34. The Signs of the Times (End-Times Series Part 15)

Welcome to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 34, the signs of the times. Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. We are back from a week off and we're gonna be looking at the signs of the times this week.

Recapping Jesus’ Prophecy of Jerusalem’s Fall

But before we begin, I just wanna give a brief recap of where we've come from. As Jesus leaves the temple mount in the final time in Matthew 23, he gives this dramatic prophecy about the coming downfall and destruction of Jerusalem.

And he told the Pharisees that the city would be brought under the entire weight of God's covenantal fury that had been stored up since the time of Abel, Matthew 23, 35. He announced to them that the temple would be left in desolation, Matthew 23, 38, and would be torn apart brick by brick on the day of God's wrath, Matthew 24, one through two.

And all of these things he told his disciples would occur in a single generation, Matthew 24, 34, which took about 40 years. Now, because the disciples were horrified by these claims, they came to him on the Mount of Olives asking him three specific questions.

What they wanted to know was first, when would these things occur? Second, they wanted to understand what would be the sign of Jesus's coming in judgment against the city, and then third, finally, they needed to know if this was the eschatological event that would bring the Jewish age to a close.

All these questions are found in Matthew 24, three, and what we've been doing so far is we've been looking at these questions, and we've been really focusing in on the first question, when will these things occur?

The Signs of Apostasy and Betrayal Before Jerusalem’s Destruction

Now, there's some in evangelicalism who will say that they are still yet to happen. There are some that say that they have already happened, and we would fall into the camp of those that say that these events have already happened.

For instance, Jesus told them that as the days of Jerusalem's destruction drew near, false messiahs would begin to appear all over Judah and would lead many into following their violent revolutions. He also warned them that the Roman world, which had been categorized by Pax Romana, which was a total cessation of war at the time, would be thrown into a temporary chaos as wars and rumors of wars would break out during a 40-year period.

He predicted that the earth itself throughout the Roman world would be thrown into chaos as earthquakes and famines would increase during that terrible generation. And if that wasn't bad enough, in the lead-up to AD 70, he said that Christians would experience tremendous tribulations as they would be persecuted violently for their faith.

Now, some will say that all of those signs, earthquakes, famines, wars, rumors of wars, false messiahs, tribulations, all of those things are still yet to be fulfilled in the future, but as we have shown over the last several weeks, every single one of those signs happened in the first century, and you can check out the articles and broadcast episodes on that.

Now today, we're gonna look at the signs of the times again, but we're gonna look at several additional pieces of evidence that Jesus gave that was gonna mark this tumultuous period that immediately preceded the fall of Jerusalem.

And he tells us in Matthew 24 10, at that time, meaning when the tribulations are happening, many will fall away and will betray one another and will hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.

Because lawlessness has increased, most people's love will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come, Matthew 24 10 through 14.

Now, the first sign that he gives is that many will fall away. Before Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman armies, a period of increased apostasy was going to plague the first century church. Jesus predicted that the combination of persecutions, false messiahs, false doctrines, and other calamities that were enacted upon the first century church would bring about this unique period of suffering that would be so severe that many of them would fall away from their faith and they would stop walking with Jesus.

This would be especially tempting for those who had converted from Judaism since they could likely end their suffering by denying Christ. Scripture, in fact, attests to the veracity of Jesus's claim here.

For instance, when we're looking at apostasy, Paul expresses shock in one of his earliest letters that so many Christians were abandoning Christ, Galatians 1 6, and going after a false gospel, Galatians 5 4.

This church, like all the churches in that time period, were under tremendous pressure to conform, to turn from the gospel, and it was happening. He warned the Thessalonian church where a lot of persecution was going on not to be deceived by any of the liars or the false teachers that were busily fomenting perverted teachings in their midst because a great apostasy had to occur before the Lord would return in judgment, 2 Thessalonians 2 3.

He told Timothy that the Spirit expressly revealed that in this period of time, apostasy was coming, 1 Timothy 4 1, when men would become spiritually shipwrecked and they would stray from their Christian faith, 1 Timothy 1 19 through 20 and 6 20 through 21.

He warned that abandoning Christ and the apostolic teaching that was preached by the apostles to return back to Judaism would cause them to become re-enslaved to the powerless Mosaic law, 2 Timothy 4 10 Galatians 4 8 through 10, which tickled many apostates' itching ears, 2 Timothy 4 3 through 4.

But Paul is by far not the only one who acknowledges this reality of apostasy. Peter warns the saints not to follow false prophets in 2 Peter 2 1 through 3 because they behave like unreasoning animals, verses 10 through 15, and who return to their own vomit, verses 20 through 22.

If you follow such men, Peter warns them, then you will be carried away, 2 Peter 3 17, driven into the same kind of eternal darkness that those who are polluting them were destined for, 2 Peter 2 17. Jude, likewise, calls the apostates within the community hidden reefs in their love feast that will bring tremendous ruin upon the church, Jude verse 12.

They're the ones who are called, the church is the ones who are called to contend for the gospel and to build themselves up on that most holy gospel, verses four through 20, but he's warning them about clouds without water, hidden reefs, trees that are doubly dead that produce no fruit, he's warning them of these apostate false teachers in their midst.

The author of Hebrews says that some who had tasted the goodness of the gospel unforgivably decided to return back to the damnable troughs of religion, Hebrews 6, 4 through 8. They did this instead of waiting on the judgment coming of the Lord, Hebrews 10, 35 through 39.

The apostle John, in much the same manner, reminds his audience that everyone who was departing from the community of faith at that time, everyone who was apostatizing, everyone who was abandoning Jesus was never really among the community of faith to begin with, meaning 1 John 2 19 is saying they were never saved, but he does acknowledge and he does admonish admonish the Christians who are living in that community to still try to reach out to those who are apostatizing, to try to bring them back so that they could be forgiven of their sin of abandoning Christ and be restored to the fellowship of the community of saints.

He says that in 1 John 5 16 through 17. James also says it in chapter five. Jude says it in verses 20 through 23. There was this reality of apostasy going on in the early church. This is plain and simple truth that we're not waiting on a future period of apostasy to fulfill Matthew 24.

That period has already occurred where countless believers were making shipwreck of their faith and running back to the steaming manure piles of religion. Sadly, they would find that the sacrifices, the feast, the priest, the temple, the trappings of Mosaic religion would be ill-equipped to stop the judgment Christ was bringing.

Betrayal, Civil War, and Hatred Within Judea

Second sign, many will betray and hate one another. Another sign Jesus gave was that the Jewish people would hate and betray one another which went beyond the persecutions that they were inflicting upon the Christians.

Jesus told them elsewhere in the gospels that brother would betray brother and that family members would turn in violence upon one another in those darkest days, Matthew 10, 21 through 22. This fact is illustrated powerfully in the writings of many ancient historians which we won't have time to cover extensively but I do think a few examples are gonna be important.

So how did the Jews begin hating each other and turning on each other? Well, that began happening sort of right after Jesus rose from the dead. See, after Jesus ascended into heaven, the nation of Judah went into rapid political instability that drove them to madness.

From emperors like Caligula demanding that his statue be erected inside of the temple complex which caused the city of Jerusalem to riot or Roman procurators like Cessius Florus who killed thousands of Jews in the city simply for mocking his exorbitant greed, it seemed like the Jews were being baited by Rome into an all-out war and they took that bait hook, line, and sinker.

Yet, instead of unifying together and going after a common enemy, factions splintered, people began hating one another and attacking one another all in that generation. Josephus tells us that the land became filled with despicable tyrants, murderers, and robbers who murdered their own countrymen for more than two decades.

The Jewish Wars, book two, chapter 12, paragraph five. After that original band of murderers was put down by Governor Felix, a new group of Jewish assassins called the Sicarii began slaying their own people in broad daylight for obeying the Romans, Jewish Wars two, 13, three.

Another group right after that soon began polluting the city with talks of insurrection and like the former group was put down again by the Governor Felix, Jewish Wars 12, 13, four. Still another faction began murdering anyone in the city who refused to revolt from Rome, even setting houses on fire with women and children in them and plundering the corpses for sport, Jewish Wars two, 13, six.

It appears that there was a factioning group of people, one group of zealots who were, let's rebel against Rome at all costs and if you're not with us, we'll kill you. And then there was another group that were trying to instigate peace and saying, no, we should not do this because we're gonna be murdered by the Romans and we're gonna lose our temple.

And both of these groups were fighting each other in fiery, murderous rage. Josephus reports to us that it was then common to see cities filled with dead bodies, still lying unburied and those of old men mixed with infants, all dead and scattered about together, women also lay among them without any covering for their nakedness.

You might then see the whole province full of inexpressible calamities, Jewish Wars book two, chapter 18, paragraph two. One of the men who was famous for murdering and sedition describes that season in Judah with grisly, macabre and clarity.

He says, I deservedly suffer for what I've done with relation to you by slaying so many of those who related to me, while we acted in a most wicked manner against our own nation. I will therefore die, polluted wretch as I am by my own hands, for it is not fit that I should die by the hands of our enemy.

And when he says enemy there, he means his own countrymen. When he finished speaking, Josephus records his last horrific moments. Now, when he had said this, he looked round about upon his family with eyes of commiseration and of rage.

He caught his elderly father by his gray hairs and ran his sword through him. And after him, he did the same to his mother who willingly received it. And after them, he did the like to his wife and to his children, everyone almost offering themselves up to his sword so that when he had gone through his entire family, he stood upon their bodies to be seen by all and stretching out his right hand, he sheathed his entire sword into his own bowels.

Jewish Wars 2, 18, 4. As the nation of Judah descended into this kind of demonic, violent lawlessness, Nero eventually had no choice but to declare war upon this ever devolving nation. At this point, they were striking Roman soldiers openly with weapons, they were refusing to pay their taxes, they were fighting one another in the city and heaping dead bodies out in the open so that vultures were constantly swarming the city and they were all but inviting Rome to come in and stop them.

When the legions of troops finally showed up to the city of Jerusalem, led by the famed General Tacitus Flavius Vespianus, soon to be called Emperor Vespasian, the city was so violently attacking one another that it is reported that the Roman general actually ordered his troops to do nothing but to sit there and watch the carnage.

This is what he is recorded as saying. God is a much better general than I am. And by the way, he is handing over the Jews to the Romans without any effort on our part. He is giving our army a bloodless victory.

Since our enemy are busy dying by their own hands and suffering from the worst handicap imaginable of civil war, the best thing that we can do in the circumstance is to stay where we are as spectators instead of taking on fanatics who welcome death and are already busy murdering one another.

Whether Vespasian said this astounding quotation or not, the love of the Jews had grown so cold at this time that murdering, pillaging, and torturing their own countrymen was not only participated in by these warring factions within the city, but it was seen as sport.

Could there be a generation of people that more perfectly picture the words of Christ when he said, at that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many because lawlessness is increased.

Most people's love will grow cold. That is a perfect picture of Judah as it prepared for the Roman invasion. The next sign, many will need to hear. The final sign that we'll examine today is one of the most misunderstood and controversial signs that Jesus gave.

The Gospel Preached in the Whole Roman World

He said in verse 14, this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come, Matthew 24, 14. Now, we're not gonna be able to get into all of the aspects of this verse because this is not talking about the final end of all humanity or the final end of the cosmos and the universe.

We have to remember that this is talking about the end of Jerusalem. That's the context. That's what Matthew 23 and Matthew 24 are all about. So Jesus is saying before the end of the city of Jerusalem, before the temple is destroyed, before every stone is broken apart and before all of these things happen, the gospel must be preached in all the nations.

Now, since most of us would argue that this has not happened that the gospel had not been proclaimed in all the world before the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, then you may be wondering if the entire supposition that I've been advancing has now been invalidated.

But before the curtain closes on my theological demise, at least apparent, let me say with the departed Steve Jobs, but wait, there is just one more thing. While our translators have mistakenly made this text appear overly clear in the wrong direction, there is a point of language that we must appreciate if we are gonna understand what this passage is actually saying.

In Greek, there are three words that can be used for the word world in English. That is incredibly important. So when Jesus says the whole world, he is not using the customary word cosmos, which means the entire planet that sits in third place from the sun.

Instead, he is employing a specific word, oikomene, which is commonly used to describe the inhabitants of the known world or the inhabited world, which would have been the Roman empire. He is not saying that the gospel will be preached in every single nation on planet earth before the end will come, because if that were the case, then his own prophecy would have been invalidated.

What he's saying is that it will be preached throughout the entire Roman world. Now, we know this because Jesus doesn't get any prophecies wrong, that's first. But second, we know this because this is the way that the word is used elsewhere.

For instance, the Roman Caesar Augustus did not call for an entire tax or for a tax to be issued against the entire planet, that would be cosmos. He was likely the most powerful man on earth, but even he could not manage something like that.

Instead, he called upon all the people who were living within the boundaries of Rome, oikomene, who were under his jurisdiction and authority to submit to the registry of a tax, Luke 2 .1. The word oikomene there is used to describe the inhabited earth, but also the Roman empire.

Other examples of how this word has been poorly translated by our English translators abound, actually. First, there's this scene where an early church prophet named Agabus foretold that a coming famine would plague the entire world.

He uses the word oikomene there because he's not predicting a worldwide famine in Acts 11 .28, he's predicting an empire-wide famine, which actually did occur. You can go back and see our episode on that.

Second, the Thessalonian Jews in Acts 17 .6, or even the Pharisees in Acts 24, were not accusing Paul of disturbing every continent on earth, cosmos, but they were enraged that he was disturbing the people in all the towns that were scattered throughout the Roman empire, oikomene.

Understanding this, that oikomene is not the typical word for world, and it actually means a very specific thing, gives us good reason that Jesus' prophecy was not concerning the entire planetary world.

Had the gospel needed to go to every square inch of the planet before Jerusalem would be destroyed, and again, we've determined the context of Matthew 24 is the destruction of Jerusalem. So if the gospel needed to go to all the continents on earth, all the countries on earth, and all the highways and byways on earth before Jerusalem fell, then Jesus would be a false prophet, since Jerusalem was leveled long before the gospel went to South Africa, Russia, Argentina, and Sri Lanka.

Yet, if Jesus was referring to oikomene, which he was in Matthew 24, which is the inhabited Roman world, then we have good evidence that this was accomplished before Jerusalem fell. How so? Well, the book of Acts details the missionary journeys of Paul, who went about planting churches from town to town all throughout the Roman world before he died in AD 64.

We also have Paul admitting that he and his companions had actually accomplished this, saying, if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister, Colossians 1 .23.

Paul is using hyperbole here to say that he had preached the gospel to everyone in the Roman Empire. He's saying, he's not saying that he preached the gospel to every single creature under heaven. There's an ant somewhere who hasn't heard, so he has to run to preach to that little creature, or there's a koala bear somewhere in China, that he's not saying that.

It's this hyperbole for we've preached the gospel everywhere. He even clarifies this statement a few lines later when he says in Colossians 1 .5 -6, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you just as it has in all the world is also bearing fruit and increasing.

Paul is saying that the gospel came to them just like it had to everyone else in the world. He's not talking about the planet Earth, because that wouldn't be true. He didn't go to North America. He's saying that of all the people we went to in the inhabited world, the gospel has come to you just like it did to them.

In similar fashion, Paul declares that the faith of the Roman church is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. Romans 1 .8, again hyperbole. He's saying that it was preached everywhere, 2 Corinthians 2 .14.

There's no place that the gospel has not been preached. In 1 Thessalonians 1 .8, he says that it was preached in every place. In Romans 16 .26, he says it was preached in all the nations, like all of them.

So are you talking about Canada or whatever that was in the ancient world? Are you talking about Australia? This is hyperbole for I've preached the gospel everywhere in the known world. In the known world to Paul would have been the Roman world, which would have been in perfect fulfillment of Jesus's prophecy.

So Paul is saying that I did preach the gospel to every creature under heaven. I did preach the gospel to everyone. I did preach the gospel to the known world, just like Jesus said. Now, let's bring this to a close.

Christ’s Prophecy Fulfilled in a Single Generation

As Jesus declared, false messiahs were going to arise in Judah. Wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, and persecutions would likewise break out within the empire during that 40 year period. According to his Olivet prophecy, many confessing Christians would be tortured into abandoning their faith through apostasy.

The nation of Judah would be plunged into murderous insanity, where they would kill one another and murder one another and heap up one another's dead bodies. And in the midst of all of that, the gospel would be declared boldly throughout the Roman world by evangelists like Paul, by his companions and by the church.

All of these things happened before the Roman legion surrounded the city of Jerusalem, which means that we're not waiting on a future fulfillment of these events, but we may rightly extol the glory of Christ for this magnificent prophecy that was perfectly fulfilled in a single generation, just like he said.

I hope you've been blessed by this series on eschatology, and I hope you've been challenged to give this topic a fresh look. Join us next week as we dive into a fun one, the abomination of desolation.

God bless you.