What Jesus Really Said about the End of the World Paperback – November 28, 2012

"The End of the World.." takes on the challenging and essential words of Jesus from Matthew Chapters 24 and 25.This book is a wonderful companion to Mr. Currie's book "The Rapture - The End - Times Error that Leaves the Bible Behind". (That book focuses on the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.)In educated, consistent and authoritative style, Mr. Currie analyses and unveils the clear meaning of Jesus words to His Jewish brethren as He warns them about the coming Tribulation from both their Jewish nation and from the power of Rome. Mr. Currie makes clear the fact that these events did take place in the generation still alive at the time and that it is in no way an error on Jesus' part to have said this.On the contrary, through a review of the historic events that unfolded between the years 10 BC and 70 AD, Mr. Currie shows us how accurate indeed were the words of Jesus regarding this world-wide Tribulation (persecution) and His unmistakable warnings to His followers leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem. History confirms that the early Christians living in Jerusalem did indeed heed his words of the coming cataclysm and left for safety before the Roman juggernaut annihilated Israel in perhaps the most violent conquest ever to take place in the history of the world.By clarifying the words of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 24, Mr. Currie is then free to lead a much more disciplined discussion on the thorny question of the 'end times' that Jesus addresses in Matthew Chapter 25. As was the case in ancient times, we today have to grapple with the reality that there will be no clear signs or set of events leading up to Jesus' Second Coming, no matter how much we want them, demand them or invent them. But by heeding the words of Jesus in Matthew 25, we receive much insight and guidance as we live, observe, hope and prepare for our own judgment, whenever that time may come.The 'Son of Perdition' (the final antichrist) and the Second Coming are handled not in formulaic style but rather in terms of the spiritual battle that we are engaged in everyday and the possibility that the 'final testing' of Christians will have no military aspect or worldly solution at all.Mr. Currie's book explains the consistent and ancient views on these topics as properly interpreted in Scripture, as held and preached with authority through the ages by the Catholic Church. They are made available in an excellent presentation that will serve to deliver many people from confusion, fear and false teachings.While this view of the Scriptures and of life offers no easy answers to world events, it confirms all the more that all believers should unite under the one true Church that Jesus founded with all of its spiritual helps and gifts, even Jesus Himself, who provides the modern-day ark (the Catholic Church) to deliver his people from evil.

David Currie sets out here to defend Christianity against the claim that Christ falsely predicted the world would end before the last of his generation passed from the earth. His is an elaborate case based on the rhetorical structure of pertinent passages in the synoptic gospels, which make up what is called the “Olivet Discourse,” a series of prophecies and parables spoken by Jesus on the Mount of Olives. (See Mark 13, Matthew 24, Luke 21.)Basically, what that argument comes down to is the longtime position taken by traditional Christians – i.e., Catholics and Eastern Orthodox -- that these particular passages refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, which, in fact, occurred in 70 AD, 40 years after Christ’s death. The Romans decimated the city and wiped out most of the population, sending the rest into exile. (The few passages in the Discourse that can’t be linked directly to this event have been seen as referring to a delayed Second Coming of Christ.) Many Protestants, especially in the US, dispute this theory, which they refer to as “preterism” or “partial preterism,” preferring to interpret most such prophecies and apocalyptic passages in the New Testament as referencing the actual end of the world. (They differ only in how they explain or explain away what Jesus meant when he said all would take place “before this generation passes away.”)Currie, an adult convert to Catholicism from evangelical Protestantism, is also the author of a previous book discrediting “the Rapture.” He clearly relishes disputing Protestant millennialist or dispensationalist opinion about “the end times.” Still, perhaps not surprisingly, he retains a certain apocalyptic zeal for the wrath of God, which he credits with Jerusalem’s destruction, not to mention everyone’s “own AD 70” waiting at the moment of death. American Catholics didn’t used to talk much about end-time prophecies and the wrath of God, but American Catholicism has taken on a pronounced evangelical edge in recent decades, thanks to the addition of voices such as Currie’s.Unfortunately, talk about the wrath of God coming down on Jerusalem and its temple via Rome’s military might brings to mind centuries of Christian teaching adversos Judaeos (“against the Jews”) that culminated in countless instances of persecution of Jews by Gentile Christians who considered virtually any act of cruelty just punishment for “killing Christ.” Ever since the Nazi Holocaust, most Christian communities, including the Catholic Church, have been trying to undo the damage two centuries of that kind of thinking wrought, and that includes becoming more cautious in how they interpret New Testament texts. Early in the book, Currie seems sensitive to the problem, pointing out that ordinary Jews, then and now, should be considered blameless, that only their first-century leadership earned the punishment allegedly meted out. But as he develops his argument, caution gets tossed to the wind:“The destruction of the temple was public evidence that Jesus was the scriptural victor over the Old Covenant’s failed leadership,” he writes. “Even the pagan population of the Roman Empire connected the dots between the fates of Jesus and Jerusalem…[If they figured it out], we can be sure the Jewish ‘tribes of the land’ figured it out, and mourned utterly. Their God no longer protected them, but rather judged them with destruction.”It should be noted here that the Catholic Church, at the Second Vatican Council, said of these same “tribes’: “The Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures.” (Nostra Aetate, part 4).In truth, many Jews at the time did believe they’d been punished by God, just not for rejecting Jesus, a relatively obscure messianic figure from Galilee, but rather for failing to uphold the Mosaic Law as scrupulously as they should have. Probably the greatest irony of all is that Jesus’ notorious sparring partners, the Pharisees, a conservative school of Judaism that constituted less than ten percent of the nation’s population at the time, became the only “victors” on the ground after 70 AD, surviving in numbers relatively large enough to shape the Judaism that soldiered on from then to now.Aside from this rather major flaw, Currie’s investigation into the biblical texts that make up the so-called “Olivet Discourse” is meticulous in detail and convincingly argued, to a point. The question of how his conclusion jibes with the evidence from other New Testament texts, from the epistles of Paul to the Revelation of John, remains. I suspect most readers familiar with the Bible, as well as Protestant millennialists, will be unconvinced, although many ordinary Catholics, unaccustomed as most are to picking apart scriptural passages to grasp esoteric meanings, may be impressed.Unfortunately, it is hard to ignore the assumptions he makes with regard to the destruction of Jerusalem. That Jesus predicted the horror that took place in 70 AD seems more than likely. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, many people at that time felt a sense of impending doom; Israel was a tinderbox ready to explode, and Rome never dealt kindly with open rebellion. Messiah wannabes had already begun to proliferate, and the temple’s destruction played a key role in messianic prophecy. That Jesus was right, that Jewish zealots staged rebellions, which were crushed by Rome, leaving the temple in ruin, is not that surprising.But to go from there to the assumption that Rome’s actions represented God punishing the Jews (and regardless of whether you blame all or a few, they all suffered the same fate) has proven a tragic leap. The people of antiquity, Jew and Gentile alike, saw every calamity as divine punishment. That mindset, on permanent display in scripture, has wrecked moral havoc over centuries. Ironically, Jesus himself warned against judging others by the afflictions or calamities that befall them. (See Luke 13: 1-5, John 9: 1-7.)Luke’s gospel reports that Jesus wept over Jerusalem and its people, and from the cross cried out “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” One wonders how different the history of Western civilization might have been if his followers had paid more attention to those words. Then, and now.

The main thrust of this book looks in detail at everything Jesus said in the gospels about future events, and separates what refers to the global end times, and what to the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. I found it very convincing and sits comfortably with EVERYTHING Jesus is recorded saying. Other end times theories I've heard, including concepts of Rapture and Seven Years Tribulation, always left me with unanswered questions from Jesus words, such as 'how can people be comfortably eating and drinking immediately before the second coming as they were in the days of Noah (Matt 24 v38-41), if the stars are also falling out of the sky and 'if those days had not been cut short no one would survive' (Matt 24 v29 and 21)?' Currie answers all this type of question and also the biggie problem about why did Jesus say his generation would not pass away before all these things have happened (Matt 24 v34).Before Currie's explanation I've just had to leave these parts of the gospels shrouded in mystery for me, because my only alternative was to think Jesus was confused about some things, which I can't do because the witness in my spirit is that he is Lord.After analysing Jesus words, Currie's conclusion then goes on to build a further picture of the end times largely from Catholic Church tradition and the Catechism. This picture may well also be biblical from Revelation etc; in which case as an evangelical Protestant I wish he'd stuck to the bible for this, but as it is this part will have authority for Catholics only. But for Protestants, it doesn't detract from the main part of the book which sheds light on Jesus words for all Christians and could save all Christians from a lot of confusion!

Thank you