Matthew 24:1–14
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
There is a strain of evangelical piety that is perpetually feverish. It is a nervous, clammy, agitated state of mind that pores over newspaper headlines with a red pen, connecting geopolitical flare-ups to obscure prophecies with a frantic intensity. This is the school of newspaper eschatology, and its disciples are always convinced that the end is just around the next global crisis. They are certain that the Antichrist is currently renting an apartment in Brussels, and they have a detailed chart to prove it. But this entire enterprise, however well-intentioned, is a profound misreading of the Lord's teaching and a catastrophic failure of nerve. Jesus, in this chapter, is not giving us a secret decoder ring for CNN. He is vaccinating His disciples against this kind of panic. He is teaching them to distinguish between the death throes of an old covenant age and the final consummation of all things.