Matthew 24:6 - 34
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’[b]
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’[b]
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.[d] 31 And he will send his angelswith a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[e] is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Question:
ReplyDelete- Can we make sense out of any of this?
- It seems like the early signs (through vs 13) have been happening all along. Will we be able to tell when the time has come?
https://bible.org/seriespage/24-signs-end-age says:
ReplyDeleteThe sad fulfillment was to come in a.d. 70, only six years after the temple was completed, when the Roman soldiers deliberately destroyed the temple, prying off stones one by one and casting them into the valley below.
The discourse that follows depends for its interpretation on the question of whether these prophecies should be interpreted literally. Amillenarians, who do not interpret literally any prophecy concerning a future millennial reign of Christ, tend to take the prophecies in this discourse in a general rather than a particular way, and frequently try to find fulfillment in the first century in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem. Postmillenarians, following the idea that the gospel will gradually triumph over the entire world, have to spiritualize it even more, because this discourse indicates a trend toward increasing evil, which Christ will judge at His second coming.
Liberal interpreters consider this discourse as only a summary of apocalyptic ideas current in the first century, presented here as if taught by Christ but probably not actually uttered by Christ.
Premillenarians, accordingly, interpret the discourse as an accurate statement of end-time events, which will lead up to and climax in the second coming of Christ to set up His millennial kingdom on the earth.
Some variations, however, may also be observed in pre-millennial interpretation. Those who believe that the rapture, or translation of the church, occurs before the time of trouble at the end of the age usually do not believe that the rapture is in view at all in this discourse, as the rapture was first introduced in John 14:1-3, the night before Jesus was crucified, sometime after the Olivet discourse. Those accepting the posttribulational view, that the rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ occur at the same time, tend to ignore the details of this discourse in the same fashion as the amillenarians do.
Expositors have taken various approaches to the introductory remarks of Christ. G. Campbell Morgan, for instance, regards the whole section of Matthew 24:4-22 as already fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem.
https://bible.org/seriespage/24-signs-end-age (continued):
ReplyDeleteBoth Morgan and Plummer ignore the identification of the “great tribulation” in Matthew 24:15, 21 as a specific future period of time, and also ignore the details of the prophecy, not even attempting an exegesis of most of the verses. Accordingly, if the interpreter of this section wants to take the prophecies literally and find a reasonable explanation of the predictions, he must limit the introductory section to Matthew 24:4-14. While variations in interpretation occur, H. A. Ironside expresses a plausible view that verses 4-8 give general characteristics of the age, and that verses 9-14 emphasize the particular signs of the end of the age.
Other premillennial interpreters, however, prefer to take Matthew 24:4-14 as a unit, describing the general characteristics of the age leading up to the end, while at the same time recognizing that the prediction of the difficulties, which will characterize the entire period betweenthe first and second coming of Christ, are fulfilled in an intensified form as the age moves on to its conclusion. If Matthew 24:4-14 deals with general signs, then verses 15-26 may be considered as specific signs. The second coming of Christ is revealed in verses 27-31, which should be compared with the more detailed prophecy of Revelation 19:11-21.
In Matthew 24:4-14, at least nine major characteristics of this general period are described. These characteristics may be itemized as follows: (1) false Christs, 24:4-5; (2) wars and rumors of wars, 24:6-7; (3) famines, 24:7; (4) pestilence, 24:7; (5) earthquakes, 24:7; (6) many martyrs, 24:8-10; (7) false prophets, 24:11; (8) increasing evil and loss of fervent love, 24:12; and (9) worldwide preaching of the gospel of the kingdom, 24:13-14.
In general, these signs have been at least partially fulfilled in the present age and have characterized the period between the first and second coming of Christ. They should be understood as general signs rather than specific signs that the end is near. As stated in verse 8, these are the beginning rather than the end of the sorrows which characterize the close of the age.
These signs, however, by their very characteristics and because they have occurred throughout the present age, do not constitute a direct answer to the question of “the sign” of the coming of the Lord.
Sign of the Great Tribulation, 24:15-25
This portion of the Olivet discourse is crucial to understanding what Christ reveals about the end of the age. The tendency to explain away this section or ignore it constitutes the major difficulty in the interpretation of the Olivet discourse.
(There's a lot more interesting stuff there describing the author's pre-millennial point of view. My opinion is he is reading more into it than he should).
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/standing-with-israel/49898-the-end-of-the-age-are-we-simply-misunderstanding-matthew-24 says:
ReplyDeleteIn the first verses of Matthew chapter 24, Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. We shouldn't be surprised that in the next verses the disciples ask what we all want to know. They ask when the destruction will happen and what will be the sign that the end of the age has arrived. We must realize that the disciples are not asking one question but two.
The destruction of the temple and the end of the age are two separate events. This is important for them to know because it would be easy for a first-century Jew to watch the temple being completely destroyed and think well this must be the end of the world.
Multitudes of well-meaning Christians have done that very thing. They have taken two events and lumped them into one future event. Not so. The destruction of the temple happened in 70 AD, but the end of the age has still not come.
The key to understanding Matthew 24 is to know when Jesus is talking about the temple and when he is referring to the end of the age. I personally believe that most of the chapter is about the temple's destruction. The destruction of the temple was the end of an age for them.
There has never been a temple since in Jerusalem. Still, I give way to the many hints Jesus gives as to how things will go for the Jews in the days ahead of them.
The first thing to learn from Matthew 24 is not so much what the signs are but what they are not. Modern predictors of the end of the world are notorious users of disasters and catastrophes as signs. Their evidence of the near end are the numerous wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes and famines. We the people have been programmed well by a world in chaos to have faith in those signs. Those without the spirit of God can easily develop a pessimistic outlook with the expectation that the world as we know it will eventually go down the drain.
The problem with the "end is near" disaster mentality is that it is not biblical and is exactly the opposite of what Jesus said. Yes, Jesus did predict wars, earthquakes and famines. However his predictions of chaos were followed by a clear message to all that the end is not yet.
In other words, contrary to much of the preaching today, the end doesn't come with disaster and chaos. In fact, as much as some predict the end of the world through these events, Jesus is saying just the opposite. The "signs" are not signs at all of the end. If they are signs, then they are signs that the world is still spinning. As long as there are catastrophes, the world is still alive and kicking.
In fact, rather than say these moments of disaster are the end, Jesus actually calls them the beginning. That's right—from a Jewish perspective—these signs of wars and nation rising against each other are only signs of the beginning and not the end.
The beginning of what? They are signs that birth pains have begun. Birth pains are not fun, but they don't bring death, they bring life. If we have birth pains, then we should expect a birth. Why does Jesus say this is just the beginning of the pain? It is just the beginning because the next pain will be the disciples experiencing persecution and trouble.
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/standing-with-israel/49898-the-end-of-the-age-are-we-simply-misunderstanding-matthew-24 (continued):
ReplyDeleteI would like to suggest the following as a possible idea. What if the pains of birth continue for centuries? What if the birth of Israel in 1948 is what this has been all about? What if years of persecution and even the holocaust were but part of the painful birthing of a nation?
What if the time from the temple's destruction in 70 AD to the time of the birth of Israel in 1948 was one big season of tribulation? Is it possible that the days when Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles, mentioned in Luke's Gospel, was one great big long season of tribulation that ended in 1948 with the new Israel?
It just doesn't seem to make sense that God would birth a nation only to turn it over to Satan for more terrible destruction. I know it is a popular idea but that doesn't give it any more credence. Who would birth a nation only to give it away?
I think for me, the wisest train of thought would be to stick with the general expectation of most first century Jews. The bottom line is that at the end of this long journey was the expectation of restoration. I don't need a stopwatch or a clock to measure how slow or how fast it moving. I don't look around at the circumstances of the world to decide if it is happening. For me, this means a restoration of what it means to be human while still being human in a mortal body.
I am not sure what all that entails. I do know it would mean having a people that love God with all of their heart, extremely monotheistic with no other gods. It would mean that there would be a people on the earth totally submitted to God. There would be nothing competing for the hearts of these people.
To make the restoration complete, this group would have to include both Jews and non-Jews like one brand new race of people set apart for God's use only on this earth. I like to think of this group of people pushing the limits of love for God so far that they cannot go any farther while still on this earth in a natural body.
In order for any more restoration to take place, Jesus would have to appear and raise the dead and turn mortality into immortality. These people have advanced as far as is humanly possible while still strapped to a natural body. These never before seen kind of people will preach and declare the kingdom of God to every tribe, tongue and nation, and then the end will come.
For more articles on this topic, see http://hartmangroupdevotions.blogspot.com/2016/05/matthew-241-35-jesus-left-temple-and.html#comment-form
ReplyDeleteMy 2 cents on making sense of it all:
ReplyDeleteAmillennials believe that all these signs have happened already.
Many pre-millennials believe that this is all about a few years before Jesus comes back.
It seems that a lot of people believe that the first 25 verses are about AD 70 and the next are about right before Jesus comes back.
Others believe it is about both (prophesies that have multiple fulfillments).
This all reminds me of the views of what and who the Messiah would be back in Jesus day. We know that they got it wrong, and that the Messiah ended up being something very different from what they expected. One group who got it wrong was the Pharisees - who were much more studied in scripture than the vast majority of us.
If the Pharisees got it so wrong before the fact, how can we expect to get it right? In retrospect, it's pretty plain and clear what the prophesies about the Messiah were about. We understand them now.
I think it will be the same with end-time prophecies. It will be pretty clear after the fact, but right now, we almost certainly got it wrong.
So, why if Jesus telling us this when we are just going to make up superstitions about it? So that when it does happen, we will have a chance to heed His warnings. It looks like it helped the Christians in 70 A.D. pretty well (if the reports are true that the Christians escaped the destruction).
If things that match these prophesies start happening in our life time, I hope that we will recognize it and act in a manner according to what Jesus is teaching.
In the meantime, we probably don't need to pay to much attention to those who have made a living on confident (wild) speculation.