Between warnings of false christs (8) and persecutions (12-14), Jesus gave predictions of severe and fearful events and great signs. Somewhere, there is a nation or region that has been attacking another almost nonstop since Jesus’s time. Revelation 6:4 tells of the fiery red horse of war that will be sent to the world during the seven years of tribulation. Billy Graham wrote about the fiery red horse’s approaching hoof beats; that is about the increase of wars in my time.
Jesus tells his disciples to not be frightened.
Jesus also predicted great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven (11). Matthew and Mark add Jesus saying, “These are the beginning of birth pains.” When the time of new birth reaches the final minutes, the pains increase in intensity and frequency. So it is with the birth of the new age to come.
Jesus tells his disciples to be on our guard (Mark 13:9), not against these severe and fearful events and great signs, but against the opposition from others against his disciples. “Do not be alarmed,” he tells me. We have a God who loves us and will take care of us. Life may not be comfortable, and we may even be killed, but God works out all things for the good of those who love him.
The author of Hebrews wrote to the persecuted church in Judea shortly before the wars with Rome from 66 to 70 A.D. “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.'” (Hebrews 3:12-15)
