Mark 13.24-27: Jesus foretells his second coming.

“But in its time, after that tribulation:

‘The sun will go dark.

The moon won’t give its light.’

The stars will fall down from the sky.

The powers in the skies will be shaken.

Then the Son of Man will be seen, arriving in the clouds

with great power and glory.

Then he’ll send out the angels.

They’ll gather together his chosen people from the four winds,

from the edge of the world

to the edge of the sky.”

—Jesus,

In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus spoke of the future. Their future, the future of the people he was speaking to. To them, this was all future.

To us, some of these things have happened already. Like the Great Tribulation, when Jerusalem was destroyed. Like the fake prophets and Messiahs. Like the wars, reports of wars, famines, earthquakes, foul weather, and usual problems of humanity, which are nothing new. Up to this verse, Jesus was speaking of the past. Now he’s speaking of the future—’cause this is about his return, and his return hasn’t happened yet.

Even so, many Christians mix up the Great Tribulation with Jesus’s second coming, and figure the two of them have to take place right next to one another, one before the other: First a great period of suffering, then Jesus shows up and puts a stop to it. Dispensationalists even split Jesus’s return in half, and say he secretly returns—but just for us Christians—before the seven-year Tribulation, and then not-so-secretly comes to take his Kingdom once the seven years are up. They don’t allow for any 20-century gap between these two events. They’re pretty sure when Jesus said, “But in those days,” he meant the events took place simultaneously.

Problem is, allá en ekeínais tais imérais/“but in the days of that,” which I translate “But in its time,” doesn’t mean the very same time. It refers to its own time. This is a self-contained event. The only relationship it has to the previous event—to the fake Messiahs and prophets, or even to the Great Tribulation—is that it happens, as Jesus said, “after that tribulation.” It happens after the year 70. Turns out it happens a long time after the year 70. It happens in their future, and in ours.

Quoting Isaiah.

In this statement, Jesus borrowed a few images from Isaiah’s prophecy about the invasion of Israel by Babylon, described in Isaiah 13.

Howl, because the LORD’s Day is near.

It’s like Providence will come to destroy.

So every hand will go limp.

Everyone’s heart will melt.

They freak out.

They’re seized with pains and cramps like childbirth.

One man will fight his neighbor.

Their faces will be faces of flame.

Look! The LORD’s Day comes,

cruelty, rage, fiery anger,

to lay waste to the land,

to exterminate its sinners from it.

For the stars of the sky, their constellations,

won’t give their light.

The sun goes dark when it rises.

The moon won’t shine its light.

I turn evil back on civilization,

on the wicked for their depravity.

I get rid of the pomp of the arrogant.

I bring low the pride of the fearsome.

I make a person precious like gold,

a human like the Ophir mine’s riches.

I’ll stir up the skies.

The earth will shake from its place

in the LORD of Armies’ rage,

in the day of his hot anger.

—The LORD,

“Day of the LORD” is a term which describes any judgment day; not just the Judgment Day at the End. There have been Days of the LORD throughout history: When Assyria conquered northern Israel, when Babylon conquered southern Israel, when the Persians conquered Babylon, when the Romans conquered Jerusalem, when the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem (and when the Muslims conquered it back), when the Allies took Berlin during World War II, and so forth. When God’s people stop following God, and he stops warning them of coming conquests and permits the actual conquest, that’s a Day of the LORD. That’s why it’s not really a day to look forward to, because there’s every chance God’s remnant of followers might get caught up in the destruction, and destroyed with all the guilty. That’s why Jesus told his own followers to flee for the hills: Had they fled for the city, they’d have died with everyone else in the city.

Isaiah 13 is not about the End. Problem is, because Jesus borrowed some of his language from Isaiah 13—namely the sun and moon going dark, and the skies shaken (or stirred)—some Christians assume Isaiah’s prophecy has a dual fulfillment: It applies to both the seventh century BC and the End. It really doesn’t. It’s just that when Days of the LORD happen, whether Babylonians take Jerusalem or Jesus takes the earth, there’s both earthly chaos and heavenly chaos. The rulers of the world are overthrown, and the rulers of heaven—the unseen, unknown spiritual forces which have been supporting the evil in the world—are also overthrown.

And this is represented by the sun and moon and stars. Don’t take Isaiah, or Jesus, literally: This is an apocalypse. Jesus expected his students to know their Isaiah, and know this represented a war between the heavenly armies. Will we see any of it? Not physically. Not in anything but the occasional vision the Holy Spirit grants us. It won’t look like the sun and moon and stars winking out. There won’t be anything astronomical to see, much as the Dispensationalists will be looking for it—and talking about the End Times every time an eclipse or meteor shower takes place.

Most Dispensationalists are smart enough to not expect the sun to go dark, like in a stellar collapse or black hole: They figure earthly weather, or some other local event, will get in the way of sunlight. Same with the moon going out. Likewise they don’t expect the literal stars to fall from the sky, for we know most stars are bigger than the earth, or even the sun: At best, they’re counting on a meteor shower. But Jesus was not predicting freaky weather, nor was he saying the cosmos would fall apart in a frightening collapse. He was describing the heavenly armies, not heavenly bodies.

And once that battle is over, and Christ emerges the victor, he’ll invade the earth.

The Son of Man in the clouds.

Now for a reference to Daniel.

I was dreaming a prophetic vision that night:

Look, someone like a Son of Man

was coming with the clouds of the heavens.

He approached the Ancient of Days

and came near to him.

He gave him authority, honor, and the Kingdom,

and every people, nation, and language.

They will bow to his authority.

His authority is permanent: It will never pass away.

His Kingdom will never be destroyed.

—Daniel,

Jesus regularly called himself the Son of Man to remind people he was this guy: The King who arrives in the clouds to take over the world. It wasn’t just a synonym for “human,” although some folks then and now may jump to that conclusion: It was a synonym for Messiah. And after the final heavenly battle took place, Messiah would appear to claim his Kingdom, and gather together all his followers to be with him and join his invasion. This’d be the rapture, although Jesus doesn’t go into any detail about that; Paul gives us a little more info, but not much.

So when Jesus talks about gathering his people from the four winds—from the edge of the world to the edge of the sky—it means he has people spread that far and that wide. In other words, he has people all over the planet. True, not all of them are Christians, although they are all saved through Jesus, whether they realize it’s through him or not. But we must never assume this means we can slack on evangelism: We Christians must still share the gospel with the world, and spread the news as far as we can. There should be Christians all over the planet when Jesus returns—people who will be thrilled to see his return, and eager to join his invasion and help set up his Kingdom.

I hope you’re looking forward to it.