11. JESUS REVEALED AS A TRUE PROPHET

Jesus Revealed as a True Prophet: (Continued from Lesson 10)

Likewise, Jesus knew that the end of the appointed times prophesied by Daniel was near, (Matt. 24, etc.). Although neither the day nor hour was known, the prophet Daniel had predicted the year.[1] If Daniel's predictions of an "end" had not come to pass in the appointed time as specified, he would have been considered a false prophet and his words would not have found a place in the Biblical canon, and we would never have heard of him. Jesus declared that "the [appointed] time is fulfilled," (Mark 1:15).  He was speaking of an "appointed time" that the people to whom He spoke were well aware; that is, the "seventy weeks" of Daniel 9:24-27.

            Likewise, if Jesus' predictions of the "end" of Jerusalem and the nation had not come to pass in the specified time, that is, "this generation," He would have been called a false prophet, His words would never have been considered sacred, and we would never have heard of Him.  But both Daniel and Jesus were proven to be true prophets by the fulfillment at the "appointed time" of their words, – not some imaginary or esoteric calculation of "time outs" but by the exact science of time-telling known to the faithful priests of Israel.

            Many eminent scholars have attempted to calculate these times and coordinate them with recorded historical events.[2]  From their work there is every reason to believe that the predictions were accurate, although the historical records they have to work with are fragmentary and open to interpretation.  However, it is enough for me that the New Testament saints believed both Daniel and Jesus and recorded their prophesies as the inspired Word of God. They had access to first-hand information and experienced in their own lives the fulfillment. I do not question their judgment.  Furthermore, the New Testament has been proven and can yet be proven true by anyone who will believe, for Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is alive forevermore and is presently making intercession for us.  If He had been a false prophet, God would not have so honored Him.

            Again, the "end" of the fleshly Israel established the pattern for the end of the entire world in the future.  The fact that there was an immediate, literal fulfillment only confirms the general reference and the future eschatological fulfillment.  The immediate reference that the gospel must be preached to "all the world" was fulfilled in the sense that the Roman Empire was called "all the world," (Luke 2:1), and "to every nation" was fulfilled in the sense that the tribes of Israel were "the nations," as in Acts 2:5.  Therefore, the gospel was fully preached, according to Colossians 1:23, before the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the "end of the age" for the fleshly Israel.

            The question, then, is whether or not Christ's prophecy was actually fulfilled concerning His appearance in a cloud "with power and great glory." The view popular with dispensationalists and pre-millennialists is that the events of Matthew 24:30 "did not take place after the fall of Jerusalem." [3]  Matthew 24:30:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  See also Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27.

            If one is not willing to accept the testimony of the writers of the New Testament, I would suggest the secular historian Josephus' account of an appearance in the clouds over Jerusalem as it was being destroyed.

The signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their future desolation....Besides these (signs), a few days after that feast, on the one-and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities (6.5.3).

Matthew 24:29:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

            Again, the fact that this was fulfilled does not necessarily depend on our having some extant secular historical record of it. However, we do have records that the sun was darkened at the crucifixion.  We also know that Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 darkening the sun and moon over a large area of the world, and burying the city of Pompey, Italy. An earlier eruption of Vesuvius is recorded[4], although not so famous as that of AD 79. A more likely interpretation of this, however, is the spiritual one found in Micah 3:4-7.  The prophets, priests and seers of Israel had lost their spiritual vision and so gross darkness had come upon the people, as if an eclipse darkened the sun and moon. Nevertheless, the Lord God Almighty has become the Light as in Isaiah 60:19-20:

19 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. 20 Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. (Isaiah 60)

            We do know that the prophecy in Joel 2:31 was interpreted as having already been fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, (Acts 2:19):

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

If Peter and the eleven and the men of Judea believed at that time that Joel 2:31 had been fulfilled, then I am willing to accept their judgment on the matter and declare that it had indeed been fulfilled.[5]

            Another popular teaching is that: "They shall look upon Him whom they pierced," (Zech. 12:10), has never been fulfilled but is yet future. However, this phrase is also interpreted as having been fulfilled when the soldiers pierced the side of Christ, John 19:37.  It does not, therefore, require another future, literal fulfillment.

            The people of the New Testament believed Daniel's chronology and therefore knew it was time for the Christ. The best evidence we have for the fact that Daniel's “times” were indeed fulfilled is the fact that the people in the New Testament believed they were. For example, Simeon and Anna knew it was time for the Christ to be born. Andrew was expecting the Christ (John 1:41).  John the Baptist had to deny that he was the Christ for the people were expecting the Christ, John 1:20, 3:28.  The woman of Samaria expected the Christ, John 4:25, 29, 42; the rulers expected the Christ, Luke 22:67, John 10:24.

            Many other references in the New Testament show that the "end" was expected in their lifetime.  For example: 
          
            Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time." (1John 2:18). 

          But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. (1 Pet. 4:7)

For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Pet. 4:17)

15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive [and] remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thess. 4)

            Christ's signal predictions in the Gospels were fully realized in the events of the destruction of Jerusalem, serving also as a sign of the yet future end of the Gentile age. Thus the book of Revelation shows that the morally imperative fulfillment of Christ's prophecies did come to pass, proving that He was indeed a true Prophet.

            Just as God's word by Jeremiah was fulfilled, so also was the prophecy of Jesus fulfilled in the utter desolation of the city of Jerusalem in AD 70.[6]  The fact that Jeremiah's and Jesus' predictions came to pass should have the effect of striking Godly fear into the hearts of the Gentile world, for their words are surety of the pending judgment upon the Gentile world throughout the whole earth when the Gospel has been fully preached to all nations and the whole world stands accountable before God.  Rather than being a source of racial pride and/or bigotry, it is proof that God is indeed "no respecter of person in judgment."

(b) Christ Revealed as Judge:

            Another way in which the destruction served to reveal Christ was in His role as Judge upon the fleshly nation, Israel.  (See John 5:22, 23; 12:31, 32.)  The fiery judgment upon Jerusalem, the War and subsequent dispersion of the people terminated forever the age of the fleshly identity of the nation.  Ladd speaks of John the Baptist's witness that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire: "The fiery judgment would suggest an event terminating this age and initiating the Age to Come."[7]

            For those Jews who continued to put their trust in their fleshly genealogies or in the outward forms of Judaism, this was a threat of extinction and so was intolerable. With all the ferocity of those fighting for their very lives, they resisted this interpretation of the event. The fact that the book of Revelation showed this event as a glorious triumph of the saints and as the source of rejoicing in heaven maddened those who saw their legitimacy eliminated and caused fierce opposition against the book in its early period of existence. Many early manuscripts of the book, probably those written in the original Hebrew, were all burned in this early period, only the Greek translations survived as far as we now know. This ferocious opposition to the book accounts for the fact that it was written in the apocalyptic genre using a kind of code understood only by those immersed in Christian doctrine.

            For the Christian Jews, – and the great majority of Christians at that time were genetically Jews, – the book was an account of the vindication of their faith in Christ, showing His triumph over all other claimants to the inheritance rights, destroying the grounds for persecution of the saints, completing the fulfillment of every prophecy, every promise, every hope of Light and Life. To them the book was worth every effort to preserve it. The book itself became one of the focal points of division between the two rival religions, Judaism and Christianity. Christianity claimed to be, in Christ, the only surviving remnant of the old nation of Israel, partly because of the account of the destruction of the fallen nation in this book. The canonization of the book by the Christian community represented the official declaration of their claim to be the surviving Chosen People.

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[1] The year was known by those priests who had kept faithful records and observations.  The differences between the Roman method of calculating time by solar years, and the Hebrew method of calculating by lunar years would have been very confusing to those not trained in the art of calendar-reckoning.  Time-reckoning was an exact science that involved calculation of several motions of moon, sun and stars and required a good deal of study.  It was therefore not a concept easily worked into a sermon to an untrained audience.

[2] See also my Introductory Articles: "Christ as Time and Light", also "Calculating the Seventy Weeks".

  

[3] Paul Dodson, Latest Word.

[4] On the 5^th of February, AD 62 large earthquakes destroyed buildings in Pompeii, which should have been a warning of the eruption of Vesuvius to come.  It is reported that a flock of 600 sheep were completely swallowed by this earthquake.  Then in AD 64 another great earthquake rocked the Naples area and pumice and ash from Vesuvius covered the land for about 70 kilometers, or about 43.5 miles.  The atmosphere was no doubt also filled with dust and debris which could well have reached as far as Jerusalem, darkening the sun and moon or turning them blood red.

[5] God Himself is called "a sun": “For the LORD God [is] a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good [thing] will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Ps. 84:11).

   He takes the place of the sun and moon when He dwells in the midst of his holy city, New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:23.

[6] The destruction of Jerusalem was not all accomplished in one year.  Reference to the year AD 70  is to the time when the City was surrendered.

[7] George Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdman's Publishing Co., 1974), 36-39.

 

10. WHAT MUST SHORTLY BE DONE? (3) TO VINDICATE CHRIST AS A TRUE PROPHET

10. WHAT MUST SHORTLY BE DONE? TO VINDICATE CHRIST AS A TRUE PROPHET

(a) Christ's Role as a True Prophet

            The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was the vindication of Christ's claim to the role of a true prophet and completed the proof of His identity as the Messiah. When Christ was proven to be a true prophet, those who had rejected, and killed Him, were condemned and became guilty of innocent blood as well as blasphemy and deicide. Those who had charged Him with being a false prophet because He had foretold the destruction of the city and the temple were now themselves proven guilty. It was morally imperative that this event take place immediately because Christ had predicted that the generation who heard Him pronounce the prophecy would live to see its fulfillment and that generation was fast passing away by AD 70.

            Jesus had predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and made the statement that "...this generation will not pass away till all these things take place."  (See Matthew 24:34 and Luke 21:20-32. RSV).  This is construed by dispensationalists as having never yet been fulfilled, but awaits a yet future coming, appearing, or revelation. Christ's promise of a contemporary fulfillment must rather be seen in the perspective of the tests commonly required of a prophet in that time to determine whether or not he was indeed a true prophet; tests advised by Scripture as well as good sense.

            The three proof tests required of a prophet were: First, He should cause signs and wonders to come to pass. This is seen as evidence of the prophetic calling from Moses to the Apostles. Jesus clearly qualified under this test.  But signs and wonders alone did not suffice for proof of the prophetic office, as stated in Deuteronomy 13:1-5. Secondly, even though the prophet could do miracles, he also must turn the people from their evil ways according to Jeremiah 23:22, and not to strange gods. Again, Jesus qualified eminently under this rule.

            The third test is illustrated in Deuteronomy 18:18-22 and Jeremiah 28:9: the true prophet would be proven when his words came to pass; whereas if he made predictions that did not happen, then he was known to be a false prophet.  That this attitude toward the office of a prophet was prevalent in the New Testament era is evidenced by the words of Gamaliel to the Sanhedrin when he said:

Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will be overthrown: but if it is of God, ye will not be able to overthrow them, lest haply ye be found even to be fighting against God. (Acts 5:33-39.)

            These three tests had served the nation well for many years, but when false prophets proliferated at the time of the exile they began to say, (perhaps citing such works as the book of Daniel), that their prophecies were for a distant time, and that they were not to be judged by their own generation.  This situation created a crisis such as described in Zechariah 13:1-5 wherein parents were to slay their own child if he claimed to be a prophet, and Amos was ashamed to be called a prophet, asking only to be known as a herdsman and gatherer of sycamore fruit.

            The prophet could not, however, forbear prophesying simply because the people rejected his message and continued in their sins or ridiculed him.  When the Lord told Amos to "Go, prophesy" he went, for "The lion hath roared, who will not fear?  The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" 

             Ezekiel also was directed by the Lord to speak "whether they hear or refuse to hear."  Either way, the time would come when "they will know that there has been a prophet among them."  It was not required that they turn the whole nation, nor even a majority, to righteousness.  It was only required that those who did heed their words would be turned from sin.

            The fourth and final proof test of a prophet was that their predictions should not only be proven true, but be proven true within the generation who heard the prophet speak the prediction.  The prophet was to give a signal prediction by which he would be proven.  Ezekiel 12:25: 

But I the Lord will speak the word which I will speak and it will be performed.  It will no longer be delayed, but in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it, says the Lord God. [Emphasis mine.]

            It is in this context that we see the implications of Christ's words concerning the fulfillment of His prediction in "this generation."  Jesus would have been judged a false prophet if His prediction of the fall of Jerusalem had not happened within the time frame of the life of the contemporary generation.  He offered this as the signal prediction by which His prophetic calling would be proven.  In this context, the very event of the destruction of Jerusalem was itself a revelation of Jesus Christ because it proved His prophetic anointing.  

            Jeremiah had proven to be a true prophet in his own lifetime when he predicted the fall of Judah and the destruction of the temple and the Babylonian exile. He was also given a prophecy that the nation would be restored after an appointed time of 70 years, not an indefinite time which could not be determined. It was therefore a provable prediction, one that could not be avoided by saying that it was for some indefinable future time, even though most or all of his generation may have passed away.

            Daniel had proven to be a true prophet in his own generation when his interpretation of the dreams of the kings of Babylon came to pass, (Daniel 2 through 5).  He, too, was given another prophecy that was not for his generation, but was to be sealed for an appointed time.  (Daniel 7 through 12).  Again, this was for an appointed time, not an indefinite future event.  It was provable, although not in his generation. By the time of Christ the appointed time of Daniel's sealed book of prophecy was nearing its completion. A view consistent with Scripture is that the sealed book of Revelation 5 and the opening of the seals in Revelation 6 through 18 portray the fulfillment of the "time of the end" which Daniel foresaw, that is, the end of the fleshly nation of Israel, and their holy city, Jerusalem.  Daniel's prophecy was to be "sealed until the time of the end," (Daniel 12:9).  That end was to be at an "appointed time," and the book of Revelation begins by saying that that "the (appointed) time is near," (Revelation 1:3.)

           It was the "end of the age," for the fleshly nation, not the end of the whole planet.[1]  This "end" established the pattern for the end of the whole world at some future time.  This is consistent with 1Corinthians 10:1-11, that is, that the experiences of the fleshly nation serve as an example to the Church, even to the end.[2] 

          The end which Daniel foresaw was the end of "your people and your holy city," (9:24).  At the time of the end which Daniel saw, (11:40), there would be the "time of trouble" or the "great tribulation," (12:1).  Jesus related this "great tribulation" to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, (Matt. 24, see especially verse 21, "since the beginning of the age [world]," i.e., the age of Israel's national existence; "nor ever shall be," i.e., since the nation was ceasing to exist it would never again endure such a time.  Although this is apparent in Jesus' words, we may also refer to the writings of Josephus regarding the Wars of the Jews:

That neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world (Wars 5.10.5).[3]

          This lesson will be continued next week. It is taken from my book Revelation in Context pages 78-80. Revelation in Context is available at Amazon.com or XulonPress.com or locally at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Free downloads are also available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net

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[1] Note that the Hebrew word translated "earth" is also alternately translated "land."  Therefore, the prophecies concerning the end of the "earth" may just as well have been translated "land."

[2] Lightfoot, (CNT, vol. 4 pp. 248-9), points out that the blood of the Passover lamb in Exodus was given before the law was established.  The blood of the cup which Jesus presented to His disciples was the sanction of the New Covenant.  It marked the end of Judaism.  (Emphasis mine.)

[3] The famine that resulted from the siege of Jerusalem caused so many deaths that they could not bury them (Wars, 5.13.7).

   The deaths from the civil war were so great in the space round about the temple, that it was compared to a cemetery (Wars 6.2.3).