Earthquakes and Famines
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IF THE GLOVE DON’T FIT…
Perhaps the most explosive and prolific trial of our lifetime was the OJ Simpson murder trial in the early 1990s. As an eleven-year-old boy at the time, I still remember watching the primetime aerial coverage of a white bronco lazily loafing down the LA freeway with as much agility as a soppy wet sponge. After that, I recall the media frenzy as millions all over the country tuned in with popcorn and rapt attention to watch a kangaroo court deliberating the case with all the panache and showmanship of a Ringling Brothers Circus. But, what stands out as the most memorable moment in the trial, at least in my memory, is when Juice’s dream team head attorney quipped: “If the glove don’t fit, then you must acquit”. Ultimately, the jury did acquit as successive civil cases raged in court for the years to come.
Now, without getting into the weeds of that trial, the point was simple. If the evidence in the case cannot be reconciled to the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt, then he must be acquitted of the charges. But, if the glove used in the murder did fit, then getting to a guilty verdict would have been all the more reasonable of a conclusion.
In the case of eschatology, my goal thus far has been to show that most (not all) of the passages that are normally associated with a future-oriented perspective do not fit the glove. They do not align with the evidence presented in the New Testament and do not pass the sniff test to meet any reasonable burden of proof. And, instead, it is the preterist view that offers the most compelling explanation for these passages.
To prove this hypothesis, I have presented line after line of evidence in a systematic way. I began by showing how the eschatology of Malachi looks forward to a first-century judgment coming of Christ against the Jews. You can find that article here. I then conveyed how John the Baptist expected an imminent judgment coming by Christ against the Jews (i.e. the ax was already at the root of the tree) found here. From there, I demonstrated that this was, in fact, the general expectation of Jesus, which is laid out specifically in my post on Matthew 21, Matthew 22, Matthew 23, and in the introduction to Matthew 24. Then, over the last couple of weeks, we have been looking at specific signs that Jesus gave (Such as the Rise of False Messiahs and Wars and Rumors of Wars) that so clearly point to a past fulfillment that the burden of proof has swung almost fully in the favor of the preterist position.
This week we continue through the evidence Jesus presents so that we might have a comprehensive view, so we can see the reasonableness of the position, and so we will not be led into trembling by the end-times prognosticators and tribulation hucksters. Today, we look at Matthew 24 and the end time signs of Earthquakes and Famines that Jesus gave, in order to see if this evidence fits hand in glove for a first century fulfillment as all previous evidence has done.
COVENANTAL EARTHQUAKES AND END-TIME SEISMIC SHIFTS
Before we look at Matthew 24 and the evidence of earthquakes in the ancient world, I want us to see the New Testament expectation for Jesus’ first-century, earth-shaking, end-time coming. Said plainly, I want you and I to see that when Jesus came to the world, He intended to give it a good last days shaking. Whatever remained would be left for Him to rule. Whatever fell away would be like chaff devoured by the scorching east wind.
For instance, In Hebrews chapter 1, the author tells us plainly that we are living in the last days (Hebrews 1:1-2). To him, the “last days” represent the entire era of New Covenant redemption (i.e. the church age). After he drops that bomb, he describes how the era of priests, temples, and animal sacrifices was rolled up like a scroll to be put on the shelf (Hebrews 1:10-14). That long chapter was finally closed and now the final chapter of human redemption has come through God’s Son.
Near the end of the book, after Christ replaced the Old Testament types and Old Covenant vestiges, the author gives a vivid picture of how Old Testament time will end. Not surprisingly, it ends the same way it begins with a wiggle wobbling and jiggle joggling covenantal shake. In the Old Testament, that happened on the local level, by earthquakes at mount Sinai. In this new covenantal era, the entire world and heaven will need to be shaken in order to welcome God’s eternal Kingdom to this earth (Hebrews 12:18-29). While that shaking is clearly spiritual and covenantal, we shouldn’t be surprised when the rocks cry out and when the fault lines tremble. They often see what is happening more clearly than we do.
THE UNLEASHING OF EARTHQUAKES
When modern-day prophecy charlatans read the words of Christ:
“In various places, there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” - Matthew 24:7-8
… They assume Jesus is talking about phenomena that will necessarily plague the modern world. When this ilk of newspaper scholars spy a random earthquake in California or hear tell of an occasional famine in the Middle East, they are the first ones to dust off their heavenly suitcases and prep their underground bunkers for the inevitable tribulation. It is as if they believe we are the only people in human history who’ve ever felt the earth tremble under our feet or have seen our plants die in the dusty scorcher.
It is important, however, for all of us to remember that Jesus is responding to specific questions, concerning first-century events, that the disciples were asking Him about. They wanted to know when the temple would be destroyed (Matthew 23:38-24:1-2), what would be the signs that this event was drawing near and how would this bring about the end of the Jewish age (Matthew 24:3). It seems likely that the disciples would have been indifferent to modern day seismology, but they would have been quite eager to hear about signs occurring in their lifetime and in that generation (See Matthew 24:34).
BIBLICAL EVIDENCE
Thankfully, the New Testament records several seismic events occurring during the crucifixion and immediately after the resurrection. For instance, while the earth seemed unusually calm during the life of Christ, Scripture records a proliferation of earthquakes during and after His death. While Jesus was dying on the cross, the ground began shaking so violently the temple curtain was torn in two (Matthew 27:51), a war-hardened soldier cried out in panic (Matthew 27:54) and some of the tombs in Jerusalem were jolted open in resurrection fervor (Matthew 27:52).
After Jesus lay dead in the tomb for three days, Judea was hit with a very severe earthquake, even worse than the one a few days earlier. Matthew records that an angel forcefully rolled away the tombstone, which caused the earth to quake in cataclysmic turbulence, causing a troop of special forces soldiers to fall over near death. In tremendous Biblical irony, the manly soldiers swooned and fell over while the women were left standing, albeit thoroughly mortified (Matthew 28:1-5).
An additional earthquake called a “great earthquake” occurred in the book of Acts in chapter 16. Paul and Silas were first beaten with rods by a mob and then thrown into prison for preaching the Gospel. By midnight, when Paul and Silas were singing psalms in their shackles, a violent earthquake burst upon the land, shaking the jailhouse doors and locks wide open, setting Paul and Silas free (Acts 16:25-27).
EXTRA-BIBLICAL EVIDENCE
These three quakes (two of them were called “great” or “severe”) would surely be enough to fulfill Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24. But, when we look into the annals of Roman history, there seems to be an abundance of geological convulsions reverberating atop the earth’s crust within the boundaries of the Roman empire. For instance, between the years of Jesus’ crucifixion and the downfall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, earthquakes of various sizes were recorded in Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colosse, Campania, Rome, and Judea. The most famous was a city-destroying earthquake that leveled Pompeii in 63 AD. By this measure alone, there was an earthquake that did massive damage in no less than twelve different towns over forty years.
We also have writings from several distinguished Roman philosophers and historians that contribute greatly to our understanding. First, the Roman first-century historian Tacitus records:
"This year (50 AD) witnessed many prodigies signs or omens... including repeated earthquakes." - Tacitus, The Annals Of Imperial Rome
Beyond Tacitus, a distinguished Roman statesman and philosopher, named Seneca, (who was banished under the reign of emperor Claudius, brought back to be the tutor of Claudius’ adopted son Nero in 45 AD, who then forced him to kill himself in AD 63) had this to say about iterative earth-shakers:
“How often have cities in Asia, how often in Achaia, been laid low by a single shock of earthquake! How many towns in Syria, how many in Macedonia, have been swallowed up! How often has this kind of destruction laid Cyprus in ruins? How often has Paphos collapsed? Not infrequently are tidings brought to us of the utter destruction of entire cities.” - Seneca, Letters From a Stoic
It seems clear by the tone of Seneca's writings that these catastrophes did not ordinarily occur with such deadly frequency. Had this been a normal occurrence, little would have been said, but perhaps a passing remark or an idle reference. But, to adopt the sorrow of a full-blown lament, as Senaca does here, must alert the reader that the desperation this man is feeling is out of the ordinary. Had Seneca been standing nearby when Jesus delivered the Olivet Discourse, he most certainly would have known why all of this was happening.
Yet, of all the recorded earthquakes mentioned thus far, none seem more ominous and more in alignment with the covenantal doom spoken by Jesus than the macroseism (super very big earthquake) that hit Judea near the beginning of the great war with Rome. Josephus is recorded as saying this:
“for by night there broke out a most dreadful tempest, and violent strong winds, with the most vehement showers, and continual lightnings, and horrid thunderings, and prodigious bellowings of the shaken earth; so that it was manifest, as he observes, that the constitution of the universe was confounded for the destruction of men; and any one might easily conjecture, that these things portended no common calamity.”
This abundance of earth tremors has caused commentators like Charles Elscott to conclude:
“Perhaps no period in the world’s history has ever been so marked by these convulsions as that which intervenes between the Crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem.”
Thus far, the first-century hand seems to be fitting more than perfectly into an Olivet-shaped glove. The very predictions Jesus made in front of His disciples were coming true with alarming accuracy. This is also true of first-century droughts and famines, which Jesus also predicted as a sign that Jerusalem’s destruction was drawing near.
THE UNTETHERING OF FAMINES
BIBLICAL EVIDENCE
In the book of Acts, Luke reports the only famine mentioned in the New Testament. He says:
“One of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And this took place during the reign of Claudius.” - Acts 11:28
In this passage, an early Christian named Agabus accurately predicts that a severe famine would soon overtake the empire. Thankfully Luke, always a good historian, alerts us that this came true during the reign of Emperor Claudius, who reigned from 41-54 AD. This famine was apparently so severe, that churches all throughout the Roman world were gathering resources to send back to Judea, which was hit especially hard (e.g. 1 Corinthians 16:1-5; Romans 15:25-28)
Just for clarity, this was not a global famine, as the language might suggest. Instead, this was a famine that spread the length of the entire Roman Empire. We know that because when Luke says the word “world” (Oikoumene) he is not intending to communicate that a famine impacted the entire planet. In this context, that word for “world” simply means the “known world” or the “civilized world” of the Romans.
This massive empire-wide famine is more than enough to prove the veracity of Jesus’ prophecy and to affirm the first-century fulfillment. If the glove fits, right? But, as we noted above, the Roman world is filled with examples that further bolster our position. For a brief moment, let me list a couple of poignant examples.
EXTRA-BIBLICAL EVIDENCE
The first few examples I will mention could very well be extra-Biblical attestations of the famine predicted by Agabus in Acts 11. For instance, Josephus tells us in the late 40s that “there was a famine in the land that overtook them, and many people died of starvation”. Suetonius, a Roman historian says roughly the same thing, saying “There was a scarcity of food, which was the result of bad harvests that occurred during a span of several years”.
This led 19th-century Bible scholar, James Stuart Russell, to say:
During the reign of Emperor Claudius (A.D. 41-54), there were four seasons of great scarcity. In the fourth year of his reign, the famine in Judea was so severe, that the price of food became enormous and great numbers perished. - Russell, J. Stuart. The Parousia
By the year 51, Tacitus bemoans not only earthquakes but dire famine-like circumstances that were plaguing many throughout the Roman world. He says:
“This year witnesses many prodigies [bad omens and signs] including repeated earthquakes… and the shortage of corn, resulting in famine… it was established that there was no more than 15 days supply of food in the city [of Rome]... Only heaven’ special favor and a mild winter prevented our catastrophe.”
Back in Judah, by 68 AD, Rome was completely surrounding and besieging the Jewish capital of Jerusalem. During those days, a city could outlast a siege by an invading army only as long as food and water were available to them within the city. But, as supplies ran dangerously low, Josephus describes how dire the situation eventually became for the people under God’s covenantal wrath. He tells us:
“Then did the famine widen its progress, and devoured the people by whole houses and families; the upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine; and the lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged; the children also and the young men wandered about the marketplaces like shadows, all swelled with the famine, and fell down dead wheresoever their misery seized them.”
CONCLUSION
The years between Jesus’ crucifixion and the downfall of Jerusalem witnessed a marked increase in earthquakes both by number and by volume. The same is true for famines that attacked the residents of Rome and threatened to evaporate the people of Judah. But these events are not random. They were prophesied by Jesus and they happened in the lifetime of the disciples just like He said.
Not to beat a dead horse, but when the glove fits you should wear it, right?
