Fighting for Real Estate: Part #9 – An Honest Look at the Olivet Discourse!

“Did Jesus Answer the Apostles’ Question(s), or Ignore Them?”

 By Richard Allen – July 22, 2024

In Matthew 24:1-3, Jesus and His Apostles are observing the construction and grandeur of the Jewish Temple. It was on this occasion they asked Jesus for further explanation of His dire prophecy of destruction. When I first read this many years ago, I was gullible enough to believe the flimsy explanations given by the Pop-Prophecy crowd. Within a decade, I had grown enough in the faith to recognize the dilemma the Apostles’ question(s) had created. To set the stage for their questions, let me provide the Narrative from Luke’s Gospel:

“And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 'As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.' And they asked him, 'Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?' ” (Luke 21:5-7).

Two hundred years ago, there would have been no controversy around the Apostles’ question(s). The historical view of the Church Fathers and even the Reformers was: The Apostles were asking about the Destruction in A.D. 70 under Titus, the Roman General – soon to become Emperor. It was also understood that Jesus clearly answered their question(s) about His prophecy, saying “not one stone will be left upon another.” But by the 1830’s, a new system of “prophetic interpretation” was sweeping through Churches, Bible Schools and Seminaries in both the United Kingdom and the United States. To put it simply, this system taught that Jesus ignored the Apostles’ question(s), and jumped ahead at least 2,024 years to talk about the “End Times Tribulation.” Today, millions believe that Jesus side-stepped their question(s), speaking only about His Second Coming to Rapture the Church to Heaven, and the Anti-Christ setting up a “talking statue” of himself in a “rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.” Honest interpretation believes that Jesus did answer their question(s), warning them about the coming Destruction of Jerusalem and Dispersion of the Jewish People. 

In reality, their question(s) revealed they had assumed some false presuppositions about Jesus’ coming. Things they assumed would have to happen “concurrently” – if the Temple was to be torn down – that is, at the End of the Age.  Some writers fancy that the Apostles understood that Jesus was talking about the “End of the Jewish Era,” or dispensation. This idea is not clear at all from what we know to be the Apostles’ understanding at that point in time. As Gentile Church members progressed thousands of years into the Christian Era, we need to examine Scripture to understand their thinking. The twelve believed Jesus implicitly, but they were slow to grasp that Jesus was going to be a “suffering Messiah” who would atone for sin, be raised to life by the Spirit and would offer salvation freely by Grace through Faith! Remember, Peter had resisted Jesus’ teaching that he would suffer many things and die on a cross:

“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man’ ” (Matthew 16:21-23).

Needless to say, Jesus’ rebuke was basically telling Peter: “You just don’t get what’s going on yet. Your wrestling with my future death is purely a human perspective.” Peter’s understanding wasn’t just the perspective of a man, but of a Jewish Man!  Peter fully expected the Messiah to destroy the Romans, rid their country of Gentiles, and once again set up a dynasty like King David’s!  But Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world’s order or design (John 18:36). Even at the end of His ministry, it’s not surprising that Jesus’ Apostles were still thinking like men, believing that God was going to give a Jewish Theocracy of dead stones one more try, with the Messiah!  I’m sure they believed that would surely work! Again, the problem was with the subjects of the kingdom – including Peter. The New Covenant would be based – not on “dead stones” like the lifeless temple they heard Jesus say would be thrown down – but on a “life-giving Spirit!” So blinded were the Apostles by their Jewish traditions and human desires, after His Resurrection they even asked Jesus about restoring a “physical Temple and worship.” This was important to their way of thinking: 

“So, when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’  He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth’ ” (Acts 1:6-8).

It’s clear from these passages, the Apostles “did not yet have a concept of the Church of Jesus Christ, made up of Jews and Gentiles.” This is another question some commentators believe Jesus didn’t answer. But it’s clear from a New Covenant perspective, that He did answer them! That they were asking about a physical-Jewish-natural-kingdom showed their limited understanding at that point. In actuality, Jesus did answer them by saying: “No, the Father is not going to try a failed Theocracy again in the Flesh, the Kingdom of Worship in Spirit and in Truth has replaced it.” When  the Spirit has come upon you – you’ll finally understand!  Likewise, when He stated that “not one stone would be left upon another that wasn’t thrown down,” their first reaction was: “How can this be? How can God be worshipped without a Temple? How will sins be remitted without the sacrificial system of Judaism that culminates with the high priest’s once-yearly sacrifice of a spotless lamb on Yom Kippur – The Day of Atonement?”  Remember, ”the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them.” They were still thinking in the flesh. “Surely Jesus, you must be talking about the end of the world, right?“  We Gentile Christians – on the other hand – have the benefit of the past 2,000 years of history. So, we’re fully convinced that God can be and has been worshipped without a physical Temple!  In fact, those who grasp the Spiritual import of The New Covenant of Jesus Christ, can argue that “God has built another Temple, a Spiritual Habitation in which He can be worshipped In Spirit and in Truth” (Ephesians 2:22; John 4:24).

I’m certain you’ve noticed that I keep referring to “question(s),” that is, more than one. That’s because a comparison of the three accounts of this exchange in Matthew 24:3, Mark 13:4, and Luke 21:7 – shows an apparent discrepancy in the questions the Apostles asked. Luke and Mark are clearly asking about “when the temple will be destroyed stone by stone.” It’s Matthew who adds “and of the Sign of Your coming and the End of the Age.” Some commentators argue that the Apostles only wanted to know: “When is Jerusalem’s Temple going to be destroyed?” For them, the simple answer was:  70 A.D., by Titus the Roman General. But Jesus knew the false assumptions they were making about the Kingdom of God. So, Matthew’s addendum reveals what was really in their hearts. Jesus knew their hearts, so He provided them a fuller explanation. Here are the question(s) in Matthew:

“As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ ” (Matthew 24:3)

I don’t believe there are any discrepancies in the three accounts from Matthew, Mark and Luke.  What I do believe is that Matthew is revealing the underlying presuppositions with which the Apostles were still struggling. In hindsight, we know for a certainty that Jesus “was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and its magnificent temple in 70 A.D.” There is no debate about it. The clear answer is: Yes, Jesus did answer their question(s).  What isn’t so clear is that Jesus also needed to warn His followers not to be confused regarding the “end of the Jewish State as a Theocratic Nation of Worship – and His glorious Second Coming!”  This would close human history and bring in a “New Heaven and a New Earth.”

In all three synoptic Gospels, Jesus talks about the signs of the coming “Destruction of Jerusalem” and its temple. But He repeatedly warns His Disciples “not to be deceived – for the end is not yet.”  It’s clear from Jesus’ discourse on the Mount of Olives, that He was talking about two events. The table to the left is a recreation of an article I read 30 years ago – with several additions of my own.  Hopefully, it will help many of you to compare Jesus’ very different warnings for both events: The Destruction of the Temple / Jerusalem, and Jesus’ Second Coming at the end of the age.  In my next Blog we’ll discuss these “two events” using the Book of Luke and its account of Jesus’ Discourse on the Mount of Olives! Luke speaks in much less veiled language to a mostly Gentile audience.

In closing, it’s important to remember that Jesus was talking about both the Destruction of the Temple and Jewish Theocracy – and His Second Coming, in the Olivet Discourse.  For the “Still Fighting For Real Estate crowd” – it’s critical for their system of interpretation that Jesus was only talking about Future Events. By doing so, they divert the People of God’s attention to that tiny patch of Real Estate in Palestine, promising that there will still be more fighting. While they weave a tapestry of “fanciful stories” of future struggles – let me admonish God’s People Not to be distracted, but to “watch and pray, we don’t know the hour when He’ll come again” (Matthew 24:42).

Soli Deo Gloria!