And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, "When will this be, and what will be the sign when these things are all to be accomplished?"
And Jesus told them, "Take heed that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Messiah!' and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places, there will be famines; this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs."
2 comments:
We've been putting up with this for at least 2000 years now. This baby has had a very long labour. No signs (to me) we're near the end. Doctor may have to induce.
Though I suppose, if you figure the universe to be 13.7 billion years old (+/- 200 million) the labour pangs have not been THAT long. If the life of the universe is the gestation period for the kingdom of God anything less that 200 million is likely a SHORT labour.
It seems LONG to little me with a an open-ended promise of a life span somewhere in the 3 score and 10 range.
Granted that wars etc seem to be normal activity for this planet--Are we entirely sure what "all these things" indicates?
If it's simply the destruction of Temple Judaism, that took about 40 years.
But if these are "birth pangs," what was he saying would be born from them? We seem to have, as other people have said, a bit of an apocalyptic stew in this chapter, which may be including sayings about more than one thing. The "end is not yet" might refer to "The end of the Age"?--implying the birth of this one?
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