Apocalypse Of The Church

Apocalypse of the Church

Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Mark 13:14-23

14 “But when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 15 “aThe one who is on the housetop must not go down, or go in to get anything out of his house; 16 and the one who is in the field must not turn back to get his coat. 17 “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 18 “But pray that it may not happen in the winter. 19 “For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will. 20 “Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days. 21 “And then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him; 22 for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 “But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.

This passage is considered apocalyptic because the church has said so for two thousand years. This passage is more descriptive of what did happen when the Roman army invaded Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. Each of the verses, each of the events, describes what happened in the Near East when a city was invaded. Some scholars believe that Mark’s Gospel was a wartime document. If it was written in the mid to late 60s CE, then the war influenced the Gospel. The Temple was destroyed in 70 CE by the Roman invasion. This narrative purpose was added to the Gospel to prove that Jesus predicted the Temple’s destruction. In this way, it was the LORD’s Will.

Now that this information has been shared, it is time to consider what is an apocalyptic moment. The finish of any civilization would be considered an apocalyptic event. Biblically speaking we find three in the Hebrew Scriptures. The first is when Joshua led the Hebrew people to the east side of the Jordan River. The LORD told Abraham that his descendants would one day inherit the land. That land was Canaan. The inheritance became a conquering of the tribes that lived in that land.

In my seminary Old Testament class, the instructor asked us to write a reflection about Joshua’s conquest of the land. My reflection was simple. It had three options for the people who lived in Canaan when Joshua came. They could flee from the land, that is, get out of Dodge. Their second option was to join Israel and become a conquering nation. The third option was to resist and die. From my Hebraic heritage, there was no other option. The LORD told Joshua to conquer the land. That is exactly what Joshua did. Well, almost all of the land was conquered.

The Old Testament instructor was very displeased with my reflection. She expected every student in the class to say that Israel oppressed the people of the land. Shame on those Israelites for what they did. I said to her, “are you kidding?” The LORD said to do it. When the LORD speaks, you listen and then do what you are told. She was more concerned about the oppressed (as she put it) people in the land than following the commandments of the LORD. OK, thinking about it now, sure the people in the land got a raw deal.

Nevertheless, not following a commandment from the LORD does not seem like a good thing to do. Therefore, it was an apocalyptic moment for the people in Canaan who were conquered. Their culture, society, and towns were destroyed.

The second was when the Assyrians took over the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The interesting part here is that history says that the Egyptians were invading the Northern Kingdom. The Egyptians would have conquered the Northern Kingdom except, for one thing, the King asked the Assyrians for help. So, a sizeable Assyrian army came into the Northern Kingdom and defeated the Egyptians. The Assyrians liked the Northern Kingdom land and its connection to the south. They decided to stay. The Northern Kingdom king did not like that option, so they resisted. The Assyrians then destroyed the cities of the Northern Kingdom, exiled the people into the Assyrian empire. They replaced them with people from other parts of their Empire. For those Israelites, the apocalypse occurred. Their culture and society were gone.

The third was when the Babylonians invaded Judea and destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem for the second time. Yes, the Babylonians invaded Judea ten years before their second invasion, which destroyed Jerusalem. Without the Temple, the people had a religious crisis. There is not much information about how Judaism survived during the Exile beyond the belief that the LORD promised that a remnant of the people would survive and return to the Promised Land. For the Jews sent into exile, it was an apocalyptic moment.