by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog D128 posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2021; slightly edited on October 28, 2021.
Last night, I participated in a weekly bible discussion in which the pastor of our church asked, How can we summarize the Gospel of Mark? – we had spent months going through it verse by verse. In the course of the discussion, someone noted that she felt that Chapter 13 did not quite fit into the rest of the book. It stood out. I said that I thought it was meant to stand out, but, because I was not feeling well, I did not explain my reasons for saying so very lucidly. I will try again here.
The Question
Chapter 13 is devoted entirely to the Olivet Discourse , which carries a dire warning for God’s people concerning two events that, at the time, lay in the future: (1) the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, which occurred in 70 AD, and (2) the destruction of “the heavens and the earth,” which will occur at the end of this age. The Olivet Discourse indicates that each of these events occurs in response to the Abomination of Desolation, which both Daniel [1] and Jesus [2] mention, and which some commentators characterize as the abomination that makes or causes desolation.
The question becomes, what transgression is so abominable to God that, in response to it, he (a) utterly destroyed Jerusalem and its temple, which included the slaughter of thousands of men, women, and children, and then expelled the Jews from the Promised Land for nearly two millennia (70-1948 AD), and (b) will destroy everything – i.e. “the heaven and the earth” [3] or Universe – at the end of this age?
Before I answer this question, I want to provide a context for my remarks.
The Context
First, the Scriptures describe the Godhead as consisting of three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe they have played, are playing, and will play different roles in Creation: (1) the Father designed it and all its creatures and scripted it; (2) the Son made it and manages it in perfect accordance with His father’s will; and (3) the Holy Spirit imbues its inorganic parts with energy and its organic parts (its flora and fauna) with life.
Second, the Bible tells a story of how the Father, just as he creates a bride for Adam to be his “helpmete” for life at the beginning of the story, so he is now creating a bride for his Son to be His “helpmete” for all eternity. The story’s genre is a drama, in which (a) the Son is its protagonist, (b) Satan, the most intelligent and powerful of created beings, is its antagonist, and (c) the plot is a familiar one: the protagonist and antagonist are vying for a beautiful girl.
Third, the antagonist and the protagonist embody a dichotomy – i.e. a division between two mutually exclusive or contradictory groups: (1) the Son embodies the positive attributes (virtues) of (a) goodness, (b) honor, (c) humility, (d) light, (e) logic, (f) love, (g) obedience, (h) order, (i) sincerity, (j) truth, and (k) wisdom, all of which are aspects of logos and lead to health in body, mind, and spirit (life), whereas Satan embodies the negative attributes (vices) of (a) evil, (b) dishonor, (c) arrogance, (d) darkness, (e) illogic, (f) hatred, (g) rebellion, (h) disorder, (i) duplicity, (j) falsehood, and (k) foolishness, all of which are aspects of anti-logos that lead to sickness in body, mind, and spirit (death). Note that all of the negative attributes represent the absence of the positive attributes.
Fourth, the crucifixion of the Son marks (1) the end of the Mosaic Covenantal Period, which (a) lasted 1,498 years (1464 BC-33 AD) and (b) required the continual sacrifice of animals and birds in a physical tabernacle or temple to atone for sin temporarily, and (2) the beginning of the New Covenantal Period, which (a) will last an unknown number of years (33 AD-the Parousia [4]) and (b) requires an acknowledgement that the Son died on the cross at Golgotha on Passover in 33 AD as a one time, all sufficient sacrifice for the sins of all men, women, and children who repent of their sins and follow Him faithfully. At the moment of His death, shortly after He said, “It is finished,” [5] the veil in front of the Holy of Holies in the temple was torn from top to bottom, thereby indicating that God’s Shekinah Glory had departed from the physical temple in Jerusalem and now dwells in a spiritual temple, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, in the hearts of His faithful followers.
The Answer
God told Abraham to “Take now thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,[6] and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mounts which I will tell the of.” [7] Abraham obeyed. While climbing the mountain, Isaac asked his father, “’Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb [8] for a burnt offering?,’ and Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide himself a lamb [9] for a burnt offering.’” [10] At the moment that Abraham was about to plunge his knife into Isaac, an angel stayed his hand, and a ram appeared in a nearby thicket, caught in its branches. “Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.” [11]
Roughly 1850 years later, God fulfilled Abraham’s prophecy. He provided his lamb on August 28, 2 BC, which was Rosh Hashana, the first day of the 7th month in the Jewish Calendar and designated the Feast of Trumpets.[12] His lamb took the form of a babe in the manger, whom the Scriptures identify as Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, and “the Lamb as it had been slain.” [13] His 1st Advent was announced by trumpets sounding in the temple and a host of angels singing praises to God over the heads of shepherds, who were tending their sheep in the fields at night. Thirty years later, in August of 29 AD, Jesus underwent baptism by John the Baptist, during which a voice from heaven spoke, saying “This is my beloved [14] Son, in whom I am well pleased.” [15]
What should be clear from the above is that God sent his Son to Earth to become a man and to die willingly on a cross at Golgotha as a one time, all sufficient sacrifice for the sins of His bride, who will be presented to Him pure and holy by His father at the Marriage of the Lamb.[16]
Now, imagine your reaction if your son lost his life while saving the lives of others, and the latter ignored and even demonized him despite what he had done for them. You would be very angry. Well, that was God’s reaction when the majority of the Jews ignored and demonized his Son for what He had done for them at Golgotha and continued to sacrifice animals and birds to atone for sin in their temple. Thus, after giving them 37 years to repent of their treatment of his Son, he poured out his wrath upon them in 70 AD, and he has given us warning in the Scriptures that he will do so again when they repeat the atrocity in the End Times.
Here is the warning that God inspired Paul to deliver to believers in one of his epistles to the church in Thessalonica:
2:1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our being gathered together to him, 2 we ask you brothers, not be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.[17]
Paul is warning us that God will be sending a spirit of strong delusion into the churches (see verses 11-12 above) that will sharply divide us into two groups: (1) the Lord’s sheep (or the wheat), who will (a) do God’s will by standing fast and opposing the Abomination of Desolation, (b) possibly pay for doing so with their lives, but (c) can look forward to spending eternity with the Lord, and (2) the goats (or chaff), who will (a) do the antichrist’s will by approving of and even supporting the Abomination of Desolation, (b) possibly receive temporal honor for doing so, but (c) can only look forward to spending eternity with the Lost.
My friends, watch out. Read the Scriptures. Be aware of what is coming. Be not deceived. As our Lord said to His disciples on the Mount of Olives,
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. [18]
For a fuller analysis of the great “falling away,” read my essay entitled “The Great Apostasy” in the Orientational Documents section on this website.
© 2021 John Holbrook Jr.
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[1] Daniel 9:24-27.
[2] Matthew 24:1-44, Mark 13:1-14:1, and Luke 21:5-38.
[3] KJV Genesis 1:1.
[4] The Messiah’s 2nd Advent.
[5] John 19: 30.
[6] The first use of the word “love” or any variant of it in the Tenakh or Old Testament.
[7] KJV Genesis 22:2.
[8] The first use of the word “lamb” in the Tenakh or Old Testament.
[9] He second use of the “word lamb” in the Tenakh or Old Testament.
[10] KJV Genesis 22:7.
[11] KJV Genesis 22:13.
[12] His birth probably occurred at 6:00 pm – i.e. the first moment of the new day.
[13] KJV Revelation 5:6.
[14] The first use of the word “love” or any variant of it in the New Covenant Scriptures or New Testament (NT).
[15] Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11, and Luke 3:22.
[16] Revelation 19:7.
[17] ESV 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.
[18] KJV Mark 13:35-37.