Introduction To The Olivet Discourse - Mark 13:1-4 Series

Mark 13:1 As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" 2 "Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Je-sus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." 3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?"

My Interpretive Approach

Encourage One Another

This is a really hard chapter, and there are enough books written about it to sink a ship. They call this chapter Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, because it happened on the mount of Olives. Mostly the argument is over whether it’s a sermon about the Second Coming or a sermon about the destruction of the Tem-ple in 70 AD.

Now, before I describe the different views and tell you which one I hold, let me say a quick word about the importance of not fighting over this. In 1 Thessalonians 4:18 we find that the teaching about the end times is supposed to be something Christians use to encourage one another. But instead, we’ve come up with several different theological systems and ways of interpreting end times prophecies, and we fight each other over these passages and then divide up into separate groups and refuse to have fel-lowship with people who from the other camps. We take some of the most difficult passages in the whole Bible and say, “You have to agree with me on those passages or I can’t worship with you.”

This is an example of the how over-emphasis on systematic theology has done massive damage to unity in the Church. Few arguments will get people more riled up than differences about end-times systems. Pre-Trib, Post-Trib, A-Mill, Post-Mill, Pre-Mill—how often do you hear discussions about those that end up encouraging anyone?

If you’re in one of those systems and I’m in another, we think we’re so far apart doctrinally. But are we? What is the great hope we all look forward to? Isn’t it Christ’s glorious Second Coming, and the resurrection, the final judgment, and eternity with the Lord? No matter what system we’re in, don’t we all agree that the Bible assures us we will face tribulation and persecution and we must be prepared for that? And through that, we must be faithful to the gospel? If you look at the main point of each end times passage, when all the theological wrangling is all said and done, the bottom line application ends up being pretty much the same.

The reason there is so much debate about end times passages is because God purposely left many of our questions unanswered, and much of the language is vague and wrapped in figurative language. God doesn’t want us to know exactly what’s going to happen and when, and so much of prophecy about the future is intentionally mysterious and difficult. Some of it isn’t intended to be understood until after the events happen. You can see that in Old Testament prophecies of Christ. So many of them became clear only after Jesus fulfilled them.

So I say all that to urge you—let’s be humble in our approach to this chapter. No one has all the answers, no view is without significant problems, no system of interpreting this chapter answers all the questions. If you hold a view that doesn’t seem to have any difficulties, I assure you, it’s likely because you just haven’t met someone from the other side who can articulate the problems of your side. And that person has plenty of problems on his side, and I’ll tell you right up front, the view I hold has prob-lems of its own.

So here’s my challenge: as we go through this chapter, instead of laboring to figure out a big, per-fect, flawless end times scheme, or instead of trying to defend the scheme you’ve always been taught, how about we all just strive to obey 1 Thessalonians 4:18 and look for ways to encourage one another regarding the end times?

Preterism vs Futurism

So let’s take a quick look at the main debate over this chapter. As I mentioned, it’s mainly over whether the sermon is about the Second Coming or about 70 A.D. The 70 AD people say, “It has to be about 70 AD. because look what Jesus says in v.30.

Mark 12:30 I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

Those people say, “Just take it at face value. ‘This generation’ means ‘this generation’—the peo-ple who were alive when Jesus preached the sermon. Case closed—all of it had to be fulfilled in the first Century. The seminary word for that view is “preterism.” “Preterism” means “This verse that most people think is about the Second Coming has actually already been fulfilled in the past.”