PASSION WEEK – Wednesday

Mark 13 and Matthew 24 share a lot of the same content. And, unless you believe that Jesus returned in the first century, there are two aspects of what He said in these chapters. There are some aspects meant to warn the disciples of events that would happen in their lifetimes and there are some events that have probably not yet occurred.

For Mark 13, I’d like to consider the parts of the prophecies that had to do with events in the first century. When we read Matthew 24 tomorrow, I’d like to look at it through the lens of events yet future.

“And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

That’s me… in front of one of the 2nd temple wall stones in Jerusalem. Jesus walked past this stone. Maybe it was one of the ones the disciples were admiring. For scale, I’m 5’ 6.” The smaller stones above were built later. The Romans really didn’t leave “one stone upon another.”

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Jesus shares the content of this chapter only with the 2 sets of brothers, Peter & Andrew, James & John. It’s important to read closely what they ask.

“Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Matthew is slightly more precise on what the “all these things” are

“As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭24‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Jesus said that the stones of the temple will be dismantled. In the disciples’ minds, they still foresee the Kingdom of Messiah coming to earth very soon. I mean, that’s what Jesus has been preaching for over 3 years. They grasp that the Age of the Old Covenant is coming to a close. They are asking for three things:

1. When will one stone not be left upon another? In other words: “When will the temple be destroyed?“
2. What is the sign of your coming?
3. What is the sign of the end of the Age?

Jesus answers all three questions. He gives them a whole BUNCH of signs to watch for. The first set reminds me of how some people give directions. They give you anti-landmarks.

🚜👨🏻‍🌾 Jim Bob: Welp, ya go down this here road fer about 2 more miles. And you’ll see a big ol red barn off to the left. But you gotta keep goin’. Then you’ll go down and cross a high-water creek. There won’t be any water in it. After the creek, the road’ll curve ‘round to the right and there’ll be some big fields with a bunch of cows… 🐄🐄🐄 probably standin’ by the fence. After the cows, the road curves back to the left and you’ll wanna start slowin’ down cuz yer about a quarter mile from the turn-off.

You: Is there a sign for the road where I’m supposed to turn?

🚜👨🏻‍🌾 Jim Bob: No, but there’s an old house-place right on the corner. The old house is gone, but the rock chimney is still there. Turn right, right after the old place.

Jim Bob told you about landmarks that weren’t even near the turnoff. Like, “You’ll see this, but don’t turn yet.” That’s kinda what Jesus does. Here are the landmarks He gives to the disciples but then He says, “this is not the end,” (v7) and “this is only the beginning,” (v8).

• False Christs (v6)
• Reports of wars & warmongering (v7)
• International conflict (v8)
• Earthquakes (v8)
• Famine (v8)
• Persecution (v9-13)
• Gospel proclaimed to all nations (v10)

That’s the end of the first list. And Jesus says, “the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Now, we might think that He’s saying to endure til the end of time or something. And it may suggest that for those living at the very end. But we could also understand this statement to be an encouragement for all believers to continue steadfast in the faith to the end of one’s life. How else can you be saved if you do not remain in the faith?

Also, look again at the list of signs above.

Are any of those things new? Or have they been around for centuries? There is nothing on that list that hasn’t been happening since the time of the Apostles.

After this initial list of signs, Jesus turns His attention to their question about the destruction of the temple.

We know from the eyewitness of Josephus – who was THERE in Jerusalem during the siege and serving as translator for the Roman General Titus – that the temple and the city were decimated in 70AD. The Roman historians Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, and Cassius Dio also recorded the destruction of Jerusalem.

“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I do not rule out the possibility that this statement could have a double application that pertains to our present or future, but that is clearly not Jesus’ primary point.

Let those in Judea flee to the mountains.

This isn’t about people in Athens or London or Nashville. It’s for the people in Judea. At that time. Not today. The warning was for the coming destruction by the Roman army. After 70AD, verse 14 could have no application. There weren’t any Jews left in Judea. They were all dead or exiled. And yes, you’d definitely NOT want to be pregnant or have a nursing infant in a city under siege or trying to escape an invading army in winter.

Then Jesus speaks of “tribulation” and it’s like we auto-flip to thinking that He MUST be talking about OUR future. Jesus described it as the worst “tribulation” ever so it MUST be the “Great Tribulation” of Revelation with the Mark of the Beast and all that, right?

Possibly. Perhaps probably. But I still suspect that our time is the secondary application of this warning. I asked Google to summarize what the Roman historians recorded about the siege and fall of Jerusalem. Read it and you tell me if this should be called “tribulation” or not:

This is as bad as the Siege of Samaria and the Fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians combined. And it lasted for 5 months.

This is all recorded in Josephus’ history called The Wars of the Jews, books 5-7.

The idea that at least some of the things Jesus spoke about in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and in the book of The Revelation were fulfilled in 70AD is called “Partial Preterism.” [preh-ter-ism] And it is very much in keeping with the most ancient teaching of the Church.

There is a fringe view (categorized by The Gospel Coalition as a heresy) called “Full Preterism or Hyper-Preterism.” This view says that ALL prophecy in the Gospels and Revelation has already been fulfilled. In other words, it denies the future return and reign of Christ.

Just wanted to put that out there and make it crystal clear that I do NOT hold to a Full Preterist view.

“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭ESV‬‬

This seems to correspond with descriptions of celestial events in the book of Revelation. Like…

“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭6‬:‭12‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Now, I’ve had an interest in astronomy since I was a child and my parents took us to see Halley’s Comet. I think we all understand that stars (as we now comprehend them – giant burning spheres of gas and ionized particles) – physical stars from lightyears away cannot literally “fall to the earth” All of planet earth would be vaporized before they ever made contact.

So, if Sirius and Betelgeuse etc are not falling to the earth, what is? We’ll have to answer that tomorrow. We’ve already gotten into the future and my intention was to focus on the bits that mostly apply to 70AD.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭28‬-‭30‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Jesus has talked about fig trees lately. Much has been made of Jesus statement to the disciples that “this generation” (presumably their generation) would live to see the fulfillment of all these things. And upon close reading, that is precisely the case. Jesus made a careful distinction between the signs leading up to the “tribulation” and then the events following the “tribulation.”

The disciples – John in particular – really did live to see the and experience the signs leading up to the “tribulation” of those days; persecution, the famine, the earthquakes, the wars and ultimately the fall of Jerusalem. And y’all, those times were BAD.

Nero was smearing Christians with pitch, sticking them on poles and burning them alive as human torches. He crucified many, and others were sentenced to Damnatio ad Bestias, Condemnation to beasts. They would be sewn alive into animal skins and thrown into arenas so wild dogs, wolves, and other predators could tear them apart and eat them. He was the emperor who killed Peter and Paul.

Nero may have been the most sadistic, but he didn’t kill as many Christians as Decius, Valerian, or the infamous Diocletian.

There is one more aspect of the Olivet Discourse and its application to the first century that is interesting to consider.

The disciples asked Jesus about what sign would indicate “the end of the Age,” (Matt 24:3). And so we need a lesson on “What is an Age?”

This is the Dead Sea Scroll Calendar as presented by Dr. Ken Johnson on biblefacts.org. It’s based on this:

This is a sundial found at Qumran in the 1950s and now kept at The Shrine of the Book along with the Dead Sea Scrolls. It’s also called “The Qumran Disk.” I’ll explain in just a second.

Based on writings of the Essenes at Qumran, the idea is that all of human history is composed of 1 millennial week, 7000 years.

Each millennium “day” is divided into 2, 500-year segments called onahs [oh-nuhs]. The 14 spaces making up the innermost ring of the Dead Sea Scroll calendar represent the 14 onahs of the millennial week. Each 500-year onah is divided into 10 Jubilees of 50 years each. That’s the next ring moving outward. Each Jubilee is divided into 7 shmitas of 7 years each (49 years) plus the Jubilee year (the outermost ring).

Ken John describes the week is divided up into 4 Ages. 3 Ages of 2000 years each plus the Kingdom Age of 1000 years.

Based on this reckoning, we began the final Jubilee of the final Onah of the Age of Grace in Fall of 2025.

🤓 K. This is starting to feel like Gandalf researching the history in Middle Earth – year 2075 of the Third Age… I LOVE IT!

I bring all this up because, if the Dead Sea Scroll Calendar is accurate and we’re interpreting it correctly, then Jesus was telling the Disciples about the end of the 2nd Age; their Age. They asked to know what the sign would be for the end of the Age. The biggest sign was the destruction of Jerusalem. So, Jesus talks about them seeing “the Abomination of Desolation standing where it ought not to be.” Matthew says it was spoken of by the prophet Daniel. Daniel’s prophecy primarily referred to the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes IV. But there was an echo of or secondary application of it when Jerusalem fell to the Romans. Josephus recorded that the soldiers brought their standards into the temple and offered sacrifices to them. So they also desecrated the temple, right before they looted it.

If Jesus was crucified around 34AD, then the disciples had only about 40 years until the end of the Age. One generation. And it was the end of their Age, not ours; though I suspect the end of ours will “rhyme” with the ends of the 1st and 2nd Ages.

If you have some time and like to go down rabbit holes, go to Ken Johnson’s Dead Sea Scroll online calendar tool and look at onahs 4, 8, and 12; and scroll down to the last 2 Jubilees. The final century of each onah, and in particular the final 50 years before the end of an Age are PACKED with world-changing events. If you’re short on bunny-chasing time, here’s the short version:

• Last 100 years of the 1st Age
  • Nimrod born and rises to power
  • Abraham and Sarah born & married
  • Tower of Babel
  • Chedorlaomer and the global confederacy of kings conquer Sodom and the Nephilim tribes
• Last 100 years of the 2nd Age
  • Herod begins temple renovations
  • Jesus is born
  • Jesus’ ministry, death, resurrection
  • Church is born & Gospel spread
  • Most of the New Testament written
  • Jerusalem temple destroyed
• Last 100 years of the 3rd Age (we’ve lived through the first 50 years of it and here’s just a bit of what’s happened):
  • Golan Annexed to Israel, 1982
  • World Wide Web, 1993
  • First Quantum Computer, 1998
  • Global GPS, 2000
  • Sanhedrin reestablished, 2004
  • Gaza relinquished, 2005
  • Abraham Accords, 2020
  • Gaza War 2021
  • Human Genome completely mapped, 1st BioComputer & ChatGPT AI, 2022
  • Final Jubilee Begins, 2025
  • Iran War 2026

If I had to guess at the next 50 years, I would expect the False Messiah to be born and rise to power, some kind of global Babel 2.0, a global confederacy of kings (possibly even to deal with a Sodom and/or Nephilim 2.0 problem). I would also expect to see both great faith and growth in the Church along with severe persecution, (already reality in many places).

I firmly believe that prophetic events repeat themselves. Prophecy is pattern. The past is the key to the present and the future.

And tomorrow, we’ll look more closely at the future foretold in Matthew 24.