GLEANINGS — August 10, A.D. 2014                                                                                                              The Date the Church Forgot

Though some contemporary Christian teaching overemphasizes it, most glosses over (at best) that very signicant date: A.D. 70. Let's put that important year in perspective...

In A.D. 67, the bestially depraved Roman emperor Nero sent his military commander Vespasian on an offensive campaign against Judea. Entering Palestine from the north, he burned Jewish towns, killing or enslaving their inhabitants on his way toward Jerusalem. 

After Nero's death and a brief period of political turmoil in Rome, this Vespasian succeeded to the imperial throne. Another general, Titus, took command of the attacking legions in Immanuel's land. After an unprecedented period of horrific deprivation and suffering, Jerusalem itself fell in the summer of A.D. 70. The temple's animal sacrifices ceased, and its edifice was destroyed completely – "not one stone left upon another" (Mark 13:2, Luke 21:6) 

These events occurred exactly in accordance with predictions made by the Lord Jesus forty years previously, when He spoke to His disciples in response to their questions about things to come. But to what extent did Jesus explicitly foretell what was in the very distant future for those disciples – namely our time, and whatever time still lies ahead?

The Man Christ Jesus, in His state of humiliation, proclaimed that even He and the holy angels did not know about "that day," but only the Father (cf. Matthew 24:36). Immediately before His ascension, Christ's curious disciples asked, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" The very recently risen Lord Jesus replied, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority" (Acts 1:6,7). 

Many modern disciples also are inordinately curious about the future. They apparently ignore that injunction. They deem themselves more knowledgeable than Jesus and the angels. They interpret Jesus' Olivet Discourse (His aforementioned teaching given on the Mount of Olives, recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21) to suit the agenda they have mapped out for God. It would not be difficult to associate particular names with this recurring curiosity.   

Here are three things to consider when we are tempted to place most if not all of Jesus' Olivet Discourse predictions in the "not yet fulfilled" category:

1. He expressly affirmed that all would be fulfilled "in THIS generation." What generation could He mean, other then the evil and perverse one (Matthew 17:17, Luke 9:41) in which He lived? It is reasonable to conclude that 70 A.D. was within the time of that generation. The whole Bible speaks with divine authority and edifying power to all of us. But let us not overlook that the Moses and the prophets, as well as Christ and His apostles, spoke primarily to their contemporaries. Rightly understanding the whole counsel of God in Scripture and applying it to ourselves must include recognition of that. (See Romans 15:4 and 1 Corinthians 10:11.)

2. Although discipling the nations (Matthew 28:19) is the ongoing labor of the church down to this day, and will remain so until Jesus' future, final, public, and visible coming, the Gospel itself WAS proclaimed throughout the whole world (rightly understanding that term) by 70 A.D! See Romans 1:8 and Colossians 1:6, 23.

3. When Jesus spoke to His disciples in the Olivet Discourse about "the end of the age," we must ask, what age did He have in mind? With His resurrection, dusk set in on the previous age of expectation. A new age of fulfillment was dawning. 70 A.D. with its sudden, utter destruction is a providential "punctuation mark." It does away with the old covenant temple with its many foreshadowing sacrifices. We live in the new age of the new covenant temple, that dwelling place of God in the Spirit in which no further sacrifice is required.