Jesus is the true messenger of God who spoke three explicit parables of judgment upon the Jews (Mt. 21:28-22:14). In the end, the Jews did not repent. They challenged Him. They embarrassed themselves. And instead of admitting their error they remained silent and awaited their cursing.

Introduction
In an atomic weapon, a handful of neutrons cause a chain reaction ending with the vaporization of entire cities and the deaths of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people. The chain of events happens sort of like this. A free neutron is released in the presence of Uranium atoms. Once it collides with one of those atoms, it enters Uranium’s nucleus causing it to become so unstable that the atom will split. When this happens, 3 additional neutrons are set free that end up colliding with three additional atoms of Uranium. The process occurs again netting 9 free neutrons, and before long (roughly six hundred billionths of a second) an uncountable amount of nuclear reactions will have occurred unleashing unimaginable havoc in all directions. No matter how quickly the chain reaction occurs, it would not be possible without specific sequential events that magnify in intensity.
Similarly, God unleashed a chain reaction upon unstable Jerusalem nearly 2000 years ago. Based on specific sequential events that increase in intensity (detailed in Matthew 21-23), Jesus collided with the leadership of the city and the result was a city reduced to ash and rubble. Today, we jump right into the middle of that reaction and notice four specific events that occur from the end of Matthew 21 to the end of Matthew 22 that set the stage for this implosion.
The Ones Reduced to Rubble
While a deeper treatment of the issues is well in order, I must briefly summarize how this escalation is unfolding. Matthew 21 ends with an incredibly provocative statement by Jesus that has massive implications for how the events transpire in Jerusalem. He says:

Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes? 43 Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. 44 And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.

Jesus is not only accusing them of being ignorant of the Scriptures, such as Psalm 118 where this quote comes from, but He is also demonstrating how they will be the ones to reject Him, and that He will be the stone upon which God’s Kingdom will be built. This is why Jesus can look at the Pharisees and Scribes and say that the Kingdom will be taken away from them and given to another people because they will be crushed under the weight of the rock of ages and scattered like chaff to the four winds in Judgment.
This kind of judgment language goes well beyond the typical evangelical interpretation, where the Jews simply made a poor choice. That line of thinking might view the Jews in the same league as every other unbeliever who weighed the evidence, was not convinced, and chose wrongly. Or, if you are Calvinist, they were not elect and acted like every other reprobate who ever lived. But this is not what is happening here. These are people who had the kingdom and were losing the kingdom, which is not true for unbelievers in general.
Jesus uses verses 43 and 44 to remind the Jews of promises made in Daniel 2, where God will cut our an eternal rock (Da 2:34), who will strike a brittle kingdom (Da 2:43), that will topple and crush the empires of antiquity to dust (Da 2:35a), that will scatter them like chaff to the ends of the earth (Da 2:35b) and will be the inauguration of God’s true kingdom (Da 2:44) that will end up capturing the entire world and bringing it under the dominion of God (2:35, 44-45).
Jesus is telling them that He is that rock sent by God. He is showing them that He is the one who will not only bring God’s Kingdom to all the nations but will do so by striking them, crushing them, and scattering them to the ends of the earth. This is exactly what happened when God used Rome to end the nation of Judah and we are living in that eternal Kingdom that Christ Himself created. We see again that His coming is for the salvation of some and the judgment of others.
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Because of Christ, that old covenant religion was cast into the deepest seas and replaced by something so much better: the fount of Living Water! Jesus’ faith unleashed His Kingdom of salvation upon the world by putting away the types and shadows that came before. That is what this verse is trying to get at and that is why its true interpretation cannot be attacked by the moths and rust of materialism.

INTRODUCTION
If you have been a Christian for any length of time you have probably heard someone say: “if you have enough faith, then you can move mountains.” This, of course, sounds pretty epic until you nearly burst a blood vessel in your forehead trying to move a small ant hill in your back yard. It is then that you realize something. Either, you don’t have enough faith to move anything or you come to see that you have misunderstood this passage and need to relearn what it means. Today, I want to help you with the latter.
Here is the text in its immediate context.
18 Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. 19 Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered. 20 Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” – Matthew 21:18-22
As you can see, Jesus’ point is couched in a pretty specific context. He is teaching His disciples why and how He cursed a specific tree and rendered it barren forever. He was not vying for a regular spot on the TBN miracle hour where He teaches carnal Christians to actualize their materialistic fantasies. He was not saying: “Hey Christian, if you just believe super hard on this you can move whatever metaphorical mountain is standing in your way.”
If that were the case, we could join in with the prophets of Baal, trying to figure out which spiritual convulsion, faith cut, or liver-shiver of sincerity will get the fire to drop from heaven. If we say this prayer, sow this seed, or really really really believe, then that mountain of sickness will run away, that apex promotion will fall in my lap, and that zenith sports car I have always wanted will show up in my driveway.
Even though our flesh would certainly crave such a sensate and self-centered interpretation, this could not be further from what Jesus is actually saying. This passage, at least not directly, is not about you and the things you want! This passage is about Jesus and what He wants!
To understand all of this, let us discuss the two main ideas in the passage. What does it mean that He cursed the fig tree? And what does it mean to speak to a mountain and throw it into the sea?
CURSING FRUITLESSNESS
In Matthew 21, Jesus comes to Jerusalem, a fruitless mountain city that offered Him only leaves (Mt. 21:8). After that, He goes to the high point of the city, the temple mount, where fruit for God should have been present but all He found was rot and decay (Mt. 21:12-17). So, on the next morning, when Jesus curses a rotten tree, at the base of a mountain, because it would not bear any fruit, we should begin to pick up what Jesus is laying down.
Jerusalem is not only a city that is compared to a garden vineyard in Isaiah (Isaiah 5), but its residents are compared to various kinds of figs in Jeremiah (24). More than that, it’s temple was intentionally decorated to look like the garden of Eden (See for example 1 Kings 6:18, 29, 32, 35; 7:18-20). By these facts alone, we can see Jerusalem’s purpose was to be fruitful and to multiply good fruit for God, not the poison berries of Sodom. But, by the time Christ visits the city in Matthew 21, something had gone terribly wrong!
In Matthew 21, Jesus came to a city that no longer looked like a garden but a wilderness. He came to a temple that was no longer producing fruit for God, giving life to its people, but was withered in total corruption (Mt. 21:12-13). He came to a people that looked just like that barren fig tree rotting along the road, and by cursing that tree, He was showcasing what He was about to do to them.
Just like the withering tree, Jerusalem was about to be chopped down and thrown into the fire of God’s wrath. That is not a matter of opinion or poetic interpretation, that actually occurred 40 years later when Rome burned the city to the ground. They sieged it, they invaded it, and they turned the withered city into a pile of hot ash without a single stone left upon another (Matthew 24:1-2).
CASTING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN
It is clear from the passage that the disciples were amazed at Jesus’ behavior and likely did not see the connection He was making with Jerusalem. This is not an uncommon occurrence, since the disciples misunderstand the significance and meaning of so much of what Jesus is talking about and doing in the Gospels. There are countless times His disciples are left scratching their heads in total confusion and this time is no different. So, in order to help them understand, Jesus does what He often does elsewhere; He illustrates His main point with a secondary example so that the disciples will finally get it.
Notice the example Jesus provides.
21 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to THIS mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. (emphasis mine)
By sharing this example, Jesus is not taking a break from His main point in order to establish a very disconnected word of faith / prosperity theology. He is not ignoring the disciples question so that He can empower future charlatans with ammunition to abuse God’s people. Instead, it is quite clear from the context that Jesus is making His main point even stronger with a good illustration. He has showcased Jerusalem’s downfall with the image of a fig tree. Now He will talk about it in terms of a mountain.
Why?
FIRST
Because Jerusalem was literally a city on top of a mountain. It was surrounded by valleys on all sides and to get into the city you would need to go up from every direction. Furthermore, the temple was at the highest point and pinnacle of that mountain which meant that you could see it for miles and miles looming over the horizon.
Thus, as Jesus stood speaking to His disciples about the downfall of fruitless Jerusalem, that cursed mountain would have been looming largely over them. It would have been an obvious point that Jesus was making for anyone standing in that valley.  Especially to this group, whose destination was that very mountain city.
SECOND
Jesus does not promise, if you speak to “a mountain” then it will leap off the land and into the water, like Mount Everest canon-calling into the Indian Ocean”. He also does not promise if you say to “any old mountain-like problem” it will fall into a Mariana-trnech-like-hole. No! He stands at the foot of a very specific mountain that all of them were looking at, and traveling towards, and says “Even if you say to THIS mountain”. By using the near demonstrative pronoun, it could not be more clear what Jesus is referring to.
He has a very specific mountain in view that will be destroyed and tossed into the sea. That brings us to our third point.
THIRD
It is a matter of historical record that the Romans surrounded the city of Jerusalem in AD 70 and leveled its top like a blown off volcano. They built ramps up to the city, came in, and tore down every building, especially the Jewish temple and razed the city to the ground. But, not only that, they killed most of the surviving males, and they took nearly 100,000 others into slavery back to Rome. Along with the women, children, and others, they carried every item of value left in the city, placed the spoils on their ships, and cast off back to Rome. The mountain of Jerusalem had very much been cast into the sea, just as Jesus predicted.
CONCLUSION
In Matthew 21, Jesus is not speaking about the kind of name it and claim it faith that charlatans use to justify their extravagant lifestyles. He is not teaching about the kind of faith you need to have the material, emotional, mental, or relational things you want. He is talking about something infinitely better.
Standing between every Christian and their God was the apostate mountain of Jerusalem. That system of temples, priests, feasts, and sacrifices was the temporary placeholder that was meant to prepare the world for the unveiling of Christ. Now that Christ had come, it was time to put away that old mountain that has fallen into disrepair. In Matthew 21, Jesus is talking about the kind of faith that led Him to put away the old covenantal realities so that the new and better covenant would come!
When Jesus was lifted up and nailed to a mountain cross, He signaled a new era in human history. Instead of people going to Jerusalem to meet with God, now they would come to Christ (John 14:6). Instead of traveling to a distant temple, He made us into walking, talking, temples (1 Cor. 3:16). Instead of looking for fruit in the old covenant religion, He makes us bear fruit for His new covenant kingdom (Jn 15; Gal 5:22). Instead of old Jerusalem offering the starving world bitter withered leaves, He makes the New Jerusalem church to offer life-giving leaves and fruit for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2).
Because of Christ, that old covenant religion was cast into the deepest seas and replaced by something so much better: the fount of Living Water! Jesus’ faith unleashed His Kingdom of salvation upon the world by putting away the types and shadows that came before. That is what this verse is trying to get at and that is why its true interpretation cannot be attacked by the moths and rust of materialism.
APPLICATION
When you come to a verse like this, read the context. Do not assume that it automagically applies to you in the basest sense. Do not use a verse like this to muster up big comical faith. Do not believe that God is just waiting on you to reach a certain level of sincerity before He will answer your prayers. Have faith! Pray big prayers! Yes and amen!  But, also realize that Jesus is not giving you an blank check to satisfy your carnal wishlist. He has done something infinitely better. He removed the mountain of dead religion standing between you and God and He made it possible for you to know the LORD through Him.
Enjoy that truth and leave the mountains to Jesus.
Kendall Lankford is the Lead Teaching Pastor at The Shepherd’s Church in Chelmsford, Mass. This article is used with permission.
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In Jesus’ final week, He enters the fruitless city and they offer Him only leaves. He also goes to the fruitless temple, that lies rotting in rebellion. On the second day, He curses a fruitless tree as a demonstration of what will soon happen to Jerusalem. Then, as Jesus ends His day in the city, He tells the story of a fruitless vineyard that will be torn down, replanted, and given to a people who will care for it.

How to Walk Up to a Six-Fingered Doctrine
When the revenge-seeking Spaniard from Princess Bride uttered his most famous lines: “I will go up to the six-fingered man and say, Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” there was more than an hour and twenty minutes of storyline underpinning that scene. From his motive for revenge atop the cliffs of insanity to his rants and flailing about with his father’s sword in the thieves’ forest, much happens in Inigo’s life that makes his signature scene all the more important. Without that critical context, killing Rugen may appear like nothing more than a frivolous crime of passion.
The same is true when we consider the topic of eschatology. Before we can understand those prickly end-times concepts coming out of Matthew 24 (like the great tribulation, the rapture, and the end of the age) we must first go back and understand the context that is underpinning those statements. We must understand that Matthew is telling the story of the long-awaited Jewish King, who as Malachi foretold would come to set up His never-ending empire here on earth. Those who accept His rule would live forever in His Kingdom. Those who oppose Him, beginning with Jerusalem, would be put under His feet and crushed. If we do not understand that story, we will miss every eschatological point the book is making.
So with that, let us continue along in Matthew, as we seek to understand the end times.
Final Week: The Saga Comes to Jerusalem
Nearly a thousand years before the events in Matthew, the city awoke to the sounds of laughter, worship, and joy. The nations (as God intended) had been coming, streaming into Jerusalem, to see if what they had heard was true. They were coming to see the radiance and power of Israel’s God. They wanted to see the temple where He visibly reigned from, the city that was His footstool, and the wise vice-regent He appointed to sit upon her throne, King Solomon.
Now, a thousand years later, the line of Davidic kings had been completely snuffed out. The temple, which had already been destroyed once before, had become a whitewashed tomb of dead pharisaical religion. The prophet who was called to announce the inauguration of God’s Kingdom had been beheaded by the puppet king, Herod. And, as Malachi warned, the love of God was at an all-time low among the increasingly pagan Jews.
By the time we arrive at Matthew’s Gospel, the rot had sunk so deep into the soul of Judah, that the wound was incurable. Josephus, the Jewish historian, describes this era and its people, highlighting the inevitability of God’s judgment soon to come. He tells us:

And here I cannot refrain from expressing what my feelings suggest. I am of the opinion, that had the Romans deferred the punishment of these wretches, either the earth would have opened and swallowed up the city, or it would have been swept away by a deluge, or have shared the thunderbolts of the land of Sodom. For it produced a race far more ungodly than those who were thus visited. For through the desperate madness of these men the whole nation was involved in their ruin.

By the time of the New Testament, the city of Jerusalem was so odious to God, that she couldn’t even detect her own moral stench. With lying lips, and hearts far from God (Matthew 15:8-9), she not only persisted in her murderous rage (Matthew 14:1-12; 23:29-33), but she was increasingly opposed to God’s own Son. As a result, Jesus tells His disciples that the keys of God’s Kingdom would be removed from her (Matthew 16:13-20) and that some of them would be alive to see her downfall (Matthew 16:28).
When Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, during His triumphal entry in AD 30, it was surely for the salvation of His people. But, as Malachi predicted, He also came for the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem.
In the weeks ahead, we will narrow our focus to the final week of Jesus’ life and look at the events happening in Matthew chapters 21-24. In these chapters, we will see how Jerusalem will be punished for her crimes against God and we will gain a clearer understanding of eschatology than we have ever had before. Today, we will focus on Matthew 21 and the cursed city of Jerusalem.
Day 1: A Procession of Joy and Judgment
Matthew 21 opens with Jesus, the true Davidic King, preparing to ride into the royal city on the back of a donkey. At that time, kings would only ride upon horses if they were going out to war. But, if they approached a city in peace, they would ride on a far less threatening mode of transportation, which was the mule or a donkey.
This is especially true during the Israelite changing of the guard ceremonies that became a tradition at the time of David. Per David’s command, Solomon (his son) would be anointed for the office with oil by the High Priest of Israel. He would then ride into the capital city on the back of a donkey, and as he rode a procession of important people would follow him singing and chanting “Long live the King”. By the time he and the procession arrived at the city of Jerusalem, where Solomon would sit upon his father’s throne, the entire city was in a joyful uproar (1 Kings 1:38-40).
Since John tells us that Jesus was anointed with oil just before His triumphal entry (John 12:1-8) and since Luke tells us that He rode into the city with a crowd of people singing “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord;” (Luke 19:37-38), and since Matthew tells us that the city was stirred up upon His arrival (Matthew 21:10) there can be no doubt Jesus was coming as King to set up His Kingdom. Whether the people understood the ramifications of His coming or not, matters very little. Jesus saw Himself as the true Solomon, the true son of David, who was coming to establish His Kingdom.
If there was any doubt about this interpretation, Matthew Himself clears it up for us, by quoting from Zechariah 9:9, which says:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

From this quotation alone we can see how Jesus is the long-awaited messianic King. He is the one who came to Jerusalem that day, in order to provide salvation for His people and to bring them into His Kingdom of peace. But, what we must not miss, is how the context of Zechariah 9 also says much about this King coming in judgment.
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To the disciples, much about Jesus’ coming Kingdom would be learned through these secretive parables (Matthew 11:34-35). They understood that for a period of time, imposters would exist alongside the true followers of Christ, like a field of wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-31). But, by the end, the Kingdom of Christ would tower over all the kingdoms of the earth, like a Mustard tree in the master’s garden (Matthew 13:31-32). And, at the end of the age (As Malachi predicted), all who are in Christ would be separated from the wicked, like good and bad fish caught in a dragnet (Matthew 13:47-52). 

From Malachi’s Eden to Matthew’s Jerusalem
As we begin, I want to reinforce two tremendous truths that have revolutionized my study of eschatology. 1) Most of the “end-time” events have already occurred in the past. They truly were future events to the men who described them and wrote them down. But, for us, most of these events have already occurred. 2) Jesus came to earth twice in the first century. The first coming was physical and incarnational. This is where He rescued His people and delivered them from their sins. The second coming was spiritual and covenantal. This is where He rained down judgment upon apostate Judah for her crimes and rebellion.
We know this because Malachi prophecies there will be two specific first-century “comings” of the Lord. His first coming will be a physical coming, where He rescues those who feared the Lord and esteemed His holy name (Malachi 3:16). This includes all those who repented and followed Jesus under the guidance of John, those who repented under the ministry of Jesus, or those that believed in His name in the earliest days of the Church. God saves those men and women by allowing His one and only Son to undergo the punishment they deserve (alluded to in Malachi 3:17) so that He can declare them righteous, and distinguish them from the wicked (Malachi 3:18). This certainly has already occurred and is the very Gospel of our salvation today.
The second first-century “coming” of Christ, described by Malachi, is a spiritual act of judgment against the covenant rebels in Judah. While Jesus’ physical body remained in heaven, seated upon His throne, Malachi tells us that He would bring a fiery judgment that none of that generation could endure. Of that “coming”, Malachi tells us several things:

“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? – Malachi 3:2
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment – Malachi 3:5a
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” 2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. 3 You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts. – Malachi 4:1-3

These final verses from chapter 4 bring the entire theological point together. Jesus is coming in two different ways to deal with two very different kinds of people. For the repentant, He will rise from the dead bringing healing to the broken, and He will endow the joyless with never-ending delight. He will welcome His people into the garden of His presence. He will graft them into His covenantal and life-giving vine, even while cutting off the apostate Jews so that neither root or branch remains. Unto that wicked and adulterous generation, the Lord would not come in peace, but with a flaming sword. He will turn them back into the dust from which He made them and put them, like the serpent, under His people’s feet (c.f. Romans 16:20). That is the picture Malachi is painting.
This is also the eschatological picture the whole Bible is painting. Adam was created to live with God, have a legacy and dominion, feast upon the life-giving tree, and put the enemies of God under his feet. Instead, Adam chose to sin, which meant he lost his relationship with God, he was chased out of the garden with a fiery sword, he was banned from the tree of life, his progeny was put under the curse, and his dominion was turned into slavery, and his body was subjected to sweat, blood, and toil until it returned again to the dust.
This is the subtle Edenic picture Malachi is painting for Jerusalem. Like Adam, the Jews were going to lose their favored status as God’s firstborn son (Exodus 4:22-23). The nation would be removed from the garden land of Judah, set ablaze by the sword of His wrath, incapable of consuming the life-giving vine, their legacy finished, their national sovereignty turned to full-on slavery, and their bodies turned to ash so that God’s true people would tread them underfoot.
What Malachi is alluding to is that fallen Jerusalem will fare no better than fallen Adam. But, redeemed Jerusalem, the Israel of God (Galatians 3), who is the church that Jesus would save unto Himself, would be brought back into relationship with their creator by the working of the true and better Adam (1 Corinthians 15). Because of Jesus, the Church will have a lasting legacy that will bless all the families of this world (Genesis 12:1-3) and she will have a never-ending dominion that extends His Kingdom to the ends of the earth (Daniel 2:44-45). Because of Jesus, the Church will be a tree planted beside the fount of living water (Psalm 1; John 7), she will be grafted into the life-giving vine of His love (John 15), to produce all kinds of fruit for His glory (Galatians 5; Revelation 22:1-2), that will also provide healing to the nations. And, instead of returning to the dust in curse, eventually, these people will be given new heavenly bodies (1 Corinthians 15) to live with their true Adam King, forever in a garden city (Revelation 22).
When Malachi speaks of two very specific outcomes, happening to two very different kinds of people, that are brought about by two very different kinds of “comings”, he does two very important things. First, he is simply picking up on the massive Biblical themes that were woven throughout God’s amazing story. The children of the serpent (everyone who rejects God’s messenger), will receive the curses of the covenant (Matthew 23:33; 1 John 3:8-10). The children of God, made alive by the rising Son, will receive every single one of the covenant blessings (Ephesians 1:3). Second, he is rooting the fulfillment and inauguration of all the Old Testament’s eschatology to the two first-century comings of Christ.
Knowing these truths, mentioned above, will help us as we transition from the last book of the Old Testament to the first book of the New Testament. There, we will examine what Jesus, Himself, says about the topic of eschatology, and how that applies to Jerusalem, which will take us several weeks to cover. Today, we will begin with some introductory observations.
From Eschatological Malachi to Jesus as True Israel
The first portion of Matthew’s Gospel details how the coming Christ will bring healing to His people, as Malachi predicted. What Matthew uniquely contributes to this story is that Christ would do that work by replacing Israel. For instance, in Matthew 1, Jesus will come from the prototypical line of David and Abraham, which makes Him not only a candidate for the Jewish throne but the one who will bring the Abrahamic blessing to the nations (Galatians 3:16). This makes Him true Israel, but let us keep going.
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The final book of Old Testament prophesy prepares the covenant people for the blistering reality that most of them will be treated as chaff, violently removed from the root, set ablaze as a withered shrub, and punished for their unfaithfulness to the law of Moses (4:4) and their hardened hearts towards the prophets (4:5). Some will be saved if they repent, as we see in the New Testament. But, most of the Jews will have the fury of God poured out upon them in a sudden and horrifying display of God’s power and purity. 

Eschatological Turkey Shootin
As a boy, some of my fondest memories came when my grandfather and I would steal away from the house, with a couple of 20 gauge shotguns in his rusted-out old Ford pickup truck, and go down to the turkey shoot at the nearby moose lodge. In those days, a “turkey shoot” was not about traipsing through the North Carolina woods to nab a herd of unsuspecting foul, but to gather around a fire with a group of like-minded southern boys, all shooting competitively at paper targets lined up methodically in the distance. The reward for cutting out the cross-hair in a particular round was a corresponding cut of delectable meat. In fact, some of the best bacon I’ve ever tasted came from winning one of the many turkey shoots that I have been a part of.
Although my weapon of choice – a modest Remington 1100 with a standard choke, was not all that much to look at – it consistently delivered a tight pattern of buck shots through the paper target before me and netted me plenty of victories. Even while all the competitors’ targets contained hundreds of small holes, the winner simply needed one strategically placed hole, right in the very center, to cut out the crosshairs and win the round. This reminds me of the current debacle that we are facing in eschatology.
These days, there are hundreds of stray positions spread out across the riddled canvas of modern end times studies. And yet, no matter how many holes there are in our thinking, almost none of them have brought us nearer to the Biblical center and to the point of Christ’s amazing victory. My aim in this series, is to narrow our focus onto the heart of the matter, focusing on (what I believe to be) the single buckshot of Biblical truth, that will open up this field of study for us and help us understand everything the Bible has to say on the matter. When we do that, eschatology will bring us hope, peace, and great joy as we await our savior’s return. Think about it this way, if a single buckshot at the center of a paper target will gain a man the most joyful and bacon-infused victory, how much more will a single concept, aimed right at the center of Biblical eschatology, not only expose us to the kind of victory and Kingdom that Jesus has purchased for us, but will make us leap like calves! But, let us not get ahead of ourselves.
The Buckshot of Biblical Eschatology
That concept, which we spoke about last time, is that there are two kinds of “second comings” described in the Bible. There is a past tense, spiritual and covenantal, non-bodily coming of Jesus, when He raises up the Romans to rain down judgment upon apostate Jerusalem in AD 70. And there is the future tense, physical, and bodily coming of Jesus at the end of human history, where He will come and separate all people according to their election and will deliver the saints to the never-ending Kingdom of heaven. One coming has already happened to national Israel. One coming will happen in the future to spiritual Israel (Gal. 6:16). And, knowing the difference between these two events could be the difference between eschatological defeat or victory, confusion or clarity, despair or abiding delight.
So, with that in mind, my goal over the next several weeks will be to focus on the judgment coming of Christ against Jerusalem in AD 70 (The first kind of “coming” in the Bible). In doing that, I want to show you all of the various passages that deal with that harrowing event, expose their meaning in proper Biblical context, and to extricate them forever from the stranglehold of dogmatic eschatological futurism and put them firmly back in their place as fulfilled prophetic events. Then, after we have spent several weeks looking at the past, we will do well to end this series on eschatology by looking at the grand and glorious future Christ has won for us.
The Judgment of Christ in Malachi
In our modern Bibles, the last book of the Old Testament section is called Malachi (which in Hebrew means “My messenger”).
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While the ministry of John the Baptist may not seem like it is important eschatologically, it contributes much to our understanding and to world history. First, his coming begins the cataclysmic and seismic shift from the old world of Judaism to the new world of the Kingdom of God. His coming signaled the end of the Old Covenant order and heralded the beginning of the Kingdom of God. What a monumental life and role that the Lord allowed this humble servant to have.

Hurry Up and Wait
It’s a rare occasion when only four words can summarize a major chapter of your life or the organization to which you belonged. But, “hurry up and wait” certainly fits that bill. From my earliest moments of hurrying up to wait at MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station); to the chaotic screams of drill sergeants prodding us urgently off busses, leaving us standing there for hours in an empty parking lot, leaving us wondering what was going to happen next and when would we get new orders; to the meticulous packing and shipping of all of our gear, thousands of miles away to Iraq, so we could sit in empty bedrooms waiting for the orders to come down. The military is a hurry up and wait kind of place.
Perhaps, this is how John the baptist felt as he was sitting in prison, soon to be executed. The LORD had called him to preach fiery, desperate, sermons to the apostate Jewish nation. Like the prophets of old, the Spirit of God had stirred up incendiary words within the vagabond prophet’s mouth, which did not make him any friends, but did bring him plenty of foes. To John, the warnings God told him to declare felt grave, pressing, and imminently dire and he certainly was urgent in speaking them. But now, sitting in a dank Jewish prison, John must have wondered when were all of these cascading judgments to come about.
Think about it this way. John was like a traveling geologist who was sent to warn a small mountain village of coming destruction. He had noticed that the rock structures above were unstable and that a deadly rockslide would soon destroy the town. So, he entered the city urgently, warning them, “flee from the disaster that is to come”, but few would listen to him. In fact, they became so annoyed by him, that they arrested him and threw him into the local prison. To add insult to injury, they viciously mocked the poor man, discrediting his “expert” opinion, leaving him to rot in the dampened cell alone. Before long they executed the man, believing his quackery had been disproven, as the city was lulled into a false sense of security and hope. For just a few months later, the deadly landslide consumed them all and there wasn’t a single survivor. This was the kind of ministry John the Baptist was called to. He was called to hurry up and wait.
John and the Prophet of Doom
As we learned last week, Malachi is often called the prophet of doom because of the calamitous prophecy he proclaimed against the belligerent people of God. He warned them that God was going to send a sudden devastation by fire that would overtake the nation (Malachi 3:3). This fire, according to Malachi, would coincide with the appearance of YHWH’s messenger, whom Malachi called “Elijah” (Malachi 3:1). That coming messenger, Jesus tells us, was none other than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:14). This means that John the Baptist would not only prepare the way for the Lord, who would save His people from their sins, but would also warn the rebels of the awful judgment that Christ was going to bring against them. John’s appearing as end-time prophet coincides with Malachi’s imminent eschatological judgment against the Jews.
Why is this so important? Because we tend to think of John the Baptist as Jesus’ eccentric first cousin, who shows up eating grasshoppers, dressed in camel skinned robes, with the role of introducing Jesus to the world. That is kind of true, but it misses the entire theme of imminent judgment that is so carefully woven into the narrative. When John steps onto the scene in Judea, his goal is to warn the people that the Christ has come. For those who repent, they will be saved. For those who resist, they will experience a kind of hell on earth.
John and the End of Apostate Judah
While we don’t have a panoply of quotations from John, we have more than enough information to validate what Malachi says about him, that he is the prophet who will precede imminent judgment. For instance, his father Zechariah (through the Holy Spirit) fully anticipated his boy would grow up to become “the messenger” of destruction foretold by Malachi (Luke 1:76-79). John, himself, believed he was the forerunner of the light-bearing Christ (Malachi 4:2; John 1:6-8, 23), who would bring healing to some and disaster unto others.
We know this was John’s focus, because the tone of his ministry is all about repentance (Luke 3:3; Matthew 3:1).
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When we know God is our portion, when we rest in His sovereign control over all things, when we understand nothing comes into our lives except by the hand of a loving God, then we can avoid the temptation and the trap of rooting beauty in the stuff of life. For we know, if beauty is found in changing things, our experience of contentment will ever change. When life is good, joyful, happy, and successful our contentment will be intact. But when the shipwreck comes, when the avalanche lands on top of you, when life opens up and swallows you whole, you will be devastated. But, if beauty is found in our unchanging God, then nothing on earth and no power of hell can ever move us, shake us, or break us. 

A rather strange concept among the children of men is that beauty can and must be found in pain as well as pleasure. This behavior seems almost inconcevable to the worldly man, who ascribes beauty in the most lopsided ways. For instance, a carnal person will generously admit how a picturesque sunrise, a looming snow-capped mountain, an attractive woman, or a well-written play are all filled with a kind of beauty. But, it is my experience, that only a Christian is equipped to call the cancers of this life beautiful, or the poverty altogether lovely. It is the Christian who can endure the loathsome trial with all joy and the frowning providence of God as a true delight.
And while this may seem a bit mental, the Psalms will help us understand how.
Whole Life Beauty
In the 16th Psalm, David says the following in verses 5 & 6:

The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.

In this short passage, we learn 4 important truths that contribute to the Christian’s understanding of beauty and contentment.
Truth 1: The Lord is Our Portion
David begins this verse by reminding believers that the Lord is our portion. No matter what circumstances befall us, or what meals and drink we put to our lips, or what lands or houses we accumulate in our portfolios, the Lord is the true inheritance of every believer. This stands in clear distinction to the unbeliever, who gathers property and possessions like ants gather dirt, but still experiences multiplied sorrows from bartering the one true God for idols made with hands (Psalm 16:4). The psalmist is graciously pulling back the veil of reality for us to see the point of human living.
Think about it, if our inheritance is money or property value, our mood will fluctuate commensurate with the ebb and flow of the markets. Won’t such a fickle proposition end up producing a multiplication of sorrows? Or what if our portion comes from physical strength or sex appeal, wont our experience in life sag pitifully down into despair whenever wrinkles, white hairs, and calories collect in the gut? Of course, it will.
The simple and unavoidable point is that the human experience of temperament is directly tied to whatever we find beautiful. If the affections are affixed upon temporal things that dull and die, human experience in life will look more like an electrocardiogram than what David is setting forward here. But, if the believer will take note of what David is saying, and understand that God Himself is our portion, what could ever sour our disposition?
If the markets are up, our joy still comes from the Lord. If a great depression should overtake the land, the sound of Christian hymn-singing shall still overpower the shrieking cries of broken-hearted heathens, because our experience is rooted in the beauty of God and not on a fallen world. Indeed, physical attractiveness, relationships, health, wealth, the sovereignty of nations, and worldly inheritances will fail. Moth and rust will claim them all. But the Christian who understands this passage will never wail, because they have become enamored with their beautiful radiant God.
Truth 2: The Lord Reigns Over Randomness
A second truth we must consider, along with God being our most precious portion, is that no event is random in the hand of God. While the world casts the lot, supposing chance and superstition can override providence, the Christian understands that everything – both the good and the ill – comes from the wise hand of the Almighty (Proverbs 19:21; Isaiah 45:7).
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My only hope is that you see the time frame references the New Testament is speaking about, and realize that much of what we consider “end of history events” are actually “end-time events” that have already occured in the past. I also hope that when you see a phrase like “last days” in Hebrews, that you will understand where we are in redemptive history. We are not waiting on the last days, we are living in them.

Gordian Knot Eschatology
As we begin this study on the end times, I would like to address you from the junkyard of eschatological insanity that we find ourselves in today. To my left lies a cardboard cutout of the late Harold Camping, a stack of books titled “88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Occur In 1988”, and a few posters of various blood moons, pale horses, and tracks about being left behind. To my right, an ever-growing pile of Antichrist candidates and mark of the beast hopefuls heaped on top of one another and most are now well rusted.
All around us is the odious stench of eschatological failure. From end times views assuming future failure, to failed past and present predictions, to wild speculations about Gog, Magog, and Vladamir Putin. Is it any wonder that the church is confused, frustrated, and lacking the joy and hope that a Biblical view will bring?
In this series on the end times, my hope is to bring the joy, clarity, and hope back into eschatology. And to do that, we need to flush everything we have heard about the end times, clean down the eschatological toilet, and wave goodbye as it goes back to where it belongs. I say this so strongly because the Bible was never meant to be a Gordian knot to confuse, frustrate, and paralyze you. It was always meant to be a clear revelation to encourage, strengthen you, and give you a living hope as you face the days ahead. When we return to what the Bible says and examine it in Biblical ways, I believe eschatology can be one of the most encouraging topics you will ever study.
So, in the weeks ahead, I want us to look at what the Bible says about the end times, and today I want to focus on the consideration of time. When do the end times begin? Are they getting ready to happen in the 21st century? Are they still long into the future? Or did they begin sometime in the past? Let us look at a few passages in Scripture to gain a Biblical perspective.
End Time Incarnation
By far, one of the clearest passages in all of Scripture, that teaches us when the end times will begin, is Hebrews 1:1-2, which says:

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.- Hebrews 1:1-2

The author of Hebrews is appealing to two very different sets of times in the history of redemption. There is the old covenant era of temples, feasts, priests, and sacrifices, where God once spoke to His people through the fathers and the prophets. This era is known as the Old Testament. But, now we are told a new era of human history has dawned (in fact it is the final era of human history), that began when Christ came as the incarnate Son of God.
What Hebrews is saying, is that when Jesus came He not only secured salvation for His people, but He also fulfilled all of the Old Covenant expectations, types, shadows, and norms, in Himself. For instance, He is our true King (Hebrews 1:8), that serves as true priest (Hebrews 2:17), making Himself to be our true and perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 7:27), offering Himself in God’s true heavenly temple (Hebrews 9:11), to secure a perfect unvarnished redemption. The point this book is making is that when Jesus uttered “It is finished”, He perfectly drew all of the Old Covenant types and shadows to a glorious end, fulfilling every jot and tittle of the Law, leaving no temple stone unturned, so that He could become the cornerstone of a new end time era. In Him, the old has been finished, and the new has come.
The importance of this cannot be understated. Jesus Christ put an end to the old era of redemption and began a new redemptive era called “these last days” at His coming nearly 2000 years ago. That is why the author of Hebrews says that God has spoken to us during the ends of time because he assumes we would understand that these end times began in Jesus’ first glorious coming! And since that much is true, it is clear to say that you and I have been living in the end times our entire lives. It is also clear to say that the Church has existed entirely during the period called the “last days”. That fact has been true for two successive millennia and will continue until the Royal Son returns a final time!
Unlike what many have wrongly said, the Church is not an asterisk period, the Gentile Church was not plan B, and we are sandwiched awkwardly between the Old Testament and a future millennial kingdom. The Church was, is, and will continue to be God’s plan A, for these last days. We are His end-time bride on His end-time mission until the final sands in God’s end-time glass have fallen.
Whatever thoughts we may have about this topic, at a minimum needed to be ground by the firm exegetical understanding that the “last days” have already come and that we are currently living in them. To that end we continue we a few more proofs.
End Time Dissolution
As mentioned above, one of the reasons we can be so confident that the end times have already begun is that Jesus so carefully and methodically brought an end to all the old-timey stuff. He brought a new priesthood, new temple, new mountain, new sacrifice, a new bride, and is bringing about a new covenant city. In the weeks ahead we will examine some of these things in greater detail, but for now, how about a summary? And how about we begin with the old and new bride?
In the Old Testament, there is very specific wedding language that must be understood before we will have any hope of understanding the eschataological bride that is given to Christ in the New Testament. Take for example, Israel. In the Old Testament, Israel was called to be God’s faithful and covenantal bride (Ezekiel 16:8-18). She is the one He lovingly drew out of the land of Egypt, clothed in His love, and brought to a mountain marriage ceremony at Sinai (Jeremiah 31:32; Ezekiel 16:59-60).
If this were not clear enough, God explicitly calls Himself the husband of Israel in Isaiah 54:5 and identifies their relationship as a marriage betrothal in Jeremiah 2:2. It was these people that God set His affections upon (Deuteronomy 7:6-9) and it was this nation who provoked His holy husbanding jealousy (Exodus 20:5; Ezekiel 16:38). It is to this matrimonial status that God appeals to Israel to repent (Jeremiah 3:14), when she burned in belligerent and raunchy affections, playing the whore with the other pagan nations and pagan gods (Ezekial 16:27-48).
Instead of purity and fidelity to her covenant Husband Lord, she acted shamefully in debauched spiritual adulteries (Hosea 2:3-7) until she provoked the righteous fury of her God. For a time, God graciously pursued His faithless bride, beckoning her to leave her lurid pleasures behind and to be reconciled to Him (Hosea 2:7; Joel 1:8). But, alas, it was to no avail and they exhausted His mercy.
In the end, God’s first bride became so polluted in her perversions, that God, Himself, issued those ten faithless tribes a formal certificate of divorce (Hosea 2:2; Isaiah 50:1) and wrote them out of the annals of history through a devastating Assyrian invasion. Along with that, God also warned the southern nation of Judah, that if she continued to play the harlot, like Israel, her fate would be the same as her twin harlot sister (Jeremiah 3:6-10). That imagery is the operative backdrop that is in play, as soon as we turn the page over and into the New Testament.
When we arrive in Matthew we must remember two important truths. 1) God is still married to Judah (although barely). And 2) God is not a polygamist.
That second point is especially poignant because when we see God taking for Himself a new bride (The Church), we ought to remember that the only way this could be possible, is if Judah is also issued a formal divorce from God. And while we will explore this topic more fully in the weeks ahead, that is one of the major themes of the book of Revelation, how the whore of Babylon, who I take to be the unrepentant, paganized, and Rome-loving Judah, will be put away (Revelation 17:1-18) so that God can claim for Himself a new and spotless, blood-bought, bride (Revelation 21:2).
Without getting into the weeds, we can rightly assume that if God marries the Church, then He must put away the harlot Judah. We know that this divorce from God must be executed in lawful ways because He is righteous and is never the unfaithful party in His marriage. Knowing that the New Testament records how the Jews piled their adulteries up to the heavens, even making Israel blush in shame. It was Judah who got in bed with Rome and turned their back on God. It was Judah who became so blinded in her defilements that she killed God’s one and only Son. And it was feckless Judah, that God brought down the full fury of His righteous, just, and divorcing wrath.
We can know that we are living in the end times, not just because the author of Hebrews has said so, but also because God has put away His old unfaithful brides (both Israel and Judah) and has taken for His Son, a new end time wife (The Church). A bride that was blood-bought on a better mountain called Calvary, married to Him in His resurrection from the dead and is waiting for the final consummation when He returns and calls her into His arms forever. That is the mystery of the Gospel (Ephesians 5:32) and a sure clue that we, the church, His bride, is already living in the end times.
Again, we will revisit this theme when we get to the book of Revelation, but for now, let us proceed along.
End Time Demolition
Along with putting away His old wives, part of Jesus’ work to usher in the new end time Kingdom was to put away the old faithless city of Jerusalem. As you are aware, Jerusalem was the old covenant city of God where He would meet with His people. It was in that city He promised to dwell within the temple, live within their midst, to be their God, and for them to be His unique chosen people. It was in this city that the epicenter of Old Covenant religion and eschatological hope collided, with every song, every feast, and every sacrifice. Yet, in the end, this city was put away just as decisively as the faithless prostitute of old.
In some of the final moments of Jesus’ life, the city of Jerusalem collectively turned against the Son of God, and sided with Caesar as their one and only king (John 19:15). Since God alone was supposed to be King of Israel, the irony, idolatry, and infidelity were palpable. Is it any wonder that Jesus pronounced covenantal curses on this city, for all of her longstanding rebellion against God, in Matthew 23:34-36? The text says:

34 “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous bloodshed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. – Matthew 23:34-36

Jesus is making a straightforward claim here. Jerusalem was entirely at fault as the covenant breaker! She had systematically cut down God’s prophets of old, killing them every time God sent them. It was this Babylonesque, city of sin, that would also slaughter the disciples of Christ in cold-blooded murder, after turning on God’s beloved Son, like a rabid dog, slaying Him and crucifying Him.
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You have freedom over your body, so long as your freedom does not impinge upon the rights of another human life. When it does, and the murder of an innocent human life in the womb (again, that is a scientific fact of genetics) certainly qualifies, then your rights must be limited, to protect the rights of another. 

In a recent Facebook post on the topic of abortion, a young woman responded to my ardent support for life with the following counterclaim.

Kendall Lankford A baby in a womb is not yet a person. Not until at least 21-25 weeks when survival can be obtained and nerve endings form. My opinion. Based off of science. You have your opinion. But my uterus should not be legally regulated by your opinion.

Now, because I think that this conversation is vitally important, and because I think this could be instructive for others who are thinking through how to provide an answer, I am providing my response below.
May the Lord richly bless you as you fight for life, combat demonic ideologies, and use whatever means you can to save as many lives as you can.
Dear Mrs So and So,
I would simply ask you to define what you mean by “person”. If you mean sentience and survivability, then I would ask you to apply the same standard to others. For instance, what about people in a coma (lacking signs of sentience and the ability to survive independent of a machine)? Or what about people in a vegetated state, or men and women in nursing homes with dementia or Alzheimers, etc? If they do not meet the standard of personhood, then wouldn’t euthanasia (abortion for the adult) be an acceptable practice to deal with members of the human community, who are not deemed to have adequate displays of personhood, sentience, or independent survivability?
If you go that route, you must also understand that the 24-week-old preemie, also cannot survive outside the womb, without an adult and medical intervention. There is nothing qualitatively different between the preemie and the person in the coma in that sense. Neither are fully sentient and neither can survive without massive intrusive medical aid.
The same is true for newborn baby, who cannot survive outside the womb without adult intervention. They do not understand the sentences we speak and they have no ability to keep themselves alive. Even a two-year-old, would likely not survive without adult intervention because they are vulnerable and totally reliant upon loving members of the community to help them until they can do it themselves.
What do all of these real human examples have in common, from the 24-week-old preemie to the 24-month-old toddler? First, they are all fully human and have a complete set of unique fully formed DNA. Second, while they are at different points on the continuum of development, their humanity remains equal and constant.
For this reason, I can be rigidly consistent in saying that all human life has value and that all human life should be protected. My standard, since human life beings at conception, is consistent.
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In truth, it wasn’t until my late twenties that I began to question the popular narrative of eschatological defeatism, to plumb the depths of Biblical truth, and to discover for myself, what God has really said about the “end”. Since then, my journey has taken me all over the Bible, through the annals of ancient history, and to what I believe is the Biblical position. My goal in sharing this with you, is so that you will have great joy, great confidence, and a great hope when it comes to the topic of eschatology. 

Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology
If we are the products of our environment, then it’s fair to say I was shaped by Vanilla Ice, M.C. Hammer, and dispensationalism. None, of which, have aged all that well.
Of dispensationalism, it was the ubiquitous stench in every Southern pew and the dank evangelical air that surrounded my Christian upbringing. My first study Bible, for instance, was a black leather Scofield Reference edition, which kindly pointed me to the bright hope that the sky was falling and everything else was failing. In current events, Mikhail Gorbachev’s disturbing birthmark was the best explanation we all had for the mark of the beast, credit cards and computer chips were ushering in a one-world currency, and the dreaded Nicolae Carpathia was soon to step out of the shadows and make himself known to the United Nations.
Yet, amid all the eschatological ruckus, I do not remember feeling any real hope, encouragement, or authentic love for God. The only motivation I had to live like a “Christian”, was to make sure I punched my upcoming ticket for an imminent rapture, which appeared to me more like an evangelical wonkavator than anything akin to hope.
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