Questions About the End of the Age

While Luke gives the initial discussion about the destruction of the temple and the end of the age, Matthew and Mark record the discussion that continued. We know this is a different discussion because the specific location is given for each. Most likely, this was in the early evening at the house of Simon, the leper. During this time, Peter, James, Andrew, and John came to him and asked him to expand on his earlier prophecy about the end of the age.

Their questions about the destruction of the temple seem to have been satisfied since they no longer asked about that. It may have come, however, at a cost of increased apprehension over the end of the age. Their first question is “When will this happen?” Again, what is the event about which they are asking? Matthew gives us their focus. It is the end of the age and Jesus’s return.

Initially, he talks about the end of man’s history and how it effects his followers. First, he says that common troubles will continue a long time before the end. These are “birth pains” and birth is an extended time of pain. The Greek text follows that with what we translate as “then” and describes coming persecution. This seems to say that the Church at the end of time will be a persecuted Church.

During that time of “then” there is a passage that talks of lawlessness and hatred. Generally, it is assumed that this conflict is between the world and the Church, but it doesn’t say that. Rather, it seems to imply that at the end, society in general will be lawless and fractured—perhaps politically—into groups that hate each other. During that period, false church leaders will arise and the Church, in general, will be worthless.

Those that make it trough these times will be saved, but from what? It seems to imply that those who faithfully continue to strive for the gospel will be empowered to make it through the mess just described. In fact, it is the proclamation of the gospel world-wide that is the culminating act of human history.

There is disagreement over whether this warning of the abomination in the temple refers to the temple falling in 70 A.D. or is yet to come in a rebuilt temple. No one should be dogmatic, but it seems the former. Having reviewed events to the end of time, Jesus then turns back to the immediate disaster on the horizon, the coming destruction of the temple and nation.

If so, what was the abomination of desolation? It was an abomination for anyone, other than the high priest on Yom Kippur, to enter the sanctuary, the small room containing the ark. When the Romans entered that space, it was an abomination, and it certainly brought destruction.

The other question is, “Who are the elect?”—the word usually used in the English translation. The Greek word is chosen and there are numerous verses which refer to the Jewish people as God’s chosen. There are also verses using this for the redeemed. This, most likely, refers to Jesus’s contemporaries. Israel was chosen as God’s primary and original missionary force. God is not through using them, so Jesus is saying this tragedy was shortened for them to not be eliminated.

He continues by saying that following that destruction, if anyone claims to be the Messiah, or says the Messiah is really somewhere else, don’t be fooled. He then warns us that signs and wonders may be deceiving. When he returns, it will be obvious. He seems to blend this warning from the days following the temple’s destruction on into the end of time. However, like circling vultures point to a dead body, circumstances should point to his coming.

Jesus again warns of false reports of return, which seems to apply to the span of time between then and the end. Last, he gives a statement tied to “after the affliction of those days,” but which days?  The best assumption is that it refers to this whole span of time from when Jesus said it to the end. If so, it is a comment on spiritual warfare at the very end of time, rather than physically occurring.