Question:  Greg,

            Luke 21:36—the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem—when is this time referring to?

            Also Mark 13:20—God shortening the days—what does this verse mean?

            Pat

Answer:  Dear Pat,

            There is no brief or simple response to your question, although there are those who would give you one.  To cut to the chase-no one knows dogmatically that there is a time in the near future, within our lifetime, when these two passages occur.  Why don’t we know?

1.      Jesus told us five times in both Matthew 24 and 25 that we wouldn’t know the exact time of his return.

2.      There have been many—well into the hundreds—of predictions by individuals who were generally considered knowledgeable (at least by some sector of Christianity and/or society) about these two passages.  All of these predictions have failed—100% of them.  This is not to mention tens of thousands of failed predictions by individuals who have not done extensive Bible study, do not have graduate degrees in religion, biblical studies, etc.

            What should this tell us?  Caution.  Care.  Especially since the same methodology is driving some of the current predictions and many past predictions that failed.  So, perhaps there is more to understanding the prophetic portions of the Bible than is generally understood.

            We have more material available on our web site on this topic, under questions and answers.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht