OLIVET DISCOURSE When Shall These Things Be?steemCreated with Sketch.

in #christian-trail5 years ago

Olivet Discourse.jpeg
OLIVET DISCOURSE
When Shall These Things Be?
Matthew 24:1-14

I am going to take a play on words out of verse 3 this morning and give this less the title, “When Shall These Things Be?”

Basic to rightly dividing and understanding Matthew 24 is to understand
• First, that it is a Jewish context. Jesus was addressing the Jews as a people, not Christians
• Two, that it is prophetical and future to you and me

But when exactly does this prophecy get fulfilled?

Those who hold
I. THE PRETERIST VIEW
Believe that it has already been fulfilled.

The word preterism stems from a Latin word meaning “past.”
Preterists believe that the major prophecies of the New Testament were fulfilled in the first 3 centuries and culminated with the fall of Rome.

Just like any system of thought there is some variety of opinion among the preterists.

A. Some are classical or partial preterists
They believe that many of the prophecies where fulfilled by Rome, but not all of them.

Gives them some wiggle room if they want to preach some prophetical stuff

B. Some are consistent or full preterists
They claim that all Bible prophecy was fulfilled with the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome and then the eventual fall of Rome.

Among those who hold
II. A FUTURIST VIEW
There are also two systems of thought

A. The church age view
This is the one you are probably the most familiar with.

This is the view that is expressed in songs like:
Redemption Draweth Nigh
Written by: Gordon Jensen

Years of time have come and gone
Since I first heard it told
Of how Jesus would come again some day
If back then it seemed so real
Then I just can’t help but feel
How much closer His coming is today

Signs of the times are everywhere
There’s a brand new feeling in the air
Keep your eyes upon the eastern sky
Lift up your head redemption draweth nigh

Wars and strife on every hand
And violence fills the land
Still some people doubt He’ll ever come again
But the Word of God is true
He’ll redeem His chosen few
Don’t lose hope soon Christ Jesus will descend

The church age view holds that these “signs” will happen in our day and serve as signs that the end is drawing nigh.

  1. We are careful to explain that they are not signs of when the rapture will happen, but signs of when Jesus will return to the earth to set up his kingdom and we suggest that…
    • If the rapture and seven year Tribulation must happen before Jesus establishes that kingdom and
    • If the signs of Jesus’ coming to set up that kingdom are already appearing then
    We must be very close to the time when Jesus raptures the Christians to heaven!

And

  1. We try to be careful to understand that not all of Matthew 24 is in the church age.
    For instance verses 15-20

I remember the very first time I read those words.

Anita and I were just beginning to get serious and I thought this meant that we should not want to have any children.

It was not until later that I came to understand that these verses are speaking: not of the church age, but of the Tribulation period.

It is because we tend to hold the view that at least some of Matthew 24 happens in the church age that people have come up with ideas such as the mid tribulation or the pre-wrath rapture.

• Mid Tribulation rapturists say that Christians don’t get raptured to heaven until half way through the Tribulation and will experience the first three and one half years of trouble.
• Pre-wrath guys say that we don’t get raptured out until half way through the Tribulation, but that’s ok because nothing bad happens until the second half.

Neither view is found in the Bible when we properly understand the Word of God.

I have preached the signs of Matthew 24 as signs that we are coming close to the end of the age on several occasions, and will do so again, I am sure.

But it was not until I worked at Heartland Baptist Bible College and sat under Pastor Sam Davision’s preaching that I heard a different view which really makes more sense both contextually and historically.

B. The Tribulation View
In other words, everything in Matthew 24-25 is prophetic of the Tribulation and not of today.

  1. The Problem
    Most of us are conditioned to see things in the world as signs of the times.

I am not prepared to say we can’t do that.

But consistently holding that these are all signs that will happen in the Tribulation period means that….

• Things in the Middle East
• Earthquakes and Volcanoes
• Wars and Rumors of Wars
Today mean that evil men are waxing worse and worse as Paul (and not Matthew) said and are not necessarily fulfillments of the prophecies of Matthew 24.

  1. This squares with the teachings of Paul

Paul preached that Jesus Christ could have come in Paul’s own day.

• There were no signs being fulfilled at that time
• There are no records of severe weather and other natural calamities

There were Christians suffering under terrible persecution and Paul encouraged those saints that

II Th 2:2-5
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? (KJV)

These were Christians who experienced tribulation but they were not experiencing the Tribulation.

  1. This also squares with the history of the Dark Ages

Those Christian suffered so severely, yet hundreds of years have passed now and still Jesus has not come.

The Bible says
2 Pet 3:3-4
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (KJV)

Could it be that we Christians have actually contributed to the scoffing by pointing at everything as a sign that Jesus was coming soon?

Here is the truth of it
Jesus is coming soon.

When we consider the age of the earth and the expanse of eternity

Whenever Jesus returns – even if it is a thousand years from now; is soon.

We are not really to be looking for signs.
We are to be looking for Jesus and
We are to live ready for His coming at any moment.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.35
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 70625.87
ETH 3563.07
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.71