Mark 13:9-11

Mark 13:9

"Take heed to yourselves; for they shall deliver you up to councils and in the synagogues you shall be beaten and you shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake for a testimony against them."

Matthew 24:9

"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you; and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake."

Now the most striking thing I see between these two passages is that Mark mentions "synagogues" and Matthew does not. One thinks it would be "the other way around" on account of the end of the OT system as opposed to the end of time.

But "synagogue" here isn't specific to Judaism because this specific word is also translated "congregation". It literally means "the assembly of people who stand beside those who sit on the council". It's a compound word made of up "council" and "congregation".

But unlike Revelation that speaks of "the synagogue of Satan" and "those who say they are Jews but are not"; there's connection here (Revelation) in the language to the OT system. Which of course makes sense because that system is no longer in operation come the "time of the bitter end". As is seen in the explanations of the churches in the Book of Revelation; there's a great apostasy that has taken place.

Now the difference between the Old Testament apostasy and the New Testament apostasy is that Jesus stated to the Jews that they have Moses as their judge. (Of course implying that the only thing the Law can do is condemn the sinner. Thus Sheol, the "holding place of the dead"; those currently contained there, await their judgement, knowing that will be the case on account of they did not ascend to heaven upon death.) But the apostate of the New Testament church (both of resurrected and living at that day) will face Christ Himself upon the 2nd coming.

The other "interesting anomaly" between the Matthew (OT) judgement and the "bitter end", is those in Matthew are told they will be martyred. The language in Mark doesn't specify literal martyrdom (or at least in that verse). But the persecution of the NT believer from the apostate church is… dimensionally different, than the hatred of the world.

Obviously though there are places in church history where we can point to alleged "Christians" committing literal murder of those that disagree with them. (The Inquisition, the Crusades to a certain example, or even the "witch hunts" of Puritan times; which like today, (interestingly) had elements of "social contagion" attached to it.)

But the "over all global philosophies" regarding "religious tolerance" has changed over time, to the degree that not necessarily "all nations" hate the true believer. Yes believers today in parts of the world still are literally martyred; but "per capita" for "religious tolerance" around the world though; I would hypothesis that's most likely statistically less than it had been in previous centuries.

The Renaissance, industrialization and the rise of the age of reason; has brought about seismic changes in the survivability of the average human. Not that human life span (now post flood) has changed much, but life expectancy certainly has.

A greater percentage of people today reach the elderly stage than had in previous centuries. Some of that obviously is due to disease decrease because of better sanitation; but another major factor is violence itself. The average male member of a hunter / gatherer society is far more likely to be murdered than the average male living in a post modern society. Now all the factors as to why that is; I don't know. Statistically though, that is the case.

So with lessoning of the propensity to be murdered, as the prosperity of a civilization commences its growth stage, also decreases the chances (per capita) of being martyred. Though yes, it still remains true that the "raw numbers" of martyrs will increase with population explosion. (Simply there are just more people.) Interestingly though, the percent of that population that's martyred decreases, because the overall murder rate has decreased. Civilization has actually become more "civilized" and even as that applies to the "bitter end" of time!

There is a reason in God's providence for this.

Mark 13:10

"And the gospel must first be published among all nations."

Now this next set of verses is where there's a bit of divergence; and not wholly in what is said, but partially in the order it's said in. There are instructions in Mark that aren't in Matthew, as well as details of who's doing the persecuting in Mark that are not in Matthew either.

Mark 13:10 is not in Matthew 24; until we get to verse 14. Yet Matthew 24:14 is future tense; whereas the word "published" here in Mark is in the passive voice and comes from the base word "preach". "Having been published"; meaning it's a done deal. Every nation has heard "the gospel of Christ".

It's similar in venue to Romans 10:14 "How will they call of whom they've not believed; how will they believe if they've not heard and how will they hear without a preacher?" "Published" in Mark 13:10 comes from the same base as "preach"(er) in Romans.

Now how does Romans 10:14 apply to those who never had a human declaration of written Scripture and does Mark 13:10 mean the same thing as the context of "preacher" as in Romans?

As to the witness of truth; all humanity is accountable because of conscience and the witness of creation. We all know something; we just don't all know the same amount of that thing.

Going back to Romans 1 and following context to Romans 10; Romans 10:13 states "call upon the name of the Lord…." To do so requires specific exposure to the message of "here's the Redeemer; this is where he came in time and this is what he did…." That's the "Gospel of the Kingdom" proclaimed by "the preacher". And thus to "call upon the name of the Lord"; one would have to be exposed to what written Scripture states.

Certainly it is useful to understand we have a "Preacher" Who's conveyed the message to a "preacher". Which ironically is still applicable even in circumstances where humans lack the specific information about Jesus Christ himself, because their "preacher" isn't a human one. It's the witness of creation.

But both in Romans 10:14 and Mark 13:10 though; the pointed context is specific proclamation (from a human preacher) that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer. The "Gospel of the Kingdom" is the complete revelation; despite not everyone who's atoned for has complete revelation. Matthew 13:10 though, declares that the complete revelation has now been published to all nations.

Compare this to Matthew 14:14 which is the onset of that process. Matthew 24:14 though, also conveys "into all the world" ("world" here being "inhabitance" contextually of a geographic area; I.E. Jerusalem) where all of the nations of the "empire" (or beast system of that day) were present at Pentecost.

Thus why Matthew 24 is still future tense when Mark 13 "must first" (be published) is not. "Must first" is actually present tense. Which means up unto the "last second" of the "bitter end" the gospel is still preached by human proclamation.

Mark 13:11

"But when they shall lead (you), and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost."

Matthew 24:9

"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake."

Here's another example of where the passages are similar; but the instructions are different. Again Matthew conveys: "This happens" and then "that happens". Mark simply says "When they….."

Matthew also says that they will be killed. Mark doesn't convey in absolutes that the reader who's taking heed to this, will be physically killed. And we see this in an interesting context as it applies to the Middle East and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The "political Muslims" have come to understand that if they kill someone professing Christianity; in the sociological context of how Eastern Orthodox and Muslim Fundamentalists interact in countries like Egypt; martyrdom strengthens the "political hand" of the Eastern Orthodox Church. And thus a (beast system) divided against itself can't stand. So though Christians in the Middle East are persecuted. The "political Muslims" try really hard not to martyr them.

Which again is another example of how we see international social pressure applied to the global society.

Also historically, we understand that we can't say for sure every single apostle was martyred; we know certain ones were and it's highly likely a high percentage were.

We know Peter, the "apostle to the circumcision" was told specifically he'd be martyred. We assume church "tradition" is accurate when it tells us Paul was martyred. Paul himself expected he'd be put to death when he was headed for Rome.

Revelation talks about Israel killing the prophets. (That's in many places in the Old Testament too.) Martyrdom is a common theme in the Old Testament as related to God's "people" and God's prophets.

Ironically though, I don't think there's even one example of an OT prophet preaching to a foreign nation and being martyred? The only OT prophet I can think of who went to a foreign nation specifically to preach was Jonah. Yes other prophets encountered foreigners outside of the context of Israel (Daniel, Joseph, Elisha dealing with Naaman); yet none of them were martyred by foreigners either.

Interesting!

Now as far as the instructions in Mark go? To "deliver you up" is to betray the person. The instructions in Mark are in the context of having to give an account for one's self. This account is in the context of religious beliefs because this is persecution on account of faith in Christ.

Yet raging (atheistic type) mobs who hate Christianity based on Scriptural morals, aren't going to ask for an account of why someone believes what they do. Only "religious" people who are looking to justify themselves are going to do that. This is what we see with Pilate and Jesus's trial. Pilate didn't care whether or not the Jewish leaders were accusing Jesus of blasphemy. According to Roman laws; claiming to be God was not an executable offense.

Now in contexts where one refuses to worship someone else's god; yes, some groups will take it to the point of killing someone for that. But generally, those who demand an account, are those who are looking to accuse another of heresy; and simply for the sake of self justification; they will declare among themselves: "We don't have to listen to you!"

We see the completion of this, in that the following verse talks about brother betraying brother, parents children and children parents. Yet nothing of that type of context is in Matthew 24. Matthew 24 is talking about a certain martyrdom in a particular historical backdrop; related to the unraveling of the culture of the Old Testament system. (The angry mob's narrative (I.E. the OT system) is falling apart.)

In Mark though, the betrayal is much more personal and pointedly so. It's about religious beliefs and the "righteous" wishing to justify themselves. This jives with how the church at the end of time is described both in the epistles and the book of Revelation. Church apostasy in predominantly Christian cultures, at this point has caused "sociological martyrdom" more than it's caused literal death.

And this juxtaposed (as Revelation references martyrdom) is probably one aspect of how the unrighteous servant is not prepared for the 2nd coming, because they miss this "sign of the times". (It's not mass martyrdom religious persecution.)

This doesn't mean that a lot of people don't die though. There's many mass means of trickery that bring about "mass casualties" that oddly people don't "seem to notice" because they are not taking observation to discuss what they are seeing around them. The war is an information war and the death toll is stacked on the lies that the "sheeple" aren't catching because they aren't paying attention.

For example, the 40% global rise in "all cause mortality"! Where's that coming from? People aren't dying of Covid; but they are still dropping like flies. The hidden factor here "swept under the carpet" of public proclamation from our media and governmental sources; is most likely the mRNA "vaccines".

Now much of the public does actually know this; but no one talks about it (or at least publicly) and certainly not in any large scale media context. Many don't seem to recognize the silent war that this is. And I'm sure that a sociological degree of this phenomena, is that many people are so stressed by what they see, that they've just "checked out". (A sizable number literally due to suicide and drug addiction.) People are afraid to face what they see, because talking about it means you as a sovereign independent person have to confront the question of: "What am I going to do about this?" And it's easier mentally to "hope" someone else "fixes it".

There is a very real death toll; but it's being caused by silent "guns" and "bombs".

So this is one difference we see between the end of the eon (1st century) and the "bitter end" of time. And that difference is because of how the spreading of the gospel changed the world sociologically. Once that happened (any major event / shift in society will do this) the "collective memories" of those generations are carried forward into the future.

So as much as ideologues may try to erase history; they can't. Because history is bound up in the collective experience of the generations. We know this because look at communism. That ideology came to manifest itself differently in different societies.

"Communism" was impacted more by Chinese and Baltic cultures than "communism" as an idea directed the manifestation of its ideology in any of those cultures. Same thing with its "lesser cousin" Socialism. The American "socialist state" looks very different than the European socialist states. And this is because American culture is different than European culture.

European / American history is also a lot shorter than the European history of Europe and the conflicts that arose between the European migrants' culture and the Native American cultures is a lot closer in modern written history to today, than the migration conflicts in Europe caused by the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Similar to Native American capacity for written cultural record keeping though; the Germanic tribes at the fall of Rome, also weren't entrenched in tradition driven by written record keeping. So thus a lot of those histories and the ingenuities of generations past of those cultures, have been lost to history. Oftentimes though, it's not solely wars that cause that; but usually, and primarily the spread of disease through geographically isolated populations. We see this biological "survival of the fittest" phenomena going all the way back into antiquity. Even cultures who have advanced writing systems disappear quickly from "mass extinction events" caused by disease.

Which fast forward to today; this raises some interesting questions about global pandemics and the modern world. The impact of the industrial revolution on transportation and the invention of the airplane has spread contagious to the point where there is a certain homogeneity of humanity in regards to disease outbreak. Which this is likely a factor in how even lab manufactured Covid didn't have the death toll that I expect the global elites wanted it to have.

Which this also raises an interesting question about peoples' interpretation of Revelation, "the end of time" and death and disease. We know the apostasy caused by the "silent guns" and "silent bombs" is real; despite the express manifestation of that deadliness isn't "publicly proclaimed" obvious on the Earth. Is this also a manifestation of "As it was in the days of Noah"?

Interesting question related to biology itself!

The next chapters will likely continue on through Mark 13. In the interest of trying to keep the Mark chapters together. I will probably start addressing sociological / political factors and trends we see today; like transgender ideology.