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ESCHATOLOGICAL TURKEY SHOOTIN

As a boy, some of my fondest memories came when my grandfather and I would steal away from the house, with a couple of 20 gauge shotguns in his rusted-out old Ford pickup truck, and go down to the turkey shoot at the nearby moose lodge. In those days, a “turkey shoot” was not about traipsing through the North Carolina woods to nab a herd of unsuspecting foul, but to gather around a fire with a group of like-minded southern boys, all shooting competitively at paper targets lined up methodically in the distance. The reward for cutting out the cross-hair in a particular round was a corresponding cut of delectable meat. In fact, some of the best bacon I’ve ever tasted came from winning one of the many turkey shoots that I have been a part of. 

Although my weapon of choice - a modest Remington 1100 with a standard choke, was not all that much to look at - it consistently delivered a tight pattern of buck shots through the paper target before me and netted me plenty of victories. Even while all the competitors’ targets contained hundreds of small holes, the winner simply needed one strategically placed hole, right in the very center, to cut out the crosshairs and win the round. This reminds me of the current debacle that we are facing in eschatology. 

These days, there are hundreds of stray positions spread out across the riddled canvas of modern end times studies. And yet, no matter how many holes there are in our thinking, almost none of them have brought us nearer to the Biblical center and to the point of Christ’s amazing victory. My aim in this series, is to narrow our focus onto the heart of the matter, focusing on (what I believe to be) the single buckshot of Biblical truth, that will open up this field of study for us and help us understand everything the Bible has to say on the matter. When we do that, eschatology will bring us hope, peace, and great joy as we await our savior’s return. Think about it this way, if a single buckshot at the center of a paper target will gain a man the most joyful and bacon-infused victory, how much more will a single concept, aimed right at the center of Biblical eschatology, not only expose us to the kind of victory and Kingdom that Jesus has purchased for us, but will make us leap like calves! But, let us not get ahead of ourselves.  

THE BUCKSHOT OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY 

That concept, which we spoke about last time, is that there are two kinds of “second comings” described in the Bible. There is a past tense, spiritual and covenantal, non-bodily coming of Jesus, when He raises up the Romans to rain down judgment upon apostate Jerusalem in AD 70. And there is the future tense, physical, and bodily coming of Jesus at the end of human history, where He will come and separate all people according to their election and will deliver the saints to the never-ending Kingdom of heaven. One coming has already happened to national Israel. One coming will happen in the future to spiritual Israel (Gal. 6:16). And, knowing the difference between these two events could be the difference between eschatological defeat or victory, confusion or clarity, despair or abiding delight.  

So, with that in mind, my goal over the next several weeks will be to focus on the judgment coming of Christ against Jerusalem in AD 70 (The first kind of “coming” in the Bible). In doing that, I want to show you all of the various passages that deal with that harrowing event, expose their meaning in proper Biblical context, and to extricate them forever from the stranglehold of dogmatic eschatological futurism and put them firmly back in their place as fulfilled prophetic events. Then, after we have spent several weeks looking at the past, we will do well to end this series on eschatology by looking at the grand and glorious future Christ has won for us. 

THE JUDGMENT OF CHRIST IN MALACHI

In our modern Bibles, the last book of the Old Testament section is called Malachi (which in Hebrew means “My messenger”). This is for good reason, since the Old Testament ends the same way the New Testament begins with a prophetic message of Judgment upon the wayward people of God. In the Old Testament, that message of doom is carried to the people by the prophet Malachi, who speaks urgently for the people to repent before it is too late. By the dawning of the New Testament, time has run out for the rebels, and a near-term peril is being communicated to them, by John the Baptist, one of the men Malachi had warned was coming (Mal. 4:5). Perhaps this is why many call Malachi the prophet of doom, because his oracle foretells the terrifying calamity that will befall Judah if they continue in unrepentance, which is exactly what happened. 

In the book of Malachi, the LORD Himself assumes the role of the prosecutor and judge, leveling one accusation after another upon the people who had forsook their covenant with Him. He accused them of doubting His love (1:1-5) and having corrupted and defiled priests and sacrifices (1:6-14). In chapter 2, He further explicates their guilt by heaping additional charges such as spiritual infidelity, apostasy, blasphemy, hypocrisy, and a hatred of God. Against all these most truthful and substantial charges, the people boldly put forward the untrue plea, “not guilty”, like a sociopath mocking the jury. 

In chapter 3, God begins to detail the awful judgment that will soon come upon the people of God. For instance, another “Malachi” will arise (e.g. “My messenger) who we know as John the Baptist (Mal 3:1). After His ministry of warning, the LORD Himself will visit the Jerusalem temple and will bring sudden fiery judgment against the unrepentant people of Judah (Mal 3:2-4). Notice how, even before God describes the coming of Christ in terms of salvation, which He will a few verses below, He first describes the coming of Christ as a terrifying judgment against the wicked. Malachi 3:5 says: 

5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me,” says the Lord of hosts. 

In this sense, the purpose for Jesus’ coming was just as much about the reckoning God was bringing upon the rebels as it was about saving and sparing the righteous. Both are true! You cannot separate them from one another. Yes, Jesus came to save sinners who are grafted into true Israel. But, as the book of Malachi demonstrates, this would not happen apart from the judgment coming of Christ where wicked Israel would be cut off. As Jesus saves His elect people, those who hate Him will also be crushed. (Mal. 3:16-18). You cannot have the one without the other.  

Listen to how Malachi describes the judgment coming of Jesus in chapter 4:1-3

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” 2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. 3 You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts.

As you can see, the final book of Old Testament prophesy prepares the covenant people for the blistering reality that most of them will be treated as chaff, violently removed from the root, set ablaze as a withered shrub, and punished for their unfaithfulness to the law of Moses (4:4) and their hardened hearts towards the prophets (4:5). Some will be saved if they repent, as we see in the New Testament. But, most of the Jews will have the fury of God poured out upon them in a sudden and horrifying display of God’s power and purity. 

JUDGMENT COMING ACCOMPLISHED

With such astounding clarity set forth by the prophet Malachi, our only question must be when did these predictions occur? From the text it seems clear, that God’s messenger was talking about two unique events in Israel, both occurring in his future, concurrent with one another (i.e. the saving of one group around the same time as the destruction of the other). Our question must be: was there a “coming” of Jesus Christ that accomplishes both aspects of Malachi’s prophecy? Is there such an event in the first century that would adequately and accurately accomplish, both the salvation of God’s people, and the fiery destruction of covenantal dissenters? And it just so happens that there is. 

As we know, Jesus came in the first century providing salvation to all those who would believe upon Him. He would give them the kind of new resurrection life that would make them leap like calves let out to pasture and would heal them in His radiant “wings” (Mal 4:2). In that very century, Christ would begin the kind of wholesale redemption that would eliminate the curse from His people’s stony hearts and would also begin the transformation of their land (Mal 4:6). But that is not the end of the story, because peril also came. 

In that very same century, just forty years after Jesus appeared at the temple for the final time (Matt 23), and gave the clearest exposition of Jerusalem’s doom (Matt 24), the Romans sieged the city, surrounded it with armies, and eventually burned it to the ground. In the ash heap of Jerusalem, Malachi’s prediction of an astounding downfall, leaving a million people dead, rings eerily true. On that day, the rebels felt His fury, the Old Testament system of religion was permanently removed from history, and the people of God were given their new covenant place in Him. 

Knowing about this kind of “coming” helps us understand the judgment passages in Malachi, and in the weeks ahead will help us understand what John the Baptist, Jesus, the Gospels, the Olivet discourse, and the book of Revelation are really teaching us. Join us next week as we unpack John the Baptist’s contribution to the judgment coming of Jesus.