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Religion
2008-03-01 09:38:00
Destruction of the world or the temple?
Question: Luke 21: 5-19 talks about the destruction of the temple and the persecution that will take place. How do we know that our Lord wasn’t talking about what happened in 70 A. D. instead of the end of the world? (all answer the same question).
Answer: Through the centuries scholars have discussed about when each of the books of the Bible were written. It is impossible to fix an exact date. However, through careful study of the language and ideas current at various times, it is possible to fix an approximate date for the composition of books. Most scholars are agreed that St. Luke wrote his Gospel and followed it with the Acts of Apostles approximately around the year 75 A.D. Jerusalem fell to the Roman army in the year 70 A.D. In the verses cited above St. Luke recalls that Jesus had predicted the fall and destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and he includes Jesus’ warnings about the end of the world. In this chapter our Lord is talking about both events. The Jewish people thought their capital city would become the capital of the world and would last forever. Therefore those who heard Jesus speaking, assumed his predictions about the approximate destruction of Jerusalem would coincide with the end of the world. Many peoples, who have witnessed great cataclysms have thought the end of the world has arrived, e.g. the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who experienced the atom bombs at the end of World War II, and those persons who experienced the tsunamis & earthquakes in Oceania and the Indian Ocean, all the way from New Guinea to the east coast of Africa, three years ago on the days after Christmas. Right around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem St. Luke included some of the things he had seen or heard of that terrible event, recalling that Jesus had foretold them. The day will come when not a single stone here will be left on another, but it will all be torn down (verse 6). Like his master, St. Paul, Luke thought the end of the world could not be far off. So he included some predicted signs of that coming event. Many of these signs occur in every generation and in various places throughout the world. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes, plagues and famines in various places, and in the sky fearful omens and great signs. . You will be betrayed even by your parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death . .because of me (verses 11 and 16). Such happenings are reported in our daily newspapers. As Jesus did not assign a specific date for either the fall of Jerusalem or the end of the world, it is understandable that St. Luke was confused about those events. The gospel verses following that passage cited in the question go on to spell out some details particular to the situation in Jerusalem when Luke was writing. When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its devastation is near. Those in Judea at that time must run away to the mountains (verses 20-21). [The Christian community remembered those words of Jesus, and left Jerusalem before it was destroyed.] Some people will be killed by the sword; and others will be led captive in the midst of the Gentiles. Jerusalem will be trampled by the gentiles (verse 24).Other verses in this chapter 21 clearly refer to the final times of this world. Before the end of the world there would appear many false claimants to be the Christ, and great upheavals take place. Many will come in my Name saying, I am He and The time is at hand. Do not follow them! Neither must you be perturbed when you hear of wars and insurrections. These things are bound to happen first, but the end does not follow immediately (verses 8-9). How many false prophets and various sects have risen in our own times, and have predicted the end of the world as imminent? I recall Jim Jones leading his followers to death by drinking cyanide in Guyana, and the followers of David Koresh at Waco, Texas, and the Moonies and Scientologists, and Amy Semple McPherson’s church of the Foursquare Gospel, and the early Witnesses of Jehovah: all these and others promised and expected the end of the world in their lifetime. There will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish, distraught at the roaring of the sea and the raging tides (verse 25). Recent issues of the National Geographic Magazine testify to such current happenings. The passage cited in the question states that Jesus clearly foresaw and foretold the terrible persecutions his people would have to suffer for his sake in the days to come. Every century, has witnessed the sufferings of Jesus members in various places. Even now in the province of Darfur in the Sudan, Christians are suffering terribly at the hands of the government in Khartoum: only because they refuse to abandon Jesus for Mahomet. This gospel passage will become much more intelligible: if we remember that it contains not one consistent idea, but several allied thoughts and images.
