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“When Shall These Things?" Matthew 24: Part 1…December 2007

In terms of Christian writings by Hal Lindsay or students from the Moody Bible Institute or other notable schools that teach “dispensational truths” Matthew 24 has been their main source of information. Let’s us talk about the Rapture! Turn to Matthew 24! Let’s talk about the Great Tribulation! Turn to Matthew 24. Let’s talk about the destruction of the temple under Titus, the Roman general! Turn to Matthew 24. Let’s talk about signs of his second coming! Turn to Matthew 24. Do you see what I mean? Sure, they eventually throw in a few other scriptures to boost their lectures, but their foundation scripture is always Matthew 24. One of the basic principles I learned in bible school is, if there are several scriptures dealing with the same subject, ALL scriptures should be examined and brought into harmony on the subject.

For instance: Matthew 28,19 is the only verse in scripture that suggest that baptism should be done in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Nowhere else in the bible is this formula mentioned; so what is the solution? There are several times when baptisms were performed in the early church, so we simply visit each scene and watch the apostles at work doing the actual baptisms and observing what formula they used. In the end, we are obliged to reconcile Matthew 28,19 with the practices of the early church, who walked with Jesus to the very point of ascension and received the Holy Ghost a few days later. They all spoke with one voice and taught the same thing!

So if we intend to teach Matthew 24, to be prudent and thorough, we are obligated to go to the other Gospels and compare all four writings as they address the same issue. This will add clarity and substance to what we intend to teach or write about. We will notice that Luke’s narrative offers more clarity and is more detailed in its delivery, offering a better understanding of the subject at hand. Some say it was because Luke being a physician, was more educated than the others who were fishermen. Be that as it may, to do justice to our teaching or preaching, we need to utilize every bit of information available to us on any given subject.

At the scene in Jerusalem, we see Jesus and his disciples taking a stroll around the temple ground or compound, and the disciples took pride in showing off the magnificent building. All Jewish laws written on scrolls were housed here, and the building was a symbol the seat of Jewish Orthodoxy. This building reminded the Jews of the days of David and Solomon and Josiah and other ancient Jewish kings. The disciples must have had a warm feeling inside as they pointed out all of its grandeur to Jesus. They suddenly got a severe jolt and a rude awakening when Jesus said; “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.” Matt.24,1-2. Bible teachers, even on their worldwide television network say that the disciples asked Jesus three distinct questions and he answered all three. “When shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming? And the end of the world? In this study, we intend to take it slowly and try to be accurate in what we think the bible is actually saying, rather than what traditions have taught us over the years. Our first task is to visit other Gospels’ account of the same story, and most of all, we will need to examine the actual Greek words used in any given verse. Jesus referred to Daniel the prophet in Matt.24;15, so we will need to go back to Daniel’s prophecies and decipher the true meaning of what the prophet wrote.

Over many years, I have gone into meetings and watched prominent preachers on television teach emphatically on the imminent return of Christ in mid-air to catch away his waiting Bride. Others tell us what God is “fixing-to-do.” One notable television teacher got a group of experts together in a panel discussion to figure out the number of feasts the Jews have observed, beginning with the Passover night prior to their exit out of Egypt. At the end of their calculations, they predicted that Jesus would return in 1988. More recently, back in August, September, October, 1999, many pastors and televangelists were busy selling books and telling the world that come January 2000, “Don’t look for me on earth, because I’ll be gone up in the clouds with Jesus.” One gentleman from Texas who is normally very dogmatic, looked in the camera and said, “Don’t look for me! I won’t be here after January 1^st next year (2000). What annoys me is the fact that after the event became a non-event and the preachers are still here, they do not have even a sprinkling of honesty to come back and tell their congregations that they were wrong. To them, its business as usual until they find another reason to point to the eastern sky.

Please, if I am in your house meeting, your camp meeting, our prayer breakfast at the International House of Pancake, do not tell me what God is getting ready to do! If he is going to do it (whatever IT is) I am prepared to wait until the event over takes me. I am not going to miss anything! You and I are sealed until the day of redemption and having this seal, the Lord knows those who are his, so don’t worry about missing the boat. If the bus is coming, there is no need to walk a mile down the road to meet it, just get to the stop and wait. Bring a book and read, or get yourself a newspaper. 

When I first visited the United State as an evangelist, I was speaking in Washington DC in a Church (local assembly) that was very deep in dispensational teachings. The night in question, with several ministers sitting behind me, I referred to Matthew 24 and how we are being told that the good person will be taken, leaving the bad person behind. I turned around to face the ministers and asked; “Did Jesus say it was the good man who will be taken? They had to answer NO! I asked—who did? Because it sure wasn’t Jesus, but somebody did and today most of us end up believing it, but what if it is the bad person who is taken, leaving the good person to inherit the earth? Of course, I could not go into details considering the ground upon which I stood.

Mitt Romney said a few days ago in his speech to try and capture the votes of Conservative Christians who see Mormonism as a cult, that his dad was a Mormon, he was raised a Mormon, and he will be true to his Mormon faith and to the faith of his father. Brilliant for what its worth in terms of generating a few votes, but impractical for spiritual growth. In God, we grow from truth to truth, precept upon precept, and it’s like climbing a flight of stairs. You never get to the step above until you get off the step below. When I am child, I speak and think as a child. Forgive me if I think of streets of gold and golden slippers, trees whose leaves we eat to get better and stay well. Forgive me if I look for a city floating down out of the sky, and as one preacher from Texas said, it will not come to earth, but it will remain suspended in mid-air, so we have to be caught up to it. Forgive me! I am still thinking as a child who dreams of Santa Clause coming down the chimney. Nonsense! Growth in God requires that we lay aside childish things and thoughts, and see reality as it really is. Growth in God requires that we cease from chasing phantoms and lay hold on truths as they proceed out of the very heart of God. Thus, we shall spend time looking for truths locked away in Matthew 24 and other supporting scriptures that will actually update our thinking.                                                                                                                                                               

I just received an e-mail from a friend in Lakewood, CO. informing me of the passing of our dearly beloved Brother LP Fritsche from Evergreen, Colorado on December 10. He would have celebrated his 91^st birthday on December 18. I first met LP & Margaret Fritsche in West Palm Beach back in the very early 80s. They, along with others from other parts of Colorado had come to be with us in a convention at Westgate Tabernacle. Prior to this, Sister Dora Van Assen had known the Fritsches and had been corresponding with them. I began mailing my monthly paper to them, and for over 20 years they have been among my most faithful supporters in love gifts, words of encouragement and in their prayers. About 4 years ago on our 3-week road vacation to California and Mexico, we were blessed to spend a couple days in their home in Evergreen and conducted a couple meetings there. The Fritsches have been our close friends since our first meeting and over the years they kept their doors open to several ministries, even from overseas with support from various Colorado cities. Thank you Sister Margaret! Together we will miss our dearly beloved Paul, but joy in knowing that he is now in a larger place with no boundaries or impediments as he ministers to Jesus his Lord, and even minister to us on the higher plain of total spirit.

It is rather surprising that teachers of prophecy and what is classified as “Dispensational Truths” go directly to Matthew 24 and coin the doctrine of the Rapture, The Great Tribulation, The Man of Sin or The Anti-Christ, The Everlasting Gospel, The Two Witnesses, and the Second Coming of Jesus. This chapter seems to fit very well with their theory so it becomes convenient to bypass the other gospels, or refer to them slightly in passing. LET US EXAMINE WHAT HAS BEEN COINED OUT OF MATTHEW 24!

The popular and most accepted concepts fostered in the Christian world are as follows: Two shall be in the field, one shall be taken and the other left---that is called the Rapture. As it relates to this catching away, pray that it not be on the Sabbath day or in the winter. Soon after this event, the man of sin arrives on the scene granting 7 years of peace to Israel so that they return to the temple and are free to offer sacrifices and observe all of their rituals. But in the midst of the week (or after 3 ½ years of relative peace) the Anti-Christ brakes his covenant of peace with Israel, brings on the Great Tribulation that will last for the remaining 3 ½ years and will only end by the appearing of Jesus in the clouds with all his saints. This period is called Daniel’s 70^th week.

The event of the Rapture in Matthew 24 is tied in with 1 Thess. 4;16-17, and coordinated with passages in Revelation that speak of the mark of the beast and those that have come out of great tribulation, and the preaching of the two witnesses. The experts speak of earthquakes in divers places, wars and rumors of wars, famines and pestilences as specific signs of the hasty return of Jesus Christ to earth. Over a hundred years ago these beliefs permeated the entire spectrum of Christian theology. Scores of songs were written against the backdrop of these beliefs such as: “He the pearly gates will open, It must be the breaking of the day, Somewhere beyond the blue there’s a mansion for me, Lord build me just a cabin in the corner of glory land, Coming again, coming again, Jesus is coming again.” The list goes on and on! I don’t want to sound obnoxious or overly critical, but suffice it to say that over the ensuing years, preachers, teachers, and even employers down on the plantations found it convenient to hold people in poverty while teaching them of the day they enter the pearly gates to reap their grand reward for all they did not have in this miserable earthly existence. By pointing their people to a ride up in the skies with Jesus to receive their due reward around the Throne, preachers, willingly or not, found that they did not have to produce answers for TODAY.

As you can now imagine, in order to fix the many false beliefs or misconceptions embraced by so many today, we will need to take it slowly and try to be concise in our findings. More than anything else, we don’t want to go astray like others have by saying what the bible doesn’t actually say. This is called “interpretation” and that is where so many different religious concepts and doctrines are born. Interpretation in many cases is like putting words in God’s mouth. We want him to say things our way, according to our own doctrines that finally we look at scriptures and see what we want to see. To get it righted or corrected, we have to take each verse for what it’s worth, lay it along side others that say the same thing and finally come to a general consensus on the truth that is contained therein. Holding Matthew 24 close to our hearts, we are going to see if Daniel in his prophecy spoke of a worldwide tribulation and if he spoke of the Anti-Christ that is yet to come, but managed to be alive in A.D. 70 to walk into the temple and profane it.

This is not meant to be a sing and dance study, but the religious world and even members of Congress and other politicians are being sold on these rampant ideas of a forth coming Armageddon and a vicious, wicked Anti-Christ that will mesmerize the entire world and bring civilized man to his knees taking on a dreaded mark foretold by John. What the bible says should be the only authority and foundation for our belief structure, because when all else fails, his word abides forever.

We already looked into what Matthew 24; 1-3 says and this is the basis of our study. But let us see what other authors of the gospels say on this same subject. In Mark 13;3-4 we are told: “And as he sat upon the mount Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?”  Lets us now hear from Luke 21; 7. “And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? And what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?

Let us bear in mind that as Jesus walked about and preached from ships, mountain sides and  dusty roads, there was no one in his company with a large note pad taking down notes of his teachings. Matthew, Mark, and Luke spoke of the destruction of the temple as we just observed, and none spoke of the actual event that occurred in A.D.70. So we have to assume that these gospels were written about 30 to 35 years after the end of Christ’s ministry. They were written from memory and maybe by contacting actual eye witnesses who were present when Jesus preached. We cannot even be sure that Matthew actually wrote the gospel that bears his name, and the same holds true for the other gospels also.

We are left to use what is available to us and balance truth as it appears from within these pages. Let me explain why it is difficult to believe that the disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 24 when the world would end. Notice that “the end of the world” was not used by Mark or Luke! The Greek word  for “world” as in the end of the world is ahee-ohn from ah-eye and it means continued duration, “ever” always, perpetuity, without end. So the disciples could not have asked when will be the end of the never ending or the “without end”. So what’s the problem? Preachers and teachers who embrace Matthew 24 and fail to take into account what Mark and Luke said on the same subject managed to sell themselves short and perhaps have marketed only half-truths. The Greek word  for “end” as in end of the world is soon-tel-i-ah and it means “entire completion” or consummation. “Consummation” of a marriage means it comes to fruition, not end!  The world “cosmos” does not end but “world orders and governments will!

Let us look at Matthew 24; 15: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand). All the prominent bible teachers and big time booksellers on the subject who’ve made millions of dollars promoting the Anti-Christ refer to this verse to prove that Daniel actually forewarned us about the arrival of this dreaded man. In teaching Matthew 24 they even seek to make it more sinister than it really is, all the time, failing to correlate the accounts of all three gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. We are told that Matthew 24 ;15 will mark the breaking of the truce between the Anti-Christ and the Jews in the middle of Daniel’s 70^th week and thus trigger the Great Tribulation. But what can we learn from Mark and Luke?

Mark 13,14 says: “But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not (let him that readeth understand) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains.”  Luke refers to the same event without mentioning Daniel in his narrative. He writes: “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” Luke 21;20. The simple truth is that the prophet Daniel did not speak of an Anti-Christ who would walk into a “rebuilt temple” to sit there as god. He referred to the Roman armies that would make desolate all the inhabitants of the city and would bring the temple down to ashes.

Here is a brief account of an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. “And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and of all the buildings lying round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus imperator with the greatest acclamations of joy. All of this was in direct violation of Jewish law, and was spoken of by Daniel the prophet. Their sacrifices, their ensigns, and the fact that these ungodly, heathen Romans were on “holy ground” was deemed by Daniel to be an abomination before God, and they were there to bring desolation

upon the Jews and upon the city itself.   

Josephus said: Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege, eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation, but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by the army.

The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D.70 is, by now, a well established fact; but we will need to revisit the Book of Daniel to certify if the prophet did actually foretell a worldwide tribulation and a future rise of the Anti-Christ as being propagated by notable bible scholars and religious leaders today. We will have to do diligence to observe who said what, to whom, and to what intent. We study these biblical truths so as to add a better understanding to the times we live in, and to have a better knowledge of what is likely to happen next. We need not look into a crystal ball or consult a palm reader for as Daniel himself noted, “the wise shall understand.” There are two different schools of thought concerning the written Word of God. There are many, including a leading minister of the gospel on television recently who believe in a literal understanding of the bible; in other words the bible must be taken at face value as it is written. The other school of thought says that the bible is a spiritual book written by a God who is Spirit, and it must be interpreted according to spiritual realities. But the prudent approach to our study, is to let the bible account for itself, and not try to write into it what is not there to begin with.

To be continued…

Royce O. Kennedy

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