7
The Sign Of His Coming
Lesson Two
A Study In Mathew 24 & 25
Matthew 16:1-2 The Pharisees and the Sadducees came to Him, tempting Him. And they asked Him that He would show them a sign from Heaven. (2) He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say, Fair weather; for the sky is red (3) And in the morning, Foul weather today; for the sky is red and gloomy. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot see the signs of the times!
Introduction
Where is the world heading? Does our history and present have any meaning? Is the earth just floating about the vastness of space or is there a sovereign God Whose divine hand is supernaturally guiding world events to an prophetic end?
People sense that the world is speeding to destruction? There is no shortage of doomsdayers whether it comes from enviromentalists, astronomers, geologists, philosophers, and a host others. The popuklar day of destruction this year is December 12th according to the mayan calender.Who has the answers, man or God? For God to be God, He must know all things. That includes everything that has happened, is happening, and most incredibly, everything that will happen in the future. The God of the Bible says this about Himself:
Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember former things from forever; for I am God, and no other is God, even none like Me, (10) declaring the end from the beginning, and from the past things which were not done, saying, My purpose shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure;
According to the bible, God is very involved in the affairs of man and is directing the affairs of men to an expected end that He has purposed in Himself. (Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:28)
God has revealed to us our origin, history, and future by His word. God Himself has set forth eternal decrees that over-ride all the godless schemes of the human race attempting to shape its own world and destiny. The decree of God is that He will place His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as ruler of all the nations. All human history will culminate in the return of Jesus Christ to take His rightful place on the throne.
Psalms 2:5-7 Then He shall speak to them in His anger, and trouble them in His wrath. (6) Yea, I have set My king on My holy hill, on Zion. (7) I will declare the decree of Jehovah. He has said to Me, You are My Son; today I have begotten You.
In vanity the nations will try to solve their own problems and resist God’s divine purpose, but in the end every knee will bow and every tongue confess to the glory of God the Father that Jesus Christ is Lord. Phil.2:11)
Today there is much apathy in society about prophecy so that human ears have become dull to the declarations and warnings of the bible. Even this is something that God prophesied would happen. (2 Peter 3:4) This apathy and unbelief has come about for several reasons:
1. The blindness of the human heart. (2 Cor. 4:4)
2. God’s patience through long periods of time has lulled mankind into a prideful stupor. (2Pet. 3:3-9)
3. False prophets, sensationalist preachers, and false date setters have all caused great harm causing a disdain for the word of God. (1 Jn 4:1)
4. Various views of prophetical interpretation within the evangelical church.
It is my prayer that the fruit of this study will produce a heart that agrees with God and says to itself:
Romans 13:11-14 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (12) The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. (13) Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. (14) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
Jesus’ answer to question two
Matthew 24:3 …and what shall be the sign of thy coming…
In this lesson we are going to look at the signs of Mathew 24 and examine the question as to whether or not they are prophetical events yet to be fulfilled. Are the signs that Jesus gave in Mathew to be fulfilled in the future or have they already been fulfilled since 70 A.D. ? Among evangelicals there is a growing movement which takes a very different approach to prophecy called Preterism. We will look at their basic interpretations of prophecy and try to determine their legitimacy.
What is Preterism
Preterism simply put, is the belief that prophesy has already been fulfilled. There are two types of Preterism: “Full and Partial”.
Full Preterism is the belief that the second coming of Christ has already occurred in A.D. 70 when Titus sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and carried away Israel captive. To the Preterist, when Jesus told the disciples in Matt. 24:34, “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”, everything was fulfilled in the disciples life time.
To the full Preterist, the climax of redemptive history took place in 70 A.D. when Christ returned. When Christ returned the Old Covenant passed away, the New Covenant was established, the saints were resurrected and the age to come promised in the New Testament began.
The diagram above illustrates the main points concerning full Preterism:
· O.T. was in force until 70 A.D.
· The “last days” is the cross until A.D. 70.
· The “present age” described by the New Testament writers is a reference to the age prior to A.D. 70. (Therefore, the terms last days and present age are synonymous. Both describe the final days of the Old Covenant Era just prior to A.D. 70.)
· The New Covenant era is the period from A.D. 70 until the present.
· The New Covenant era is referred to by the writers of the New Testament as “the age to come.”
· The New Covenant era is unending and is the eternal age, promised in Scripture.
· The resurrection of the just and the unjust occurred at the second coming in 70 A.D. but was a spiritual resurrection and not physical one.
· Believers have already been raised because the resurrection is a spiritual one and not a literal one.
Partial Preterism is the belief that everything has been fulfilled except the second coming of Jesus and some of the prophecies associated with it.
The Basis of Preterism
To understand Preterism you need to understand the primary text that they use as a basis for their interpretations of Matt. 24. After Jesus spoke of the signs that would precede His coming He said the following,
“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled”. Mat 24:34
Preterists refer to Matthew 23:36 to prove that Jesus was speaking of the present generation. Since this is such a vital part of their arguemnt we will take a close look of the term and see if we can determine the best interpretation. To me, the different interpretation of Futurism and Preterism concerning Matthew 24 is the difference between the hope of the Christian faith and the hopelessness of preterism.
The Flawed Foundation of Preterism
In my opinion, the fundamental error of Full and Partial Preterists have to do with flawed hermeneutics in their interpretation of scripture. Since Mathew 24 is about the Second coming of the Messiah and the signs that precede it, we have to look at the O.T. scripture concerning the coming of the Messiah and how the people of that day would have understood the scripture.
All prophecies from the Old Testament that have been fulfilled have always been fulfilled literally. Jesus didn’t spiritually come the first time so why should we believe the clear teachings of the second coming of the Messiah to establish His kingdom would be spiritual?
· God promised David an everlasting kingdom and told him that one of his descendants would reign from David’s throne in Jerusalem forever (2 Samuel 7:16, Psalm 89:3-4).
· God made promises to Israel about peace (2 Samuel 7:10-11)
· The prophet Isaiah spoke of the promise of a ruler from David (Isaiah 9:6-9)
· God promised that all nations would know Him. (Ezekiel 37:24-28)
It is clear that the original audiences would have understood that a literal kingdom would be established by a descendant of David in Israel, the wicked would be cast out and Israel and would have rest from her enemies. Both Isaiah and Ezekial present a picture that the kingdom would be ruled by a political ruler who would govern out of Jerusalem.
After the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:25-38, Simeon saw Jesus and declared Him to be the Messiah. One of the expectations of Simeon was the literal fulfillment of OT scripture that would come through Jesus, namely, “the consolation of Israel”. Simeon was anticipating the promised rest that was to come to Israel through the Messiah. Anna the prophetess after she saw the baby Jesus gave thanks and spoke to all the people who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. In no way did it ever enter their minds that the coming of the Messiah and all the promises attached to Him would all be spiritual in nature.
After the crucifixion of Jesus it is clear through the mouth of Cleopus ( one of the two disciples on the emmaus road) that he believed that Jesus was the Messiah Who would redeem Israel. (Luke 24:20-21). Even after the resurrection of Christ the disciples fully anticipated the full restoration of Israel and asked Jesus if He would do immediately (Acts 1:6). Other illustrations like these could be given, but these are sufficient to show what was anticipated literally by those who believed in the coming Messiah.
The Teachers Opinion
I believe the great biblical events as seen in the book of Revelation and other prophetical books are now near, not because of a few recent events such as earthquakes or tsunamis. There are many bible sensationalists that love to use those kinds of things to sell books in order to make the bible look like today’s newspaper. I believe we are near the end because the very nature of the world today perfectly fits the biblical description of end time humanity in turmoil and at odds with God. The world today has globally taken on all the characteristics which God has fully described in His Word which will ultimately lead to Armageddon.
As we have already seen in the last lesson, the disciples had asked Jesus three questions in Mathew 24:3:
1. When will these things be? (destruction of the temple)
2. What will be the sign of Christ’s coming?
3. When is the end of the age?
We will now look at the signs that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 24:4-29 concerning His coming.
Question – Do you think these signs only refer to the a particular time period or are they developmental throughout until the second coming of Jesus?
I. False Messiahs
This verse has a couple of possibilities.
1. It may mean that many will actually declare themselves to be “The Messiah” in the sense of bringing some sort of salvation to those that will follow them.
2. It may mean that many will say they are “anointed” and will seek a following through signs and wonders.
Some bible teachers believe that Jesus is stating that many individuals in the future will show up and say, “I am the Messiah” in the sense of bringing some sort of salvation. Even though there have been a few people who have declared to be the the Messiah after Jesus returned to heaven, the list is short. The Greek word for “Messiah” is “Cristos” which means “anointed”.
Some bible teachers believe Jesus could also be saying that many in the last days would come in His name and declare, “I am annointed”. These so called “anointed ones” shall deceive many people. I am amazed how people tell me to come to certain meetings because some “anointed one” will be there. Every time I have ever listened to the “anointed ones” they all speak various forms of heresy.
I find it interesting that all the “anointed” ones speak of sign and wonders. We live in the midst of the signs and wonders movement. It is within this movement that people are being called “the anointed” as well as prophets and apostles. They speak of end time revival and a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They have introduced such doctrines as being “slain in the Spirit”, “drunk in the Spirit” and “laughing in the Spirit”. These manifestations are often accompanied with convulsions, growling and various animal sounds. Often they make prophetic utterances that are unbiblical and often heretical. If one reads the bible just casually it is clear the description of the end days is not one of revival but of apostacy. The leaders of these end time revival moments are quite willing to compromise the scripture and true biblical unity to accomplish their goals.
Discussion and Questions:
Name some people you think are false prophets and why.