I grew up in an evangelical Bible church, and I still love many things about these churches in the Moody, Billy Sunday tradition. These churches have a lot of people who at least know their New Testaments well. They are active in missions and to some extent in their communities. But they have their faults too, like any human institution. One thing they have always prided themselves on is the faithful exegesis of scripture. It’s unfortunate when even this gets a little wacky.

The narrative in Mark 13, the Olivet Discourse, is pretty straight forward, especially from our position in history. What should be a marvelous fulfilled prophecy is turned into a flight of fancy. Now it may very well be that the latter parts refer to some distant future that has not come to pass. It may be that on some level all of it refers to the future still. But on some level, it applied to the events that would unfold in the lives of Jesus’ twelve disciples, in 70A.D.. And that is glossed over, and the gloss isn’t even that shiny.

I was amazed that a simple explanation by Jesus, in answer to his disciples’ question, can be connected with the veiled language of Revelation because; Mark refers to “deception, war and killing, famine and death.” Which could also refer to a million events in the history of time. It could refer to ISIS today, or Hitler in the forties, or 70A.D.. I think a responsible reading must lead us to the latter.

The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, A.D. 70, Oil on canvas

At the beginning of the chapter Jesus and his entourage are walking through the temple complex and they are marveling at the beauty of the buildings. They are rolling with the Messiah, and they know it. This guy can do miracles no other prophet could ever do. He has wisdom which silences everyone. He is always fighting with the religious leaders, which is a bit strange, but they are on board. They are the chosen of the chosen people. They know the promises, the Messiah will come and destroy all of Israel’s enemies and take their rightful place as head of all nations.

They are just so caught up in it all, and then Jesus brings them back to reality, “not one stone will remain on another”. Which had to be rather shocking to them, so they asked him when would this happen and what to watch out for. So he answered them. First with a warning, don’t be lead astray by all the political zealots claiming that they are the messiah returned to conquer Rome. It’s the same warning from Romans 13, Rome was God’s minister to bring about his will on earth, to judge the Jewish people for their unbelief. We know that every group that opposed Rome after Jesus uttered these words was destroyed, without exception. This prophecy was fulfilled.

Then Jesus tells them they will suffer hardships personally. This again was an eye-opener, they were traveling with Jesus, the Messiah and they were to be tortured? That didn’t sound like the story they knew. They thought they were going to be heroes and now he is telling them their own family is going to betray them? These were necessary words for these men to make it to the end while holding firm to their faith. You can see why they laughed and praised God when these things began to happen to them. This prophecy was fulfilled.

The Arch of Titus, depicting the carrying away of the articles of the Temple. c.82 A.D.

Then Jesus continues answering their question. What will be the sign of the temple being destroyed? The abomination of desolation standing in the temple. I think we really underestimate the importance of what happened in 70A.D.. One day you have the high priest going into the Holy of Holies with bells on and a rope in case the Most High God strikes him dead, and the next day Titus is walking in there and hauling out all the furniture. Then the Romans proceeded to set up false gods on the very spot. If this isn’t the abomination of desolation, I don’t know what could be. And we know that the early Christians heeded Jesus’ words, they fled to the hills. There are a number of archaeological sites in the mountains of Jordan where Christians hid, while the Romans destroyed every last Jewish rebel. This prophecy was fulfilled.

Then you have the last part, “after that tribulation”, which contains all sorts of strange happenings. I don’t think it matters when this is, it’s clearly after what he has just been detailing. The point seems to be that God will make all things right, he will return for them, so don’t give up. You can imagine this was the opposite of their “God loves you and has a plan for your life.” mentality they had when they joined up with this miracle worker. And so Jesus gave them the encouragement they would need to persevere. And they did, the faithful have kept their belief to this day. Jesus referred to his body as the new temple. (Mark 14:58) Paul tells us we are the Body of Christ,(I Cor. 12:27) we do his work here on earth. His Body the Church has been spreading to the four corners of the earth gathering the faithful, the elect, the harvest is plentiful. The cloud of glory surrounding Christendom is unmistakable. After Rome destroyed Jerusalem, they were destroyed by internal corruption, as they tried to compete with the model citizens that were the Christians. Then this Christendom, began to save all these barbaric peoples who had over run Rome. And Rome was rebuilt, the peace and prosperity again came to the earth on an even larger scale, as Christendom spread. The Byzantine empire, the monarchies of France, Spain, and England. Then Muhammedan invasion pushed them to explore further and we come down to today, to the Age of the United States. Indeed the Kingdom of heaven is near, they stayed awake, but we seem to have fallen asleep. This prophecy too, was fulfilled.

Like a lot of scripture we tend to make it more about ourselves than Christ. This prophecy was gloriously fulfilled, it should bring much glory to his name, but instead we try to distinguish ourselves by assigning ludicrous modern connections to these verses. Of course it is quite possible to create self fulfilling prophecies. If we expect everything to fall apart, it probably will, especially if we withdraw from society and wait for the rapture. Which seems to be the goal these days. The other, better, more obedient option is to be the light of the world, to lead them on to further Biblical obedience and the blessings that always result. To spread to the four corners, the reverence for the true King reigning in heaven. To spread the news that the war is over, Jesus won.