Prayer and study retreats are held on a monthly basis at The Cedars Community of Prayer and Study in Rochester, Kent. We are learning how to study some of the more challenging themes from the Bible, setting foundations for our lives more firmly and strengthening our prayer focus in an increasingly alien world.

We seek to take a Hebraic perspective on the scriptures and to fulfil the Lord's command to watch and pray as events leading up to the Lord's return quicken in our world.

Our most recent retreat concerned how to understand the scriptures relating to the Lord's return. In a yeshiva style of study, we approached the subject in a way that sought method rather than prescription - a perspective worth sharing more widely, at a time when this subject is often side-lined as too controversial or difficult.

Starting with Jesus

Scriptures relating to the ‘end times’ are found throughout the Bible, but it is not easy to connect them up and see how they relate to each other.

The clearest of all are the words of Yeshua (Jesus) recorded in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13. Therefore, an approach to interpreting the end time scriptures is first to set these chapters side by side as a basic framework, and then see where other prophecies fit. There can only be one overall picture, so it must be possible to fit all the other passages alongside what the Lord himself said so clearly.¹

Hebraic Approach

It is useful to tackle this with a Hebraic mindset, especially in relation to our concept of time. Hebrew verbs are not strictly past, present and future. They are completed action, present action and uncompleted action.² This means that we live in an ever-changing present where, as the Bible says, things “come to pass”, as if they are passing through our present reality.

End-time prophecy therefore relates to pictures of events that are coming to pass - entering our present reality. We are to live in the light of the present with an anticipation of what will come at the time designated by God.

This encourages us to reject the Greek mindset³ of looking for exact times and dates and setting out our preferred timelines. Instead, we wait in faith for what God will do in his time, whilst also looking for signs of the Lord's coming. This is echoed in what the Lord said about each day being sufficient for its own trouble, leaving tomorrow's troubles until they arrive as our ‘today’ (Matt 6:25-34).

This means that we will have understanding of the signs when they come, but that some things will inevitably remain as questions until then, whilst we watch and wait. We can only go as far as we are able at any one time, leaving some detail until later. Be careful of those who promise a complete understanding of the end times now!

Be careful of those who promise a complete understanding of the end times now!

Posing Questions

Having said that, in our day there is much that we can put in place (though not everything). We can study the accounts of what Yeshua described and then pencil in where we anticipate that other prophecies fit. Many questions can arise, however, even with this approach, such as:

• Does Yeshua give an ordered sequence of events?
  
• What are these events?
  
• Do we need to think again concerning some things that we have been taught?
  
• Are we reading our preconceptions into Scripture?
  
• What has been fulfilled and what still remains?

A Hebraic approach to the end times leads us to pose questions without always receiving immediate answers, having an attitude of continuous watching and praying until the ‘this is that!’ moment of fulfilled prophecy arrives. This is different from the Greek mindset, which yearns for all things to be answered logically and set in order, with a timeline and formula, ahead of time.

Expected Signs

Nevertheless, Yeshua spoke of clear signs that will precede his return. For our own discussions at The Cedars, we set the passages from Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13 side by side in three columns, from which we drew out the following:

• The Temple was to be destroyed
  
• Deception will grow
  
• False messiahs will appear
  
• Wars will erupt in the world
  
• Famines will be experienced
  
• Sickness will abound
  
• Earthquakes will occur
  
• All of this will be in the context of tribulation, persecution and rivalry (including exclusion of disciples from synagogues)
  
• This will bring opportunity for giving testimony
  
• This will be coincident with the rise of false prophets
  
• People will betray one another, but wisdom will be given by God
  
• Endurance will be required
  
• In the context of these many pressures, the gospel will go to the entire world
  
• The ‘abomination of desolation’ will arise, and this is linked to the fall of Jerusalem
  
• Tribulation follows this, but will be foreshortened

These are signs preceding the Lord's return, rather than incidents with precise timing. Matthew 24:29 and Mark 13:24 talk of greater pressures after the Tribulation (not before) – and the final signs are much more significant than the Tribulation itself:

• The sign of the Son of Man
  
• Darkness
  
• Angels will gather the elect (chosen)
  
• Towards the end, the sign of the blossoming of the fig tree

A Hebraic approach to the end times leads us to pose questions without always receiving immediate answers, watching and praying until the ‘this is that!’ moment of fulfilled prophecy arrives.

Other Passages of Scripture

With such a summary given by the Messiah himself (along with the command to WATCH), it must be that every other prophecy (such as those from Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation) either precedes this list of signs, is a further picture of what is on this list, or follows the return of Yeshua.

Therefore, a good method is to study the rest of Scripture in light of Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13. Write in pencil rather than ink, where it seems that events fit. Everything fits alongside the above list in some way, but perspectives might change. Watching for events is different from having a completely worked-out scheme. “Watch and pray” through all that is to come, was the Lord's clear command.

Also, we note that the Lord said, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28, emphasis added). We are not to live in worry or fear, but in growing anticipation.

Gradual Clarity

Remember, chiefly we are considering an approach to reading the scriptures, having them alongside us as we watch and pray for the coming years. This is quite different from the conventional timeline approach. Nevertheless, much is already becoming clear, as one will see when one glances through the list of signs listed in the Gospel accounts.

One observation is that there is a distinct difference in intensity between the signs listed in Matthew 24:1-28 and those from verse 29 on (or, correspondingly, those in Mark 13:1-23 and those from verse 24 on). The time of tribulation when an anti-Christian world government takes power is far different from the intensity of woe thereafter. This puts the conventional rapture theories in context, leaving (perhaps) a time of heavenly protection of all disciples of the Lord (both Jew and Gentile) before the woes - with opportunities for witness and testimony through times of difficulty.

It is not difficult to line up Ezekiel 37-39 with the above list, and the comparable chapters of Revelation. Likewise, some of Daniel (but not all fits in easily). Some remains vague until the time of fulfilment. That is the main point. Pencil in what seems clear and don't be embarrassed to keep the rest as questions!

I believe this approach will be increasingly helpful and so would encourage others to consider what we found fruitful from our own retreat, where the above was tested over two days of study and prayer.

If you would like to be included on the Cedars Community of Study and Prayer mailing list for copies of Watch and Pray (our newsletter following each retreat), which includes details of future retreats, please contact us via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Notes

1 This approach was taken in my 2016 series ‘The End Times’, available here.

2 Read more here.

3 Read more about the contrasts between Greek and Hebraic thinking in my series ‘Comparing Greek and Hebraic Worldviews’.