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The Coming Crisis! - Mark 13:14-20 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 16, 2011AM We can be taught things over and over so many times that we begin to think what we are being taught is absolutely true, whether it is or not. Here are several examples: In Rome a thumbs up signal meant let a defeated gladiator live, but a thumb down signal meant kill him. In reality a thumbs up meant kill the loser, however, if the thumb was concealed in a fist, it meant let the loser live. We also think, because of Hollywood movies like Spartacus, that slaves manned the oars of Roman galleys, yet most were free men who were sailors trained to row and then fight. Rowing was considered a skilled task. Can things we come to think of as true yet are false infect our Christian thinking as well? The answer is “Yes.” Here in Mark’s gospel we find Jesus continuing to answer his disciple’s question about when the temple would be destroyed. His response and what it meant has been so analyzed that what we may t...

The Deceivers Will Come! - Mark 13:1-6 By Pastor Lee Hemen December 26, 2010 AM Mark 13 is sometimes called the eschatological discourse, the prophetic discourse, the Olivet discourse, or the Little Apocalypse. It depends on whether you see within these verses Jesus teaching about the culmination of events, future events, if you are concerned about where it occurred, or if you believe that Mark wanted us to read about the end of the world. However, we do not find the usual visionary and cryptic language that most apocalyptic literature contains. Rather, we read more of a practical and ethical discourse and warning by Jesus to his followers. He wanted them to be aware that deceivers will come and what they needed to do about it when it occurred. Whether one believes in the biblical narrative of the end times or not we live in a day and age where folks love to speculate about the end of the world as we know it. From movies that cater to pagan Aztec calendars predicting it or ...