32. Earthquakes And Famines (End-Times Series Part 13)

Welcome to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode 32, earthquakes and famines.

Perhaps the most explosive and prolific trial of our lifetime was the OJ Simpson murder trial in the early 1990s.

As an 11 year old boy at the time, I still remember watching the primetime aerial coverage of a white

Bronco lazily loafing down the LA freeway with as much agility as a soppy wet sponge.

After that, I remember the media frenzy as millions all over the country tuned in with popcorn and rapt attention to watch this kangaroo court deliberating the case with all the panache and showmanship of a

Ringling Brothers circus. But what stands out to me is the most memorable moment in the trial is when

Juice's dream team head attorney quipped, if the glove don't fit, then you must acquit.

Ultimately, the jury did acquit and success successive civil cases raged in the courts for years to come.

Now, without getting into the weeds of that particular trial, the point I think is very simple. If the evidence in the case cannot be reconciled to the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt, then he must be acquitted of the charges.

But if the glove used in the murder did fit, then getting to a guilty verdict would have been all the more reasonable in the case of eschatology.

My goal thus far has been to show that most, not all of the passages that are normally associated with a future oriented perspective don't fit the glove.

They do not align with the evidence presented in the New Testament, and they do not pass the sniff test to meet any reasonable burden of proof.

Instead, it's been the opinion of this blog and what we've been putting forward, that it's the preterist view that offers the most compelling explanation for the most

New Testament passages. Preterist just means that things occurred in the past.

So we have been arguing that the most, the majority of the eschatological passages in the

New Testament actually have already occurred at the judgment coming of Christ against Jerusalem.

Now, to prove that hypothesis, I've presented line after line of evidence in a systematic way. I began by showing how the eschatology of Malachi looks forward to a first century judgment coming of Christ against the

Jews. You can find that article on our blog. I then conveyed how John the Baptist expected an imminent judgment coming of Christ against the

Jews. He even said that the axe was already laid at the root of the tree. Again, you can find all of these articles on our blog.

But from there, I demonstrated that this, in fact, was the general expectation of Jesus that he has in chapters

Matthew 1 through 20. And it was laid out specifically for us in Matthew 21, 22, 23, and in what we've discovered so far in the introduction of Matthew 24.

Now, over the last couple of weeks, we've dived a little deeper into Matthew 24, where we've been looking at specific signs that Jesus gave, such as the rise of false messiahs, wars and rumors of war, so that all these things clearly we have seen have pointed to a past fulfillment.

So much so that the burden of truth now has fully swung in our favor of the preterist position.

Now, this week, we're going to continue through the evidence that Jesus presents so that we might have a comprehensive view and so that we can continue to see the reasonableness of this position and so that we will not be led into shivering and trembling by end times prognosticators and tribulation hucksters.

Today, we're going to look at Matthew 24 and we're going to see the end time sign of earthquakes and famines that Jesus gave in order to see that this evidence again fits hand in glove with a first century fulfillment.

So let us begin covenant earthquakes and in time seismic shifting's before we look at Matthew 24 and the evidence of the earthquake in the ancient world,

I want us to see the New Testament expectation for Jesus's first century earth shaking in time coming said plainly,

I want you and I to see that when Jesus came to the world, he intended to give it a good end time shaking.

Whatever remained would be left for him to rule, whatever fell away from that shaking would be like chaff devoured by the scorching east wind.

For instance, in the book of Hebrews chapter one, the author tells us plainly that we are living in the last days,

Hebrews one, one through two to the author of Hebrews, the last days represents the entire era of new covenant redemption, i .e.

The church age. And then after he drops that bomb that we've been living in the last days since the resurrection of Christ, then he describes how the era of priests, temples and animal sacrifices was rolled up like a scroll to be put on a shelf.

Hebrews one, 10 through 14, which means that the long chapter of the Old Testament has finally been put to completion and a new final chapter of human history has dawned through God's son.

We are in the last days because we're in the last chapter of the book. Now, near the end of the book of Hebrews, after Christ has replaced the

Old Testament types in the old covenant vestiges, the author gives a very vivid picture of how the

Old Testament time is going to come to an end. Not surprisingly, it ends the same way that it began with a wiggle wobbling, jiggle juggling kind of covenantal shake.

In the Old Testament, that happened, that shaking happened on a local level by an earthquake at Mount Sinai when the new covenant era came to being.

Well, now in the new covenant era, the entire world and heaven itself need to be shaken in order to welcome in God's eternal kingdom to this earth.

Hebrews 12, 18 through 29. So the old covenant began with a shaking on a local level, the new covenant begins with a shaking on a global level.

Isn't it interesting and apropos that God would do it in this way?

While that shaking is in Hebrews is clearly spiritual and covenantal, we should not be surprised, however, when physical phenomenon are accompanying it.

We shouldn't be surprised when the rocks cry out and when the fault lines tremble in the New Testament because they often see things that we can't see more clearly than we could ever see them.

Part two, the unleashing of earthquakes. When modern day prophecy charlatans read the words of Christ, when he says in various places there will be famines and earthquakes, but all these things are merely the beginning of the birth pangs,

Matthew 24, seven through eight, they assume Jesus is talking about phenomenon that's going to necessarily plague the modern world.

Whenever this ilk of newspaper scholar spies a random earthquake in California or their ears pop up to hear tale of an occasional famine in the

Middle East, they are the first ones to dust off their heavenly suitcases and prep their underground bunkers for the inevitable tribulation.

It's as if they believe that we are the only human beings in history who've ever felt the ground tremble under our feet or ever seen our plants die in a dusty scorcher.

Now, at this point, it's important to remember that Jesus is responding to specific questions concerning very specific first century events that the disciples were asking him about.

They wanted to know when the temple was going to be destroyed, Matthew 28, 38 through Matthew 24, one through two.

They want to know what would be the sign that this event was drawing near and how this would bring about the end of the

Jewish age. Matthew 24, three. It seems likely, given that context, that the disciples would have been entirely ignorant and indifferent to modern day seismology and what was going on in our world as far as earth shakers, but they would have been entirely eager to hear about signs that were occurring in their lifetime that were going to happen in their generation.

See, Matthew 24, 34. Now, for a moment, we're going to share two kinds of evidence of earthquakes that happened in the ancient world that could be and I think are a fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 24.

The first kind of evidence that we're going to give is biblical evidence. And then the second kind of evidence we're going to give is extra biblical evidence or things that come outside of the

Bible. Biblical evidence. Thankfully, the New Testament records several seismic events that are occurring during the crucifixion of Christ and immediately after the resurrection of Christ.

For instance, while the earth seemed unusually calm during the life of Christ, scripture reveals a proliferation of earthquakes that happen during and after his death.

While Jesus was dying on the cross, the ground began shaking so violently that the temple curtain was torn in two and damage was done to the building itself.

Matthew 27, 51. A war -hardened soldier cried out in panic. Matthew 27, 54.

And some of the tombs in the city of Jerusalem were jolted open in resurrection fervor.

Matthew 27, 52. After Jesus died and was laid in the tomb for three days,

Judea was hit with another earthquake with this one, a very severe earthquake, even worse than the one that happened a few days earlier.

Matthew records that an angel forcefully rolled away the tombstone, which caused a great earthquake to happen in cataclysmic turbulence, causing a troop of special forces soldiers to fall over near dead right before the eyes of the women.

Now, in tremendous biblical irony, the manly, rough and tough soldiers were the ones who swooned and fell over while it was the frail little women who were left standing there, albeit thoroughly mortified.

Matthew 28, 1 through 5. Either way, the earthquake that happens in Matthew 28 was a big one.

An additional earthquake called a great earthquake occurred in the book of Acts in chapter 16. Paul and Silas were first beaten with rods by a mob, and then they were thrown into prison for preaching the gospel.

By midnight, Paul and Silas had worked themselves up into a singing fury, singing psalms in their shackles.

And then God unleashes a violent earthquake upon the land, which burst upon the soil of that place, shaking the jailhouse doors and the locks wide open, setting

Paul and Silas free. Acts 16, 25 through 27. So here we have three earthquakes.

Two of them are called great or severe in the New Testament, which would surely be enough to fulfill

Jesus's prophecy in Matthew 24. We only need one. Here we have three.

But when we look into the annals of Roman history, there seems to be an abundance of geological convulsions that are reverberating atop the earth's crust within the boundaries of that Roman empire that just overwhelmingly prove

Jesus true. When Jesus said there will be earthquakes with an

S, he's saying that there will be a proliferation of earthquakes. And we see that not only in the

Bible, but we see that in Roman history. For instance, between the years of Jesus's crucifixion in AD 30 and the downfall of Jerusalem in AD 70, earthquakes of various sizes were recorded all throughout the

Roman empire in towns like Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colossae, Campania, Rome and Judea.

The most famous among the earthquakes was a city destroying earthquake that leveled the city of Pompeii in 63

AD. By this measure alone, there was an earthquake that did massive damage in no less than 12 different towns in the

Roman empire over a 40 year period. We also, from the writings of several distinguished

Roman philosophers and historians, figure out that these earthquakes were an uptick.

There was an increase in earthquakes just by the tone of the letters that they're writing. For instance, first century Roman historian

Tacitus records this. This year, AD 50, witnessed many progenies, signs and omens, including repeated earthquakes, which is from his book,

The Annals of Imperial Rome. Beyond Tacitus, a distinguished Roman statesman and philosopher named

Seneca, who was banished under the reign of Emperor Claudius, he was brought back to be the tutor of Emperor Nero in AD 45, and then

Nero forced him to kill himself in AD 63. This is that Seneca. He had this to say about iterative earthquakes.

How often have cities in Asia, how often in Achaia, been laid low by a single shock of an earthquake?

How many towns in Syria, how many in Macedonia have been swallowed up? How often has this kind of destruction laid

Cyprus in ruins? How often has Paphos collapsed? Not infrequently are tidings brought to us of the utter destruction of entire cities.

That's from his letters from a Stoic. Now, it seems clear to me by both the tone of Tacitus and Seneca's writings that these catastrophes did not ordinarily occur with such deadly frequency as they were right then and there.

Had this been normal, everyday occurrence of earthquakes, little would have probably been said other than a passing remark or an idle footnote.

But to adopt the sorrow of a full blown lament, as Seneca and Tacitus do here, it must alert the readers that the desperation of these men is out of the ordinary.

Had Seneca, for instance, been standing nearby when Jesus was delivering his Olivet discourse, he would not be crying out in agony over these earthquakes.

He would have understood why they were happening and he would have understood that it was because of Jesus's prophecy that they were happening.

Yet, of all the recorded earthquakes that were mentioned thus far, none seem more ominous and more in alignment with the covenantal doom spoken by Jesus than the macro seism, which just means super very big earthquake that hit

Judah near the beginning of the Great War with Rome. Josephus is recorded as saying it like this, for by night there broke out a most dreadful tempest and violent strong winds with the most vehement showers and continual lightnings and horrid thunderings and prodigious bellowings of a shaken earth so that it was manifest, as he observes, that the constitution of the universe was confounded for the destruction of men, and anyone might easily conjecture that these things portended no common calamity.

The abundance of these massive earthquakes has caused commentators like Charles Elscott to conclude, perhaps no period in the world's history has ever been marked by such convulsions as that which intervenes between the crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem.

So just in sum, thus far the first century hand seems to be fitting quite nicely into the

Olivet shaped glove. The very predictions that Jesus made in front of his disciples are coming true with alarming accuracy in his time period.

Now, this is also true for first century droughts and famines, which

Jesus also predicted as a sign that Jerusalem's destruction was drawing dangerously close.

Part three, the untethering of famines. In the book of Acts, Luke reports the only famine that's mentioned in the

New Testament, he says one of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world.

And this took place during the reign of Claudius, Acts 11, 28. In this passage, an early

Christian named Agabus, he was known to be a prophet in the early church, accurately predicts that a severe famine would soon overtake the empire.

Now, thankfully, Luke, always the great historian, alerts us that this earthquake actually happened during the reign of Emperor Claudius, who reigned from the years 41 to 54

AD. This famine was apparently so severe that churches all throughout the

Roman Empire were gathering resources to send back to Judea, which was hit especially hard by this famine.

You can look at 1 Corinthians 16, 1 through 5, Romans 15, 25 through 28 to see some examples of that.

Now, just for clarity, I want to make sure that we're clear here. This was not a global famine that affected the entire face of the earth, as the language might even suggest here.

Instead, this was an earthquake that spread the entire swath of Roman Empire land, which is a massive piece of territory, none to say the least.

But we know that it was not a global famine because of what Luke says and the word that he uses in the text.

The word for world that he uses here is not the typical word cosmos, which means the entire planet earth.

It's oikomene. When he uses the word oikomene, he's not intending to communicate that a famine impacted the entire globe.

In this context, that word for world, oikomene, simply means the known world or the civilized world of the

Roman Empire. So what he's saying is that a massive empire wide famine attacked the

Roman Empire during those years between the crucifixion of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, this kind of famine is more than enough to prove the veracity of Jesus's prophecy and to affirm the first century fulfillment is the case.

If the glove fits right. But as we've also noted above, the

Roman world is filled with examples that further bolster our position. So for a brief moment, let me list just a couple of very poignant examples.

For example, let me give you just a few extra biblical estatations of famines that could actually verify the famine that happened prophesied by Agabus in Acts chapter 11.

So Josephus tells us of a famine in the late 40s. There was a famine in the land that overtook them and many people died of starvation.

So that famine lines up with what Acts chapter 11 says. Suetonius, a

Roman historian, also says roughly the same thing, that there was a scarcity of food, which was the result of bad harvest that occurred during that span of several years.

So here we have two extra biblical attestations that confirm what the

Bible said. This has led 19th century biblical scholar James Stuart Russell to say the following.

During the reign of Emperor Claudius, again AD 41 through 54, there were four seasons of great scarcity.

In the fourth year of his reign, so it would be AD 45, the famine in Judea was so severe that the price of food became astronomical and great numbers of people perished.

J. Stuart Russell, the Parousia. Now by the year 51, which is nearing the end of Claudius's reign,

Tacitus bemoans not only earthquakes, but dire famine like circumstances that were plaguing many people throughout the

Roman world. He says, this year witnessed many prodigies, which is bad omens and signs, including repeated earthquakes, which we've already talked about, and the shortage of corn resulting in famine.

And it was established that there was no more than 15 days supply of food in the city of Rome and only heaven's special favor and a very mild winter that year prevented our catastrophe.

Tacitus is saying that famines and earthquakes were happening simultaneously in the city of Rome, just like Jesus predicted.

Back in Judah, by 68 AD, now Rome was completely surrounding the city of Jerusalem and besieging its capital city.

At that time, a city could outlast an invading army as long as they had food and water that were available to them within their storage vaults in the city.

But as supplies ran dangerously low in Judea, Josephus describes how dire the situation eventually became for the people that were under God's covenantal wrath.

He tells us this, then did the famine widen its progress in the city and it devoured the people by entire households and families.

The upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine and the lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged.

The children also and the young men wondered about the marketplaces like shadows all swelled up with the famine and they fell down dead wherever their misery overtook them.

Conclusion. The years between Jesus's crucifixion and the downfall of Jerusalem witnessed a marked increase in earthquakes, both by number and by volume.

The same is true for famines that attacked the residents of Rome and threatened to evaporate the people of Judah in the first century.

But as we've been pointing out, these events are not random. They were prophesied by Jesus and they happened in the lifetime of the disciples that he was speaking to.

Now, not to beat a dead horse here, but when the glove fits, you ought to wear it right.

Join us next time as we consider more evidence that most of the eschatological passages in the