Wars and Rumors of War

  One day when Jesus was leaving the temple in Jerusalem with his disciples they pointed out the buildings to him.  (The sense of the story seems to be that the disciples thought the buildings were important, and probably magnificent.  Maybe they wanted Jesus to see how "spiritual" they were to recognize the temple buildings as important.  After all, they thought that Jesus came from God and some even professed that Jesus was the son of God.  So of course he would recognize the importance of the temple buildings. But Jesus had another attitude to the buildings.) He said, "You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:2)  This statement intrigued them and later, while they were resting away from the crowds that normally surrounded Jesus, they asked him to explain when this disaster would happen, and for good measure they asked him to further explain what would be the signs of his coming and the end of the age.  (The disciples were not thinking of his coming back a second time, but they meant his coming into Jerusalem as the promised King who would restore Israel's fortunes.) In 70 AD the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman army led by the general Titus. The Roman soldiers literally tore the temple buildings down stone by stone to retrieve the gold that was on the walls. Titus carried off all of the temple treasures to Rome and the Arch of Titus in Rome depicts the event in stone. So Jesus' prediction that not one stone would be left on another came true within about 40 years. One of the predictions that Jesus gave at that time was a sign of his return: wars and rumors of wars. War is nothing new and we have had it for centuries before and after Jesus. We have also had rumors of wars. What is interesting and I think exciting at the same time, unless you're a person that gets anxiety from conspiracy theories, is that when you do a Google search on Illuminati, Armageddon, WW3, New World Order or something similar you will get millions of hits. Indeed, it seems that just about everyone is talking about some sort of war in the near future. Some are predicting war in a matter of months or weeks, some within the next year or two. Some made those predictions last year, or two years ago or even right after September 11. Whether there are more rumors of war today than in Jesus' day I don't know, but now, with the world wide use of the internet his prediction that we would hear of rumors of war may be just what we are seeing today. And if that is so we may all soon see a tremendous flash of lightning.

Every Eye!

BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.  (Revelation 1:7 NASB)

   These are the words written by one of the disciples of Jesus who was given a revelation of things to come by the Lord Jesus himself.  John, who was the last living apostle - one of the 12 who had been with him from the beginning and whom he had chosen to be apostles - had been exiled to the Greek Island of Patmos by the Roman authorities.  This is much the same words as Jesus said when he told John and the other followers that he would return with the clouds, and that his return would be like lightning, that flashes from the east to the west and is seen of everyone.  Only in this case it will be witnessed by the whole world at the same time.  

   As John's word says, even those who pierced him, meaning the Israeli nation, who were represented in the Jews of the first century AD who went to Pilate the Roman to have Jesus crucified.  And the Italians. (Romans who did the actual execution and who represent the gentiles - that is everyone who is not Jewish.) They will all morn because they have rejected Jesus as the only way to God.  Indeed, Jesus was known in the 1st century AD as the Way and His followers were known as followers of the Way.  Jesus said of himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6 KJV)

   In the future - indeed possibly in the very near future, Jesus will return like a flash of lightning that will be visible to the entire population of the world at the same time - everyone will see him without exception - and then there will be many that will morn.  But his followers will rejoice!  "Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. (1 John 3:2 NLT)"