If Mark 13 were printed alone as a pamphlet—with the names changed—and handed out by goofy cult fanatics on street corners, churchgoers would be horrified by the cruelty, the promised violence and suffering we find in this chapter. Yet, there it is in the Christian Bible, in the first gospel to be written.
In fact, chapter 13 gives us a major clue as to when this gospel was composed. The chapter opens with Jesus leaving the Jerusalem temple with his disciples. They are impressed with the temple complex, but Jesus makes a prediction: “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another: all will be thrown down.” (v. 2)
Indeed, the temple was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE, in the course of a very destructive war. Hence verse 2 would indicate that the gospel’s author knew about this. But, of course, he has his holy hero predict it four decades before the event; after all, that’s the kind of thing holy heroes—no matter the religion—are good at. His disciples ask when the temple will be destroyed, and it’s clear that the author thought the war was a sign of the end times:
“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” (vv.7-8)
The author’s agenda to promote the Jesus-cult is also obvious:
“When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you who speak but the Holy Spirit. Sibling will betray sibling to death and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (vv. 11-13)
There will be a sign that these grim events are about to happen: “When you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains…” (v. 14) Let the reader understand is probably a coded message for those in the cult, but the author had no idea that this gospel would be read hundreds of years later—because he was sure the cult was living in the end times. The desolating sacrilege is a reference to Daniel 11:31, “And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.” The gospel authors were fond of finding verses in the Old Testament that reinforced their beliefs about Jesus.
Fleeing to the mountains was recommended, but:
“Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that it will not be in winter. For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved, but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days.” (vv. 17-20)
Yes, this is goofy cult fanaticism—and yet so many Christian fundamentalists still take it seriously today. The claim of Jesus at his trial—Mark 14:62—that those present at his trial will see him coming on the clouds also reflects this deranged mentality. Here in Mark 13 we find this Jesus-script:
“But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give us light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels and gather the elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” (vv. 24-27) I suppose the cult would derive only comfort from this additional Jesus-script: “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (vv. 30-31)
The chapter ends with a warning to remain alert:
“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come…And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” (vv. 32, 33 & 37)
This expectation that Jesus would return soon derives, we suspect, from the urgent theology we find in the letters of the apostle Paul, who wrote well before the gospels were created. Paul “knew” about Jesus only through his hallucinations—he claimed they were revelations from heavenly Jesus himself—and Paul was convinced that the arrival of Jesus from the sky would happen any day now. In what scholars suspect is the earliest New Testament document, 1 Thessalonians, Paul assured his readers that…
“…the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.” (4:16-17)
Robert Conner summarized the situation pretty well in his 2022 book, The Jesus Cult: 2000 years of the Last Days: “Paul’s predictions failed. The blameless dead, sexually unblemished, are all still in the ground. The hollow promises of the Christian prophets in Paul’s churches were false and would be disproved again and again, generation after generation, century after century.” (p. 11)
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes:
· Guessing About God (2023)
· Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available.
· Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.
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