Stay focus (2)

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Eschatology ESCHATOLOGY The study of the end times, including death, the intermediate state, the afterlife, judgment, the millennium, heaven, and hell. Also refers to the time of Jesus’ second coming.

Death. The Bible teaches that death is a reality for humanity (Heb 9:27). Physical death, or the “first death,” is the separation of the soul from the body. Because of the presence of sin in the world, death has come upon everyone (Rom 5:12).
Heb 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Romans 5:12 ESV
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
The Second Coming. Scripture teaches that at the end of time Christ will return in a personal, bodily form (Acts 1:11). No one knows exactly when this will occur, and it will consequently catch some by surprise, coming as a thief in the night Lk 12:39, 40. Although the time is not known, the fact that it will occur is very definite. Many of Jesus’ parables refer to this fact and to the appropriateness of alert, faithful, and intensive activity.
Acts 1:11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.”
The Resurrection. All who have died will come to life. This will be a bodily resurrection, a resumption of bodily existence of each person. For believers this will take place in connection with the second coming of Christ, and will involve the transformation of the body of this present flesh into a new, perfected body (1 Cor 15:35–56).
1 Corinthians 15:35–56 ESV
But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
The Judgment. There will be a time of judgment, in which the Lord will determine the spiritual condition of all who have lived, based on their relationship to him. On these grounds some will be sent off to everlasting reward and others to eternal punishment.
5 Jesus told them, “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name,a saying, ‘I am he,’ and they will deceivec many.

Watch out

What seemed permanent was only temp
In Jesus’ day the temple had already been under construction fifty years, and was still unfinished. At no place was Herod the Great’s obsession with grandeur and permanence more apparent than in the Jerusalem temple The immense thirty-five-acre enclosure could accommodate twelve football fields.
Standing Firm Despite Infirmities (13:3–13)
In this section Mark directs the teaching of Jesus to events leading up to the destruction of the temple. Mark 13:3–13 (PNTC Mk):
The Mount of Olives rises three hundred feet above Jerusalem and is separated from it by the Kidron Valley. From this vantage point Jesus and the disciples have a commanding view of the eastern expanse of the temple mount, and, on top of it, the glimmering facade of the sanctuary
According to the Mishnah, someone “standing on top of the Mount of Olives should be able to look directly into the entrance of the Sanctuary”
The description of the Mount of Olives as “opposite the temple” (v. 3) is, in this instance, highly symbolic: just as Jesus immediately before had pronounced judgment on the scribes while sitting “opposite the [temple treasury]” (12:41), now he delivers his final judgment “opposite the temple.” Moreover, he is “sitting,” with the posture of an authoritative teacher.11 Equally significant is that the Mount of Olives, according to Zech 14:1–8, is the place from which God declares the capture, sacking, and devastation of Jerusalem. Once again Jesus consciously positions himself to assume the role of God.
Zechariah 14:1–8 (CSB)
1Look, a day belonging to the Lord is coming when the plunder taken from you will be divided in your presence.
2I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle. The city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.
3Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations as he fights on a day of battle.
4On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, forming a huge valley, so that half the mountain will move to the north and half to the south.
5You will flee by my mountain valley, for the valley of the mountains will extend to Azal. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with him.
6On that day there will be no light; the sunlight and moonlight will diminish.
7It will be a unique day known only to the Lord, without day or night, but there will be light at evening.
8On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea, in summer and winter alike.On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter.
And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.
The first admonition concerns false Messiahs and natural and political disasters
Deceivers will arise
**Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and they will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t be alarmed; these things must take place, but it is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.g There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines.A These are the beginning of birth pains.
***Threats to discipleship will come from many quarters. Contrary to what might be expected, the greatest threats are not external dangers but those inside the household of faith. Deceivers will arise
Examples of false
In the mid-forties Theudas (Acts 5:36) boasted of various signs (including the ability to part the Jordan River) that, according to Josephus, “led many astray” (. Josephus adds another account about an Egyptian who claimed to be a “prophet” who likewise succeeded in deceiving the populace simply used the title, “I am,” which is the name for God in the OT (Exod 3:14). “I am” is the same claim Jesus has made of himself
There is thus no material difference between Jesus’ claim and that of impostor claimants. Believers must be alert to how the claim is used: Does it represent God, or does it merely use God and the articles of orthodoxy for ulterior purposes?.
When you hear of wars and rumors of wars,d don’t be alarmed;e these things must take place,f but it is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.g There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines.A These are the beginningh of birth pains.i
These things must take place,
Its Just the begining
Other threats will come from international affairs, wars, and natural calamities that will befall non-believers as well as believers. The litany of woes in these verses could summarize every age perhaps, but they fit the first generation of Christians particularly well.
The purpose of the litany of woes in 13:8 is not to lure believers into speculations about the end, but to anchor them to watchfulness and faithfulness in the present
Watch out for deception
Gen 3:13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”Watch out for pulled into escalating drama
Matt 24:5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many.

Be on guard

Problems are baked in
‘You must be on guard.’ ” A more fitting translation would be, “You must be clear in your own minds
Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
Rather than abandoning them in the hour of crisis, God will empower them to witness to the nations.
They will be betrayed, beaten, and arraigned before legitimate authorities for Jesus’ sake and as a witness to said authorities (8:35; Matt 8:4). But their sufferings will not be without purpose.
Abomination
detestable thing: standing where it should not be”

32 “Now concerning that daybd or hour no one knows—neither the angelsbe in heaven nor the Sonbf—but only the Father.bg

Dan 9:27
“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
When you see the abomination of desolation, standing where it should not be”
In its original context, “ ‘ “the abomination that causes desolation” ’ ” thus referred to the abomination wrought by Antiochus IV against the temple and Judaism in Antiochus IV Epiphanes (c. 215 BC–November/December 164 BC He outlawed Jewish religious rites and traditions and the Temple in Jerusalem was changed to a syncretic Greek-Jewish cult that included worship of Zeus. The Greek historian Diodorus wrote that Antiochus "sacrificed a great swine at the image of Moses, and at the altar of God that stood in the outward court, and sprinkled them with the blood of the sacrifice. He commanded likewise that the books, by which they were taught to hate all other nations, should be sprinkled with the broth made of the swine's flesh. And he put out the lamp which burns continually in the temple. Lastly he forced the high priest and the other Jews to eat swine's flesh."
14 “When you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be”
1. One was the egomaniacal attempt of Caligula, Roman emperor from a.d. 37–41, who attempted to erect statues of himself in the temple of Jerusalem and have them worshiped as god.
The reference to the “ ‘ “abomination that causes desolation” standing 25 where it does not belong’ ” could be taken as a reference to Caligula’s mad ambition
25 The Greek participle hestēkota is a masculine singular accusative, referring to a man (or something masculine) standing.
First, during the Caligula debacle the Jews did not “ ‘flee to the mountain’ ” (v. 14), but rather “presented themselves, their wives and their children, ready for the slaughter”
2. DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE PREDICTED
20 bc, during the 18th year of his reign. The core temple likely was finished within several years, but construction on the entire complex continued for decades and would have been ongoing during the events narrated in the Gospels and Acts. Although Herod’s project was the largest building site in the ancient world, its grandeur was short lived. After being completed in the early ad 60s, the temple complex was destroyed by the Romans in ad 70.
In April 70 AD, three days before Passover, the Roman army started besieging Jerusalem.
The siege of Jerusalem was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Judaea. Following a five-month siege, the Romans destroyed the city, including the Second Jewish Temple
3 A third possibility is that “ ‘ “the abomination that causes desolation” ’ ” refers to “the man of lawlessness” as conceived in 2 Thess 2:3–4, who will exalt himself in the temple as God (or as “a Son of God,” according to Did. 16:4). The agreements of 2 Thessalonians 2 with v. 14 are much closer. The “man of lawlessness” corresponds to the man standing (masculine participle) in v. 14; and the description of him parodying God in the temple correlates with “ ‘ “the abomination that causes desolation” standing where he does not belong.’ ” Both texts depict a blasphemous Antichrist who will do a scandalous deed that will trigger the return of the Lord
2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 (ESV)
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, 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.
Last of the last days

Watch out

What seemed permanent was only temp

Be on guard

Problems are baked in
You must be clear in your own minds
James 1:5–8 (CSB)
5Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.
6But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord,
8being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.
Likewise, the church’s “birth pains” in tribulation will validate rather than annihilate its existence.

Suddenly

NO ONE KNOWS THE DAY OR HOUR
32 “Now concerning that daybd or hour no one knows—neither the angelsbe in heaven nor the Sonbf—but only the Father.bg
33 “Watch! Be alert!G For you don’t know when the timebh is coming.bi
34 “It is likebj a man on a journey, who left his house, gave authority to his servants,bk gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert. 35 Therefore be alert,bl since you don’t know when the masterbm of the house is coming—whether in the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster or early in the morning. 36 Otherwise, when he comes suddenly he might find you sleeping.bn 37 And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Be alert!”
Luke 12:37–40 (ESV)
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

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