Finding the End of the Road

How do the end times happen?

Back in the day when we had 3 or 4 children at home at a time, we often took road trips. Once, I recall, we were living on the East side of Atlanta, and decided to go through Birmingham, AL toward a civil war battlefield in Tennessee, but I miscalculated the distance and so we stopped in Birmingham for a hamburger. We were all tired by the end of the meal, so we turned around and drove home. It began known as “the time we drove to Birmingham for a hamburger”.

Other times, we’d just go exploring, trying to find a new place like a state park or just a place where we’d heard there might be a pretty place. I remember us driving around, trying to figure out on the map where to go. Yes, this was before GPS systems.

We looked at the map, turned off the four-lane, drove down a two-lane, made a couple of turnoffs, then went down a small two-lane road, it became a one-lane road, more and more it became a gravel road, and then we saw a sign pointing to the little town we wanted to get to. We were excited, because we knew we were getting close. We kept driving until we came to a bridge. Well, not quite. There was no bridge – only a “Bridge-out” sign and a sudden drop off. We could see the road we wanted to travel on the other side of the river, but that didn’t do us any good. All of our fiddling with the map had been worthless. Sometimes, you can’t get to where you want to go to. We needed a guide - the map was useless. Sometimes the road ends before you thought the road would end.

Early in the last week of His life on the earth before He was executed on the cross, Jesus and His disciples got into a series of debates with Pharisees and Sadducees, the two principle groups of Jewish leaders. They debated paying taxes, marriage during the resurrection, what the greatest commandment was, and how the Messiah, the Savior, could possibly be the Son of David if David called him “Lord”. Jesus then warned about the teachers of the law and how they put on a great show for prestige and money – and then complemented the faith of a widow who put two pennies into the Temple treasury, all she had. They then left the Temple complex, a huge area.

One of the disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

Jesus replied, “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

A few minutes later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives where they could clearly look down upon the Temple, which undoubtedly glittered and sparkled in the setting sun because of all the gold and gems and limestone blocks. Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him quietly, “When will all these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

Jesus told them tat it would be a while. “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will claim to be Me and will deceive many. Don’t be alarmed when you hear of wars and rumors of wars. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are beginning of birth pains.”

Jesus spoke for several more minutes, reminding them that they would be persecuted, but they must be His witnesses, speaking to governors and kings. The gospel must be preached to all nations – but don’t worry when you are arrested, just let the Holy Spirit speak.

But when they saw a sight from Daniel’s prophecies – “The abomination that causes desolation” standing where it does not belong, then all those in Judea should flee to the mountains. Quickly. Immediately. A bad time follows. But then, after many false sightings, Jesus would be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. But only the Father knows when – not even the angels in heaven – nor even Jesus, but only the Father. So, Jesus said, “Stay alert.”

Verse 30 is intriguing: “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”

So looking back from the 21st century, we know certain things.

First, we know that Jesus was speaking in the year 33 or 34 AD.

Second, we know that about 30 years later, within the lifetime of many of the disciples, in 64 AD, a large Jewish revolt against Roman rule began. The war continued until August of the year 70, when the Romans broke down the gates of Jerusalem, entered the city, and then spent several months destroying the city – and most particularly, the Temple of God.

Third, we know that in the year 134, after several smaller revolts, the Romans had enough, and kicked the Jews out of Jerusalem, later allowing them to return for a single day each year to mourn at what remained, which was the Western retaining wall that supported the compound, that wall we still see today as the Western Wall. It is all that remains of the Temple complex. One group of Jews moved to Eastern Europe and Russia by way of Babylon, Persia, and Kazakstan, the Askanazi, while another group moved to Egypt and eventually to Spain, France, and England. These were the Sephardim.

Fourth, Jews slowly returned to Jerusalem over the centuries, but not in great numbers until the late 1890’s, and then in increasing numbers after World War I and again after World War II and another surge came after the fall of the Soviet Union. Of course, the modern state of Israel retook Jerusalem and declared it to be the capital during the 1967 Six-day war.

At the time of Jesus, there were about 6 million Jews, almost all of whom lived in the Roman Empire, with about half living in the Holy Land, and the other half living dispersed throughout the Empire. The Empire’s total population at that time was about 100 million, so about 1/16th of the population was Jewish.

Today, there are about 18 million Jews worldwide, with about 6 million living in the Holy Land, about 6 million living in the United States, and the rest scattered throughout the world. About 6 million died during World War II in work camps, prisons, and extermination camps in German-occupied territory. The Jews have suffered tremendously over the centuries since the Romans destroyed their Temple. But prophecies have kept them optimistic about the future.

 In times of stress and fear, many Christians look to the prophecies with an attempt to determine whether the end is near. In fact, about twenty years ago, an entire series of fictional books, the “Left Behind” series was written which attempted to make sense of the various prophecies in the Bible, which are mainly located in the Book of Daniel, the Book of Revelation, as well as II Thessalonians and this section of Mark – and the equivalent sections of Matthew and Luke. A particular view of the end times has come to dominant popular Christianity because of these books, the Scofield Bible, and the pronouncements of Herbert W Armstrong, a Sunday morning televangelist from the 1960’s and 70’s. I call it the "standard model".

In this view, the return of Christ will be signified by a series of events which leads up to the Rapture, when all the dead and living Christians will meet Jesus in the air. Then, a series of terrible events we call the Tribulation will happen over the next seven years, in two periods of three and a half years, during which the world is basically destroyed and non-believers may or may not have a chance to repent and be saved. All of these points are argued over. 

An Anti-Christ appears, an evil man opposed to Christ. After this, the old heaven and earth pass away and a new Heaven and a New Earth appear, with New Jerusalem, descending in Revelation 21, a massive city 1500 miles wide by 1500 miles long by 1500 miles high.

In New Jerusalem there is no Temple. None is needed, for God the Father and Jesus the Son walk with us. The Tree of Life is there, bearing fruit twelve times a year – and the living water flows from the throne of God. Life is good, life is eternal, and we are ruled by the wisest king of the Universe, which is what makes New Jerusalem such a special place.

Unfortunately, while New Jerusalem is promised, this standard model of how we get there may or may not be true. The end has been predicted many times, especially in America, by this preacher and that preacher, beginning in the 1800’s. In fact, since 1901, there have been at least 81 predictions of the end of the world. For example, in 1918, the Jehovah’s Witnesses began to say that “Millions now living will never die” as they expected the Return to occur in the mid 1920’s. Other preachers have given countdowns to the end. As my son Andy is fond of saying, despite his young age of 24, the world has supposedly ended five times in his life alone. But we clearly don’t know how to interpret all of these ideas about end times. And, by the way, there are currently six more predictions of the end of the world between now and 2088.

Interpretations have varied over time. For example, it appears likely that the destruction Jesus talked about in Mark’s Gospel was the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. There are many historical figures who have been identified as the Anti-Christ, such as the Roman Emperor Nero who ruled at the time the Jewish Revolt began in 64 AD; Attila the Hun who sacked Rome a few centuries later; Martin Luther, who began the Protestant Reformation; Napoleon Bonaparte, who temporarily conquered much of Europe around 1800; Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany who led Germany during World War I; Adolph Hitler, who led Germany during World War II; Stalin, the leader of Russia during and after World War II; and even Ronald Wilson Reagan, our President, who happened to have 6 letters in each of his names, and thus was tied to "666", the "Number of the Beast" by some people.

My point is simple – Only God the Father knows the time schedule for the end – not even Jesus nor any of His disciples. This is something that Jesus Himself has told us. And so I think that anyone who claims to know the schedule for the end of the world is simply trying to sell books and videos.

So what should a person do?

It is good to break away from the useless study of things we have been told we cannot understand, and study those things of God that we can understand. In the Book of Hebrews, chapter ten, the writer tells us:

11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 

The writer is referring to the Temple priests of his time, where the priest perform sacrifices to pay the penalties for sins, which still did not take away those sins, merely paying the fines, merely apologizing for the sins.

12 But when this priest [meaning Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, who have repented of our sins and been made clean by baptism are made perfect by the sacrifice of Jesus. As far as God is concerned, our sins are taken away forever. The writer continues:

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”

17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

There is no longer any need to sacrifice animals and grain at the Temple, for God the Father has forgiven us and no longer remembers our sins and lawless acts. Through the Holy Spirit, God has put the laws in our hearts and written them on our minds. We are no longer bound to laws engraved on tablets and written on scrolls, but through the Holy Spirit, we can understand what God’s law is for this specific occasion, rather than worry about interpreting between conflicting laws that were engraved permanently and could not take into account changing situations.

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 

In the great Temple of God, there was a Most Holy Place where only the high priest could visit – and he could only visit once a year. A rope was tied to his leg in case he messed up and God killed him - it happened several times over the centuries. 

This Most Holy Place was separated from the world by a special curtain. Yet, because of the self-sacrifice of Jesus, the blood of Jesus has opened a way for us to approach God in this Most Holy Place. The Gospels tell us that upon the death of Jesus, there was a great earthquake and the curtain was ripped in the Temple from the top to the bottom by God.

21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 

Through baptism, we are now clean enough to approach God, following Jesus Christ who presides of the house of God today. Have you considered how much misery we have brought into our lives because of our guilty conscience about all we’ve done wrong? Trust in God and Jesus – they have said that they forgive our sins and lawless acts no longer. Even forgive yourself, because when we don’t forgive ourselves, we are pretending that our opinion of what we have done wrong is more important than God’s opinion of what we have done wrong – and God is the one who established what is right and what is wrong in the first place. The writer continues:

23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Because we can approach God in the hope and faith of eternal life, we can stop being selfish and instead do acts of love and good deeds toward one another, continuing to meet together and encourage one another. And the closer we get to the end, the more we should do this.

But do you remember I told you about us driving down a road, only to find a Bridge Out sign – and no bridge? The road continued on the other side of the river.

For most people, this is the way that the road to the end of the world has been. For centuries, people have been trying to get to New Jerusalem where they will meet Jesus, drawing out all sorts of maps to get there. We come up with all sorts of ways to get there, arguing with each other whether there will be a rapture – or not, whether the rapture will happen before the seven years of tribulation, in the middle of the tribulation, or after the tribulation, some people say that the tribulation has already happened because it was what the Jews went through during World War II or maybe under the Emperor Nero, and so we try to draw out the map and figure out the way to New Jerusalem with Jesus.

And then, a bus hits us as we cross the road, COVID comes and we end up on a ventilator, we have a heart attack, we are diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, and we see the sign ahead: “BRIDGE OUT”. And after our drive down the road of life stops, we realize that we were always headed to New Jerusalem with Jesus, following Jesus – or we were going to fall over that sudden drop off, because we weren’t following Jesus.

How the end times happen isn’t important.

What is important is whether or not you’ve decided to follow Jesus, our great high priest. For Jesus knows the way to New Jerusalem. Only Jesus. As the writer of Hebrews says:

“since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Take the trip. Find New Jerusalem. Follow Jesus, for He is the only way to get there.