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Choices: Two very different takes on prophecy.
By Neil Earle
In the earlier teaching of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), few parts of the Bible received more attention than the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew's Gospel.
This prophetic declaration by Jesus Christ from the Mount of Olives, as reported by his disciple, Matthew, was viewed by many as a keystone of futuristic prophecy. This is still the view of a certain school of prophetic teachings. WCG teachers and ministers (including the writer) often drew tight comparisons between the opening statements of Matthew 24 and the Book of Revelation's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Revelation 6:1-11). This interpretative strategy correlated false teachers, warfare, famines, pestilences and earthquakes. This, many still claim, is the real message of Matthew 24: real-life, specific events just ahead of us that will usher in the visible, bodily return of Jesus Christ, commonly known as the Second Coming or Parousia.
In other words, it is claimed, Matthew 24 gives an overall forecast of signs to look for before the Lord's dramatic and visible return. After all, had not the disciples asked him straightforwardly: "Tell us, when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" (Matthew 24:3).
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This article takes a brief, overview that takes a second look to understand why WCG has backed off some of these traditional claims. The seemingly simple straightforward reading of the text which sees Jesus as issuing a series of chronological signs that will precede his dramatic Second Coming is challenged slightly by Matthew 24:8. This verse makes a subtle break in the narrative flow. Jesus interjects here that these signs are not final and cataclysmic but the beginning of troubles. This pause between verse 7 and 9 has allowed more careful students of Matthew 24 to follow the precedent of breaking this chapter into several blocks of material.
After all, Jesus words here are reported by Matthew many years later. Like all the Gospel writers, he arranges the inspired material before him with a purpose in view. Matthew's pattern is to group teaching together for easier comprehension. Thus his is sometimes called the Teacher's Gospel. For example, in Matthew 13 he groups all the Parables together in one chapter. He clusters the ethical teachings of Jesus (the Sermon on the Mount) into three neat chapters (5, 6,and 7) whereas Mark and Luke tend to scatter their material. Luke's take on Jesus' ethical teaching is sometimes nicknamed the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17 and following).
Each Gospel writer had different ends in view. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they arranged their collections of inspired stories, healing accounts, ethical teaching, wisdom sayings and prophecies together like a string of precious pearls on a string. The Holy Spirit did this for particular reasons that are not difficult to discern (see John 20:31).
Now notice the careful order and structure behind Matthew 24, something usually omitted by fast-talking popular preachers on prophecy:
Two points: First, it is clear that Matthew 24 continues on to include Matthew 25. In Matthew's sequence the chapter flow leads to a direct personal application to the kind of lives Christians should be living as they wait for their Master's return.
Secondly, the fact that this prophecy can be grouped so naturally into sections shows that it is more wonderfully complex than might be first supposed. In fact, to take a closer second look at Matthew 24 (and Matthew 25) is to notice that Jesus places as much stress on the state and condition of the church and the disciples as much as anything. There is a real concern here for the church as much as current events. This is not always taught today. This complexity may be a reason why every "expert" on prophecy has flubbed up when trying to predict the Second Coming of Christ. The batting average across the centuries is .000 – no-one has ever got it right!
There is indeed much more going on in Matthew 24 than at first meets the eye. It will take the rest of this article to barely scratch the surface.
Ready?
After his reflective break/commentary in verse 8, Jesus zeroed in on the church, specifically the early disciples. This is the section Matthew 24: 9-14. "You'll be persecuted, killed, and betrayed," Jesus warned. "Hang in there; many will not. This Gospel of the Kingdom will go out to the whole world. Then the end will come."
These are familiar words to many of us.
Did these dire warnings occur? Absolutely. James of Zebedee died early in church history (Acts 12:1). Paul's persecutions are legendary. Peter exhorted his followers to stand firm, as did Jude and John. But did the Gospel go out to all the world in the first century? Careful here. Remember that Biblical writers liked to speak in wide, sweeping terms (Romans 11:33-36). But, yes, Paul clearly taught that the Gospel was preached to the world: "But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."...As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" (Romans 10:18, 15).
Paul himself brought the good news from Jerusalem to Rome and planned to reach Spain (Romans 15:24). Peter was active in the Black Sea area and Babylon, in modern Iraq (1 Peter 5:13). The Ethiopian eunuch spread the word to Africa (Acts 8:39), and so on.
But the end that prophecy preachers talk about did not come in the year 95 or 98 or 99 AD. What "end" did Jesus have in mind? The next section shows us very clearly.
Matthew 24:15-25 is a block of material that clearly addresses the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70A.D. Jesus cites the famous Daniel prophecy of the Abomination of Desolation, an event Orthodox Jews know from Hannukah, a festival commemorating the liberation and cleansing of the Temple in the 160's B.C. after its violation (Daniel 11:31). This strange Abomination/Desolation phrase had the force back then of Hiroshima or Nagasaki to Jewish hearers. Jesus advises his hearers to get out of Jerusalem when a repetition of these events draws near. Total extinction of the city was in the offing. This event fell upon the Jews at the hands of the Roman general, Titus. The slaughter was incredible even by ancient standards. The Temple was razed and the Romans leveled the Temple Mount.
Prophets commonly used hyperbolic speech to give force to their words. It was one of the tools of the trade, but here Jesus was not exaggerating by much when he said it would be a time unlike any other. The Jewish writer Josephus describes the people's suffering at this time and Eusebius, the Christian bishop of Caesarea (c. 325 A.D.), recorded how the Christians at Jerusalem did evacuate before Titus arrived. Eusebius also mentions the strange and eerie prophets and holy men who arose before 70 A.D. even to the point of strange signs in the heavens such as a star shaped like a sword hovering over the city. Interestingly, Eusebius and the early Christian church saw all this as fulfillment of Jesus words in Matthew 24 (Ecclesiastical History, Chapter VII, VIII).
It was the "end" all right – almost the end of Judaism and the end of Jewish control of Jerusalem for almost 1900 years. Keep that in mind.
The next block of material, Matthew 24:26-28, is a further reference to deception, very rife in the days before the fall of the Second Temple. Josephus records that the Zealots, who led the revolt against Rome, stirred people to holy fervor that the Messiah would not let the Temple fall. But they were wrong. The Messiah, Jesus, had already appeared to prophetically weep over the city, knowing its fate (Luke 19:41-44). Next follows some of the most misunderstood sections of Matthew 24, the heavenly signs.
Matthew 24:29 paints a picture of a darkened sun and moon, stars falling from heaven and even the astral bodies wandering from their orbits. Though many interpreters have rushed in to proclaim these as necessarily future events, Matthew's emphasis is clearly for the time he has just described above: "immediately after the distress (tribulation in the AV) of these days." Matthew 24:34 clearly alludes to "this generation." But when did stars fall from heaven in the First Century generation? Answer: never. Here is where a better knowledge of how Biblical prophets spoke, wrote and did their work is invaluable.
In Matthew 24:29 Jesus the Prophet is citing such predecessors as Ezekiel 32:7, Joel 2:10, Amos 8:9 and others. R. T. France has some pertinent remarks at this point:
"While such language may be taken as foreshadowing some final cosmic disintegration, its immediate reference is to the fall of political powers. Similar language is used elsewhere of God's judgment within history on cities and nations. If such colorful language is appropriate to the fall of pagan nations such as Babylon, it is surely still more suitable for the destruction of Jerusalem, with all the momentous implications that must have for the status and destiny of God's people" (Matthew: Tyndale Commentary, pages 343-344).
Today we are well familiar with special effects visual representations in the movies from Star Wars to Spider Man. In a time before movies, prophets used excited, colorful, over-the-top words and images to make a point and to hold their audiences attention. Hyped-up language was their stock in trade (Psalm 6:6). R. T. France and other commentators urge Bible readers to watch for a specialized style of writing known as "apocalyptic." As he says: "Verses 29-31 consist of a collage of Old Testament apocalyptic language which to modern ears sounds like a description of 'the close of the age' (i.e. the second part of the question in verse 3). Yet the events so described are explicitly dated within 'this generation' (Matthew, page 343).
There is a clear need, then, to listen with one ear fixed on the Old Testament prophets when reading Matthew 24:30-31. A close and careful rereading yields some unexpected surprises.
The vivid word picture of "the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky" has been widely touted as the clearest possible evidence for reading Matthew 24 as an end-time prophecy for the days ahead of us. Yet N. T. Wright and other New Testament experts have consistently maintained that the passage says no such thing. The reference in Matthew 24:30 is from Daniel 7:13-14. What is clearly portrayed there is not the Son of Man returning to earth in fiery judgment. Rather it is the Son of Man receiving his final vindication from the Ancient of Days. The scene is heaven, not the earth. Professor T. W. Manson spoke to this view most forcefully: "It cannot be too strongly emphasized that what Daniel portrays is not a divine [figure] coming down from heaven, to bring deliverance, but a human figure going up to heaven to receive it" (John A. T. Robinson, Jesus and His Coming, page 45). This is talking about what Christian tradition commemorates as Christ's Ascension (Ephesians 1:15-22). Jesus affirmed his identity to the High Priest in these very terms: "You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62).
They knew what he meant and what he was claiming! Right then and there!
Thus Matthew 24:30 is speaking more of the return of Jesus to his Father after his resurrection to "receive a kingdom" (Luke 19:12, A.V.), a coming to God rather than a coming to earth!
From heaven, at the right hand of God, Jesus directs his multiracial, multiethnic church. This makes sense of the colorful but enigmatic "gathering of the elect from the four winds" (Matthew 24:31). R. T. France puts it nicely, seeing through the symbolism: "The Son of man's people are no longer merely the members of the nations but a chosen remnant, drawn from all corners of the earth. The reference is to the worldwide growth of the church which is [the consequence] of the ending of Israel's special status, symbolized in the destruction of the temple (page 345).
Once again, the vision on the mount has taken us back to the First Century Church, the far-seeing words of Jesus on the Mount of Olives, the end of the Temple system, and the vital beginning of the church as the primary agent of God's plan to reconcile all nations.
Matthew 24, in other words, when stripped of much of its symbolism and deft Old Testament allusions, meshes with one of Paul's central themes: the church as the carrier of God's promises to all the nations. This seems a much safer, sounder, broader and wider application of this marvelous vision on the Mount than is usually extant today. No matter how many times we read the text, we find so much to excite our admiration and awe. Jesus Christ has come, is coming to his church through the Holy Spirit and will come in visible power and glory some day in the future. Even so, come Lord Jesus.