James, Silas, Peter, the Epistles of John and Jude Resonate
With Obvious Sentiments of a Singular Warning That
Zealot Plans to Seize the Kingdom of God by Force Were
on the Point of Happening Way Back in the Early AD 60s
by Mark Mountjoy
In the early AD 60s, a palpable sense of urgency and impending doom permeated the Catholic Epistles. James, the Epistles of John, and Jude resounded with a singular, dire warning: Zealot plans to seize the Kingdom of God by force were on the verge of erupting. The apostles, acutely aware of the looming catastrophe, penned their letters with a fervent desire to awaken the Church to the imminent danger and to fortify their faith in the face of the coming storm.
THERE IS A WAY OF STANDING SO CLOSE to the New Testament or of reading it in such a personal way that we can miss that it is talking about very real situations in the very real lifetime of the first century Christians. In the early AD 60s, a palpable sense of urgency and impending doom permeated the Catholic Epistles. James, the Epistles of John, and Jude resounded with a singular, dire warning: Zealot plans to seize the Kingdom of God by force were on the verge of erupting. The apostles, acutely aware of the looming catastrophe, penned their letters with a fervent desire to awaken the Church to the imminent danger and to fortify their faith in the face of the coming storm. James, the brother of Jesus, sounded the first alarm in his epistle. In James 3:6, he vividly described the "world" of the tongue, a firestorm about to be unleashed, set ablaze by the very fires of hell. But it was in James 5:1-9 that the urgency reached a crescendo.
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!
James passionately called the wealthy members of the Jerusalem aristocracy, particularly the Equestrians, to repentance. He implored them to weep and wail, for their impending misery was at hand. James' words proved prophetic, as within a few years, Procurator Gessius Florus would have up to 3,000 of these elite Jews and their families brutally executed and crucified, in flagrant violation of Roman law. With James' martyrdom occurring no later than Passover AD 62, the dire circumstances addressed in his epistle could not have referred to events in the late first century.
St. Hegesippus, a second century Christian chronicler, reports that James was offered an opportunity to tell a multitude at the Second Temple that Jesus Christ was NOT the true Messiah, and here's what happened,
[The Pharisees said] "Oh, righteous one, in whom we are able to place great confidence; the people are led astray after Jesus, the crucified one. So declare to us, what is this way, Jesus?"
Obviously, this wasn't a very wise thing for them to do. James was ready to take full advantage of such a wonderful opportunity as this!
His words are memorable:
Why do you ask me about Jesus, the Son of Man? He sits in heaven at the right hand of the great Power, and he will soon come on the clouds of heaven!
The Pharisees were horrified, but the people were not. They began shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David!"
The Pharisees, realizing the awful mistake they'd made, began crying out, "Oh! Oh! The righteous one is also in error!"
The Death of James the Just
You can probably guess that this had little effect on the crowd. So the next obvious thing to do was to push him down from the temple, letting the people know exactly what happens to those who dare to believe in Jesus. They climbed the temple as the people shouted, reached the top, and threw James from the pinnacle of the temple.
It didn't kill him.
He rose to his knees and began to pray for them. "I beg of you, Lord God our Father, forgive them! They do not know what they are doing."
This would not do! The Pharisees on the ground began to stone him as he prayed, while those from the roof rushed down to join the execution.
One of the priests, however, a son of the Rechabites mentioned by Jeremiah the prophet (ch. 35), shouted, "Stop! What are you doing! The righteous one is praying for you."
It was too late. A fuller (i.e., launderer) took out one of the clubs that he used to beat clothes and smashed James on the head, killing him with one blow."1
In conclusion, the Epistle of James, written by Jesus' brother, serves as a powerful testament to the imminent danger faced by the early Church in the AD 60s. James' passionate call to repentance, directed towards the wealthy members of the Jerusalem aristocracy, and his prophetic warnings of impending misery, underscore the urgency of the situation. The martyrdom of James, as reported by St. Hegesippus, further emphasizes the dire circumstances addressed in his epistle, which could not have referred to events in the late first century. The Epistle of James stands as a stark reminder of the very real and perilous situation faced by the first-century Christians.
Having examined the Epistle of James and its context in the early AD 60s, we now turn our attention to another significant work from this period: the First Epistle of Peter.
The Epistles of the Apostle Peter
Like James, Peter wrote his letter during a time of increasing hostility and persecution towards the early Church. In the following section, we will explore how First Peter addresses the challenges faced by Christians in this tumultuous era and offers guidance and encouragement to the faithful in the face of adversity. The Apostle Peter's first epistle likewise pulsated with apocalyptic fervor. In 1 Peter 1:5, 1:7, and 1:20, Peter's amanuensis, Silas, conveyed the Christians' keen anticipation of their impending deliverance. He emphasized the inestimable value of Jesus Christ, the precious cornerstone of their faith. Yet, for the disobedient rebels—the Zealots and sophists—this same stone would become a stumbling block and a rock of offense (1 Pet. 2:6-8). Peter, through Silas, extolled the virtues of a righteous life and warned of the consequences of evil (1 Pet. 3:10-12). He declared that the time for judgment was at hand, beginning with the household of God (1 Pet. 4:5, 4:7, 4:17-18). The believers eagerly awaited the appearance of the Chief Shepherd, who would bestow upon them imperishable crowns (1 Pet. 5:4). Intriguingly, Peter sent greetings from "Babylon" (1 Pet. 5:13), a cryptic reference to Jerusalem, the city that would soon be synonymous with the persecution of Christians (Rev. 14:8, 16:19, 17:5; 18:2, 21, 24; cf. Matt. 23:29-39; Luke 11:45-51).
In his second epistle, Peter again emphasized the imminence of the eschaton (2 Pet. 1:11) and acknowledged his own impending martyrdom (2 Pet. 1:13-21). He confronted the burgeoning threat of false prophets and teachers associated with the Fourth Philosophical Movement, which gave rise to the Sicarii and the Zealots (2 Pet. 2:1). These deceivers openly maligned the truth of Christianity (2 Pet. 2:2), but Peter assured his readers that their destruction was not far off (2 Pet. 2:1, 3). He meticulously cataloged their sinful characteristics (2 Pet. 2:10-22), mirroring Paul's description in Romans 1:18-32. Alarmingly, some of these individuals had once embraced the faith but had become entangled again in their former sins (2 Pet. 2:20-22). The focal point of their skepticism was the promised return of Christ (2 Pet. 3). They scoffed at the idea of divine intervention, going so far as to deny the historicity of the Noahic Flood (2 Pet. 3:4). Peter, as an eyewitness of Christ's transfiguration, refuted their claims, affirming the certainty of Christ's return and the impending judgment that would befall the Second Temple (2 Pet. 3:10; cf. Jer. 4:23-27).
The apostle's use of vivid Greek verbs in 2 Peter 3:11-14 underscores the Christians' unwavering belief that they would witness these events in their own lifetime. Peter employs the word "hastening" (Greek: speudō) in verse 12, which conveys a sense of urgency and active participation in bringing about the Day of God. This choice of verb is incompatible with the notion of an event that would occur centuries or millennia in the future. Furthermore, Peter exhorts his readers to "look for" (Greek: prosdokaō) and "look forward" (Greek: prosdokaō) to the coming of the Day of God in verses 12, 13, and 14. These verbs denote a state of active, eager anticipation and watchfulness, implying that the events were expected to unfold in the near future, not in some distant, undefined time. The use of the present tense in these verbs reinforces the idea that the Christians were to live in a constant state of readiness, as they believed the parousia was imminent. It would be inconsistent for Peter to use such language if he believed that Christ's return and the accompanying judgment were not meant to happen within the lifetime of his readers. The specificity and intensity of Peter's word choice leave no room for ambiguity—he and the early Christians were convinced that they would personally witness the fulfillment of these prophecies.
One and Two John
The Epistles of John echoed the same sense of urgency. John declared that the "last hour" had come and that the rise of antichrists signaled the approaching climax of history (1 John 2:18-19). He exhorted believers to remain steadfast in their faith, hope, and love, despite the mounting opposition (1 John 2:28, 3:1-3, 3:12-13, 4:1-4, 4:17-21, 5:2-4, 5:19-21). In his second epistle, John warned against the deceptive teachings that undermined the incarnation and deity of Christ (2 John 9-11).
An Introduction to Jude
In the early AD 60s, the Epistle of Jude emerged as a powerful voice alongside the urgent warnings found in the Epistles of James and Peter. Jude, like his fellow apostles, recognized the imminent threat posed by a group of individuals known as the "Biryonim" - the Sons of Destruction.2 These boorish characters (decribed for us in 2 Peter 2:10-22) infiltrated the Jewish churches, and Jude's letter reiterates what Peter said to the churches of Asia (Jude 3-24), proclaiming that the Lord would soon come with His holy ones to execute judgment against them (Jude 14-15). He exposed the true nature of these ungodly individuals, characterizing them as murmurers, complainers, and boasters (Jude 16), the very same mockers that Peter had warned about (Jude 18; cf. 2 Pet. 3:3).
Jude's scathing critique of the Biryonim reveals the extent to which these Sons of Destruction had corrupted the Jewish churches. They crept in secretly, ungodly men who turned the grace of God into a license to lust. They slid into atheism, denying not only God the Father but also our Lord Jesus Christ. These filthy dreamers defiled their own flesh, despised government, and spoke evil of dignitaries. They spoke evil of things they could not understand, and in the very things they knew naturally, they sullied themselves.
The Biryonim followed in the way of Cain, who hated his brother's acceptable offerings to God but not his own. They ran greedily after the error of Balaam, taking rewards to harm Christians, and they perished in the contradictions of Core, who challenged the right to priesthood of Moses and Aaron and were swallowed alive by the earth. They were reefs in the Christian feasts of charity, dangerously sharp objects that posed dangers to unsuspecting ships on the sea, feeding themselves shamelessly. Jude describes them as clouds without water, driven by winds, and trees whose fruit withers without fruit, indicating that they were barren fig trees who, by that season, ought to have been full of fruits. He declares that they are twice dead and plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, and wandering stars to whom is prepared the blackness of darkness forever.
These grave and vivid descriptions underscore the severity of the situation and the urgent need for the Church to take action against the Biryonim. Jude's epistle serves as a powerful warning, equipping the faithful with the knowledge and discernment needed to resist the destructive influence of these false prophets and sophists. His call to remain steadfast in the faith (Jude 20-21) provided the early Church with the necessary tools to navigate the challenges of this tumultuous period, bearing witness to the very real and urgent situation faced by the first-century Christians.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Catholic Epistles served as a divine "red alert," urgently warning of the imminent return of Christ and the cataclysmic events that would follow. The destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem, the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, and the ultimate demise of the Second Jewish Commonwealth were all foreshadowed in these inspired writings. The apostles' message was clear: the time was short, and the Church needed to be vigilant and prepared. In hindsight, we can marvel at the astonishing fulfillment of their words and the unlikely triumph of Christianity in the face of such overwhelming opposition. The Catholic Epistles stand as a timeless reminder of God's faithfulness and the importance of heeding His warnings, as we live our Christian lives in obedience to his holy will and anticipate our own entrance into his everlasting glory.
Notes
1 https://www.christian-history.org/death-of-james.html
2 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2808825/jewish/Jewish-Disunity.htm
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