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)
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.
[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".
[4] On the 5th
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.
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