The common belief in the Western church is that the last days or end times are speaking of the last days or end of our physical world; however, I believe this view of last days prophecies comes from not observing simple rules of biblical interpretation. A specific issue I see is that many do not interpret last days passages in the New Testament through the context of the narrative throughout the Old Testament. In this article, I will attempt to do that as quickly as possible to give you a glimpse of what the Bible is really describing when it speaks of the time of the end.
We will be looking over two notable Old Testament prophecies about the last days, then touch on a few things said by John the Baptist, move on to Matthew chapters 21-23, and then go through Matthew 24 with what we have learned from the previous passages in mind.
Let's kick off by considering two chapters in Deuteronomy where the last days are discussed in considerable detail. In Deuteronomy 31 we find that the children of Israel were about to enter the promised land. Moses said the following to the Levites in verses 28-29:
Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers that I may speak these words in their hearing and call the heavens and the earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days, for you will do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger with the work of your hands.
We learn here that, in the "latter days" ("latter" being merely another word for "last") Israel would act corruptly, and evil would befall them as a consequence. So, according to this passage, the last days concerned Israel and what would happen to her, rather than being about the last days of our planet earth. This is quite different from what is commonly believed, but the Scriptures plainly state this.
In the next chapter (Deut. 32), Moses spoke of the generation of Israel upon which this evil would come, saying that they'd be a perverse generation (v. 20), full of the venom of serpents (v. 33), even killing the Lord's servants, but those servants would be avenged (vv. 36 & 43), try to remember this for later.
As we know, throughout the Old Testament, Israel acted very corruptly just as Moses predicted: Israel split into two kingdoms during the reign of Rehoboam, becoming the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south. Due to their wickedness, the Lord divorced the northern kingdom (Hos. 2:2 & Jer. 3:8), then the Assyrians destroyed it. Judah also, of course, acted corruptly (Jer. 3:8), so the Lord said that Judah's time was also coming (Hos. 6:11). Let's look at Malachi 4 which is the last chapter of the last book in the Old Testament. To Judah God says, "I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord" (v. 5). (Note that this prophecy was directed specifically toward Judah and Jerusalem, not to the entire globe [Mal. 2:11 & 3:4]). So Malachi prophesied of a terrible day of the Lord that was coming upon Judah and Jerusalem.
Throughout the Old Testament, "the day of the Lord" is frequently used to describe the destruction and/or pillaging of a city by an army (Isa. 13:6 & 9), and remember Malachi stated that Elijah's appearance would be the sign that this "day of the Lord" (the destruction of a city) was about to come. If we jump ahead to the New Testament and Matthew 11:14, we find Jesus clearly stating that John the Baptist was the Elijah of that prophecy in Malachi—the one who would signal the soon- coming "day of the Lord" (the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem). Now let's see what John the Baptist said to the Pharisees in Matthew 3:7: "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath [about] to come?"
The reason they needed to flee was because the wrath was coming for them! Also notice he called them a brood of vipers; as we saw in Deuteronomy 32:33, it says the generation that would receive the evil in the last days would be full of the venom of serpents and the poison of cobras. So John the Baptist (the Elijah who was the signal of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem [Mal. 4:5]) called the Pharisees of Judah vipers or poisonous snakes (just like the generation in Deut. 32:33) and said wrath (common Old Testament expression for the destruction of a city) was coming on them!
As we read in Deuteronomy, it says that the generation of Israel, upon whom the evil would come in the last days, would be a "perverse generation" (32:20). The Scriptures tell us that Jesus came to Earth in the last days (Heb. 1:2) and that He called the generation in which He was living "wicked," "evil," "adulterous," "sinful," and, "perverse" several times (Mat. 12:39-45; 16:4; 17:17; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:41; & 11:29).
Now let's move ahead and look at Matthew 24 and a bit of a few chapters leading up to it for some context. The reason we'll focus on Matthew 24 is because, though it's only one passage, it's considered by most scholars to be a staple passage of the last days and parallel (i.e., speaking of the same events or events occurring simultaneously) to the book of Revelation and all other last days prophetic Scriptures. So, by understanding Matthew 24, we'll understand a great deal or even the majority of what all the last days Scriptures concern. We'll start out by looking at some key points in the chapters leading up to Matthew 24 and then do the same with Matthew 24 itself.
In Matthew 21:33-46, shortly after arriving in Jerusalem, Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees, narrating the parable of the wicked vineyard tenants. In the story, a vineyard owner sent servants to his vineyard to reap the harvest, but the tenants of the vineyard were very wicked and beat and killed the servants. The owner then sends his own son, and the tenants kill him as well. Jesus asked the Pharisees what they think would happen to the tenants, and they replied that the vineyard owner would bring them to a wretched end. In verse 45 it shows that Jesus was speaking of the Pharisees in this parable; they would beat and kill God's servants, as well as His only Son, and they would come to a wretched end.
In Matthew 22:1-7, Jesus was still speaking to the Pharisees, narrating another parable (which is obviously about them) about a king who hosted a wedding for his son. When the wedding was prepared, the king sent his servants to inform the invitees, but they not only refused to come, they even beat/killed the messengers; so the king sent his army to destroy them and burn their city. This is exactly like the generation upon whom Moses said the last days' consequences would fall (Deut. 32:36 & 43).
In Matthew 23, beginning at verse 13, Jesus pronounced upon the Pharisees eight woes, warning them of a calamity coming upon them. In verse 33, at the end of the woes, Jesus said to them: "How can you escape the judgment of Hell." The Greek word here translated "Hell" is the word Gehenna. As we went over, Gehenna refers to a physical judgment on a city or nation.
Jesus then said in verse 34, "I am sending you prophets, wise men, and scribes; some of them you will crucify and kill, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city." And this is exactly what the wicked tenants and the wedding invitees did in Jesus' parables and were destroyed. Jesus was saying that the Pharisees were going to do what the wicked people in the parables did and be destroyed.
In Matthew 23:36, Jesus told the Pharisees that a judgment would happen to them in their generation, which in biblical terminology refers to a group of people living at the same time (being, per Heb. 3, forty years).
In Matthew 23:37 Jesus wept over Jerusalem because of the calamity soon befall her.
In Matthew 23:38 Jesus declared over her, "your house is being left to you desolate," their house being a reference to the temple; so Jesus was speaking of the temple in Jerusalem being destroyed.
Matthew 23:38 is actually a quote of Jeremiah 22:5. Verses 1-12 of Jeremiah 22 is a prophecy of an army destroying a Judean city. By citing that passage, Jesus was saying that this destruction was going to happen to Jerusalem.
Now on to Matthew 24:
In verse 2, Jesus told His disciples that all the temple buildings would be demolished, with not one stone left on top of another.
Throughout chapter 24, Jesus told His disciples that they were the ones who'd see the signs, indicating that the end of the age had come. This means that the events of Matthew 24 (aka The Olivet Discourse)had to have occurred within the first century while some of the disciples were still alive.
In verse 16, we find Jesus only warning those in Judea to flee the city. Firstly, if this event were worldwide, what would be the point of fleeing from one area to another? And, secondly, why wouldn't Jesus also mention those in Galilee, Samaria, Damascus, Ephesus, and Dallas, TX? Because this event would clearly be focused on Judea.
In verse 34 (just as He did in 23:36), Jesus said these things would occur in "this” generation. Jesus wasn't projecting all this into some future generation who'd witness these signs, but to the generation of time in which He was then living. How do we know? One of the things to happen in the generation Jesus is speaking of, would be the destruction of the temple (vs. 2); the temple was demolished in the year AD 70 (more in this in a moment) and so the generation Jesus is speaking of had to exist at that time. Also, every other time Jesus used the phrase“this generation” (Matt. 11:16; 12:41, 42, 45; & 23:36), He was always speaking of His own generation.
You may be asking at this point, "What in the world is Jesus talking about?" In the year AD 70, because of a war that broke out in AD 66 between the Romans and the Jewish rebels, the Roman armies laid siege to Jerusalem. They burned the city and leveled the temple, literally not leaving one stone upon another, perfectly in harmony with Jesus’ parables, the warnings He gave in chapter 23, and with what He stated in Matthew 24:2.
There are a few things in this chapter I didn't touch on, but the context of the previous chapters and the key elements we've just seen in Matthew 24 itself, demand that the last days are speaking of Jerusalem's destruction (which historically occurred in AD 70), not of the end of planet earth. And if Matthew 24 is about that downfall, this means, at the very least, a great number of last-days/end-times information in the Bible was about events during or leading up to that AD 70 event.
There are a few things in this chapter I didn't touch on, but the context of the previous chapters and the key elements we've just seen in Matthew 24 itself, demand that the last days are speaking of Jerusalem's destruction (which historically occurred in AD 70), not of the end of planet earth. And if Matthew 24 is about that downfall, this means, at the very least, a great amount of last-days/end-times information in the Bible was about events during or leading up to that AD 70 event.
So to recap everything:
· The last days concerned Israel, not the whole world.
· The last days concerned a destruction to come upon Israel.
· Malachi 4:5 says this destruction would come when the Elijah appeared.
· Jesus said in Matthew 11:14 that John the Baptist was the Elijah.
· Matthew 24 is a key chapter of the last days.
· In Matthew 21, 22, and 23 Jesus warned of a destruction coming upon that generation.
· In Matthew 23:37-39 Jesus wept over Jerusalem because of her impending demise.
· Matthew 24 concerns the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, not the end of the world.
· Biblical last days or end times concern Jerusalem's fall in AD 70, not the end of the world.
Notice what the following passage in Isaiah 2 prophesied concerning biblical last days: "The word of Isaiah … concerning Judah and Jerusalem: Now it will come about in the last days…" (2:1-2). Last Days’ prophecies aren’t to or about the whole world; in fact, when the Old Testament speaks of the last days, it never mentions events happening anywhere but within Israel's own lands; the last days concerned Judah/Jerusalem, not our whole planet. This may come as a shock, and I understand there may be some great hesitation in believing something different than what we've always been taught, especially something opposite of what trusted preachers say.
But please hear me out. With no disrespect to anyone, surely we agree that when discussing Biblical matters, it doesn't matter who says this or that, what matters is what the Bible itself says when interpreted using proper hermeneutics. If we are wanting to understand a biblical matter, look to the bible, not to philosophy or human reason. Matthew 24, when interpreted using the principles that most theologians/scholars swear by, clearly points to the events during and leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, not to the end of our globe, much less our universe.
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