Signs of the Times Concerning Israel and the Church
David J. Nixon
One of the surprising things about the Reformation in the 16th century was that it left relatively untouched the matter of eschatology. As a result the church continued to teach an amillennial and dominionist doctrine that the kingdom has come today in the form of the church and will reign in a metaphorical millennium during which time Satan is already bound by the victory at Calvary. Under this belief the church will continue to grow stronger and expand to convert the world until Christ returns bodily at the end of the unspecified duration of the Church Age. How anyone can look at the church today and suggest this can possibly be true is beyond me. Rather the striking picture set out in Revelation 3:20 is of the Lord Jesus ejected from the Church, knocking on the door asking to be let back inside! The Church may in some parts be growing into super size congregations, but all too often is compromising the Gospel and scripture message with postmodernism and liberalism. This I contend is no accident, but rather itself a sign of the times in which we live that Paul spoke of in 2 Thessalonians as the time of “apostasy”, and which John wrote of as the “lukewarm” final era of the Church Age.
Paul towards the end of his life wrote to the young pastor Timothy urging him to “guard the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:14). This was a plea for Timothy to stick to the teachings that had been entrusted to him through Paul’s ministry because as an apostle he was the living fulfilment of Christ’s promise of continued revelation to lay the foundation of the Church in the post-Pentecost days through to the end of the Apostolic era. Jesus spoke in His farewell address before Calvary that when He was resurrected and ascended again into glory he would not leave the apostles as orphans (John 14:18) but instead would send to them the helping Holy Spirit. One of the purposes of the Spirit’s indwelling in the apostles was for the revelation of the things which were to come (John 16:13). Paul himself wrote that he had received visions of glorious things and direct revelation, upon which much of his teachings on eschatology must logically have come. As a result, if we wanted a good witness we would not get any better than the Spirit filled Apostle Paul who was one of those tasked with laying the foundations (“the good deposit”) of doctrine for the Church. Thus it is not arrogant for Paul to write to Timothy this plea to remain faithful to all he has been taught and received, rather it is crucial for Timothy and for all of us to remain faithful to the teachings which have been passed down from the apostles!
Sadly, the Church has not always done this and it is no coincidence that Paul seems to advocate a pre-millennial eschatology and that “chiliasm” was the position adopted by virtually all the early Church fathers for the first few hundred years A.D. Therefore, if we are to be like Timothy in guarding the good deposit then we would be well advised to look back at what Paul taught regarding the end times to discover the scripturally sound reading of eschatology. If we can accept this in Paul’s writings then when we look at the wider context of the whole of scripture then we will see that this apostolic teaching compliments and expands upon a clear picture that began with the Old Testament prophets, was attested to by the Lord Jesus and then finally receives greater expansion in John’s visions in Revelation. In short, if we’re going to be consistent in interpreting scripture then the pre-millennial understanding of scripture not only is consistent with the inspired foundational revelation coming through the Apostles by the Holy Spirit but indeed necessarily fits with the description of the end of the era spoken of by the Lord Himself.
With this ground work done we can now turn to consider the actual substantive content of the signs of the end of the age as articulated by primarily the apostles Paul and Peter, and by the Lord Himself.
Turning firstly to the Lord Jesus’ words, we must briefly consider the covenantal framework in which He is operating His providential plan for the consummation of the Kingdom. The centre piece of the discourse regarding the signs of the times after leaving Temple Mount in Matthew 24 concerns the nation of Israel. Christ was about to go to Calvary to satisfy the requirements of the Mosaic law covenant and fulfil the prophecy originally given to Eve in Eden regarding her seed (the Messiah) that would bruise the serpent’s head, which was expanded upon in the Abrahamic covenant promising that the Messiah would come through his lineage and through Him bless all the nations of the world. At the centre of God’s redemptive programme has always been the people of Israel, the natural born descendents of Abraham; however, God’s purpose was, as seen in the language of the Abrahamic covenant, always to use them to be a blessing to all the nations and even Jesus acknowledges this in John 10:16 “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd”. Israel, providentially, rejected the Messiah and crucified Him – and let there be no doubt about this for Isaiah 53 makes clear that He was destined be rejected by His people to satisfy God’s wrath that rightly burned against us for our sin and through His innocent blood cleanse us so that we are whiter than snow. This rejection was no accident and did not disqualify Israel from the inheritance of the kingdom! Earlier in the gospel of Luke we read that Jesus prophesied from the Psalms that Israel would not see Him for who He truly was until she declared “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Luke 13:35), so while Israel has temporarily been set aside as the Lord works in the former-Gentile nations the redemptive programme will not be complete until the Lord returns and He will not until Israel recognises who He is!
If there is still any doubt then let us return to the apostolic deposit and listen to the word s of Paul when he encounters the suggestion that God has dispensed with Israel today: “Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved…” (Romans 11:25-26). Not by mere implication then Paul rebuts the Church’s arrogant error of dominion theology! Indeed, he anticipated such arrogance and warns us clearly: “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant towards the branches…For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.” (Romans 11:17-18, 24).
Understanding this basic covenantal programme for redemption history enables us now to appreciate the passage before us in which Jesus is telling us about what signs we can expect as harbingers of the coming kingdom. Often it is argued that these signs are so generic and impossible to pin down that really Jesus was telling us not to worry about the end as we would never be able to tell anything about it. Granted there have been wars and rumours of wars, famines, and earthquakes, however, to stop here requires us to ignore more than three quarters of the other verses in the passage. The generic signs are set out in verses 4-13, and it is only in verse 14 that we start to get a more discernable sign when the gospel is proclaimed in all the world to all the nations. It is after this point that the middle section of the discourse in this chapter (verses 15-31) deal with the major factor that in conjunction with the other factors is the definitive sign of the coming of the Lord. Jesus speaks of an event called the “abomination of desolation” and harkens back directly to the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel the prophet. This direct reference links the final days to the 70th week of that prophecy which remains outstanding, and this is so crucial that it deserves further exegesis below.
Daniel has been visited by the angel Gabriel in response to his prayer calling upon the Lord to maintain the promise that Israel would only be in Babylonian captivity for 70 years, as spoken in Jeremiah 25:12. This angel delivers a message which is addressed to the people of Israel and sets out the rest of the plan for the nation of Israel until the Lord comes to usher in the physical kingdom (Daniel 9:24). This will happen over a period of 490 years, and it is this prophecy which predicts with virtual absolute accuracy the timing of the crucifixion some 483 years later. However, it is undeniable that the final 7 years (or “week”) of the prophecy remain outstanding because they describe an event after the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70AD, even though the 70 weeks prophecy would only have lasted to 40AD at the latest had it operated contiguously! No instead with the rejection of the Messiah God’s plan moved into a new phase whereby His Gentile flock was to be brought into the spiritual family of Israel to inherit the kingdom promises of the New Covenant by faith in Christ. As Paul writes later, God literally has paused His plans for Israel until He has completed this phase called the Church Age or “Times of the Gentiles”. Jesus, however, indicates that at the end Israel will again be in the picture, the 70th week will be in full swing because half way through it Daniel prophesied that Antichrist (for the want of a straightforward name to identify) would commit the abomination of desolation in the Temple (Daniel 9:27), which by implication must be rebuilt in Israel since Christ made clear at the start of our Matthew passage that the Temple would be utterly destroyed in the immediate future by the Romans. (The specifics of the Abomination of Desolation are expanded later by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:4) It is this event that is the trigger for Israel to realise that something has gone very wrong and over the course of the remainder of the 70th week Israel will be persecuted in the most horrific manner until the Lord Himself must return in her defence when she declares “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” as prophesied!
Jesus does not stop here, however, but continues to articulate the central place of Israel in all these happenings because He does not expect us to wait until half way through the 70th week to finally realise that His return is imminent. No, instead He gives us ample warning through the parable of the fig tree in verses 32-35. The fig tree is figuratively used throughout the scriptures as a symbol for the nation of Israel. Earlier the fig tree has been cursed for being unfruitful and unready when Jesus came to it, similarly as the nation of Israel was unready for when He came to her. However, whenever we see the nation of Israel be restored from the curse – as Paul says when the times of the Gentiles is complete – then we have warning that we are now in the final season. It should be patently obvious to everyone that this seminal moment in history occurred some 60 years ago now when Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948, and even if you put the event Jesus was referring to as referring to the later 1967 recapture of Jerusalem (which is a central place for the fulfilment of the remaining outstanding Old Testament prophecies regarding the End Times, see for example Zechariah 12 regarding the peace of Jerusalem becoming a troublesome burden to all the surrounding nations as it is today!), then you are still left with the fact that we have been on stand by for several decades now that the Lord is coming back soon!
The rebirth of Israel should have been no alien concept to the Jews of that age when they had received the prophecies of Ezekiel hundreds of years before concerning the valley of the dry bones coming to life again (Ezekiel 37), which was undoubtedly a vision of the modern day events we have witnessed happen. That whole passage points strongly to the revival of a national identity of Israel within the ancient Promised Land, and the requirement of Jerusalem to be the centre of so many of the outstanding prophecies again points to the actual nation of Israel being reborn. Ezekiel’s prophecies continue though with the description of a latter days invasion of geographical Israel by an alliance of apparently Russian and Muslim nations bent upon the complete annihilation of the small nation (Ezekiel 38-39). There is not sufficient space here to expand upon the significance of this sign of the times, but it is argued in brief here that the current Iranian efforts to procure nuclear weapons with the notable assistance of Russia in defiance of the international community, along with the coalition of Muslim nations coming together – including Turkey as it increasingly is pushed away from membership within the European Union; and the growing tensions between Israel and Syria, a notable absence in the coalition against Israel which seems unlikely not to be connected with the seemingly unfulfilled Isaiah 17 prophecy regarding the utter destruction of her capital Damascus – is a very important development of literal Biblical proportions!
There is a weight of evidence regarding the other generic signs which supports the image of birth pains - that as the birth of the kingdom comes closer and closer the contractions become more intense and closer together in time – used by Jesus and seemingly points towards the ultimate conclusion that we are closer than ever to the coming of the Kingdom, however, these points will not be laboured here. The primary purpose has been to analyse the importance of signs concerning the nation of Israel as pointed to by Christ, in response to an unmistakeable trend in the Church to ignore the importance of Israel in these Final Days.
Turning now to consider briefly some of the signs drawn to our attention by Peter, it is worth noting how he predicted the mocking that sadly comes from within quarters of the Church today: “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4a). His answer is resounding to all of us: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). This mocking is a sign of the times, and some recognisable teachers in the Church are guilty of it! In one sense it’s encouraging as it speaks volumes that the Lord is coming again, but also is sad that people are so quick to lose the blessed hope we are commanded to have in the Lord’s return just because He’s still holding on for more people to be saved!
Peter also touches on a theme prevalent throughout Paul’s writings regarding the rise of false prophets – a sign you will recall even drawn particular attention to by Jesus previously. In a worrying passage it is warned that “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold I have told you in advance.” (Matthew 24:24-25). If ever that was a call for discerning Christians to be like the Bereans who tested the Apostles daily against the scriptures (Acts 17:11) then this is it! Peter warns that these false prophets will “secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them” (2 Peter 2:1). You may have heard the expression “they’re preaching a different Jesus” and this is simply because some teachers speak of a Jesus who is not depicted in the scriptures, and unless you are testing the teaching against those scriptures it is likely you will not pick up on the lies being taught. Peter warns that the risk is great for “many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned” (2 Peter 2:2)! Indeed, it is arguable that the event that Paul speaks of as the “apostasy” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), which simply means the ‘falling away’ is a direct result of this false teaching that will permeate the Church in these final days. We began this article by considering the Lord’s words to the church of Laodicea and noted that this church stands as the representative for our era of the Church Age today. It stood in grave criticism as being detestable for its lack of love and compromise on the truth so that instead of being a fire for the truth, is a damp squib of liberal compromise. It breaks my heart that I can see this situation afflicting parts of the Church today, and it is sad that these scriptures do not seem to indicate a major change in this situation but rather only its exacerbation!
It is this complementarity of the resurgence of Israel in the land and the degradation of the Church in the world that marks the end of the time of the Gentiles and the recommencement of God’s redemptive programme for Israel to culminate in the glorious appearing when He shall again stand atop of the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem.
It only seems fitting then to conclude with some thoughts about why we should at all look at the signs of the times. Well let us look at Paul’s words to Titus instructing him to look “for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13) and also at the end of his main discourse on the rapture of the church that we are to “encourage one another and built up one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) with these words. These passages speak for themselves in that the signs of the times are to be a blessed encouragement to us as we struggle through these difficult days. Furthermore, we are instructed that as we are sons of light that we are to be alert so that we are not overtaken by the Lord’s coming as a thief in the night, because we are of light not darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:2-6) – that sounds very much like a command to us and when we factor in the words of Jesus we should take the command seriously: “therefore be on the alert” (Matthew 24:42). Indeed understanding the signs of the times is not some escape pod theology, but rather should be a powerful impetus to us to be busy about the Great Commission in the fast shortening time we have left in this world so we can see great multitudes come to know Christ as their Lord and Saviour and so that when He does return we are the wise servant found doing His work that He entrusted us with (Matthew 24:46). If the Church understood how short the time left is perhaps we would be more focused on evangelism and mission, having a desire to see souls rescued from the domain of darkness and delivered into the kingdom of God’s beloved son (Colossians 1:13).
Finally, let us close with this call to study and be aware of the signs of the times: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3).
Maranatha!
