Rev. 6, The Beginning of Sorrows (2)

Jesus first speaks of a time He describes as “the beginning of sorrows” (v8) seeming to differentiate it from a time of “tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation” (v19).  Let us consider this “beginning of sorrows.”

What characterizes this time, besides deception which characterizes the entire time between Jesus’ Incarnation and His “coming in the clouds with great power and glory” (13:26)?  In 13:7-8 Jesus said it will be characterized by “wars and rumors of wars,” with nations and kingdoms fighting each other, and also by earthquakes, “famines and troubles.”  A third characteristic is that the gospel will be preached to all the nations (v10-13).  This is given with the prediction that there will be great persecution of God’s people who are seeking to carry out this world-wide preaching.

Now, the question is this: is Jesus describing only the time from that day until 70AD when the temple is destroyed; or is He describing the time from that day until He returns in power and glory?  In Mark’s gospel He is saying that it applies to both.  The wars and pestilences will lead up to 70AD, and the Twelve will experience strong resistance to the gospel.  In 13:9,11 Jesus addressed the Twelve, to “watch out for yourselves,” that they would be delivered up to the councils.  But in 13:12 there appears to be a broader picture of this resistance to the gospel.  We know that by 70AD the gospel had made it to Rome when Paul preached Christ to the Jewish leaders of Rome in Acts 28:17-31, and when he appeared before the Emperor (2 Tim. 4:16-18).  What Paul says to Timothy is that the Lord was with him so that he might fulfill his ministry so that “all the Gentiles/Nations might hear.”  But he was not saying that Mk. 13:10 was fulfilled.  The fulfillment of Jesus’ words, and of His commands to make disciples in every nation (Mt. 28:19-20) and to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Ac. 1:8) will result in the fabulous description of glory in Rev. 5:9: For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 

The idea that the “beginning of sorrows” continues throughout the entire age of the Church also fits what John saw in Rev. 6.  The last verse of Rev. 6 (v17) says that “the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”  That sounds to me like we are at the middle of Daniel’s 70^th Week, when the “beginning of sorrows” becomes the time of great tribulation.  In Rev. 6 when the book is being opened, what do we see?  The first two seals reveal a rider who is all about “conquering and to conquer” and a another who takes “peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another.”  This sounds similar to “wars and rumors of war.”  Then the third rider is connected to famine and the fourth kills a fourth of the earth will various “troubles” (sword, hunger, death and beasts of earth).  That sounds like Jesus’ words in Mk. 13:8. John saw this c.25 years after 70AD.  The beginning sorrows characterize the entire age until the gospel has been preached to all nations.  As Rom. 11:25, Israel’s partial blindness continues until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.