The Final Sign

Two patterns emerge in Jesus’s list of signs related to the Temple’s fall: they became more intense and more figurative (Mark 13:5–27). Regarding intensity, he began with signs that were not immediate precursors of that event. These would give way to signs that would affect the apostles directly. These would merge into the “great tribulation” signs. This stressful period would bring the Temple’s destruction.

Regarding figurative language, Jesus used unadorned declarative sentences at first. He then introduced hyperbole. At the end of his sign-list, he used cosmic-collapse imagery to describe the Temple’s fall. This climax comprised standard prophetic imagery that showed God’s coming judgment of a city, nation, or empire.¹

The disciples would not have suspected Jesus had changed subjects along the way. He was still speaking of the Temple’s coming demise (Mark 13:1–2). He was answering their question about signs of “these things” (Mark 13:3–4).

The final part of Jesus’s sign answer completes the crescendo of intensity and figurative language. Jesus said:

Then they will see the Son of Man coming (Gk. erchomai) in the clouds with great power and glory. And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven. (Mark 13:26–27)

Inmillennialism says there is nothing here, either, that suggested Jesus had changed subjects. He continued to talk about signs of the Temple’s fall. 

Let’s consider three elements in Jesus’s final sign: the clouds, the coming, and the commission.

The Clouds

Cloud imagery in prophecies of destruction was not new.² Isaiah had used it to describe God’s coming judgment of Egypt. He said, 

The burden against Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt; the idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.” (Isa 19:1)

Jeremiah had used cloud imagery to describe God’s past judgment of Israel. After Babylon destroyed the first Temple, the prophet said, “The Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger! He cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, and did not remember His footstool in the day of His anger” (Lam 2:1).

Jesus said the Son of Man would execute the coming cloud-judgment of the Temple.  This was not surprising. The Father had given “all judgment to the Son”; he had given him “authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man” (John 5:22, 27).

So, Jesus said he, as the Son of Man, would come “in the clouds with great power and glory” to judge the Temple.

The Coming

 About a year earlier,³ Jesus had told the disciples about this coming of the Son of Man. He had said,

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes (Gk. erchomai) in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.” (Mark 8:38–9:1)

The timeframe for this coming of the Son of Man was clear. Some of Jesus’s hearers would live to see it. This corresponds to the answer Jesus gave to the disciples when question, which we will consider in our next post (D. V.).

The Commission

A few hours before Jesus gave this final sign, he gave a related parable.⁴ He said the owner of a vineyard would “come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others” (Mark 12:9). The Jewish leaders knew he spoke of them and their Temple (Mark 12:12). They understood he would take the kingdom from them and give it to another nation (cp. Matt 21:43–45).

What would happen next? Inmillennialism suggests a one-word answer—gathering. After the Temple fell, God’s messengers would “gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven.”

This gathering would fulfill ancient prophecies for the messianic age. Isaiah had foretold it often. Here are a few examples:

He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar,
And will whistle to them from the end of the earth;
Surely they shall come with speed, swiftly. (Isa 5:26)

And it shall come to pass in that day
That the LORD will thresh,
From the channel of the River to the Brook of Egypt;
And you will be gathered one by one,
O you children of Israel.
So it shall be in that day:
The great trumpet will be blown;
They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,
And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt,
And shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem. (Isa 27:12–13)

He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young. (Isa 40:11)

Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
And gather you from the west. (Isa 43:5)

Many other Old Testament passages had described this messianic-age gathering. Jesus had said it would culminate in the resurrection at the end of that age (John 6:39–40, 44, 54; cp. John 11:24).

Conclusion

Jesus foretold the Temple’s destruction. The disciples asked for signs regarding “these things.” The Lord gave a list of signs that would occur between his death in AD 30 and the fulfillment of his prophecy in AD 70 (Mark 13:1–27).

These signs would bring an end to the Jewish Mosaic-age kingdom. The messianic-age kingdom, with Jesus as King, would replace it. 

During Christ’s reign, God’s messengers would gather his elect. The final gathering would be in the bodily resurrection at the end of the messianic age.

Jesus used standard prophetic tools to describe the signs of “these things.” These included hyperbole and cosmic-collapse imagery.

Jesus had now completed his signs. He was ready to answer the disciples’ other question—when would “these things” happen?

1. Recent posts have documented these progressions.
2. The picture in this post (here) is by Moyan Brenn and is used under the cc-by-2.0 license as noted here.
3. A. T. Robertson, A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ (New York: Harper, 1922), 89, 101.
4. These events happened on Tuesday of Passion Week per Robertson, A Harmony, 156–60.