Ask The Pastor: How it got started
E-mail your questions
Master List of Articles
How and When the End will come: Can we know?
Will the End come suddenly and without warning, or will we have an idea that we are nearing the Lord’s return and his judgment?
Will the world just keep getting better and better until one day we all live in a utopia, and that will then be the End, or will the world continue to get worse and worse until the Lord must intervene? Something in between these two extremes? What? What will it be like? What lies in front of us?
Does anyone know? Can anyone know?
Yes we can know and we do know. Jesus told us some very specific things about the End and what the world will be like as the End approaches. Let me touch on just one of those things in this article: The existence of the Temple.
In three different places the Gospel writers recorded for us what has become known as the Olivet Discourse. That is, it is the discourse or discussion or teaching that Jesus gave while on the Mount of Olives. Matthew 24-25, Mark 13 and Luke 21 each contain details of what Jesus spoke to his disciples in answer to an important question they had posed:
Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Matt. 24:3
“When these will things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age,” could be interpreted to be two time periods but are really speaking of one and the same time period.
In Luke’s version of the story he is clear that one time period is being spoken of, not two. He records the disciples question as:
Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? Luke 21:7
The disciples had been pointing out the Temple to Jesus, commenting about its beauty. In no uncertain terms Jesus told them that the Temple would one day be destroyed to such an extent that not one stone would be left upon another.
So shocked were the disciples to hear this, they could only imagine such a thing happening at the end of the age, hence their question.
Well such a thing did happen. The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Roman ruler Titus and his forces. And for some that destruction of the Temple is viewed as the fulfillment of the words of Jesus regarding “one stone not being left upon another.” But not so.
The question the disciples asked, and clearly so in Luke 21:7, was “when these things were going to take place and what would be the signs that they were going to take place.” They saw them as one time event/time-frame, not two. Thus the answer Jesus gave had to do with the end of the age, not 70 A.D.
In other places which I will explain in another article, there are references to the existence of the Temple at the end of the age, a Temple that from the words of Jesus in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, will again be torn down.
Let me give you just one of the references for now in order to make my next point. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 is Paul telling the Thessalonians about the coming of Christ. Listen for the time frame (the coming of Christ) and the detail (the existence of the Temple)
Now we request you brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
3 Let no one deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
So here in these few thoughts and a few verses from the Gospels and 2 Thessalonians, we have a clue already to details about the end of the age.
There will be a Temple. The Temple of God. A temple that can only be built where God assigned that it be built: in Jerusalem.
Will such a temple be built one day? According to Bible prophecy, yes. But with so many years having passed, surely the Bible is mistaken, isn't it? For nearly 2,000 years the Jews weren't even in their homeland. They were dispersed throughout the world. There was no chance for them to rebuild the Temple.
And yet Israel is back in the land, being re-birthed as a nation in 1948. And you may be surprised to know that plans for rebuilding the Temple aren’t just an idea from an ancient book we call the Bible. Those plans are underway right now.
I remember hearing this as a young believer some 30 years ago and wondered if such talk was only a wild Christian rumor, invented by those who were prophecy fanatics. But I have been to Jerusalem to the headquarters of the Temple Institute, which is located in the Old City section of town. I’ve seen with my own eyes the work they are doing. If you are interested you can learn more yourself by going to: The Temple Institute
There you’ll find details of the preparation that are being made. Will building such a building take time? Yes. Are there hurdles to overcome? Yes. Monumental ones both political and religious.
Israel does not have control of the Temple Mount, and if a Temple were built there, with the information now at hand, it would have to be build where the golden Dome of the Rock is, next to the Mosque of Omar.
Any such thing would cause an immediate Holy War in the Middle East. So there are major hurdles to overcome.
But what if a new archaeological discovery was made that placed the ancient location of the Temple not on what is called the Temple Mount, but just on the southern edge of it, by the “southern steps,” where some suggest the Temple may have been? The Temple could be rebuilt nearly immediately.
What if, what if, what if?
You see slowly, step by step, the details are being prepared for a new Temple in Jerusalem.
So what do we know about the End and when it will come? We know one thing for sure: that the Temple will be in existence, in Jerusalem.
Even if the plans to build a new Temple in Jerusalem take decades of political interaction and/or new archaeological discoveries, what does it tells us about the time frame of human history that we are in, that there is a group actively working on preparations to rebuild the Temple?
It is obvious isn’t it? The clock is ticking along moving us closer and closer to the complete fulfillment of everything Jesus said would take place.
How and when will the End come? Can we know?
Yes we can know to a certain extent. Prophetic details regarding the Temple are irrefutable evidence that certain things will be known before the final End is upon us. Given that the actual details—not just the prophetic details from the pages of Scripture—are in evidence around us as the Temple Institute and others prepare for the Temple to be rebuilt, what does that tell us about where we are in terms of the End?
Knocking on the door my friends, knocking on the door. Are you ready?
No comments:
Post a Comment