When Will All These Things Happen? Part 1

More Understanding: Matthew 23-24

Here we go, back to our look into what we call eschatology. The study of "the end times".

This post will look deeper into Matthew 24, a passage which has become know as the “Olivet Discourse” because Jesus gave this teaching to His disciples while they were gathered at the Mount of Olives. Now certainly, there are other passages and chapters in the Bible that seem to give light and understanding into the end times - and I might even get to them at some time. However, I am going to start with Matthew 24, since it is probably the most widely (mis)quoted and (ab)used portion of prophetic writing.

We will begin in Matthew 24:3, where the disciples asked Jesus some key questions.

As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciple came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

In the verses that follow, Jesus gives answers to each of these questions. Essentially, the way we understand His answers here determine what we believe about the endtimes, tribulation, the antichrist, and the unfolding of future events...and I might add also that your view of the end has a direct affect on your view, outlook, and response to the present.

After the disciples asked Jesus their questions in Matthew 24:3, Jesus answered talking about false leaders claiming to be Christ, wars, earthquakes, famines, persecutions, and people falling away from the faith. He also talks about the gospel being preached around the world, followed by destruction, tribulation, and people being taken away.

Christians who believe the popular endtime view study Jesus’s answers and conclude that all of the events listed are going to happen in the future, shortly before the end of the world.

Over the last few years, I have come to very different and very hopeful conclusion.

In this post, I will try to walk with you through Matthew 24 verse by verse to explain. First, I need to clearly identify the questions Jesus was asked by His disciples.

As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will the sigh of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" (Matt.24:3)

Some translations end this verse with "end of the world," because the Greek word anion, which is used in the original text, may be translated as "age" or "world." Using the term "world," modern endtime theology tend to summarize the questions asked by the disciples into an inquiry about the second coming of Jesus and the end of the world. Therefore, when Jesus gives His answer in the verses that follow, all His comments are thought to be answering that question. The initial problem with that understanding is in that the disciples probably had no thought of Jesus leaving much less of His coming back. They hadn't even really considered that He was going to die.

I would like to suggest that in Matthew 24:3, the disciples asked Jesus not one question, but three distinctly different and separate questions.

• Question #1: "When will these things happen?"
• Question #2: "What will be the sign of Your coming?"
• Question #3: "What about the end of the age (world)?"

As we realize there are three different questions, this should dramatically change how we understand the answers that Jesus gives. He first answers question one in verses 4-28. Then He answers the second question in 29-34. Lastly, He addresses the question about the end of the age (or the world) in verses 24:35-25:24...

Question #1: "When Will These Things Happen?"
The first thing asked of Jesus was, "When will these things happen?" Before we look at Jesus’ answer, we need to identify what "these things" actually are. What things are disciples were asking about?

Christians who have been taught the popular futurist end-time view think "these things" refers to the events which will precede the second coming of Jesus and the end of the world. I believe what we find reflects a very different understanding if we read within the context of these Bible passages.

Matthew 23 tells about a day when Jesus was speaking in the temple in Jerusalem. First, He warned the crowds and His disciples to watch out for the Scribes and Pharisees (23:2-12). Then beginning in Matthew 23:13, Jesus turned from the disciples and directed His words directly towards the religious leaders. We can sense His intent in reading the first few words of each verse that follows:

Verse 13: "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites…"
Verse 14: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites…"
Verse 15: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites…"
Verse 16: "Woe to you, blind guides…"

Here, Jesus is rebuking the religious leaders right there in their temple. Glance down a few more verses and pick up the intensity of His rebuke:

Verse 23: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!..."
Verse 24: "You blind guides…"
Verse 25: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!..."
Verse 26: "You blind Pharisee…"
Verse 27: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!..."
Verse 29: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!..."

Jesus built up to a climax in which He declares severe judgment against those religious leaders.

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the alter. Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. (23:33-36)

At that moment, I don't think I would have wanted to be sitting with the scribes and Pharisees.

As Jesus declared coming judgment, He referred to the blood of every righteous person, from Abel to Zechariah. Why is this significant? In the Hebrew Bible, Abel is in the first book and Zechariah is in the last book. In essence, Jesus was saying to the religious leaders that the guilt of the blood of every righteous person – from the beginning of their Holy Book to the end—will come upon them and on their generation! That's pretty intense.

Judgment has been decreed
Typically we understand a generation to be 40 years in length. If Jesus' words were to come true , we should expect the judgment He declared to fall upon those religious leaders who were listening to His words and on those who would be around during the following 40 years. As Jesus said in 23:36, I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

In the next 2 verses Jesus tells more specifically how this great judgment was to occur.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!

The Judgment Fulfilled in 70 AD
So, the question comes to this. Did all that Jesus said come true? Everything He said would have had to have been fulfilled by 70 AD, as Jesus made this declaration around 30 AD. Historically, did anything happen?

Yes, in 70 AD Jerusalem was destroyed. My post "Matthew 24, is it the end, or History?" talks about this. Forgive me if I am repeating myself, but I feel this is an important matter to discuss. I intend to bring it up again becuase, in fact, our understanding of "the end" does effect our view and and reactions to our present.

So, here it is, within 40 years after Jesus declared judgment (Matthew 23), some 20,000 Roman soldiers, under the command of General Titus, surrounded the city and cut off all supplies of food for four months so the people would starve. Then they came into the city and mercilessly killed over one million Jews. The soldiers set the temple on fire, and they led away 97,000 Jews as Roman captives.

At that time the Jewish population was decimated. Historically, little is known about the Jews’ actions or lives for the following 60 years. It was not until 130AD that they began reassembling with enough strength to attempt one last rebellion against Rome. Then after three years of battling, the Romans were able to crush that rebellion, and Israel was no longer recognized as a nation (until 1948). It also was at that time that the Roman commander ordered the temple in Jerusalem to be demolished so completely, that each and every stone was carried away, and then the land on which the temple had stood was plowed over completely. The temple was destroyed entirely, as Jesus said it would be. (24:2)

There are a good number of historical documents from that time period which give us information about the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. However, most of our current information comes from Josephus, a Jewish historian who lived at that time and was an eye witness of the events. Concerning the war against and destruction of Jerusalem, Josephus wrote many things, including the following:

…when the(the Roman soldiers)were come to the house to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men…that is of such as died by the famine; they then stood in a horror at this sigh, and went out without touching anything. But although they had this commiseration for such as were destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same for those that were still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses were was quenched with these men’s blood. From The Works of Josephus, translated by William Whiston Hendrickson Publishers, 1987

It is worth reading all of Josephus’ writings about the fall of Jerusalem. What is so astounding about them is how clearly – sometimes word for word—they fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus in Matthew 23-24.

The writings of Josephus are available in most Christian bookshops or libraries, and can be accessed freely on many websites.

John Wesley is quoted as saying (regarding v 24:2)

This was most punctually fulfilled: for after the temple was burned, Titus, the Roman general, ordered the very foundations of it to be dug up; after which the ground on which it stood was ploughed by Turnus Rufus, this generation of men now living shall not pass till all these things be done . The expression implies that a great part of that generation would be passed away, but not the whole. Just so it was; for the city and temple were destroyed thirty-nine or forty years after. (The Works of John Wesley, 1985 at Christ Notes commentary)

The Context of Matthew 24
We will possibly discuss the battle and destruction of Jerusalem and the temple more fully later, but here we are noting the context in which Matthew 24 begins. We know that in the original Greek manuscripts of the New Testament there are no chapter breaks. Matthew 23 flows right into Matthew 24 with no interruption. Matthew 24:1 goes on to say:

Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He said to them, "Do you not see all of these things? Truly, I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down." (Matt.24:3)

After repeating that the temple would be demolished completely, Jesus walked away from the temple with His disciples. Then the next verse starts off saying, As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives …

Where is the Mount of Olives? It is the hill just outside the temple in Jerusalem. As Jesus sat down with His disciples they most likely were looking right at the temple from which they had just left.

Let’s put ourselves in the disciples’ position. If I had been sitting there with Jesus, what would you ask? Jesus had just finished decreeing a vast judgement over the city of Jerusalem and the Temple. More than likely this is on my mind, so wondering what Jesus is talking about I would have asked a similar if not the same question. The disciples asked: "Tell us, when will these things happen?"

They were asking, "When will Jerusalem and the temple be destroyed?"

As I said earlier, popular endtime teachers assume that the disciples were asking about the end of the world. It’s possibly not until the third question that they asked Jesus about that end. More than likely, they asked about the end at the same time that they asked about the temple being destroyed because in their Jewish minds what Jesus had just predicted was so cataclysmic that they must have wondered if it would be the end of the world. They were shocked at the thought of God’s holy temple being destroyed. How could life go on without it? Could it possibly coincide with the end of the world? If not, when would it occur?

I will look at Jesus’ responses to the second and third questions sometime later.

But now, I want to clarify that the first question the disciples asked Jesus is, "When will these things—Jerusalem and the temple—be destroyed?" Within a Generation.

As we look at His answer, keep in mind His time frame. Jesus said Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed within a generation. He repeated that again in Matthew 24:34, saying: "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place."

So, can we accept these words of Jesus literally? Absolutely, yes!

Popular (modern) endtime teaching sees all of the events of which Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24 happening not by 70 AD, but some 2,000plus years later, sometime in our future. Therefore they cannot the time frame of that generation which Jesus declared in two separate passages (Matt.23:36 and 24:34).

Some popular endtimers will explain their position by redefining the word "generation" to mean "race," and say that the race of Jewish people will not pass away before the end of the world. Others claim that the generation which would see all of the events listed in Matthew 24:4-33 – that generation will not pass away until Jesus returns.

I believe that Jesus knew exactly what He was talking about.

Everything that is prophesied between Matthew 23:36 and Matthew 24:24 took place exactly as Jesus declared, during the generation which was alive when Jesus declared those words.

This is what I want to try to show you in my next blog entry. (I fear this may be too long for only one).

Next post: Jesus answers the first question. (including Famines, Wars, Earthquakes, and the anti-Christ).

Also see:

Matthew 24...is it the end...or History?

A Thought: His Kingdom is without end.

8 Core Values of Eschatology