Once upon a time, in the iron-age kingdom of Lydia, there was a river of gold called the Pactolus River. Whoever controlled the river was rich, and this explains why Croesus was one of the richest kings who ever lived.

Croesus, who lived about 550 years before Christ, built a citadel called Sardis to protect his wealth. The citadel sat atop sheer cliffs and was impregnable – or so Croesus thought.

But one night while the guards were dozing, a Persian soldier scaled the cliffs, opened the gate, and Sardis fell. Thus ended the reign of King Croesus.

The fall of Sardis was a pivot point in history for it brought the fearsome Persians to Ionia and the shores of Greece.

One of the changes made by the Persians was they populated Sardis with Jews. The Jews in Sardis thrived which meant that whoever brought the gospel to Sardis had a ready audience in the synagogue.

Fast forward to the end of first century and we find that Sardis had a church – one of seven mentioned in the opening chapters of Revelation. Jesus sent this church a letter and in it he said this:

If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. (Rev. 3:3b)

Telling the Sardians that he would come like a thief was a clever nod to their history. “Remember how your city fell because you weren’t paying attention? That’s what will happen to you, if you don’t wake up.”

Slumbering Sardians

The amazing thing is that Sardis fell twice; first to the Persians in 546BC, then to Seleucid armies of Antiochus the Great in 213BC. On both occasions the city fell because a brave soldier scaled the cliffs like a thief. (You can read the full story in my book, Letters from Jesus.)

Just as the British are famous for their orderly queues and their love of tea, the Sardians were famous for not paying attention. They would have understood that when Jesus said, “I will come like a thief,” he meant that he would come unexpectedly:

Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake. (Rev. 16:15a)

What does it mean to say the Lord will come like a thief? It means his return will be sudden. People won’t expect it.

How then should we live? Those slumbering in the stupor of sin need to wake up.

Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. (Matt. 24:42-43)

No one knows when the Lord will return, but we can be ready. We “wake up” by turning to God in faith. We stay alert by having a hopeful and confident expectation of his return.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief (1 Thess. 5:4)

The meaning is plain: be ready for the Master’s return. But you won’t be ready if you think Jesus is never coming or that he has already come.

The Lord’s return is future, not past.

Since I have written a book about the fall of Jerusalem, some people have concluded that I am a preterist. “Paul teaches that Jesus came in AD70.” Nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t know when Jesus is coming but I can assure you it wasn’t then.

For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. (1 Thess. 5:2–3)

The Lord’s return will not happen during a time of war but in a time of peace and safety. No one was saying “peace and safety” before the siege of Jerusalem, and there was nothing unexpected or thief-like about the fall of Judea.

When is Jesus coming?

Not in AD70, 1000, 1984, 1988, 1999, 2012, 2017, 2020, or any year that has so far been claimed. No one knows the hour or day the Son is coming, not even him.

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. (Matt. 24:36)

We don’t know when, but we do know how: the Lord will return unexpectedly like a thief. But his return won’t be a secret event. Everyone will know about it.

There are more than 90 scriptures discussing the Lord’s return, and every one of them encourages us to look forward to that great and glorious day.

The takeaway: Don’t get caught napping like King Croesus and the slumbering Sardians, and don’t let the day of the Lord overtake you like a thief.

Get ready, live ready, and look forward to the glorious return of the King.

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With more than 1000 scriptures indexed, the Grace Commentary is a great place to find answers to questions, like these:

1. What is the reward we get for our labor?
2. What did Jesus mean when he said, you are alive but dead?
3. What does it mean to deliver someone to Satan?
4. How do we examine ourselves before partaking of communion?
5. How do we believe in vain?
6. What is the meaning of sowing sparingly or bountifully?
7. How do we overcome?
8. Was Abraham really justified by works?
9. Was woman really created for the sake of the man?
10. Did Jesus preach conditional forgiveness?

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This has been one of the toughest years in living memory. At the time of writing close to 700,000 people have died from a disease nobody knew about nine months ago. In many cities there have been riots, looting, and other signs of lawlessness. People are suffering. Some fear the imminent emergence of the antichrist.

Not only that, but strange signs have appeared in the sky, such as this rare appearance of Godzilla…

Okay, that last one was a joke.

Seriously though, I am seeing something I have never seen before. In addition to all the usual end times’ hucksters stirring up fear to hawk their products, mainstream news outlets are jumping on the end time’s bandwagon. Outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times have discovered that stories headlined with “apocalypse,” “end times,” and “end of the world,” are hot, hot, hot. Even Fox News has got in on the game. Some outlets are even asking if are on the brink of the Great Tribulation.

I hope you realize that newspaper eschatology will leave you either cynical or fearful, which is not what Jesus wants. But what about the Great Tribulation he spoke of? Is it about to start? Are we close?

Nope. Not by a long shot.

Several years ago I wrote an article entitled “When is the Great Tribulation?” In it I listed the various prophecies Jesus gave in connection with the Great Tribulation, and I explained how all of them were fulfilled by the summer of AD70. The Great Tribulation is past, not future and it will never happen again. It’s not something you need to fear.

At the time, many people welcomed the article, but some were not convinced. I was wrong, they said. Which is fine. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. But what was interesting were the reasons why I was wrong. I’ll list these below along with my responses.

I appreciate that you may have little interest in end time’s debates. Fair enough. I totally understand. Come back next week when I promise normal service will resume. However, if you would like to learn more about what Jesus had to say on this subject, check out my Patreon study note, “Ten reasons why you will never experience the Great Tribulation.”

Still here? Okay, let’s set the scene.

Jesus is sitting on top of the Mount of Olives and he’s speaking to four disciples – Peter, James, John, and Andrew – about a coming Great Tribulation (see Matt. 24:21, Mark 13:3). Jesus tells them to watch for several signs. He tells them where (Jerusalem), when (within a generation), and how (swords, embankments, etc.) the Great Tribulation will unfold. Fast forward to AD70 and everything Jesus said happened exactly as he foretold.

And that ought to be the end of the matter.

But it isn’t because many of us have been fed an alternative narrative, one where the Great Tribulation is in our future, not theirs. This alternative narrative mixes up a bunch of other prophecies about the rapture and the return of the Lord. Since those things have not happened, the argument goes, neither has the Great Tribulation.

My strong view is the Great Tribulation happened in the manner Jesus predicted and in the timeframe he specified. The Great Tribulation is past, not future. But not everyone agrees, and those who don’t say things like this:

The Great Tribulation is a future event that will last seven years

Not according to Jesus. He told the disciples the Great Tribulation would happen within a generation and be a short event (Matt 24:22, 34). He was spot on. Judea fell swiftly and the AD70 siege of Jerusalem lasted only 150 days. It was one of the fastest sieges in history.

The Great Tribulation can’t have happened because the antichrist has not been revealed

Different subject. Jesus is the only person to speak at length about the Great Tribulation, yet he said nothing about the antichrist. Not one word.

The Great Tribulation can’t have happened because the sun and moon have not dimmed and the stars have not fallen from the sky

Actually, they have.

The Great Tribulation can’t have happened because we have not been raptured/the final judgment has not happened/Jesus has not returned

Don’t confuse these are separate events. The Great Tribulation has happened; the others have not.

You’re crazy if you think the rapture has happened or Jesus has returned

I don’t. I am looking forward to both the rapture (whatever that is) and the physical return of Jesus (whenever that is).

The Great Tribulation can’t have happened because the Son of Man has not come on the clouds

Indeed, he has. Whenever Jesus is described in scripture as “coming on the clouds”, he is coming to heaven. The phrase comes from Daniel’s vision. It’s the Son of Man approaching the Ancient of Days. When Jesus spoke (in Matt. 24) about the Son of Man coming on the clouds and the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, he was referring to his imminent ascension and glorious return home. Like the Great Tribulation, this prophecy was fulfilled within a generation, just as Jesus said.

Jesus said the Great Tribulation would be unprecedented, yet many cities have fallen to sieges in history

It is true that many cities have fallen, including Jerusalem on more than one occasion. But the fall of Jerusalem in AD70 was unprecedented in terms of the horrors inflicted and the casualty rate. In a city home to less than 200,000 people, more than a million people died (depending on how much you weight you put on Josephus’s figures). The larger number reflected the Passover pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem from all over the world. All of them died within the city’s walls.

The Roman siege of Jerusalem was the world’s deadliest successful siege. It effectively destroyed the city and the nation. It was so destructive that later visitors to Judea had trouble identifying where Jerusalem once stood.

Yeah, but the Holocaust was worse, so AD70 cannot have been the Great Tribulation

The Holocaust may have been worse in absolute terms, but in relative terms nothing tops the first-century genocide of the Jewish nation. After AD70 Israel essentially ceased to exist. Most of the population had been exterminated or enslaved. Which is why Jesus wept when he saw it coming.

Okay, the Great Tribulation partly happened in AD70, but it will happen again in our future

Jesus said it would happen once and never again (Matt. 24:21), just like the Great Flood.

Why would John write (in Revelation) about a Great Tribulation that had already happened?

To encourage the church. In contrast with Jesus who gives us a play-by-play account of what will happen, John mentions the great tribulation in passing (in Rev. 7:14). Unlike Jesus who was looking into the future, John writes about the Great Tribulation in the past tense. This gives the impression that he was writing about something that was in his past. It had already happened.

The letters to the seven churches were written to prepare them for the Great Tribulation

No they weren’t. Even if you believe Revelation was written before AD70, which I don’t, the seven churches of Asia were hundreds of miles away and largely unaffected by the troubles that fell on Jerusalem and Judea.

You’re nuts! Jesus said he would be returning soon. His return is imminent.

I’m not sure what the return of Jesus has to do with the Great Tribulation. One thing has happened; the other is yet to happen. Incidentally, Jesus never said he was returning soon. That’s a myth.

You must be one of those loopy preterists.

Labelling people to dismiss them is intellectually lazy. I almost wish I was a preterist because the way this group is treated is disgraceful. Please, leave off the personal attacks and stick to the prophecies. My view is that some prophecies have been fulfilled; others are yet to be fulfilled. Jesus told the disciples about a lot of future events, including some they would personally hear about and see. History proves Jesus was right.

I still don’t believe the Great Tribulation happened in AD70

That is a luxury you can afford, but anyone who shared your view in AD70 would have died in AD70. In contrast, those who heeded Jesus fled to the mountains and lived.

If we were better acquainted with scripture and Jewish history, the Great Tribulation would not be a controversial subject. We would not waste time arguing about it and we certainly would not be fretting about it. Instead, we would be marveling at the stunning fulfillment of Christ’s prophecies. Truly they were signs to make us wonder.

His words, which saved the lives of many believers, inspire us to praise him in twenty centuries later.

TLDR: Contrary to what you may have heard, we are not about to enter or experience the Great Tribulation. We never will.

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Want to dig deeper into Christ’s amazing prophecies? Want to learn more about the Great Tribulation? Check out Paul’s study note, “Ten reasons why you will never experience the Great Tribulation” on Patreon.

Pamdemics. Economic collapse. Locust plagues. Murder hornets. Whenever the world goes through a crisis, it’s natural to wonder if we have reached the end of days. “This is it! We’re all going to die!” We turn to social media and YouTube for answers and encounter wacky end time predictions. Some involve spectacular astronomical events, such as blood moons, mysterious constellations, and, most dramatic of all, a darkening sun. But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (Matt. 24:29) Was Jesus talking about the end of the world? Most pastors would say he was. A 2020 survey by LifeWay Research revealed that 9 out of 10 pastors say current events match those that Jesus said would occur shortly before he returns to Earth. Many think this way because they have bought into doom and gloom predictions about the end of the world that are more informed by Newsweek than Scripture. The Son of God said no one knows the day or hour of his return, but certain preachers know more than [...]

And so another year kicks off with a certain Christian magazines/websites making gloomy predictions about these last days. (I was going to provide some links here but it was depressing reading and I don’t wish to promote newspaper eschatology. If you’re interested, this stuff is not hard to find.) What do all these articles have in common? I mean, apart from peddling fear and anxiety about current events? Answer: they all believe Jesus is coming back soon. In other words, they don’t believe what the Bible says about the timing of Christ’s return. (TL:DR; The scriptures are emphatically and deliberately silent on the date of the Lord’s return.) “But the Lord’s return has to be soon, right? I mean, all the signs are there!” If by signs you mean earthquakes, famines, wars, lawlessness, and false messiahs, these are signs that Jesus listed in connection with the fall of Jerusalem. There is not one scripture that links these signs with the Lord’s final return to earth. “But there are other signs mentioned in scripture, like the rise of the antichrist, false prophets, the man of lawlessness, animal extinctions, new diseases, a rebuilt Jerusalem, a third temple …” These so-called signs have [...]

Me: “I am coming to your house soon.” You: “Great! When?” Me: “I have no idea. I don’t even what day.” You: “Um, okay.” Me: “You’ll have to wait a really long time.” You: “But you said you’d be here soon.” Me: “Soon, sure! But it could be centuries.” If I delivered mixed messages like this, you would think I’m unreliable. Untrustworthy, even. “Paul doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I wouldn’t believe anything he says.” Yet apparently this is how Jesus talks. According to some, Jesus is confused and unreliable. Let me ask you a serious question: Is Jesus coming soon? Yes or no? The Bible offers a straight answer to this question, and it may not be what you think: “I am coming soon.” (Rev 22:20, NIV) There you go. Case settled. Jesus is coming soon. He said so. But wait a sec… Didn’t Jesus also say he did not know the hour or day of his return (Matt 24:36)? And didn’t Jesus also tell parables about servants having to wait a long time for their masters’ return? See the problem? Jesus seems to say he’s coming soon and not soon. He’ll be here in a jiffy, but [...]

What do you make of these words of Jesus? Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:30) What is this prophecy about? And what is the sign of the Son of Man in heaven? Mr. Futurist: “This is about Christ returning from heaven and coming back to earth.” Mr. Preterist: “This is about Christ coming in judgment on Jerusalem.” Actually, it’s about neither. It is about Jesus coming into his kingdom with power and glory. Jesus is quoting Daniel: In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13–14) Daniel’s prophecy was fulfilled when the Lord ascended to heaven. He [...]

Here’s a quiz question: When Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, was he received as (a) the long awaited Messiah, or (b) a prophet? It might surprise you, but the answer is (b):

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet…” (Matt. 21:10-11)

The Judeans recognized Jesus as the prophet of God and we think, “He was much more than that. Jesus is the Son of God.” Yet the Judeans weren’t wrong – Jesus was a prophet and a remarkable one at that.

These days just about anyone can call themselves a prophet and we don’t think much of it. But in Biblical times there was a high standard: To be a prophet of God meant prophesying with 100% accuracy (Deu. 18:20-22). If someone prophecies or foretells an event that doesn’t come to pass, they weren’t speaking for God, because God never lies.

In scripture, Jesus is called the prophet. He is the ultimate Prophet to whom the other prophets pointed. Yet in nearly 50 years of church-going I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sermon entitled “Jesus the Prophet.” Have you? Perhaps it’s because we think the label is demeaning. “Better to call him Lord than prophet.” But if we paid more attention to the prophecies of Jesus the Prophet, we would be less susceptible to the misleading claims of false prophets.

Jesus said it. It happened. That settles it.

Jesus predicted many remarkable things that we miss because we don’t know history. When I was doing the research for my AD70 book, I dug deep into the events of the first-century and was regularly struck with the thought, “This is exactly what Jesus said would happen!”

Obscure prophecies, like the one about the eagles gathering around the carcass (Matt. 24:28), seem strange to us. We have no idea what Jesus was talking about. But his meaning would have been perfectly obvious to a Judean living in the first century.

It’s the same when Jesus is talking about shortened days and fleeing to the mountains. These prophecies seem mysterious to us, but those who heard them and saw them fulfilled knew exactly what was going on. The prophecies of Jesus were as plain as day and those who heeded them were saved by them.

You probably know that Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, but what you may not know is that Jesus painted a very detailed picture of when, where, and how that destruction would unfold. He was not vague. In fact, Jesus made no less than 40 predictions in connection with that event – that’s 40 signposts even Blind Freddy could see. Yet we don’t see the signposts because they are obscured by the mists of time.

Take this signpost for example: Jesus said that when the temple fell, “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light” (Matt. 24:29). What was he talking about? Lacking a frame of reference we supply our own. “Jesus was talking about astronomy.” Nope. Jesus was describing a political event using the same language adopted by Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah (13:10) and Ezekiel (32:7). He was saying the lights were about to go out on Jerusalem and the old temple system. This interpretation would have been perfectly obvious to a Jew raised on the Jewish scriptures (the Old Testament).

Why does this matter?

I am looking forward to the future return of King Jesus and the rapture of the church, but I am regularly dismayed by the way many Christians are duped by bogus end times’ prophecies.

Last year several prominent ministries predicted that “something big” would happen in September 2017. Few actually said Jesus would return or that we would be raptured, but those are the sorts of things implied by “something big.” It was an exciting prophecy, repeated countless times on social media.

Yet September came and nothing happened. Jesus did not return. There was no rapture, no antichrist, no Armageddon.

The prognosticators were wrong. This should not surprise us. Those who force-fit contemporary events to scriptures meant for another generation are wrong 100% of the time. Yet the market for bad predictions thrives because people love this sensational stuff. Write a book on blood moons or make a rapture movie and you’ll find a ready audience. In the absence of good prophecies, bad ones thrive.

It is not my intent to badmouth anyone, but if we spent as much time studying the prophecies of Jesus as we did listening to end times’ doomsayers, we wouldn’t listen to end times’ doomsayers. If we were better acquainted with the truth of what Jesus said we would not be conned by eschatological hucksters.

Last year was a bad year for the self-proclaimed prophets, but I guarantee it’s only a matter of time before the next false prophecy comes along to seduce and unsettle you. How can you protect yourself from these distractions? You may say, “I’ve been fooled before, but I now I know better.” But each new prophecy sounds convincing. It seems to fit the scriptures and the times. “That last one was wrong, but this one seems spot on. Take my money!”

People hijack or misinterpret Christ’s prophecies because they don’t know history. Their ignorance of the past leads them to make wrong predictions about the future. Christ’s prophecies save lives, but bad prophecies hurt people and embarrass the church. To help you tell the difference, here is a table listing 40 fulfilled prophecies made by Jesus in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem. (Click the image below for a larger version.) The stories behind each fulfilled prophecy, along with citations to the original source material, can be found in my AD70 book. I encourage you to check them out. The stories are stunning and will leave you in awe of Jesus the Prophet.

These 40 fulfilled prophecies are a sign to make you wonder. Eusebius, the father of church history, said they were “truly divine and marvelously strange.” They are proof that the Son of God sees the end from the beginning. But more than that, they reveal the caring heart of Jesus.

Jesus could have said nothing about Jerusalem’s dark future. He could have come and died on the cross and left it at that. But as he wandered the streets of Jerusalem, a great ache cause him to speak up again and again. Even as he bore the cross to Calvary he stopped to prophesy about the tragedy he saw coming (see Luke 23:28-29).

“Pretty table, Paul. But I don’t believe these 40 signs had anything to do with the fall of Jerusalem.” You have the luxury of believing that, but first-century Judeans who dismissed the 40 signs paid a high price. Within 40 years, every one of the Lord’s 40 prophecies had been fulfilled. Those who heeded them lived; those who didn’t died brutal deaths.

The 40 fulfilled prophecies were for then, but they also encourage us now. These ancient prophecies leave us in awe of a good Savior who cares enough to speak into our lives. Here’s the lesson: Those who hear and believe Jesus will live. It was true then and it’s remains true today.

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