Another Christian Theologist Vlogpost

Another drop from that new Youtube channel.

This chap still sounds particularly astute and erudite.

The Transcript

WELCOME to the outrageously popular CHRISTIAN THEOLOGIST channel, where reason and sound exegesis are used to highlight faulty doctrine and practice in the contemporary, English-speaking Church. The title of this video is “A Little Look at a Big Question: The disciples’ precursor query to the Olivet Discourse.”

The basic lesson in today’s script started as a 2017 post on the Christian Theologist blog at “the sting of salt and light dot BlogSpot dot com,” and was turned into a church seminar earlier this year. Right. Let’s begin.

Each of the synoptic Gospels records Jesus prophesying the destruction of the great Temple of Jerusalem. This, in turn, provoked the disciples to ask what could arguably be called the most important question in history, since it elicited the longest, most significant prophetic speech in the Gospels, the so-called “Olivet Discourse.” Because of the figurative language and terrifying events discussed in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, all manner of outlandish and sub-biblical interpretations of it have been made – the very type of faulty, tradition-based interpretations that this channel was created to counter.

Nearly all of these errors could be dispelled if the interpreters simply laid their traditions and presuppositions aside, and took another, unclouded look at the reason why Jesus gave this long, dramatic speech in the first place – as an answer to the disciples’ question about his prophecy.

An example of not doing this can be seen in a video recently uploaded to YouTube by one Dalton Thomas, of Frontier Alliance International Studios, called, “8 Reasons Matthew 24 Was Not Fulfilled in 70AD: Understanding Jesus' Teaching on the End Times” (link in the description).

As the title of his video suggests, Thomas and the good people at FAI are conflating the subject of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 with the dispensationalist doctrine of the “End Times.” And the only Gospel verses he deals with are in Matthew.

The problem with this is that, as I told you already, there are three Scriptural accounts of Jesus prophecy, the disciples’ question, and the Olivet Discourse – one in each of the Synoptic Gospels, that is, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These similar accounts in the Gospels are what scholars call “parallel passages,” and they’re extremely valuable aids to interpreters – much is learned from not only where they agree, but where they disagree, too.

Here’s what I mean. Consider the following statements collected by a policeman after a robbery from three eyewitnesses.

The first one says, “Yeah, the robber was a short man, with a gun and was wearing a Darth Vader mask.”

And the second one says, “The robber was a woman with a knife and was wearing a Darth Vader mask.”

Then the third one says, “The robber was a teenager with no weapon and was wearing a Darth Vader mask.”

Look at what we now know about the robber, the weapon, and the mask. Because the descriptions of the robber were all different, we know that he or she was NOT a big, burly person with overtly masculine features. Because the weapon was described alternately as a gun, a knife and non-existent, we can be certain it was NOT wielded threateningly, nor was it used on anyone. And, finally, because every witness mentioned the exact same kind of mask, we can be absolutely certain that that was the most significant feature of the robber for the witnesses, and that it was definitely a Darth Vader mask.

Now, think of how incomplete the policeman’s interpretation of the eyewitness evidence would be if he only took down the first person’s statement? Well, any bible interpreter who is dealing with Synoptic Gospel material and only looks at one of the Gospels, while ignoring the other two, just like Dalton Thomas did, is bound to go terribly wrong.

So, let’s not be like Thomas, and instead look at all three parallel accounts of Jesus prophecy and the question the disciples’ asked in response to it.

The text here is from the ESV, but I can assure you that the Greek of the italicised words in orange font, while not identical to one another in form and order like the English, are identical in meaning. There can be no doubt that the most significant element of this passage for each of the Evangelists is that Jesus said, “… there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Here are the verses that follow immediately after these, including the disciples’ question. Take note of the identical material in the question, that is, the most significant element of it for the Gospel writers: “When will these things be, and what will be the sign – notice that’s a singular sign, but understand that this is not singular with regard to number, because Jesus gives many different signs, but rather, singular as a collective signification, which is why each Evangelist can record different forms the sign might take. And don’t forget, when the Synoptic Gospels were written, the temple was still standing.

The disciples well knew that the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, which Jesus just prophesied, was the divine final punishment on Israel predicted by the OT prophets. The end of the temple functions, the sacrifices commanded by God, spelled the end of Mosaic Judaism itself: No temple; no Judaism. The temple was also the bank, the centre of commerce for Judea, with one of the largest holdings of gold in the known world at that time. It was also the national archive, where all the genealogies of the 12 tribes were kept; in short it was the heart and soul of the Jewish nation.

And as the disciples also well knew, whenever God predicted punishment for Israel’s unrighteousness, he always gave a fair bit of lead time and then plenty of signs when the moment of punishment was getting close. Which is exactly what Jesus does with the Olivet Discourse – he prophesied a terrible judgment on unrighteous Israel, the destruction of the Temple and nation, then gave the terrible signs to look for when the moment was near; which we all know from history, even Dalton Thomas, finally arrived less than 40 years later in AD 70.

Thanks for watching and God bless.