By Marv Rosenthal
The Crucial Question
One of the most important questions ever asked was posed almost two millennia ago by a group of the Lord’s disciples as they gathered with their Master outside the eastern wall of the city of Jerusalem.
Like a powerful cyclone, recent dramatic events had been swirling about this body of 12 men, leaving them off-balance, confused, and insecure. In the midst of all their confusion, their Rabbi stunned them with the announcement that He was leaving; that they would not see Him for an indefinite and extended period of time.
Their response to His announcement was predictable. With a sense of urgency, they asked, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3). Implicit in their query was the idea that His “coming” would be as Israel’s Messiah and as befitting a conquering king.
They were totally unaware, however, that His “coming” would be on the other side of Calvary – that He had to die first, and more than 1,900 years would intervene between their day and the return of the King.
Their question, though asked so long ago, takes on special significance today because it served as a catalyst for Christ’s teaching of end-time events. Excluding the 22 chapters which comprise the Book of Revelation, the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24-25; Mark 13; Luke 21) is the most significant and far-reaching portion of prophetic Scripture in the New Testament.
It is a towering mountain peak in its significance; and there is no exaggeration nor hyperbole in stating that if one understands the Olivet Discourse, major end-time events begin to fall into place like an exquisite mosaic.
The Warnings
In the first section of the Discourse, Jesus gave a series of urgent warnings – that is, the “birth pains,” or the first shots fired before the heavy artillery began with the Day of the Lord and the opening of the trumpet judgments. It was during the “birth pain” period that Jesus:
- Warned that prior to His coming and the end of the age there will be false Christs, wars, famine, and pestilence (the first half of Daniel’s 70th Week, i.e., the final 7 years of this era of human history). And as severe as these things will be, they will be only the “merely the beginning of birth pains” (Matthew 24:4-8).
- Warned that prior to His coming and the end of the age, Christians worldwide will be persecuted, betrayed, and martyred, but that those who endure [literally ‘bear up courageously under suffering’] to the end of the age will be saved. This is a reference not to new birth in Christ, but to physical deliverance by rapture before the Day of the Lord judgment begins (Matthew 24:9-14).
- Warned that prior to His coming and the end of the age (and at the precise middle of the 70th Week) there will be an abomination of desolation; literally, a desolating sacrilege on Mount Moriah at Jerusalem in the Temple. The Antichrist will erect an image of himself as he seeks to assimilate the Jewish nation into his movement toward a one-world government. Jewish people who do not submit to his authority and leadership – evidenced by the fact that they will not receive his mark – will be slain. This period of time is called “the time of Jacob’s distress” (Jeremiah 30:7). It is also called by the Lord, the “Great Tribulation.” If those days of great tribulation were not shortened (amputated to less than 3½ years in duration), no believers would survive (Matthew 24:15-22).
- Warned that during the Great Tribulation and prior to His coming and the end of the age, false Christs and false prophets, empowered by Satan, will perform impressive false signs to authenticate their false message. Their intent will be to get the Jewish people (those who have not bowed to the image of the Antichrist and have fled to the caves and dens of the mountains to escape his wrath) out of concealment in order to slay them (Matthew 24:23-26).
- Warned that the true sign of His coming will occur immediately after the shortened Tribulation and that, in contrast to the false signs, it will be both conspicuous and universal (Matthew 24:27-28).
The Sign
These warnings, however, as significant as they are, all describe events which will lead up to the sign of Christ’s coming and the end of the age. None of them identify the specific sign of Christ’s coming which the disciples had requested.
That identification is not given until Matthew 24:29-31. It is in those verses that the Savior reveals a series of truly crucial truths which bear directly on His coming.
First, before the sign of His coming is revealed, there will cosmic disturbances; that is, the sun, the moon, and the stars will be darkened. The natural light bearers of the universe will be switched off, and the result will be total, awesome darkness (v. 29).
Second, the sign of the Lord’s coming will not appear on Earth, but on the “parchment” of Heaven itself. The actual sign will be the manifestation of the presence (glory) of God in the heavens. The Jewish people referred to this presence as the Shekinah. When it appeared in Solomon’s Temple, the people knew that God was in their midst (1 Kings 8:10-11; 2 Chronicles 5:13-14; 7:1-3).
Arthur Robertson, in his commentary on Matthew in Everyman’s Bible Commentary, was on target when he wrote: “The sign is probably the Shekinah glory, a manifestation of Christ’s magnificent character announcing his visible, bodily return.” This manifested glory will dispel the universal blackness caused by the darkened heavenly bodies (Matthew 24:30a).
Third, as a result of seeing the sign of His coming – the Shekinah – all the tribes of the earth will “mourn.” This mourning (beating of the breast in anguish) is not the mourning of repentance. Rather, it will be the result of their awareness that the wrath of God is about to be poured out on Earth; that they are sinners in the hands of an angry God (v. 30b; see also Revelation 1:7 for the same concept).
Fourth, at the outset of His coming (a process associated with the events of the Day of the Lord which begins with the opening of the 7th seal), the Lord will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather His “elect” (the dead in Christ, and we which are alive and remain) from one end of Heaven to the other (v. 31).
This event – popularly referred to as the Rapture of the Church – will provide deliverance from the time of God’s wrath.
As we draw ever nearer to the fulfillment of these glorious prophesies, may be faithful in sharing these truths with a lost world quickly heading to a meeting with its maker!
Marv Rosenthal, founder and President of Zion’s Hope, was an acclaimed international Bible teacher for almost 6 decades.
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