Earthquakes and Famines
The years between Jesus’ crucifixion and the downfall of Jerusalem witnessed a marked increase in earthquakes both by number and by volume. The same is true for famines that attacked the residents of Rome and threatened to evaporate the people of Judah. But these events are not random. They were prophesied by Jesus and they happened in the lifetime of the disciples just like He said.
If the Glove Don’t Fit…
Perhaps the most explosive and prolific trial of our lifetime was the OJ Simpson murder trial in the early 1990s. As an eleven-year-old boy at the time, I still remember watching the primetime aerial coverage of a white bronco lazily loafing down the LA freeway with as much agility as a soppy wet sponge. After that, I recall the media frenzy as millions all over the country tuned in with popcorn and rapt attention to watch a kangaroo court deliberating the case with all the panache and showmanship of a Ringling Brothers Circus. But, what stands out as the most memorable moment in the trial, at least in my memory, is when Juice’s dream team head attorney quipped: “If the glove don’t fit, then you must acquit”. Ultimately, the jury did acquit as successive civil cases raged in court for the years to come.
Now, without getting into the weeds of that trial, the point was simple. If the evidence in the case cannot be reconciled to the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt, then he must be acquitted of the charges. But, if the glove used in the murder did fit, then getting to a guilty verdict would have been all the more reasonable of a conclusion.
In the case of eschatology, my goal thus far has been to show that most (not all) of the passages that are normally associated with a future-oriented perspective do not fit the glove. They do not align with the evidence presented in the New Testament and do not pass the sniff test to meet any reasonable burden of proof. And, instead, it is the preterist view that offers the most compelling explanation for these passages.
To prove this hypothesis, I have presented line after line of evidence in a systematic way. I began by showing how the eschatology of Malachi looks forward to a first-century judgment coming of Christ against the Jews. You can find that article here. I then conveyed how John the Baptist expected an imminent judgment coming by Christ against the Jews (i.e. the ax was already at the root of the tree) found here. From there, I demonstrated that this was, in fact, the general expectation of Jesus, which is laid out specifically in my post on Matthew 21, Matthew 22, Matthew 23, and in the introduction to Matthew 24. Then, over the last couple of weeks, we have been looking at specific signs that Jesus gave (Such as the Rise of False Messiahs and Wars and Rumors of Wars) that so clearly point to a past fulfillment that the burden of proof has swung almost fully in the favor of the preterist position.
This week we continue through the evidence Jesus presents so that we might have a comprehensive view, so we can see the reasonableness of the position, and so we will not be led into trembling by the end-times prognosticators and tribulation hucksters. Today, we look at Matthew 24 and the end time signs of Earthquakes and Famines that Jesus gave, in order to see if this evidence fits hand in glove for a first century fulfillment as all previous evidence has done.
Covenantal Earthquakes and End-Time Seismic Shifts
Before we look at Matthew 24 and the evidence of earthquakes in the ancient world, I want us to see the New Testament expectation for Jesus’ first-century, earth-shaking, end-time coming. Said plainly, I want you and I to see that when Jesus came to the world, He intended to give it a good last days shaking. Whatever remained would be left for Him to rule. Whatever fell away would be like chaff devoured by the scorching east wind.
For instance, In Hebrews chapter 1, the author tells us plainly that we are living in the last days (Hebrews 1:1-2). To him, the “last days” represent the entire era of New Covenant redemption (i.e. the church age). After he drops that bomb, he describes how the era of priests, temples, and animal sacrifices was rolled up like a scroll to be put on the shelf (Hebrews 1:10-14). That long chapter was finally closed and now the final chapter of human redemption has come through God’s Son.
Near the end of the book, after Christ replaced the Old Testament types and Old Covenant vestiges, the author gives a vivid picture of how Old Testament time will end. Not surprisingly, it ends the same way it begins with a wiggle wobbling and jiggle joggling covenantal shake. In the Old Testament, that happened on the local level, by earthquakes at mount Sinai. In this new covenantal era, the entire world and heaven will need to be shaken in order to welcome God’s eternal Kingdom to this earth (Hebrews 12:18-29). While that shaking is clearly spiritual and covenantal, we shouldn’t be surprised when the rocks cry out and when the fault lines tremble. They often see what is happening more clearly than we do.
The Unleashing of Earthquakes
When modern-day prophecy charlatans read the words of Christ:
“In various places, there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” – Matthew 24:7-8
… They assume Jesus is talking about phenomena that will necessarily plague the modern world. When this ilk of newspaper scholars spy a random earthquake in California or hear tell of an occasional famine in the Middle East, they are the first ones to dust off their heavenly suitcases and prep their underground bunkers for the inevitable tribulation. It is as if they believe we are the only people in human history who’ve ever felt the earth tremble under our feet or have seen our plants die in the dusty scorcher.
It is important, however, for all of us to remember that Jesus is responding to specific questions, concerning first-century events, that the disciples were asking Him about. They wanted to know when the temple would be destroyed (Matthew 23:38-24:1-2), what would be the signs that this event was drawing near and how would this bring about the end of the Jewish age (Matthew 24:3).
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Jesus Isn’t Afraid of Your Investigation
Jesus is not afraid of your investigation. He’s not afraid to invite you in – to bring you close – because He knows who He is. And He knows what He is offering. There is no guile, no insecurity, no anger at those who are truly seeking.
There is no insecurity in the Son of God.
He’s not like us. We subtly beg for compliments, we subversively week affirmation, we passive aggressively look for allies – but not Jesus. Jesus knows what He’s about. And He knows that what He offers is the only thing that truly satisfies.
It’s against that backdrop that we find the very simple but profound invitation of John 1. To set the context, John the Baptist was the religious draw of the day. With his eccentric dress, his biting rhetoric, and his fearless demeanor he challenged the religious establishment calling all who heard his message to repent, for the kingdom was at hand.
But John also knew that he was only a messenger; his entire life was meant to point to another. And so in John 1, when Jesus came walking toward him, it was the perfect thing to do for him to deflect the attention from himself and onto Jesus:
“Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
There were those who heard John say this – those who had been following John himself. But hearing the pronouncement, they stopped following John and started following Jesus. And the Bible tells us that Jesus, knowing these two men were following Him turned to them and asked them a simple question:
“What are you looking for?” (John 1:38).
The truth is, they didn’t know. At least not yet. They didn’t know what they were getting into. They didn’t understand the journey Jesus was about to take them on. They didn’t grasp the fullness of what it meant to truly follow Jesus. So they returned Jesus’ question with another question:
“Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” (John 1:38).
That’s when Jesus said four words that changed their lives. And four words that can still change your life:
“Come and you’ll see” (John 1:29).
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Jesus: The Light of the World
Jesus has dispelled out the darkness of this world by shining upon us His light. Those of us who trust in Him will never walk in darkness but will always have the light of life. There is no other way to experience clarity, peace, and joy than to live in the light of Christ.
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
How would you describe the world today using one word? Maybe you would use corrupt, particularly in relation to governments and their actions over the past few years. Maybe you would use evil to describe the wickedness that appears to prevail. One word God uses to describe the world is darkness. It is becoming increasingly clear to many that the world is a dark place — not merely physically — but spiritually.
With access to an endless stream of news and social media, it can be easy to feel quite hopeless at the state of the world. Indeed, this darkness even lurks within our own hearts; we are part of the problem. Living in the darkness, our greatest need is to have this darkness dispelled, and there is only one thing that can do it: the light.
The great power of light is its ability to illuminate things. Light reveals things as they really are so that we can see them with clarity and precision. It also provides hope and direction for where we need to head. When Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world’ (John 8:12), this is what He had in mind. He came to reveal who God is, and who we are. More than this, He came to reveal how we can be right with God in a world of darkness.
Light Reveals What is Hidden
The fact that light reveals is a blessing in many ways. Light can illuminate a pitch-black room and can show you where your keys are. The dawn sunrise penetrates the shadows of the night, revealing the rolling mountains and crystal blue sea. These rays of light all find their source in the great celestial ball we call the sun. Its ability to reveal is a great blessing.
The same light that reveals can also be a curse. Just as the sun reveals what the world really looks like, Jesus reveals what we are really like.
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Why did Jesus have to be Fully Human?
If Jesus is not fully human, his resurrection provides no real hope for humanity. But if God has raised the man Christ Jesus – the new and better Adam (which literally means man) – who has been faithful on our behalf as our representative, then the claim to a future hope of resurrection suddenly has power. God did not simply raise God because God cannot die and God could raise himself from the dead. Rather, he raised the man Christ Jesus who – being just like us and functioning as the substitutionary representative for humanity.
At the incarnation we see God become man. Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, took upon himself human flesh. In doing so, he didn’t cease to be fully God nor did he become something more than man (either a demi-God or a super-human). Jesus became the God-Man; fully human and yet fully God with two separate natures united in one person.
If you think that sounds weird, that fact isn’t lost on Christians. Jim Packer said, ‘Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.’ He goes on, ‘This is the real stumbling block in Christianity. It is here that Jews, Muslims, Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many of those who feel the difficulties concerning the virgin birth, the miracles, the atonement, and the resurrection have come to grief.’ But it is, he insists, ‘in itself an unfathomable mystery, but it makes sense of everything else that the New Testament contains.’
I am not going to spend any time today defending the Incarnation. I am simply going to assume it as the evident teaching of scripture. Jesus Christ is, according to the Bible, both fully God and fully man. What I want to do here is dig into why that in any way matters. Today, I will focus on his humanity and tomorrow his divinity. So, why is Jesus’ full humanity so important?
A Suitable Representative
Way back in Eden, Adam – the first man – served as the representative for all humanity. As our federal head, Adam’s sin meant we all sinned and Adam’s guilt is imputed to us and becomes our guilt. Much of the rest of the Old Testament is concerned with trying to find a second Adam who would obey God and become the faithful covenant partner through whom God could save his people. If all were guilty in Adam, we need a representative through whom all could be made righteous. Though many potential second Adams rise up but ultimately fail, the Bible is clear that Jesus is sent by God as this faithful representative. As such, Jesus had to be a man – made just like us – so that he could be an appropriate and adequate representative for the human race.
To be a Substitutionary Sacrifice
The Bible is very clear that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin (Lev 17:11 cf. Heb 9:22).
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