But the end is not yet
Running thru the entire age
PERSECUTIONS –
FALSE CHRISTS –
WARS & COMMOTIONS
Teaching about His return on the Mount of Olives, Jesus had told his disciples about the destruction of the Temple, debunking them of the bogus ideas they still held about religion. The Jewish Law would be irrelevant, the old religious ways would have no place in the Christian faith which Jesus knew was on the brink of taking the world by storm. Jesus point blank told them that the signal for the new spiritual world and the beginning of the signs that he would return would be the dissolution of Jewish national pride, signified by the total destruction of the Temple which would ultimately be followed by the demise of the entire Jewish state one hundred years after the birth of the Church. Christ chose not touch on the prophesies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Hosea, Amos, Zephaniah and the other prophets explicitly, leaving them for the disciples and the Church to consider as they duly studied the scriptural signs that read like a road map leading to His return and the establishment of his perfect rule on earth. But this only meant that the prophetic signs of this age leading to his return would be abundant and would require vast patience on the part of the believing Church which was expected to wait patiently for their orderly unfurling. The rabbis (the Pharisaical priests) and the lowly commoner of Galilee, like Joseph husband of Mary, had listened to these prophecies week in and week out as they were read aloud on the Sabbath in their home town synagogues. Though most Jews did not understand the prophecies, there would be time in the days following the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon the Church fifty days after His resurrection, to read, learn and understand that there was to be a First Coming and a Second Coming of the Christ. They would be able to see that many words of the prophets pointed with clarity to a Second Coming and that His Return was necessitated in order to fulfill the many unfulfilled promises of the Messiah. And, besides this, many of the words of the prophets had foretold of a Diaspora, a general dispersal of all Jews around the world and a vacating of Israel. All indications were that this dispersal and wandering would last the entire age, not being anywhere near the short-lived captivity of seventy years which their ancestors had experienced 600 years earlier. It was also obvious that this dispersal had not yet taken place. It was only previewed a few years later when the persecutions of the young fledgling church caused them to be dispersed from Jerusalem around the Roman Empire to cities like Antioch, Lystra, even Rome itself, and into ‘all parts of the earth’. The prophecies talked often of a return and a restoration of the Jewish state. It only logically followed that if a nation of people were to return at the end of the Age to a homeland they must first be dispersed. This should not have escaped the discerning genius of the Jewish mind, but it did because it was kept secret from them (in general) supernaturally by the wisdom of God who wished to turn His attention to the rest to the world – the Gentiles – to offer them salvation. This salvation was in no wise connected to the Jewish Law but only the grace of Christ, so to preserve this distinction and clearly work His salvation without confusion He decided in His wisdom to set aside any connection or suggested connection with the Jewish religion of Mosaic Law by isolating them for time from His immediate providential plan of salvation. Hovering above this immediate plan was the promise in His prophetic word that he would return His chosen people to their homeland, restore them to Jerusalem and once again resume His favor and salvation with them. No one could tell, not even the wisest Christian, how long this would take, because God did not reveal the duration of this part of His plan of redemption and salvation. He only indicated that three major reoccurrences would mark the character of the entire age and serve as ongoing reassurances that He would keep His promise to return at the exact moment in time that the Father in heaven has predetermined.
The Signs which run throughout the Age
The Temple was gone. The initial sign that Jesus would return to earth had been accomplished, the promise being sealed in the dissolution of the old religion as symbolized by the dissolve and disappearance, without a trace, or the Temple. Because the destruction of the Temple is correctly identified as the ‘official’ starting point of the age of waiting for Christ’s Return, it is all too easy to overlook the fact that the three primary things which Christ declared as characteristic signs of the entire era (up to the period near the end which He labeled the ‘Beginning of Sorrows’) began almost immediately after His ascension. Jesus had forewarned that three major ‘Signs’ would define this age and precede His return. They were to be : 1) False Christs and Prophets 2) Wars, rumors of wars and commotions and, 3) Persecutions and Martyrdoms.
Matthew 24
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you."
DON’T GET DECEIVED BY ANY MAN.
This is the first place to start.
"For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."
A LOT OF FALSE CHRISTS thru the Age.
"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet. WARS AND RUMORS OF DESTRUCTION WILL BE FREQUENT BUT DON’T LET THAT TROUBLE YOU, NOT THE END YET.
Wars and commotions, false christs and persecution began right away. THIS IS WHY THE EARLY CHURCH SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN DISRUPTED BY CHRIST’S NON-APPEARANCE, NOR SHOULD THEY HAVE SEEN THESE AS ANYTHING OTHER THAN LONG TERM SIGNS. PAUL WARNED THE THESSALONIANS THAT ANTICHRIST SHOULD COME BEFORE THE SECOND COMING AND ARMAGEDDON.
IN Luke 21 ALSO
In the discourse on the Mount of Olives Jesus had stipulated that these three things would consistently occur during the course of the age before the end times signs would begin in earnest.
8 Take heed be not deceived - FALSE CHRISTS WOULD APPEAR SAYING THE TIME DRAWETH NEAR – DON’T BELIEVE THEM. FIRST THERE WOULD BE Wars and COMMONTIONS –"But the end is not by and by."10-11 Then nation will rise against nation, kingdom etc, and earthquakes, “fearful sights and great signs from heaven”
12-19 But before all these they shall lay hands on you and persecute you. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. Along the scope of the whole age. Then a big part of real religion in the age is to suffer persecution and not acceptance by the world. “In your patience possess ye your souls.” (The essence of the Philadelphia?Smyrna faith)
When the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD the ‘hand-writing on the wall’ must have been abundantly evident for all those who had heeded the words of Jesus, read the letters of the apostles Paul and Peter and had studied the Old Testament prophets. The destruction of the temple was the first and in some ways must be considered the greatest sign of the age because it verified the words of Jesus as undeniably true and gave credence to the word of god and that it would all surely come to pass before the age was out.
But Christ also talked of a few other matters that would begin to stir early in the age and serve as unmistakable signs that all that is outlined in prophecy written in stone. Persecution of Christ’s people would begin to rear up. This began very soon after Pentecost and gained momentum with each passing decade during the next four centuries, coming from within and without the walls of the Church. In His Olivet Discourse Christ had also revealed that the appearance and effects of False Christ’s and Prophets would plague the entire age deceiving many and introducing seductive spirits and idolatries into the true faith. A third element of judgment would course through the entire age also. ‘War and Commotion’ would dramaticallyfollow on the heels of the destruction of the Jewish Temple of the Age. As with dismantling of the old religion and persecution, the plague of false christ’s and the onslaught of war and commotion would be kicked off in Israel and in the city of God, Jerusalem were the battle over salvation and peace is always centered, even as it is in our own day.
False Messiah – Bar Kochba
In 130 AD an uprising in Jerusalem led to the total dispersion of the Jewish people. Jesus had foretold of the Temple’s destruction. By implication it was not hard to conceive that the Jewish nation would come toppling down along with the Temple which stood as their national symbol. He then began to talk to the world in terms of His Second Coming, because He knew that the Gentile world was destined to understand what the Jews would not understand until the very end: that is, He is the Messiah, and that the coming age was the age of salvation and grace for the World and the Gentiles, a time which was about the saving of souls. He hoped they would perceive that this was to be an extended time, as shown from the prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel in particular. He even quotes Daniel in the Olivet Discourse and speaks of the days of Noah with business going on as usual, as if time would never end. People would be living and dying and continuing a life without faith, as if He would never return. The prophecy He gave on the Mount of Olives was delivered in such a manner as to give us a feel for the Age to come, that it would be of some duration and be long enough for people to say, “It has been a long, long time he’ll never come back”. He told them outright; it would be as if a household owner went on a ‘long journey’. Peter even wrote in one of his epistles that there would be mockers and scoffers who would say where is His coming? things have continued just as they have from the beginning of creation and they will continue to go unchanged. Knowing this would be the prevailing attitude inside and outside the church as soon as mankind had to wait a measly couple of years for His return, Jesus took note of those handful of signs which would run throughout the entire fabric of the Age of the Signs of His Return.
Home Page Signs Bookshelf e-mail us Antichrist Side Bride Side