SN - notes from 6/27/10
SN 6/26/10 -
The Temple and the Times - part 2
Mark 13:14-36
review - last week we looked at 2 questions the disciples asked Jesus:
1. When will these things be? (last week’s study)
2. What will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?
(tonight)
The answer to the 1st question was - 70 AD - the date the temple was destroyed by Titus.
We (pre-tribulational premillennial dispensational futurists) believe the answer to the 2nd question is still to come in the near future - tonight we look at why we believe this, and what is likely to go down in the end.
I. What and why we believe:
pre-tribulational - a belief that all living Christians will be raptured prior to thribulation. The term “rapture” comes from the Latin translation of the Greek word translated “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
pre-millennial - a theology (based on a literal translation of the bible) that believes that Jesus will literally come back to earth to set up His kingdom for 1000 years.
dispensationalism - a system of biblical interpretation (formalized in the nineteenth century by John Nelson Darby) which focuses on the division of history into (usually) seven distinct periods of time known as “dispensations”.
1. Edenic
2. Adamic
3. Noahic
4. Abrahamic
5.Mosiac
6. Davidic
7. Messianic
futurist - one who believes that the Scripture prophecies of the Apocalypse (the Book of Revelation) will be fulfilled in the future (as opposed to a preterist)
Why do we subscribe to this?
1. When one makes some of the bible figurative, it all becomes convoluted.
2. We never see the righteous and the wicked judged together in scripture (Sodom and Gommorah, the ark).
3. We have good scriptural validation to the rapture in: Luke 21:36, 1 Thess. 4:17, and 1 Cor. 15:52
4. Most of the early church up to 300 AD, were premillennialists - Papias, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Methodius, Commodianus, and Lactantius.
5. Of these men, Papias’s belief in Premillennialism is especially significant since he was a disciple of Polycarp who in turn was a disciple of the Apostle John who penned the statements about a 1000-year reign of Christ in his Book of Revelation.
II. What we believe is going to go down in the future:
v14 - refer to Daniel 9:27 and 11:31
a. version 1.0 - Antiochus Epiphanes (216BC - 164BC) fulfilled this in between the OT and NT times.
According to Barclay, “He desecrated the Temple by offering swine’s flesh on the great altar and by setting up public brothels in the sacred courts. Before the very Holy Place itself he set up a great statue of the Olympian Zeus and ordered the Jews to
worship it.”
b. version 2.0 - it happens again:
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 - That day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
That day, being the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”… from 2:1
So in a similar manner to Antiochus, the anti-Christ defiles the temple again in the future.
An early Christian writer named Irenaeus, wrote this in the late second century: “But when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the
Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom.”
v15-20 - why so dire?
Daniel 9:27 - Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate. Even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”
Daniel 12:11 - And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be 1,290 days (until the end/2nd coming).
observation 1 - “week” can be translated “7” - as in 7 years, this falls in line with Daniel 12:11.
observation 2 - there will be 3.5 years from the time the temple is defiled to the time of the 2nd coming of Jesus.
observation 3 - this rules out the 2nd coming as being a “thief in the night” = rapture.
observation 4 - this reveals why Jesus gives all the warnings - for 3.5 years, after (the middle of the “week”), “consummation” will be “poured” on the “desolate” - aka seal, trumpet, and vial judgments from Revelation!
observation 5 - these judgments wipe out 1/4 (Rev. 6:7) and then 1/3 of mankind (Rev. 9:18) - that equates to around 3.3 billion according to today’s population.
v21-23 - widespread false religion leading up to the tribulation and during the 1st 3.5 years.
observation - v23 = “take heed” x 1
v24 - see Rev. 8:12; and Isaiah 13:9-11, Ezekiel 32:7-9, Joel 2:30-31, Amos 8:9-10, Zephaniah 1:14-15.
v25 - see Rev. 8:7-11
v26-27 - all people will see - see Rev. 19:1-16
observation - “elect” = those saved during the tribulation
v28-30 - be ready, because this will surely happen.
observation - “generation” = race
v31 - the eternality of the word of God!
v32-37 - take heed and watch!
observation -
v33 = “take heed” x 2
v34 = “watch” x 1
v35 = “watch” x 2
v37 = “watch x 3
Whenever Jesus repeats Himself, pay close attention!
applications
1. Take heed and watch!
2. v34 - we have authority - so use it wisely for the Lord
3. v34 - we have work - so do it “unto the Lord” (Col. 3:20) - in quality and with an eternal focus
4. v36 - do not fall asleep! (1 Cor. 15:34)
