In our study of Mark we are in Mark 12:38-40; and the parallel passage in Matt 23; where Jesus is condemning the progressive Jewish leadership because they are not different than their fathers who killed God's prophets.
Last time we noted that as Zechariah the final martyr recorded in Chronicles faced down Joash he prayed the prayer for justice that was a prophecy. Joash's failure to prohibit idolatry's return to Judah brought the prophets from God to warn of impending discipline if Judah did not repent.
The murder of Zechariah was clear evidence that both Joash and the people of Judah had rejected God's grace and they refused to change their mind (repent). The consequence was that God answered the prayer of Zechariah: "May the Lord see and avenge."
Within a year the Lord did avenge Joash. 2Chron 24:23-24; We must always remember that Jesus Christ controls history and He will always fulfill His promises one of which is to bring retribution, and that means He will bring judgment on evil doers at the perfect time, 2Pet 3:9;
It appears that He may be about to clean house in the USA. He's just taking the time to get all of the ducks lined up so it will be a clean sweep and when it happens the progressive liberals won't have control of any part of our national government for at least a generation.
One of hardest things to understand is why reversionists just don't get it. They defy God, knowingly reject His Word, and express no interest in making any adjustment in their evil attitude.
They encounter steadily increasing pressures in their lives that are the consequences of a series of bad decisions that are in direct opposition to God's policies. Hosea 8:7;
Because of their blind arrogance that results in self-denial and projection they are unwilling to recognize the connection between the difficulties they face and their deviation away from doctrinal principles.
Consequently, as their suffering increases their hostility toward the truth increases because they always blame someone else instead of themselves.
This is extremely dangerous because it indicates locked-in negative volition. Initially negative volition involves apathy or indifference, misplaced priorities, distraction by the details of life, and, over-reaction to people testing but it ends with hatred of the truth and those who proclaim it and then resorts to murder in order to silence them.
Negative volition becomes locked-in when the failure to grow in grace results in the continuous intake of demonic viewpoint. Rejection of truth creates a vacuum in the soul that in Eph 4:17 is referred to as "mataiotes", and translated "vanity" or "futility" of thought.
Barring injury or disease, the brain never stops thinking. It is always being programmed by the soul with a continuous flow of thoughts and ideas that are given approval by volitional choices.
When a person's free will determines to ignore, reject, or disagree with divine viewpoint then a vacuum is created in the soul that sucks in satan's lie because when the soul rejects one idea then it must automatically accept another.
This means that rejection of God's truth automatically results in accepting satan's lie because people have to believe something. Acceptance of satan's lie may be the result of confusion, propaganda, human viewpoint, demon influence, or some combination of these but it doesn't matter its still satan's lie.
This is why Jesus called Peter "satan" in Mark 8:33; Peter was disagreeing with God's truth so he had automatically accepted satan's lie.
People with negative volition cannot tolerate people who represent the truth that they have rejected and they end up trying to silence or kill them. This where the scribes and Pharisees who Jesus was warning were and it is also where the so called "liberals progressives" in our country are headed at the present time regardless of weather they recognize it or not.
Matt 23:36; "Truly I say to you, "All these things shall come upon this generation," all of the discipline they deserve shall come. NET
In this verse Jesus prophesies that their evil will inevitably result in their destruction.
They will participate in the murder the Lord, they will kill some of the apostles, they will kill many believers, and that very generation will face God's judgment for their murder of the righteous.
The scribes and Pharisees locked in negative volition had reached the point where they will never recover and that the judgment of the 5th cycle of discipline that destroys their nation is inevitable. Hosea 4:6; Hosea 8:7; Lev 26:27-39; NET
When the point of no return is reached then God has no choice but to destroy evil because it is necessary in order to protect what little positive volition remains. The history of mankind under satan's rule is filled with these cycles and they will continue until Jesus Christ deposes satan.
Sir Alex Fraser Tyler described this continuum as the cycle of nations.
Cycle of Nations:
From bondage to spiritual faith.
From spiritual faith to great courage.
From courage to liberty.
From liberty to abundance.
From abundance to selfishness.
From selfishness to complacency.
From complacency to apathy.
From apathy to dependency.
From dependency back again into bondage.
We should ask ourselves where our nation is on this continuum. I would put us toward the bottom so unless something changes soon we are headed toward the same judgment as the Jews who Jesus was warning.
Matt 23:37;" Jerusalem, Jerusalem." God never pronounces judgment without offering grace. Grace always precedes judgment; Net note 46 " you who kill the prophets," (present linear tense), you are always killing them; "and stone those who are sent to you how often would I have gathered your children." Net notes 47,48
"Would I" declares God's sovereignty. He would have gathered them; "together, even as a hen gathers a chicken gathers her chickens under her wings, but you refused." Net notes 49,50
Notice the opposing phrases: "How often I would", expresses God's desire and provision of grace. 1Tim 2:4; "You refused" refers to their negative volition that consistently rejected God's grace. John 3:36b;
God is love and his love is expressed in grace. John 3:16; but they rejected his son and killed him so there was nothing left for them but wrath (judgment from God's perfect righteousness and justice). John 3:36b;
Israel's national discipline began in the first century and will continue until the Second Advent, when Jesus Christ personally re-gathers His people and restores them as believers to the Land.
This discipline is the consequence of Israel's rejection of Jesus Christ as Messiah and their refusal to be witnesses for Jesus Christ.
God explicitly reserves to Himself the right to handle all matters concerning the Jews' negative volition. He does not need any help. God condemns all anti-Semitism but He permits anti-Semitism to exist in order to accomplish His own purposes. Psa 76:10a;
God uses the Jews as bait to destroy gentile nations that develop negative volition because since satan is the source of all negative volition it always eventually results in anti-Semitism because satan hates Israel.
Anti-Semitism is a litmus test for locked in negative volition in a gentile nation during the Church Age so when any gentile nations develops anti- Semitism it is an indication that God is about to destroy that nation.
God baits the trap and it snaps shut on all who attempt to destroy the Jews.
The so-called progressive liberals who are inciting the mob in our country today have this same negative volition and many even express anti-Semitism. This is not a good sign. Satan has deceived them and they have chosen to believe satan's lie rather than God's truth.
They slander and left unrestrained will eventually attempt to murder all who represent the truth just like their father. John 8:44-45;
Matt 23:38;"Look, your house (Herod's temple that had just been completed) is being left to you desolate."
The Greek word "eremos" translated "desolate" means an empty house. In other words, while the design of the temple itself proclaimed Jesus Christ negative volition at the point of God consciousness and negative volition at the point of gospel hearing had created and environment that completely obscured the inherent "witness." of the temple.
So now it was simply a temple but it was not the temple of witness; because the witness had been completely obscured by their negative volition.
The Jews did not understand that their religion was about their heritage. They were going back to Abraham and Moses and for them everything was Abraham and Moses.
But because they had negative volition at the point of God consciousness and gospel hearing they actually had rejected the whole principle that Abraham represented and that Moses taught concerning Jesus Christ and in its place they had accepted religion.
As a result the house ( the temple) that represented Jesus Christ was actually filled with empty-headed people. Because they had rejected Jesus Christ as savior and He was not in their thinking they were nothing but whitewashed death.
They walked around with empty religion in their thinking and the temple was filled with the evil of human viewpoint. The temple still had all the furniture and everything it had previously when it was a witness of Jesus but at the same time it was desolate because a maximum number of people without Bible doctrine who had rejected Jesus and the cross were occupying it.
Their spiritual heritage was wonderful but spiritual heritage can be destroyed in one generation with negative volition on the part of a maximum number of people.
And that is exactly what they did and it is exactly what is happening in our country. Heritage means nothing. When you do not have positive volition heritage is useless.
So Jesus says the temple is desolate. "Your house" is the word He used. And when Jesus spoke He was speaking from divine viewpoint.
Human viewpoint says: It is great; it is beautiful but it isn't the building that counts, it is the thinking of people who occupy the building.