Understanding Matthew 24—Past or Future?

And I want to just look at that very quickly because that is relevant to our study tonight. Let’s pray together. Our Father, we thank you again for the opportunity to study your word. We ask you, Lord, to be our teacher, to bless us as we study your word, to help us to handle the scriptural right. And I pray especially that these truths that we cover tonight, but also later as we go through Matthew 24 and five, that they would profoundly affect our lives, that we would live in light of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, help me to say what your people, your saints need to hear to encourage and strengthen and edify them, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. Verse 39 says this, the Lord, of course, speaking to the inhabitants of Jerusalem says this, for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Now that raises a question that’s covered in Matthew 24.

Did you see it? Which is the one who is coming in the name of the Lord. So actually the last verse of Matthew 23 sort of introduces us, although it’s in a different context, at least at that time, but scripturally, it’s in a close by context, it introduces us to the coming of the Lord. And so the question is this, what is Jesus talking about when he says, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord?

Because he says that the Jews will say, blessed is he that is coming in the name of the Lord, referring to himself. Now you might, it raises a question, well, what coming are we talking about? Jesus is still alive, he hasn’t left. Well, we’ve seen in our study of Matthew a number of places where Jesus describes when the son of man cometh, will he find faith on the earth?

When the son, and he’s still alive, he hasn’t ascended, which tells the disciples that there is a second coming. And that’s a key and important point. But the problem is that some people understand this coming not in the way that you automatically understand it, but they understand this coming as in some non-literal coming. Some people have argued that the coming of the Lord in verse 39 is referring to the Holy Spirit.

Some people refer to the coming of the Lord as that moment when a person receives Christ as an individual. And we could go on and on with that, but that’s when the Lord said he was coming, he was not referring to the Holy Spirit. That is when he said he’s coming in his second coming. That was a coming that was only for his people in the person of the Holy Spirit.

We won’t spend a lot of time on this just because I don’t want to get bogged down with it, but notice, go down to chapter 24 and verse number one.

The Bible says this, and Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, see ye not all these things, verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. As he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, tell us when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?

Notice there are three questions. The first question regards the overthrow of the temple, which is what Jesus mentions in verse two. The second two questions regard the sign of the coming of the Lord and the sign of the end of the world. Okay, verse four. And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ and shall deceive many.

And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you, and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Now we’ve covered that verse, verse 13, partially before, but we are going to come back to that verse.

Verse 13 might be the most abused and misunderstood verse in all of the Bible. And it is grossly misinterpreted, but we’ll have to wait to another time to cover that.

Verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, who so readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house.

Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day, for then shall be great tribulation. Such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved. But for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders inasmuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before.

Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn when they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man. No, not the angels of heaven, but my father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days they, as in the days they were before the flood, that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away.

So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then shall too be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. We’ll pause right there just to save a little bit of time, not read all the way down to verse number 51.

So when we come at this chapter, as I said, there are several different views for the way, in other words, if you could describe it like this, I say views. What I mean is overlays. How many of you are familiar with a overhead projector? We had the, we’re going back in time, right? We had them in school when I was a kid and I’m sure some of you remember them.

But those plastic pieces of sheet, those plastic transparent sheets, and you would lay it over the top of whatever you were displaying and it would give you additional information. Well, that’s kind of what we do when we read Matthew 24, is we take an overlay and we lay it over top and that is how we understand, how to understand Matthew 24. And everybody has an overlay. We call it a method of interpretation.

Everybody has one and we lay it over top of the Bible. But Matthew 24 is one of them where it makes a big difference. All right. Because one view essentially eliminates what we would call the second coming of Christ. It essentially eliminates it and it says, that is not a thing, even though it’s described, even though we read it, and we’re like, how could someone say that?

It says, son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power. I mean, it says it and it seems obvious to us, but there are people that with their overlay, they read this and they so interpret it that it does not, the coming of the Lord, as we understand it, is not a thing that exists at all. It never happens. It’s just we all die and then there’s a final judgment and then we go to heaven, right?

And then our point of view is also has an overlay and we interpret it. And so when we read this passage of scripture, we take it at face value. That is, we read it in the common normal language and we come to a wildly different conclusion, which is Jesus is actually coming in physically, personally, literally.

Now, what I wanna do though, is I wanna cover one of these views and I really don’t wanna bore you. I’m trying my best not to bore you, but I think it’s important to start Matthew 24 with a basic understanding of how we’re going to view Matthew 24 and the reasons we’re gonna view it like this. And so I’m gonna present this view to you and we’re gonna examine it.

And we’ll try to go quickly and I’m gonna show you some things. In fact, Sister Rita asked me or was talking to me this morning and she might not even know exactly that she was actually asking me about this very subject, but it is absolutely essential to understanding whether this is something that’s relevant to us or not. Because if this other view that I’m gonna cover is true, then this has nothing to do with us whatsoever and we can just keep reading basically.

This other view is called the view of preterism. Preterism. The word preterism simply means this, it basically means past. And the idea with preterism is simply this. It teaches that the events of Matthew 24, and I’m speaking broadly now, the events of Matthew 24 happened already during the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. And so everything you read in here is actually to us, to Jesus it was future, 40 years into the future, but to our day it’s been over for 1,900 years.

This is the idea of preterism. You say, do the people really believe? Yes, there are absolutely people that believe it. And it’s not uncommon. It’s actually on the rise.

But it’s an old view. And so they teach that what we read in this chapter to us is already past. Now there are two kinds of preterism. There’s full preterism and there’s partial preterism. Full preterism takes literally everything from verse one to verse 51, and they view it all as in the past and they interpret it in such a way that they come out with that view.

Partial preterism takes the first part of the chapter, say to verse 35, and they say that part is past, but from 36 on that part is future. To give you a hint, but that day and hour knoweth no man, but the angels which are in heaven, they would say, a partial preterist view might say that part is future, but the first part of the chapter has already happened.

Now why does this matter? Why are we taking the time to do this? Well first of all, two reasons. The first reason is that I want you all as you read and study this chapter, as we look at it together, I want us all to be on the same page as to our assumptions when we read it. And our assumption is that what we read, we take at face value as meaning as it sounds in a normal reading.

We call it the historical grammatical method of interpretation. In other words, we don’t look any further than what’s just on the page unless there’s a good reason to do so. That’s the first reason. The second reason is this.

Where we end up in this question as to what Matthew 24 means has a lot of effect upon the way we view the coming of the Lord, and the way we view the coming of the Lord has a huge effect upon our practical Christian life. You know why? Because the Lord repeatedly tells us to watch and to prepare and to be diligent and working. Not going into our bunker with our patriot supply.

You know what I’m talking about, they advertise. No, no, it’s not. Making sure we have 200 buckets of food to prepare for the Armageddon. No, no, no. The coming of the Lord is supposed to teach us to prepare to meet Christ and to occupy and labor for Him until He comes. Not to hide until He comes. That’s actually the very opposite. That is a misunderstanding of the text, of Scripture.

So where what we believe about the coming of the Lord is going to then affect the way we live our life. What we prepare for, what our hope is. In fact, the Christian’s hope is all about the coming of Christ. And so we have to understand the nature of the coming of Christ. So let’s look at preterism for a minute. All right, let’s look at Matthew 24 and take your Bible and go to Luke chapter 21.

So hold Matthew 24 and go back to Luke chapter 21. Now, Matthew 24 has two parallel passages. One is in Mark and one is in Luke, and we’re gonna look at the one in Luke real quick. Mark says almost the same thing as Matthew, so we won’t look at that today, but we will look at Luke 21. And if you can, hold one hand in Matthew, maybe your left hand in Matthew 24, and because we’ll be going back and forth a little bit.

So preterism teaches that everything we read in Matthew 24 has already happened. That’s broad brushing it, but that’s the idea. And one of the key reasons that they teach us and one of the key reasons that they take that is because they take Luke 21, which is a parallel passage, and Matthew 24, and they interpret Matthew 24 to fit into Luke 21 as if they’re saying the same thing.

But as you’ll see in just a minute, Luke 21, Sister Rita, is not saying the same thing, right? And that’s a key difference. So if you take Luke 21 as the key, and then you try to force Matthew 24 into Luke 21, what you have to conclude that some things that Matthew says are not exactly to be taken at face value, that they’re figurative or spiritual, okay?

I hope you understand what I’m saying. Start in verse number five of Luke chapter 21. And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, as for these things which ye behold, the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. Does that sound familiar? That sounds like Matthew 24 referring to the destruction of the temple.

And indeed, that’s what it is. And that happened in 80, 70 with Titus. And they asked him saying, Master, now notice their questions. The questions in Luke are different than the questions in Matthew. Ask yourself, what’s different? Then they, and they asked him, Master, what, but when shall these things be? What things?

Right, the stones being thrown down and the destruction of the temple, and what sign will there be when these things come to pass? You notice what’s not there? Any word about the coming of Christ.

You see, that’s missing. In other words, Luke does not cover those questions. Now that’s a key, keep going. And he said, take heed that ye be not deceived. For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ, and the time draweth near. Go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified, for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not by and by.

That’s also similar to Matthew. Then said he unto them, nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places and famines and pestilences, and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, notice he says before all these, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name sake.

And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain say nor resist. And you shall be betrayed, both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk and friends, and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.

And you shall be hated of all men for my name sake. But there shall not in hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compass with armies, that means surrounded, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Now hold on. When you see Jerusalem surrounded, does Jesus say that that is a sign of his coming? No. He says it’s a sign of the desolation of Jerusalem, which is its destruction, which happened in 80, 70.

All right, keep reading. See the problem is this. This is a perfect example. That verse, verse number 20, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, they take a random verse out of Matthew 24, and they say, see this is talking about the coming of the Lord, even though it’s not mentioned. And the interpretation is then that the coming of the Lord is actually the destruction of Jerusalem.

All right, we’ll see that in a minute. Notice it says this. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them, now you notice this language is similar. Does everybody see that? There’s a similarity between the language, but there are key differences. And let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter therein too.

For these days, these be the days of vengeance. I mean, have we not just studied Matthew 23, where Jesus said their house would be left desolate, right? Jerusalem would be destroyed. These be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

So we expect that related to the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus is going to judge them. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations. You know what, that verse right here is not in Matthew. This whole captivity into all nations is missing.

And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of Gentiles be fulfilled. So listen, Luke is telling us about the destruction of Jerusalem, and he hints of another thing coming later, the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled. So there’s a period of time that will pass after that. And you get to the end of that period, and we keep reading.

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea, and the waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Now that’s the same as Matthew, is it not? Those three verses, same as Matthew. But note, Jesus just covered two things. He covered the destruction of Jerusalem, then he said, there’s this intervening time after its destruction when the Gentiles control Jerusalem. And then he starts talking about the signs of the Son of Man coming, does everybody see that? So here’s the point. Luke is talking about two different events, the destruction of Jerusalem, and then the coming of the Lord later, and he separates them with clear language.

In Matthew, there is no such distinction. He goes directly into the coming of the Lord, which is why the language overlaps. Now you might ask yourself, why does it sound so similar in so many ways? I’ll get to that in a minute, but there is a reason for that. But in order to get Matthew 24 to mean that the coming of the Lord is referring, it’s basically the same as Luke, is to ignore the clear distinctions that are found in Luke.

So to sister read his question, the first part of Luke 21 is not talking about the coming of Christ, but it’s talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. And then you get to verse number 25, and Jesus is now talking about the coming of the Lord, which happens later.

So basically the Preterist is gonna take Matthew 24 and force it into Luke 21, and then therefore interpret it as if it’s already passed in the destruction of Jerusalem. Now here’s the reality of it, and I’ll just state this, and we’ll have to see it as we study it later. Luke 21 and Matthew 24 are what’s called a dual prophecy. What does that mean? Many times in the Old Testament, prophetic books, the Lord said something, and it has a near fulfillment, and then a far fulfillment.

Probably the easiest example I can think of is the verse that’s quoted in Matthew at the birth of Christ, and it says, because you remember Joseph and Mary came from Egypt, they fled to Egypt, and then they came back out of Egypt, and the verse says, and the scripture was fulfilled, out of Egypt have I called my son. Now if you go back and you read that verse in the Old Testament, what you’ll find is it’s hard to see that in the Old Testament.

It sounds like he’s talking about Israel. Do you know why? Because it’s a dual prophecy. It’s talking about both at the same time. And you know what? That is very common. We’re gonna see an example in just a minute. And that, so when we come to this passage that’s prophetic, it’s no surprise that we also see a dual prophecy that the Lord is referring to the Lord is referring in part to the destruction of Jerusalem, as well as to the coming of the Lord, but they’re not one and the same.

Okay, they’re not one and the same. Okay, so in other words, there’s some information that deals directly with the destruction of Jerusalem, and then there’s some that deals only with the coming of Christ, and then there’s a whole lot of overlap. Did you know there were people who proclaimed themselves Christ in the 40 years after Jesus? Yes. Did you know that Christians were persecuted in the 40 years after Jesus?

Yes, and those things are true. And then Jerusalem is destroyed. But then we see that this same thing is going to happen later, and we’ll have to get into that later. All right, the second thing I want you to see is this. Go back to Matthew 24. We’re done with Luke for the moment.

Matthew 24 and verse 34. Matthew 24 verse 34. Jesus says in the middle of this prophecy about His second coming, verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. So it is said, here’s how this is understood. Jesus is speaking to His disciples. He’s saying, all of the things that I say in chapter 24 will be fulfilled while you are still alive.

That’s essentially what He’s saying. And therefore, based upon that, if you want to talk about one hinge, if there’s one hinge in this passage that makes a difference whether you view it like that historically or you view it like we do future, it’s that verse. Because if Jesus is saying that the people currently alive in this time are going to see all these things, then all of it must be historical.

Already happened. But if the people who are alive are going to see it, then all of it must be future. But if that is not the right way to understand it, then it’s all future. I would say that’s a big difference. I would say that’s a big difference. You see, preterism insists that the generation to which Jesus is referring in verse 34 is then is referring to the generation in Jesus’ day.

Now, here’s why He says that. Here’s why they say that. The first line, immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light. And the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Now, here’s a question. Literally speaking, did these things happen before or around AD 70 at the destruction of Jerusalem? No. There was nothing happened with the sun or the moon and the stars. Okay?

But so when you get down to verse number 34, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Then this is referring to, if you take verse 29 and 30 to be not literal, but figurative, in other words, they’re symbolic, it makes it so that you can kind of dispense with those verses and therefore you can make 34 passed. If on the other hand, you take those verses, the signs in heaven, the sign of the Son of Man and the sun, moon and the stars, if you take those signs and you say, no, those are literal, well then verse 34 can’t refer to that generation because that didn’t happen.

And I think in the context, look at verse 33. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things. Now hold on, hold on, think about it. Here Jesus is talking to the disciples and we’re arguing here that this is future, okay? We believe it’s future for good reason. He says to the disciples, when you see these signs, you know it’s close, when you see these signs.

So if the signs in 29 and 30 are not literal, but they’re symbolic, how can you see them and know that something is near? The reason you can see them is because they’re visible and evident. And Jesus says, these are the signs. So that’s a good reason to understand those signs as literal, right? Not only that, those people that are supposed to see the signs are the same ones that Jesus is referring to in the next verse when he says, this generation shall not pass.

He’s talking about the generation that sees the signs. You see what I’m saying? Therefore, we know no signs happen like that, that they’re supposed to see. Therefore, we know that this generation being referred to is a later generation that is then alive. So it’s not actually referring to the disciples. It’s referring to a group far beyond the disciples, far later than the disciples. Okay, the next thing I want you to see is the Preterist view requires a loosey-goosey interpretation of certain verses in the passage.

Look if you would at verse 15. When ye therefore shall see the son of, when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. You know, it’s funny, the abomination of desolation is this signal event, right? It’s a marker, Jesus uses it. When you see this, you know stuff’s about to happen.

That’s what he says. But it’s funny because we take that literally, not symbolically, but then we get a few verses down and we want to symbolize it. See, you can’t really do that with the text of scripture unless you have a good reason to change it. But the abomination of desolation, if you’re from a Preterist point of view, you think that that refers to the destruction of the temple.

So let’s read it. Go back to Daniel chapter nine, because it says spoken of by Daniel. So the Lord, the Lord Jesus does not give us very much information about the abomination of desolation, but he tells us to read Daniel. So we’re going to read Daniel, who so readeth, let him understand. Daniel chapter nine, verse number 27.

There’s three references in Daniel, let’s read them. Verse 27, and he, so this is a figure, and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. And in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. And for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation. And that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Look at chapter 12, I’m sorry, chapter 11.

Verse 31. Daniel 11, 31. And it goes on to say, and such as do wickedly against the covenant shall corrupt by flatteries. Verse 36, in the same context. And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done.

This is speaking of the same figure in verse 31. Lastly, go to chapter 12. And he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation. And look at chapter 12.

Verse 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that make desolate set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Now, so this is the abomination of desolation, this special event that is happening in the temple.

And the Lord says, and back in Matthew 24, he says, when ye therefore see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in holy place. The Preterus is saying, this is when the Roman army came into Jerusalem, and marched into the temple, and destroyed it. Okay? The problem with that is that when you read this, the actual passage about the abomination of desolation, it is not the destruction of the temple, but the desecration of the temple.

And they say, well, they destroyed it. I mean, the Gentile army marched into the temple. That’s the same as desecrating it. No, no, no. It’s a desecration of the temple, not the destruction of the temple. Now, look at a couple other passages. Look at 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2.

Verse 3. If you want to get ahead, we’re also going to turn to Revelation, chapter 13. Revelation, chapter 13. Alright, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3 says this, let no man deceive you by any means, for that day is referring to the day of Christ, in the previous verse. At that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

Now, we’re talking about the man of sin, the son of perdition. Now, notice what he does. Who is he? Notice what he does. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. So where is this man? He’s in the temple. Daniel, chapter 11, describes this man, who commits the abomination of desolation, in the temple, making himself to be God.

And that’s not all, Revelation, chapter 13. Now, this is where it gets a little more interesting. Revelation 13, verse number 6. This is speaking of the beast, which is figurative, that comes up out of the earth. Verse 5 says this, Revelation 13, verse 5, and there was given unto him a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months, which ironically is three and a half years.

And he opened his mouth and blasphemed me against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, and them that dwell therein. And then he makes war with the saints. My point is that this overlaps with Daniel and 2 Thessalonians. Here’s the thing. But Revelation was written after the destruction of Jerusalem. So when you take these passages, which have similar language, you take them together, you see that Matthew is talking about something far beyond the destruction of Jerusalem.

The abomination of desolation does not refer to the Roman army destroying Jerusalem, but to a later figure who desecrates the temple by proclaiming himself to be God in the temple. Right? All right. Now, let’s move on. Let’s hurry along. The Preterist view also requires a spiritualized interpretation of signs and events. If you go back to Matthew 23, Matthew 23, verse number... I’m sorry, 24, verse number 29.

And go also get your place in Luke, because we’re going to look at one more verse in Luke 21, because you remember Luke 21 is kind of the basis to understand it in the other way. Now, notice Matthew 24 verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn when they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

These heavenly signs are a real problem with the Preterist or historical view. They are. Because it’s hard to interpret these symbolically. Because people see the signs. You see it in the text. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn when they shall see. You see this? So people see it, so it’s hard to say that that’s symbolic if they see it. But this is actually one of the thorns in the flesh of the historical or Preterist view that Matthew 24 has passed because of these signs.

So they say, well, these signs are just symbolic. They were not literal. They’re symbolic, and that’s how they preserve the view. But when we look at other events in the same passage, like the stones being thrown down in verse 2, that’s literal. People being delivered up to be afflicted and be killed and being hated of all nations. Nobody argues that that’s literal. Verse 14 says, the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world and witnessed unto all nations.

That’s literal. There’s all kinds of things that are literal in this passage. And yet here, we switch it. Go back to Luke 21. I want to show you, look at verse number 25 because you see this language. These heavenly signs, verse 25. Now remember, one of the key points is to make Matthew 24 fit Luke 21 because Luke 21 is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, at least partially.

Verse 25 says, and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon earth distress of nations with perplexity and the sea and waves roaring. That’s the same thing as in Matthew, right? And then it says, and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud of power and great glory. Also same in Matthew. But notice where that occurs.

That occurs after verse 24, which is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. You see what I’m saying? So these signs are not during the destruction of Jerusalem. They’re after the destruction of Jerusalem. So that’s what Matthew 24 is talking about. These signs are not symbolic of the destruction of Jerusalem. They are literal. Now in Matthew, back in Matthew 24, we’re hurrying to the end now. Let me explain something to you.

Some people, when they read the Bible and they read something that’s hard to understand, sometimes when we read it, we kind of get hung up. What is this talking about? What is this talking about? Whenever the Lord wants you to interpret something symbolically, and there are places where he wants you to, okay? There are absolutely places where he wants you to, especially in prophecy. In prophecy is when you often see it because the Lord will often use, what?

Figurative language in prophecy. There’s people in our class on how to study the Bible. When you see prophecy, the Lord will start using figurative language and sometimes poetry. And when you see poetic language, sometimes the Lord uses figures to describe something that happened. Right? And that’s symbolic. It doesn’t mean the event didn’t happen, like for instance, let me give you an example. When the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, that was a literal event.

Does everybody agree? Right? All right. But the next chapter in Exodus, the next chapter is a song, which is poetry. And in the song, the Lord describes the literal event with figurative language, like we do in poetry and English. It doesn’t mean the event did not happen. It’s just using figurative language to describe it. Here’s the problem with Matthew 24. And so there are times when you have to understand the Bible uses figurative and symbolic language.

But Matthew 24 is not poetry. It is prophecy, but it is not poetry. It is prose. That is plain language. This is a conversation Jesus is having with his disciples. There’s nothing in the text that says you should make it symbolic or understand it symbolically. And when you don’t have something to tell you to interpret it symbolically, you don’t.

Does that make sense? That’s one of the key rules of interpretation. You don’t symbolize things unless there’s a reason to. And the Lord tells you. He tells you, read Matthew 24 when you have some time and ask yourself, is there any indication at all that the Lord intends on us to understand these things figuratively? I think an honest examiner would say, no. There’s no indication in the text.

Now, then you might ask, why then do people interpret it that way? These signs are not real signs. They’re just symbolic of calamity as an example. Here’s why. Because if you take the view that the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 is the coming of the Lord, you have a problem with the signs because the signs didn’t happen. How do you deal with that? You say they’re symbolic.

It’s kind of an easy way to deal with it. Okay? Let me read something to you. This is from a commentary. This is from Barnes Notes, which is usually pretty good. But here, this is from Matthew 24, 29 in the passage that said, the verse that says, the sun shall be darkened. He said he just starts off, no proof, no evidence. Here’s how he starts his comment.

The images used here are not to be taken literally. No proof of that. Just stating it. Like, just don’t do it. Don’t take it literally. Now, the question I would ask is, why not? Why not? Is there a reason? At least give me a reason. They are often employed by the sacred writers to denote any great calamities as the darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars would be an inexpressible calamity.

So any great catastrophe, any overturning of kingdoms or cities or dethroning of kings and princes is represented by the darkening of the sun and moon and by some terrible convulsion in the elements. Thus, the destruction of Babylon is foretold in similar terms in Isaiah 13, 10. Now, I’m going to bore you a little bit, okay? Just hang with me because we’re going somewhere with this. He mentions Isaiah 13, 10 and of Tyre in Isaiah 24, 23.

The slaughter of Basra in Edumia is predicted in the same language, Isaiah 34, 4. See also Isaiah 53, Isaiah 60, 19 and 20, Ezekiel 32, 7, Joel 3, 15. And you think, wow, he quotes all these verses that say that the sun and moon and stars should not be taken literally. Man, that must be true. Look at Isaiah 13. This is why you got to check the references.

Now, what this person who’s a partial pretterist, what he is arguing is that God uses the sun, moon and stars figuratively and so that we should do that in Matthew even though there’s nothing in the context to say you should do it. And he cites Isaiah 13. So let’s look at Isaiah 13. Verse 6. The target verse is verse 10. He says, how ye for the day of the Lord is at hand. Uh-oh.

If you study anything about the Bible, the day of the Lord is not talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. No. All you got to do is run the references. So we’re already kind of on a bad foot here. It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. I’ll skip down just for time. And they shall be afraid. Verse 8. Pains and sorrow shall take hold of them.

Verse 9. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, both cruel and with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light. The sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil and the wicked for their iniquity.

Whoa. That’s a pretty big event, I would say. All right. Now follow me. This commentator says, see, Matthew 24’s signs should be symbolic because Isaiah 13 uses them symbolically. But does it? No. It uses the signs in relation to the coming, the day of the Lord, and the day when God punishes the world for their iniquity. So we look at these same signs in this and we say, that’s not symbolic.

That’s literal. When you run the references, every reference he quotes, you read it and it’s literal. And yet, he cites them as if everyone is using it symbolically. Be careful. Look at the references. Anybody can put references.

He says, Now notice what he says, Why are they afraid if these things aren’t actually happening and they’re symbolic? I wanted to read that to you because I wanted you to understand that this is the view. Now, we’re getting close to the end, so hang with me. The next point is this, the Preterist view requires a spiritual interpretation to the coming of the Lord. In their view, the coming of the Lord is not personal, literal, and visible, but is spiritual in nature.

I was actually listening to a podcast clip and the person who was being interviewed said, he said these words, When Jesus came spiritually at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, that’s what he said. So they believe that it is spiritual in nature, so it is when Jesus comes, in air quotes, comes to judge Israel in the destruction of Jerusalem, which we don’t argue that the destruction of Jerusalem was a real judgment.

Now go back to Matthew 24, And verse number 30, And verse number 30, And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Listen, we can argue about the signs and all this stuff and what that indicates, but what we believe about the nature of the coming of Christ matters.

Whether he’s actually coming or whether it’s just a symbol, that matters. That matters to your hope and to my hope. Here it says, Jesus comes, the Son of Man comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now, I’m going to read you these just for time’s sake. If you want to write them down, you’re welcome to. This is not, if this was the only verse, we might have room to say that this coming is talking about judgment at the destruction of Jerusalem, but this is not the only place this is mentioned.

Revelation chapter 1 says this, verse number 7, Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. Is that not what we just read in verse 30? And they also which pierced him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. That’s verse 30 of Matthew 24. That’s after the destruction of Jerusalem, Revelation was written. We go to Revelation 19, behold, I saw the heavens open.

Jesus descends out of heaven. He descends, you know, and his eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns, and he goes forth and destroys his enemies in Revelation 19, which is a description of the coming of Christ, again after destruction of Jerusalem. Mark chapter 14 says this. Mark 14, verse 62 says this. This is to the council at Jerusalem at his trial.

He says, Jesus said, I am. Art thou the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of the Blessed? He said, I am. And ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Well, Jesus, he didn’t actually mean it literally. He’s standing before the congregation or before the council. He’s just going to say something symbolic. Is that reasonable?

And then probably the kicker, I would like you to turn here to Acts chapter 1. And this will be our last verse for this evening. Some of you are like, finally. Acts chapter 1, this particular passage has become so useful to me in so many ways. And this is one example. Jesus gives the famous account of the Great Commission in verse 8. This is at the Mount of Olives, verse 9.

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. What received him out of their sight? A cloud. That’s interesting. But in this he’s leaving. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, listen to their words, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven. If you had that one verse, you don’t need anything else, although there’s many others. In like manner, Jesus did not come silently and secretly, spiritually, at the destruction of Jerusalem to judge the Jews. His coming in Matthew 24 was described as literal and personal and visible.

Acts 1-11 also confirms in like manner, as he went up, literal, personal, visible. Here’s the thing. For all of those reasons, we reject the preterist view of Matthew 24 that it is historical. We acknowledge that there is overlap in some cases with the destruction of Jerusalem, especially because of Luke. But the primary picture in Matthew 24 is indeed literal and therefore future. Now, why did I say all that? As we study Matthew 24, that’s going to be our foundation.

That’s going to be our assumption that when we read about crazy things that we can’t understand, that they’re not symbolic, that they are actually literal. So when we read about signs or persecutions or whatever, the Lord intends it to be understood literal and future. And that will then guide us to understand the events that are shortly to come to pass. Thank you for your attention. I know we went long, but hopefully going through these things covered some of the bases that we’ve been talking about.

These are the bases that will be important for us to know as we study Matthew 24.