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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2024 12:46:49 GMT -5
A Study of Biblical Eschatology
by G. I. Williamson
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface - ............................................................................................. 1
Introduction - ..................................................................................... 3
Questions:................................................................................ 4
I THE ESCHATOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT .............. 7
From Creation to the Fall............................................................. 7
From the Fall to the Flood ........................................................... 8
From the Flood to the Tower of Babel......................................... 8
The Patriarchal Era ...................................................................... 9
The National Israel Era .............................................................. 10
The Prophesies of Daniel ........................................................... 14
Questions:.............................................................................. 16
The Final Crisis for National Israel ........................................... 16
Questions:.............................................................................. 22
II THE ESCHATOLOGY OF MATTHEW, MARK,
LUKE......................................................................................... 25
Introduction................................................................................ 25
Questions:.............................................................................. 28
Part 1 - The Immediate Context................................................. 28
Questions:.............................................................................. 31
Part 2 - "All These Things” ........................................................ 32
Questions:.............................................................................. 37
Part 3 - Commonly Misunderstood Items.................................. 38
Questions: .............................................................................. 42
Part 4 - The Most Difficult Points.............................................. 43
Questions:.............................................................................. 54
III THE THESSALONIAN LETTERS .......................................... 57
Part 1 - The Differing Views ..................................................... 59
Questions:.............................................................................. 61
Part 2 - The Main Points............................................................ 62
The Rebellion........................................................................ 63
The Man of Lawlessness....................................................... 64
The Restrainer....................................................................... 66
The Relationship ........................................................................ 67
A Study of Biblical Eschatology
ii
Questions:.............................................................................. 68
IV THE ANTICHRIST................................................................... 71
Questions............................................................................... 75
V THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST................................ 77
Introduction................................................................................ 77
Questions:.............................................................................. 80
The Outline of the Book of Revelation...................................... 80
Part 1 - The Things That Are (Rev. 2 – 3) ................................. 82
Part 2 - The Things That Soon Will Be (Rev. 4 - 20)................ 84
The Seven Seals (Rev. 4)...................................................... 86
Revelation 10 ........................................................................... 109
Revelation 11 ........................................................................... 113
Revelation 12 ........................................................................... 118
Revelation 13 ........................................................................... 119
Revelation 14 ........................................................................... 123
Revelation 15-16...................................................................... 124
Revelation 17-18...................................................................... 125
Revelation 18-19...................................................................... 132
Revelation 20 ........................................................................... 136
Revelation 21-22...................................................................... 137
Conclusion ............................................................................... 141
Questions:............................................................................ 143
VI CONFIRMATION IN OTHER SCRIPTURES....................... 144
Some of the Parables of Jesus.................................................. 144
Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 ..................................... 144
Peter’s warning in his second Epistle 3:3-4 ............................. 145
Jude’s warning in verses 17 and 18 ......................................... 145
We must learn to distinguish.................................................... 146
Our Reformation Fathers ......................................................... 146
Questions:............................................................................ 147
Appendix 1 – The Synoptic Gospel Accounts......................... 148
Appendix 2 – A Diagram of the View of this Study................ 155
Appendix 3 – Many Views Attempt Too Much ...................... 156
Preface
Is there a significant difference between our view of the Bible, today,
and that of the great Reformers of the 16th century? I believe there is. I do not think this is intentional. But I do think it is a fact. Our fathers said
“All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all: yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some
place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them”
I also believe that two of those doctrines “which are necessary to be known, believed and observed” are the doctrines of creation and consummation. It is necessary to know how we had our beginning. And it is also necessary to know what is planned by God for us in the future. And it is my contention that both of these (because they “are
necessary to be known”) have been clearly revealed in Scripture. And by this I mean revealed in such a clear way that even the non-scholars can understand what God says about them.
It is this conviction that has led the author to write this study. It is not a big study. But it does not need to be big. There are already hundreds of ‘big books’ about the future and just look at the confusion. There is nothing plain and simple about most of them and they leave the non-scholarly with one basic impression. It is this: ‘ordinary people like me are simply not competent to reach any firm conclusions about eschatology. It is too
difficult. It is another of those things (like the doctrine of creation) where we will have to defer to the experts.’ In other words much of the church today is not unlike the way it was at the time of the Reformation when
the people who were not expected to read and understand the Bible for themselves, but were supposed to defer to the experts. So it is the conviction of the writer of this study that what we need, today, is the very same
thing that was needed in the 16th century. We need to encourage people
to seriously study the text of the Bible themselves. And then to have the courage to be willing to test the experts.
1 Westminster Confession of Faith 1:7
See 1 John 4:1 and Acts 17:11
A Study of Biblical Eschatology
The apostle John wrote that this is exactly what we are supposed to do. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”This is possible because God can hide from the wise and prudent what he reveals to babes.
John says believers “have been anointed by the Holy One” with the result that they “know all things”
(Greek: oidate panta). The Greek language has different words for ‘knowing’ and ‘knowledge.’ This term means close to what we mean when we speak of ability to discern things. As a pastor for some 60 years
I can testify that this is true. Some of God’s seasoned saints have a keen sense of discernment. They can ‘see’ through many things that dazzle and confuse other people. So they can and do test the experts even though they do not know Hebrew and Greek, and haven’t been to Yale or Harvard.
I wrote this book, then, for one reason. It is because I do not believe that God gave us a difficult maze or labyrinth—a complicated irregular network of scripture passages in which it is difficult to find one’s way
and is almost impossible to decipher. No, but in a certain real sense the word of God is quite simple! “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” or “Who will descend into the abyss?” You do not have to be an expert in astronomy, or a deep-sea explorer to have a right view of the future. You simply need to study the text — paying close attention to every word — because “the word is near you” (Rom. 10:8)
because God has spoken his truth to us in our human language. And it is my hope that this small book will help you to ‘see’ for yourself that this is true.
3
1 John 4:1
4 Matthew 11:25
5
1 John 2:20
6 Romans 10:6-7
3
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this study is a modest one. It is to set forth some of the certainties of Biblical eschatology. It is our conviction that no one has all the answers to questions about the future. It is also our conviction
that the history of the Christian Church teaches us to be modest in our claims, and tentative in many details of doctrine of the future. Yet, having said this, it is also our conviction that the main things we need to know about the future are clearly revealed in the Holy Scriptures. The material that we present in this study is intended to demonstrate this fact. We begin, then, by clearly stating the following time-tested principles of sound Bible interpretation that we will follow in this study.
[1] We begin with the things that are more clear, and then work at the problem of understanding the things that are less clear. For example: we do not begin with the book of Revelation, and then — after we interpret it — go back and impose our interpretation on the Gospels and the Epistles. No, we begin with what the Gospels say about future
things, and then go on to more difficult passages in the book of Revelation.
[2] The only infallible interpreter of the Bible is the Bible itself, and the Bible is sufficient. There are those, for instance, who say that there are things in the Bible — concerning the future — that cannot be understood today because we do not have the resources that we need to be able to understanding them. We believe this is incorrect. It —in effect
— denies the sufficiency of the Bible. But the truth is that our problems are not due to some imagined deficiency in the Bible. No, the source of the problem is rather in us — we do not study the Bible with sufficient diligence and care.
[3] The Westminster Confession of Faith is correct when it says “the true and full sense of any Scripture. . .is not manifold but one. . .”It is often assumed, for example, that there is such a thing as a double (or even a triple) fulfillment of specific prophecies in the Bible. But in this study we will present the evidence that will show why we cannot agree with this assumption. It is our conviction that Bible prophecies are quite specific, and that they refer to singular events. This does not mean that there can be no application of the truth contained in a specific
prophecy to other times, places and events. There are many things spoken of in the Bible that can only happen once — for example, the world-wide flood. To expect another world-wide flood is wrong, yet this event does provide many lessons — and teaching principles — which can rightly be applied to people throughout subsequent history. The apostle Peter does this very thing when he compares the folly of sinners at the time of the world-wide flood with the folly of those who refuse to believe in the coming day of destruction and judgment.
But what this shows us is that the application of abiding principles of truth taught through this event is by way of analogy, and not by double fulfillment.
[4] The Reformers were right when they taught the perspicuity of Scripture. By this term they meant that the Bible was written clearly enough to be understood by God’s ‘little’ people. This is what perspicuity means: we can understand what the text of the Bible means by reading it ourselves, if we make good use of things that God himself has provided to enable us to do so. These are things such as the historic creeds of the church, a good dictionary, an exhaustive concordance, and the use of the kind of commentaries that men such as John Calvin wrote
comparing scripture with scripture in order to clearly understand the text of the Bible.
[5] It is therefore our conviction that the logical place to begin, in developing a correct view of the future, is the Book of Genesis. In the book of Acts we read of one Jewish Synagogue existing in the Apostolic age that accepted the teaching of the apostle Paul. The people of the Berean Synagogue accepted his teaching because they found — by
a careful study of the text of the Old Testament — that his teaching was in full accord with those inspired Scriptures.
So we begin this study with a summary of the eschatological teaching of the Old Testament.
After this we will deal with material found in Matthew 23-25 (and parallel passages in Mark and Luke), and then we will go on to other New Testament material that deals further with the same subject.
Questions:
1. How many principles of Bible interpretation, quoted in the introduction, can you restate from memory?
2 Peter 3:5-7
8 Acts 17:11
2. Why is it unwise to try to begin to develop a doctrine of last things by starting in the book of Revelation?
3. How would you prove that God’s written word was intended to be read and understood by other than scholars?
4. Name some prophetic predictions that cannot possibly have a double fulfillment.
5. Does the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture mean that it is easy to understand the Bible? (Can a thing be clear and yet difficult at the same time?)
6. Give at least one good reason for starting the study of Eschatology in the book of Genesis
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2024 12:48:33 GMT -5
Chapter 1
THE ESCHATOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
What is meant by the word eschatology? One dictionary defines eschatology this way: “It is:
(1) a doctrine of the last or final things, especially death, judgment, heaven, and hell;
(2) the branch of theology dealing with these doctrines.” But in this study we will take the word to mean whatever God has revealed concerning things still in the future at the time when God revealed them.
Reliable information about the future is one of the distinguishing marks of the true Christian religion, which is taught in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. No other religion has anything like the amount of information about the future that we find in the Bible. Likewise, no other religion has anything that even begins to compare with the evidence the Christian religion provides in terms of the historical verification of itspredictions.
It is also a fact — contrary to popular misunderstanding — that biblical eschatology is essentially clear and simple. The Bible does not give us a detailed, chronological account of the future, as if it is a kind of history book written before things happen. Neither does it tell us everything that we might like to know. But it does provide information about the main things that are going to happen — all of those things that we need to know
— and that is what matters.
From Creation to the Fall
Eschatology has been a reality, in God’s inspired word, right from the
beginning. God began to reveal his plan for the future right after the human race fell by Adam’s first sin.9
God told Satan there would be conflict Genesis 3:15
A STUDY OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY between his seed and the seed of the woman, and that he (Satan) would be
crushed by her seed [the word seed, here, is masculine singular and was
fulfilled by Jesus as the promised descendant of Eve]. The rest of the Bible
is essentially
(1) the story of the manner in which God prepared for the sending of this promised ‘seed of the woman’ person, through the historical events recorded in the Old Testament, and
(2) then of how God fulfilled that ancient promise in the person and work of his ‘only begotten son,’ our Lord Jesus Christ, as recorded in the New Testament.
From the Fall to the Flood
In preparation for his promised victory over Satan God determined, first of all, to allow the fallen human race to display its true character. This is exactly what we see in the early chapters of the book of Genesis. As the
descendants of Adam multiplied there was an increasing prevalence of moral and spiritual deterioration. As one generation succeeded another and yet another, the world was more and more filled with violence, and
wickedness. Yet in spite of — and in the midst of — this process of degeneration, God gave a wonderful indication of his ultimate intention to bless mankind by his translation of Enoch.12 The fact that Enoch, who was
known as one who walked with God, was taken to heaven by God, must have made a profound impression on the ancients.
Finally, when the wickedness of the human race had manifested itself fully, God sent the world-wide flood. And while the flood was an awesome revelation of God’s wrath against human sin, the preservation of Noah and his family proved that God’s promise remained steadfast.
From the Flood to the Tower of Babel
After the world-wide flood God revealed to Noah a general outline of the future history of mankind, in which he also revealed his intention to show redemptive favor to two of the three major branches of Noah’s posterity.
14 And “although” — by God’s own announced verdict after the flood that, as before — “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his
10 Genesis 6:11
11 Genesis 6:5, 12
12 Genesis 5:21-24
13 Genesis 9:9-11
14 Genesis 9:26,27
A STUDY OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY
youth,”15 he promised that he would never again destroy every living thing
as he had by the flood.
God also acted at that time to impose new restraints on the inherent
wickedness of the human race.
(1) He gave mankind permission to put murderers to death;
16 and
(2) divided the human race into factions by confusing their speech.
17 It is commonly thought that division is a great evil, and sometimes this is indeed the case. And it is certainly a result of evil. But it can also — as in this instance — be a great blessing because it tends to divide Satan’s forces, by bringing it about that one group of his servants works against another. Just imagine how difficult it would be for us Christians today if all of the ungodly forces of the world were united? (It is for our benefit, for example, that there are sharp divisions among the Islamic people!) God instituted division in the first instance
by causing a confusion in language. This resulted in the scattering of the human race over the entire world (Gen. 11:8).18
The Patriarchal Era
After the human race finally did begin to multiply and disperse over the earth, God called Abram19 out of the traditional idolatry of his family line20 in order to establish his covenant of grace in the world
saying “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”21 This promise was repeated and enlarged upon throughout the patriarchal period (the era of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob).22 Especially, as recorded in
Genesis 22:17,18, God made it clear that while his promise was concentrated in Abraham’s ‘seed’ [the word ‘seed’ is singular, meaning one person (cf. Galatians 3:16)] it would nevertheless also embody a multitude of people comparable in number to the grains of sand on the seashore, or of the stars of heaven.
23 Later promises — centering in and revolving around the nation claiming Abrahamic paternity — were never such as to eclipse the grandeur of that original promise.
15 Genesis 8:21
16 Genesis 9:6
17 Genesis 11
18 Genesis 11:8
19 God later changed his name to Abraham.
20 Joshua 24:2
21 Genesis 12:1-3
22 See Gen. 18:18, 22:18, 26:4 etc.
23 Genesis 22:17
Abraham himself prophesied that his descendants would suffer affliction and servitude for about 400 years, and yet emerge from that ordeal as a nation.
24 And the patriarch Jacob — as he was dying — prophesied the special Kingly role which was to emerge from the tribe
of Judah,25 an event that was then still hundreds of years in the future.
The National Israel Era
Then, over three hundreds of years later, God raised up Moses to deliver his people from bondage in Egypt, and to establish them as a nation. Without question, therefore, the nation of Israel was favored by God — for many centuries — more than any other nation.26 Yet even during this early history true believers in the nation of Israel always recognized that their special status was not given to them because they deserved it.27 Even Moses, who was given a place of unparalleled authority over God’s people, did not exalt himself to any kind of supreme or ultimate status, but spoke of a future prophet whose word would have an authority surpassing his own.28
Throughout the entire history of the nation of Israel, inspired prophets
always kept in mind the original promise (that in Abraham’s seed all nations of the earth would be blessed) or, in other words, that the promised Messiah’s dominion would be world-wide in extent.29 So, in spite of Israel’s long-held — and highly privileged — position, it must never be forgotten that there was a constant manifestation of antagonism toward God within that nation. The writings of prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah are full of proof of Israel’s unfaithfulness. And Jesus himself summed up the truth about Israel’s constant tendency to depart from God in his parable of the Wicked Vinedresser.30 In this parable Jesus showed how, again and again, the nation of Israel persecuted the prophets that God had sent to them, and then, in the end, were even ready to kill the son of the owner of their nation. He ended this parable with a warning: “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” And “when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.”31 What this shows is the inescapable fact that the unfaithfulness of the nation of Israel was reaching its climax in that generation. This was further emphasized by
our Lord himself in his lament over Jerusalem. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” he cried, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate.”32
24 Genesis 15:12-14
25 Genesis 49:8-12
26 See especially Deuteronomy 4:1-14
27 Deuteronomy 7:7-8
28 Deuteronomy 18:15-22
29 Psalm 72:8, 11, 17; Isaiah 49:6 etc.
30 Matthew 21:33-44
As the Old Testament period of history drew to a close, then, we see that there was a seemingly insoluble problem! How could God
[1] deal justly with an increasingly apostate people and yet — at the same time —
[2] keep the promise he had made to Abraham (that all nations would be blessed in his seed)? The answer to that seemingly insoluble problem was
[1] the person and work of Jesus Christ and
[2] the emergence of the Christian Church. Jesus commanded his apostles to begin the task of taking the message of salvation to all nations.33 And that message was to the effect that any and all people who repent of their sins and believe in him as the promised Messiah are, by that very fact, “Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”
34 For—as the Apostle Paul put it—“in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of
Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made both one…for through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.”35 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”36 “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation…so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace…Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom
31 Matthew 21:43, 45
32 Matthew 23:37-38.
33 Matthew 28;18-20
34 Galatians 3:29
35 Ephesians 2:13-14, 18.
36 Galatians 3:27-29
A STUDY OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY12you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”37
This astonishing change — termination of the special status of the Jewish people while enhancing the status of the Gentiles — surely ranks as one of the most momentous events in all history. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that it was difficult for people to adjust to this change. It was even difficult for Peter38 and for the other apostles.39 It is also clear that this momentous change was a constant issue that Paul encountered in the
Jewish Synagogues that he visited throughout the Roman Empire. It is no doubt for this reason that he dealt with this issue in his letter to the Romans. In Chapter 11:1 he asks: “Has God cast away his people?” His answer is: “By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.” To many Jews living at that time Paul’s teaching seemed to them to imply the very thing he was careful to deny. But no, he says, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (v. 2). He then goes on to prove that this ‘problem’ which
seemed so strange to them was not really anything new. He cites as proof the fact that when the Northern Kingdom of Israel — as a whole — became idolatrous, yet God reserved 7,000 in the midst of the apostasy who did not bow the knee to Baal.40 Then he says “so too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.”41 In other words, God has never allowed all of the members of his church to fall into unbelief and ungodliness. No, he has always preserved at least a small remnant.
It’s not possible to go into much detail here, but in his Epistle to the Romans the Apostle brings out certain principles that vindicate his claim that God did not go back on his word. For proof he cites two unarguable principles:
(1) The first is the fact that “they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham…”42 In other words, being born a Jew never was enough, in and of itself alone, to guarantee salvation. There always were some descendants of Abraham who were not true believers.
(2) The second principle is therefore the fact that “no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”43 Far more important than being born of
Jewish parents is the new birth which spoken of by Jesus (John 3). If you have that new birth, from above, then you will be saved even though you are not a physical descendant of Abraham.
37 Ephesians 2:14…22.
38 Acts 10:9-16, 28.
39 Acts 1:7-8.
40 1 Kings 19:18
41 Romans 11:5
42 Romans 9:6
A STUDY OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY
13 Old Testament history clearly proves that these two principles have always been evident in God’s dealings with people. The following facts demonstrate this conclusively.
(1) When Abraham was given circumcision as the sign and seal of the covenant it was also given to several hundred men44 in his household none of whom were descendants of Abraham according to the flesh — except for one, Ishmael, who turned out to be an unbeliever.45
(2) Throughout Old Testament history there were some Gentiles who were assimilated into the Jewish Nation, in other
words they became Jews (think of Rahab, Ruth, and the Rechabites).46
(3) The Old Testament history also shows that significant numbers of those who were born Jews (even ten of the twelve tribes, in later Jewish history) were cut out of the covenant nation.
47 These undeniable facts prove that God’s covenant was never based on mere fleshly descent. (From the beginning
having Abrahamic blood in one’s veins was not required for full membership with the covenant people, nor was it a guarantee of continuance in it).
What all this confirms is that God did not go back on any of his promises when he reduced the special status of the nation of Israel, and transformed the remnant out of that nation into an international entity
called the Christian Church. Indeed: this is precisely what was promised from the beginning! As Paul himself put it: “Just as you [Gentiles] were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they [the Jews] too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”48
43 Romans 2:28-29.
44 Genesis 14:14
45 Genesis 17:23
46 Also consider Exodus 12:43-49
47 2 Chronicles 11:13-17, 2 Kings 17:6
48 Romans 11:30-33
In other words even though Israel’s loss of special status was — in and of itself — a momentous event in a negative sense (a great calamity) for them, it was also a momentous event in a positive sense for us,because it ushered in the final period of redemptive-history (in which the
stone of Daniel 2:35 — or the mustard seed of Matthew 13:31,32 — began its course of incredible enlargement in accord with the original promise to Abraham).
This was clearly revealed to Daniel the prophet some 600 years before the first advent of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. In a series of visions that God gave to Daniel the course of world history, until the time of Christ, was unveiled before him. The chart on page 15 shows clearly that the various visions that Daniel received and interpreted, had to do with the four great world Kingdoms that were destined to precede the coming of the promised Messiah.
There are a number of things here that merit comment.
(1)It is clear that God used a variety of visions to cover the same future historical period. He first gave a representation of four great Empires under the figure of a great statue or image of a man. There were four distinct sections visible in this image, the first being the most glorious (represented by the head). The three sections below the head were each less glorious than the one preceding it. Then, later on — in subsequent visions — various characteristics of these same four successive Empires were revealed under the symbolism of various animals.
(2)We learn from this series of diverse visions in the book of Daniel that when God gives a number of different visions we are not to just assume that each vision is meant to indicate something later in time than what was disclosed in a previous vision. The visions contained in the book of Daniel, to a large extent, are meant to give
us more and more information about different aspects of the same historical events of the future.
(3)The third thing which is self-evident is this: the sequence of events revealed in these visions was to culminate in an event of momentous importance. As we see in the first vision, a stone was destined to come down out of heaven and it would bring to nothing and replace the first four kingdoms of men. It would be something far greater than any — and all — of these man-made kingdoms. It was to be the kingdom of God, and it was destined to grow until it
would fill the whole earth.
(4) What should impress us most of all is both the essential simplicity — and continuity — of biblical eschatology. The true God does not change. Later prophesies are therefore in harmony with earlier ones.
The future can only be what God has decreed, and therefore in full accord with his promise to Abraham. In Abraham’s seed — the Lord Jesus Christ — all nations of the earth will be blessed.
(5)It follows, therefore, that biblical eschatology is not — and was never meant to be — so difficult that ordinary believers cannot ‘get it.’ No, but like all the doctrines of our faith, there is perfect harmony between old and new revelations. The new only makes the old clearer than it was in the beginning.
A PARALLEL COMPARISON OF THE PROPHESIES OF DANIEL
Chapter 2 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 11-12
(The vision of a (The vision of the (The vision of the (The prophesy of the (The final vision)
great image) four beasts two beasts 70 weeks [or sevens]
The head of Gold Lion with eagles‘
(Babylon) wings Chest of silver Bear rising higher Ram with 2 horns 70 weeks (or sevens) 3 Kings remaining
(Medo-Persian) on one side last one higher beginning with ‘the go- in Persiaing forth with a word
Belly of brass Leopard with 4 He goat with 1 horn (divided as 7 sevens Great King of Greece
(Greece) wings & 4 heads becoming 4 then 62 sevens, then 4 divisions a final 7
fighting of K. of S. vs Legs of iron & Dreadful beast in last 7 six K. of N. --until Antiochus
toes of iron & with 10 horns accomplishments Epiphanes (the vile one)
clay (Rome) 1) Restrain iniquity
2) Complete sin
Stone become Ancient of days &
3) Cover iniquity Abomination of Desoalation mountain Son of man coming
4) bring in eternal and end of all
fill the earth on the clouds righteousness sacrifices
5) End vision/prophesy
6) Anoint holy of holies
Another common mistake that people make with respect to Biblical
prophecies is their failure to recognize that the same truth can be expressed in various ways. The last 8 chapters of Ezekiel, for example, present visions of an enormous future temple. But it is quite clear that the things pictured under the likeness of a building are not meant to be a literal building. When Ezekiel tells us that God showed him “a structure like a city” (40:2) it should be immediately clear to every reader that he did not see a literal city. As the great Scottish commentator Patrick Fairbairn has demonstrated, what Ezekiel saw was a representation — under Old Testament forms — of the Israel of the future and as, itself, a much more glorious Temple. The New Testament clearly shows that God’s final Temple is not a building made by human hands, and not something made of stone and mortar, but is the Christian Church.
49 The final Israel of God is the totality of his believing people.
50 It is an assembly that no man can number made up of both believing Jews and believing Gentiles.
51 In other words, under an entirely different symbol or figure,
Ezekiel was predicting the very same thing that Daniel predicted — a
vastly expanded Israel of God, made up of people from all the nations of
the world just as God had long before that time promised the patriarch Abraham.
Questions:
1. What did God promise — or predict — right from the beginning?
2. State the two principles, clearly revealed in earlier Bible history, that many Jews failed to understand.
3. State the biblical Acts that prove these principles to be true.
4. In what way are Daniel’s vision of the stone and Ezekiel’s vision of the city and temple alike?
5. Why is it very important to distinguish between the “what” and the “how” of things God has predicted.
6. Which of these was clearly revealed to Old Testament people?
The Final Crisis for National Israel
From the very beginning of God’s prophetic revelation he made it clear that great things were going to happen for the benefit of the whole human race. It may well be that many — perhaps even most — of the people of Israel tended to forget this. It may also be that they concocted their own ideas of just how this great future would come about. It seems clear from the New Testament that the very apostles themselves still clung, to a great extent, to wrong ideas about the future. Even after Jesus had risen from the dead, and had commanded them to go into all the
world to make disciples of the nations, they were still asking: “Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).52 This sounds very much as if they continued to think that fulfillment of God’s
promise to Abraham had to be a kind of triumphant political supremacy for the Jewish nation (like a revival of ‘the good old days’ of Kings David and Solomon). Yet we know from the parables of our Lord that this sort of thing was a mistaken expectation. Did our Lord not say, himself, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world”?53
49 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
50 Galatians 6:16
51 Ephesians 2:19-23 and Revelation 7:1-9
It was at a unique moment in the history of God’s dealings with the nation of Israel, when our Lord spoke clearly to the Jews to challenge — and leave them no excuse for holding on to — misconceptions and false expectations. This becomes clear as Jesus, having described the deeply ingrained wickedness of the Jews of that generation,
54 said “See, your house is left to you desolate.”55 This could only mean that the Jerusalem temple (which they so highly prized) was about to be — if it had not already been — rejected by God. It would henceforth be their house, not his house. This was made even clearer when Jesus went on to say that upon them [the Jewish people of that generation] would come God’s judgment because of “the blood shed on earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachia, whom” he said to them, “you murdered between the temple and the altar.”56 In other words, their guilt was cumulative. Every time the Jews repeated the sin of apostasy, which God had clearly revealed to be the most heinous sin in the past history of the Jews, they became even guiltier than those who
had committed that same sin before them. Our conclusion, then, is this: there is no other event in the history of
the world that rises to the level of importance of that momentous time when the Jewish nation, as a whole, was disenfranchised by the Lord Jesus. As Paul explains this in Romans 11 this did not mean that all of the Jews — every last one of them — were now to be disenfranchised.57
No, far from it: the Christian Church itself was mostly Jewish to begin with. It is also true that there has always been a remnant of Jewish people who have believed in Jesus as the true Messiah since that time. But it is also true that from the first century to the present time the vast majority of the Jews have remained under “a spirit of stupor”58 so that the truth of the Bible is hidden from their eyes. Indeed, as Paul said in his second Corinthian letter “their minds were hardened, for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains un-lifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.”59
This lamentable era — in which most Jewish people refuse to believe in Jesus as the Messiah promised by God — will yet come to an end. But it will only happen when the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those who call themselves Jews to enable them to believe in Jesus. Only then will they regain the right to be called God’s people. To confess that Jesus (his name as a human) is LORD (in other words God) and Christ (the one anointed to be our savior) is just as necessary for the Jew as it is for the Gentile.60 W that happens they will recognize — as did the converted Jew,
Paul — that all who believe in Jesus Christ (and they only) are “Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”61 For, as Paul says in Galatians 6:16, it is only those who “walk according to this rule” who can rightly be called the “Israel of God.”
To put it another way, it was never God’s intention that the Old Testament nation of Israel would be the final form of God’s church or kingdom. It was always God’s intention to terminate ‘the middle wall of partition,’ and to extend the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant to all nations.
This is not something that was added later on. No, it was clearly implied in God’s promise to Abraham from the beginning. In other words it was always God’s intention to terminate the historical period in which the Jews,
in a certain sense, had exclusive possession of the means of grace. The Christian Church, in contrast, is clearly set forth as the final form of the covenant people until Christ’s second coming. It will not be terminated as
the Jewish Temple was in 70 A.D. No, the Christian Church is the final
57 “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom. 11:1).
58 Romans 11:8
59 2 Corinthians 3:14
60 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
61 Galatians 3:29temple (1 Co. 3:9-17).62 And because — as our Lord Jesus said — “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18) the Christian Church will continue until the consummation.
It should be obvious that this does not mean that everything that is called a Christian church really is a Christian church as God sees it, and as possessing a guaranteed immunity to apostasy and consequent desolation.
Certainly not. If the Jewish church was not immune to fatal degeneration, then surely that is also true (if not even more true) of any and all predominately Gentile assemblies. But our Lord’s prediction and promise does guarantee that there will always be some churches that really are true churches on earth until his second coming [parousia].63 Wherever believers gather in the name of Christ (or in other words, are in real submission to him by way of submission to his word preserved in the inspired scriptures), he will be there in the midst of them, and he will preserve them.
This means that there will never be another calamity in the history of God’s people comparable in spiritual magnitude to that which came upon his church during that final generation, while it was still confined to
the Jewish nation. This was clearly stated by Jesus, himself, in his great Eschatological Discourse. “For then” said Jesus — speaking of what was about to happen in that generation — “there will be great tribulation such
as has not been from the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”64 The long historical period in which the Jews and the Gentiles were (by God’s own design) separated by what Paul called “the
middle wall of division”65 was ordained by God’s sovereign will. But so was the termination of that division that came in what this same apostle called “the fulness of time.”66 It came to an end just as God had planned from the beginning. It came to an end as a result of the sinless life, the substitutionary death and resurrection — yes, bodily resurrection — of our Lord Jesus Christ. For as Paul said “He himself is our peace, who has made both one…that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.”67 In other words,
62 1 Corinthians 3:9-17
63 As the Westminster Confession of Faith 25:5 says: “The purest churches under heaven
are subject both to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated, as to become no
churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall be always a church on
earth, to worship God according to his will.”
64 Matthew 24:21
65 Ephesians 2:14
66 Galatians 4:4
67 Ephesians 2:14, 17.
in the church which the risen Christ is now building68 the old separation between Jew and Gentile is ended. Any person who believes in him now is one of Abraham’s children.69
It is therefore clear that the events which took place in the first century — including the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
— were then (and now) of momentous importance. There will never be another ‘moment’ in history in which such a momentous change will take place. And in all of this one thing is clear: the only hope of either Gentile or Jew is to be born again, from above, in order to be able to see and enter the Kingdom.
In the historical period ending with the momentous events of 70 A.D. God removed most (but not all) of the natural branches from his great ‘olive tree’ (his own symbolic representation of the redeemed people of God).70 This excision has now continued for 2,000 years! But God is able to do seemingly impossible things. He is able to “banish
ungodliness from Jacob.”71 “For” as Paul said to Gentiles in Rome, “just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.”72 There is no reason to assume that there will ever be a time when all Jews will become Christians. Just as there were some who did believe when most did not, so there may come a time when many Jews do come to believe, while yet some remain stubbornly unbelieving. God does move in mysterious ways too perform his wonders. And it all goes back to God’s covenant promise to the patriarch Abraham.73
The following illustration gives an overview of the ‘olive tree’ symbolism as it gives a representation of the over-all eschatology of the Bible.
68 Matthew 16:18
69 Galatians 3:29
70 See Romans 11:11-32
71 Romans 11:26
72 Romans 11:30-32
73 Remember too that God’s great work is not always recognized by blind and sinful
people, even when it is happening. There are many Jewish people, today, who have
come to believe that Jesus is indeed the Christ. So it may well be that what Paul wrote
of as within God’s power to bring to pass — in Romans 11 — is perhaps happening
even now without any fanfare.
A - Represents the Patriarchal Period. It began with God’s promise to Abraham that in his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed. (Genesis 12:3, 18:18, 22:18 etc.)
B - Represents the Old Testament Period from Moses to the coming of Jesus Christ, during which the Church was
confined to the Nation of Israel. (Deuteronomy 7:6-11, John 4:22).
C - Represents the New Testament era (which continues today) during which the Church is being extended to all the
nations. (Romans11, Ephesians 2:11-16, 19-22).
Also: compare this diagram with Matthew 13:31,32; Mark 4:30-32; and Luke 13:15-24, and 31:18,19.
In the book of Romans the apostle Paul himself pictures redemptive history under the figure of a great Olive Tree. Speaking of Jews, during the Apostolic age, he says “some of the branches were broken off.”74 He also says it was “because of unbelief (that) they were broken off.”75 He also says that I — as a Gentile — can even say that those “branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.”76 But he also solemnly warns that we must “not be haughty, but fear”77 because what happened to them could also happen to us, if we are not careful. Our sovereign Lord has
power to bring about another reversal, if we repeat the same sin that they sinned. And there certainly are those, today, who sin the same way the Jews did in the time of the apostles. Because certain Christian people today can
look back upon their fathers and say “my ancestors were God’s covenant people, they were the apple of his eye” and so on, they too can assume that the organization they inherited from their ancestors is immune to apostasy
and destruction. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, bases its arrogant claim on the premise that it is the organizational continuance of the
74 Romans 11:17
75 Romans 11:20
76 Romans 11:19
77 Romans 11:20
A STUDY OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY22
only true church, and that therefore God will never reject it. Surely, what
happened to the nation of Israel should be a sufficient warning against falling for such a delusion!
There are many examples, in Church History, of people succumbing to this delusion. Our loyalty must therefore never be to any organization merely because it says it is Christ’s church — not even if it can trace a
line of organizational continuity back to a time when it really was deserving of that title.
78 This explains why our Reformation Fathers refused to define the identity of a true church by mere organizational continuity or connection, but rather defined it by certain doctrinal and spiritual qualities set down in the Bible — which have always marked the church when it has been faithful — and which also are lacking when it is not faithful. What counts, in other words, in identifying who the people of God really are is determined by answering a few important questions:
(1) Does this church faithfully teach God’s true and final revelation in Jesus Christ and the Bible?
(2) Does this church faithfully administer the signs and seals of his covenant (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper)? And
(3) does it faithfully uphold the biblical standards of righteousness and truth by faithful discipline?
We need to remember what Jesus said, as pastor of a small congregation: “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”79 At that time most of the Jews thought the true church — the true Israel of God — was their nation because it could trace its history back to the time of Moses, and continued to exist at that time under the authority of the Scribes and the Pharisees as successors of Moses. But they were wrong. The claim to be true Israel really belonged then — as it does now — to those who qualify according to our Lord’s
own definition of true church people. “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?…whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”80
Questions:
1. What did the apostles say they expected after Christ’s resurrection and before his ascension? (Acts. 1:6)
78 In Revelation 2:10 we read about a Jewish Synagogue that became “a synagogue of Satan.”
79 Luke 12:32
80 Matthew 12:48, 50.
2. What did Jesus say about the immediate future of the Jewish nation and Temple? (Mt. 23)
3. How did the apostle Paul describe this momentous event in Rom. 11?
4. Was this development contrary to the original promise of God to
Abraham? (Include scriptural proof for your answer).
5. Is there a better future in store for the mass of Jewish people?
6. Why did the Reformers identify the true church by spiritual qualities
rather than organizational continuity
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2024 13:12:05 GMT -5
Chapter 2
THE ESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
AS EXPRESSED IN MATTHEW CHAPTERS 23-26
INTRODUCTION
One of the reasons for much of the confusion today in eschatalogical thinking is the loss — or at least a serious weakening — of reformation principles of biblical exegesis. The Reformers strongly emphasized the importance of what has been called “grammatico-historical exegesis.” As R.C. Sproul put it “Discerning the original, intended meaning
is called grammatico-historical exegesis. We do not have any right to look
at a biblical text from the perspective of the twenty-first century and change
its meaning.”81 In other words we need to look at any biblical text with a
serious effort to read it in such a way as to understand its originally intended meaning — the way the original hearers (or readers) would have
understood it. This means that we need to discern (1) the historical situation of the time and place in which the text was written, and (2) the rules
of grammar recognized by people then living. When we keep these simple, but vital, truths in mind we are amazed at how often these rules are
neglected in much present-day eschatalogical thinking and writing.
In Matthew 10:23 we find these words: “When they persecute you
in one town, flee to the next. For truly, I say to you, you will not have
gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of man comes.” It
was Jesus who spoke these words. They were spoken to the twelve men
he had just chosen to be his apostles.
82 We therefore believe his words
should be understood in the same way that you would understand me,
81 Truths We Confess, A Layman’s Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith, Vol. 1, p.
29. Published by P&R, 2006.
82 Matthew 10:2-4.
A STUDY OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY
26
today, if I warned you of some danger, and asked you to do something
that could expose you to persecution. But — because of commonly made
false assumption as to the meaning of the final phrase “the son of man
comes” — this verse has been taken to mean one of two things (neither
of which is in accord with the principles of ‘grammatico-historical exegesis’). (1) One way of wrongly dealing with these words is by simply saying Jesus was mistaken. The famous organist, missionary and New Testament scholar Albert Schweitzer came to this conclusion because he
insisted that Jesus was speaking here of his second coming [parousi ,a].
And since this event did not happen in that generation he concluded that
Jesus was mistaken. (2) Another way is also by first assuming that Jesus
was referring to his second coming and then—in addition—assuming
that his words were primarily addressed to people who were not destined
to exist until the time of his second coming. Both of these choices, of
course, do violence to the grammar. For it is a fact that Jesus was speaking
to real people who were standing right there in front of him as he spoke.
He addressed them with the word ‘you’ and to them he said ‘you will not
have gone through the cities of Israel before the son of man comes.’ To
pretend that Jesus wasn’t really speaking to them, in a clearly understandable way, is to handle the word of God deceitfully.
Another text that has received a similar wrong treatment is found in
Matthew 16:28. Here Jesus said — to his disciples — “Assuredly, I say
to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they
see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Everyone knows that the
disciples who were living at that time — when Jesus said this — are no
longer with us. How, then, can anyone possibly avoid saying that Jesus
was mistaken if he meant that they would see his second coming before they died? One way is to simply imagine that Jesus was really addressing these words to any and all ‘disciples’ — including those who
would come into being many centuries later. Another way is to take his
words to mean that, a short time later, three of those disciples (Peter, James
and John) would see him transfigured.
83 But when we remember what
Jesus said to the Sanhedrin, some time later — after his transfiguration
and shortly before his crucifixion — it becomes quite obvious that these
attempts are simply evasions of the clear meaning of the text. When the
high priest said to Jesus “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are
the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I
tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right
83 Matthew 17:1-9
A STUDY OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY
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hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
84 There is no escape from the meaning of these words of our Lord. Jesus was telling him
(the high priest of Israel at that time) that, within the lifetime of many
people who saw and heard him while he was here on earth, he would be
“coming on the clouds of heaven.” So the question that cannot be avoided
is this: was Jesus mistaken? It is our conviction that he was not mistaken.
How could he be mistaken about a thing like that if he was the promised
Messiah — the Son of God — who came down from heaven?
This leaves only one other possibility: perhaps the problem is not in
the text of the Bible, but in people who are prone to misread it. When the
writer of this study was growing up in central Iowa — in what was then
called ‘the Bible Belt’ — these texts seemed to him to pose a serious problem. The reason for this was that whenever these texts were discussed almost everyone just assumed that Jesus was talking about his second coming [parousi,a]. But then, in order to avoid saying that Jesus was wrong,
people would impose a sense on the words of Jesus that contradicted their
natural meaning. It was only after years of study that it became clear to the
writer of this material that the solution is really quite simple. Jesus did
mean what he said to those people. Many of them did live to see Jesus
“coming on the clouds of heaven.” You see, those words (“coming on the
clouds of heaven”) are quoted from the Old Testament book of Daniel.
And the truth is that they were never intended to be misunderstood as refering to Christ’s second coming [parousi,a]. No, they were intended to be
understood as describing what we call the ascension — not the coming of
Christ from heaven to earth, but rather the going of Christ from earth to the
right hand of God in heaven. Read the words of Daniel yourself, carefully,
and you will see that it is so:
“I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of
Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of
Days, and they brought him near before Him. Then to him was given
dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and
languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall
not be destroyed.”85
There is no need whatsoever to say that Jesus was wrong. And there is
no reason to think that he was not speaking specifically to those whom he
84 Matthew 26:63-64.
85 Daniel 7:13-14 (NKJV).
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was addressing, face to face, to tell them what they would soon experience. Grammatico-Historical exegesis removes all of these evasions by
faithfulness to language and historical context.
Questions:
1. Why is it that Matthew 10:23, 16:28 and 26:64 have been so perplexing for most people?
2. Where do we need to go in the Old Testament to properly understand
them?
3. What words in Daniel 7:13,14 make it clear that the misunderstood
words do not refer to Christ’s second coming?
4. Why should we think of Christ’s ascension rather than his second
coming whenever the Bible says “coming on the clouds”?
5. What grammatical violation is removed by this understanding?
Part 1 - THE IMMEDIATE CONTEXT
What was happening when Jesus said the things narrated in Matthew 23? Is it not an accurate historical description of Jesus Christ as
he pronounced the knell of doom upon the apostate Jewish ‘Church?’
Again and again our Lord pronounced woes on the Scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders in Israel in that generation. Yes, for in the
majority of the Jewish people of that time — the people to whom he
was speaking — the history of the persistent apostasy of the nation
of Israel had reached its culmination.
86 Jesus made it very clear that
the doom that he was threatening would not be long in coming. “I tell
you the truth” said Jesus, “all these things will come upon this generation.”87 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem” cried our grieving Savior “How often
would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate.”88 Up to this time in Israel’s history, the Temple in Jerusalem had
been acknowledged — even by Jesus himself — to be the house of God.
That is why Jesus cleansed the Temple, denouncing the way in which the
86 Read Matthew 23:34-35 especially.
87 Matthew 23:36.
88 Matthew 23:37-38.
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Jews of that time had made his father’s house a den of merchandise.
89 So
now, at this critical hour in their history, he spoke of a day rapidly approaching — a day which was to arrive within the generation then living90
— when the Temple would no longer be acknowledged as God’s house.
No, said Jesus to the unbelieving Jews who were standing right there before him, when that day arrives it will be “your house,” and it will be left
to you “desolate!”
We can well imagine the shock-waves these words must have caused,
as they reverberated through the tradition-bound mind-set our Lord’s own
disciples. “What?! This house left desolate?! — the great Temple of God
in Jerusalem?! — Surely not that?!” This was very unpleasant to hear, and
even more difficult to accept. So, as Jesus and his disciples were leaving
the Temple that day, “his disciples came up to point out to him the buildings of the temple” [Mt. 24:1]. ‘Look, Lord’ they were saying — in effect
— as they pointed to those great buildings: ‘surely you can’t mean that
these things are going to be reduced to desolation!’ To them this was almost unthinkable. But that is indeed what Jesus meant. We know this because he answered them saying “Truly, I say to you, there will not be left
here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”91 When they
heard that they were utterly astounded. This shattered all of the fixed ideas
in their minds. It turned their whole idea of the future upside down. You
see, they too were expecting that when the Messiah finally came he would
restore the Kingdom to Israel, making the ‘good old days’ of Kings like
David and Solomon live again, as it were. We know this because the disciples of Jesus still tended to think that way even after he rose from the
dead.92 Yet here was their Messiah himself plainly saying the time for
the destruction of the Temple was drawing near. No wonder his disciples
began to jump to conclusions. Isn’t that what we all tend to do when we
have to deal with highly emotional issues — especially when it comes to
predictions of the future?
So the disciples asked Jesus the question that, by its very structure,
indicates the conclusion to which they had ‘jumped.’ “Tell us,” they said,
“when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming
[Greek: parousi,a] and the end of the age?”93 From this question it is clear
89 John 2:16
90 Matthew 23:36
91 Matthew 24:2
92 Cf. Acts 1:6
93 Matthew 24:3
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that they simply assumed that these two momentous things would happen
together (at the same time). If Jesus was right, they were thinking, and
their house really was going to be left unto them desolate—and within that
generation—then surely his second coming (parousi,a), and the end of
history would also have to come in that generation.
But it was right there — jumping to that conclusion — that they made
their big mistake. And the amazing thing is that so many Christian people
keep right on making virtually the same mistake today. No, they do not
make it in exactly the same way. But what is the common interpretation,
today, of Matthew 24? Is it not that Christ was talking about two entirely
different things as if they were one? Yes, this is the most common interpretation. Many say that Jesus — in Matthew 24:4-35 (as he answered his
disciples) — was describing not only (1) the coming destruction of Jerusalem (which was destined to take place, and did in fact take place, in 70
A.D.); but also (2) a similar series of events, destined to take place right
before his own second coming [parousi,a] at the end of the ages (which is
still in the future even now). And because of this assumption they go on to
insist that Jesus listed a number of signs that apply, equally, to both of these events. So, they insist that false Christs, false prophets, wars, rumors of
wars, earthquakes, famines, etc., were not only intended as signs for that
generation, to warn them of the impending destruction of Jerusalem and
the Temple, but are also intended to serve as signs to enable a generation
destined to live many centuries (now some 20 centuries) later to know
when the second coming [parousi,a] of Christ is about to happen. This
view is the most popular view today in Evangelical circles.
We cannot possibly agree with this interpretation. The reason is that
we do not think our Lord uses one set of words to predict two entirely different events. No, in answering the disciples — as we will seek to demonstrate — the Lord divided the disciples question into two parts, and then
proceeded to discriminate carefully between the two things they were confusing.94 In the first section of Matthew 24 (vv. 4-35) our Lord deals specifically with “all these things” about which he had solemnly warned the
Scribes and Pharisees.95 In speaking of “these things” he was not talking
about things destined to happen far off in the future, at the time of his second coming [parousi,a] and the end of world history. This is made very
94 The first part deals with the “when” question (“when will these things be”); the second
deals with the “what” question (“and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end
of the age?”)
95 See all of Matthew 23, but especially v. 36, where he says “Assuredly, I say to you, all
these things shall come upon this generation.”
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clear from chapter 24, verse 34, where he says again (just as he had in
23:36) “this generation will not pass away until all these things have
happened.” This answered the ‘when’ question.
Then, after making this point very clear, our Lord went on to deal with
the ‘what’ question (as recorded in Mt. 24:36-25:46). And the main thing
Jesus emphasized concerning the what question is the fact that there will
not be any signs at all to enable us to know the time of his second coming [parousi,a] and the end this present age. We could sum it up this way:
Jesus clearly and carefully distinguished between the two things his disciples had mistakenly merged together. They just assumed that these two
important things — (1) the destruction of Jerusalem and (2) the ‘parousia’
(final return of Jesus to the world) — were things that would have to happen at the same time. Our Lord therefore carefully and patiently explained
things to them so that they would not keep on making this wrong assumption.
We will go on to discuss this in the next part of our study.
Questions:
1. Underline as many phrases as you can in Matthew 23 which show that
the final crisis had arrived for the Jewish Church.
2. To what erroneous conclusion did our Lord’s disciples jump?
3. Why did the disciples do this?
4. Were these disciples the last to make this mistake? Explain.
5. Our Westminster Confession (Chap. I, sect. ix), says the ‘full sense of
any Scripture…is not manifold, but one.’ Give a few examples of Bible prophecies that could not possibly have a double fulfillment.
6. What is the difference between (a) multiple fulfillments, and (b) multiple applications?
7. Why do you think our Lord repeats, in 24:34, the statement already
made in 23:36?
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2024 13:12:58 GMT -5
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Part 2 - “ALL THESE THINGS”
Unless we are prepared to give a strained interpretation to Matthew
23:36 and 24:34, we must believe that “all these things” predicted by Jesus did indeed happen in that generation.
(A) But there are those who say ‘No, this cannot be the true understanding
of what Jesus said because these things did not all happen in that generation.’ In order to try to make sense out of the passage, then, they
are forced to change the sense of the word generation to mean ‘race’
(as in ‘the Jewish race’ as a distinct ethnic group of people) instead of
a specific generation (as in ‘our generation‘ — describing a particular
time in history). The meaning, with this change, would be that the
Jewish race will not pass away until all of these things have been fulfilled. We are convinced that this is not a legitimate solution. If you,
the reader, will take a good concordance of the Bible and study the
use of this word ‘generation’ [in Greek: genea.] in the New Testament
scriptures, it will soon be apparent that the word has a well-defined
meaning. It means the average or common time span of human life
that we ourselves are familiar with. All that we can say about this interpretation is that it cannot possibly be right, because it imposes a
sense on a Greek word which has no support in the rest of the Bible.
When Jesus said “O unbelieving and perverse generation…how long
shall I stay with you?” (Matthew 17:17) he was not referring to the
entire Jewish race as perverse and unbelieving. No, he was characterizing that portion of the Jewish race which was living in Palestine
while he was here on earth. When he said “This is a wicked generation” (Matthew 16:4) he was not saying the whole Jewish race of
people were wicked. No, he was saying Jews who were living at that
time in Israel, while he was here on earth were wicked. He did not say
this as if all Jews, at all times, were unbelieving, but because most of
the Jews at that time — while he, the very Son of God, was standing
among them — were so unbelieving.
(B) Therefore, if we understand the words in Matthew 24:34 in their
normal sense, there is no escape — Jesus was referring to the generation of Jewish people who were living while he was here on
earth. So, what needs to be demonstrated is that “all these things”
did indeed take place in that generation just as Jesus said they would.
It is to this that we now turn as we proceed with this study.
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[1] To begin with, then, Jesus warned the people who were standing
before him to beware of being deceived by claims of false-messiahs. His
words were not intended as a direct and specific warning to people living
today. And that there were false claims by pseudo-messiahs in that generation we have abundant evidence. Acts chapter 5:36,37 informs us that
the famous Rabbi Gamaliel96 spoke of two such pseudo-messiahs,
Theudas and Judas the Galilean. This did indeed happen in that generation. We also learn from 1 John 2:18,19 and 4:1-4 that there already were
“many antichrists” at the time when that letter was being written. This
too was a thing that happened in that generation. And it is interesting that
we even have further confirmation from the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus,97 showing that the phenomenon of pseudo-messiahs
was well known in the period of time leading up to the destruction of
Jerusalem. So the historical record shows that this specific prediction
was, indeed, fulfilled in that generation. This fact is further confirmed
by Luke’s account of the words of Jesus. Luke, who was himself a Gentile by birth, wrote his gospel account with special effort to be understood by Gentile readers. He therefore explained some things for their
benefit that needed no explanation for Jewish readers. In Luke’s gospel
21:8 we read that Jesus said “the time is near” as he warned his disciples not to be misled by pseudo-messiahs. Jesus said this to his disciples. He warned them. How strange the interpretation is, then, which ignores this self-evident fact, and treats the words of Jesus as if they were
spoken to people many hundreds of years (even thousands of years) later.
[2] In the second place we read about “wars and rumors of wars” (v. 6).
In Josephus [Book IV, chapter 9], we read that (prior to 70 A.D.) “sedition and civil war prevailed, not only over Judea, but in Italy also.” And
again, in Book IV, chapter 10, he says “about this very time it was that
heavy calamities came about Rome on all sides.” Was this not exactly
what Jesus predicted? For that generation — since it only ‘lived once’
— a warning such as this had urgent meaning. When they saw the dark
clouds of war beginning to gather over their own heads, as it were, they
had a very clear sign — warning them of the soon coming destruction
of their Temple and the city of Jerusalem (70 A.D.). But according to the
common and popular interpretation which holds that there will be a se-
96 Gamaliel was a prominent Rabbi who taught in Jerusalem during the Apostolic period.
Acts 22:3 says the Apostle Paul himself studied under Gamaliel before he was converted.
97 “Now as for the affairs of the Jews, they grew worse and worse continually, for the
country was again filled with robbers and impostors, who deluded the multitude. Yet did
Felix catch and put to death many of those impostors every day” (The Wars of the Jews,
Book II, chapter 8).
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34
cond and even greater fulfillment at the end of this age, there is constant
confusion. Was World War I a ‘sign’ of the second coming of Jesus
(parousia)? Evidently it was not. Neither was World War II. But if these great wars are not enough to serve as signs of the near coming of Jesus, what wars could be? The writer can remember — when the war
clouds were gathering back in 1939 — that more than a few preachers
were confidently saying that things which were happening then were
signs of the nearness of the second coming. Some even put a limit on the
time that they thought was still left before that event came. And (as usual) they were wrong. They were wrong because wars and rumors of wars
are not a sign of the second coming [parousi ,a]. But wars and rumors of
wars were signs indicating the nearness of the destruction that came during that generation — signs to assure believers that the city of Jerusalem
and the apostate Temple would soon be a scene of desolation.
[3] In the third place we note that, after repeating the basic warning of
war — by saying that nation would rise against nation — our Lord next
spoke of various calamities in the realm of what we today call ‘nature.’
He said there would be “famine and earthquakes in various places.”98
And, again, anyone who reads Josephus’ history of the Jewish people
will have no difficulty in seeing that this was fulfilled “in that generation.” Here is a typical excerpt taken from his account:
“The madness of the seditions did also increase together with
their famine, and both of these miseries were every day inflamed
more and more…children pulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating out of their mouths …so did the mothers do as
to their infants; and when those who were most dear were perishing under their hands, they were not ashamed to take from
them the very last drops that might preserve their lives.”99
Later, in the siege of Jerusalem, the famine became so intense that it
“confounded all natural passions; for those who were just about to die
looked upon those who were gone to their rest before them with dry eyes
and open mouths. A deep silence also, and a kind of deadly night, had
seized upon the city.”100 We also note — in addition to the data in Matthew 27:54, 28:2, Acts 4:31 and 16:26 which is decisive — that Josephus
records a great earthquake in Book VI, Chapter 5.
98 Matthew 24:7b
99 Book VII, Chapter 10
100 Book VII, Chapter 12
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[4] In the fourth place, it is interesting to note that Luke — writing in a
way designed to be understood by Gentile readers — again adds important information. He tells us that Jesus said this to his disciples: “but
before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will
deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before
kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in
your being witnesses to them.”101 As we see it the meaning is clear: Jesus was speaking to people who were living in Palestine while he was
here on earth; he was telling them what was going to happen to them.
Think, for example, of what happened to Stephen. When he spoke unpleasant truth to the Jewish leaders “they gnashed at him with their
teeth…cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with
one accord; and…cast him out of the city and stoned him.”102 So the very
things predicted by Jesus as things that were to happen in that generation,
did indeed happen within that generation. What strange exegesis it is to
imagine that these words were addressed to people far removed (even
thousands of years removed) from that generation! Anyone who has carefully studied the book of Acts will know that “all these things”103 did
happen to the apostles and their associates. If words are to be interpreted in their natural sense, there is no reason whatsoever to take these
statements out of the context of that generation. Our fourth point, then, is
the fact that this also happened in that generation.
[5] The fifth thing that Jesus predicted104 was apostasy from the faith,
with betrayal and hatred. One could argue that this could be taken to
refer to the apostasy of the Jewish people, and to their factional conflicts.
We know, again, from the writings of Josephus that this was one of the
most terrible aspects of the calamity that came on the Jews during the
siege of Jerusalem by the Romans. They were bitterly divided. However,
when our Lord spoke of turning “away from the faith” it is more likely
that he had Christians in mind — those who had professed that he was
the promised Messiah, but then went back on that profession later on.
And here, again, there is clear proof that this did happen in that generation. The New Testament was written in that generation. And there is
evidence in it of the apostasy and declension of some professing Christians. How soon, for example, did the people in Galatia turn to what Paul
calls “a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all.”105 We are
101 Luke 21:12
102 Acts 7:54, 57-58
103 Matthew 23:36, 24:3, 34
104 Matthew 24:10
105 Galatians 1:6-7
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also informed that the church of Corinth was sadly divided into factions.
And some churches were at, or at least near, the point of being repudiated by Jesus during the lifetime of his apostles.
106
We tend to idealize the apostolic age. But we should not do this.
There was a veritable thicket of problems in the churches. There were
some who had professed themselves to be Christian believers who then
turned away from the faith. Jude characterized them as “godless men”
and as “unreasoning animals.”107 The book of Hebrews has many references to Jews — Jews of the very generation Jesus himself had personally
confronted — Jews who had professed faith in him as the Messiah, and
were later in grave danger of falling away.
108 So there is no question
about this item in our Lord’s list of things that would happen in that generation — this also happened in that generation!
[6] The sixth item of information was the fact that there would be false
prophets. And here, again, we not only read about such things in the New
Testament,
109 but Josephus also speaks of the false prophets that came
along to stir up vain hopes among the Jewish people during the siege of
Jerusalem. “A false prophet was the occasion of these people’s destruction, who had made a public proclamation in the city that very day, that
God commanded them to get upon the temple, and that there they should
receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. Now there was then a
great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose on the
people, who denounced this to them, that they should wait for deliverance
from God; and this was in order to keep them from deserting, and that
they might be buoyed up above fear and care by such hopes.”110
Now with reference to the predictions we have now considered, and
their fulfillment in that generation, there has been rather general agreement. Even those who apply these things partly to the future are usually
willing to admit that these things — described above — did indeed happen in that generation. But they then go on to say that from here on in
Matthew 24 [down to verse 34] there are several things that did not happen in that generation. Therefore, they argue, we are forced to admit that
our Lord also predicted things that would only come to pass toward the
end of the age in which we, today, are living, and not in that generation.
106 Revelation 3:15-18
107 Jude 4 and 10
108 Hebrews 2:3; 4:1, 11; 6:108 etc.
109 Romans 16:17-18, 1 John 4:1; Galatians 1:6-7; Acts 13:6, etc.
110 Book VII, Chapter 5
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At this point it may be well to say that the writer also, at one time,
went along with this view — and yet, at the same time, was never satisfied with it. The reason is that it required a very forced interpretation of
the 34th verse. The more the writer studied the word ‘generation’ [Greek
genea,] as it is used in the Greek New Testament, the more clear it became that a choice had to be made between these two alternatives: (1)
either Jesus was wrong in what he said in verse 34,111 (2) or I was wrong
in thinking that some of “these things” are still future things even today. It was therefore necessary to study “these things” that Jesus predicted as things that were to happen in that generation much more carefully. And when the author did this it became clear — to his surprise —
that these other things, too, did indeed happen in that generation. It is to
these things that we turn in the next section of this study.
Questions for Further Discussion:
1. Consult your concordance to see, from the context, if the word generation can mean ‘race.’
2. Luke’s gospel cites our Lord as having said ‘the time is near.’ From
the context of that statement can you see what time Jesus refers to?
3. Why is it that a conjunction of ‘wars and rumors of wars’ and ‘earthquakes and famine’ could serve as signs for that generation, when
they can’t to our generation?
4. To what did Jesus refer when he said “but the end is not yet” (v.6)?
The end of what?
5. Underline any words in the verses 4-13 that clearly indicate that
Christ’s warning had to do with that generation:
6. What significant word does Luke add (in 21:9) to help Gentile readers
understand these things?
7. To what does v. 8 (see also Mark 13:8) refer when it speaks of ‘travail’ or ‘birth pains’? (Hint: Isaiah 13:6-10)
8. Luke 21:13 says: “But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.” How does this tie in with the ‘birth pains’ idea, and how
does it go against the common interpretation?
111 This was the conclusion reached by Albert Schweitzer.
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Part 3 - COMMONLY MISUNDERSTOOD ITEMS
In this section we are concerned with the material found in Matthew
24:14-31. Several items here are commonly assumed to be ‘yet in the
future.’ It is our conviction that this assumption is wrong, and we hope to
show this as we comment on each of these items in the discussion that
follows.
[1] In Matthew 24:14 we read: “this gospel of the kingdom will be
preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the
end will come.” The supposed problem here is quickly solved if we consult Greek language usage. For the Greek term translated “world” here
does not mean the entire world or globe in the geographical sense. No,
what this term means is the entire civilized world of that day — or, in
other words, the entire Roman Empire. Take, for instance, the statement
of Luke 2:1 that Caesar Augustus sent out a decree that “all the world”
should be taxed. The word translated “world” in this text is the Greek
word oi.koume,nh which meant the Roman Empire.112 And the fact is that the
gospel was preached throughout that ‘world’ — the entire Roman Empire
— in that generation. We see this, for instance, in Luke’s statement in Acts
2, verse 5. He tells us that already — even on the day of Pentecost — there
were “devout men out of every nation under heaven” in Jerusalem to hear
Peter’s preaching. So fulfillment was already beginning. And thirty years
later in Paul’s letter to the Colossians he could already say that “all over
the world [oi.koume,nh] this gospel is producing fruit and growing”113 Paul
even went so far as to say that the gospel “has been proclaimed to every
creature under heaven.”114 To us this may sound like an exaggeration,
and it may be an instance of the use of hyperbole (a deliberate exaggeration used for effect). But when scripture speaks as plainly as this, it is not
our place to argue with what it says. There is therefore no valid reason to
insist that the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14 can only be in the future!
When Jesus said “and then the end will come”115 he meant that after “all
these things” had happened — including the seemingly impossible spread
of the Christian faith throughout the entire Roman Empire — the final destruction of the Temple (and the special status of the Jewish nation) would
immediately follow. And the fact is that something that had existed for
many, many centuries did come to an end in 70 A.D. But already even be-
112 It is used the same way in texts such as these: Luke. 4:1, Acts 11:28, 17:6, 19:27, 24:5,
and Romans 10:18.
113 Colossians 1:6
114 Colossians 1:23
115 Matthew 24:14
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fore that happened “all these things” — including the Empire-wide spread
of the gospel — had been accomplished just as Jesus had predicted.
[2] The second problem that many see with our view is this prediction:
“So when you see ‘the abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by the
prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”116 It is common
among Christians today to see, in this, a prediction of a still future Antichrist. But again, we are convinced that there is good reason to see this too
as fulfilled in that generation — the generation of the people to whom our
Lord was speaking. For the sake of the greatest possible clarity we will
here list our reasons for coming to this conclusion.
1) It is clear that Christ said “this generation will not pass away until all
these things are fulfilled” (v. 34). The only natural interpretation of
this statement is that the abomination of desolation (which was one of
“these things”) also took place in that generation.
2) With this agrees the direct reference, here, to these disciples to whom
Christ was speaking. He said “when you see…‘the abomination of
desolation.’” This clearly indicates that they, themselves, would see it.
What meaning could this statement have had for those disciples who
heard Jesus say this, if the event spoken of was not to happen in that
generation, but only thousands of years later?
3) With this also agrees the statements in the verses that immediately
follow.
117 Our Lord instructed the people living in Judea as to what
they should do when this momentous event took place. They were instructed to flee. If they were on the housetop they were warned not to
come down into their houses in order to try to take anything with them.
In Jerusalem, in those days, the roofs of the houses were flat. So one
could go across housetops to get to a wall to escape (as the story of
Rahab indicates in Joshua 2). This was common in ancient cities in
that era. This would not have much relevance today, where people are
seldom up on housetops, and cannot go anywhere without first com-
116 Matthew 24:14-16
117 Matthew 24:16-17 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one
who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house…” etc.
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40
ing down into the house. By what principle of Biblical interpretation
is this simply ignored by those who talk of a future fulfillment?
4) Luke wrote his gospel with special effort to communicate the truth to
Gentile readers. Here, then, is how he speaks of this same event. “But
when you [again note this important word you] see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.”118
Jews could be expected to understand the meaning of that phrase ‘the
abomination of desolation.’ They were familiar with the Old Testament, and knew that this phrase is found in the book of Daniel.
119
Gentiles, however, would not be expected to be so familiar with the
book of Daniel. They therefore needed further explanation, and Luke
gave it to them. The Gentiles who saw Jerusalem surrounded by the
Roman army were seeing the very same event that the Jews recognized as another ‘abomination of desolation.’
5) Our fifth point is the confirmation we find in the writings of Josephus
as an eye-witness of Jerusalem’s desolation. He says the Roman army
surrounded the city. And those who took the words of Jesus seriously
acted accordingly. When they saw the Romans coming they wasted no
time in getting out of the city, and fleeing to the little town named Pella.
Can there be any doubt, then, that this prediction of our Lord was fulfilled in 70 A.D., and fulfilled in such a way as to make it rather
strange, to say the least, to speak of a future fulfillment?
[3] In Matthew 24, verse 21, we come to a third alleged ‘problem.’ Here it
says “then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the
beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be.” What should not
be overlooked here is the fact that Jesus does not speak of this event as
something that will come at the end of world history. No, quite the contrary: he speaks of it as an utterly unparalleled event — unparalleled in
the sense that nothing before that time, and nothing after that time,
would ever be its equal. Now it should be obvious that if our Lord had
been speaking of something which was only going to take place at the
end of world history he would never have added the words: “no, nor ever shall be.”120 It is obvious that he would never have said this if he envi-
118 Luke 21:20
119 Daniel 9:27
120 “[W]e should note that ‘nor ever shall be again’ confirms that this passage is about a
historical event, not about the end of the world” quoted from The Gospel of Matthew, by
R.T. France, p. 915. France also notes that Josephus himself “claims that none of the
disasters since the world began can be compared to the fate of Jerusalem.” To clearly
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41
sioned a double fulfillment, with the second and final fulfillment being
the greater of the two.121 But if this event, of which the Lord is speaking,
was to come in that generation — and only in that generation — then
there was a very good reason for contrasting it not only with all that had
happened before but also all that would happen afterwards.
Here, again, the historical report by Josephus supports this conclusion, as he described the horrors that came upon the Jews shut up in Jerusalem by the Romans. Luke’s version of our Lord’s, written for Gentile
readers, also confirms this. “For there will be great distress upon the land
[Greek: evpi. th/j gh/j] and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge
of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be
trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are
fulfilled.”122 How could our Lord have made it clearer that he was predicting a calamity which was to come on the unbelieving Jews of that
generation?
[4] The next item is our Lord’s warning to his disciples, lest they should
be deceived by false teachers during this time of distress.
123 What deserves special attention here is the emphatic way in which he speaks directly and specifically to the disciples who were standing before him.
“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’
do not believe it…if they say to you ‘Look, he is in the wilderness’…or
‘Look, he is in the inner rooms’ do not believe it.” Again we are constrained to ask: what kind of Bible interpretation is it which attempts to
remove this from that generation? It is certainly true that Christ speaks in
verse 27 of his ‘parousia’ [Greek: parousi ,a] meaning his second coming.
“For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so
will be the coming [parousi,a] of the Son of Man.” But the reason for mentioning the second coming, here, is obvious. Our Lord mentioned his second coming at this point in order to make an important contrast.124 He
understand the force of this kind of statement consider Exodus 10:14 which speaks the
same way about the locusts of the 8th plague in Egypt “The locusts came up over all the
land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts
as had never been before, nor ever will be again.”
121 Commonly assumed by those who think “the great tribulation” is still future.
122 Luke 21:23-24
123 Matthew 24:23-27
124 “This verse is a sort of ‘aside’ which draws a sharp distinction between the events of
the siege and the still future parousia…The time of the siege and capture of the city will be
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42
was warning his disciples not to be misled or deceived when they — in
that generation — would hear false rumors suggesting that his parousia
(second coming) had already happened.125 (Josephus126 too, says there
were many false rumors at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem). In
order to prepare his disciples to be able to withstand this danger our Lord
reminded them by way of contrast: his second coming — when it does
happen — will not be secret. To the contrary, it will be so public that no
one will need someone else to tell him that it has happened.
Questions for Further Discussion:
1. How do we know that the Greek word oikou-menh — usually translated
‘world’ — doesn’t mean the whole planet geographically?
2. What are some of the historical events that indicate that “the abomination of desolation” is a thing of the past and not of the future?
3. What phrase in verse 21 clearly shows that “the great tribulation”
predicted by Christ could not be something that comes at the end of
history?
4. What specific information does Luke supply — in 21:23-24 — which
confirms the fact that the “great tribulation” was to happen in that
generation?
5. If this section (Matthew 24:14-28) is not saying Christ’s second coming (parousi ,a) was to be in ‘that generation’ then why is it mentioned
here in verse 27?
6. How do the statements in verses 16-17 argue for a first century fulfillment?
7. How do verses 19-20 argue for a first century fulfillment in Palestine?
8. How does the interpretation defended in this study help us understand
verse 28? [Hint: The apostate nation of Israel = the dead carcass. The
Roman Army with ensigns = the eagles].
characterized by the claims and counterclaims of those who pretend to a messianic role, but the
parousia…will need no such claims or proofs: everyone will see and recognize it…He is thus
setting the parousia and the end of the age decisively apart from the coming destruction of the
temple.” (R.T. France, p. 918)
125 Paul warned Timothy to be on guard against men who said such things: He even cites
examples saying “Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the
truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened.” (2 Tim. 2:17-18)
126 Josephus, War 4:503-44
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9. What does Luke substitute for the phrase “the abomination of desolation which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet” in his explanation
intended to help Gentile readers (in 21:20)?
10. What further statement does Luke make (in 21:22) that confirms the
view defended here?
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2024 13:14:03 GMT -5
Part 4 - THE MOST DIFFICULT POINTS
Many Bible commentators are willing to admit that — up to this point
in his eschatalogical discourse — our Lord was indeed speaking, at least
primarily, about things destined to take place in that generation. But, at this
point, there are many who still say: “But what about verses 29 to 31? Surely we can’t say that these things have also happened!” It is, therefore, to
these supposedly most difficult points that we now turn in our consideration of this chapter. Here is what Jesus said as we find it in Matthew
24:29-31: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days ‘the sun will be
darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heavens will be shaken.’ Then will appear the sign of
the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the land will mourn,
and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a
trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from
the one end of heavens to the other” [the author’s own translation].
[1] It is not hard to see why many people have difficulty with this part of
the Lord’s statement. The writer of this study also, at one time, had difficulty in seeing how this could possibly be one of “all these things” that
happened in that generation. But closer examination of what is stated
here cleared up this problem completely. In the discussion that follows
we will now consider the facts that cleared up the problem.
(1) In the first place, Old Testament prophets often used expressions
very much like the words Jesus used here. In Isaiah 13:9-11, for
example, we find the same kind of reference to ‘the lights going
out’ when mighty Babylon was overthrown. “The oracle concerning
Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw…Behold, the day of the
LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a
desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the
heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun
will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will
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44
punish the world [Hebrew lbeTe translated as oi vkoume ,nh |127 in the Greek
Septuagint] for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an
end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of
the ruthless.” Ezekiel speaks in much the same way in 32:1-8 when
he says, concerning the overthrow of Egypt: “Son of man, raise a
lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the
seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet,
and foul their rivers. Thus says the Lord GOD: I will throw my net
over you with a host of many peoples, and they will haul you up in
my dragnet. And I will cast you on the ground; on the open field I
will fling you, and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle on
you, and I will gorge the beasts of the whole earth with you. I will
strew your flesh upon the mountains and fill the valleys with your
carcass. I will drench the land even to the mountains with your flowing blood, and the ravines will be full of you. When I blot you out, I
will cover the heavens and make their stars dark; I will cover the
sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the
bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and put darkness on your land, declares the Lord GOD.’”
A study of these — and other similar passages in the Old Testament
— will show that this terminology was a standard way of prophetic
expression. But it never did mean the literal destruction of the physical universe, but rather meant the overthrowing or downfall of a nation or civilization. Amos, for instance, in chapter 8:9-10 says “‘And
it shall come to pass in that day,’ says the Lord God, ‘That I will
make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in
broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your
songs into lamentation.” The prophet Micah 3:6 expresses the same
idea when he says “The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the
day shall be dark for them.” It is the same concept that Jeremiah expresses when he says “her sun has gone down while it is day”128 and
Ezekiel says “I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not
give its light. All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over
you; I will bring darkness over your land.”129 It is our conviction that
such statements as these Old Testament prophets employed were
meant to teach God’s people that there are two kinds of light! There is
127 Revisit footnote 12 to understand this term correctly.
128 Jeremiah 15:9
129 Ezekiel 32:7-8
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physical light that God has provided by the sun and moon. And there is
spiritual light provided by God through his inspired prophets. It is therefore a fact that it can be dark (in a spiritual sense) while it is not dark
at all (in the physical sense).
When these inspired prophets spoke in this manner, in other words,
they did not mean — and did not intend to be taken to mean — the
literal end of the physical universe. And the same is true of the prophetic expressions of Jesus. He accepted the divine authority of the
Old Testament, and was not ashamed to use the language of those inspired prophets in his own prophetic statements. He was not speaking of ‘the end of the world’ in the sense of the physical universe, but
of the end of the Old Testament age in which Israel held the special
position as God’s only covenant people (who were, at that time, the
bearers of the light of divine revelation). And here, again, Luke clarifies the meaning for Gentile readers. “And there will be signs in the
sun, in the moon and in the stars” he says, but then hastens to add
“and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and
the waves roaring.”130 It is possible, as some of the older commentators supposed, that there could be a reference here to an eclipse of
the moon by the earth (when the moon does, as a matter of fact, turn
to the color of blood). It is also possible that there is a reference here
to an event common in ancient warfare. We refer to the fact that
when cities were burned the smoke was often so great that it did —
for a time — blot out the light of the sun and moon. But be that as it
may one thing is clear: Jesus was not predicting a collapse of the
physical universe. What he was predicting was the overthrow of the
Jewish nation. Incidentally, this is still the way people speak of this
kind of catastrophe. During the Second World War, for example,
when the very existence of England was severely threatened, there
was a popular song that used a similar expression: ‘When the Lights
Go on again, all over the world.’ There are some things that ordinary
language is not sufficient to express. One of these is the traumatic
experience of seeing one’s own nation overthrown, humiliated and
defeated. Even today, when something like this happens it is felt to
be such a great calamity that it requires the very same kind of language that Jesus was using.
130 Luke 21:25
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(2) Another point that should be noted is the fact that Jesus said
“the powers of heaven will be shaken.”131 I understand him to be
referring, by that phrase, to the spiritual powers belonging to Satan.132 Christ’s victory over the Satan and demonic powers — which
had conspired to put him to death — became visibly manifest in the
destruction of the Jewish nation and temple when this came to pass
just as he said it would. This was what he meant when he warned
the Scribes and Pharisees that their house was about to be left to
them desolate.
133 Christ’s victory over Satan began with the end of
the historical period during which the visible Church was confined
within the Jewish nation. From that time on the Church was destined
to spread out to all nations. Nations that had long been held in the
chains of darkness by Satan, before this time, now saw the great light
sent to them from heaven.
134 At that very time when the heavens became dark over the Jewish nation,135 the glorious light of a new day
dawned upon the rest of the world made up of Gentile nations. In other words Satan was now bound, so that he would no longer be able to
deceive these nations,
136 as he had been able to deceive them before,
for so many centuries. Now Christ has been exalted “far above all
principality and power and might and dominion.”137 So that “now
unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places” God is making
“known by the church the manifold wisdom” which he “purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”138 Having spoiled principalities and powers,
in other words, he has made manifest his triumph over them.139
So, calamitous as these events were for the Jewish nation, it was anything but the end of what God had planned to accomplish in world history. As was the case many times before in redemptive history, the
seeming triumph of Satan (in the great Jewish apostasy, and their rejection of their Messiah) was turned instead into the greatest advance
of all time for God’s Kingdom (the world-wide extension of the new
Israel which is the Christian Church). The conclusion is clear: this
momentous change also took place in that generation.
131 Luke 21:26
132 Cf. Col. 2:15, Eph. 1:19-22 & 4:8-12,
133 Matthew 23:38
134 Cf. Isaiah 9:2 as quoted in Matthew 4:16
135 Ezekiel 32:7
136 Revelation 20:3
137 Ephesians 1:21
138 Ephesians 3:10-11
139 Colossians 2:15
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[2] We now come to what some have called ‘the Achilles heel’ of our
interpretation. In Matthew 24:30-31 we read of “the sign of the Son of
man in heaven” and of his “coming on the clouds of heaven.” At this
point some who read this study may well be saying: ‘now surely you’ll
have to admit that this did not happen in that generation.’ Yet — amazing as it may seem, at first sight — the fact is that it did happen in that
generation. This is true for the simple reason that Jesus was not referring
here to his second coming [parousi,a]. No, what he was referring to was
his ascension to the right hand of God and his present reign in glory. We
here present the evidence that demands precisely this conclusion.
(1) Note first of all, then, that Jesus did not say the Son of Man
would appear, but rather that a sign would appear, and that the
purpose of that sign was to indicate that he was in heaven. The
Greek text doesn’t say “then the Son of Man will appear,” but “then
the sign of the Son of Man in heaven will appear.” There is a big difference between the two. Yet how constantly this fact is overlooked. In
Bible language a sign is not the same as the thing it signifies. The rainbow is ‘the sign of’ God’s promise that he will never again send a universal flood, but the rainbow is not — itself — that promise. Again,
baptism is ‘a sign of’ regeneration and renewal. But it is not — itself
— that regeneration. The bread and wine used in the Lord’s Supper are
‘signs’ of the body and blood of our Lord. But they are not themselves
— and do not become — Jesus’ literal flesh and blood. There is, in
other words, a very important difference between a sign and the thing
signified by the sign. The same is true here. To say “the sign of the Son
of man will appear,” is one and the same with saying that it will not be
Jesus Christ himself who will visibly appear. That is the very reason
why the sign is needed! A sign, in biblical language, is a visible representation of something invisible.
(2) But what does it mean, someone may ask, when verse 30 says
“They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory?” The answer to that question is found in one of
the prophetic visions of Daniel. Here is Daniel’s account of this vision:
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there
came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and
was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory
and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve
him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
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away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”140 So what
Daniel saw in that night vision was not the second coming [parousi ,a]
of the Lord Jesus Christ. These words—“coming [e vrco ,menon] with the
clouds of heaven”—do not have that meaning in prophetic language.
To the contrary, what they mean is our Lord’s exaltation — his ascension to the right hand of God the Father, in glory. Daniel’s vision
was a revelation of Christ’s then future enthronement in heaven, when
he would come up to heaven and gthen sit down at the right hand of
the Father to be given all authority in heaven and earth.
141
The prophecy of Daniel, in other words, looked forward to the time
when the Kingdom of God and of Jesus Christ would supplant all other
human efforts to found a universal Kingdom. And it is perfectly clear
that this has been fulfilled by the ascension and enthronement of Jesus,
and continues to be fulfilled in the world-wide extension of his Kingdom through the preaching of the gospel. Surely it is clear that when our
Savior was exalted to sit at the right hand of God the father, it was in order that he might receive the authority that he now exercises over all
things. Yes, this is indeed true. But we cannot see him with our physical
eyes at this time. That is why our Lord spoke of this visible “sign” of his
reigning in glory. And what was that sign? It was precisely the fulfillment of his threat to bring wrath upon the apostate Jewish teachers —
and the apostate Jewish nation. When the Romans came, the “lights”
went out, as they made the city and temple a scene of complete desolation. The reprobate Jews refused to believe that Jesus could make good
on his threat against them. But he did make good on it. That was the
sign which made it perfectly clear that he was reigning in glory. And his
ascension from earth, to heaven, to reign in glory was, in Daniel’s own
terminology, a “coming [evrco,menon not parousi,a] on the clouds of
heaven.” It meant that Christ’s work was (and still is) moving forward
— coming more and more to realization — because he is no longer in a
state of humiliation but is now in a state of exaltation (enthroned above
the clouds of heaven).
It should be noted here that this fully agrees with other seemingly enigmatic statements of Jesus. Speaking to Jewish people who were near
him while he was on earth our Lord said “Truly, I say to you, there are
some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of
Man coming [the Greek word for “coming” here is evrco,menon not par-
140 Daniel 7:13-14
141 Matthew 28:18-20
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ousi,a]
142 in his kingdom.”143 Just as there are two kinds of light, so
there are two kinds of “seeing.” That is why Paul told the Ephesians
that he was praying “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the
knowledge of him, having the eyes of your understanding enlightened…”144 Those who believed in Jesus as the Messiah promised and
sent by God, and who had been enabled to understand the truth as he
taught it, could “see” things the natural man could not see. One of
those visible things by which they could ‘see’ that their ascended Lord
was indeed enthroned at God’s right hand, was the destruction of Jerusalem and especially the Temple that he had promised. And it all happened in that generation. How, then, can this possibly be reasonably
interpreted to refer to some far-off time, long after the death of all of
those people, still future even today? Such interpretations, even though
they are quite common, are a wrong handling of Scripture. Jesus was
either wrong (which, of course, we deny) or “all these things” did actually happen in that generation (which we gladly affirm). And when
we realize that he was referring — by his very expressions — to the
prophetic witness of Daniel, we can ‘see’ that it really did happen. So,
in truth, there is no problem.
(3) A third thing that we need to notice is the fact that Jesus said “all
the tribes of the land will mourn” [v. 30 my own translation]. The
problem here is not in the text — as it stands in the original Greek
— but in unhelpful translations of it in English (and even the more
recent translations persist in this weakness). The NIV145
says “all
the nations of the earth will mourn.” This makes it — in this particular instance — one of the most unhelpful translations. The New American Standard, the New King James and the English Standard versions
are slightly better, but still far from satisfactory, when they translate this
phrase as “all the tribes of the earth.” This still gives an English reader the misleading impression that our Lord, by this statement, meant all
of the people groups in the world. But he did not. What he said — and
meant — was “all the tribes of the land [Greek: th /j gh /j]” meaning the
land of Israel. We see this clearly if we compare Matthew’s version
with the parallel passages in Luke. Since Luke’s gospel was written
with particular concern to make things clear to Gentile readers, it is
142 It is worth noting that the Greek Septuagint, the O.T. translation used by first century
Christians, used this same word (e vrcomai) in Daniel 7:13.
143 Cf. Matthew 16:28, Mark 9:1 and Luke 9:27
144 Ephesians 1:17-18
145 New International Version
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50
noteworthy that Luke does not even mention this exact statement. If
Christ had really predicted that ‘all the tribes (or nations) of the whole
world’ would be in mourning just before the sign appeared, it is inconceivable that Luke would fail to record that fact. Luke, as a companion
of Paul the great apostle to the Gentiles, was intensely interested in the
worldwide significance of Christ’s work as savior of all nations. But
since these words were only intended to indicate what was to happen
to the Jewish nation specifically, there was no reason for Luke to mention this to the Gentiles since it was not something that would directly
affect them. And conversely, there was good reason for Matthew to
record this since he wrote primarily for Jewish readers. They were the
ones who would (and did) indeed mourn throughout the land when
their house was left to them desolate!
(4) We do not usually think of the present age in terms of what is stated in Matthew 24:31 which says: “And he will send out his angels
with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four
winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Yet this is precisely
what began to take place, as never before, in that generation (and,
of course, is still going on now throughout the world). This is true regardless of how we understand the word “angels.”146 Scripture sometimes uses this term to refer to mere men who are sent forth as God’s
official messengers. And sometimes it is used to refer to heavenly beings that we usually think of when we hear the word ‘angel.’ And
since there is sufficient evidence in scripture to support either of these
ways of understanding the reference to ‘angels,’ we think it unwise to
be dogmatic on one side or the other. It seems to us, however, that —
in this instance — the word probably does refer to heavenly beings,
because the Book of Revelation often speaks of them as sounding the
trumpet. These trumpets, of course, are not literal trumpets that can be
heard by human ears. They are rather symbolic representations of earthly events that signify fulfillment of things prophesied in the word of
God.
In any case there is one very important fact that we know for sure.
The angels of God are indeed involved in the gathering in of God’s
146 As R.T. France put it “the ingathering of the chosen people may be expected to be
through the work of human ‘messengers,’ and it would be possible to take a,.ggeloi here in
this sense, which it carries in 11:10. But in all other cases in Matthew (including 16:28,
which is also based on the vision of Dan. 7) it denotes heavenly beings, and in this
context of the heavenly authority of the Son of Man it probably refers to the spiritual
power underlying human evangelization.” (Op. Cit. p. 928)
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elect. This is the very thing the unbelieving Jews found so startling
— and offensive! Would God really leave their house desolate?147
Would he really go out into the highways and byways of the world in
order to gather others in — even Gentiles?
148 And would the very
angels of God be involved in such an activity? This was simply unthinkable for most of the Jewish people of that time.
149 Yet, even as
Jesus spoke these words, the hour of fulfillment was fast approaching. That is why Jesus went on to say: “From the fig tree learn its
lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves,
you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these
things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.”
150 Here again it
is self-evident that these words are strained to the breaking point if
we try to transpose them from that generation, to what is still future.
If Jesus had intended his words to be understood to refer to something far off in the future, he would surely have said something like
this: ‘Now don’t imagine that summer is near, just because the fig
tree says it is! No, it is still a long way off. So — when you see these
things — don’t get excited. It isn’t going to happen for more than
2,000 years. It’s not at the door for this generation.’ But of course Jesus did not say any such thing. The reason was that “these things”
were not in the far distant future, but were going to happen in that
generation. “Truly, I say to you” said Jesus, “this generation will
not pass away until all these things take place.”151 Then — as if to
add one more hammer blow for emphasis — he said “heaven and
earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”152 As much
as to say: ‘incredible as it may seem to you unbelieving Jews this is
absolutely certain — “all these things” are going to happen within
this generation.’ Yes, and our Lord kept his word fully — “all these
things” did happen in that generation.
(5) This becomes even more certain if we observe the manner in
which Christ went on to speak, specifically, about his second coming [parousi,a].153 It is not our purpose, in this study, to provide an extensive exposition of the last part of our Lord’s teaching that day. It is
sufficient here, simply to emphasize the fact that Jesus sharply con-
147 Matthew 23:38
148 Matthew 22:9-10
149 Matthew 22:1-15, especially v. 15
150 Matthew 24:32-33
151 Matthew 24:34
152 Matthew 24:35
153 Matthew 24:36 to 25:46
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trasted the two things that his disciples had erroneously considered to
be simultaneous. Once before154 Jesus had mentioned his second coming [parousi,a] in order to differentiate it from the calamity he was
predicting. He did this in order to remind people then living that his
second coming would be like the lightning that comes out of the east
and shines to the west. When that event does suddenly come, in other
words, there will be no need for anyone to announce it to others, and
therefore there can be no excuse for being duped by deceivers who
would say “it has happened.” It is this point that Jesus elaborates on in
the rest of his teaching recorded in this passage. He first said no one
knows the day or hour of his second coming [parousi,a]. This was (and
is) one of the secret things known by the Father only.155 This being the
case, it follows that the time when it is to happen cannot be foreknown
(or fore-guessed). This is the point of our Lord’s comparison between
his second coming and the great flood that came in the days of Noah,
156 and the unexpected thief that comes in the night.157 If the second
coming of our Lord is not known as to the time appointed for it to
happen — like lightning that unexpectedly lights up the night sky —
like a thief who comes in the night — like the world-wide flood in the
days of Noah — then surely it is wrong to try to use material from the
earlier part of Matthew 24 in order to calculate when it will happen!
Yet this is precisely what has so often been attempted. People often
say that Christ’s second coming is very near because of all the signs
— the wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, and so on. Yet
it is this very error that the teaching of Christ was designed to prevent!
The one common feature of these three things — the lightning, the
thief in the night, and the flood of Noah — is that they come (or came)
without any warning signs. And according to Jesus himself, that is exactly the way it will at be his second coming [parousi,a].
Some people find it hard to accept the fact that a majority can be so
wrong. But popularity never was a valid test of the true Christian doctrine. The truth is that our Lord was right. “All these things” did come
to pass in that generation. And the very force — or purpose — of the
teaching of Jesus was to warn against the error so common today. It is
154 In verse 27
155 Matthew 24:36 (Mark 13:32). As Moses said to the children of Israel, long ago: “The
secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to
us and our children forever” Deuteronomy 29:29. The time for the parousia has not been
revealed.
156 Matthew 24:37-39
157 Matthew 24:42-43
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a serious error to confuse the momentous events of 70 A.D. with our
Lord’s second coming. There were signs to warn of the one. There will
be no signs to warn of the other. No, our Lord will return ‘as a thief in
the night.’ His return (parousi,a) will be as sudden, and unexpected as
a lightning flash way off on the horizon on a summer night in midwest America. It will come like ‘the flood of Noah.’ It will, in other
words, be without any warning signs. The only warning will be the
constant one found in the words found in the Bible and proclaimed by
preachers (just as the only warning of the world-wide flood was Noah’s faithful verbal testimony.158 When the parousi,a does comes it
will be much like it was then. For as the inspired apostle Paul warned,
“While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden
destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant
woman, and they will not escape.”159 It is certainly true that, as Paul
wrote to Timothy, “in the last days perilous times will come.”160 But
we must never forget that the ‘last days’ began with the ascension of
Jesus.161 Can anyone study the history of the Church without seeing
that in various places, and at different times, perilous events have happened? Think of the Christians burned by Nero. Think of the
Protestant believers tortured during the Roman Catholic Inquisition.
Think of the Christians killed under the tyranny of Adolph Hitler. Or
think of what happened to churches in China during the rule of Mao.
And it could happen to us. If the list of once-faithful churches that
have become apostate continues to increase in lands once blessed by
the Reformation, there will be perilous times for us too. But this is a
very different thing from what we read in Matthew 24:1-34.
Christ was speaking to people who were standing before him about
things that were certain to happen in their generation. He gave them a
series of ‘signs’ by which they could know for sure that Jerusalem’s
destruction was near. But it will not be that way with the second coming of Jesus, for of that day and hour God has provided no information
to enable us to know when it is about to happen. It has not pleased him
to reveal this. That is why Paul, writing to Thessalonian believers, repeats the very teaching of Jesus, saying “Now concerning the times
and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written
you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will
158 2 Peter 2:5
159 1 Thessalonians 5:3-4
160 2 Timothy 3:1
161 Cf. Acts 2:17, Hebrews 1:1 etc.
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come as a thief in the night.”162 The very purpose of Christ was to distinguish carefully these things that differ. How strange it is that so
many persist, even today, in confusing them.
What does the future hold? It is our conviction that it holds no such
gloomy and pessimistic a scenario as many imagine. Christ is on the
throne. He is reigning right now and he will continue to reign until he
has put all of his enemies under his feet.163 Yes indeed, perilous times
will come. But so will seasons of refreshing.164 Dreadful apostasy may
well come here, while over there God sends another great revival.
Meanwhile the world as a whole will simply continue with ‘the wheat
and the tares’ growing together until the harvest.165 Then, without any
warning signs at all, the Lord will appear in glory. May the Lord enable us to be ready for that great day.
Questions for Further Study and Discussion:
1. To what does Jesus refer in Matthew 24:29 according to the popular
view?
2. To what does Christ refer in Matthew 24:29 according to the analogy
of Scripture (comparing Scripture with Scripture)?
3. How do most people today misunderstand Matthew 24:30?
4. What was ‘the sign of the Son of man in heaven?’
5. What is the common error of interpretation made with respect to the
phrase “coming on the clouds of heaven”?
6. What does this phrase really refer to?
7. What does Matthew 16:28 (or Mark 9:1 or Luke 9:27) mean?
8. How do Bible translators add to the popular misconception of the
meaning of verse 30?
9. What are the two possible ways of understanding ‘angels’ in v. 31?
10. How does v. 32 confirm the conclusion that ‘all these things’ (including things in verses 29-31) had to happen in that generation?
162 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2
163 1 Corinthians 15:23-28
164 Acts 3:19
165 Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43.
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11. What is the main point of Christ’s teaching, in the rest of this section
(24:36 to the end of Chapter 25)?
12. Read what Paul says about the second coming [parousi ,a] of Christ,
in I Thessalonians 5, and underline anything that you find which confirms the above conclusions.
13. In what ways is a correct view of the future of great importance to
God’s people today?
57
Chapter 3
THE THESSALONIAN LETTERS
The second major prophetic passage in the New Testament is found
in Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. His two letters to the Thessalonians were probably written early in the apostolic age, probably not
later than 55 A.D. This means that approximately 25 years had passed
since Jesus delivered the great prophetic sermon recorded in Matthew 24.
It also means that Paul wrote this letter about 15 years before the destruction of Jerusalem (when “all these things” that Jesus had predicted finally happened). Nevertheless it is clear that already, in the Thessalonian
church, the very errors that Jesus had carefully warned against166 were
appearing. A careful study of 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 5:11 will show that
there were at least some people in that church who assumed that Christ’s
second coming (parousi ,a) would take place before that generation had
passed away. It was for this reason that they sorrowed with an unseemly
sorrow for those who had already died.
167 They erroneously supposed
that such persons would miss out on the blessings to be enjoyed by those
who would still be alive when Jesus returned. It was this false notion that
the Apostle strongly opposed (4:13-16).168 But the interesting thing to
observe is this: Paul did not say it was impossible for Christ to appear in
that generation. Indeed, he clearly indicates that he considered this to be
a possibility. For he says “we declare to you by a word from the Lord,
that we who are alive, who are left until the coming (parousi ,a) of the
Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.”169 And if our interpretation of Matthew 24 has been correct this is precisely what we would
expect Paul to say. Had not our Lord said that no one — not even Jesus
himself during his state of humiliation — knew when his second coming
would happen? And to say that was one and the same with saying that it
might come sooner or that it might come much later. If Paul had denied
all possibility that Christ might come back during that generation, he
166 Matthew 24:4, 23 and 26
167 1 Thessalonians 4:13
168 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16.
169 1 Thessalonians 4:15
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would have claimed to know at least something about the time of his second coming. But Paul did not have any such knowledge. No, says Paul,
“concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to
have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the
day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”170 In other words — as
we have already pointed out in our discussion of Matthew 24 — the second coming will come without any warning signs. No one, not even an
inspired apostle, knew (or could know) when it would take place.
So here, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul carries the
matter a little further. He again takes up the danger of these people being
deceived.
171 Because they had rightly believed it to be possible that Jesus might return sooner, rather than later, they were dangerously near to
being deceived by false rumors to the effect that his second coming [parousi,a] had already happened. Observe what the apostle writes. He urges
them “not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or
a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the
day of the Lord has come.”
172 The Greek term here is e vne ,sthken. It indicates something that has happened with an abiding result. The trouble is
that many of our English translations fail to express this faithfully.
173
The sense, in the original, is that some were succumbing to rumors to the
effect that the second coming had already happened. And this was exactly
the danger that Christ had predicted 25 years earlier.
174 Were they “so
soon” to be “unsettled” or “alarmed” by these false rumors and alarms?
Not if Paul could help it. And what better way than to refresh their
memory and understanding concerning what was certain to happen
before the visible return of Jesus? This, as we have seen, was the predicted ruin of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple.
It was this that our Lord himself had solemnly promised as an event
certain to take place in “that generation.” And this being the case, it was,
therefore, impossible that “that day” (meaning Christ’s second coming or
parousi,a) could come before “all these things” were fulfilled. Remember
this epistle was written about 15 years before that awesome destruction
came.
170 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2
171 “Let no man deceive you by any means” echoes Jesus warning in Mt. 24:23-27.
172 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2
173 The NIV is excellent here: it correctly translates this word as “has already come”).
174 Matthew 24:23-24
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Part 1 - THE DIFFERING VIEWS
Before we begin our discussion of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, it may be
well to describe briefly the three basic types of interpretation that have
been made of this passage.
(1) The first is that which regards this as a restatement of what Christ
had already taught (as recorded, or summarized, in Matthew 24, Mark
13 and Luke 21). The falling away, on this view, refers to the great
Jewish apostasy. They fell away from God when they rejected Jesus as
the Messiah — and continued to reject him even after he rose from the
dead and ascended into heaven. The man of sin is therefore a description of the one who came and made desolate the Temple and the ‘holy’
city. According to this view the events predicted by Jesus have already
happened (as promised in Matthew 23:34).
(2) The second interpretation is that which was held by many
Protestants at the time of the Reformation. They understood the great
apostasy to be the rise of the Papacy, and the false doctrines of Mariolatry, and the like, in the Roman Catholic Church. The man of sin
was taken to be the Pope. This view is set forth in the original version
of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 25:6. According to
this view the events predicted in 2 Thessalonians have been taking
place (and still are taking place) through the last twenty centuries.
(3) The third view is that which takes Paul’s description of the man of
sin, and the great apostasy, to be yet future — something even bigger
than what took place in 70 A.D. which is to be fulfilled near the end of
time, prior to (and near to) the second coming [parousi,a]. The falling
away, on this view, is taken to mean a nearly complete apostasy of the
visible Church, near the end of time. And the man of sin is taken to be
a person of extraordinary power and authority such as we have not yet
seen in history. According to this view the fulfillment is mostly still future.
These three views are shown side by side in the following diagram: (with
M standing for the appearance of the ‘Man of sin,’ and P for the ‘Parousia’).
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2024 13:15:02 GMT -5
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Matthew 24 and 2 Thessalonians 2
(Man of sin = M || 70 A.D. = ^ || ....................= unknown time || Parousia = P)
[1] (Jesus)_________(Paul) M^.......................................................................P
[2] (Jesus)_________(Paul)__^...............................M.....................................P
[3] (Jesus)_________(Paul)__^...................................................................M/P
Line [1] in the above representation depicts the view defended in this study
(with “all these things” specifically predicted by Jesus as happening in the
generation of the apostles, and so already fulfilled in past history). Line [2]
represents the view generally held by Protestants at the time of the Reformation (with the man of sin seen as something of progressive fulfillment,
over a long period of time, in the Roman Catholic Papacy). Line [3] represents the view held today by many Evangelical Christians (with the list of
events predicted in Matthew 24:4-35 seen as still in the future, as respects
their most important and complete fulfillment).
With respect to these views the following should now be clear.
(1) The third view cannot possibly be correct (popular though it is today)
for the simple reason that it contradicts the clear teaching of Jesus.
He said there would be no warning sign by which anyone could calculate the time of his second coming. (Remember the three illustrations Jesus used — the thief, the lightning, and the flood of Noah?
The thing common to all three of these is the absence of any specific
warning signs).
(2) It is clear that either of the first two views does preserve one main
point in the teaching of Jesus: namely, the fact that he will return
without warning signs. If the man of sin prediction was fulfilled in
the events around 70 A.D. then obviously this cannot be a sign to tell
us how soon, or when our Lord will return. Likewise, even if what is
said about the man of sin is taken as a prediction of the rise of the
Papacy (as was the view of some, at least, of the great Reformers), it
still cannot serve as a time indicator to tell us when Christ is about to
return.
(3) Again, on either of the first two views it is possible to take seriously
the fact that what Paul was talking about was already present in some
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meaningful way when he wrote to the Thessalonians. This point is
completely ignored in the third view. The Apostle said “the secret
power of lawlessness is already at work” (v. 7). He also says there is
“one who now holds it back” and he said this “will continue…till he
is taken out of the way” (v. 7). It is obvious that this fits well with
the first view. But it could also be argued that the predicted apostasy,
which culminated in later history in the Papacy, had already begun in
the Apostolic age when Paul was writing this letter (See 2 Peter 1,
Jude, 2 Timothy 2:16-18, 3 John 9, etc.).
(4) Since we do not see anything in either of the first two views that obviously contradicts what we have already learned from the teaching
of Jesus, we will now proceed to consider this passage and then try
to determine which of these views seems to have the most evidence
to support it as the correct one. In the interpretation of this passage
the following points are crucial:
[1] Who is ‘the man of sin’ (or lawlessness)?
[2] When does he appear?
[3] What is ‘the falling away,’ and how does it relate to the man of
sin?
[4] Who is ‘the restrainer’?
In the following section we will examine this passage with these questions in mind. (We will also be honest enough to admit it when there are
problems we are not able to solve).
Questions for Further Study and Discussion:
1. What was wrong with these Thessalonians (4:13-5:11)?
2. Did Paul think that Christ would return in that generation?
3. What danger predicted by Jesus was on the verge of happening among
the Thessalonians?
4. What are the three interpretations of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12?
5. What Scripture contradicts the futurist (to be fulfilled just before Jesus returns) view?
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6. Is there anything in the text of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 to help us decide between the first two views? If so, what?
7. What — if anything — in the text of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 would
(at first sight at least) seem to be a problem for interpretation type #1?
Part 2 - THE MAIN POINTS
In the previous parts of this discussion we gave our reasons for rejecting the interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2 which is popular today, the
view that places the final fulfillment of “all these things” as at some still
future time, just prior to Christ’s second coming. We now want to show
why we have been driven to adopt the view that says this prophecy was
fulfilled in the generation of the Apostles, and also why cannot fully
agree with the view that many Protestants had during the time of the
Reformation.175
(1) The first reason is that Paul warned the Thessalonians not to be
deceived by those who were being misled into thinking that the day of
the Lord had already come (v. 2). No, says Paul, “for that day will not
come, unless the rebellion176 comes first, and the man of lawlessness is
revealed” (v. 3). Christ’s second coming could not take place, in other
words, until this event (the rebellion) had happened. But to what event was
Paul referring? We believe it can be none other than what Jesus had already predicted in Matthew 23 and 24:1-35). We have already shown, in
our previous discussion, that the Jewish Theocracy was to be overthrown
because of its rejection of Jesus as the promised Messiah, and Jesus said
that was going to happen in “that generation.” That is why Paul says “Do
you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?”
177
Please note that the words in bold type, are also found in Matthew
23:36 and 24:34! “These things” were precisely the things that Jesus had
175 It is one thing to say the prophecy concerning the man of sin has had its one and only
specific fulfillment in the Apostolic age. But this does not mean that it has no other applications. The false doctrine of the Pope as the Vicar of Christ is very much like the blasphemous claims of the man of sin of which the apostle spoke. It is therefore appropriate to
cite this passage of Scripture in condemning the false claims of Roman Catholics. But it is
important that we do not confuse things that differ. A legitimate application of a principle
taught in a prophetic passage is not at all the same as to say it is that prophecy’s fulfillment.
176 The Greek term here is a .postasi ,a from which we get our word apostasy.
177 2 Thessalonians 2:5
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spoken of to the apostate Jewish leaders (in Matthew 23) and then to his
disciples (in Matthew 24:4-34). Since all of the New Testament scriptures
had not yet been written, copied and circulated among all of the churches
in those early years, it was therefore necessary for Paul himself to teach the
Thessalonians “these things.” But having heard “these things” from him
they ought to have remembered, from his teaching, that Christ could not
possibly return until after “all these things” had happened. Since they had
not yet happened, when Paul sent this letter to them, there was no reason
whatever for them to be deceived by these completely false rumors.
(2) The second reason is the presence of time indicators in this 2
Thessalonians passage. Paul did not say “the secret power of lawlessness” would come some day in the (far off) future. No, what he said was
that it was “already” at work as he was writing this letter. He said spoke
of “one who now holds it back,” but that it had not yet been “revealed.”178
In other words: the man of lawlessness was not spoken of as nonexistent at
when Paul was writing these words, but only as not yet revealed. Paul
spoke of him as one who already existed, but who was — for the time
being — still held back or hidden.
Observe also that, in verse 10, the apostle describes the rebellion (a vpostasi ,a) as something which had already happened. Unbelieving Jews
were already perishing because they already had persistently refused to
love the truth so they could be saved. That is why the inspired apostle
said “for this reason God is sending (Greek: pe ,mpei) them a powerful
delusion so that they have believed (Greek: pisteu /sai) the lie”179 Because most of the Jews of that generation had already rejected Jesus as
their Messiah, God himself had hardened their hearts in that unbelief
even as Paul wrote. The time indicators quite clearly show that Paul was
writing about something that was already a reality as he wrote. This
clearly supports the first interpretation listed above.
The Rebellion
The Greek word in verse 3 which is translated “rebellion” in the ESV
is avpostasi,a. It is more commonly translated as ‘apostasy’ (which means a
fatal falling or turning away from the God of the Bible). It is interesting to
note, however, that in the Greek Version of the Old Testament (and in
some New Testament passages) this term is also used to mean ‘divorce!’
178 2 Thessalonians 2:6
179 2 Thessalonians 2:11
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That is very significant because, in Biblical language, the greatest divorce
in history was the severance of the bond between the nation of Israel and
God. But either way we take this Greek word, the historical event that it
refers to was indeed both an apostasy and a divorce. It was also the momentous event prophesied by our Lord in Matthew 23. Think of the woes
pronounced by our Lord and predicted to happen in that generation! And
already they were coming to pass when Paul wrote this letter. Time after
time the Jews — to whom Paul went first with the gospel message — rejected his demonstration from the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus was
indeed their promised Messiah. But what usually happened was that they
stubbornly refused to receive the truth so that they might be saved. Therefore God was already sending them a strong delusion so that they would
believe ‘the lie.’180 Therefore, Paul could already say “the wrath of God
has come upon them at last [or, as in some translations, to the uttermost].”181 It was near, even at the doors, the dreaded hour of spiritual
darkness, in which a vast majority of the Jews would be cut out of their
own olive tree.182 Truly this was the great apostasy (and the great divorce)
that no other event in history can equal.
The Man of Lawlessness
So who was “the man of lawlessness?” [o , a ,.nqrwpoj th /j a ,marti ,aj
(or, as in some manuscripts, the man of sin: a .nomi ,aj)] It is our opinion
that this phrase most likely denotes the government of the Roman Empire as an institution and Caesar as its supreme embodiment. We say this
for the following reasons.
[1] “The Abomination of Desolation” spoken of by Daniel, was the
thing especially warned of by our Lord.
183 But we know, both from Luke
21:20,21 (written for Gentile readers) and from the book of Daniel that
this phrase originated in the desolation of the Jewish Temple by Antiochus Ephiphanes in 167 B.C.184 Daniel 11:30-32 indicates this clearly.
180 2 Thessalonians 2:11 (Cf. 1 John 2:22 “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is
the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the father and the son.” )
181 2 Thessalonians 2:16
182 Romans 11:17
183 Matthew 24:15
184 Antiochus called himself Qeoj Epifanhj (meaning ‘God manifested’, or just manifested, or illustrious, for short). But most people were of a very opposite opinion. They
changed one letter in his name to make it Epimanhj (meaning mad man, or insane) calling
him Antiochus Epimmanes. The account of what he did to desecrate the Temple and to
alienate the Jews from their spiritual heritage, is found in the Second Book of the Maccabees (a book of Jewish history which, though not considered part of the Old Testament,
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We cannot give an extended exposition of Daniel here. But many Bible
commentators agree that Daniel’s prediction of an “abomination of
desolation”185 was fulfilled by the desecrating activity of this Antiochus.
Viewed from the perspective of his standing in the world, at that time, this
man was relatively insignificant. He did not begin to compare in fame
or stature with such Empire builders as Nebuchadnezzar, or Alexander
the Great. But from the perspective of redemptive history Antiochus was
very important indeed. During a brief moment in history this man aspired to, and conspired to attain, a sphere of great power and glory. He
had ambitions to become a ruler of importance in one of the geographical sections of the empire left by Alexander the Great when he died at the
age of 33. But when his grandiose plans were frustrated he took out his
frustration by desecrating the Temple. He even compelled Jews to sacrifice
swine on the holy altar.186
Christ expected the Jews who were familiar with the book of Daniel
(and probably the Books of the Maccabees also) to understand this historical event and its title. Thus the abomination of desolation which was predicted in Daniel 12:11, was taken up by Jesus in Matthew 24, and meant to
be understood to refer to something very similar to what the Antiochus
Epiphanes had done.187
[2] The major error in the popular view is the assumption (without scriptural warrant) that “the man of sin [or lawlessness]” has to be someone of
world-wide authority (or, in other words, a man of unparalleled importance
in all of history, from a worldly point of view). There is no such teaching
in this passage, nor is it supported by the analogy of Scripture. It was not
the position of the man of sin with respect to the world that mattered, but
his position with respect to the Jewish Temple that was still standing when
Paul wrote these words.
If it be objected that the Roman Emperors did not make the awesome
claims that are ascribed here to the man of sin, we can only reply that they
did. In fact, the scripture tells us that it was common for ancient rulers to
make similar claims to divinity. In Ezekiel 28:2-10, for example, we are
was published as part of the Apocrypha included in the Greek [LXX] version of the Old
Testament).
185 Daniel 11:32
186 See 1 Maccabees 1:10-24 for more on this.
187 We have a similar phenomenon today in our word ‘holocaust.’ The murder of millions
of Jews (and others) by Hitler became known as the holocaust. It is now used to emphasize the wickedness of things, as for example abortion.
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told of the Prince of Tyre (hardly a man of world-wide authority and importance) who said “I am God, I sit in the seat of God” (v. 2). Similarly,
Isaiah describes the Emperor of Babylon as saying “I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah
14:14). So, by the analogy of Scripture, when Daniel (11:35-45) speaks of
a “…king who will do as he pleases and magnify himself above every
god…etc.,” there can hardly be any doubt that he intends for us to understand him to be like these other arrogant rulers in ancient times who were
described with this same terminology. In other words, the analogy shows
this to be a common self-designation for heathen civil rulers in history.
We therefore see, from this analogy of the Scripture, that the “man of
sin” is almost certainly the Roman Caesar.
The Restrainer
The one who restrained the man of sin for a while can also be determined by comparing Scripture with Scripture. In Daniel’s day, the prince
of Persia was Israel’s oppressor. The Lord, therefore, came to Daniel188 to
inform him that his prayer had already been heard from the first day he
began praying. “But” said the Lord “the prince of the kingdom of Persia
withstood me twenty-one days.”189 So it was the Lord himself — or, to be
more precise, the angel of the Lord (whom we take to be the pre-incarnate
Christ) — who restrained this Prince. Again, in 10:21, we read: “there is
none who contends by my side against these except Michael your prince.”
In this we are informed that behind the struggle between a great heathen prince and the Jewish people stood the higher powers of the invisible world. In other words, behind the visible struggle here on earth there
was a conflict between the spiritual principalities and powers in the
heavenly places. And since, in this Thessalonians passage, this human
ruler (“the man of lawlessness”) is described as functioning as an instrument of Satan190 it follows, as night follows day, that there was no one
powerful enough to restrain him but this same great angel of the Lord
(Cf. Jude 9). One popular interpretation understands this to mean that (in
Paul’s day, at least) the Roman Government itself was the restraining
188 Daniel 10:10-12
189 Daniel 10:12-14
190 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10
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power. But the difficulty with this interpretation is the (well-known) fact
that it was the Roman Government that soon (during the first three centuries of the history of the Christian Church) began to persecute Christian
believers. It is much more in harmony with history, and the analogy of
Scripture, to see the Roman Empire as headed up in Caesar, as being the
thing restrained by the Lord. But that restraint was removed in 70 A.D.
And when it was removed the Romans came and fulfilled the woeful
predictions of Jesus.
The Relationship
It may be objected, on this view, that there is no clear connection between (1) the apostasy and (2) the revelation of the man of lawlessness.
This objection evaporates, however, when we remember the analogy of
Scripture. In the revelation given to Daniel the inner connection is apparent. When the Old Testament church became grossly unfaithful God permitted the princes of the world kingdoms to oppress them. In other words,
the work of Satan has two aspects. On the one hand he works with “false
signs and wonders”191 in order to deceive those who profess to be God’s
people. And then when they are deluded — because they did not receive
the love of the truth — God permits Satanically directed forces to get a
mastery over them. Wasn’t this the very thing that Jesus had promised for
that generation?192 A study of the account of the Jewish historian Josephus
(who witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple) should be
enough to convince the most skeptical that the climactic apostasy of the
Jews came on the crest of the wave of just such lying signs and wonders.
The final inundation came when Titus — representing Rome’s Imperial
power — came to ‘sit down’ in the Temple in Jerusalem.
In the popular misconception prevalent today to say “he takes his seat
in the Temple”193 is taken to mean some kind of [future] supreme authority
over the whole Christian church, which will be accomplished by one supremely evil man. The writer of this study once held this view himself, for
the simple reason that he had heard it so often in his early life. But a closer
study of the original Greek text of this passage finally dispelled this error
completely. The Greek word nao.n, in verse 4 is often translated by the word
Temple but originally denoted only ‘the inner sanctuary’ of the Temple,
and not the Temple as a whole. Consequently, in the New Testament, this
191 2 Thessalonians 2:9
192 Luke 21:24
193 2 Thessalonians 2:4
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term is only used with reference to true believers who have the Holy Spirit
dwelling in them.194 Nowhere in the New Testament do we ever find anything to suggest that people in a state of apostasy can to be called God’s
temple-sanctuary. How, then, could some future “man of sin” sit down in a
spiritual temple composed of true believers? Those who reject God’s truth
are no part of God’s nao.n in the New Testament, but are rather identified
as being part of the Synagogue of Satan.195 Therefore no man who — on
this wrong view, would head up a great apostasy — could ever really sit in
God’s New Testament Temple because, by definition, this term [nao.n] refers only to those who are true believers.
But on the basis of the interpretation that we have outlined above, it is
not difficult to understand this point. Until 70 A.D. there was a Temple in
Jerusalem. Up to that time in history God himself had acknowledged it as his
Temple. Until the great divorce or apostasy — announced by Jesus — it was
still God’s house. But Jesus warned the unbelieving Jews that soon, very
soon, their house would be left to them desolate. And that is exactly what
actually happened. The “man of lawlessness” came to Jerusalem and sat
down in that Temple, as if he was divine. And it all happened ‘in that generation’ exactly as Jesus had predicted.
Questions for Further Study and Discussion:
1. What is the proper translation of the last phrase in 2 Th. 2:2?
2. With what, in Matthew 24, does this tie in?
3. To what does Paul refer when he says these things in 2 Th. 2:5?
4. Find some time indicators in 2 Th. 2:1-12. What do they show?
5. To what does Paul refer when he speaks of ‘the apostasy’?
6. Who was ‘the Man of sin (or lawlessness)’?
7. What O.T. evidence strongly supports this conclusion?
8. Who was ‘the restrainer’?
9. What O.T. evidence supports this?
194 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19; and 2 Corinthians 6:16
195 Revelation 2:9
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10. What is the relationship between the apostasy — the removal of restraint — and the revelation of the man of sin?
11. What N.T. data stands in the way of the Reformation interpretation of
the man of sin sitting in the Temple?
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2024 13:16:28 GMT -5
Chapter 4
THE ANTICHRIST
The antichrist is only mentioned in the New Testament in the Epistles
of John. We here quote all of these texts as we find them in the ESV.
“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the
last hour.” - “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” - “And every
spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the
antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”
- “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not
confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver
and the antichrist.” 196
The most common interpretation of these texts is that which envisions
a future ‘superman’ of evil. The writer was also, at one time, an adherent
of this popular idea, one simple reason: this was what the writer had so
often ‘heard’ from other people. But he was never really satisfied with it.
And here again it turned out that a closer study of these texts revealed
some startling things when we were careful to compare scripture with
scripture.
What did John mean when he said “as you have heard that antichrist
is coming?”197 Did he mean that what the people he was writing to had
heard was correct? Or did he merely indicate that they too (those firstcentury Thessalonian Christians to whom he was writing) had fallen under
the influence of an erroneous, but common and popular, opinion? We cannot help but recall that Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, used this very
same expression. “You have heard”
198 Jesus said it, over and over again,
in that sermon. But did he mean that what they had heard was the truth?
196 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; and 2 John 7.
197 1 John 2:18
198 Matthew 5:21, 27, 33, 38, 43
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No, that was just the trouble: what they had heard wasn’t exactly the truth!
That is why Jesus immediately went on to correct serious errors and distortions in what those people had heard repeated so many times. And it was
the same, later on, when John wrote about this antichrist doctrine. John did
not say there was no truth at all in what people in Thessalonica had been
hearing. But he did make it clear that there were serious errors in what they
had heard. That is why he, following the example of his Lord, wrote to
correct error and clarify truth. So in John’s corrective of what they had
heard he clearly states that the real antichrist was (1) not something in the
distant future, but rather something already present; (2) not something to
be found in one ‘big’ future antichrist, but in many present antichrists; and
(3) not a super man at all, but rather a supernatural spirit of error.
What John calls “the antichrist” was already present when John wrote
this Epistle. How could he have said it more clearly? “Children” he wrote
“it is the last hour.” And how did John know it was the last hour? Well, he
knew it because he could truthfully say “even now many antichrists have
arisen.” The original Greek here is decisive. John said the antichrist had
come in that historical era in which he, himself, was living. It was an accomplished fact with an abiding result when John wrote, prior to 100 A.D.
Is this not often ignored — yes, even denied — on the common view of
the antichrist? It is often said, of course, that there were forerunners of the
antichrist. But observe: John did not say that. He did not speak of ‘little
antichrists’ in his day leading up to a ‘big one’ at some time later in history. No, what he said is “this is the last hour.” It was, in fact, precisely because so many antichrists had already arisen that John knew it was the last
hour. For “this is the antichrist” he said “the one who denies the Father
and the Son.” As Professor B. B. Warfield stated it “predecessors of antichrist might prove that the ‘last hour’ was approaching; only actual antichrists could prove that ‘the last hour’ had already come. There can be no
question, then, that John volatilizes the individual antichrist (i.e. the rumored superman of evil) into thin air, and substitutes for him a multitude
of ‘antichrists.’”199
This conclusion is strengthened further by the teaching of 1 John 4:3.
In this text we clearly see that there is what can be called an antichrist spirit in the world. But the remarkable thing is that John said what they had
heard of as something that was going to come into the world, was in fact
already present. It “now is in the world already”200 said John. In other
199 From Selected Shorter Writings of Benjamin B. Warfield, Vol. 2, p. 360.
200 1 John 4:3
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words “John not only erases the individual antichrist from the scroll of
prediction,” to quote Warfield again, “but reduces him just to a heresy.”
For “who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the
antichrist.”201 In fact, says John, “every spirit which confesses that Jesus
is Christ come in the flesh is of God; and no spirit which does not confess
Jesus, is of God: and this is the spirit of the antichrist of which you have
heard was coming: and now is in the world already.”202 The antichrist
phenomenon was not a thing of the future even when John wrote these
words. It was already a present reality. And it was not there in merely a
small, preliminary way. No, it was there in its fullness.
But what difference does it make (someone may ask) which view we
have concerning the antichrist? Well, it is our conviction that it makes a
big difference. Imagine, for argument’s sake, a young theological student
after World War II. The war had just ended. He had just enrolled as a student in a theological seminary that was drifting away from the faith. ‘Ah
well,’ he might have said to himself, ‘this isn’t anything to get excited
about: at least I don’t live during the terrible time of the coming Antichrist.’ So, in his foolish naiveté, he might have relaxed his guard and the
spirit of antichrist could have destroyed him. A false sense of security engendered by the false idea that the real Antichrist — the ‘big one’ — is
still some distance in the future, could have led him to become the victim
of the many antichrists (controlled by the antichrist spirit of the age) of
which this apostle warned in these letters. Suppose, on the other hand, that
this same young man came to see the three simple elements of John’s
teaching (that the antichrist is present, not far off in the future — many, not
just one — and a spirit, not one super man). This insight would at once put
him on his guard, and therefore he would not become a victim.
When we look at the sad state of many Churches today, isn’t this lesson apparent? Instead of looking for the one big Antichrist assumed to be
coming in the future, Christians ought to have been on guard against the
many antichrists that were already present. For — as John has assured us
— “the Antichrist” is anyone “who denies the Father and the Son.”203
How, we might well ask, could John have made it any clearer? Since “every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God,”204 and since “many
deceivers have gone out into the world…who do not acknowledge Jesus
201 1 John 2:22
202 1 John 4:3
203 1 John 2:22b
204 1 John 4:3
A STUDY OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY
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Christ as coming in the flesh”205 does it not follow (as John has assured us)
that “this is…the Antichrist?”206 Any theologian, college teacher, or minister of the gospel, who denies the historical truthfulness of the Bible, is
under the dominion of the antichristian spirit. All attacks of the antichrist
have this as their essence. And the sad thing is that entire churches have
been carried away by this spirit while many of the church members remained unaware of what was happening. They thought they were safe because they had always ‘heard’ that the antichrist was still in the future. In
actual fact they became victims of the real antichrist of the Scripture.
Yes, it’s a bad thing indeed, when Christians are held in the spell of a
wrong view of the future. Yet that is exactly what has happened to many
confused Christian people today. They are pessimistic about the future.
They think it will be very dark — because they believe ‘the big antichrist’
is coming. The truth is that the future for God’s people is not dark, for —
as this same apostle John clearly says so — “the darkness is past, and the
true light is already shining.”207 This is not said as a kind of ‘whistling in
the dark.’ Biblical Christians do not believe in any Utopia to be attained in
world history, before the return of Jesus. No, but they do believe in the
victory of the cause of Christ in world history. That is why they realize that
they need to put on the whole armor of God in order to fight the good fight
of faith in overcoming every manifestation of the spirit of the antichrist.
The time of alarm is now, not ‘someday.’ There perils all around us, not
just somewhere else. The need to take the whole armor of God is ours, as it
will be for those who come later.208 But the encouraging thing is that the
future really is bright. Christ has ascended to glory. He sits, right now, at
the right hand of God — he is in the process of “coming” (e vrco ,menon)
right now on the clouds of heaven in His kingdom.
We don’t know when Jesus will return to us in the visible glory of
his parousia (parousi ,a). There will be no signs to tell us when it is
about to happen. He simply warns us to be awake — and at work — so
that when he does come he will find us as ‘faithful servants.’ What the
Church needs today is to go back and carefully study the words of Christ
and his apostles. And nowhere is this more needed than in the doctrine of
the future. If this brief study will encourage that it will need no other justification.
205 2 John 7
206 1 John 2:22 & 4:3
207 1 John 2:8b
208 Ephesians 6:11-1A STUDY OF BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGY
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Questions for Further Study and Discussion:
1. What is the popular view concerning the Antichrist?
2. To what does the phrase “you have heard” refer in Matthew Chapter
5?
3. Can you state the three basic errors that John refutes in his Antichrist
statements?
4. From the texts printed in the first paragraph on page 68 underline the
words that show that John did not believe in one big antichrist in the
future.
5. What is the main teaching that the spirit of the antichrist seeks to destroy in the church?
6. How does a false doctrine of antichrist harm in the church?
7. Is there any evidence of the antichrist in your community?
8. Do you see it as helpful for your own daily life to understand the doctrine of the antichrist? If so, how
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