them, “Those who are well do not need a doctor, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the upright, but the sinners.”

—MARK 2:14‐17

A similar story is that of another tax collector, Zacchaeus. 1Jesus entered and was passing through Jericho 2where

there lived a man named Zacchaeus, a tax collector who was very rich. 3He was trying to get a look at Jesus, but being a short man, he could not see over the heads of the crowd. 4So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a fig mulberry tree in order to see Jesus who was gong to pass that way.

5When Jesus came to that place, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry down. I must be a guest in your house today.” 6So Zacchaeus scrambled down and welcomed Jesus gladly.

—LUKE 19:1‐6

In incidents such as these, Jesus used table fellowship as an acted parable. He knew that eating with someone indicated equality and acceptance, and His consenting to eat with such persons as tax collectors made a statement more loudly than any words He could have said.

His table fellowship with sinners was deliberate. He sought them out, and in the case of Zacchaeus, even invited Himself to their homes.

His table fellowship with sinners was persistent. It was not just a couple of happenstance occurrences. There were many of them. It was a way of life for Jesus.


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His table fellowship was provocative. He knew that it would draw the ire of the Pharisees and he welcomed their criticism because it gave Him the opportunity to describe the nature of His ministry and Kingdom.

His table fellowship revealed His view of the Father and His vision of the Kingdom. In fact, many of Jesus’ teachings were given in the context of this kind of table fellowship.

1Now all the tax collectors and other outcasts were coming to hear Him, 2but the Pharisees and the experts in the Law kept complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3So Jesus told them this parable… —LUKE 15:1‐3

The parable Jesus told them was the Parable of the Lost Sheep. On that same occasion, He also told them the Parable of the Lost Coin, and finally the Parable of the Lost Son, more commonly referred to as the story of the Prodigal Son.

This was the essence of Jesus’ acted‐out‐parables of table fellowship. The heart of the Father was displayed as one of unimag‐inable love for His creation, regardless of their sins or station in life.

Through table fellowship, Jesus made clear the arrival of the Kingdom and its gracious, inclusive nature. But the basis for admis‐sion into this Kingdom would come as a surprise to everyone. It would not be about the bloodline of Abraham, but about the faith of Abraham.

11“And I also declare that many will come from the east and west to take their places at the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of the Heavenlies, 12but the

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sons of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the dark, and there will be much weeping with remorse and clenching of the teeth in resentment.”


Jesus had a totally different vision for the nation of Israel than the so‐called holiness crowd because He had come to proclaim a totally different kind of holiness. The pious Pharisees saw entrance into the Kingdom based on the following progression:

Modern holiness groups still hold this paradigm. If you can repent and get yourself cleaned up, then you can have fellowship with God.

Jesus, on the other hand, saw the progression in an entirely different way:

Jesus’ message of grace was: “Come and have fellowship with Me. Just being around Me will make you desire a better life. It will lead you to repentance, and that will in the end produce true holiness.” This is exactly what happened to Zacchaeus.

7When the people saw what had happened, they all com‐plained, “He has gone in to be a guest of a sinner.”

8But Zacchaeus took his stand and made a declaration to the Lord. “Look,” he exclaimed, “half of all I possess I now

Holiness

Repentance Fellowship

Repentance

Fellowship Holiness


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give to the poor, and the things I have taken fraudulently, I now pay back four times as much!”

9Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this household, because you are a true son of Abraham.”

—LUKE 19:7‐9

The Good News is: “You don’t have to get good to get God—you get God to get good!”

The table fellowship of Jesus’ ministry was a foreshadow of the table fellowship of the coming Kingdom in all its fullness.

28“To those of you who have remained with Me in My time of trial, 29I endow you with a Kingdom, just as My Father has conferred it on Me, 30that you may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom, and that you may sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

—LUKE 22:28‐30

This promise to those who were faithful to Jesus during the time of conflict that He endured at the hands of the Jews was expanded in the Olivet Discourse and held out as a promise to those who would endure the tribulation that would precede His parousia. These overcomers would be the ones to enjoy the table fellowship of the New Kingdom of God—the wedding feast of the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids.

The picture of a wedding feast, more so than just ordinary table fellowship, is the ultimate picture of the Kingdom of God. It is beautifully portrayed in the Parable of the Wedding Feast. We dealt with this story in chapter two. We can see its applicability in helping us further understand the importance of the wedding feast in the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids.

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The heart of the Father is displayed in the words of the king, “Look! The feast I have prepared for you is ready. My steers and grain‐fed calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.” Even after those on the guest list refused to come, the king’ heart was still set on having a full banquet hall. He instructed his servants, “Now, go to every major intersection and up and down all the roadways and invite everyone you meet to come to the feast.” So the servants went out and gathered up everybody they encountered, “all the people they could find—good and bad alike—until the banquet hall was filled with guests.”

That was the kings’ desire all along—a full banquet hall. And that is the picture that we need to have in order to understand God’s intention for His Kingdom. Everybody is to be compelled to come to the feast. Tables laden with delicious food and vats overflowing with the most excellent wine serve no purpose if there is no one there to enjoy it.

The essence of the Kingdom is “righteousness, peace, and JOY in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). The Kingdom of God is like a massive banquet where God’s true people experience the joys of feasting and fellowship.

The reason that we can that say that the wedding feast is the ultimate picture of the Kingdom of God is because of John’s climatic description of it in the Revelation as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

It is also significant that Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant with table fellowship.

26As they were eating, Jesus took a loaf and blessed it. Then breaking it and extending it to His disciples, He said, “Take and eat. This is My body.”


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27Then taking a cup and giving thanks, He offered this also to them, saying, “Drink from the cup, all of you, 28for this is My blood—the blood of the covenant – that is to be poured out for the multitudes that their sins may be pardoned. 29Mark my words—from this moment I will not drink of this sacramental fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”


The “new wine” of the New Covenant was flowing abundantly on the Day of Pentecost, and Jesus’ followers were so exuberant on that day that they were accused of being drunk (Acts 2:13‐16). And Jesus was there with them in spirit that day drinking the “new wine” in the Father’s Kingdom. The Kingdom of the Heavenlies truly was coming to earth!

But the bounty of the Kingdom was promised in an even richer measure with the coming of the Son of Man with great glory and power. That event would mean the full revelation of the sons of God in the earth and the way being opened for taking the glory of God to the ends of the earth. This meant that nothing could be left standing in the way of the promise of the Old Testament prophet that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of YAHWEH’s glory as the waters fill up the seas” (Habakkuk 2:14).

All of this is the background for understanding the significance of the wedding feast in the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. Knowing what Jesus had taught and demonstrated throughout His earthly ministry about table fellowship and the Kingdom, their ears must have perked up when they heard Him say, “At that time, the Kingdom of the Heavenlies will be like…” They definitely would not want to miss out on that grand event. And now Jesus was

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warning them not to be “silly” but rather to be “sensible” so they could indeed march triumphantly into the banquet hall and not be found outside futilely begging for entrance.

Jesus’ admonition—“Therefore, stay awake and watch, because you do not know the day or the hour”—tied this story back to all that He had said previously—the information that is found in chapter 24 of Matthew’s Gospel in our versions of the Scriptures, what might be considered the “Olivet Discourse proper.” If anyone doubted whether Matthew 25 is a continuation of the Olivet discourse, this statement should remove all doubt, for it is a reiteration of one of the main themes of the Discourse—the undetermined day and hour of the prophecy’s fulfillment. This statement also not only concluded the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids and stated its “great central truth,” it also introduced His next warning.

The Sixth Warning—the Parable of the Measures of Money (Matthew 25:14‐30)

14“For it will be like a man traveling abroad, who summoned his slaves and entrusted his monetary assets to them. 15To one he weighed out five measures of money, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he left on his trip.

16“The one who had received the five measures went right away and traded with them and doubled his holdings. 17In the same way, the one who had received two measures also doubled his share. 18But the one who had received only one measure, went out and dug a hole and hid his master’s money for safekeeping.


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19“After a long time, the master of those slaves returned and asked them to give an account of how they had used his money.

20“The one who had received the five measures came in and handed over the five additional measures and said, ‘Sir, you entrusted me with five measures. Look, I have gained five more.’

21“His master said, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful in managing this small amount— I will put you in charge of much more. You have surely come into your master’s good graces.’

22“Then the one who had received two measures of money also came in and said, ‘Sir, you entrusted me with two measures. Look, I have gained two more.’

23“His master said, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful in managing this small amount— I will put you in charge of much more. You have surely come into your master’s good graces.’

24“Then the one who had received one measure of money came in and said, ‘Sir, I knew that you were a harsh fellow, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed, 25and I was afraid of you. So I went out and hid your money in the ground. Look, you still have what is yours.’

26“But his master replied, ‘You indolent derelict! So, you knew that I reap where I do not sow and gather where I do not scatter seed. 27Then you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, and then at my arrival I would have received my money back with interest! 28Consequently, the one measure will be taken from you and given to the one who has ten measures. 29For those who have resourcefulness will be given more, and they will have an abundance. But those who

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do not have this quality, even what little they have will be taken from them. 30Now, you useless slave, you will be thrown out into the dark, where you will weep with remorse and clench your teeth with resentment.’”

— MATTHEW 25:14‐30

Jesus told this story in order to encourage His followers to be enterprising during that interim period (which turned out to be about 40 years) preceding His coming in judgment on the Jewish nation. During that time, in the midst of severe persecution at the hands of the Jews, and later the Romans, they would successfully spread the Good News throughout the Roman Empire.

Some of His disciples, Jesus knew, had more ability than others. Consequently, Jesus taught, more would be expected of that one who had more to work with. The parable we examined in the last chapter, the Parable of the Wise and Worthless Slaves (Jesus’ Fourth Warning in the Olivet Discourse), is also recorded in Luke’s Gospel (though not a part of Luke’s version of the Olivet Discourse). In Luke’s version of this parable, he records some words of Jesus that expand on the teaching of that parable and are pertinent to our understanding of the Parable of the Measures of Money. Here is the entire passage:

41Then Peter asked, “Sir, are you telling this parable for us, or for everyone?”

42The Lord replied with a question of His own, “Who then is the faithful and wise slave whom his Master can put in charge of his household and who can administer care to all the others? 43It will be good for that slave when the Master


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returns and finds him doing his job. 44I tell you the truth, the Master will put him in charge of all his possessions.

45“But if that slave, says to Himself, ‘My Master won’t be back for a long time,’ and he begins striking his fellow‐slaves, both men and women, and begins carousing with drunkards, 46then the Master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, and will tear him apart and will banish him with the infidels.

47“That slave who knew what his Master’s wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what his Master had asked, will receive a severe beating—one with many blows. 48But the one who did not know what his Master’s wanted, and did things worthy of punishment, will receive a light beating—one with few blows.

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.”

—LUKE 12:41‐48

Luke’s version of this parable is identical to Matthew’s with the exception that the worthless slave’s penalty included being banished with the “infidels,” whereas in Matthew’s account, the word “hypocrites” is used.

The Greek word rendered “infidels” is a&pisto$ {apistos—apʹ‐is‐tos} which is a compound word made up of the Greek roots a {a—alʹ‐fah} as a negative particle and pi/sti$ {pistis—pisʹ‐tis} which means “faith, assurance, fidelity, or moral conviction.” So, apistos means “no faith” or “without faith” or “faithless.” It is translated “the unbelievers” in the KJV and NASB, as “the unfaithful” in the NRSV and

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the NLT, as “those who have no faith” in the BBE, as “servants who cannot be trusted” in the CEV, and as “the disobedient” in the TEV.

The Greek word translated “hypocrites” is u(pokrith/$ {hupokrites—hoop‐ok‐ree‐taceʹ} and means “an actor under an assumed character, a stage‐player, or a pretender.” Matthew probably used the word hupokrites in his recording of the parable in the Olivet Discourse because of Jesus’ repeated use of that word in His indictments of the Pharisees found in Matthew 23 (which I rendered “pretenders” in the DAYSPRING BIBLE).

None of these words, however—“hypocrite” or “pretender” from Matthew’s recording of the parable, or “unbeliever,” “unfaithful,” and “disobedient” from Luke’s recording of the parable—capture the intensity of Jesus’ expression in this parable in Luke. Only the word “infidel” is truly strong enough to convey His real meaning. An infidel is one who not only doubts a religious teaching (be it Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or some other), but also actively rejects it and, in many cases, wars against it. This person would not just be referred to as just an “unbeliever,” but as a “disbeliever.”

In the parable in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus elaborates on the story by talking about the degrees of punishment that would be administered in proportion to whether the slave was aware or unaware of the Master’s will. Some would be beaten “with many stripes,” others “with few stripes” (KJV).

These words should cause those who insist that all sins regardless of degree (from “white” lies to murders) will be equally punishable in eternal hell‐fire to re‐examine their doctrine. This parable clearly teaches degrees of punishment in accordance with degrees of guilt. Make of it what you will—the fact is, Jesus said it!


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On the basis of this principle of degrees of punishment, Jesus went on to say, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.”

This is exactly the same message that comes through in the Parable of the Measures of Money. When the Master returned from his long journey abroad, there was to be an accounting. Both the slave who had received five measures and the slave who received two measures had doubled the assets left in their keeping, and both received the same approbation: “Well done, good and faithful slave!” The words of commendation were the same despite the fact that the one who had received five measures increased his Master’s coffers 250 per cent more than the slave who had received only two.

The message is clear: If you do your very best with what you have been given, then you will receive the highest commendation without regard to the value of the contribution involved.

On the other hand, the slave with little ability to start with (for he was only given one measure of money with which to work) made no effort to increase the assets entrusted to him, not even depositing it with bankers in order to earn interest. Instead he hid the money. His irresponsible attitude toward his Master earned him the exact opposite of the commendations that the other two received. The Master called him an “indolent derelict.”

Other translations of the Scriptures use such words as “wicked and lazy” (NKJV) or “bad and unready” (BBE). But the original Greek seems to be more intense than these translations indicate. The Greek word translated “lazy” in the KJV is o)knhro/$ {okneros— ok‐nay‐rosʹ} which means “tardy, indolent, irksome, sluggish, slothful, or backward.” The Greek word translated “wicked” is

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ponhro/$ {poneros—pon‐ay‐rosʹ} and means “hurtful, calamitous, facinorous (an obscure word meaning ‘wicked’), derelict.”

Obviously these words are more intense than simply “lazy” and “wicked.” Furthermore, there seems to be a play on words going on here. Look at the phonetics of the two words okneros and poneros. Except for the two initial letters of the two words, they are spelled and pronounced the same. This then becomes a “figure of speech” and is a further indication of the intended intensity.

Here again the message is clear: If you fail to use what you have been given to work with, you can expect the Master’s supreme displeasure. The one who is negligent is considered to be no different than the infidels.

In the midst of the Master’s scolding of the third slave in the Parable of the Measures of Money, a vital principle of the Kingdom is given: “For those who have resourcefulness will be given more, and they will have an abundance. But those who do not have this quality, even what little they have will be taken from them.”

This is the direct equivalent to the moral of the Parable of the Wise and Worthless Slaves which says, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.”

What Jesus was conveying to His disciples was that during this interim until His parousia, His public display of Himself as conquering Messiah, they were not only to watch and be prepared for the calamities that were coming, they were also to be resourceful and productive during this period if they expected to be rewarded in the coming judgment.

This brings us, then, to a most important concept with regard to Jesus’ parousia which was predicted to accompany the catastrophic


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doom of the city of Jerusalem and its Temple within a generation of the Olivet Discourse—the JUDGMENT—and that not just in the sense of the vengeance that was to be poured out on recalcitrant Israel, but also in the sense of individuals and people‐groups being summoned to the Great Tribunal of Messiah.

The Seventh Warning—the Judgment Seat of Messiah (Matthew 25:31‐46) 31“When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all His holy

emissaries with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them just like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33putting the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘You have the blessing of My Father! Come, and possess the Kingdom that has been prepared for you ever since the world was first founded. 35For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you invited Me into your home; 36I was naked and you gave Me something to wear; I was sick and you took care of Me; I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’

37“Then those in right standing will answer Him, ‘Sir, when did we see you hungry and give You something to eat or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you as a stranger and invite you into our homes, or naked and give you something to wear. 39When did we see you sick or in prison and visit You?’

40“And the King will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for Me.’

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41“Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed ones, into the age‐lasting fire prepared for the Devil and his minions. 42For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43I was a stranger and you did not invite Me into your homes; I was naked and you gave Me nothing to wear; I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’

44“Then they too will answer, “Sir, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of You?’

45“Then He will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me.’

46“And these will depart into age‐lasting correction, but those in right standing into age‐lasting life.”


This section which concludes the Olivet Discourse may be the most controversial of all the sections that we have studied.

Many commentaries and study Bibles will give this section the sub‐title “The Last Judgment.” But the words “last” or “final” do not appear anywhere in the text. That is simply a presupposition that the commentator is reading into the Scripture.

Rather than breaking the continuity of the passage, which goes all the way back to Matthew 24:3, this section of the Olivet discourse should be read as its dramatic finale, not the description of something in the far distant future separated from all the rest of the Discourse. There is absolutely no linguistic indicators that would lead us to create such a discontinuity. To the contrary there are several such indicators that lead to the conclusion that this


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passage is an integral part of all that has preceded it in Jesus’ words in the Olivet Discourse.

FIRST of all, we have a “time” reference in the words, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory…” This is an identical expression to “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30) or “the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matthew 24:44). There is no reason to interpret this as any other coming than the one that has been the topic of the entire Olivet Discourse up to this point.

SECOND, we have a “person” reference in these same words. The One who will be coming is “the Son of Man.” We have already seen how this title was used self‐consciously by Jesus to identify Himself as the Messiah, the same Son of Man that Daniel described as appearing before the Ancient of Days and receiving a Kingdom. This coming of Christ here in this last section of the Olivet Discourse is a picture of the Son of Man/Messiah coming to establish the full, unobstructed reign of His Kingdom, the very Kingdom that He would receive from the Father just before His parousia and bring to His followers who were in the process of receiving it throughout the interim between His Crucifixion/ Resurrection/Ascension and His Parousia, a Kingdom they would possess in its fullness after the obstacles that were shaking and tottering had been completely taken away (Hebrews 12:27‐28).

THIRD, we have another “time” reference, “then He will sit on His glorious throne.” His sitting on His throne in judgment is part and parcel of all the other aspects of the events of His prophecy in the Olivet Discourse. Just as there are no other “parentheses” in the Olivet Discourse that jump ahead to a distant future, neither is this description of the Judgment Seat of Messiah a “parenthesis.”

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However, because of the manner in which this and other Scriptures have been expounded throughout Church history, it can be very disconcerting to try to see this judgment scene as a part of the A.D. 70 scenario.

There is a very important perspective that we should adopt if we hope to make sense of all this. Jesus’ prophecy contained both predictions that would be fulfilled in the natural, temporal, visible realm and also in the supernatural, spiritual, invisible realm.

As far as the events of the first category, we have the witness of history and can draw definitive correlations between what Jesus predicted and what historians such as Josephus reported as actually happening. In this book we have examined quite a sampling of “evidence” in this category.

But we must be careful not to dismiss those of the latter category just because we have no empirical, historical evidence for them. After all, what historian could have witnessed the things that occurred in the spiritual realm.

Just for a moment, let’s assume that these events took place as I have interpreted them in this book—that Jesus’ parousia did indeed occur at or near A.D. 70 and that the judgment that we are presently discussing took place at that time as well. Now, ask yourself the question, what empirical or historical evidence would even be possible to validate such an interpretation? None, whatsoever. No human historian would have witnessed these events and no physical evidence would have been left for an archaeologist to discover.

Let’s consider this concept of “evidence” from the perspective of a different topic. What about the spiritual significance of the Crucifixion? We have very little third party, objective evidence for that event. What


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we primarily rely on is the eye‐witness testimony of the followers of Christ in the Gospels and Epistles, although the event is also mentioned in some secular histories.

But more important than the physical event itself is the spiritual significance of the event. We Christians believe that Jesus was the ultimate Lamb of God, the last of the multiplied hundreds of thousands of lambs that had been slaughtered for the sins of Israel. We believe that Jesus was both sacrificial Lamb and High Priest and that He conveyed His own blood to the heavenly Mercy Seat and sprinkled His blood there for all sins for all time.

But what evidence do we have for these spiritual truths? There is no empirical evidence. No secular historian such as a Philo or a Josephus or a Tacitus was there to witness the things that went on in the realm of the supernatural. But there is exegetical evidence. We have the writings of the inspired prophets and apostles. Not just one or two, but a host of witnesses going all the way back to Moses and including both the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles. And the preponderance of this combined testimony outweighs all the nay‐saying of the skeptics through the centuries. We believe it because the Bible teaches it!

When it comes to understanding the events predicted by our Lord in His Olivet Discourse, we must resort to the same type of evidence. We should be thankful for someone like Josephus who has provided evidence for the natural, physical, historical events associated with the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. That should give us confidence to believe everything else that Jesus predicted—those things that a Josephus could not bear witness to. Our reason for believing that the events in the realm of the spirit actually took place just as Jesus said they would is not

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based on empirical evidence but on exegetical evidence. We believe it because the Bible teaches it!

So when we are confronted with a passage of Scripture that is so obviously holistic in nature—one that is an undivided and constitutional whole—one that has integrity, not in the sense of being truthful (though it certainly is that), but in the sense of being a coherent unit—then we must make our theology fit the Scriptures, not the other way around.

One of the very real dangers of interpreting passages from the Scriptures as generalized “universal truth” is that we come to think of the Scriptures as a collection of wise but disjointed maxims or adages. While some parts of the Bible has this characterisitic, such as the Old Testament Proverbs, the Bible as a whole is not a grab bag of this and that.

The Muslims’ Qur’an is such a book. There is no rhyme or reason to its composition. The suras, or chapters, are not placed in topical or chronological order, but rather by length with the longest suras placed at the front of the book and the shortest ones at the back. The superiority of the Bible over the Qur’an is immediately seen just from the standpoint of composition before one ever begins to compare them as to content.

The Bible is first and foremost a narrative. It is the story of God’s covenantal dealings with humans from the beginning of time. It is the story of how a covenant nation came into being, how God preserved that nation until it could produce a Savior for the entire world, and finally how He orchestrated a way for all humans to become a part of that covenant nation.

Because of this inherent integrity in the Scriptures, we can read and interpret them with a grammatical‐historical hermeneutic and


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have every confidence that our reading of the Scriptures is well‐founded both as to revelation and as to rationality.

With that confidence, then, we can approach this last section of the Olivet Discourse and be assured that we can comprehend it just as we have been able to comprehend the previous portions. Let’s explore it with that understanding.

We have already pointed out the significance of the various expressions in the first verse of this section. We are told in this verse that the Son of Man (a definitive title for the Messiah) will come in His glory and will sit on His glorious throne. We have, in previous chapters, shown how the expression “coming in power and great glory” was a description of judgment, specifically judgment on the covenant nation of Israel who had failed to recognize and heed “The Prophet” that Moses had promised would one day arrive. Because of this rejection of the ultimate Prophet, Israel was to be cut off from the promises and provisions of YAHWEH (the name of God in its convenantal dimension). In their place another nation, a spiritual nation, would be raised up that would fulfill the purpose that had once belonged to Israel.

The destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple was an outpouring of the wrath of God in judgment for Israel’s failures and as a necessary bringing to an end the “old heaven and earth” in order to make way for the “new heaven and earth,” the age and reign of the Messiah. The “glorious” part of it all was not so much the destruction and calamity—the glory had to do with the inauguration of the Kingdom of God in all its fullness.

All things pertaining to God’s previous dealings with human‐kind had to be brought to a conclusion before this new age could truly be operative. That meant that the Old Covenant with its

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priesthood and animal sacrifices had to be adjudicated in the same legal fashion as it had been instituted. And so that particular system—whose termination started when the veil was torn from top to bottom when Jesus, the ultimate Lamb, was crucified—was legally finalized and dissolved with the destruction of the holy city and its Temple.

But it was not just the nation of Israel with whom God had dealings. God had also instituted an agenda for the non‐Jews, the Gentiles, the nations, and that compact also had to be brought to a conclusion. If our explanation of the “times of the nations” in chapter five is correct, then the “judgment of the nations” in this final section of the Olivet Discourse is easy to understand.

Of all the scholars that I have consulted, the majority of them interpret the expression—“All the nations will be gathered before Him”—as a description of a presumed final judgment at a presumed end of time. The sub‐titles found in a number of modern Bible translations and study Bibles gives a pretty good indication of how scholars view this passage.

New Living Translation “The Final Judgment” Today’s English Version “The Final Judgment” J.B. Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English “The Final Judgment” The New Oxford Annotated Bible “The Great Judgment” New American Standard Bible “The Judgment” Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible ”Good People and Bad People” The Message “The Sheep and the Goats” The NIV Study Bible “The Sheep and the Goats” New King James Bible “The Son of Man Will Judge the Nations New Revised Standard Version “The Judgment of the Nations” The Open Bible “Judgment of the Gentiles”

As we move down the list, the more I agree with the intent of the sub‐title, not because this is not a description of “the Judgment” or ‘the Great Judgment,” but because of what I know these


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expressions mean to the scholars who use them. None of them equate “the Judgment” with the events of A.D. 70.

The subtitles “the Judgment of the Nations” and “the Judgment of the Gentiles” is much more accurate, because this is what the Scripture actually says.

Many scholars, however, interpret this term “nations” in this passage universally to include all humans, both Gentiles and Jews. Here are Adam Clarke’s comments:

[All nations] Literally, all the nations—all the Gentile world; the Jews are necessarily included, but they were spoken of in a particular manner in the preceding chapter.3

And now, Matthew Henry:

This is a description of the last judgment. It is as an explanation of the former parables. There is a judgment to come, in which every man shall be sentenced to a state of everlasting happiness, or misery. Christ shall come, not only in the glory of his Father, but in his own glory, as Mediator. The wicked and godly here dwell together, in the same cities, churches, families, and are not always to be known the one from the other; such are the weaknesses of saints, such the hypocrisies of sinners; and death takes both: but in that day they will be parted for ever. Jesus Christ is the great Shepherd; he will shortly distinguish between those that are his, and those that are not. All other distinctions will be done away; but the great one between saints and sinners, holy and unholy, will remain for ever.4

And finally, Albert Barnes:

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This is in answer to the question which the disciples proposed to Jesus respecting the end of the world, Matthew 24:3. That this refers to the last judgment, and not, as some have supposed, to the destruction of Jerusalem, appears:

1. From the fact that it was in answer to an express inquiry respecting “the end” of the world.

2. “All nations” were to be assembled, which did not take place at the destruction of Jerusalem.

3. A separation was to take place between the righteous and the wicked, which was not done at Jerusalem.

4. The rewards and punishments are declared to be “eternal.” None of these things took place at the destruction of Jerusalem.5

But there is no warrant for such an interpretation. Throughout the New Testament, the Greek word e&qno$ {ethnos—ethʹ‐nos} is used to designate non‐Jews, and in many places in certain versions is translated “Gentiles.” Marvin Vincent admits this in his word study commentary, but cannot bring himself to abandon the traditional interpretation even in the face of the etymological evidence.

All the nations panta ta ethnee. The whole human race; though the word is generally employed in the New Testament to denote Gentiles as distinguished from Jews.6

Since Albert Barnes’ comments directly contradict the interpret‐tation offered in this book, and since he so conveniently enumer‐ated his objections, I will use his four points to review and refute the traditional interpretation.

His FIRST point, that this description of judgment “was in answer to an express inquiry respecting ‘the end’ of the world,” has already been addressed much earlier in this work. As we noted


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then, the word translated “world” in the older translations, such as the KING JAMES VERSION, is a truly unfortunate choice of words. Perhaps it meant something different in 1611, but the Greek word is ai)w/n {aion—ahee‐ohnʹ} and should be translated “age.” The “end” of which Jesus and the apostles spoke was not the “end of the world” but the “end of the age”—the age of the Old Covenant which came to its end in A.D. 70.

His SECOND point, that “‘all nations’ were to be assembled, which did not take place at the destruction of Jerusalem.” Actually, in a real sense, all the nations were gathered at Jerusalem. Titus’ armies were comprised of all the nations of the then‐known world, not just those surrounding Israel. Soldiers from far away Britain and Gaul in the west were in his armies. Titus brought soldiers with him from Egypt. “There followed him also three thousand drawn from those that guarded the river Euphrates”7—representing the nations in the east.

The Roman Empire “extended roughly two thousand miles from Scotland south to the headwaters of the Nile and about three thousand miles from the Pillars of Hercules eastward to the sands of Persia. Its citizens and subject peoples numbered perhaps eighty million.”8 “All nations, generally speaking were represented in the invading army, for Rome was the mistress of many lands.”9

But this is not the real meaning of the gathering of “all the nations.” Barnes’ comments reveals a misunderstanding on his part because he does not properly interpret “the times of the nations.” All the great world empires from Nebuchadnezzar onward were represented in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar of a colossal metallic statue. The Babylonians; the Medes and Persians; the Greeks and their subsidiary empires, the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids

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of Syria/Mesopotamia; and the Romans are all a part of the single Gentile entity that was pulverized by the Stone that crashed against the statue’s feet. The Stone did not just pulverize the feet of clay and iron (the disintegrating Roman Empire); it pulverized the whole statue which represented all the Gentile world empires going all the way back to Babylon. It was the entirety of the Gentile world—“all the nations”—that was crushed!

The events of A.D 70 not only brought an end to the old Judaic economy; it also brought an end to the “times of the nations.” Just because the assembling of the nations for judgment did not happen in the physical, material sphere of human activity is no argument against it having happened in the spiritual realm.

His THIRD argument, that “a separation was to take place between the righteous and the wicked, which was not done at Jerusalem,” is also a failure to acknowledge what was going on in the invisible realm. There was a tremendous sifting that occurred in and around the events of A.D. 70, not only involving Israel’s demise as the covenant nation, but all nations and peoples, past and present, were intensely affected by these calamitous events. The resurrection of the dead (which also happened at that time and which we will deal with shortly) and the disposition of all those who had died up to that point in time certainly qualifies as “a separation between the righteous and the wicked.”

His FOURTH point, that “the rewards and punishments are declared to be ‘eternal,’” misses the point of Jesus’ remarks altogether. Apparently he is making the assumption that “eternal” rewards have to wait until the “end of time” or some such idea. But this is not a necessary condition at all. At any point, things can happen that have “eternal” consequences and ramifications. Most


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Christians, according to traditional theology, believe that at a person’s death, his or her eternal fate is sealed, whether that person dies five seconds or five millennia before the “final judgment.” Why would they then find it incomprehensible for a judgment with eternal consequences to happen at any point, past or future. I do not personally subscribe to the concepts just mentioned; I only point them out to show the inconsistency of many Christians’ thinking.

Furthermore, the idea of “eternal” rewards and punishments needs to be reconsidered. The Greek word that is translated “eternal” and “everlasting” in most English versions of the Bible is ai)w/nio$ {aionios—ahee‐oʹ‐nee‐os}, the adjective form of the noun ai)w/n {aion—ahee‐ohnʹ}. If aion means “age” and is the equivalent of our English word “eon,” meaning a long indefinite period of time, then aionios means “age‐lasting” or “age‐abiding” or “age‐during.” Because those meanings sound awkward to the ears of English‐speaking people, and because we really do not have a direct equivalent for aionios in the English language, some scholars have suggested that aionios should not be translated but simply transliterated as “aeonian,” using the Latin spelling instead of the Greek (Greek aion = Latin aeon).

The idea behind the use of a word like “aeonian” is to minimize the idea of “eternal” which is not found in the Greek ideology (the exception being Plato). In discussing its non‐Biblical uses, Kittel and Friedrich give five meanings: a) “vital force,” b) “lifetime,” c) “age” or “generation,” d) “time,” and e) “eternity.” They go on to comment:

The term is used in philosophical discussions of time, usually for a span of time as distinct from time such as (chronos), though for Plato it is timeless eternity in contrast to chronos as its moving image in earthly time (cf. Philo).10

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The implication is that its usual usage (the exception being Plato) had to do with long, indefinite periods of time, but not endless time. Thus the better translation for the final verse of the Olivet Discourse is: “And these will depart into age‐lasting correction, but those in right standing into age‐lasting life.”

Now let’s address a topic that is not mentioned anywhere in the Olivet Discourse, but which bears directly on our understanding of the events predicted by Jesus, especially “the Judgment.” That subject is “the resurrection.” Those who embrace partial preterism but reject the idea of a fully realized eschatology usually do so on the basis of not having fully understood the subject of resurrection as taught by full preterists, or not having heard an adequate explanation.

One author who has heard all the arguments and carefully studied them, but who still does not embrace full preterism, is R.C. Sproul.

To be completely candid, I must confess that I am still unsettled on some crucial matters. I am convinced that the substance of the Olivet Discourse was fulfilled in A.D. 70 and that the bulk of Revelation was likewise fulfilled in that time‐frame. I share…concerns about full preterism, particularly on such issues as the consummation of the kingdom and the resurrection of the dead. In the final analysis I am confident…that these matters must be settled on the basis of biblical exegesis.11

I appreciate Dr. Sproul’s taking a stand for the aspects of preterism that he can justify biblically and resisting those aspects that he cannot. I also appreciate his confidence that “these matters must be settled on the basis of biblical exegesis.”

It is in the spirit of discussion and dialogue that my thoughts are here presented. I do not assert them polemically or dogmatically. But


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as I have examined these issues, I find that I do not share the worrisome concerns of others, such as those of Dr. Sproul about “the consummation of the kingdom and the resurrection of the dead.” In fact, the prospects that belong to the Church in light of the past fulfillment of these prophecies fills me with hope and excitement.

With this understanding, and taking the fulfilled eschatology approach, let’s move through this material and see how it informs us. We will start by taking a look at the state of the dead at the time of Christ.

In chapter three, we introduced the four words translated “hell” in some versions of our English Bible. Rather than ask you to turn back to that part of the book, I will repeat some of the pertinent information here.

In the Greek, the word a%|dh$ {haides—hahʹ‐dace} or hades, and in the Hebrew the word loav= {sheʹowl—sheh‐oleʹ} or sheol, stands for the idea of “the place of the dead.” Sometimes the word “grave” is used in certain passages as a translation equivalent.

Existence in sheol was regarded as “a shadowy continuation of earthly life where all the problems of earthly life came to an end. Later the dictum of the prophet Isaiah that the king of Babylon shall be ‘brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit’ (Isaiah 14:15) gave rise to the concept of various depths of Sheol, with corresponding degrees of reward and punishment.”12

The idea of sheol was that it was a holding place for the dead, and that the righteous dead would some day be resurrected to a new life in the Kingdom of Messiah. For the righteous, at least, it was only a temporary abode.

All of the dead, both righteous and unrighteous, from Adam onward were housed in sheol, this “place of the dead.” There is the

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indication in the Scriptures that the righteous dead were resting in Abraham’s bosom and separated from the unrighteous dead by an uncrossable chasm (Luke 16:19‐31). Whether this picture is to be taken figuratively or literally is a point that can be debated. The point for our present discussion is that all the dead—righteous and unrighteous—were there.

One of the Old Testament prophets wrote: 14Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself, And opened its mouth without limit. Jerusalem’s dignitaries and its noisy crowds will descend into it; It will gulp them down with jubilation.

—ISAIAH 5:14

The Jews who believed that the righteous dead would be resurrected to enjoy the golden age of the Messiah were at least partly right. What they did not seem to realize is that there would come a time when sheol would be completely emptied out. That time came when Jesus the Messiah was executed and in the three‐day interim between His Crucifixion and His Resurrection, some exciting things happened in this unseen world.

18For Messiah also suffered for sins once for all—the just for the unjust—to bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but was made alive by the Spirit. 19By the Spirit, Messiah went to the spirits in prison and preached 20to those who long ago in the days of Noah had refused to believe.

—1 PETER 3:18‐20

So much for the idea that there is no hope once a person dies. The antediluvians got a second chance. They had been in the


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“holding tank” for a minimum of two‐and‐a‐half millennia. But the same Gospel that saves us today—the Good News about the saving blood of Jesus—was preached to them in sheol.

8As the Scriptures say, “He ascended to the very heights, He captured many captives; He bestowed gifts on His people.”

9Now what is the meaning of “he ascended” unless He also descended to the lowest depths of the earth. 10He, the very One who descended, is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens in order that He might fill all things.

—EPHESIANS 4:8‐10

This magnificent passage, in poetic language, informs us that Jesus descended to the “depths of the earth,” another expression denoting sheol, and there He fulfilled the Scripture that prophesied that YAHWEH would take captive a host of captives. What does that mean? In Psalm 68:18, which Paul was quoting, the picture is of a triumphant YAHWEH who descends to earth to battle His people’s enemies and then re‐ascends, taking with Him a host of captives from the ranks of those enemies.

Paul, on the other hand, paints a picture of Jesus capturing those who were already captive in sheol and leading them victor‐iously out of the place of the dead. As the KJV is translated, “he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”

Paul, in another place, called Jesus the “firstfruits” of the resurrection:

20But in fact Messiah was raised out from among the dead, and is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

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♦ ♦ ♦ 23But each one will be raised in proper order—Messiah

Himself as the firstfruits, then afterward, at Messiah’s coming, those who belong to Him.

—1 CORINTHIANS 15:20, 23

So what we have is the picture of Jesus being the first to break the bonds of death—the first to break out of sheol.

But He did not leave by Himself, nor did He leave those who were there stranded to an everlasting fate in sheol. He preached to them the Good News and then He started leading them out.

Who were the first to go? We are not told. But we are told that there was an orderly procedure—“each one will be raised in proper order.”

Max King has presented the idea that there are three successive stages in the resurrection of the dead:

Concerning stage 1, the resurrection of Christ marked the beginning of the resurrection of the dead. He was the firstfruits of them that slept (1 Cor. 15:20). His Messianic (age‐ending) reign began after his resurrection because his kingdom was not “of this world”; i.e., not of the Old Covenant aeon (John 18:36).

Concerning stage 2, the death and resurrection of the pre‐end‐of‐the‐age saints covers the time of Christ’s pre‐parousia reign from the cross to the A.D. 70 end of the age. It is the completion of the first resurrection. The firstfruits die and rise with Christ in the sense of dying to the old aeon and rising to the new, hence they live and reign with Him in that eschatological which answers to the symbolic “thousand year reign.” They reign with Christ (Rev. 20[:4‐5]).


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Concerning stage 3, the universal resurrection is conjoined with the ultimate establishment of God’s universal reign at “the end.” This end is the same end as Matt. 24:3, 14—the end of the Jewish age. This was the focal point of the ultimate coming of the kingdom of God in Daniel 7, the Olivet Discourse of Christ (Luke 21:31), and the post‐Pentecost apostolic writings (Acts 14:22; Heb. 12:28; 2 Peter 1:11; Rev. 11:15). It was all achieved from the beginning of Christ’s reign to the consummated coming of God’s kingdom, within the end‐time period of Christ’s eschatological sayings (Matt. 24:34; Mark 9:1; Matt. 16:27, 28).13

I am by Max King as Peter was by Paul when he said, “Some things in his letters are hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). If I understand his teaching, stage one consists solely of Jesus as the firstfruits of the resurrection. Stage two consists of the “spiritual resurrection that started occurring during Christ’s earthly ministry and continues on to the present day. Stage three, the universal resurrection of all the dead, both righteous and unrighteous, occurred at the time of Christ’s parousia in A.D. 70.

I would amend King’s stage three to say that the general resurrection began immediately after Christ’s own resurrection as some apparently followed Him out immediately; others would not be resurrected until His parousia. But of this we can be sure—by the time that Jesus returned in power and glory, all of sheol had been emptied out.

Years ago, our family vacationed in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and attended the daily evening phenomenon of the bats streaming out of Carlsbad Caverns. We sat in the bleachers near one of the mouths of the caves and watched for almost three hours as

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hundreds of thousands of tiny Mexican free‐tailed bats streamed of those subterranean chambers for a night of feeding on insects. The “bat flight,” as it is called, lasted for almost two hours.

A park ranger described the orderly way in which the bats leave the cave, and I imagined what it must be like to be one of those bats on the last row who wake up hungry but have to wait two hours for their turn to fly out of the cave.

For the general resurrection to take 40 years is not so astounding once you think about it for a moment. What is astounding is to think that the resurrection of all those billions of persons in sheol would happen instantaneously! Every single person who had ever lived from Adam to Jesus—four thousand plus years of vast human populations—was involved in this mass exodus culminating in the Great Judgment at the Parousia of Christ.

Although Paul specifically mentioned the resurrection of “those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:23, NKJV), we know that Christians were not the only ones to be resurrected because Jesus taught that the resurrection of the dead was of both the righteous and the unrighteous. J

24I tell you the truth, those who hear My message and believe the One who sent Me have age‐lasting life and will not be condemned. They have already passed from death to life. 25I tell you the truth, the time is coming—and is now here—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

26For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself, 27and He has also given the Son authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.


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28Do not be amazed at this! The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice 29and will come out—those who have lived worthily will be resurrected to life, and those who have lived worthlessly will be resurrected to separation.

—JOHN 5:24‐29

Jesus said a number of things in this passage that are very important that we must acknowledge and try to comprehend.

First of all, there are two kinds of resurrections referred to in these words—a spiritual resurrection and an eschatological resur‐rection. These two are distinct in one sense, but in another they are very closely related.

“Spiritual resurrection” is actually a metaphor for regeneration, or to use an overworked expression, being “born again.” It is the inner transformation of the human spirit that comes solely by the grace of God. It is what Paul meant when he talked about becoming a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus said that hearing His message and believing on the One who had sent Him caused a person to pass from death to life. Paul elaborated on this concept:

1You were once dead in your failures and sins. 2You previously followed the course of this worldly age charted by its ruler—the chief authority of the spiritual kingdom of the atmosphere that drives the sons of disobedience. 3In the company of this disobedient crowd we all formerly lived our lives according to the forbidden cravings and the willfulness of our human weaknesses and imaginations. Like all the others, in this natural condition, we were born to experience God’s wrath against sin.

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4But because God’s mercy is so bountiful and because He loved us so much, 5even while we were spiritually dead in our wrong‐doing, He made us alive together with Messiah—by grace you have been saved!— and He raised us up together and seated us together with Messiah in the heavenlies.

—EPHESIANS 2:1‐6

Paul called the condition of living in sin “spiritual death.” Its characteristics are “disobedience,” “forbidden cravings,” “willfulness,” “weakness and imaginations,” “this natural condition,” and being subject to “God’s wrath.”

Writing after Jesus’ Resurrection, Paul could further elaborate on Jesus’ expression—“passed from death to life”—and talk about this transformation in terms of resurrection—“He made us alive…and He raised us up”!

Now, concerning this “spiritual resurrection,” Jesus declared that it was already happening during the days of His earthly ministry—those who heard Him and believed had “already passed from death to life.” “Spiritual resurrection” was already taking place even before His own physical resurrection. He further drove home the point by declaring that “the time is coming—and is now here—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” This could be referring to the “spiritual resurrection” of the previous sentence in verse 24, or it could be referring to the eschatological resurrection of the subsequent sentence in verses 28 and 29. In the total context of the teaching, it probably refers to both.

Next, after explaining that both the Father and the Son are self‐existent—that is, have life in themselves—and after declaring that not only has that self‐existent life, but also the prerogative of


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judgment, been granted to the Son, He was ready to make a statement about eschatological resurrection.

“Don’t be amazed at this,” He said, “The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come out!” In other words, the same resurrection power that would quicken Him after His Crucifixion was the basis for both spiritual resurrection and eschatological resurrection.

The miracle of spiritual resurrection was already happening—“the time is coming—and is now here.” Then almost in the next breath Jesus announced the eschatological resurrection as an imminent event—“the hour is coming”! If thousands of years were going to separate the beginning of spiritual resurrection being available to humans and the general eschatological resurrection, do you think that Jesus would have used the word “hour”—w%ra {hora—hoʹ‐rah}?

If there were going to be such a lengthy interim, perhaps a better choice of words would have been some form of xro/no$ {chronos—khronʹ‐os}, “time,” or ai)w/n {aion—ahee‐ohnʹ}, “age.”

But Jesus said “hour,” and that conveyed a sense of urgency. The apostles used this same kind of language to convey the

imminency of the events that Jesus had prophesied. Early in the interim between the Crucifixion/Resurrection/Ascension of Jesus and His Parousia in A.D. 70, Peter referred to the time as “the last days” (Acts 2:17). As those climatic days were drawing to a close, John referred to the time as “the last hour” (1 John 2:18).

When Jesus announced the coming resurrection of the dead, He was drawing on the present reality of the spiritual resurrection to draw attention to the fact that the eschatological resurrection would not be far behind.

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A couple of other important inferences can be drawn from Jesus’ words. First, the eschatological resurrection would not just involve the righteous dead, as many Jews believed. Instead, all the dead would be raised, both the just and the unjust. Second, the eschatological resurrection would be accompanied by judgment. The unrighteous—“those who have lived worthlessly”—in particular, would experience the “resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:29, KJV). The Greek word here is kri/si$ {krisis—kreeʹ‐sis} and means “decision.” By extension, it refers to a tribunal, and is, therefore, many times translated “judgment.” It also means, according to Thayer, “a separating, sundering, separation.”14 Because this is the end result of a negative verdict handed down from the tribunal of Messiah—the second death of separation from God—I chose to render the word krisis as “separation” in the DAYSPRING BIBLE.

To further elucidate the nature of the eschatological resurrection and judgment, we need to look at a second passage from Peter, where he touched on both the judgment and that intriguing subject of the Gospel being brought to the dead.

5 They will give an account to Him who is even now in readiness to judge the living and the dead. 6Now it was for this very purpose that the Good News was preached to those who are dead, that although they received the judgment of death (as all humans must die), they may live in the spirit (just as God lives). 7For the culmination of all things is approaching, so be serious and watchful in your prayers.

—1 PETER 4:5‐7


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Note the two statements of imminency—“even now in readiness” and “the culmination of all things is approaching.” There can be no doubt that whatever Peter was talking about, it was not something that would take place thousands of years in the future. The Judge, to whom “they will give an account,” was said by James to be “standing right at the door!” (James 5:9).

So Peter’s subject is judgment, and that judgment was expected by him and his readers as being very, very near. Already, in preparation for that judgment, those in sheol had already had the Good News preached to them. Peter drew a stark contrast between their former existence—“they received the judgment of death (as all humans must die)”—and their present hopeful state—the possibility of living “in the spirit (just as God lives).”

Some interpret this passage, 1 Peter 4:6, in other ways in order to avoid its very plain implication—that the Gospel would be preached to people after they had died.

In giving instructions to Bible translators, the United Bible Societies makes these remarks about this passage:

It is not easy to ascertain what “the dead” refers to, and the history of the interpretation of this verse bears out the difficulties. The various interpretations can be summarized as follows:

(1) “The dead” refers to the spiritually dead (compare Ephesians 2:1). This, however, would require giving another meaning to the same expression in verse 5, whereas it is more natural to expect the same meaning. Furthermore, the aorist tense of “was preached” argues against this interpretation.

(2) “The dead” in general, that is, the people who are dead. Again the aorist tense of the verb argues against this.

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(3) The Old Testament saints, that is, the people in the Old Testament who trusted in God; the Good News was preached to them in Hades, which enabled them to put their trust in Christ. This would also necessitate understanding the dead in verse 5 differently from verse 6.

(4) People who are dead, but who had the opportunity to hear the Good News while they were alive. This would require taking Christian missionaries as the implied agent of ʺwas preached.ʺ

(5) Members of the Christian communities to whom Peter was writing, who have since died, but who were alive when they heard and believed the Good News…But arguing against this position is, once again, the change of meaning for the dead. Here, it would mean ʺthe Christian dead.ʺ Further‐more, this would require taking Christian missionaries as the implicit agent of ʺwas preached.ʺ

(6) All the dead before the coming of Christ. This would connect this verse with 1 Peter 3:19‐20. “The dead” heard the Gospel when it was preached to the “spirits”; these include both the righteous and the unrighteous. This would not require a change of meaning for “the dead.” Furthermore, it is connected with a theme which is already mentioned in the letter. And finally, it would require taking Christ as the agent of “preached.” All in all, then, this 6th interpretation seems closest to what the writer meant.15

The only way to make sense of all these passages, considering both the characteristics of the resurrection and judgment that are given and the expressions of the impending nature of those events, is to view them as the description of the preaching of Christ to the captives in sheol, and then leading them out in resurrection so that


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they might be judged and either be separated from God for another period of indefinite duration or ushered into age‐lasting life.

That another period of further chastisement is the lot of those not in right standing with God is seen from the description of the judgment given in the last section of the Olivet Discourse—“And these will depart into age‐lasting correction.”

We have already discussed the meaning of aionios earlier in this chapter and saw that its usual meaning in classical Greek was “age‐lasting.” The fate of those not in right standing with God is to be dealt with for a long, indefinite period of time, but not forever.

The Greek word here rendered “correction” is ko/lasi$ {kolasis—kolʹ‐as‐is} and is translated in our traditional versions (in the phrase including the word aionios) as either “everlasting punishment” or “eternal punishment,” with one exception in the Bibles that I consulted, and that is YOUNG’S LITERAL TRANSLATION which renders the phrase as “punishment age‐during.” There is no doubt that the word “punishment” is a legitimate word equivalent for kolasis, but the question is: what is the purpose for the punishment—is it punitive or corrective? The correct answer is “corrective.”

The word kolasis derives from the Greek root verb kola/zw {kolazo—kol‐adʹ‐zo} which means “to mutilate, to dock, to lop, or to prune, as with trees, or wings of birds, and so by extension it means to curtail, to chastise, to correct, to check, to curb, or to restrain.” Why are trees pruned?—to increase their fruit production! Why are wings trimmed?—to keep the bird from flying away, to keep it domesticated so it can be useful to humans! Why are children chastised?—to teach them proper behavior so they will grow up to be productive members of society! Why does God punish?—for the same reasons—to make us more fruitful, to keep us from running

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wild, to teach us to walk in righteousness—in short, to bring glory to Himself!

Nowhere is there any indication that God’s punishment is purely punitive or retributive or vindictive. This age‐lasting or age‐during punishment meted out to the “goats” in this final scene of the Olivet Discourse is not vengeance, it is chastisement.

The main reason that anyone would object to this explanation that the “condemnation” in the eschatological judgment is corrective and has time limitations is that to limit the punishment for the “goats” would also mean that there would be a time limit for the life awarded to the “sheep.” But this is an argument that simply refuses to acknowledge God’s comprehensive grace. If God in His mercy so loves all His creation that He has purposed not to lose a single one, but has instead devised a plan whereby He will continue to deal with His stubborn creation until He can welcome them into the joys He has designed for them, how much more do you think He has adequately provided for those who have turned to Him in faith and called upon His name!

But regardless whether the judgment of the “goats” is eternal or age‐long, or whether it is punitive or corrective, the very plain teaching of Scripture is that Jesus’ prophecy on the Mount of Olives foretold an impending culmination of all things that included His parousia, the resurrection of the dead, and the eschatological judgment of both nations and individuals.

The judgment that Jesus talked about at the end of the Olivet Discourse, and that He predicted would occur along with all the other events of A.D. 70, was both corporate and individual.

It was corporate because these events brought to a climax Daniel’s “Seventy Sevens” for the Jewish nation and the “Times of


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the Nations” for the great Gentile world empires. “All the nations will be gathered before Him,” Jesus said

But it was also individual as can be seen by the pronouncement of either acceptance or rejection based on individual merciful deeds such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and imprisoned.

Every single human being who had lived up to that point in time when that “present age” came to its stunning climax was brought before the Great Tribunal of King Jesus to give an account for the things they had done alive.

From that point onward, we have been living in “the age to come” with an entirely different governing paradigm. No longer are the dead “warehoused” in sheol there to wait for some great future event. Now when people die, they go immediately into the presence of the Lord and are judged by the same criteria that Jesus described at the end of the Olivet Discourse. At that Great Messianic Tribunal, that is always in session, verdicts are still being rendered to “sheep” and to “goats.” For it is still true that “it is necessary that all persons must die once, and then to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27) and it is still true that “we must all stand before the judgment seat of Messiah” (Romans 14:10).

But there is no one in sheol today. Nobody is waiting there for the resurrection. That has already happened. Jesus emptied out sheol and brought to a close what those living back then called “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).

He came with glory and power and destroyed His enemies—those who had rejected and executed Him unjustly—and then sat down on His glorious throne to judge the nations as well as every single human being that had lived up to that time.

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He brought in the consummation of His glorious Kingdom, an ever-increasing Kingdom that shall never be destroyed. He delegated the power of His Kingdom to His faithful followers and sent them out to take His glory to the ends of the earth.

His Kingdom still advances in the earth today. Despite setbacks, it marches onward. Despite His followers misunder-standing of what His plan is in the earth, He is still the Sovereign Lord who accomplishes what pleases Him.

His message to His disciples on the Mount of Olives was not to run and hide until He would come to rescue them and snatch them away from the evil world that He hates. He never bequeathed to them, nor to us, a “toot and scoot” mentality.

Instead, He promised that within one generation He would return and bring His Kingdom in all its fullness to the earth. Jesus’ message and mission was no different from the words of YAHWEH to Moses in the Old Testament, “But surely, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of YAHWEH” (Numbers 14:21). He promised victory for His Church, and He came back as the conquering King of kings and Lord of lords to enable us to accomplish exactly that!

CHAPTER EIGHT ENDNOTES 1 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible Containing the Old and New


2 Milton S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics, Zondervan, reprint 1974, Wipf & Stock, reprint 1999 (originally published 1890).


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3 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments (Matthew 25:32).

4 Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, Nelson Reference, reprint 2000 (originally published 1701‐1714)

5 Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old and New Testaments, Baker Books, reprint 1983 (originally published 1847‐1885).

6 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, Kessinger Publishing, reprint 2004 (originally published 1887‐1900).

7 Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book V., chap. 1, para. 6. 8 Otto Friedrich, The End of the World: A History, pg. 28, Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1982.

9 G. N. M. Collins, “Zechariah,” The New Bible Commentary, 2nd ed., Eerdmans, 1954

10 Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 1, Eerdman’s, 1964.

11 R.C. Sproul, The Last Days according to Jesus, pg 158, Baker Books, 1998. 12 “Hell,” Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, Microsoft Corporation, 2003. 13 Max R. King, The Cross and the Parousia of Christ: The Two Dimrnsions of One Age‐Changing Eschaton, pg. 410, Presence Ministries, 1987.

14 Joseph Thayer, New Testament Lexicon, (originally published 1889). 15 B.M. Newman, et al, UBS New Testament Handbook Series, United Bible Societies, 1961‐1997.

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CHAPTER NINE

How Should We Then Live? TTTHE SECOND COMING has taken place!

The resurrection of the dead has already happened! The fullness of the Kingdom of God has already been ushered in! The Great Judgment is an accomplished, albeit on-going, fact! I realize that those statements are very unsettling to most

Christians, and to have concluded this book at the end of the last chapter would have been a cruel injustice. In order to do justice to all the exposition and exegesis of the past 400 pages, some attention must be given to some very pertinent questions that arise as a result of this interpretation of Scripture, questions such as:

• Why, then, haven’t Christians in the past taught this? • What, then, is there to look forward to? • What, then, is the hope of the Christian? • Where, then, do we go from here? • How, then, should we live?

This last question is exactly the same one that Peter posed in his epistle when writing to those first-century Christians about the rapidly approaching “day of the Lord.”


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10The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and when it comes the heavens will vanish with a great roar, and its fundamental principles will melt as in a blaze. The earthly realm and its doings will be laid bare. 11Since all these things will be deprived of authority, HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? Our lives should be carried on as set apart for God with utmost reverence.

—2 PETER 3:10-11

Just as Peter’s concern for the last days in which he and those first-generation Christians were living was about appropriate behavior and conduct, so should this be a priority for us who are living in the consummated Kingdom of God. And Peter’s conclusion is just as apropos for us today as it was for them almost 2000 years ago—“Our lives should be carried on as set apart for God with utmost reverence.”

It is almost a sure thing that if a given interpretation stifles hope, if it does not promote godly living, if it leaves us despondent or pessimistic, then it probably is a wrong interpretation.

It is, in fact, some of these very criteria that condemns dispensationalism. The idea of the “any moment rapture” does not engender hope; it instead engenders fear. The idea of a world that will only worsen until Jesus returns does not promote the godliness of being “salt” and “light”; it promotes hiding in a corner and waiting for the angelic cavalry to come riding to the rescue. The idea that every dispensation ends in failure and judgment, including the present day of grace and even the 1000-year reign of Christ during the perfect peace of the so-called millennium, is the height of pessimism. Where’s the incentive to take the glory of God to the ends of the earth, if everything is going to wind up in a

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“tribulation” mess with an antichrist ruling supreme? And what legacy does this leave for the next generation? (Yes, Virginia, there will be another generation, and another, and another, and…)

No, I’ll trade the futurist message any day for one that offers real hope. And that is exactly what the message of the full preterists does. It combines the optimism of the post-millennialists with the rock-solid conviction that Jesus made promises that He kept. He didn’t fail in one “jot or tittle”; He didn’t delay or postpone them; He didn’t resort to any “plan B.” This triumphant message says, “He did exactly what He said He would do!” Therefore, we can fulfill our role as Messiah’s representatives in the earth confident that not one word of God has or ever will fall to the ground!

But that statement of assurance alone is not sufficient to balance such mind-boggling concepts as the past fulfillment of the Second Coming, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the Great Judgment. Those thoughts are truly unsettling, and some elaboration on them is certainly in order. It is no easy thing to relinquish beliefs that one has cherished for a lifetime. Surely this is heresy! Why, it flies in the face of everything that the Christian Church has believed throughout its 2000-year history.

The Crisis of Unfulfilled Prophecy

In the Old Testament, if a prophet made a prediction that did not come to pass, he was labeled a “false prophet” and was taken outside the city and stoned. Today when prophecy pundits make false predictions, they just revise and adjust their predictions and pump out another book, and gullible Christians send it right to the top of the bestseller lists. One of our great crises in Christianity today is the lack of accountability.


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But the world is not buying our foolishness, and we should not either. We should be painfully aware of what disservice we do when we undermine the Church’s credibility with our sensation-seeking nonsense.

It is high time that somebody stands up and tells it like it is. Thankfully, we have, in our generation, a number of brave

souls who are willing to buck the tide of tradition and present an eschatology that not only harmonizes with the Scriptures in the sense that its proof-texts are not in conflict, but also harmonizes with the Scriptures in the sense that its overall theme and import aligns with the revealed purposes of God. At the cost of friendship and fellowship, and at the risk of being labeled “heretics,” more and more men and women of God are casting a vote for truth rather than tradition. The stakes are high, both personally and corporately. Personally, because those who take a stand for truth risk being given the “left boot of disfellowship.” But even more important are the negative implications for the corporate Body of Christ if we do not take such a stand.

I have already quoted Bertrand Russell and Albert Schweitzer, one a cynic and the other a committed Christian, who came to the conclusion that Jesus was failed prophet because He supposedly did not return within the lifetime of the apostles as He promised.

Honest readers of the Scriptures can very plainly see that Jesus did indeed make these promises that His parousia would occur within that presently living generation and that the events predicted in His prophecies were going to happen very quickly.

The dispensationalists may try to re-define words to fit their eschatology, but “generation” does not mean “race,” as we have already pointed out. Jesus did not say that the “Jewish race” would

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not pass before all His words in the Olivet Discourse would be fulfilled; He clearly meant that the generation living at the time He spoke those words would not pass away before their fulfillment.

Some other words that have been wrenched from their dictionary definitions are the words “soon” and “near” and “quickly.” Dispensationalists would have us believe that when Jesus spoke in the book of Revelation—and, after all, it is the “Revelation of Jesus Messiah” (Revelation 1:1) not the “Revelation of St. John the Divine” despite what it may say on the title page of the “Authorized Version”—about “what must happen very soon” (Revelation 1:1), and that “the time is near for all these things to happen” (Revelation 1:3), and when He said, “Look! I am coming quickly!” (Revelation 3:11; 22:7; 22:12) and “Yes, I am coming soon!” (Revelation 22:20), that what Jesus really meant was that once the end-time events starting happening, things will be wrapped up very rapidly. But any elementary student who has just graduated from “Dick and Jane” readers knows better than to interpret these words this way. “Soon” and “near” and “quickly” simply meant that a very, very short time would elapse between the writing or speaking of those words and their fulfillment.

Even those with little education should be able to see through this subterfuge of re-defining simple everyday words; how much more so do the highly educated members of our society demand a better explanation than what the dispensationalists have provided. Yet one does not have to be highly educated to understand the simple message of the Olivet Discourse. And, yes, despite opinions to the contrary, it is a simple message if one takes it at face value as we have tried to do in this book, and believes that Jesus said exactly what He meant, and meant exactly what He said.


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The world needs the message of the preterists! The litany of failed predictions from the futurists have done enough damage to the Church’s credibility. Our post-modern world has lost its moor-ings of absolute truth. Its relativism does not satisfy the deep, inherent, human longing for certainty in an uncertain world.

But the message of the prophecy pundits, who tout the fact that they represent absolute Bible truth, have not been a source of assurance when every single one of their predictions has been proven wrong.

How different it would be if Bible prophecy were presented as living proof that all of the principles of Scriptures could be relied on because every single prophecy in its pages could be demon-strably proven to have been fulfilled. Jesus gave us the correct approach to interpreting prophecy:

19“I am telling you this now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I am He.”

—JOHN 13:19

With this statement, Jesus was specifically referring to His betrayal by Judas, but the principle applies across the board to all predictive prophecy. That principle is: Prophecy is only understood in the light of fulfillment.

That’s why the futurists are always wrong, and always will be. Trying to figure out the way that God will bring prophecy to pass will always cause us to end up with egg on our face. After the fact, however, we can point back to fulfilled prophecy and declare, “How marvelous are Your ways, O God!”

Take, for instance, the prophecy by Jacob concerning his two sons, Simeon and Levi.

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5“Simeon and Levi, you are brothers whose swords are instruments of violence. 6May I never be a part of your schemes; may my reputation never be linked to your actions. In your rage you slaughtered human beings; for cruel sport you hamstrung an ox. 7You are cursed because your fury is so vicious, because your outbursts are so venomous. Your descendants will be divided and scattered among the tribes of Israel.”

—GENESIS 49:5-7

Jacob’s prophecy over these two sons was a curse on them because of at least two acts of cruelty of which they were guilty. Their punishment was that their descendants would be “divided and scattered.”

But never in a million years would you and I have been able to tell how God intended to bring this prophecy to its fulfillment. We might have gotten close concerning Simeon, whose population dwindled and was eventually absorbed into the tribe of Judah. But how God saw fit to “divide and scatter” Levi, we would never have guessed. God turned Jacob’s curse into a blessing for Levi. It is true that a part of this tribe’s punishment was that they would not be given a territorial posssession in the Land of Promise, but it is hard to call it a curse when they were elevated to be the priestly tribe and were disbursed throughout the land to live in cities given to them by the other tribes.

2Instruct the Israelites to give, out of the inheritance that they will possess, towns for the Levites to live in as well as the pasture lands around these towns.

—NUMBERS 35:2


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It is hard to call a curse the fact that they lived off the tithe of the produce of the other tribes.

28At the end of every three years you must bring the tithe of your produce of that year, and you must store it up within the walls of all your towns. 29Then the Levites (because they have no allotment or inheritance with the rest of you), along with persons from foreign countries and the orphans and the widows of your towns, may come and eat to the full so that YAHWEH your God will bless you in everything that you do.


And it is hard to call a curse the words of the Lord to Aaron and the tribe of Levi:

20Then YAHWEH said to Aaron, “You will receive no inheritance of land among the other Israelites, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.”

—NUMBERS 18:20

No, there is no way that we could have known God’s intention beforehand. But after the fact, we can point back to the way that God fulfilled Jacob’s prophecy and say, “What a tremendously gracious God we serve!”

The eschatology of the preterists is a tremendous witness to the promise-keeping faithfulness of our God. It answers the accusations of the skeptics who say that Jesus was a false prophet who could not keep His word. It also answers the confused victims of dispensationalism whose faith has been abused by the false prophets of our own day with all their failed predictions.

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Preterism and the Creeds

But how is it, many will ask, that all the leading theologians of Church history never advocated this approach to the Scriptures? This is an excellent question and one that deserves a better answer than I will probably be able to give. I agree with R.C. Sproul who said concerning full preterism and the silence of the historic creeds of the Christian faith in its defense:

Personally I cringe at the idea of going against such a unified and strong testimony to the historic faith, even though I grant the possibility that they were wrong at points. All who are inclined to differ with the creeds should observe a warning light and show great caution. Of course this warning light pales in comparison to the authority of Scripture itself.1

I somewhat share Dr. Sproul’s appreciation for the historic creeds of the Church. These documents are a part of my Christian heritage. I am also, however, a strong proponent of the Reformation ideal of sola scriptura, and as such, I have no difficulty making a choice between the words of the creeds and the words of Scripture. The creeds may be followed only as long as they agree with the word of God. At any point that they deviate from the Scriptures, they are totally invalid.

It should be pointed out, however, that none of the creeds fully address the area of eschatology. The reason is that all the creeds were written in response to theological crises and were answers to what the Church leaders of the day considered to be heresy. Eschatology has never arisen as a crisis topic that needed full consideration in a creedal statement. Therefore, any mention of eschatological subjects in the creeds is only made in passing, so to


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speak. While it is true, that even these passing remarks do not agree with full preterism, it is also true that there has never been an ecumenical statement of faith on the subject of eschatology. For this reason, to disagree with the creeds at this point is not nearly so dangerous as to disagree at those points that have been fully debated through the years.

Some, who consider full preterism to be heretical, have sug-gested that it is high time that such an ecumenical council be convened so as to nip this current “heresy” in the bud, because it is growing in acceptance in all streams of Christianity today. This is not likely to happen, however, because most conservative Christians who profess to be “Bible-believing” stalwarts of the faith also condemn ecumenism in almost any form.

I visited a historicist website recently only to be met with the epithet of “heretic” being glibly thrown at full preterists. I have found that name-calling is usually the weapon of choice for those who do not have an adequate argument against whatever they have dubbed a “heresy.” A lot more progress could be made if the dialogue on this or any other topic could be made without resorting to pejorative labels.

For instance, in his otherwise balanced book debating the pros and cons of “full” versus “partial” preterism, R.C. Sproul chose to call those who advocate full preterism “radical preterists.”2 Even though he went to some lengths to try to justify this label and his claim that it was not intended as a slur, the fact still remains that such a label is pejorative, and Dr. Sproul knows that. Others use the term “hyper-preterist” with the same intention.

Throughout this book I have plainly pointed out the fallacies of dispensationalism, but I have refrained from calling this system of

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theology a “heresy” because this kind of name-calling does not promote healthy dialogue.

A heresy is defined as “1. An opinion or a doctrine at variance with established religious beliefs; 2. A controversial or unorthodox opinion or doctrine.”3 Some Christians further define heresy as any teaching that causes division or disruption in the Body of Christ.

All too often, however, much of our internal squabbling is nothing more than a matter of semantics, and we are altogether too quick to excommunicate others over differences of expression rather than any real differences of belief. All too often we claim to be “contending for the faith” when in actuality we are simply being contentious over non-issues. We tend to forget that we have much more in common with other Christians than we have differences, but our predilection for dissension causes us to not only focus on our dissimilarities, but to feel compelled to ostracize any who are not exactly like ourselves.

All of this only serves to demonstrate our pettiness and our insecurities. I am sometimes amused at preachers who preach for response. “Can I get an amen?” punctuates every point that they make. I hope it is not arrogance, but I couldn’t care less if anyone “amens” me when I speak. I am confident in what I am saying, and I really don’t need anyone else’s agreement or approval. I think this same insecurity lies at the heart of much of the controversy in the Church. It seems that we tend to surround ourselves with people who think and act just like we do in order to have a sense of reassurance that we are right. If anyone crosses our point of view, it is easier to break fellowship than it is to have a decent dialogue about the matter or, if consensus is not possible, to simply tolerate opposing opinions and still have fellowship.


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Years ago a pastor from Trinidad asked me to write the foreword and help him get into print a book of Bible studies that he had written. I read the book and found that I disagreed with several things he had written, especially his dispensational approach to Bible prophecy. I went ahead and wrote the foreword for him and Dayspring Bible Ministries and my home church underwrote the expense of having several hundred copies of his book printed and shipped to Trinidad. This pastor was and continues to do a wonderful job under very trying conditions in his home country. People are being won into the Kingdom of God and are growing as Christians as a result of his ministry. Why shouldn’t I support his efforts? So what if we have some theological differ-ences? I certainly have more in common with him than I have with the enemies of Christianity that are in control of that island nation. I would be derelict in my duty as a Christian not to give him every possible assistance.

Concerning creedal statements, I have further observed that they tend to crystallize every aspect of doctrinal faith, and this inhibits our ability to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Messiah” (2 Peter 3:18). It is rather difficult to “grow” in our expression of the Christian faith once a formulaic statement has been established that defines not only what one must think but also how one must articulate a particular doctrine in order to remain within the “pale of orthodoxy.” Even that expression demonstrates the restrictions of the creedal mentality. The word “pale” literally means “a stake or pointed stick; a picket; a fence enclosing an area.” The expression “pale of orthodoxy” emphasizes limitations, not possibilities. Once a concept is committed to print in a creedal statement, people tend to look at it

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as the “final word” on the matter. But the “final word” can only be found in the pages of Holy Writ and there God has seen fit in His grace and mercy not to be as dogmatic as we humans tend to be in our creeds and statements of faith.

One can search the entire Bible from Genesis to Maps and not be able to find a set of propositional dogma that we are obligated to blindly endorse as New Testament Christians. Instead of being given a religious code on stone or parchment, we have the promise, “I will set my Law within them and write it on their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10). Furthermore, we are admonished to be like the Bereans who “eagerly received the message, and searched the Scriptures every day to determine if what they had heard was really true” (Acts 17:11).

History has demonstrated time and time again that the creeds do not unify; rather they divide. Every one of the creeds was written in order to oust some person or group from the fellowship of the universal Church. The creeds, in many cases, actually frustrate the answer to Jesus’ prayer:

20“I am not praying for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me because of their testimony, 21that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they be one in Us so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22And the glory You gave to Me, I have given to them, so that they may be one just as We are one—23I in them and You in Me, all as a complete whole. Then the world will know that You sent Me, and that You have loved them just as You have loved Me.”

—JOHN 17:20-23


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The mark of discipleship is not strict adherence to a doctrinal statement, but genuine love among the brothers and sisters who claim to be in fellowship with Jesus.

35This is the way that you will be known as My disciples—by loving one another.

—JOHN 13:35

So the fact that the preterist approach to Bible prophecy is not endorsed by the creeds does not really bother me as long as I am convinced that I remain on solid Biblical ground. The same holds true for the writings of the Church Fathers.

I truly wish that some Christian writer immediately after the A.D. 70 event (my choice would have been John the apostle, since he was probably the only apostle to survive that event) could have written a clear declaration of the full ramifications of the A.D. 70 event and that it could have been preserved for us today. However, I do not need such a document in order to understand the message of the Word of God on this topic any more than I need the comments of the Church Fathers on any other area of theology in order to validate my understanding of the Scriptures. As valuable as the Patristic writings are for historical purposes, they are not essential for the establishment of doctrine.

There are however, two early documents that are evidence that the early church held preterist views.

The First Epistle of Clement, for example, may not be a post-A.D. 70 document as some have supposed. Although many scholars date this letter at A.D. 96, others scholars disagree and date it from the early months of A.D. 70—before the Fall of Jerusalem. If that is so, and such eminent scholars as John A.T. Robinson4 and George Edmundson5

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think it is, then the passages in First Clement relating to Matthew 24 are very pertinent to our discussion. That this document was written before the destruction of the Temple is indicated by Clement speaking of it in the present tense in chapter 41, as if it were still standing:

Not in every place, brethren, are the daily sacrifices offered, or the peace-offerings, or the sin-offerings and the trespass-offerings, but in Jerusalem only. And even there they are not offered in any place, but only at the altar before the temple, that which is offered being first carefully examined by the high priest and the ministers already mentioned. 6

Previously, in chapter 5 of his epistle, Clement had identified himself and his readers with same generation as the one that had witnessed the martyrdom of Peter and Paul:

But not to dwell upon ancient examples, let us come to the most recent spiritual heroes. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. Through envy and jealousy, the greatest and most righteous pillars [of the Church] have been persecuted and put to death. Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labors, and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him. Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects.


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Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience.7

Notice particularly Clement’s witness to the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14—“this Good News about the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come”—with his words about Paul: “preaching both in the east and west” and “having taught righteousness to the whole world.”

A second first-century document that stands as a witness to the preterist position is the little manual of church instruction known as The Didache (or The Teaching of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles to the Gentiles). This document also is probably of pre-A.D. 70 vintage. The definitive work on The Didache was written by the French-Canadian Jean Paul Audet8 who concluded “that it was composed, almost certainly in Antioch, between 50 and 70.”

So then, if The Didache were written before the destruction of Jerusalem, then its final chapter dealing with the coming of the Lord is highly significant for preterists.

Watch over your life. Do not let your lamps be extin-guished or your body unclothed, but be ready; for you do not know the hour in which our Lord comes.

Assemble yourselves together frequently to seek the things that benefit your souls, for all the time of your faith will not profit you unless you are perfect at the last. For in the last days, false prophets and seducers will increase, turning the sheep into wolves; and love will be turned into hate.

For lawlessness will increase and they will hate and persecute and betray one another. And then the deceiver of the

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world will appear as though he were the Son of God, and he shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands; and he will commit immoralities which have never been done since the age began.

Then shall the race of men come into the fire of proving trial and many shall be made to stumble and perish. But those who remain established in their faith shall be saved under the very curse.

And then the signs of truth shall be revealed. First, a sign spread out in heaven; then a sign of the sound of a trumpet; and third, the resurrection of the dead, but not all of the dead. But as it was said, “the Lord shall come and all His Holy Ones with Him.” Then the world shall see the Lord coming in the clouds of heaven. 9

This final chapter of The Didache is a summation of the Olivet Discourse, and if written before A.D. 70, which in all likelihood it was, then this is indeed a strong testimony for the veracity of the preterist position.

Writings that are post-A.D. 70, however, are not so “preterist-friendly.” Let’s try to understand why.

The calamity of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was only a part of the world-wide turmoil that gripped all of society in every land. The brief reign of Titus (A.D. 79-81) was followed by that of his brother Domitian (A.D. 81-96) who is remembered only as a tyrant and one of the worst persecutors of Christianity. He distrusted the Senate and persecuted his opponents in a reign of terror. Historians describe the reign of Domitian as an age of spies, secret denun-ciations, and executions. Domitian himself was murdered in a palace conspiracy that included his wife.10


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The Christian community was at all times regarded by the Roman Empire with suspicion and dislike, and from time to time this animosity would flare up into full-blown persecution. The first two persecutions occurred under Nero (before the A.D. 70 event) and under Domitian (the first great persecution after A.D. 70).

The third began in the third year of the reign of Trajan (A.D. 98-117), in the year 100. Trajan is quoted as saying, “Anyone who denies that he is a Christian and actually proves this by worshipping our gods is pardoned on repentance, no matter how suspect his past may have been,” and is infamous for causing the martyrdom of Ignatius of Antioch in A.D. 116.

In the eighth year of his cousin and successor, Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), persecution broke out in a new rage. Some count this as a fourth general persecution, but most historians consider it to be a continuation of the persecution that started under Trajan because the persecution was relentless and without a break. Under Hadrian another Jewish revolt led by Bar Kochba was suppressed, and Jews were forbidden to enter Palestine on pain of death.

Emperor Hadrian’s successors, Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161) and Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180) continued the persecutions. Polycarp of Smyrna was martyred during the reign of Antoninus Pius.

So for a century following the Fall of Jerusalem, the Christians were fighting for their lives. It is no wonder that they would have failed to see the glorious significance of the A.D. 70 event.

This century was also marked by a marked decline in the quality of writing produced by the Christian community. This is really only to be expected considering the survival mode in which they were operating. But the writings of Ignatius, or Polycarp, or Papius are sadly inferior to the Pauline epistles or the book of Hebrews.

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The writings of Ignatius (about A.D. 116) focused on the current persecution, and rightfully so. However, like so many others of this period, he actively sought martyrdom, seeing that as the highest form of unity with Christ. He sought to prevent any action that might hinder him from becoming “pure bread of Christ” by the grinding of the teeth of the wild beasts.11

Polycarp’s letter (also about A.D. 116),12 written in response to one he had received from the Church at Philippi, demonstrates little, if any, originality, for he quoted often, directly and indirectly, from both the Old and New Testament scriptures. His writing, however, is a valuable second-century witness to the life and belief of the early Church. What it portrays is a community fighting for survival and trying to maintain its inherited tradition with little time for theological articulation.

The document known as Pseudo-Barnabas (about A.D. 130) addressed the problem of the Judaisers who continued to plague the Church even after the crushing demise of that system in A.D. 70. The writer used over 100 quotations from the Old Testament, mostly in an allegorical fashion, a la Philo. He appealed to the defeat of Judaism in A.D. 70 as the occasion of “the spiritual temple built for the Lord”13 replacing the physical Temple that was destroyed. But he did not draw any further conclusions about the parousia or the resurrection.

The fragments of the writings of Papias (middle of the second century),14 quoted in Irenaeus, show him to be a millenialist, and therefore not of the mindset of modern preterists at all.

The sermon called the Second Epistle of Clement,15 written about A.D. 150 by someone other than Clement of Rome is an interesting example of preaching during the second century, but it also has no references to the A.D. 70 event.


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The Shepherd of Hermas,16 a piece of apocalyptic literature written also about A.D. 150, was modeled after the book of Revelation as to style, but its subject matter (repentance and holy living) is totally different from Revelation. Consequently, it also does not address the topic of the Fall of Jerusalem.

The anonymously written Epistle to Dionetus (late second century) has two chapters dealing with Judaism17—“Superstitions of the Jews” and “The Other Observances of the Jews”—neither of which refer to the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

The charges brought against Christians, not to mention the official policy of treating the church as an unauthorized association, impelled believers not only to bear witness in suffering but also to explain and defend their faith. There arose, therefore, in the course of the second century a new genre of Christian literature, the “apology”—so called from the Greek apologia, meaning “ a speech for the defense.” The authors of these works are known collectively as the Apologists; and though writings of this type [continued to be] produced long after the close of the second century, the period from about 130 to about 180 A.D. is frequently referred to as the age of the Apologists.18

These men included Aristides, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origin, Tertullian, and Hyppolytus. The thrusts of the Apologists were mainly two-fold. One was the syncretism of Christian doctrine with Greek philosophy, again a la Philo. The other was polemics against the Gnostics, a broad group of religious philosophers probably dating back to the time of the apostles, but particularly creating a crisis in the Church from the middle of the second century to the end of the fourth.

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Toward the end of the second century, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul, wrote five monumental books against the gnostic heresies of his area, together with a book entitled Proof of the Apostolic Preaching…His theology was grounded in the Bible and the church’s doctrines and helped provide a steadying, positive influence in the church. He wrote of the cosmic implications of the work of Christ and God’s plan in history, and paved the way for the later Christian interpretations of history by writers such as Augustine.

Tertullian’s Apology underlined the legal and moral absurdity of the persecution directed against Christians. Some of his other books offered encouragement to those facing martyrdom. He attacked the heretics, explained the Lord’s Prayer and the meaning of baptism, and helped develop the orthodox understanding of the Trinity. He was the first person to use the Latin word trinitas (trinity)…His intellect-tual brilliance and literary versatility made him one of the most powerful writers of the time.19

But despite their valuable contributions, Bruce Shelley says, “The real intellectual giants, however, were still to come.”20

For our purposes in trying to determine why the early Church did not fully grasp the significance of the A.D. 70 event, I can only offer the following opinions:

• The Church was in the throes of severe persecution and their unchanged circumstances from the days of Nero to the days of Domitian did not lend itself to an under-standing that the A.D. 70 event had brought the final consummation of the Kingdom of God.


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• The leaders of the Church immediately after A.D. 70 were distracted by other concerns, namely basic survival. Because martyrdom seemed inevitable, they embraced it as the highest form of Christian service, rather than contending for dominion and victory. I am sure I would have done the same thing, but it is evident that they resigned themselves to the pressures of the day.

• The scholarship of the leaders of the Church in the century after A.D. 70 was decidedly inferior to that of the apostles as well as that of those who would follow them in subsequent centuries.

• Because those first generations of Christians immediately after A.D. 70 did not interpret that event in the light of Jesus’ plain teaching in the Olivet Discourse, subsequent generations of Christians did not make the connection either. By the time a full century had elapsed, this lack of understanding had become solidified as tradition, and we are its victims even to this day.

One of the primary arguments against full preterism is the silence of the Apostolic Fathers on the subject. If those closest to the event did not understand it as the preterists explain it, so the argument goes, then how could the preterist position possibly be correct? For me, the above bulleted items explain it adequately.

The situation in the early Church is somewhat similar to the one Paul described concerning Jews who could not see Jesus as the Messiah because of Moses.

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11For if the present order which is being rendered useless was ushered in with glory, how much more glorious is that which lasts forever.

12Therefore, since we have such a hope, I can be very bold in what I am about to say, 13and not like Moses who put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from seeing that the glory on his face was fading and coming to an end. 14As a result, their minds became calloused, and, indeed, to this very day, that same veil is still there when they hear the public reading of the Old Covenant in the synagogue, nor is it revealed to them that this covenant has been abolished by Christ. 15Even to this very day, when the Law of Moses is read, the veil lies over their hearts.

—2 CORINTHIANS 3:11-15

This passage is particularly significant because Paul was describing the waning Judaistic economy as that “which is being rendered useless.” Even though it was instituted with great glory, its time had come to an end, and a more glorious administration of divine governance was in the process of superceding it.

Then Paul reveals a fact of history that is never disclosed in the Old Testament. We would never have known this happened if we did not have these words of Paul in this epistle.

Moses came down from Mount Sinai where he had encountered God’s glory. The effect was that Moses’ face was so brilliant with the glory of God that the people could not stand to look at him. So Moses put on a veil when he went before the people. This is all recorded in Exodus, chapter 34.

So far, so good. But what the Old Testament account does not tell us is that the

glory eventually began to fade from Moses’ face. He was faced with a


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dilemma. Should he admit to the people that the glory was only temporary, or should he let them continue to believe that the glory still remained? The second option had some real practical value. Moses had endured considerable opposition from the people ever since leaving Egypt. Now he was viewed as the one who was so close to God that his face shone like the sun. Why mess up a good thing?

So Moses did indeed choose to deceive the people by continuing to wear the veil even after the glory was completely gone. Was this a practical political move, or was it just an expression of Moses’ ego? We do not know, but what we do know, because Paul tells us so, is that Moses refused to remove the veil even after it had ceased to serve any real purpose.

The fading of the glory on Moses’ face was intended by God to be an illustration of the temporary nature of the dispensation of the Old Covenant. Although it was glorious, it was to be superceded by an even greater glory, that of the New Covenant. But the Israelites never got to see that object lesson because Moses never removed the veil when he was in front of the people. He died and was borne away to be buried by angels without ever having disclosed his little secret.

If Moses’ ego was all that was at stake, we could simply say, “No harm, no foul.” But there was much more at stake. Paul said that Moses’ action placed a veil over the hearts and minds of the Israelites so that they were blinded to Jesus’ offer of the New Covenant. He said that every time the Law of Moses was read publicly in the synagogue, that veil was there blinding them to the Law’s true meaning.

If Moses had only let them see that the glory was intended by God to fade away, they would have been prepared for that which was more glorious when it arrived. As it was, they were blinded to truth because of Moses’ actions.

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I am not in any way suggesting that any deliberate deception was practiced by the early Church leaders after A.D. 70. God forbid! But I am suggesting that their failure to understand the true significance of what happened in A.D. 70 has had negative repercussions in the Church in every age since. Because of their failure to understand and record the full meaning of the Fall of Je4rusalem, a “veil” lies over the minds of prophecy students to this day.

Maybe the time has come for the Church to re-evaluate the message of the Olivet Discourse and the book of Revelation and try to come to a more reasonable consensus on the subject of eschatology. The benefit of 20-20 hindsight should certainly help us do a better job that those first- and second-century leaders who were at such a disadvantage fighting for their very existence.

I reminds me of the story of the engineers who were dispatched to drain a swamp and make the land habitable. After several weeks of absolutely no progress a telegram was dispatched asking the reason for the delay. An answer was promptly returned, “Cannot drain swamp. Too busy fighting alligators.”

Well, today the persecuting “alligators” are at bay. Perhaps it is time that we turn our attention to seeking for some sensible answers in the field of eschatology—answers that will give the Church new hope.

The Hope of the Christian 11The grace of God that brings salvation to all people has shone

forth. 12Its discipline causes us to reject ungodly and worldly desires so that we can live moderate, upright, and devout lives in this present age 13as we expectantly await with joyous hope the revelation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

—TITUS 2:11-13


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11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

—TITUS 2:11-13 (NKJV)

I have given both my own rendering of this verse and the more traditional reading of the NEW KING JAMES VERSION. This is one of the Scripture passages that is frequently quoted in sermons about the “second coming” of Christ, and the phrase “the blessed hope” has served as the title for quite a number of books on the subject.

If Jesus returned in A.D. 70, however, then a future “second coming” is no longer the “blessed hope” for Christians today. The preterist viewpoint is often rejected for this very reason. “Jesus could not have returned in A.D. 70,” we are told, “His return is still the blessed hope of the Church.”

But it should not be difficult to see that something that was future when the New Testament was written, but that has happened and is, consequently, not future for us, would not be a source of hope for us.

The Scripture would still be as valid as it ever was. We would just not try to apply it directly to ourselves, understanding that while it may have been written FOR us, it was not written directly TO us. Instead of trying to find a direct message to ourselves in its words, we would take a passage such as this and seek to know what its message was to those to whom it was originally written and then draw any applicable lessons it may have for us out of that original context.

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A key phrase in this passage from the letter to Titus is “in this present age.” Remember that the period of time in which the apostles were living prior to the parousia of Jesus and the final end of the old Judaic economy, was called by them “this present age” or even “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4). The age that was beginning to unfold, but that had not yet come in its fullness was called by them “the age to come.” (check out the various ways this phrase is used in Matthew 12:32, Luke 18:30, Ephesians 2:7, and Hebrews 6:5.)

The hope of that “present age” was the soon-approaching parousia, the “glorious appearing” of Jesus, the “revelation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” This was the hope that sustained them through that tumultuous generation leading up to the events of A.D. 70.

Paul, when writing about another aspect of that expectation, the great prospects in store for all creation that would be achieved through the approaching culmination of the ages, described it with these words:

22We know that the whole human creation groans together as if in a birthing process right up to the present time. 23Not only that, but we ourselves—the firstfruits of the Spirit—sigh inwardly as we eagerly await our full sonship and the deliverance of our whole being. 24It was in this hope that we were saved, but if we already have what we hoped for, then there is no longer any need for hope. After all, who hopes for what he already sees? 25But if we hope for that which we do not see as yet, then we eagerly wait for it with confidence and patience.

—ROMANS 8:22-25


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Until a thing has been fully realized, it is natural to hope for it. Standing before us, it beckons us onward. It prospects keep us encouraged. Its potential gives us the power to persevere.

But after a thing has been attained, hope is no longer a valid response. No matter how powerful its appeal was before its attainment, after it has become a reality, it no longer has the power to draw us into the future. Why should one long expectantly for something when one already has it? The is precisely what Paul was urging the Christians in Rome to understand.

Hope is “the reasonable expectation of a favorable outcome.” When one hopes for something that is unreasonable, we often use the expression “hope against hope.” All too often this then becomes the meaning that has been given to the basic word “hope” itself. But when we read the word “hope” in the Scriptures, we should understand it not as “hope against hope,” but rather as being a “reasonable expectation.”

For first-generation Christians, to hope for the soon return of Jesus was a reasonable expectation. Jesus had explicitly promised it. They had no reason to doubt Him. The “appearing of the great God and our savior Jesus Christ” was indeed their “blessed hope.”

But for the “second coming” to be our hope today is not a reasonable expectation. Jesus could not simultaneously fulfill the expectations of first-century Christians and also fulfill ours today by “coming again.” If Jesus’ coming is still future, then the “blessed hope” of the first-century Christians was a colossal disappointment. By the same token, if Jesus returned at the end of that first generation of Christianity as He promised, then for us to continue to hold that event as a “blessed hope” is sure to be a colossal disappointment for us.

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I have heard since I was a little boy that Jesus could come “at any moment.” I cannot tell you how many times as a child I fully expected the Lord to return on a particular date based on the sermons I heard, and how disappointed I was over and over when He did not come as expected. And it was not my immature under-standing that was at fault. I understood exactly what had been preached. I was living a life of faith based on those sermons, but my faith was rewarded with disappointment.

The Bible has something to say about this phenomenon also: 12Hope deferred makes the heart sick;

But desire fulfilled is a tree of life. —PROVERBS 13:12

After a lifetime of hearing such predictions, and for those predictions to have always failed to come to pass, one can truly become “heartsick.” For one’s faith to fail totally, to the point of giving up on Christianity altogether, is not out of the question.

Several years ago I taught my prophecy course21 in Bulgaria. At that time, I was teaching from the partial preterist position, but it was still radically different from the pre-trib dispensationalism that my students had been taught in their various churches. When it was announced that I would be teaching for two weeks on the subject of Bible prophecy, several new students from the city of Sofia enrolled for just that course. The subject of Bible prophecy has that kind of appeal everywhere you go.

After I had taught the lesson on the Olivet Discourse, and showed how the so-called “signs of the times” were referring to first century events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, I had a number of students come to me saying, “I wish we


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could have heard this ten years ago. When the iron curtain first came down, Western evangelists streamed into our country, and their primary message was, ‘Jesus is coming back at any moment!’ Thousands were saved, and they were so excited. They really believed that message. But when Jesus did not return after the first few months of the revival, they got discouraged and decided that if that part of the message was not true, then none of it was true. They left the Church by the thousands.”

My position on prophecy at that time did not include the full preterist stance that I have presented in this book. I still held out the “second coming” as a future event. But just the more balanced approach of not preaching an “any-moment rapture” struck these students as being a much preferable approach to Bible prophecy. They believed that many of their friends and family would still be Christians if they had not had their hopes built up and then dashed in disappointment.

After that experience, I have had to wonder how so many of us who grew up hearing the dispensationalist message were able to maintain our faith after disappointment upon disappointment. Perhaps the Bulgarian Christians believed that message more strongly than we did, or they were more honest, and when the predicted events did not come to pass, they actually did what many of us had been tempted to do through the years—they quit!

What a ridiculous corner we have painted ourselves into when we continue to hope for something that has already happened! As long as we continue to ignore the plain teaching of the Scriptures, as long as we ignore what Jesus really said, we will continue to hope for an event that is never going to happen! Consequently, we will continue to have churches full of heartsick Christians, the

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subject of eschatology will continue to be enshrouded by confusion, and our credibility in the eyes of the world will continue to suffer.

So then, what is our hope? Paul said that the three great bulwarks or bastions of the Christian faith were “faith, hope, and love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Although love is declared to be the greatest of the three, hope is still in the list, and Christians need something to hope for. Paul told the Ephesian Christians that before they came to Christ, theirs was “a world without hope and without God” (Ephesians 2:12).

The clear implication is that becoming a Christian should give one hope—but hope in what?

25I became a servant of the Household of God—a commission that was given to me for you—in order that I might fully carry out the task of proclaiming the word of God, 26the truth that had been hidden through all past ages from all humankind, but now has been revealed to His consecrated followers, to whom God chose to make known the glorious riches of this truth among the nations—Christ is in you, and that enables you to confidently expect to share in the glory of God.

—COLOSSIANS 1:25-27

The more familiar words of verse 27 from our traditional English Bibles are: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

This is the very heart of the Christian message—what Paul called a “mystery” in our traditional versions. But a “mystery” is not a riddle or an enigma, something that remains unsolvable. Rather, it is, according to Paul, a “truth that had been hidden through all past ages…but now has been revealed.” That revealed


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truth is to be considered as “glorious riches” in its value. It is of inestimable worth. It is the treasure of the Christian faith.

What is this treasure? It is the fact that “Christ is in you, and that enables you to confidently expect to share in the glory of God.” Now that is something to look forward to. That is a real hope. That, in fact, is what the Second Coming of Christ brought to Planet Earth. The “blessed hope” of the first-century Christians is, in its essence, the same as our hope today. The parousia of Christ made possible the full-orbed operation of the Kingdom of God in the earth and the fulfillment of its destiny of taking the glory of God to the ends of the earth. This hope—the “hope of glory”—would be an unreasonable expectation without the fulfillment of the “blessed hope”—the parousia of Christ.

The pre-millennialists are correct when they say that the Kingdom of God in its consummated form can only be experienced on earth after the return of Jesus. They are incorrect in their expectation that the “second coming” is still future and that the Kingdom of God is not a present reality in the earth today.

The post-millennialists are correct when they say that the Church will be successful in time and history. They are incorrect in their expectation that the “second coming” is still future, and that the Church’s destiny of dominion and victory could be fulfilled without the benefit of that consummating event.

Only those who are consistent preterists have grasped the reality that the Church is indeed destined to successfully complete its assignment in the earth, but that that destiny could never be achieved had not Jesus returned with power and great glory just as He said He would, and that his parousia meant that His presence

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has fully been with His people ever since, and that presence is what makes possible our glorious destiny.

Amid temporary setbacks from time to time, the Kingdom of God continually advances in the earth. Sometimes it is “two steps forward, one step back,” but the general direction is ever forward. Current events do not dictate the validity of the promises of God. True faith does not focus on circumstances, but rather focuses on “thus says the Lord.”

The optimism of post-millennialism rose in the days of the nineteenth-century when the advancements of science and techno-logy seemed to be leading us into an ever brighter day. That theology waned when the world was shocked by two world wars that were more horrendous than previous wars because of that very same technology. But if that optimism were truly based on an understanding of God’s Word (and I believe that it was), then its advocates should not have defected regardless of the turmoil of the twentieth century. By the same token, credibility should not be given to a system such as dispensationalism just because the world situation seems to be getting darker and darker.

Those Christians who truly grasp what God is up to will never be perplexed by newspaper headlines. They will never be deterred in their resolve to take the glory of God to the ends of the earth. Although they may cringe with embarrassment when they review the Church’s tarnished history, they will not let history deter them either. Instead they will resolve never to make those mistakes again, but instead press forward with an earnest desire to know God’s ways more perfectly and to follow him more truly.

Those Christians who truly grasp what God is up to will not be led astray by sensationalism. The date-setting antics of false prophets


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will not cause them any anxiety. They will not be found selling their homes and moving to the top of the mountains with some spiritual guru, and they will never be the victims of poisoned Kool-Aid®.

Those Christians who truly grasp what God is up to will feel a sense of urgency about the business of the Kingdom of God, but they will never be frustrated with anxiety about what may happen tomorrow. They know that God is not anxious, because time is on His side. They know that when the Scriptures say, “With God a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day” (2 Peter 3:8), that this is not some eschatological formula for setting dates, but rather they know that this is a promise from God that he will be faithful to keep His Word.

Those Christians who truly grasp what God is up to know that He is “the faithful God who keeps covenant for a thousand generations with those who love Him” (Deuteronomy 7:9). If a generation is 40 years, then we can count on God’s faithfulness for at least 40,000 years. The 2000 years of Church history covers a only five percent of that promise—it is only just a start.

I often encourage myself with that thought when I’m shaking my head over some of the atrocious things that have happened in the Church over the past 2,000 years, such as the Inquisition and the Crusades. I realize that so far the Church has only gone through its “terrible twos” and has not yet reached the place of spiritual maturity and that is God’s destiny for us.

11It was He indeed who gave gifts to the Church—some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be shepherds and teachers. 12Their purpose is to equip God’s people for service in order that the Body of Messiah might be continually built up 13until we all arrive at oneness

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of faith and of full recognition of the Son of God—a mature corporate Body reaching the full measure of Messiah’s stature.

14Then we will no longer be like infants, tossed back and forth and swept away with every teaching that blows through. Then you will no longer be the victims of cunning teachers who use deceptive methods to twist the truth. 15To the contrary, may we pursue truth in order that we may, in love, grow up in every way into Messiah, who is the head.

—EPHESIANS 4:11-15

We have not attained this status yet. A more accurate descrip-tion of the Church today are the words that Jesus used to describe His generation: “

16“To what can I compare this generation? It is like children seated in the market and calling out to one another, 17‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance; we wailed with sorrow, but you did not beat your chest.’”

—MATTHEW 11:16-17

When I see the unmitigated foolishness that is pawned off as the Gospel, especially the “gimme-God” prosperity message of some televangelists and the yellow journalism tactics of the prophecy pundits, I know that we are still just “children in the marketplace.” We have a long way to go before we reach “the full measure of Messiah’s stature.”

But I am encouraged when I remember that time is on God’s side, and that in his mercy and grace He patiently waits for us to grow up. He has not judged us as we deserve. Instead He blesses us in spite of our silliness, and He ensures that His Kingdom continues to advance in the earth in spite of the help we try to give Him.


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I told the story in my previous book22 about my oldest son when he was only two years old and came out into the backyard with his rake to help me with the leaves. I was almost finished and had several piles of leaves ready to be bagged. He waded into those piles with his little rake and strewed them all over the backyard. I had to do my job all over again. But I was so delighted that he wanted to help his daddy that I gladly re-raked the leaves. His mother and I still talk about that to this day. I got the job done, not because of his help, but in spite of it.

In the same way, God allows us to participate in this grand enterprise called the Kingdom of God, and it advances in the earth, many times, not because of our efforts, but in spite of us.

But how much more effective the Church will be when we wake up to the fact that we have not grown up as yet, but that the world is still waiting for the full manifestation of the Sons of God (Romans 8). I see encouraging signs of this taking place from time to time. I see more and more Christians embracing the concept of the Kingdom of God as a present reality and not something that has been postponed to some millennium out in the future somewhere. I see more and more Christians, especially since the Y2K debacle, abandoning the empty house of cards that is dispensationalism with all its date-setting nonsense.

Maybe we are growing up, after all! Maybe we will stop being “like infants, tossed back and forth and swept away with every teaching that blows through.” Maybe we are ready to “pursue truth in order that we may, in love, grow up in every way into Messiah, who is the head.”

If so, then we are ready to start seeing the fulfillment of our true Christian hope which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”! If so, we

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can stop talking about “holding on till Jesus comes” and singing old songs like “Hold the Fort for I Am Coming.”23 If so, we can change our focus from “being taken out of the world” to “taking His glory to the ends of the world.”

God and Time

John Bray, in his little booklet on the Olivet Discourse, tells of being asked about the Christian hope in the light of preterist eschatology:

Somebody said to me one time, “Well, Brother Bray, if those things have been fulfilled, what do we have now?” I hear this a lot.

Well, what do they have? They want an Antichrist. They want a Battle of Armageddon. They want blood flowing four-and-a-half feet deep. They want all that stuff. Why? We’ve got Jesus! And the Holy Spirit!

It’s like somebody way back before the Israelites were delivered across the Red Sea to the Promised Land, who finally go across as God fulfills His promise to deliver them. And there is a futurist standing there. And he says, “It’s all over now. What do we have now?”

Many years later all the prophecies about the death of Jesus on the cross were fulfilled in His death. And after He died, He was buried, He was raised, and He went to Heaven. In the group of disciples who were there, there was a futurist who stood there. He said, “It’s all over. It’s all fulfilled. What do we have now?”

Let me tell you about this guy. Some day he is going to get to Heaven, I hope. And everything is over. And he’s


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enjoying the glories of Heaven. He’s enjoying the presence of God, and the Holy Spirit, and Jesus; all the other saints of God are there with Jesus eternally. And he stands there thinking, “Well, it’s all over! What do we have now?”

It’s amazing!24

Well, it is amazing that God would fulfill all His promises and we would have the audacity to say, “Is that all there is?”

The message of fulfilled eschatology should fill our hearts with excitement. Instead, for some, it is a message that fills them with consternation. I understand that. I resisted the message of full preterism for years. The first time I allowed myself to seriously entertain the idea that the Second Coming of Christ was a past reality, and that the Resurrection of the Dead and the Great Judgment were also past, I would not have been surprised if I had been struck by lightening. Surely there was something blasphe-mous in even thinking the words, “Jesus has already come back.”

But the Scriptural evidence was overpowering, and once I yielded to logical persuasiveness of the Word of God, I then began to see what a tremendous message this was, not just for me, but for the whole world.

Think about it! God, with patient deliberation set about to implement a program for the redemption of His creation.

After Adam sinned, making redemption necessary, God covenanted with Adam and promised that one day a Redeemer would come who would crush the serpent’s head. Then God, with patient deliberation, allowed humankind to live for about 1600 years with nothing but this single redemptive promise.

When the sin in the land became so bad that God resorted to destroying it with the Great Flood, He reiterated His promise of

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redemption and marked out Noah’s son, Shem, whose name means “name,” as the chosen carrier of the redemptive promise. But God also gave Noah the prophecy that the younger son, Japheth, whose name means “enlargement,” would share in the redemptive promises by dwelling “in the tents of Shem.” Then God, with patient deliberation, allowed humankind to live for a little over 400 years with nothing but this tiny bit of additional information concerning the redemptive promise.

Then God called Abraham to be an especially chosen one from whom great nations would arise, both spiritually and naturally. He set before Abraham the preposterous idea that the whole world would be blessed through his Seed, the Redeemer who would later be known as the Desire of All Nations. A part of the foreview of the future that God gave to Abraham was that his descendants would live as slaves in Egypt for about 400 years, but that when the time was right, He would deliver them and bring them home. Then God, with patient deliberation, allowed humankind to live for another 400-plus years with this new unfolding of His redemptive promise.

Sure enough, when the time was right, God raised up Moses as His people’s deliverer, and the nation of Israel was born. God spelled out His covenant and redemptive intentions in a more detailed way than He had ever before revealed. Through Moses God told the Israelites that He was going to send them The Prophet with God’s final word for humankind. God had waited two-and-a-half millennia to make this information (the Law) known. Then God, with patient deliberation, allowed humankind to live for another 400-plus years with this new unfolding of His redemptive promise.

At a critical point in Israel’s history, they asked to be given a king like the other nations around them, and God acquiesced and


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raised up David, a man after His own heart, to rule over the nation. God gave David the promise that one of his descendants would be Israel’s Deliverer and that He would sit on the throne of David forever. Then God, with patient deliberation, allowed humankind to live for another 400-plus years with this new unfolding of His redemptive promise.

Then the people of Israel experienced two devastating setbacks. Because of their sin and rebellion against God, first the northern kingdom of Israel was defeated and sent into exile by the Assyrians, and then 150 years later the same thing happened to the southern kingdom of Judah at the hands of the Babylonians. One of those taken into Babylonian captivity was a young man named Daniel. He would be the instrument through whom God would reveal the next part of the redemptive program. God’s people were to be held in Babylon for 70 years, and then in another 490 years Messiah the Prince would come. Then God, with patient deliberation, allowed humankind to live for almost 600 years with this new unfolding of His redemptive promise.

And then Christ came! He was the Head Crusher, the Redeemer, the Prophet, the Son of David, Messiah the Prince! He was the answer to all the longed-for expectations of God’s people since the beginning of time. When Jesus came, He brought a message about the ending of an old order of things and the breaking forth of a new day in God’s redemptive program. The Old Covenant would be dissolved and a New Covenant would take its place. The natural nation would give way to a spiritual nation. On the night before His Crucifixion, He ushered in that New Covenant order of things and the next day as He hang dying on the Cross, the old order of things began to be dispensed with as God tore the veil in the Temple from

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top to bottom. Then, within a generation, the entire Temple complex and all that it stood for came tumbling down stone by stone.

Does this overview help you to see what God was up to all along? With patient deliberation God orchestrated His vast plan and step by step led it to its grand finale—the ushering in of His glorious Kingdom, the full rectification of all that had gone wrong in Eden. God made it possible that fallen humanity could make it back to the Tree of Life—Jesus Messiah! This is a glorious plan that takes us from a garden—the garden of Eden—to a city—the New Jerusalem!

Take a look at this simple chart showing the duration of each of these steps in the redemptive program. (I am using Ussher’s Chronology, not because I believe it to be accurate or the last word on the subject, but because these dates have become somewhat traditional in Christian Bible study. They are the dates that will most likely be found in the margins of many study Bibles.)

Event Key Person Date Duration of this Stage of Redemption The Fall Adam 4004 B.C. 1656 years

The Flood Noah 2348 B.C. 427 years The Call Abraham 1921 B.C. 430 years The Law Moses 1491 B.C. 464 years (1521 total)

The Kingdom David 1027 B.C. 482 years The Timetable Daniel 545 B.C. 575 years

The New Covenant Jesus A.D.30 Almost 2000 years and counting!

Notice how the lengths of the periods at the beginning and end of the chart are longer than the periods in the middle. The first stage lasted over 1600 years; the last one has lasted almost 2000 years so far. The periods in the middle have an average duration of about 475 years. After that first long stage, we can see a steady marching forward toward the fulfillment of God’s intentions at almost regular intervals.


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Now observe how the age of the Law—what we generally think of as the Old Covenant—lasted a little over 1500 years. Already the New Covenant age has lasted longer than that, and for good reason. The former was nothing more than preparation for the latter.

In fact, all of the ages prior to that of the New Covenant were preparatory to the present New Covenant age. Don’t you think that it would be rather odd for God to spend 4000 years preparing for an age that would only last 2000? Surely there is something more long-range going on here. We have already mentioned earlier in this chapter that God has promised His faithfulness to a thousand generations—that’s 40,000 years! My conviction is that He has only begun what He intends to do on Planet Earth. (And can you believe that Hal Lindsey wrote a book called The Late Great Planet Earth25 with all this evidence staring at him? And can you believe Christians bought so many of that book that the New York Times declared it to be the number-one non-fiction bestseller of the 1970s? I simply cringe at the gullibility and naiveté of Christians. Why are we so quick to believe such sensationalistic tripe, and then turn around and accuse someone who believes God’s word of being a “heretic.”)

We Christians today didn’t have the fortune of being a part of the firstfruits generation back in the first century. But, thank God, we also were not a part of those terrible dark medieval years when the Church got everything so askew. But we are now players on the stage of that exciting time when the Church is awakening to its vast potential. God is up to something BIG., and we are finally beginning to figure out what we are on this earth for. We have the tremendous privilege and challenge of laying the foundation for succeeding generations who will march triumphantly in the ever-brightening day as God’s glory fills the earth as the waters fill the seas!

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The Unfinished Work of Christ 23But you must continue in the faith, firmly established

and steadfast, not allowing yourselves to be moved from the hope of the Good News that you have heard and that has been proclaimed to every living being under heaven. It is to this Good News that I, Paul, have become a servant. 24And now I am actually glad concerning my hardships, because through my sufferings for you—His Body, the Called Out Ones— I complete what is deficient in the Passion of Messiah. 25I became a servant of the Household of God—a commission that was given to me for you—in order that I might fully carry out the task of proclaiming the word of God, 26the truth that had been hidden through all past ages from all humankind, but now has been revealed to His consecrated followers, 27to whom God chose to make known the glorious riches of this truth among the nations—Christ is in you, and that enables you to confidently expect to share in the glory of God.

—COLOSSIANS 1:23-27

Tucked in the middle of this declaration of the preaching of the Good News and of Paul the apostle’s commitment to its promul-gation throughout the world is a statement that seems almost blasphemous: “I complete what is deficient in the Passion of Christ.” Or, to use the language from the KING JAMES VERSION, “[I] fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodyʹs sake.”

How could Paul have the audacity to imply that ANYTHING could be DEFICIENT in the work of Christ?


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And yet this is exactly what Paul said! Check it out in any version of the Scriptures. The NEW KING JAMES VERSION renders it as “what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.” The NEW LIVING

TRANSLATION has Paul saying that he is completing “what remains of Christʹs sufferings.” YOUNG’S LITERAL TRANSLATION speaks of “the things lacking of the tribulations of the Christ.” The CAMBRIDGE BIBLE IN BASIC ENGLISH says, “whatever is still needed to make the sorrows of Christ complete.”

Yes, the Bible really says that! The Greek word u(ste/rhma {husterema—hoos-terʹ-ay-mah} means “behind, deficient, lacking, poverty, want, destitution, shortcoming.” There is an aspect of Christ’s sacrifice of Himself that is incomplete, that is unfinished.

And yet the FINISHED work of Christ is one of the founda-tional principles of the Gospel. The definitive statement is Christ’s own utterance:

30So when Jesus had swallowed the sour wine, He cried out, “It is finished!” Then, bowing His head, He yielded up His spirit.

—JOHN 19:30

There is NOTHING that we can add to the work of Christ on the Cross. We are indeed saved by grace through faith.

SALVATION = THE CROSS + NOTHING! 8For it is because of God’s special favor that you were and are

being saved. This became possible because you trusted in Him; however, it really is not your own doing at all—it is God’s gift to you. 9It certainly is not the result of human effort, so there is nothing that anyone can brag about.

—EPHESIANS 2:8-9

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We are saved by works…JUST NOT OURS—BUT HIS! The book of Hebrews is so lucid in its declaration that the work

of Christ on the Cross is a perfect, or a completed, work. The entire tenth chapter of Hebrews deals with this marvelous truth. Here we will only mention a few selected verses:

4…it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

—HEBREWS 10:4 12But Christ, on the other hand, when He had offered one

sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at God’s right side. —HEBREWS 10:12

14For by that single act of offering up Himself, He has completely dealt with sin for all time in behalf of those whom He is setting apart for Himself.

—HEBREWS 10:14

So how can there be any UNFINISHED work of Christ? The work of REDEMPTION is finished! There is absolutely

nothing that needs to be done to bring redemption to fallen human-kind. It is, indeed, a finished work!

But the work of RECONCILIATION is NOT FINISHED! 17So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The

old has passed away—look! The new has come! 18This newness is all the work of God who through Christ has brought us back to Himself, and who has assigned us the task of bringing others back to Him. 19As it is said, “Through Christ, God was recon-ciling the people of the world to Himself, not charging their sins


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to their account.” This is the message He has given us to declare—that people can have peace with God.

—2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-19

The NEW KING JAMES VERSION’s wording of these verses is perhaps more familiar:

18Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

The work that Jesus Christ did on the Cross makes possible the reconciling of all humankind to God. But as yet, all humans have not been reconciled to Him. That’s the part that is “lacking” or “deficient” in the work of Christ. Though the means of reconciliation (the work of redemption) has been accomplished, the actual work of reconciliation (the Great Commission) has not been finished.

That’s the work that has been reserved for us as followers of Jesus. We have been given the “ministry of reconciliation” and the “word of reconciliation.”

Paul further describes the reconciling work of the Christian in the next verse:

Therefore we serve as Messianic ambassadors. It is as though God were making His plea through us. Therefore we urge you, as though Messiah Himself were here, “Be reconciled to God!”


An ambassador is one who serves as a representative of his country—its leader and its people—to a foreign country. He or she has

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the power to negotiate with that foreign nation, and when he or she speaks, it is the same as the executive leader or the legislative body of the home country speaking. Of course, all ambassadors are trained in the art of international diplomacy and have been instructed concern-ing what they can and cannot say. But when they speak, all the power of the home country stands behind what they have said.

We followers of Jesus have been authorized to speak on His behalf. Heaven binds and looses according to our words as Kingdom Ambassadors. The terms of negotiation that we have been given to convey to the foreign powers are simple and direct; they are also easy to transmit because they are the words of Good News! We can tell the world, “I have been authorized by the King of kings to inform you on His behalf that He has made provision for you to be at peace with Him. The price of your redemption has been paid. Now, be reconciled to God!”

As Missionary Evangelist T.L. Osbourne has been saying for years, “The world is already saved, they just don’t know it!”

But they need to know it! That’s the Good News! God has made a way for fallen humans to be reconciled to Him.

Redemption history has been completed. There is nothing left to be done in that arena. Jesus did it all! Redemption history was 4000 years in preparation. 1500 of those years was the period of the Law that had as its express purpose “to guide us to Messiah” (Galatians 3:24). Jesus came, and as the Lamb of God, fulfilled all the provisions of the Law and paid the supreme price for our redemption on the Cross. In His Parousia, a generation later, He completed all the facets of redemption history, bringing in the Kingdom of God in all its glory and power, and raising His own status from that of suffering Savior to that of conquering Lord.


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That ALL May Be Fulfilled

“I believe with complete faith in the coming of Christ. Though He tarry, nonetheless I await Him every day,

that He will come.”

That statement could come from the lips of many, if not most, Christians in the world today. But are these words those of a Christian? No, they are not!

Take out the word “Christ”—the English form of the Greek word for “Messiah”—Xristo/$ {Christos—khris-tosʹ}—and substitute the Hebrew word for “Messiah”—jyv!m* {mashiyach—maw-sheeʹ-akh}, and what do we have?

“I believe with complete faith in the coming of Mashiach. Though he tarry, nonetheless I await him every day,

that he will come.”

These are the words of the rabbi probably most revered by the Jewish people, the great Spanish-born Maimonides who lived and taught in the in the 12th century. His full name is Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, but most Jews refer to him by the acronym of that name, and simply call him Rambam (RaMBaM). This quote is from number twelve of his famous “Thirteen Principles of the Faith.”26

Waiting for Mashiach, anticipating his coming, is not simply a virtue but a religious obligation.27

Most Christians are touched with pity when they think of Jews who continue to look for their Messiah when we Christians know that their Messiah has already come—the Jews just refuse to accept it.

But what if Christians are making the same mistake that the Jews have made? What if our Messiah has already come as well?

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It is certain that many Christians have made the same mistake as the Jews when they cannot see past an earthly kingdom as the fulfillment of prophecy. This lies at the heart of the Jews’ tragic mistake. They wanted an earthly fulfillment to God’s promises, and when Jesus offered a spiritual kingdom—one that was “not of this world” (John 18:36), one that “is within you” (Luke 17:21)—they didn’t just reject Jesus—they killed him!

So many Christians, especially in the past two centuries, have been beguiled by a system of theology that touts itself as being the guardians of “literal” interpretation. “Israel means Israel,” they protest. “God is duty bound to re-gather national Israel to their natural homeland in Palestine. Jesus is coming back and will rule in person from His throne in Jerusalem right here on this earth.”

Yet this bondage to a so-called “literal” hermeneutic blinds them to the very real spiritual provisions that Jesus came and died for. They can’t see that the stakes have been raised. Jesus came to raise us from a material, visible, temporal plane to a spiritual, invisible, eternal plane. But the “literalists” cannot grasp this wonderful reality.

Ironically, the same people who most loudly bemoan the tragedy of the Jews missing their Messiah are the ones most apt to miss what God did through Christ almost 2000 years ago when Jesus returned just as He said He would.

Preterists are touched with sorrow when we watch both Jews and Christians futilely watch and wait for something that has already happened.

Some steps have been made in the right direction in recent years. More and more Christians are realizing that God’s promise of bringing His Kingdom to the earth is not something that we have


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to wait for in some future “millennium.” They have come to realize that the Kingdom of God is “here and now”—a present and glorious reality.

But I know quite a few people who have adopted the language of “Kingdom now” and “taking the glory of God to the ends of the earth” without realizing that these concepts can become realities only on the basis of realized eschatology—fulfilled prophecy.

When it finally dawns on us that Jesus has truly done every-thing that He ever said that he would do, then we realize that there is nothing left for us to do but to act on this truth and indeed live out our destiny of dominion.

When Jesus came in the Incarnation, He fulfilled so many of the prophecies of the Old Testament. As we noted above, He was the Head Crusher, the Redeemer, the Prophet, the Son of David, and Messiah the Prince! He was born in Bethlehem just as Micah predicted (Micah 5:2). He was the Suffering Servant of Yahweh, just as David and Isaiah said He would be (Psalm 22, Isaiah 53).

But then Jesus Himself became to give prophecies about what He would be and do after His sacrificial death and suffering. He said that He would raise up the Temple in three days (John 2:19). He said that just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so He would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40). Repeatedly He referred to Himself as the “Son of Man,” and he predicted that “you will not finish going through all the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (Matthew 10:23), that “some of you standing here will not taste death before you see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom” (Matthew 16:28), and that “by no means will this generation pass away before all these things shall happen” (Matthew 24:34).

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So we should not quibble, but rather submit our understanding to the Scriptures when we hear Him also say about these impending events that were just about to happen, “These will be the days of God’s vengeance when all the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled.”

ALL the prophetic words of Scripture! That is a mouthful. But I didn’t say that—Jesus did! I didn’t make

that up—I read it in the Bible! Every single promise and prophecy has been fulfilled. There is

nothing for us to wait for. Our hope is not in a future glory, but a present one.

For decades, so many in the Church have been saying, “Oh, the world is in a mess, but one of these days, when Jesus comes back, He’s gonna make everything right.” What a cop-out! Nowhere did Jesus ever give even a hint of an indication that He was going to do our job for us—that He was going to wait until we had utterly failed and then come bail us out.

One day on a mountain in Galilee, Jesus confidently said to His disciples, “Go, then, and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19). He believed in His disciples—and they believed what He believed about them!

And so that little rag-tag band of fishermen and tax collectors—just common clods like you and me—went out and turned their world upside down (Acts 17:6). Before that generation was over, they had proclaimed the Good News to “every living being under heaven” (Colossians 1:23).

Did they fulfill the Great Commission?—for their world and for their day, yes they did! But we are living in a different world and a different day, and that world is waiting for some Good News.


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There is absolutely nothing that stands in our way. There is no prophecy that needs to be fulfilled. Absolutely nothing stands between us and a planet bathed with the glory of God. Nothing, that is, except our lack of understanding concerning our destiny. Nothing, that is, except ignorance of our power and potential.

And now that you have read this book, ignorance and lack of understanding is no excuse. You may reject this message, and, if so, then your obstacle is unbelief.

But if you have read this message, and it resonates in you spirit, then I challenge you to rise up and “be all that you can be,” a promise that the US Army, with all due respect, can never keep.

But in the Kingdom of “Yahweh of vast legions” you can reach your full potential and play an integral part in taking the glory of God to the ends of the earth!

CHAPTER NINE ENDNOTES 1 R.C. Sproul, The Last Days according to Jesus, pg 157, Baker Books, 1998. 2 Ibid., pg. 154. 3 American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin Co.,

1992. 4 John A.T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament, Wipf & Stock, reprint 2000

(originally published 1976) 5 George Edmundson, The Church in Rome in the First Century: An Examination of

Various Controversies Relating to its History, Chronology, Literature, and Tradition (The Bampton Lectures, 1913), Longmans-Green, 1913.

6 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, chap. 41, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, AGES Digital Library, 2000.

7 Ibid., chap. 5.

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8 Jean-Paul Audet, Projet évangélique de Jésus (The Gospel Project), Paulist Press,

1969. 9 The Didache, chap. 16, http://www.scrollpublishing.com/store/Didache.html. 10 “Roman Empire,” Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, Microsoft Corporation,

2003. 11 The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans, chap. 4., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1. 12 Ibid., The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians. 13 Ibid., The Epistle of Barnabas, chap. 16. 14 Ibid., Fragments of Papias. 15 The Second Epistle of Clement, http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/

2clement-lightfoot.html. 16 The Shepherd of Hermas, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2. 17 Ibid., The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, chaps. 3, 4. 18 Williston Walker et al., A History of the Christian Church, 4th edition, Charles

Scribner’s Sons, 1985 (originally published 1918). 19 Professor Ward Gasque’s introduction to Irenaeus and Tertullian in Handbook

to the History of Christianity, pp. 75-77, Eerdmans, 1977. 20 Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, 2nd edition, pg. 33, Word

Publishing, 1995. 21 Grady Brown, A Sure Word of Prophecy: An Overview of Biblical Prophecy,

Dayspring Publications, 1999. 22 Grady Brown, That’s What I Have…That’s Who I Am!, Infinity Publishing, 2002. 23 Philip Paul Bliss, “Hold the Fort,” 1870. Lyrics can be found at

http://www.whatsaiththescriptures.com/Poetry/Hymnal.Poetry.html. 24 John L. Bray, The Prophecy of Matthew 24, self-published, 2002. This little book is

a synopsis of his larger work, Matthew 24 Fulfilled. 25 Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth, Zondervan, 1970. 26 Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, Pirkei Avot: Shemoneh Perakim of the Rambam (The

Thirteen Principles of Faith), translated by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger, Moznaim Publishing, 1994.

27 Jacob Immanual Schochet, Mashiach: The Principle of Mashiach and the Messianic Era in Jewish Law and Tradition, pg. 55, S.I.E., 1991, 1992


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— 177 —

— ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RADY BROWN is the founder and Director of Dayspring BibleMinistries, Inc., and is an international Bible-teacher who has

traveled to many countries, including Bulgaria, Colombia, Germany,Mexico, South Wales, and Trinidad with his passion for sharing theWord of God.

Grady began his ministry at the age of sixteen and has enjoyed arich and varied background in Christian ministry spanning over 40years. He and Linda have been married for 36 of those years and havethree children and four grandchildren.

He served as pastor for four congregations in Texas, Louisiana, andIllinois before becoming the Adult Editor for Word Aflame Publicationsin St. Louis, Missouri, in the mid-1970s. Grady founded DayspringMinistries in the late 1970s and expanded its ministry internationallyin 1997. Throughout his career, Grady has traveled extensively in theUnited States as an itinerant teacher and conference speaker.

He has worked professionally as a graphics artist and designer, aswell as a technical writer for the United States Department of Energy.

Grady earned his Bachelor of Science from Colorado ChristianUniversity, his Master of Theology from Florida Theological Seminaryand his Doctor of Literature in Religious Education from ApostolicWorld Christian University.

He is an ordained minister of the Gospel affiliated with the Min-isterial Association of Jesus Christ and the Global Network of ChristianMinistries.

GG

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