Through Tragedy to Triumph

In Matthew 24:1 we read, "And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his dis­ciples came to him for to shew him the build­ings of the temple."

The disciples heard the lament of Jesus over the city of Jerusalem and remembered His words, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" (Matt. 23:38).

These words came as a violent blow to His uncomprehending disciples. How could this be! Jerusalem desolate—this city now pulsating with breath-taking beauty, with her magnificent Temple glittering in the sunlight, the pride and glory of the Jewish nation? It was commonly believed that to be born in Jerusalem was an honor be­stowed upon one by God. It brought a sense of security. And to be buried on a slope of her valleys was supposed to give priority in the judgment. The Jews thought the durability of the Temple would defy the lapse and wear of time. Her rabbis were so impressed by the gran­deur of the city that it was said, "He who has not seen Jerusalem in its beauty has never seen a beautiful city." The Talmud declared, "Ten measures of beauty were given to the world, of which Jerusalem re­ceived nine measures and the rest of the world one."

It is little wonder that the psalmist sang, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion" (Ps. 48:2). "Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces" (verses 12, 13).

Neither the Jews nor the disciples un­derstood that when Jesus went out of the Temple this would be His last visit. To Him it had been God's holy house, and there He had witnessed the presence and power of His Father. In the Temple He had taught many precious lessons and per­formed many acts of mercy. But that day when He went out of the Temple the glory of the Lord departed from it.

Jesus first speaks very cautiously to them by saying, "Take heed that no man deceive you." He knew there would be many theo­ries advanced concerning the end of the world and His second coming. He wanted His disciples to know that He was well qualified to say what He meant and to mean what He said. So He urged them to be careful what they believe. For their guidance and assurance He said, "There shall be signs."

He was not going to discuss with them any social order that was to come on this earth. He was not going to advance any "new age" theory. He was going to bring forth living facts that would be as endur­ing as time. To these inquiring disciples He delivered a discourse that has proved to be equally as inspiring as His Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus reminded them of the historical prophecy of Daniel as a witness to future facts that He would bring to their atten­tion and how they were to conduct them­selves. He said, "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place" (Matt. 24:15).

History records that forty years after Jesus had given His prophecy, Palestine was overrun by the Romans (A.n. 70) and the beautiful city of Jerusalem and all its en­virons were destroyed. More than a mil­lion Jews perished, and 97,000 were made prisoners. Jesus had said that the city of Jerusalem would cease to be, and no amount of human resistance could pre­vent it.

The Jews rejected the Saviour's mercy and by so doing, they "had forged their own fetters; they had filled for themselves the cup of vengeance" (The Great Contro­versy, p. 35).

The prophet Jeremiah declared, "Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jeru­salem shall become heaps, and the moun­tain of the house as the high places of a forest" (Jer. 26:18). The prophet Hosea said, "0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thy­self" (Hosea 13:9). "For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity" (chapter 14:1). God had chosen Jerusalem as the depository of sacred trusts. Her people forsook His coun­sel and polluted His Temple. God said, "The Lord shall establish thee an holy peo­ple unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them" (Deut. 28:9-13). But Israel failed in her appoint­ment by God to rule the destiny of the world.

One read, "The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace, and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive tes­timony to God's hatred of sin, and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty."—The Great Controversy, p. 36.

The disciples were also troubled about the time of Christ's second coming and of the end of the world. Concerning this glori­ous event Jesus said, "There shall be signs." If His followers will become famil­iar with the signs outlined by Him they will know when His coming is near, even at the door. He said, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven" (Matt. 24:29).

Here Jesus refers to the prophecy of the 1260 days (years) of papal persecution, which terminated in 1798. May 19, 1780, is known in history as the dark day. "After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon, when first visible, had the appearance of                    is the recorded historical date that the stars fell from heaven, and this was another sign of the second coming of Jesus. In this prophecy Jesus said: "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21: 28).

After the fulfillment of these signs in the heavens, Luke says there will be "upon the earth distress of nations, with perplex­ity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for look­ing after those things which are coming on the earth" (verses 25, 26).

The signs on the earth included wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, which would occur in various parts of the world. Nations are rising up against nations, kingdoms against kingdoms, cultures against cultures, race against race, men's hearts are failing from fear because anywhere we touch this old sin-ridden world there is the possibility of an explosion of some kind.

The late President Kennedy, in his 1961 State of the Union message to Congress, said: "No man entering upon this office . . could fail to be staggered upon learn­ing . . . the harsh enormity of the trials through which he must pass in the next four years. Each day the crises multiply. Each day their solution grows more diffi­cult. Each day we draw nearer the hour of maximum danger, as weapons spread and hostile forces grow stronger and time has not been our friend." Because of what Jesus said nineteen hundred years ago, this world finds itself passing through a most critical and crucial period. Someone labeled it an age of disillusionment. The world has become confused, bewildered, and insecure.

J. Edgar Hoover reported that this coun­try is in deadly terror. The creeping rot of moral disintegration is eating into our nation. I am not easily shocked or alarmed, but the arrest of teen-age boys and girls all over the country is staggering. Some of the crimes the youngsters are committing are most unspeakable—prostitution, mur­der, rape. These are ugly words, but this is an ugly situation. If we are to correct it, we must face it. One of our famous news­paper commentators said a few days ago, "'Who is not against sin, crime, violence? Nobody knows just why our affluent society is filled with so much anxiety. Or just why crime is increasing so alarmingly among the young."

The apostle Paul tells us why. He says: "You must face the fact: the final age of this world is to be a time of troubles. Men will love nothing but money and self; they will be arrogant, boastful, and abusive; with no respect for parents, no gratitude, no piety, no natural affection; they will be implacable in their hatreds; scandal-mon­gers, intemperate and fierce, strangers to all goodness, traitors, adventurers, swol­len with self-importance. They will be men who put pleasure in the place of God, men who preserve the outward form of re­ligion, but are a standing denial of its reality." Then he adds, "Keep clear of men like these" (2 Tim. 3:1-5, N.E.B.).*

The late Nicholas Murray Butler, presi­dent emeritus of Columbia University, said in a speech delivered shortly before his death, "Actually there is no Chinese crisis, no Indian crisis, no German crisis, no Amer­ican crisis; what we are facing is a world­wide crisis, which appears in every form in each land. Living according to national conditions, national habits, national cir­cumstances. It is one and the same disease, the same condition, and it can only be cured in one and the same way. The problem of the people is worldwide." Then he added, "The end cannot be far distant."

The ills of this old sinful hospitalized world cannot be cured, but must be en­dured until Jesus comes.

When Stanley found Livingstone in Af­rica he gave him some letters he had brought with him, and said, "Read your letters from home first. You must be im­patient for them." "Ah," replied Living­stone, "I have waited for years for letters, I can wait a few hours more. Tell me first how the world is getting along."

The apostle Paul left another message for us in his descriptive detailed account of last-day world events. He said, "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." The mes­senger of the Lord has given us the follow­ing warning: "The tempest is coming, and we must get ready for its fury by having repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . We shall see troubles on all sides. . . . The end is near, probation is closing."—Messages to Young People, pp. 89, 90.

The commentator Paul Harvey said: "Mr. Clergyman, the responsibility is yours. And whether you like it or not, you are a command officer in the cold war, and we are losing. Whatever your strategy has been, it has not been good enough. One hundred and sixteen million churchgoers in the United States are more than ever before. That is an increase of 30 per cent; pornography has become a 500-million-dol­lar-a-year business. Venereal diseases have increased 72 per cent in one year; crime is increasing four times faster than our population is increasing. Juvenile crime is increasing five times faster. For every dol­lar we spend on churches we spend twelve thousand dollars on crime. Combine all our churches, synagogues, and temples, and they are outnumbered by taverns by 175,­000. Thirty-seven million of our children receive no religious instruction."

It is high time for the church to hasten its steps and give men and women the answer to their question. The twentieth century has ushered in the greatest crisis in all human history. The world is brought into a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation. Jesus said that in the closing days of time history would repeat itself. "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt. 24:37). Likewise as it was in the days of Lot, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Before Jesus will return there will be a period of time similar to the days of Noah and Lot. In Genesis 6 we read a description of Noah's day.