The first four days of Easter Week saw Jesus making great prophetic statements. The majority of these were concerned with the Jewish nation and spoke of the judgement on the nation that would follow its rejection of him.That destructive judgement came 40 years after his death.
Other statements, however, had a much wider reach and a much longer time perspective; they encompassed the world, and reached to the “end” time. One of these wider prophetic statements is all too topical; Jesus said very simply that over the course of history “there will be earthquakes” (Matt24:7), or “great earthquakes” (Lk.21:11). He also said that there would be famines and plagues (widespread diseases). Furthermore he warned of “wars and rumours of wars”, with “nations rising against nations”. This was not an “optimistic”, “liberal” or “evolutionary” forecast, and could be seen as negative and best forgotten. But 2000 years of history have shown it to be a remarkably accurate statement. It is still as true to-day as ever it has been over those two millennia despite all the humanistic and well meaning declarations of the twentieth century about “a war to end war” and a “war on poverty” etc.
Jesus made it clear that these signs (earthquakes, famines and plagues) in themselves do not mark “the end” of the course of history(Matt 24:6). What he said was that “all these are the beginnings of birth pangs” (Matt 24:8). They are painful reminders of greater pain yet to come, an intense pain that will herald a new creation. In other words the culmination of the historic process in the world will be a period of much greater and intense cataclysm and pain than these "beginnings"No doubt part of that greater pain would be a far greater manifestation and intensity of these “beginnings”,of earthquakes, famines and plagues. For all its difficulties in interpretation this is a plain basic message of the book of Revelation – which itself, it must be remembered, is a prophecy from Jesus through his servant John.
However, Jesus made it clear that “the end” would be marked out by two features in particular. One would be “signs in the sun, moon and stars”, “with nations in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea” Lk. 21:23. The other would be “this gospel will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations (and then the end will come)” (Matt. 24:14). This latter feature we are able to monitor to a degree, and what we see today in the world should fill us with joy for we see an extraordinary and growing fulfillment of Jesus’ words. The former “roaring of the sea” etc. certainly does not seem unrealistic! As we learn more about the earth and the universe it gets more and more credibl.It is really a matter of time.
To describe such events as this as “birth pangs” makes Jesus' message one of great and very positive hope. It is not a “doom” story. These events are the prelude to something new. It is not going to be “the end” in the sense that after these cataclysms there will be nothing – it is not the finish of humanity or creation. It is the start of a re-birth. No one can possibly consider the present state of the world and humanity as being ideal. It has to be reborn. The real problem with the present creation is the warped nature of humanity, rebellious and out of touch with its Maker. The re-birth will deal precisely with that problem. It will bring creation and humanity to the place where God wants it to be. That is why the “end”, the moment of rebirth, will be characterized most of all by the return of Jesus. At the point of greatest pain and anguish he will appear to restore. He will come as Judge ,and the great birth pain will be an expression of his judgement, but he will also come as King, Saviour and Restorer. It will be a massive time of rejoicing. As he himself said, when a woman comes to the point of delivery there is great pain, but the pain is forgotten in the joy of the new child.
We need a perspective beyond the earthquakes – Jesus gave it.
Bob
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