What Did Jesus Say About the End Times? Part 2

Ihave been asked my opinion of a man named Harold Camping, who had predicted that Christ would come again and the world would end on May 21, 2011. When the end did not come, Camping revised his prediction to October 21, 2011. That day also came and went without our Lord’s return. Fortunately, Mr. Camping has acknowledged his error and says he is retiring from date setting. While some would say these are the musings of an old man out of touch with reality, others recognize that real damage can be done by these false predictions. When interviewed, I was able to say, “When we engage in this kind of wild speculation, it’s irresponsible. It can do damage to naïve believers who can be easily caught up, and it runs the risk of causing the church to receive sort of a black eye” (Associated Press, “End of the World”).

Many have predicted that our Lord’s literal second coming will occur on a specific date, only to be disappointed. Others, however, go in a completely different direction by redefining the event and explaining it away in order to satisfy a modernist mind-set. The liberal pastor and theologian Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), who for many years pastored the influential Riverside Church in New York, said,

Christ is coming! They say it with all their hearts; but they are not thinking of an external arrival on the clouds. They have assimilated as part of the divine revelation the exhilarating insight which these315 recent generations have given to us, that development is God’s way of working out his will....

And these Christians, when they say Christ is coming, mean that, slowly it may be, but surely, His will and principles will be worked out by God’s grace in human life and institutions. (Fosdick, “Fundamentalists”)

These perspectives do not find one ounce of support in the teachings of Jesus. If they are right, then He was wrong. However, our Lord clearly, confidently, and boldly declares He is coming again to “gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky” (v. 27). So, “Watch! Be alert! For you don’t know when the time is coming” (v. 33).

Jesus Will Come Again to Gather His People

Mark 13:24-27

Jesus employs end-times, or eschatological, vocabulary and imagery in these verses. That Jerusalem is not mentioned is a death knell for those who would apply these verses to its destruction in ad 70. Jesus says, “In those days.” What days? The days “after that tribulation” (v. 24). After those days cosmic, apocalyptic signs will occur: (1) the sun will be darkened (see Rev 6:12), (2) the moon will not give its light (see Rev 6:12), and (3) the stars (perhaps meteorites) will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken (see Rev 6:13-14). Ultimate cosmic upheaval and universal cataclysmic judgment will signal that the end has come. In heaven and on earth, the cosmos will be rocked and shaken as God prepares to come in judgment in the person of the Son (cf. Isa 13:9-10; 34:4-5; Ezek 32:7-9, 15).

“Then ...” (v. 26)—what a wonderful word of anticipation. “They will see the Son of Man,” the great eschatological figure described in Daniel 7:13-14, “coming in clouds with great power and glory.” Edward Adams well says, “It is highly likely that Mark would want his readers to understand this reference to the coming of the Son of Man in the light of the previous mention at 8:38. The Old Testament allusions and associations in 13:24-27 fit a picture of the advent of God, with Jesus as the Son of Man in the main role” (Adams, “Coming,” 57).

“He will send out the angels” (v. 27) who will harvest the work done by suffering saints who have “proclaimed [the good news] to all nations” (v. 10). These will be gathered from every corner of the globe as well as heaven. Revelation 7:9-10 tells us,

After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne316 and before the Lamb. They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Our labor of love for our Lord is not in vain.

Jesus will come again to gather His people. What a day of celebration that will be. Our Lord, the Son of Man, will bring to the earth the kingdom He has received from the Father, the Ancient of Days.

Jesus Will Come Again, and the Time Is Near

Mark 13:28-31

Jesus moves to amplify what He has just taught with an illustration from a fig tree. There is nothing complicated until He gets to the end, then a theological Pandora’s box is opened! Branches with developing leaves tell us summer is on the way. From this Jesus makes a theological affirmation, “In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that He is near—at the door!” The events of chapter 13, especially verses 14-25, tip us off that affairs in world history are moving toward a climactic end. These signs warn us “He,” that is Jesus, the Son of Man, “is near,” ready to storm the citadels of sin, Satan, death, hell, and the grave. Antichrist (v. 14) and his false prophets (v. 22) are about to meet their doom (cf. Rev 19:19-21). Imminence is clearly an essential component of biblical eschatology.

Jesus drops an interpretive bomb in verse 30: “I assure you: This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place.” The question is, Who is “this generation”? The answer is not a simple one, and how you understand and interpret other parts of Mark 13 will influence how you answer the question. What are the major options?

1. The contemporary generation of Jesus’ day who would see the destruction of Jerusalem in ad 70
2. The eschatological generation that will be alive at the end of history who will see all these things because they occur in close proximity to one another
3. The Jewish people, with the word “generation” being understood to mean “race”—a particular race of people
4. The generation of Jesus’ day who would see the coming of the kingdom

If Jesus intended number 4, unfortunately He was in error and was killed in the process of trying to bring in the kingdom. Of course, that scenario is unacceptable. Though dogmatism is unwarranted, I believe the best317 understanding is number 2. “This generation” refers to those who will see all these things occur in rapid-fire succession just before Jesus comes again. I believe the future tribulation (v. 24) will be a period of seven years. There is support for this in Daniel 9:27; Revelation 7:14; 11:3; 12:4, 6; 13:5. If this is true, then the eschatological generation will witness these events in less than a decade.

The phrase “pass away” is repeated in v. 31. The temple will fall to ruin. History will come to an end. This present heaven and earth will give way to “a new heaven and a new earth” (see Rev 21:1). But God’s words will never pass away. Nothing is so true, stable, permanent, and abiding as the word of our Lord. Here is a firm foundation on which we can stand forever. No wonder the prophet Isaiah was inspired to write, “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever” (40:8; cf. 51:6).

Jesus Will Come Again, but Only God Knows When

Mark 13:32-37

Jesus is clearly speaking of His coming again (vv. 26-27). He plainly states that “no one knows” when it will happen, “neither the angels in heaven nor the Son—except the Father.” It is that phrase “nor the Son” that gives us pause. As orthodox, Bible-believing Christians, we affirm the full and undiminished deity of God the Son. As God, He possesses all the attributes of deity, including omniscience. Yet here He clearly states there is a body of knowledge of which He is, dare I say, ignorant: the day and hour of His own second coming. This statement makes no sense apart from the incarnation. In taking on a human nature and entering into the time-space reality, the Son of God did not surrender His deity, but He did lay aside His glory (John 17:5; see also Phil 2:6-11). In doing so, our Lord for a time relinquished the free exercise of His divine attributes such as omniscience. In the mystery and beauty of the incarnation, the all-knowing sovereign Son could temporarily lay aside or suspend the free exercise of His “God attributes” so that He might live an authentic human life in submission to His Father and in dependence on the Holy Spirit. This also explains why our Lord could be hungry, experience thirst, grow tired, and be killed. And here lies another indictment for those caught up in prophetic speculation and date setting. NO ONE KNOWS BUT GOD!

We may not know when Jesus will return. However, we do know what we should be doing until He does. “Watch! Be alert!” Why? “For you don’t know when the time will come.” Three times our Lord affirms what I like to call “human eschatological agnosticism” (vv. 32, 33, 35). Like a man on a318 journey, our Lord has left the house, but only for a while. We, His servants, have been put in charge with a task: proclaim the gospel “to all nations” (v. 10). We each have our work (v. 34). So be faithful, be ready, and “be alert.”

Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be in the evening.

Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be at midnight.

Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be when the rooster crows.

Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be in the morning.

Bottom line, “He might come suddenly.” His coming is imminent. It could happen at any time, including today. You don’t want Him to find you asleep, unprepared. Not doing the work He has given you. Oh, how tragic it would be for our Lord to return and find His church asleep at the wheel, neglecting her assignment, squandering her resources, deceiving herself into thinking He won’t come today. How tragic to say, “Tomorrow, I will get busy serving Him,” only to discover tomorrow is never coming. So again Jesus sounds the warning “to everyone: Be alert!” If He said it once, that should be sufficient. That He says it four times should really get our attention. “Be alert” and serve Him today. Tomorrow may never arrive!

Conclusion

Leila Naylor Morris (1862-1929) wrote more than a thousand gospel songs. I cannot help wondering if our text was a source of inspiration for Leila Morris when she penned the words to the song, “What If It Were Today?” (1912).

Jesus is coming to earth again, what if it were today?

Coming in power and love to reign, what if it were today?

Coming to claim His chosen Bride, all the redeemed and purified,

Over this whole earth scattered wide; what if it were today?

Satan’s dominion will then be o’er, O that it were today!

Sorrow and sighing shall be no more, O that it were today!

Then shall the dead in Christ arise, caught up to meet Him in the skies,

When shall these glories meet our eyes? What if it were today?

Faithful and true would He find us here, if He should come today?

Watching in gladness and not in fear, if He should come today?

Signs of His coming multiply; morning light breaks in eastern sky.

Watch, for the time is drawing high; what if it were today?

Glory, glory! Joy to my heart ’twill bring.

Glory, glory! When we shall crown Him King.

319Glory, Glory! Haste to prepare the way.

Glory, Glory! Jesus will come someday.

Jesus is coming again! So “be alert, since you don’t know when the master of the house is coming.”

Reflect and Discuss

1. How does a failed prediction of the rapture harm the church? How does the false doctrine that Jesus will never physically return harm the church?
2. What is the significance of the upheaval in the heavens before the second coming?
3. What is the work we Christians are assigned to do between now and the second coming? What is the attitude we should be in while we wait?
4. How would you respond to those who say that Jesus hasn’t returned for two thousand years, so any talk of His “imminence” or “coming soon” should be rejected.
5. How would you explain to a class of adults what “this generation” refers to in Mark 13:30?
6. What aspect of the “words” of God will not pass away at the end of the world (13:31): His spoken words (His promises), the incarnate Word (Jesus), or the written Word (the Bible)?
7. Why is it important to say that Jesus voluntarily laid aside omniscience when He took on mortal flesh?
8. How would you respond to someone who says he knows the precise date when Jesus will return?
9. How would you respond to someone who says that Jesus could not come tomorrow because the things that are supposed to occur first have not happened?
10. What is your favorite song that celebrates Jesus’ second coming?