Mark 13:30-31 - Homilies By A.f. Muir

The fulfilments of the kingdom of God an evidence of the truth of Christianity.

I. THE WHOLE SOCIAL , POLITICAL , AND NATURAL CONSTITUTION OF THINGS WAS INFLUENCED BY , AND MADE SUBSERVIENT TO , ITS ACCOMPLISHMENT . Compare the history of the world from the death of Christ to a.d. 70. A period of destruction, calamity, and revolution. Judaism deposed from its spiritual leadership, robbed of its prestige, discredited, stunted, and stultified by the very circumstance which awakened and intensified the spirit of Christianity, and (in the Roman empire) led to its world-wide diffusion. The suffering, uncertainty, and newly discovered solidarity of the race tended to prepare mankind for a more spiritual and universal religion. Through the Spirit of Christ the Jewish Christians conquered their conquerors and overcame the world. Witness the testimony of Tertullian as to the number of Christians in the Roman empire in his time.

II. THIS WAS FORETOLD BY JESUS CHRIST . It was a marvellous insight and foresight which could look through such a series of evils and destructions to the ultimate success of his kingdom. And it had not a little to do with the bringing about of the effect anticipated. The period can only be adequately explained from the standpoint of universal history or the philosophy of history, as one of spiritual evolution conditioned and determined by the peculiar doctrines Of Christianity.

III. THE VERIFICATION WAS COMPRISED WITHIN THE LIMITS OF INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCE . "This generation shall not pass away , until all these things be accomplished. " If the destruction of Jerusalem be the terminal point of the various series of events foretold in this chapter, then "this generation "must be literally understood as referring to the persons alive at the time Christ spoke. And, allowing for poetic hyperbole (as in the figurative expressions, "heaven and earth," "sun," "moon," and "stars, "earth- quakes," etc.) and the general style of prophetic imagery, the careful student must believe that in the destruction of Jerusalem the great, imminent coming of the Son of man was actually effected, as history proves that circumstances that might fittingly be described by the words of Christ took place and in the order he announced.—M.