Matthew 24 and the Second Coming

By Neil Earle

Wailing Wall – last remnant of First Century Temple of Jesus' day.

Many of my friends tell me that the subject of prophetic speculation is bubbling up across many churches. In spite of the follies of date-setting (see box) some are still at it.

Prophecy and Date-setting

Jesus was quizzed about his Return on two occasions. In spite of his clear warning in Matthew 24: 36, people have not listened.

In 172 Bishop Montanus said the New Jerusalem would soon descend in Turkey.

Tertullian of Carthage (160-22) said the world was waiting for a mighty impending shock that would signal the return of Christ.

As 1000AD neared, in 998 an earthquake wracked central Germany; ball of flaming fire fell from the sky to wreck Magdeburg cathedral. The German emperor withdrew into a trance and sought repentance.

Based on numbers in Daniel 12, people expected the end in both 1260 and 1335 AD.

On April 5, 1534 radical German preachers expected the end of the world. Inspired, they attacked a Catholic force and were killed.

Martin Luther expected the Return (Parousia) in 1530: “All is fulfilled. The Roman Empire is at an end, the Turk has reached his highest point, and the world is cracking on every side.”

Three years later he hammered a teacher for date-setting 19 October 1533 at 8AM.

William Miller sees the 2300 days (Daniel 8:13) and sets 1843, later October 22, 1844.

February 1934 Plain Truth: “we may be absolutely certain that we are in, and for about three years have been passing through the great tribulation.”

Hal Lindsey (1970): “within forty years or so” after Israel’s birth in 1948 all the end-time prophecies will be fulfilled.

John Hagee in 2006, “The war of Ezekiel 38-39 could begin before this book gets published.”

Matthew 24:36 stands vindicated.

As usual Matthew 24 is cited as giving an ironclad step-by-step 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).

Are these warnings against false teachers, warfare, famines, pestilences and earthquakes as the real message of Matthew 24 – are these specific events just ahead of us that will usher in the visible, bodily return of Jesus Christ? Or was he referring to other things?

“Travel Advisories”

Consider this – had not Jesus been very leery of giving signs? You can see that in Matthew 16:1-5. It is clear in rereading Matthew 24 that he is as much steering his disciples off the date-setting obsession as anything else.

Keeping two scriptures in view like travel advisories will help us as we set out reading this truly marvelous prophecy – and it is a prophecy. No doubt about that. Matthew 24:36 says no man knows the day nor hour of Jesus’ return and Matthew 24:3 says This generation will not pass till all these things be fulfilled. An outline may help. Matthew’s is the most carefully arranged Gospel and this chapter is no exception:

Two more 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.

Southern Wall – this was built in the 1500s by a Muslim leader.

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. Jesus places as much stress on the state and condition of the church and his disciples as much as anything. This is not always taught today.

This complexity may be one 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!

So here we go, with these cautions ringing in our ears.

I. Preface questions. It is possible to see three questions being asked here: When will the temple be destroyed? What will be the sign of your coming? When will be the end of the age? The word here is “age” (aionis) not “world” as in the King James. This is a very helpful point.

II. Initial Signs. The seemingly simple straightforward reading of the text which sees Jesus as issuing a series of chronological signs – deceptions, wars, earthquakes – is challenged slightly by Matthew 24:8. This verse makes a break in the narrative flow. Jesus interjects here that these signs are not final and cataclysmic but the beginning of troubles. Earthquakes, wars and famines make up our nightly news. The First Century had them as well. The city of Antioch, where the name “Christian” originated, had earthquakes in 37, 42 and 115 and famines in 46 and 47 AD. These things rank as overall conditions not specific events. So Jesus is cautious here as he knows how people get obsessed about “signs and wonders.”

III. Pause and Summary. This pause between verse 7 and 9 should make us see how careful we have to be in approaching this chapter. Fools rush in…

IV. Warnings for the Church. 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? Yes. Check Romans 11:33-36. “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).

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? It was the end of that age, of the first period of proclaiming the Gospel. The next section shows us very clearly.

Temple area from Mount Olivet.

V. “The Outrage of Jerusalem.” Matthew 24:15-25 is a block of material that clearly addresses the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.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” or “9/11” to Jewish hearers.

Jesus advises his hearers to get out of Jerusalem when some 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. Jesus had already alluded to this when he wept over Jerusalem in Luke 19:41. There won’t be one stone left on another he said then, showing it’s the destruction of the city he has in view. Check also Luke 23:26-31.

“A time of trouble such as never was or will be?” How about this as indicating some future holocaust? Remember, 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 when over a million may have died. Eusebius, the Christian bishop of Caesarea (c. 325 A.D.), confirmed this and 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 Mathew 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.

Vespasian article – In 1970 diggers found this column dedicated to Emperor Vespasian by son Titus, destroyer of Jerusalem 70 A.D.

VI. More Deception. 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).

Incredibly, even after the total desolation of 70AD, the Jews rebelled again in 132-135 under another false messiah named Bar Kochba. After the Romans leveled the city this time Jews would wander for almost 2000 years.

VII. 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 can still fit the time he has just described: “Immediately after the distress (“tribulation” in the AV) of these days.” Matthew 24: 34 clearly allude to “this generation.” But when did stars fall from heaven in the First Century generation? 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 explains it like this: “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).

Prophets used excited, colorful, “over the top” words and images both 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 see Jesus using this prophetic speech here. “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.

Son of Man/Ancient of Days. 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 teachers maintain 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 adds: “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 Christians call the 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!

Now, back to our chapter. 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 a New Testament central theme: the church as the carrier of God’s promises to all the nations. The key to prophecy is what is happening between Jesus and his church. A new era has arrived. The Church Age, some call it, before the Kingdom arrives.

VIII. Instructions for the Church. This conclusion seems verified by a battery of parables for the church – don’t fall asleep, keep working at the preaching and show mercy to all you meet. After all, Matthew 25 is the conclusion to Matthew 24 though few notice it. Matthew 24 shows Jesus was a prophet. The early church had no doubt of the First Century fulfillment. Let us close with the words of the church historian Eusebius (c. 350): “To these accounts it may be proper to add the predictions of our savior (that) there shall be great distress…All this occurred in this manner in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, according to the predictions of our lord and savior Jesus Christ who by his divine power foresaw all these things as already present at the time…” (Book II, Chapter VII).

Jesus was a prophet. He is coming again as he said to end the mess we have made of things. That is part of the good news of Matthew 24.