When I was a child, I had two great and abiding fears: aliens and Armageddon. While I am no longer afraid of aliens, I am still somewhat afraid of Armageddon. Not the event itself, mind you, but the amount of stress and importance people place in figures and signs and times. Eschatology, or the study of the end of the world, should be filled with hope and good for Christians, yet it can be unnecessarily dividing. Today, we will begin to wade into these waters, as Matthew and Jesus lead us. Yet first, Jesus speaks of the fall of the Temple and the crushing of Jerusalem.
