THE GOSPELS

MATTHEW 24:3-5

MATTHEW 24:10-13

MATTHEW 24:21-24

MATTHEW 24:40-51, MARK 13:33-37, LUKE 12:45-46

MATTHEW 24:3-5

In this section, we are coming into Christ's prophetic teaching on the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple that was to occur exactly at the end of the generation that began when Jesus started His pre-cross ministry at the age of 30. Biblically, a generation is defined as being about 40 years. The destruction of Jerusalem, and the wiping away of the apostate Old Covenant system, occurred in 70 AD--exactly 40 years after Jesus inaugurated His pre-cross ministry. These last preaching confrontations and prophetic utterances of the Messiah are important for understanding the details of how God was winding up His plan with Jerusalem and Old Covenant Judaism. By the same token, those who believe in the NEST wrongly see material in Christ's words that they use to build the grassy walls of the false doctrine of insecurity in salvation.

The context of Matthew 24, is that Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem for the feast day celebrations, and He is now on the last leg of His pre-cross ministry to Old Covenant Israelites. As He enters Jerusalem, the people are singing from the Messianic Psalm 118, as is the custom during the feast. They are welcoming Jesus, waving palm branches, and laying them in His path as He enters the city; they are singing "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." It is through their later rejection of Him, that salvation will come to the world through Messiah's newer and better Covenant, (as it is called in 2 Corinthians 3, and Hebrews 8). It is the Covenant that will be made in Messiah's crucifixion, and resurrection from the dead.

In the time of the context that we are covering, Jesus has entered into Jerusalem, and has headed directly for the temple. It is there that He has been confronting the Scribes and Pharisees. He has also been teaching the crowds, and He has been teaching His students. He continues to do so in chapter 23 (cf. Matthew 23:1; "Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples"). Jesus starts out explaining to them that,

"The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses;" (Matthew 23:2)

These scribes and Pharisees are the representatives of that current spiritual leadership over the Israelites. But all is not as it seems concerning these pious, religious looking men, and Jesus is about to explain why. Jesus goes on and makes a scathing indictment against Israel's religious leaders who have sat themselves in the chair of Moses. They were part of the crowd that He was teaching. He scolds them, saying,

"13 But woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven [which is the reign and rule of Messiah] from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." (Matthew 23:13)

In Messiah's words, we see how woeful it is for Israel's religious leaders to completely reject their promised Messiah-king, and further, to lead other Israelites in apostasy against Jehovah.

Jesus continues through chapter 23, telling the Scribes and Pharisees that they are hypocrites, though they claim to be following Jehovah. Then Jesus makes a very important prophetic declaration concerning these same men. They are not upright priests who are really following God. They are not men of God who lead Israel in integrity. Jesus reveals what they really are by telling them that they are children of murderers, and in the legacy of apostate Israelites of days gone by, these men are killers of Yahweh's prophets, they are killers of Yahweh's wise men, and they are killers of Yahweh's scribes; so in reality, they are wicked apostate leaders. Jesus tells them who they are, and He even tells them what they are about to do. Jesus says,

"... you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." (Matthew 23:31-36)

Jesus is coming on strong against rejecting Israel--particularly as embodied in the religious leadership of Jerusalem. At this point it is important for us to notice that Jesus is prophesying. We must especially be recognizing verse 36,

"36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." (Matthew 23:36)

This is important because this statement defines the same "this generation" that everyone is part of at that moment; and is the same "this generation" that Jesus will mention again in the flow in chapter 24. Within the current generation that Jesus is speaking in, He foretells that prophets (like Simon Peter, Paul the apostle, and scribes, like those men who were moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God, as Peter says in 2 Peter 1:21--men who wrote the canon of scripture that God's true people cherish) are going to be hunted down, beaten, and even murdered by these wicked scribes and Pharisees among apostate Israel. The fulfillment of Christ's prophecy began happening only a few months later, starting with, not only the crucifixion of Himself, but with such subsequent events as the stoning of Stephen, the ongoing persecution of the New Covenant apostles, and the persecution of Christians in general. It is because of this persecution that the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, and all the wrath things, that Jesus is talking about, will fall upon these men, and also upon the shell of a temple there in Jerusalem that God will abandon. There will be a huge price to pay for rejecting the Messiah of the One and only God, and then going on to persecute His elect covenant people. Jesus goes on concerning the soon coming desolation in His very next words, where He says to the Scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem,

"37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Matthew 23:37-39)

Jerusalem is the seat of power for Israel. It is the city where, classically, apostate Jewish leadership had, throughout prior centuries, turned against God's truly elect Israelite children. Concerning this statement of Messiah, we need to remember that Jesus said the exact same thing earlier. We read in Luke that He said it shortly before entering into Jerusalem, while,

"He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem." (Luke 13:22)

At that time, He said pretty much the same thing, as we read,

"34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it! 35 Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Luke 13:34-35)

Key points are necessary to recognize here, or we will not understand why Jesus says that the city of Jerusalem metaphorically has children, and, has a house. Jerusalem, at that whole time in history, is the seat of the Jewish leadership. Jerusalem, at that time, is the site of God's temple. Jerusalem, the city house that holds the Jewish leadership, at that time in history, is also holding the ones who are trying to stop Jesus from gathering His remnant children together; which He refers to as Jerusalem's children. So, Jesus personifies the city of Jerusalem as a "her" (particularly the temple leadership) who stones prophets, and keeps the metaphoric mother hen (which is God in the person of the eternal Son, as Christ) from gathering together His children from out of the multitudes. It is because of this unrepentant state of many in Jerusalem, the city, and all its Old covenant relics is about to be left desolate in AD 70, beginning at the feast of unleavened bread; which is exactly one generation after Jesus started His pre-cross ministry, (see footnote 1 below).

It is an error to interpret Jesus' proclamation here, which is specifically concerning the leadership of Jerusalem, as Jesus asserting that the actual Israelite children, that He (as the hen) is trying to gather together, are the same children who are stopping Jesus from gathering their own selves together. This interpretation has been wrongly applied to this passage on more than one occasion. Careful examination of the passage reveals to us that such a confusing interpretation is actually a rewording of Jesus' proclamation. The truth is that Jesus says that He has tried to gather Jerusalem's children together, and Jerusalem would not have it. This is why it is so vital to remember the apostate Jewish leadership connection with the personification of Jerusalem. The apostate Jews who "sit in the chair of Moses" (cf. Matthew 23:2) in Jerusalem, are the ones who are opposed to Jehovah by trying to stop His Messiah. In Luke 13, it is the secularized Jewish leader, Herod, that Jesus is responding to, because Jesus just received word that Herod is trying to kill Jesus in Jerusalem. Herod is part of the corrupt secularized apostate anti-Messiah leadership of Jerusalem "that would not have it" concerning Jesus gathering His remnant children together among the children of Jerusalem. In Matthew 23-24, it is the Scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem that want Jesus killed, and who want to keep people from entering the kingdom of God. The Scribes and Pharisees are part of the corrupt anti-Messiah leadership too. The leadership is who Jesus is talking to here, and the pronouns of chapter 23 clearly demonstrate this. Jesus is speaking directly to the scribes and Pharisees and says, woe to "you" all throughout the whole rebuke. It is as the great Reformed Theologian, Vincent Cheung states concerning the passage,

"We should first observe, then, that this verse cannot refer to the willingness or the faith of individuals to accept the gospel, for otherwise the verse should say, "I wanted to gather you…but you would not," or "I wanted to gather your children…but your children would not." But the verse says, "I wanted to gather your children…but you would not." It is not the "children" who resisted, but the "you" who resisted in order to prevent the "children" from being gathered. The verse, therefore, is referring to the same thing that is already mentioned in verse 13: "You do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." Commentary: "Matthew 23:37," PDF file, http://www.vincentcheung.com/

Immediately after this confrontation, and pronouncement of doom upon the apostate Scribes and Pharisees, (who are the men who shut off the kingdom of heaven from people, who do not enter in themselves, nor allow those who are entering to go in, Matthew 23:13), Jesus walks out of the temple, and His students, in wonder, begin pointing out the temple buildings of Jerusalem to Him. This is when Jesus starts to give them more prophetic details about what to expect when God brings His wrath down upon unbelieving apostate Israelites in Jerusalem, "this generation" that He just mentioned (cf. Matthew 23:36), as we read,

"2 And He said to them, 'Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.'" (Matthew 24:2)

This comment startled the students of Messiah, and so they are really curious about more defined day and hour details of when these things are going to occur. They want to know what sign they should look for concerning these things. So, we read what happens next, which is a section that has the first passage we are concerned with in this section that is misinterpreted according to the NEST, as we read,

"3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the students came to Him privately, saying, 'Tell us [the students are asking], when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?' 4 And Jesus answered and said to them [He is answering the students], 'See to it that no one misleads you [He is warning His students]. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Messiah,' and will mislead many. 6 You [He is still talking to the students--"You"] will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you [the same students] are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. 9 Then they will deliver you [Jesus is talking to His students] to tribulation, and will kill you [those students], and you [still those students] will be hated by all nations because of My name." (Matthew 24:3-9)

That is a very sobering message for Messiah's students. Jesus has been telling them these kinds of things for a while, and they think they understand what He has been talking about, but in actuality, they do not really understand. Jesus knows that the New Covenant events that occur after His rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection, are fraught with pain, persecution, and lengthy tribulation. Peace and prosperity will come for the truly saved among His students, but it will only come after they die and leave this cursed world behind. Messiah is giving His students a glimpse of their tumultuous future through His comments, and so they must keep this glimpse in their minds. They must remember it later on when Messiah is gone, and ascended up to the Father. They must, and actually will, remember it as they see it all unfold in their very own midst.

According to the typical interpretation of the NEST, it is proposed that since Jesus warns His students to see to it that they do not let anyone deceive them, then Jesus must necessarily be saying that His students can be deceived into losing salvation.

The NEST is wrong.

It is easy to see why the NEST is wrong by recognizing that being instructed to be careful to not be deceived by someone's announcement that they are Messiah, (which would be any revolutionary claiming to be God's anointed deliverer of Israel from bondage, such as Theudas mentioned in Acts 5:36-37, and Judas of Galilee, who is also mentioned there. There was also the Egyptian Jew mentioned in Acts 21:38, and there was Manahem in AD 66, and John of Gischala in AD 69 to AD 70, etc.), does not necessarily mean that those people Messiah has elected to eternal spiritual salvation can go on to embrace, and give their lives to, a false Messiah in rejection of the true one; which is Jesus. Jesus knows this, which is why He says that the Father gave Him all those except for Judas, and out of all those that God gave Him, He will lose no one, (cf. John 17:12, 18:9). These students that He is instructing (minus Judas, who was never given to Messiah for eternal spiritual salvation) are the same ones in which He will lose not one. Nevertheless, once someone announces that they are Messiah, then the deception is being proclaimed, heralded, shouted, and rumored. The students just need to make sure that they do not accept any of the talk that is going to be going around in these initial proclamations being made about such people. Clearly then, this is not a warning that a student can lose eternal spiritual salvation, but rather, it is a warning of a list of things to watch out for--things that are about to happen throughout the land in their generation. Jesus gives a list of many things the students need to look out for, and so when any fakes come along, claiming to be Messiah, and claiming to come in Messiah's name, the students will be ready. It is really that simple.

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MATTHEW 24:10-13

In the last section, we covered Matthew 24:3-5. We examined the context that Jesus is in Jerusalem on the final leg of His pre-cross, Old Covenant ministry. Jesus just finished confronting the apostate Jewish leadership in the temple. He walked out of the temple, and now He is teaching His students about things they need to be watching for in the future; in their generation. In Matthew 24:10-13, we come to more sentences that those who hold to the NEST claim is teaching that means that someone who is Once Saved In Eternal Spiritual Salvation, (OSIESS) can lose eternal salvation after all. As we read the passage, be mindful of the fact that Jesus is explaining the great persecution that is coming upon the apostate Israelites of the rejecting Jerusalem,

"10 At that time many will stumble and will betray one another and hate one another. 11 Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 12 Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." (Matthew 24:10-13)

According to the typical interpretation of the NEST, Jesus is teaching that many truly saved people will turn away from their Lord and Savior Messiah Jesus because of the bad things that are about to happen in that generation. The reason for turning away, is said to be because they did not endure in salvation. Further, according to the NEST, truly saved people will have their love grow cold, and so what this statement is purported to mean, is that the love that was once hot love, will lose its temperature, which is supposed to be a demonstration of losing salvation.

The NEST is wrong and so let us examine the passage to see why the NEST is wrong.

As a first consideration, Jesus is talking to Israelites. Keep this in mind, because their Messiah clearly says, concerning all the persecution that is coming, that the Israelite of that generation, that age, and that Jewish contextual concern, who endures to the end, will be saved. Messiah made a similar declaration earlier on in chapter 10, when he said to His pre-cross Israelite students,

"22 You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved." (Matthew 10:22)

Rather than having to do with losing salvation that one already has, this is the logical statement which asserts that enduring demonstrates the reality. This is an encouragement concerning the eternal glory that ultimately comes after being hated by all, rather than a warning to worry about losing salvation. In other words, the very fact that an Israelite endures all the way to the end shows that the person was an authentic believer, and follower, of Messiah as their Lord and Savior all along. The encouragement, is that to be saved, one will go on to eternal glory in a beautiful resurrection that is secured under the New Covenant in Messiah's blood sacrifice and resurrection. On the other hand, just because an Israelite claims a special election according to the Abrahamic blood line, such a claim does not guarantee that he will embrace the Messiah in salvation. The Israelite leadership demonstrates this fact in a stark way. One of Jesus' students demonstrates this principle well. Judas had the appearance of being a true believer in the Messiah. In fact, he was a student among the inner circle of 12 Israelite students that Jesus picked, out of the rest of His Israelites students, to be a pre-cross apostle (apostle meaning "a sent out one"). Saved people have the attribute of endurance, but the question is, did Judas possess this attribute? If not, then Judas was not saved, and as a matter of course, history demonstrates to us that Judas was not one of the enduring. Therefore Judas did not possess the important attribute, which means Judas was not saved. The scriptures also indicate that the other eleven students did not know that Judas was not a true follower, lover, and believer in Messiah until later on. For a time, Judas appeared to be a true believer, (as many fakes appear to be true believers), but, eventually Judas became manifest to all as the traitor who fell away from the true believers to betray the true Messiah. Instead of being hated by all, Judas hated the Messiah. Judas lacked that very important attribute that demonstrates the reality. Judas did not endure as a student, a follower, and a believer in Messiah, and so in the end, he was exposed as the kind of person who can not possibly endure. Judas lacked the necessary attribute that demonstrates that one is truly an elect follower of Messiah. He lacked endurance. Nevertheless, we must recognize that Judas did, in fact, endure as something else. Judas endured as a rejector of Messiah who died lost in his sins. Judas Iscariot endured as a fake follower of Messiah who was destined to lostness. But Judas did not, and could not, endure as the real deal that is elect according to God's sovereign determination. Judas was NASAAT, meaning, Never Actually Saved At Any Time.

Something else that we must recognize here, no matter what our end times view may happen to be, is that Jesus is telling his students some important details about what is going to happen to the surrounding area during their own generation. The theological word for "end times view" is eschatological view. Eschatology, comes from the Greek word, eschatos which means "last thing." Eschatology is the study of end times prophecy. With this word in mind, it is important to understand its usage in this Matthew 24 context as referring to the last things being prophesied to take place as that age (Gk. aeon) and that generation come to a close.

Some people believe that everything Jesus is saying here is a double prophecy. Their eschatological view is that Jesus is telling his students about some things that are going to happen in their generation that they are living in during that age. The people who hold to the double prophecy view also think that through the same words, Jesus is foretelling some things that are supposed to happen thousands of years later. The whole concept of double prophecies comes from the verifiable double prophecies that we already know of that exist in the Bible as the fulfillment of passages in the Old Testament. But, we must be very careful, because the way we know of actual double fulfillment prophecies with 100% surety, is that they have been explained to us to be double prophecies in the Bible, and have been demonstrated by the Bible's writers to have already become fulfilled. This is the classic way of guaranteeing that something is a double prophecy in Scripture. If there is no revelation from God through existing scripture that identifies that a prophecy in the Bible actually has a double fulfillment, then it is only a speculative theory to dogmatically assert that such a passage must have a double fulfillment. There may be a place in the Bible that expressly asserts without speculation, or equivocation that Christ's words here are meant to be a double prophecy, but the author of this book is not aware of such a cut and dry passage existing anywhere. For our purposes, we must recognize that in this particular context, as well as the parallel passages in the other Gospels, and based upon the literal, grammatical, historical, contextual method of interpretation, Jesus does not describe His detailed points here in this teaching as being double--thus requiring a "this" generation, and then another future generation fulfillment somewhere thousands of years later. Nevertheless, it is respectfully recognized that many folks believe that Jesus is speaking in double prophecies here, but, concerning the main point right now (whether one thinks Christ's points are double prophecies or not) is that what Jesus says here, is an absolutely amazing prophecy that has a specific, and focused, list of things that those particular students need to be expecting to come upon Jerusalem during their own lifetimes. It is essential that we recognize this, because this is not only what the students heard was coming within the time frame of their own generation, but it is exactly what they, and the people of the surrounding area of that generation, really did experience as a matter of history!

As usual, it is hard to get this from a couple of sentences that those who believe in the NEST select, and then highlight out of the middle of a legitimate contextual venue. Unfortunately, those who believe in the false philosophy of insecurity in Messiah, showcase this Matthew 24:10-13 passage as the final statement, when in actuality, it is only a few points in Christ's whole prophetic speech. We have sufficiently covered enough at this point to understand that this passage does not remotely suggest that one who is eternally spiritually saved, can lose their salvation, maintain keeping it by self generated effort, or gain it by the same. Nevertheless, for a more thorough understanding of the prophetic sense, it is necessary for us to take a deeper look, starting at the beginning of chapter 24,

"1 Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His students came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. 2 And He said to them, 'Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.' 3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the students came to Him privately, saying, 'Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?'" (Matthew 24:1-3)

In analyzing Christ's words to His students in this section, we must be careful not to think that His students somehow knew that Jesus was about to be crucified, leave earth, and be coming back in a future resurrection, and so that is why they ask Jesus about the sign of His coming. The context indicates that the students were not thinking such things. Close examination of the context reveals that the students are asking about two specific things.

--1--
One thing they are asking about is when Jesus is coming back after just telling the leadership that they will not see Him again until some time in the future (cf. Matthew 23:39).

--2--
Secondly, the students are asking about the end of the current age that they are living in, which, at the moment of the question, is not being ruled by Messiah in His role as King of kings and Lord of lords.

The Greek word translated for age here in Matthew 24:3, is a Greek word that is translated in reference to time frames. It is aeon. Sometimes the word is translated in a confusing manner to be world. Translating aeon as "world" is a deficient translation. An example of how this word, aeon, is used in its English equivalents, can be seen in the words of someone saying, "We live in a tough time." What is being said is, we live in a tough age--we live in a tough aeon. What Messiah's students are referring to is what Jesus just said in the temple when he told them that One is their leader, (which is Himself as Messiah in 23:10); and then Jesus rebukes the scribes and Pharisees for shutting off the kingdom of heaven from "people," (which are Israelite people); and then Jesus says that those rejecting Scribes and Pharisees will kill His true prophets that Jesus is going to send to them. Those rejecting Scribes and Pharisees will be guilty of shedding the blood of Messiah's true people, like Stephen, Paul, and Peter, and so because of all of this, Jesus says to these wicked Messiah rejecting Scribes and Pharisees,

"33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?" (Matthew 23:33)

In the parallel passage out of Luke 21:22, Jesus calls the wrath that is coming "the days of vengeance." John the baptist, (who Jesus said is Elijah in Matthew 11:14 who came in "the spirit and power of Elijah," cf. Luke 1:17) asked the same thing of the scribes and Pharisees when he warned them of the coming days of vengeance upon apostate Jerusalem. John warned Israel of the coming days of vengeance as the personification of the prophesied Elijah of Malachi 4. The answer for those Israelites who are the brood (which means children) of their father the serpent-devil, who continue in rejection of their King, which is Jesus, is that in their wickedness, they will persecute His true prophets, true wise men, true scribes, and true people, just like their father the devil; therefore, they can not escape the sentence of hell. So, Jesus affirms all that He just declared, saying,

"36 'Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." (Matthew 23:36)

Jesus says all of this, and then He finishes up His intense prophetic warning with those now famous words concerning that generation. They are important words, because they are the words that the students are perplexed about, and so the students are asking Him about what He means. In other words, there is a reason why the students ask the question concerning what the sign is of Jesus' coming. In their minds, all that Jesus just said in the temple, and all He said in the moments after walking out of it, has to do with a time frame that they are all living in. This is so easy to see when we just look at the context and recognize that they are simply responding to Messiah's indicting speech He made just before He came out of the temple. Notice the flow, where Jesus says to the rejecting Israelites in Jerusalem,

"38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' 1 Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His students came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. 2 And He said to them, 'Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.' 3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, [which is right across from the Tempe] the students came to Him privately, saying, 'Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age [aeon]?'" Matthew 23:38-24:3

So, the students just heard Jesus, while in the temple, tell the leaders of the Israelite people who are in the Holy City of David, which is Jerusalem, that their house is left to them desolate, and that from now on, they will not see Him. Then Jesus says,

"until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Matthew 23:39)

Various scholars give one interpretation of Christ's words here, to be in accordance with the same way that such language is used in Old Testament prophecies concerning the timing of Israel's judgment coinciding with Israel's deliverance, as is found in passages such as Isaiah 2-4; 64-66, and Zechariah 12-1, in which Israel has God's judgment brought against it, with the New Israel remaining. Those who see that Christ is speaking prophetic warnings that were fulfilled within that generation, point out that Jesus is not finished making these kinds of statements to the scribes and Pharisees. A little bit later, after He is arrested and brought before the apostate sanhedrin, we read,

"63 But Jesus kept silent and the high priest said to Him, 'I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.' Jesus said to him, 'You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.' 65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, 'He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy;'" (Matthew 26:63-65)

It is suggested that this is the same thing that Jesus meant when He confronted those same scribes and Pharisees in chapter 23 before exiting the temple. It is said, according to this interpretation, that they will "see" Messiah again when He comes, but next time they will see the Son of Man coming as a ruler in His royal position as the Messianic God-man, sitting at the right hand of immense power, as per the Psalm Jesus is quoting--the prophetic Psalm 110 in respect to His rule and reign. In addition, the Jews will see God revisit them in wrath. They will see God manifested as the destructing Messiah, coming in the clouds of heaven, which is the prophetic Biblical language that God uses to describe His coming in wrath. Jesus is specifically quoting Daniel 7:13-14 (cf. Daniel 7:26-27) here. Further, it is pointed out that we find this as God's consistent metaphor used throughout the generations in respect to prophetic language.

We see it in Jeremiah,

"Behold, He shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind" (Jeremiah 4:13)

We see it in Isaiah,

"For, behold, Jehovah will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." (Isaiah 66:15, cf. 19:1)

The same cloud-fury language of His coming is brought against Egypt,

"1 The oracle concerning Egypt, behold, Jehovah is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them." (Isaiah 19:1)

This is God's language, but how does God fulfill this where the idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence? He does it by using the Assyrians to implement His destruction, (cf. Isaiah 20:1-6). There are many examples of this. David used the same language when He declared that Jehovah delivered him from his enemies while descending on clouds in the song He sang of Psalm 18:3-15. The primary point in this language comparison is that Jesus as God, is found consistently using the same language when He speaks prophetic utterances concerning Israel and Jerusalem of that age.

It is at this point that two primary views of eschatology butt heads in interpreting the fulfillment of Messiah's pronouncement in that age and generation:

1) One suggestion of this fulfillment is that apostate Jerusalem, the wicked Scribes, and the wicked Pharisees, will not see Messiah until the time they see him in the garden when He is arrested.

2) The second suggestion of this fulfillment is that Jesus is referring to a time at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

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Briefly, we will examine the first suggestion of the prophecy's fulfillment. It is proposed that Jesus is referring to Passover evening which comes a few days later after He spoke those words to the Pharisees and scribes. To understand this, we must consider that the Israelite practice on Passover, was to have four cups of wine to be drunk in ceremony. Each cup had a different meaning. The first cup was the Announcement of the Feast. This is the cup that Christ told His students to pass from one to another. This opened the Passover meal. The second cup was the Cup of Praise. After Israelites drank from this cup, they sang two hymns. They sang Psalm 113 and Psalm 114. The third cup, is the one that Jesus mentions in Luke 22:40. It is called the Cup of Thanksgiving. At the point of drinking from this cup, those in the feast give thanks to God for His deliverance, protection, and mercy. The fourth and final cup was also a Cup of Praise. Now, this is the important part of this first consideration. At the time of partaking in this cup, the participants sang Psalm 115 to Psalm 118 as a hymn. This is why we find in Matthew 26:30 that Jesus and His students, after the fourth cup,

"... when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." (Matthew 26:30)

Part of the hymn which they sang was Psalm 118:21-29, which contains those words,

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!" (Psalm 118:26)

That Passover night, the ceremonially oriented scribes, Pharisees, and Chief Priests observed the passover feast as most in Jerusalem did. It is with this understanding in mind, that it is suggested that after singing the the Psalm 118 hymn at the end of the fourth cup in their own gathering, they then followed Judas to the garden of Gethsemane to arrest Christ. In this respect, then, they did not see Christ again until they sang "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord."

{2}
The second suggestion, which is that Jesus is referring to a time at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, is made partly because Jesus is quoting the famous Messianic Psalm 118, where prophecies concerning Him are confirmed in the New Covenant, such as, verses 22-27,

"The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. 23 This is Jehovah's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day which Jehovah has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 O Jehovah, do save, we beseech You; O Jehovah, we beseech You, do send prosperity! 26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Jehovah; We have blessed you from the house of Jehovah. 27 Jehovah is God, and He has given us light; Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar." (Psalm 118:22-27 emph. mine)

This particular interpretation, sees rejecting Jerusalem, the Scribes, and the Pharisees quoting this Psalm, saying "Blessed is He who comes in the name of Jehovah" during the time that it was chanted by Israelites according to its prescribed time frames to be repeated at the annual feast day celebrations. To explain what is meant by the prescribed manner for singing "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord [Jehovah]," it is important to understand that this Psalm is a Psalm that accompanied the feast day celebrations in Jerusalem as the priests went about their ceremonial duties, which means that it is one of the traditional Psalms that was repeated in Jerusalem during the yearly festivals. The Messianic Psalm 118 was sung in ceremony in the temple, and it was sung outside the temple by Israelites celebrating the feasts. They would sing Psalm 118, while they waved palm branches toward the altar. An example of this practice is given where Israelites in Jerusalem for the feast days, are seen singing this song just a little bit earlier before Jesus taught in chapters 23 and 24. Previously they shouted portions of the Messianic Psalm when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and it was then, that they laid their palm branches down before Him in apparent symbolism of receiving Him as Messiah. Luke records that earlier as Jesus approached Jerusalem during the feasts, directly before the confrontation with the apostate leadership, that His students had already sung this Psalm, adding some words by calling Jesus the king, as we read,

"37 As he was drawing near--already on the way down the Mount of Olives--the whole multitude of his students began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Luke 19:37-38 emph. mine)

George Rawlinson, in the Pulpit Commentary, explains well the practice of reciting Psalm 118, when he says that it was,

"an antiphonal hymn, composed for joyful occasion, when there was to be a procession to the Temple, a welcoming of the procession by those inside, and the solemn offering of a sacrifice upon the altar there." (see footnote 2 below)

To understand the Psalm 118 connection to the future day of vengeance upon Jerusalem, history is referenced in connection to when Jerusalem, the Scribes, and the Pharisees would experience the fulfillment of things that Jesus is foretelling all throughout Matthew 23 and 24, (which includes what would be the sign of Messiah's coming in wrath to those very Scribes, Priests, and Jerusalem of their generation at the end of that age). It is said to be a prophecy of an actual time when He came in glorious power as sovereign God for implementing the sentence of "vengeance" according to Luke 21:22, and "hell," (cf. Matthew 23:33), upon rejecting apostate Israelites in Jerusalem; and wiping away the obsolete temple which had become a symbol of paganism in rejection of Messiah. At that time, not one stone of the temple was left upon another, as it was totally demolished in the attack. In so doing, this interpretation suggests that God, in Messiah, fulfilled His prophecy, by using Rome by His sovereign hand, to wipe away the Old obsolete age along with its corrupt anti-Messiah leadership in Jerusalem. Such action is said to be just exactly as Jehovah had historically shown that He had done when He used Babylon to destroy Jerusalem in 581 BC after warning israel to repent from idolatry, sin, and wickedness. According to this suggestion, after this quick revisiting of Jerusalem (not in a gnostic form) in His plan, Messiah left the glorified church on earth as His true elect covenant people comprising both Jews and Gentiles, which is the body of Messiah--the holy, living, temple that supplants the stone temple that used to be in Jerusalem. The New Covenant church, as God's people, is seen to be the temple that God has been indwelling by the person of the Holy Spirit and working through for the last 2000 years with Messiah as her King. All this prophesied activity is said to have occurred within the time frame of the amount of years that a Biblical generation is known to be, which is 40 years. The date of fulfillment is said to be when Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70, exactly one generation after Messiah began His pre-cross ministry at the age of 30.

The history reference behind this theory has to do with details that Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was at Jerusalem when it fell in AD 70, wrote in his antiquities, concerning the providential timing of Jerusalem's siege by the Romans,

"3. 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 [with the citizens of Jerusalem], 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 an army, ..." (see footnote 1 again below)

The feast of unleavened bread is when Psalm 118 is sung by Israelite pilgrims approaching Jerusalem, and, by those inside its walls. The last remaining days of apostate Jerusalem began with the first day of the Roman siege which coincided exactly during the feast of unleavened bread, which is at the exact same time that Psalm 118 was being sung within Jerusalem's walls. Subsequently, apostate Jerusalem rejoiced, but apostate Jerusalem was doomed, and soon the destruction came as God's day of vengeance upon that whole counterfeit element that hated His Messiah, and so, now the Matthew 24 fulfilled prophecy camp recognizes that Messiah wiped away apostate Israel (which continued to wrongly claim to be the representatives of Jehovah) and in the salvation of the elect, Messiah is reigning spiritually in His kingdom. So in this interpretation, these things are thought to mean that those rejecting scribes and Pharisees saw the eternal Son's return as sovereign Jehovah, in His vengeance, while Psalm 118 was being sung, thus reflection what Christ said would happen.

Now these two views bring us over to consider the other Matthew 23-24 prophecy interpretation method as is manifested in the dispensational futurist view. The dispensational futurist view has some that also recognize that the destruction aspect of Christ's prophecies were fulfilled in AD 70, and that the scribes and Pharisees probably sang Psalm 118 before seeing Christ again, yet they also believe that all of Messiah's prophetic details must have a double meaning which is based upon a dispensational presupposition that interprets the people of physical Israel to be God's predestinated elect. According to this double prophecy view, there will be other "days of vengeance" that will occur thousands of years after these events. Accordingly, it is said that it may happen in our generation that we are living in today, or it will happen at another future generation. Corresponding to one sub group who holds to this view, it is said that the church is a dispensational mystery in God's prophetic time table. The church (not the Old Covenant church, Gk. Ekklesia, as mentioned in the Septuagint, or Matthew 18:17, but rather the New Covenant church) is said to have been created to exist for these past 2000 years as part of a previously unrevealed plan, comprising mainly Gentiles, and some people who claim to be descendants of Israel. At the end of another age, when the last of the Gentiles has finally been brought into God's harvest, Messiah is expected to come back again to take the church out of the world in what is called The Rapture. The remainder of Israel will be saved, as each individual Israelite that is left, is believed to be sovereignly elected and predestined to salvation. Ultimately, it is said that Christ will set up an earthly throne to reign physically in His kingdom. Right now, we, who are in the mysterious church, are also said to be in a mysterious parenthesis time (a gap) in the prophetic time clock that exists somewhere invisibly in the Bible area between Daniel 9:26 and 27. This gap is suggested to be what we, the New Covenant church age, are experiencing as we are waiting for Messiah to come back.

The primary point of this section is that Jesus is talking to His students about specific things, and the things are important details to know in refuting the NEST. The ambition of many who hold to the NEST interpretation is to find passages that seem to suggest that one can lose one's eternal spiritual salvation. Such people suppose that there is material to be found in the prophetic warnings of Matthew 24 for building their own philosophy of insecurity in Christ. In defeating the specious convolutions of the NEST, it is imperative that no matter what view of eschatology one holds to, we must recognize the plain, literal, historical, cultural, and contextual, prophetic application of Christ's words to that first generation.

In this section, we have been able to come to some conclusions concerning the error of the NEST interpretations of Matthew 24:3-5; 10-13. As a recap, Jesus has come against rejecting Israel and particularly the Jewish leadership in Matthew 23, and so He foretells for His students what all is going to happen within that particular generation concerning what He just said. He starts picking up momentum with this prophetic warning information starting in Matthew 23 and continues with it onward through Matthew 24. He does this after leaving the temple and going over and sitting on the Mount of Olives. Jesus does not say that those students He elected to eternal spiritual salvation can be misled away from Him, and reject Him. Jesus simply says to be careful to not be misled by those coming in His name, claiming to be Messiah, (which were many, according to the historic record). This truth that His truly elect will not be lost is demonstrated in the fact that Jesus says that He lost not one of those whom He is talking to who were actually given to Him by the Father, (cf. John 18:9). Further, false prophets will arise and mislead many Israelites, but those whom the Father has given to Messiah, will not abandon Messiah for a false religion, but, rather, will endure unto the end; the endurance is what demonstrates the reality of their election unto eternal spiritual salvation.
__________
FOOTNOTES:
(1) The following comprises the full text of paragraphs 3 & 4 of Josephus' chronicle;
"3. 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 [with the citizens of Jerusalem], 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 an army, which, at the very first, occasioned so great a straitness among them, that there came a pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine, as destroyed them more suddenly. And that this city could contain so many people in it, is manifest by that number of them which was taken under Cestius, who being desirous of informing Nero of the power of the city, who otherwise was disposed to contemn that nation, entreated the high priests, if the thing were possible, to take the number of their whole multitude. So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves,) and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred; which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two millions seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy; for as to those that have the leprosy, or the gonorrhea, or women that have their monthly courses, or such as are otherwise polluted, it is not lawful for them to be partakers of this sacrifice; nor indeed for any foreigners neither, who come hither to worship. 4. Now this vast multitude is indeed collected out of remote places, but the entire nation was now shut up by fate as in prison, and the Roman army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly, the multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world; for, to speak only of what was publicly known, the Romans slew some of them, some they carried captives, and others they made a search for under ground, and when they found where they were, they broke up the ground and slew all they met with. There were also found slain there above two thousand persons, partly by their own hands, and partly by one another, but chiefly destroyed by the famine; but then the ill savor of the dead bodies was most offensive to those that lighted upon them, insomuch that some were obliged to get away immediately, while others were so greedy of gain, that they would go in among the dead bodies that lay on heaps, and tread upon them; for a great deal of treasure was found in these caverns, and the hope of gain made every way of getting it to be esteemed lawful. Many also of those that had been put in prison by the tyrants were now brought out; for they did not leave off their barbarous cruelty at the very last: yet did God avenge himself upon them both, in a manner agreeable to justice. As for John, he wanted food, together with his brethren, in these caverns, and begged that the Romans would now give him their right hand for his security, which he had often proudly rejected before; but for Simon, he struggled hard with the distress he was in, fill he was forced to surrender himself, as we shall relate hereafter; so he was reserved for the triumph, and to be then slain; as was John condemned to perpetual imprisonment. And now the Romans set fire to the extreme parts of the city, and burnt them down, and entirely demolished its walls." [The Wars Of The Jews, Or, The History Of The Destruction Of Jerusalem, Book 6, chapt. 9, paragraphs 3-4]
(2) Pulpit Commentary, Psalms, 1977, Book V. p. 87

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MATTHEW 24:21-24

Matthew 24 is an amazing chapter, in that it is where Christ foretells future events to his Israelite students in a long explanation. There are generally 5 major categories of interpretational methods for understanding Matthew 24. There is the Idealist view, which allegorizes the whole speech. There is the Historicist view, which sees Matthew 24 describing various ages of all history; like the formation of the Roman Catholic church, the later protestant reformation, Nazi Germany, the formation of the geopolitical entity of national Israel in 1948, the United Nations, the European Union, and so forth. There is the Dispensational futurist view, (with numerous sub-camps of thought) which sees that some things in Matthew 24 were fulfilled in Christ's own generation concerning that dispensational age, but the Dispensational futurist view also suggests that Jesus is speaking double fulfillment prophecies according to a principle seen in Old Testament prophecies being fulfilled once in one manner, and then being fulfilled later on in history in another manner. The double prophecy principle is applied to Christ's words in hope of validating the interpretive applications of various views of Dispensational futurism. Hoping for Christ's words to possibly be double prophecies, the secondary fulfillments are believed to occur thousands of years later, either in our current age, and generation; or a future age, and generation (see footnote number 1 below). It is with this interpretation method, that the dispensational futurist view also interprets the formation of the geopolitical entity of modern Israel in 1948 as being a fulfillment of prophecy. Those who hold to this view believe that people who are citizens of the country of modern Israel, are true genetic Israelites that are predestined and elected to be God's special focus in prophecy. Then there are the Fulfilled Views (with numerous sub-camps of thought), which see that all the prophetic utterances of Christ were completely fulfilled within His generation, in that age. Then there are the Partially Fulfilled View which is somewhat of a mixture of the Fully Fulfilled Views and the Dispensational Futurists View. It sees that most of the prophetic utterances of Christ were fulfilled within His generation, in that age, but that others are still yet to come with a last return of Christ. Most Partially Fulfilled Views do not theorize double prophecies in what Christ said was to come. What we are concerned with in this section, is what some in the Futurist Views, some in the Partially Fulfilled Views, and all in the fully fulfilled Views can agree on, and that is, that Christ accurately foretold events that were to occur in that age, and within that generation.

In Messiah's discourse, starting in chapter 23, Jesus proclaims that wrath is coming upon the apostate leadership of Jerusalem, which is represented by the scribes, Pharisees, Chief priests, and other apostate Jews. Jesus indicates that those scribes and Pharisees will not see Him again. His students there, that He was explaining all of this to, were initially perplexed by His words, but in comparison, the initial perplexity of the students of Messiah at His sobering words hardly compares to the heights of perplexity in our times--heights which have escalated into nothing less than sheer interpretational mayhem. An example of the problem can seen in the comments of C.S. Lewis, concerning the statements that Jesus made in Matthew 24:

"But there is worse to come. 'Say what you like,' we shall be told, 'the apocalyptic beliefs of the first Christians have been proved to be false. It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own lifetime. And, worse still, they had a reason, and one which you will find very embarrassing. Their Master had told them so. He shared, and indeed created, their delusion. He said in so many words, 'this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.' And he was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else.' It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible. Yet how teasing, also, that within fourteen words of it should come the statement 'But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.' The one exhibition of error and the one confession of ignorance grow side by side. That they stood thus in the mouth of Jesus himself, and were not merely placed thus by the reporter, we surely need not doubt. Unless the reporter were perfectly honest he would never have recorded the confession of ignorance at all; he could have had no motive for doing so except a desire to tell the whole truth. And unless later copyists were equally honest they would never have preserved the (apparently) mistaken prediction about 'this generation' after the passage of time had shown the (apparent) mistake. This passage (Mark 13:30-32) and the cry 'Why hast thou forsaken me?' (Mark 15:34) together make up the strongest proof that the New Testament is historically reliable. The evangelists have the first great characteristic of honest witnesses: they mention facts which are, at first sight, damaging to their main contention. The facts, then, are these: that Jesus professed himself (in some sense) ignorant, and within a moment showed that he really was so. To believe in the Incarnation, to believe that he is God, makes it hard to understand how he could be ignorant; but also makes it certain that, if he said he could be ignorant, then ignorant he could really be. For a God who can be ignorant is less baffling than a God who falsely professes ignorance. The answer of theologians is that the God-Man was omniscient as God, and ignorant as Man. This, no doubt, is true, though it cannot be imagined. Nor indeed can the unconsciousness of Christ in sleep be imagined, nor the twilight of reason in his infancy; still less his merely organic life in his mother's womb. But the physical sciences, no less than theology, propose for our belief much that cannot be imagined." (see footnote number 2 at bottom)

CS Lewis, the great literary giant, and Christian apologist of the last century, asserted plainly that Matthew 24:34 "is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible," and that Jesus clearly showed an "exhibition of error" when He said it. Further, Lewis declared, that the statement was an, "(apparently) mistaken prediction about 'this generation.'" More, in an absolutely jaw dropping statement that practically undermines the identity of Messiah, Lewis stated that Jesus, "... shared, and indeed created," what he calls "the delusion," of the disciples apocalyptic beliefs. These are shocking statements, to say the very least--The kind of statements one would expect to hear from an atheist, or an agnostic, but certainly not the kind of statements that the typical Christians, might expect to hear from a famous Christian apologist of the faith. It is important for the purpose of this section, which deals with Matthew 24:21-24, to answer the question of whether CS Lewis was correct concerning Matthew 24:34, when Jesus said,

"34 Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." (Matthew 24:34)

Knowing whether CS Lewis was correct will help us immensely in refuting the false doctrine of the NEST in respect to wrong interpretational practices applied to Matthew. In this section concerning Matthew 24:21-24, we need to be familiarized with the real, verifiable, and historic, fulfillments of Christ's precise foretelling of events that actually did happen within that first generation that He was concerned with in addressing His students questions in the opening of Matthew 24. Far from the embarrassment that the late CS Lewis assigns to Bible believing Christians, we should be edified, encouraged, and far more confident to speak forth that which is true concerning these prophetic things.

Briefly let us once again get oriented to the context of our text under study. Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem for the feast day celebrations, and He is now on the last leg of His pre-cross ministry to the Old Covenant Israelites. At this time in our context, Jesus has been confronting the Scribes and Pharisees. He has been teaching the crowds, and He has been teaching His students. Jesus goes on and makes a scathing indictment against Israel's religious leaders who claim to sit in the chair of Moses. He says,

"13 But woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven [which is the reign and rule of Messiah] from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." (Matthew 23:13)

Jesus continues through chapter 23, telling the Scribes and Pharisees that they are hypocrites, though they claim to be following Jehovah. Then Jesus makes a very important prophetic declaration concerning these men. He identifies them as the children of murderers. Jesus does not mince words as He tells them who they are, and what they are about to do, as murderers who fill up the measure of the same blood guilt of their fathers in killing God's prophets. Jesus says,

"... you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you [scribes and Pharisees] may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." (Matthew 23:32-36)

Jesus is coming on strong against apostate Israel--particularly as embodied in this religious leadership in Jerusalem. When Jesus says that these things will come upon "this generation" in verse 36, He is identifying His usage of the term "this generation" before going into the discourse in the next chapter, where He will use the term again. Jesus is talking about "this generation" of those scribes and Pharisees who are alive that He is chastising right there at that very moment. In other words, Messiah is talking about the present generation He is in. Biblically, a generation is 40 years. Within the current 40 year generation that Jesus is speaking in, and is speaking to, prophets like Simon Peter, Paul the apostle, and scribes, like those men who were moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God, (cf. 2 Peter 1:21), to write scripture, are going to be hunted down. They are going to be scourged, and they are going to be brought before those Jewish synagogues that exist in that generation. They will even be killed by these wicked scribes and Pharisees of rejecting Israel. Jesus is giving details of the history of what is coming--a history that happened only a few months later, starting with such events as the stoning of Stephen, the persecution of the New Covenant apostles, and the persecution of Christians in general. It is because of this persecution, that the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, and all the wrath things of the prophecy are going to fall upon these men in Jerusalem. The wrath is also coming upon that temple, which will become a shell of a temple there in Jerusalem, as it changes into a place of pagan worship once those apostate priests reject worshipping Messiah in His New Covenant. In rejecting Messiah, they reject Jehovah, even though they claim to seek Jehovah inside the vacant obsolete rock structure. There will be a monumental, bloody, and cataclysmic, price to pay for rejecting Jehovah's Messiah, and then going on to persecute His New covenant people. Jesus goes on concerning the soon coming desolation of Jerusalem, in that generation, in His very next words, where He says to the Scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem,

"37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Matthew 23:37-39)

Jerusalem, which is the city house that holds the Jewish leadership in that generation, is holding the very same ones who are trying to stop Jesus from gathering His children together. So, because of this unrepentant state of many in Jerusalem, the city, and all its Old covenant vestiges, is about to be left in desolation in AD 70, which is exactly one generation after Jesus started His pre-cross ministry. So, immediately after this confrontation and pronouncement of doom upon the apostate scribes and Pharisees, Matthew describes how Jesus walks out of the temple, and then His students begin pointing out those same temple buildings of Jerusalem to Him. This is when Jesus starts to give them more prophetic details about what to expect when God brings His wrath down upon unbelieving apostate Israelites in Jerusalem, as we read,

"2 And He said to them, [He is talking to His students] 'Do you [same students] not see all these things? Truly I say to you, [his students] not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.'" (Matthew 24:2, cf. Luke 21:6)

This comment startles the students, and so they are curious about when these things are going to happen. They want to know what sign they should look for concerning these things; as we read,

"3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the students came to Him privately, saying, 'Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age [the end of the aeon]?'" (Matthew 24:3, cf. Luke 21:7)

Jesus knows that the New Covenant events that occur after His rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection, are fraught with pain, persecution, and lengthy tribulation. Jesus already knows it in His sovereign determination, but it had not yet been actuated in history. So Christ goes on and gives a detailed bulletin alert, of which we are about to examine the historical fulfillment. Listen to verse 4,

"4 And Jesus answered and said to them, [He is talking to His students] 'See to it that no one misleads you [same students]. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Messiah,' and will mislead many." (Matthew 24:4-5)

Luke adds the details in Luke 21, that many will be coming in Messiah's name:

"... saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time is near' Do not go after them." (Luke 21:8)

Christ is warning His students about what is coming. What Christ means is that Jewish people are coming who will be claiming to be anointed deliverers ("Messiah" is an Israelite term that refers to God's anointed). They will claim to be the Messiah who will defeat the enemies of Israel and usher in a glorious future for Israel according to the flesh. They will say "the time is near."

It is important to realize that in alerting His students here of what is about to happen, that Gentiles of that age were not claiming to be Messiahs. Any Gentile claiming to be Messiah would be instantly rejected. In other words, Christ's students are not to be watching out for pagan Roman Gentiles who are claiming to be Messiahs. They are to be looking out for Messiah rejecting Israelites who will, in zealous self deception, claim to be Jehovah's anointed deliverers of Jerusalem, the land, and all the Israelite people. They will get people to go after them in their zealot-like ambitions to deliver Israel out of its Roman bondage, and set up, and reestablish the Davidic throne. All of that is going to be their blind ambition.

At this point, we are going to confirm Christ's prophetic warning through the historic record of that generation. In Acts 5:36-37, we see the real Messiah's warning of the soon coming of false Messiahs fulfilled. Gamaliel the Pharisee, mentions Theudas who claimed to be somebody, and a group of 400 men followed him. Gamaliel also mentions another false Messiah by the name of Judas of Galilee, who drew some people away after him. In Acts 21:38, we find the record of an Egyptian who lead four thousand men into the wilderness, and they were murdered. None of these men were the anointed redeemers (Messiahs) of Israel, but many Israelites, in deception, and doom, followed after them. Those men were false Messiahs, who thought they were going to deliver Israel as Jehovah's men who were truly anointed for the task, but instead of delivering Israel, they, in their deception, led Israelites astray. Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian, who was there throughout that whole generation, records in his history chronicles of that same generation, that a false prophet made a proclamation in Jerusalem that God commanded the Jews to get up on the temple to receive miraculous signs of their deliverance, but the opposite occurred (cf. Book 6, chapt. 5 para. 2). The Israelites remained in bondage. Other historians record that Dositheus the Samaritan, boldly asserted that he was the Messiah that Moses prophesied would come. Dositheus did this within one year after the ascension of Jesus. There were other such false Messiahs, all the way up to AD 70, such as Simon Magus, Manahem, and John of Gischala (Manahem, and John of Gischala will be covered in more detail later in this section). Simon Magus is recorded in Acts 8:9-11, as being called, "The great power of God." Many people followed after Simon, but not the apostles. The fact of the matter is that there is only One great power of God. The great power of God is Messiah Jesus. Many came in Messiah's name within that first generation, saying, "I am Messiah." Those false Messiahs seduced thousands of Israelites, who, in deception, followed them to their fateful deaths. It is history. It happened just like Jesus warned. Next, Jesus says,

"6 You [He is still warning the same people--His students] will be hearing of wars [and disturbances according to Luke 21:9] and rumors of wars. See that you [the students] are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom," (Matthew 24:6-7 & Luke 21:9)

The students are to expect these wars and disturbances to occur in their generation, and they do. About three years after the death of Messiah, a war broke out between Herod, and king Aretas of Petraea Arabia. Kingdom was rising against kingdom. Soon afterward, a multitude of Jews living in Babylon migrated to Seleucia. There they went to war against the Greeks and Syrians. Thousands of Jews were killed. Nation was rising against nation. Josephus reported that the slaughter had no parallel in any former period of Israel's history. About four years later the Jews and Samaritans went to war against each other. This war led to a war between the Jews and the Syrians, in which 20,000 Jews were slain in the city of Caesarea alone. These battles between the Syrians went from city to city where Syrians and Jews lived. At Damascus, ten thousand Jews were killed in one hour. In Scythopolis, thirteen thousand were killed in one night. During these years, an uprising against the Romans broke out in Alexandria, but the Romans killed fifty thousand Jews in triumph--slaughtering both babies, and the elderly. After this, at the siege of Jopata, about 40,000 Jews were slaughtered. In 60 AD, numerous battles between the Romans and Jews consistently popped up all over the land. When the Jews stopped sacrificing for Caesar and the Roman people, it was considered an act of war. During this generation, armies surrounded Jerusalem four different times. Cestius led Roman armies against Jerusalem, and then retreated in AD 66. The Jews followed and attacked the retreating army and killed many Romans in that retreat. In AD 67, Vespasian surrounded Jerusalem with armies, but Nero died while this operation was in force, and so Vespasian withdrew his forces from Jerusalem and went back to Rome. After Nero died, nation rose against nation as Rome fell into civil war with various factions seeking to gain power. Vespasian ultimately seized power and regained order. In AD 68 Idumeans came up from the South to join zealots in Jerusalem. A battle occurred in the temple area and 8,500 people were killed. Finally in April of AD 70, when that dispensational age, and that generation was completed, Titus attacked Jerusalem and hundreds of thousands of Jews died in Jerusalem alone in one of the most horrible sieges, and subsequently bloody massacres, and pillages, to ever occur in history. Old covenant Judaism was completely wiped out. There were indeed wars, and rumors of wars, nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Jesus goes on foretelling, and says,

"... and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs." (Matthew 24:7-80

The record of history tells of the great famine which occurred all over the world during the reign of the emperor Claudius in Acts 11:27-29. Tacitus, the Roman historian, wrote of a famine that occurred throughout the whole Roman empire. At one point in that famine, only 15 days of food were left in the city of Rome. There were many devastatingly deadly earthquakes. There was an earthquake that occurred the day Christ was crucified. There was an earthquake that shook the foundation of the prison in Acts 16:26. Tacitus recorded that the year AD 51, had repeated earthquakes. Around 60 AD, Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossae--three cities that had churches in them--were completely leveled by a huge earthquake. In various places there were indeed famines and earthquakes. Jesus goes on,

"9 Then they will deliver you [He is talking to His students] to tribulation, and will kill you [students], and you [students] will be hated by all nations because of My name." (Matthew 24:9)

In the parallel passage out of Mark, we get more details, where Jesus says,

"But be on your guard [student's guard]; for they will deliver you [students] to the sanhedrins, and you [students] will be flogged in the synagogues," (Mark 13:9)

What Jesus is talking about is the common practice that occurred in that generation of flogging as a punishment for committing a crime. But, not only is Jesus referring to the first century practice of flogging, but He is also referring to a specific first century Jewish context that these students readily and easily recognize. Jesus says that the flogging that these students need to expect, will take place in the Jewish synagogues of the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and priests. These Jewish synagogues were in every sizable town in Judea. There were even synagogues as far away as Asia, Rome, and Spain. The various sanhedrins that the students are going to be delivered up to are Jewish councils that were formed in every large township. The Jewish councils were made up of Jewish leaders, such as the Sadducees and Pharisees. The main council of Jerusalem, was made up of the main Jewish leadership of the Holy City. The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem consisted of seventy one members. It consisted of scribes, elders, prominent members of the high priestly families, and also the high priest who presided as the president of the assembly. During that generation, many Jewish trial cases were brought before the sanhedrins. When we read the book of Acts, we recognize the history that Jesus is foretelling. In Acts 4:1-8, we read that Peter and John were seized and brought before the Sanhedrin. In Acts 5, the apostles are seized and brought before the Sanhedrin. In Acts 6:12, Stephen was seized and brought before the Sanhedrin, along with a false witness. Ultimately, the Sanhedrin condemned Stephen in rage, and then they murdered him with rocks. Before Saul of Tarsus was miraculously converted into a follower of the Messiah, he took part in that stoning of Stephen. As an unsaved Pharisee, Saul was a Christian killer, and it was the Sanhedrin who sanctioned his evil deeds, as we read Saul, later called Paul, saying,

"4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 5 as the high priest and the whole sanhedrin of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished." (Acts 22:4-5)

Later, as a regenerated man who is no longer a child of Satan, but now a child of God, Paul ended up before the sanhedrin in Rome, experiencing the same persecution (cf. Acts 22:30. They were indeed delivered to the sanhedrins, and they were flogged in the synagogues. Continuing in Matthew, Jesus goes on explaining to His students,

"10 At that time many will stumble and will betray one another and hate one another. 11 Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 12 Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." (Matthew 24:10-13)

Things will get so bad in the time period directly after Christ's resurrection that many Israelites will stumble because of it. Descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will turn against one another, and even hate one another. Those who are not saved, and, are not elect unto eternal spiritual salvation, will not be saved, and will continue to fall away from the gospel that saves. Christ's point is that the majority of Israelites who remain lost, will, in their stumbling, even betray other Israelites. In fact, Judaism in that generation will become so corrupt that lawlessness will increase, and most apostate Israelite's love will grow cold. On the other hand, the students whom the apostates are persecuting, have a promise that by their enduring to the end, their salvation, whether physical as some expositors suggest, or spiritual as others suggest, is guaranteed. It is as one commentator observes, when he asserts that this describes such a statement from Messiah to His elect as that, "which encourages those who are standing firm, because God will bring rescue." Then Jesus says,

"14 This good news [gospel] of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14)

The students, there, had not yet been commissioned to go off on their apostolic mission, after their Messiah's crucifixion and resurrection, to preach the gospel to the whole world, but nevertheless, Messiah tells them what to expect to happen, before the end will come, concerning what they asked Him about. It is important to note at this point, that the terms "the world, and "the whole world" do not mean every geographic location on planet earth, nor do they mean every single human being in existence. (A fairly comprehensive teaching on the terms, "the world" and "the whole world" in respect to the Greek word, kosmos, can be found in the section of this book that deals with 1 John 2:24-25; 2:28) The Greek word that Jesus uses here that is translated by the NASB as "world" is oikoumene. Oikoumene means "land," or, "the whole sphere of the surrounding geography." The Romans used this word to refer to the Roman empire, the land of Rome, and the Roman land. The Jews used this word to refer to the land of Israel. The word for "nations" that Jesus used in this same statement is the Greek word, ethnos. Its meaning has to do with the non-Jewish ethnics. In fact, ethnos is translated as ethnic group in English. The New Covenant scriptures reveal to us that this prophetic point was also historically fulfilled in the generation of those Israelites, as we read,

"17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Messiah. 18 But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; 'Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the [oikoumene] world [as in "land"]." (Romans 10:17-18)

Paul the apostle understands that people, even in that generation, will wonder, and so he asks a hypothetical question in a type of writing style that he was known to use,

"surely they have never heard, have they?" (Romans 10:17)

Paul knows the answer, and teaches it directly through answering his own question, saying,

"Indeed they have; 'Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.'" (Romans 10:18)

The word of Messiah, through the voice of His messengers, has gone out into all the earth, and to the end of the world. God says in His holy word that this occurred in that generation. Paul reaffirms this fact later in Romans; this time, Paul uses the other word that Jesus used, (ethnos-nations) saying,

"5 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Messiah, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, 26 but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the [ethnos] nations, leading to obedience of faith;" (Romans 16:25-26)

Paul says the gospel, and preaching of Jesus Christ, has been made known to all the nations in that generation. Even the faith of the Roman audience has been proclaimed throughout the whole kosmos in that generation, as we also read in Romans,

"8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Messiah for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole [kosmos] world." (Romans 1:8)

Paul did not mean that the gospel had been made known in Alaska, Siberia, China, Peru, and places like that all over the rest of the planet. Paul meant that the gospel had been made known throughout the whole world of that area right there that their faith is being proclaimed. In Colossians, Paul goes so far as to say that the gospel in that generation had already been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, writing of,

"... the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, ..." (Colossians 1:23)

This is the type of terminology that has a universal sounding meaning to it, but its true definition is limited to a particular area that is defined by the context it is used. "All creation under heaven," contextually was the general area surrounding Israel that was typically the Roman Empire. The main point is that Jesus knew this was going to happen. He said that it would, and then it did. In the same epistle, Paul speaks of,

"... your faith in Messiah Jesus and the love which you have for all the set apart ones 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel 6 which has come to you, just as in all the [kosmos] world ..." (Colossians 1:4-6)

These passages bare witness to the fact that Christ's prophecy was fulfilled.

A last passage to introduce as a witness to Messiah's infallible prophecy to His students on that feast day on the mount of Olives outside the temple in Jerusalem, is in 2 Timothy, where Paul proclaims once again concerning the testimony to all the ethnos,

"But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed for all the [ethnos] nations to hear." (2 Timothy 4:17 NET reference)

Paul is using language that indicates that through him, the gospel was fully proclaimed for all the nations to hear. These are confirmations of the fulfillment of Christ's prophecy, where He said that this good news [gospel] of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14)

As we continue to follow Jesus' teaching in Matthew, we come to verse 15, where Jesus says,

"15 Therefore when you ..." (Matthew 24:15)

[The "you" here are His students, because that is who Jesus is talking to in answering their question about the destruction of the temple; so Jesus says,]

"Therefore when you [students] see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)," (Matthew 24:1)

The writer of Matthew is making sure that anyone reading this will understand that Jesus is talking about something abominable that will stand in the Holy Place of the temple to fulfill Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9:27, 11:31, and 12:11. Scholars agree that Matthew was the primary gospel that was written specifically with Israelites as its main reading audience, so Matthew writes, let the reader understand. The fulfillment of this in the 40 year generation, with the culmination in AD 70, is considered from various prophetic interpretational views and points. The question is not so much, whether there was an historic abomination of desolating destruction in the holy place in that generation, but rather, which one was Daniel and Jesus talking about. For example, some see that there is the possibility that the abomination that led to desolation was a reference to various zealots and false prophets who acted as Messianic deliverers. Earlier in this section, it was mentioned that we were see more discussion concerning Manahem and John of Gischala. Manahem and John of Gischala were two false Messiahs. Manahem made his grand entrance in AD 66. Manahem, an Israelite, believed that the Jews should have no ruler but God, and so he raised up an army to attempt to defeat the Romans. Manahem overthrew his own Jewish leaders who wanted peace with Rome, and then He entered Jerusalem dressed as a king. Manahem, then went to the temple and took control of the temple, and amazingly, he had Ananias, the high priest, put to death. Finally, while he was entering into the temple, dressed in his royal robes, an enraged mob grabbed him and killed him on the spot. Riding on the edge of the end of that generation, at AD 70 and the destruction of both Jerusalem and its temple, John of Gischala rose to power. John was even more savage than Manahem. He had tens of thousands of Jews put to death who supported the Romans, or desired peace with them. Zealous John seized the temple with the help of the Idumeans and, like Manahem, he to, killed the high priest. Subsequently, 8,500 people died on the temple grounds. John went on to appoint his own high priest. The possibility has been suggested that both Manahem, (who killed the high priest, and then with His kingly robes on, walking into the temple), and John of Gischala, (who also killed the high priest in AD 70, and then took it upon himself to appoint another high priest, who, in rejection of Messiah was just as apostate as the rest), are two men who may have made the abomination of desolation as false Messianic deliverers.

There are other historic abominations of the holy place to consider which may have led to the desolation of Jerusalem. John Calvin agreed with many of the early church fathers that the abomination that led to the desolation was the continuation of sacrifices in the temple after Messiah delivered Himself up as the ultimate and final sacrifice. This view is one of the most plausible. As soon as the first sacrifice was attempted in God's New Covenant as a representative atonement and propitiation by the apostate priesthood, then an abomination, that was the precursor to the desolation, was among Jerusalem. In fact, the whole temple/priest system had become an abomination to Jehovah, and a constant reminder of the rejection of Messiah. Every single sacrifice was an act that trampled Messiah under foot and counted as unclean, the blood of the covenant, as we read in Hebrews 10. It had become, in actuality, an anti-Messiah (anti Christ) ceremony. This was an abomination, and it certainly seems logical to assume that it may have been the one that led to desolation.

Another possibility of an abomination of desolation has to do with sacrificing to pagan Roman emperors in the temple in that generation. Between AD 37 and AD 41 (during Caligula's rule) an altar was set up to Caligula in the Judean city of Jamnia. The Jews of that city smashed the altar. Caligula retaliated by ordering the erection of an enormous golden image in the temple in Jerusalem. This was an abomination. It may be the one, or it may be one of many that led to desolation. In that same generation, the apostate Jewish priesthood began sacrificing to Nero twice each day (They stopped the sacrifices in AD 66). This sacrifice to Nero was an abomination, and it may be the one, or one of many, that led to desolation.

This brings us now to a final possibility, and that is that when the general Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD--he had his soldiers set up the Roman standard in the temple, declaring that Caesar is god. The great Manchester theologian, FF. Bruce describes it this way:

"When the temple area was taken by the Romans, and the sanctuary itself was still burning, the soldiers brought their legionary standards into the sacred precincts, set them up opposite the eastern gate, and offered sacrifice to them there, acclaiming Titus as imperator (victorious commander) as they did so. The Roman custom of offering sacrifice to their standards had already been commented on by a Jewish writer as a symptom of their pagan arrogance, but the offering of such sacrifice in the temple court was the supreme insult to the God of Israel. This action, following as it did the cessation of the daily sacrifice three weeks earlier, must have sensed to many Jews, as it evidently did to Josephus, a new and final fulfillment of Daniel's vision of a time when the continual burnt offering would be taken away and the abomination of desolation set up." (F.F. Bruce, pp. 224-226)

The point is that historically, in that generation, there were many abominations standing in the holy place that were precursors to the total desolation of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Jesus goes on with his warning to his students, and we find it in the parallel account of Luke, where Jesus says,

"20 But when you [His students] see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. 21 Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; 22 because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. 23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people [apostate Israelites in Jerusalem]; 24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." (Luke 21:23-24)

In reading this passage, we understand the primary reason why historians inform us that no Christians perished in Jerusalem in the AD 70 desolation. The reason is because Christ Jesus warned His people, (which are defined as those elect who truly believed in, and followed Him), to look out for a unmistakable type of sign that would demonstrate that Jerusalem's desolation is near. The sign is when Jerusalem is surrounded by armies. During this generation, armies surrounded Jerusalem four different times. In AD 66, just four years before Jerusalem's desolation, Cestius came against Jerusalem with the Roman military, and retreated. Then in AD 67, three years before Jerusalem's desolation, Vespasian surrounded Jerusalem with his armies. He and his armies retreated. In AD 68, two years before Jerusalem's desolation, the Idumeans came up from the South to join zealots in Jerusalem, in which they killed thousands within the walls of Jerusalem. Finally, in that deadly year, Titus surrounded and sieged Jerusalem, then attacked the inner city in AD 70 in the hugely desolating, and horrifying, massacre that was recorded to have left pools of blood that were knee high.

Jesus had told His students that when they saw armies surrounding Jerusalem to flee to the hills so that they would be saved. The great ancient church historian, Eusebius, records that there was not known to have been one single Christian killed in Jerusalem during that last siege and subsequent bloodbath. Eusebius also records the historic details for us by telling us that the Christians simply evacuated Jerusalem as the end was drawing near. They went about 100 miles away to what became their city of refuge. That name of that city sanctuary was Pella, in Decapolis. The Christians fled there and remained living in Pella in peace until the danger was finally gone.

This leads us now to the next part of Jesus' warning,

"16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17 "Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. 18 Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 But pray that your [the students] flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath." (Matthew 24:16-20)

Jesus is talking about their flight not being in winter or on a Israelite Sabbath. Some say that Jesus is also talking to continents of people, who are going to be living 2000 years later in our time, which would also comprise Christian Eskimos, and Christians of the equator. As a matter of certainty, Jesus is, in fact, saying to his students, to "pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath," The reason is because His students lived in that generation, and they lived in that geographic place where the remaining vestiges of the obsolete Old Covenant Law were still around. The apostate Jews, the Judaizers, and even many Jewish Christians, regularly kept the Jewish Sabbaths. Today, in our Gentile dominated globe of areas that have a church presence, such as Alaska, New Zealand, Canada, Siberia, Ecuador, Madagascar, and so forth, such a seasonal prayer directive about winter, and sabbaths, is practically meaningless. But, in actuality, the siege of Jerusalem began in the summer (in April), and the desolation was complete in the same summer (by August). The flight of the Christians was not in winter, which apparently is a strong indication that their prayer was answered. We also notice that Jesus is talking about the Israelite houses within Jerusalem, which architecturally, had a rooftop type patio room that was connected to other houses. So we surmise that Messiah's students were obedient to their Master and prayed this prayer He is teaching them to pray. Josephus, the Jewish general, and historian who was there as an actual witness, recorded, as a matter of historic record, that during Jerusalem's siege, many Israelites fled and escaped out of the city on the rooftops out the back of the city, out of site of the armies that surrounded the walls. Most of the non-Christian apostate Jews, on the other hand, stayed in the city; they stayed because they believed a false prophecy from the high priest, who kept insisting that Jehovah would deliver everyone, including the priesthood. So instead of fleeing on the rooftops, these Israelites who had rejected Jesus as Messiah, stayed to be buried beneath the rubble of those very same rooftops in the desolation that followed. 

Now, with all of that background out of the way, and continuing with the flow of the context, we come into the passage that is interpreted wrongly by people who believe in the NEST. It is where Jesus says next,

"21 Because then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now [The "now" is at the time Jesus is sitting there teaching.], nor ever will. 22 Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect [The elect are not every single Israelite. The elect are those who are elect to eternal spiritual salvation in Messiah, so Jesus says "but for the sake of the elect ...] those days will be cut short. 23 Then if anyone says to you [Christ's students], 'Behold, here is the Messiah,' or 'There He is,' do not believe him. 24 For false Messiahs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. " (Matthew 24:21-24)

To understanding the truth concerning this passage, we absolutely must recognize the immediate context, and fulfillment in that generation. This is why the above survey of prophetic fulfillments was covered. In this passage, Jesus is making a statement that nullifies a double prophecy application for this event, meaning that this can not be a double prophecy. We must notice that Jesus says "nor ever will;"

"21 Because then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will." (Matthew 24:21, emph. mine)

In fulfillment of this, the true ethnic Jews of true Old Covenant Jerusalem experienced the worst tribulation that true ethnic Israelites had ever experienced throughout all history when multitudes of Israelites were killed in the attack upon the city by Titus. Over a million were killed during the whole war. Jerusalem, and Israelites, had seen turmoil, bloodshed, and destruction before, but Jerusalem, and Israelites, had never seen such a great tribulation as the desolation of AD 70, nor, as Jesus says, "ever will." For the sake of the elect, which are all who are chosen to eternal spiritual salvation through Messiah Jesus, those days were halted from continuing past the desolation of Jerusalem. The desolation was halted so that Christians would not be hunted down to extinction throughout the surrounding world.

Jesus gives another warning to His students concerning the false Messiah's that will come, and the various coming announcements to herald the arrival of false Messiah's, and so forth. Jesus says simply, "do not believe" the one announcing such things. Nevertheless, false Messiahs and false prophets will arise, and will even show signs and wonders (such as Simon Magus performed) so as to mislead people, if possible, even the elect. This is where those who believe in the NEST suggest that the elect can be misled away from salvation by following a false Messiah.

The NEST is wrong, so let us continue to move on to see why.

Notice that Jesus does not say that it is possible for the elect to be misled. Jesus says "if possible." We must stick with what Jesus says and not subtract out the words that we may not like. The fact that Jesus says, "if possible" is very significant, because this is a prophecy, and if the elect were to be misled, then Jesus would more than likely state it that way, like for example,

"False prophets will indeed mislead the elect."

But Christ does not say anything like that. The point is that it is not possible to mislead the elect to follow a false Messiah into eternal spiritual lostness. Since Jesus knows the future, He knows what kinds of great signs and wonders will be presented by the false prophets, and false Messiahs. Jesus is merely explaining, with the use of a powerful figure of speech concerning something which is not possible, that "if," as He says, it were to be possible, then such an unimaginable thing could take place. This is meant to get across to His students how convincing the false evidences will be as the fakes draw apostate Israelites to them in their fanatic quests to establish the kingdom of God without the real Messiah.

Therefor, we recognize that this passage does not remotely suggests that someone elect to eternal spiritual salvation under the New Covenant, can lose salvation, gain salvation by humanistic self effort, nor keep it secure by humanistic self effort.
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FOOTNOTES:

(1) The whole concept of double prophecies comes from the verifiable double prophecies that we already know of that exist in the Bible as the fulfillment of passages in the Old Testament. But, we need to be careful, because the way anyone knows of actual double fulfillment prophecies with 100% surety, is that such types of prophecies have been explained to us to be double prophecies in the Bible, and have been demonstrated by the Bible's writers to have already become fulfilled. This is the classic way of guaranteeing that something is a double prophecy in Scripture. If there is no revelation from God through existing scripture that actually identifies that a prophecy in the Bible has a double fulfillment, then it is only a speculative theory to dogmatically assert that such a passage must have a double fulfillment. There may be a place in the Bible that expressly asserts without speculation, or equivocation that Christ's words here are meant to be a double prophecy, and futurists may be aware of it, but most scholars including this author, are not aware of such a cut and dry passage existing anywhere.

(2) The Essential C. S. Lewis, Edited by Lyle W. Dorsett. From "The World's Last Night and Other Essays" Pages 378 - 392

(3) Dr. Walter L. Liefield, Expositors Bible Commentary, cf. Luke 21:19.

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MATTHEW 24:40-51, MARK 13:33-37, LUKE 12:45-46

We started looking at Matthew 24 in the sections preceding this one. The contextual flow is that Jesus is answering a question from His students concerning the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. Jesus starts explaining some things that are going to happen in that generation. He lays out warnings and facts concerning the tumultuous times that are coming as the age comes to a close. This is our context as we start down in verse 40 and continue with some more sentences that are used by people who believe in the NEST for the purpose of asserting their philosophy. Please read along with me in chapter 24, starting in verse 40,

"40 Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. 42 Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. 45 Who then is the faithful and sensible servant whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47 Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 24:40-51)

According to the typical NEST interpretation of this warning concerning the wrath of Messiah's coming to destroy Jerusalem and finalize the Old Covenant age by eliminating all of its remnant vestiges, (along with the evil Pharisaic priests who reject Him), is that this teaching concern of Messiah, is with those who are spiritually saved. More specifically, adherents to the NEST claim that Jesus is talking about His students who question Him after He leaves the temple. Therefore, according to the NEST, Jesus is warning His students (who are considered to be saved at this time), that they can become lost later on, if, in becoming an "evil servant," they do not keep watching for the coming of Christ; and they begin beating other Christians; and eat, and drink with drunkards. The result is that though supposedly saved once, they now lose their salvation and experience God cutting them in pieces and assigning them a place in eternal damnation with the hypocrites; in the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The NEST is wrong and it is easy to see why when we recognize two things:

1) is Christ's continuous warning in His pre-cross ministry to His Old Covenant people who are Israelites according to the flesh,

and

2) is the proof that this part of Christ's teaching session is focused directly upon those apostate Israelites, (particularly the Jewish leaders) as is found in the context of this event, which is found in the other two parallel accounts in Mark and Luke.

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The first point has been covered in previous sections that deal with the Gospels. Namely, Jesus is making His general call to Israelites; He as their promised Messiah, is announcing His kingdom, and He is warning Israel. To get us back into the flow of those facts, we will quickly survey the context. Jesus has arrived in His Old Covenant. He is living and teaching, in His Old Covenant with Israel, according to His Law given to Moses. The New Covenant has not yet been established. Accordingly, Jesus has been sent by God as the Messiah of Israel in respect to the prophetic Davidic promise of the royal lineage. As such, Jesus says of Himself at this time,

"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24)

Jesus had His students go around the region to announce His arrival, and Jesus sends them with essentially the same clarifying directive, saying,

"... but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew, 10:6)

Jesus and 82 apostolic students (cf. Luke 10:1, ie. seventy plus the twelve) go about announcing to Israel the fulfilled Messianic prophecy of the arrival of the kingdom of heaven, which is also called the kingdom of God. Some Israelites follow Jesus as the true Messiah; other Israelites reject Him. The rejectors are apostates who have turned from God. It is primarily the Jewish religious leaders who reject their promised Messiah, and in their wickedness, they deliver Him up. The Messiah knows this will happen before it does. He tells His students early on, as they are about to go onto the last leg of His pre-cross, pre New Covenant ministry,

"18 Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up." (Matthew 20:18-19)

It is essential that we understand that the Pharisees, chief priests, and scribes, are the spiritual leaders of God's sheep in Israel at this time in history. They comprise the main leadership which resides in Jerusalem. The problem is that virtually all of them reject the true Messiah, and they keep Israel, (whom they have a stewardship over), from entering Christ's Messianic kingdom at this time. We read of Christ indicting them, concerning all of this wickedness, just moments before He speaks the prophetic words to His students outside the temple. Just before leaving the temple He says,

"13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." (Matthew 23:13)

Immediately after Jesus says this, He starts to teach His students that there is going to be a lot of persecution and hardship coming within that generation. He then goes on to teach about the coming desolation of Jerusalem, and the wiping away of all of those who are working against Jehovah by trying to keep others from entering into the Messianic Kingdom. He teaches on His coming again. In our section under study, Jesus continues with His description of what this generation is to expect by saying,

"40 Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left." (Matthew 24:40-41)

This has become a famous passage in our day. The reason for its fame, has to do with the fact that in our contemporary Christian culture, a huge number of evangelicals are being taught that this Matthew 24:40-41 warning is tied to a teaching concerning what is called a "rapture of the church." Nevertheless, we need to realize that here, when Jesus says, "one will be taken and one will be left," He is not talking about a rapture of Christians where God takes the church up to meet Jesus in the sky. The way we know that this means something else is by practicing the interpretive method of comparing scripture with scripture. To do so we need to go to other gospel details concerning what Jesus is talking about. In the parallel passage, found in Luke, to "be taken" is clearly not a good thing. In other words, when Jesus is warning that an Israelite will be taken, but another will be left, Jesus is not saying that the taken Israelite is experiencing a rapture into the heavenlies to meet Jesus in the air at the parousia. Listen carefully to what God preserved in Luke's account so that we would understand that to be taken is not a good thing, where Jesus says,

"25 But first He [Jesus speaking of Himself] must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. [He's talking about the generation there in Jerusalem that He is talking directly to, as is defined in Matthew 23:36] 26 And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; 29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, the one who is on the housetop [The housetop room architecture is the way the houses were built in Jerusalem] and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. 32 Remember Lot's wife. 33 Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. [Now here comes the parallel moment in Luke's detailed explanation that is the same time and point that Jesus spoke in Matthew] 34 I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. 36 (Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.) 37 And answering they said to Him, 'Where, Lord?'..." (Luke 17:25-37a)

OK, it is necessary to stop halfway in Luke 17:37 for a moment to concentrate on the fact that the students are asking, "Where Lord?" This is a very important question with a very important answer, and the students want to know the answer to it. It is important that we know the answer to it, because the answer will identify if Jesus is talking about being raptured into the stratosphere, or if He is talking about being taken away by someone else to a not so desirable place. Now, with that in mind, let us look at His answer at the end of verse 37,

"And He said to them, 'Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered.'" (Luke 17:25-37b)

In Matthew 24:28, we read the parallel statement that demonstrates to us that Jesus is talking about dead rotting bodies,

"28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." (Matthew 24:28)

In this prophetic warning to that generation, there will be some Israelites taken where the lifeless corpse of a body is, and it is there that the vultures will also be gathered. Vultures are the kinds of birds that feed on the carcasses of the rotting dead.

This is the first contextual point that we need to get in our minds concerning what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24. All along Jesus has been warning that hard times are coming for His true Israelite followers because they will be persecuted by apostatizing Israelites. He has been saying that hard times are coming to the apostate Israelites because they have rejected their promised Messiah, and in so doing, they have rejected Jehovah. Consequently, they will be attacked, pillaged, and slaughtered. Many of them will be murdered and will be taken to where the vultures gather. They will be cut "in pieces" (cf. Matthew 24:51). Many of them will be taken away as captives. The bottom line is that many will be taken according to God's devastating sovereign hand. In fact, it will all be much like the Lord did to Jerusalem hundreds of years before when He visited them in His wrath by bringing Babylon against them to destroy them, kill them, and take many of them away in captivity in 581 BC. This is Messiah's primary point. He is not only warning His believing students (who are elect to eternal spiritual salvation, and who will find their rest in His New Covenant in just a matter of days when He establishes it in His crucifixion and resurrection), but Christ is also warning His Old Covenant people in general. Israel is who He is heralding the Kingdom to, teaching, rebuking, and urging. They are Israelites according to the flesh, and He calls them "servants" in His parable. Now, what we must understand in this first contextual point is that the term servant, is not a term that is applied exclusively to those who are born again in New Covenant salvation. The term was applied to all Old Covenant sons of Israel in that age, as we see in Leviticus,

"'For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God" ()Leviticus 25:55

The Abrahamic covenant through Jacob, and Mosaic Law Covenant, sons of Israel are the servants that Messiah is warning in His kingdom parable. He mentions "faithful and sensible servants" in verse 44, which describes saved sons of Israel, and He also mentions those in the category of "that evil servant" in verse 48, which, describes lost, apostate, spiritually dead sons of Israel. So this is the first contextual point--Jesus is speaking of servants as His Abrahamic Covenant Israelites in general. There are saved "faithful and sensible" Israelites, and their are lost "evil" Israelites.

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The second contextual point that we need to get in our minds to understand why the NEST is wrong, is the contextual proof that demonstrates that this focused warning that Jesus is explaining is directed toward rejecting Israelites, and not just His students there. In other words, this is the contextual place that Jesus makes a broader focus of address for other Israelites to hear, and we find the authors making it a point to establish this fact in the other two parallel accounts in Mark and Luke. In the parallel account of this teaching session in Mark, Jesus clearly says,

"37 What I say to you [this "you" is His students] I say to all, 'Be on the alert!'" (Mark 13:37 emph. mine)

Jesus clarifies that He is making these particular comments in a general call (particularly to the elect) to all of Israel. Let's look at the broader context identification out of Mark 13,

"33 Take heed, keep on the alert; for you [Messiah's students] do not know when the appointed time will come. 34 It is like a man away on a journey, who upon leaving his house and putting his servants in charge, assigning to each one his task, also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. 35 Therefore, be on the alert--for you [His students] do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning--36 in case he should come suddenly and find you [students] asleep. 37 What I say to you I say to all, 'Be on the alert!'" Mark 13:33-37

Therefor, we also find the very important detail recorded in Mark that Jesus is not only speaking to His students, but He is also giving this warning in a general call (particularly to the elect). But this is just one point among much more, because Luke the physician gives us even more details. Starting out in the parallel passage where this parable is found in Luke 12, we read in verse 1, that

"... after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He [Jesus] began saying to His students ..." (Luke 12:1)

We really need to get the geographic street level picture here. We need to get down to the market square, so to speak; the neighborhood, outside the temple, inside the walls of Jerusalem, view of this setting. Jesus is talking to His students, but "thousands" of people are in the vicinity there in Jerusalem listening to Him. In fact they are "stepping on one another" at the same time that He is teaching His students. This is an important point because in the midst of the teaching session, in Luke 12:41, Peter wonders about who Jesus is addressing this parable to, so Peter asks Jesus who Jesus is talking about, as we read,

"41 Peter said, 'Lord, are You addressing this parable to us [students], or to everyone else as well?'" (Luke 12:41)

Peter wonders if Jesus is talking about everyone else there representing Israel in the form of the "thousands" in the gathered Israelite crowds, and this only makes sense as we read on, because in verse 54, we also read,

"54 And He was also saying to the crowds, ..." (Luke 12:54)

This is important for correcting the mistake of those who misinterpret our passage under study according to the NEST. Sticking with the context we recognize that Jesus is not warning those who are elect to eternal spiritual salvation. Jesus is directing this whole parable to those who are of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and the condemnation parts of His teaching are specifically to those who will remain lost, particularly any religious leaders in the crowds of Israelites gathered there during the feast days. They are the religious leaders in charge of Jehovah's possessions, (cf. Luke 12:44, and Matthew 24:47). They are the wicked religious leaders who beat the servants, and as Jesus says of them a few verses earlier, "woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." (Matthew 23:13), and so, because of this, Jesus in His Godhead as [despotes] Master of the universe will do as recorded in Luke 12:46,

"46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers." (Luke 12:46)

Jesus is talking about the Israelites who are "unbelievers." Saved people are demonstrated as being saved people because they believe! The doomed people in Luke 12:46, are "unbelievers." In the Bible, people who are designated as being "unbelievers" in the salvific sense, are the ones who are doomed to damnation. They are unbelievers and hypocrites as Matthew records,

"... and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites;" (Matthew 24:51)

The rejecting Israelite people, particularly the leadership, did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They were "unbelievers." Additionally, the religious leaders were categorized by Jesus to be "hypocrites" on numerous occasions, like in Matthew 15:7, 22:18, and so on. But remember the context, Jesus just finished calling the scribes and Pharisees the "hypocrites," just moments before this teaching session,

"13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, ..." (Matthew 23:13)

This is the context that the NEST misses. These are the facts. The unsaved Israelites, particularly the Scribes and Pharisees are the ones who are the hypocrites and unbelievers. Saved Israelites are not the hypocrites nor the unbelievers that Jesus is talking about. Therefore, based upon the clear contextual details of all the accounts of this teaching session as recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we recognize that Jesus does not remotely teach that truly saved people can lose salvation, gain salvation through personal self effort, or maintain keeping it secure through humanistic deeds.