The Christmas rags remind us that God has shown His greatest love in the most ignoble birth. In that, He can empathize with us He too was brought down low. He left the splendor of heaven to recline in a feeding trough made for pigs. Why? So that we would never wonder if God was too busy to notice us, too high and lofty to care for us, or too concerned with other matters to reach you. He proved His love for us when He left the highest places in heaven to dwell in the lowest parts of earth.

When our Lord visited the earth, He didn’t come in on a 1000-horsepower jet-fueled celestial chariot for everyone to see. He didn’t topple the world’s greatest empire with heaven’s version of the seal team six. And He did not sit down upon His rightful throne to reign. At least not at first. He came initially to the warm, quiet darkness of a poor virgin’s womb, just as He promised (Gen. 3:15).
In so doing, our Lord submitted to the same human gestation that He joyfully designed. He was fed from the same umbilical cord He artfully invented. And He became dependent upon the mother He wove together in his grandmother’s womb. The artist indeed painted Himself into His own masterpiece.
Upon His birth, the King of all glory wasn’t welcomed with festivals, celebrations, and feasting befitting His majesty. No heralds were sent out from Bethlehem that evening. There were no government holidays or observances sanctioned. Just the humble cry of a newborn babe wrapped in common rags. But why?
Here, we must lift our gaze above the Hallmark card nativity scenes to see the point of what was happening. Jesus wasn’t draped with a warm, cuddly, baby blanket his mother got at Target. He was not swallowed up in a plush baggy onesie because auntie Elizabeth bought him the wrong size. Instead, he was bound with tight strips of linen, making him look more like a miniature mummy than a precious moments model. But again, why?
At that time, such a tight and restrictive binding was used to simulate a mother’s womb. A newborn child had recently spent more than 9 months cramped in an ever-tightening uterus. So, bindings like this would have made the baby most comfortable as he adapted to a wide-open world. But for Jesus, the symbolism is far more profound and gets right at the heart of the Gospel. Let us explore.
First, we know from Scripture that the angels directed a group of herdsmen to go and find the child. He also told them to view these linen rags, wrapped around the body of Christ, as a great sign unto them, convincing them of who He is and what He had come to do. It says in Luke 2

“In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” – Luke 2:8-14

The rags upon Jesus’ body were a sign meant to be looked at, noticed, and pondered in such a way that they would come to believe these three specific truths.

He was born for their good news.

He was born for the world’s great joy.

He was born to be Savior, Christ, and Lord.

Born for Their Good News
When the Shepherds viewed those shabby rags, it was meant to be a sign unto them. It was to be a good message. A joyful message. It was a definitive statement from God that communicated eternally good news to His people. But there is more for us to consider here.
The word used in the text by the angelic fleet is the Greek word εὐαγγελίζω, which is where we get our verb “to evangelize” or, more accurately, “to proclaim the Gospel.” In those days, that word did not have a religious connotation. Instead, it was purely political. At that time, a “gospel” message was a good news report about a victory in battle, a call to celebrate an emperor’s birthday, or a declaration that a new child had been born into the royal family. When these good news events occurred, singing heralds would be sent throughout the empire to alert the people so they could celebrate together.
But, just because something was good news in Rome did not necessarily make it good news worth celebrating in Judah.
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For far too long, the Church has been standing around like a gaggle of state-paid road workers, watching one or two men wield a shovel. We have been far too docile and lethargic and have spent too much time trying to stay out of everyone’s way. This needs to stop.

As the murky shadow of evil grew like kudzu in the forrests of Mirkwood, Gandalf passionately addressed the white council. His suggestion was to swiftly attack the rising dark Lord Sauron while he could still be easily defeated. Yet, his guidance was rejected because a nefarious little fox named Saruman had worked his way into Middle Earth’s hen house. Had the council banded together under Gandalf’s advice, the entire saga of the Lord of the Rings would have never occurred, at least not with such panache. And while the books and movies are markedly better due to the treachery of Saruman, we can see the simplest of points: doing nothing in the face of rising evil almost always makes things worse.
This brings us to the very heart and center of Biblical eschatology. While Mordor’s shadow darkens daily across the waning empire of America, our goal mustn’t be to hide all knobby kneed in an evangelical version of Helm’s Deep. We must not bury our heads like a herd of ostriches, wet our pants like terrified turtles, or blend in like chameleons until the danger has subsided. As the end draws near, no matter how long that drawing draws on, we are called to take up our weapons of warfare and do four things as we wait on our savior to return.
These four things show up in today’s passage that we will examine below.

Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his Master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his Master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, “My master is not coming for a long time,” and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the Master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 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 24:45-51

Be Faithful Where You Are
No matter your eschatological position, these words could not be any clearer. Instead of wasting our time trying to identify the next candidate for Antichrist, or which shade of red the next blood moon will be, or living in total ignorance as if eschatology doesn’t matter, we are called to be faithful. Scripture tells us not to look back while we are plowing (Luke 9:62) and not to look up while we are supposed to be working (Acts 1:11). Instead, we are to look forward with hope as we labor faithfully wherever we are at.
And where are we? We are in the household of the King of kings and Lord of lords (Matthew 28:18). He is the one who purchased this down-and-out dilapidated mess called earth with His most precious and holy blood. All of it now belongs to Him! And through His Church, whom He left with the renovation plans, we’ve been tasked with reshaping everything to His vision.
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Find a faithful, Biblical, and local church to be a part of. Interview it well, understand their doctrine, treat that process with sobriety and wisdom, and when you have found the place you can be committed to, commit to the glory of Christ! Be active, faithful in worship, and engaged in the life of the Church. Help that Church grow to accomplish God’s mission.

Church Hopping and Serial Dating
When we think about the Church as the “bride of Christ,” we must remember how easy it is to bring our anecdotal images, ideas, and societal expectations to bear. For instance, how does one get married in twenty-first-century America? Sadly, the ethics of dating in the Church do not differ drastically from the ethics of pagan culture.
In this culture, you generally meet someone who gives you a mystical spark. Then, after no time at all, you have fallen head over heels in love with that person as they develop an unhealthy emotional obsession with you. Then, the two of you bypass good old-fashioned common sense for a season, only to find out you are not who you thought each other was. So you break up, rebound, and move on, rack up a few dozen of these relationships until you find “the right one,” Then you enter into marriage with more baggage than a fully loaded 747.
Not only does that sound like a recipe for disaster (and a major contributing factor to high divorce rates among Christians, rampant infidelity even among believers, commitment issues, carnal expectations, and a host of other marital toxins) it also explains why so many Christians have a low view of the Church and a base view of commitment to the body of Christ. If the Church is Jesus’ bride, and we have ignorantly bought into the lie that brides don’t come about until the tenth or eleventh lover, then trends like church shopping, church hopping, and church dating make all the more sense.
But we have to ask ourselves the question. Is this culture of “dating the church” a good thing? Should we “try before we buy?” Should we play Church until we are ready to make a commitment? And does that behavior produce the kind of men who will build Christendom or the ones who will pursue their preferences and lusts? Does it create the type of women that raise the next generation of saints? People, who love the Church? Are faithful to the mission of Jesus Christ?
I plan to explore that in this short little article, and we will do so by drawing a comparison between hookup culture and church hopping.
The Plague of Serial Dating
As a man or woman stockpiles intimate relationships, the expectations for a perfect spouse will increase, while the likelihood of finding a suitable partner will inevitably decrease. For instance, Person A may have had the best eyes but no personality. Person B had a great personality but wasn’t all that attractive. Person C was mean to you but was sexually gratifying. Person D was smart but had the body of a muffin top. Person E was witty but tremendously self-absorbed. On and on this cycle goes.
And guess what? The longer this list of relationships becomes, the more certain two things will be to happen. First, you will never find someone who meets all your carnal preferences. You will have created a “perfect spouse” like your own personal Mr. potato head that is the amalgam of all the “best” parts from all your previous lovers when no such person exists. I want to be optimistic that Christians are not dating and treating relationships this way, but I have seen far too much carnage in this area to pretend it doesn’t exist.
Second, when you hold onto such a superficial standard, you will either remain single forever, leaving you discouraged, or marry with significant sacrifices, feeling like you have “settled.” Again, this could have been avoided if we had prepared ourselves (and our children) for dating Biblically.
If we treated dating as the Bible does, then romance, intimacy, and pleasure would follow deliberate platonic assessment. We would not give our hearts or bodies away until we were with our covenant spouse. We would not use erotically charged dating methods to discover if someone had lifelong potential. We would not move in with them and play house to see if we could be married. Instead, we should discover those things first by interviewing them, examining their doctrine, inspecting every nook and cranny of their life, and inviting the parents and our churches into the process.
If that is how we approach things, men and women could freely and joyfully enter into the sexual, relational, spiritual, and emotional intimacy they long for within covenant marriages as God designed. And they could do so without all the scars, wounds, and baggage that come from following the world. If we treated potential suitors as our future spouses, or at the least as brothers and sisters in Christ, we would enter marriage Biblically prepared, with no regrets, no unrealistic expectations, and an overwhelming sense of security, satisfaction, pleasure, and joy.
The Example of Adam
Think about the first man and husband, Adam. Here we have a man who was prepared for his wedding day in a way few could ever dream. He had never seen a female body, so he had nothing to compare her to and nothing to be disappointed with. Her body was exactly what he wanted because it was all he had ever known. He did not have a thousand expectations of waist size, leg length, hair color, nose shape, or anything else clinging to his prefrontal cortex.
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We are not the rightful arbiter of our circumstances. Under every good and happy thing and every bitter and sour thing is the smiling face of God, whose providence allows for nothing but our good (Romans 8:28). “Oh, give thanks!” That is why we do not direct our thankfulness toward people, places, and particular situations because they are too cheap and far too flimsy to stand under the weight of praise. People will let you down. Your body will decay. Life will sucker punch you in the teeth when you are not looking. So, dear friends, do not give your thanks to those things! Instead, give it to Almighty God, as the psalmist proclaims.

As the meat sweats, socially acceptable gluttony, and mild diabetic comas begin to subside, the question believers must continue to wrestle with, throughout the entire year is, “what is a life of thankfulness”? Who is responsible for the good in our life? And what is the telos of our thankfulness?
For the pagan man, the words “I am thankful for ____” must end at his own self. He is thankful for the things he likes. He is grateful for whatever pleases him and aligns with his value structure. But, what that man cannot be is thankful in any holistic way because innumerable things exist that are still displeasing to him.
An ounce of lucidity and self-reflection confirms it. Life is served up hot and ready with more examples of pain than there are pleasures. A man’s work is filled with futility; his family is struggling or even falling apart; inflation feels like a noose around his neck, and the holiday called Thanksgiving is just another opportunity to spread a little faux gratitude over the black hole of his existence. Without God, the love of Christ, and the ministry of the Holy Ghost, that annual November food fest reduces down to a “chasing after the wind” with a side of honey-baked ham and yams. All the world can do is participate in the farce of fatalism; they may eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow, they surely will die. That is their lot.
Yet, for the Christian, thanksgiving is much more than a day of excess eating and football. Thanksgiving takes over all of life. It invades every darkened corner of the mind, heart, will, and soul and becomes the ongoing ritual of our earthly existence.
The reason for this is simple. Giving thanks is not limited to a day or conditioned by our preferences, opinions, or circumstances. It did not originate with pilgrims and Indians. The Christian approach to Thanksgiving can and must be different. We may give thanks in all of life, in both the good times and bad, because our gratitude is rooted in the very nature and character of God, and He is the one who will fill our mouths with laughter (Psalm 126:1-3).
Notice how the psalmist describes Thanksgiving in Psalm 107:

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” – Psalm 107:1

Let us examine this more closely so that we may understand Thanksgiving.
Holistic Thanksgiving
The psalmist begins with an unconditional statement, “Oh, give thanks,” which invites neither limitation, duration, nor qualification to our thankfulness. Instead, he welcomes us into the ongoing warmth and beauty of ubiquitous gratitude that pervades every facet of our lives. He summons us into the kind of joy that sings in a storm, dances in the rain, diligently inventories, and blankets myriad aspects of reality with hearty hopeful praises. The entire plane of existence for the believer becomes the playground of current and future joy.
Think about it from the positive side of things. We have souls filled by the Spirit of God, redeemed by the King of kings, cleansed of iniquity and stain, and commissioned both temporally and eternally by our God. “Oh, give thanks!” We have eyes to see the beauty of God’s world. We have ears to hear perfect pitch and infant giggles. We possess mouths to taste a panoply of exquisite flavors, hands to touch, and arms to wrap up the ones we love in a long embrace.
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When Jesus says that some will be taken, he is saying that some will be arrested, taken into custody, beaten, and killed when the day of the Lord’s wrath comes. This day happened just like Jesus predicted, within a single generation, when the Romans came into the city, murdered, raped, and killed the Jews, and took the remaining survivors “into custody.”

You’ve Been Left Behind…
At the zenith of my choral career, circa the late 1990s, I was chosen to perform a solo in front of my entire private Christian high school. Apparently, the talent pool was a bit low that year. Either way, I was given the unenviable task of alerting all the would-be tares, sown into a Christian School wheat field, to repent or face their eschatological doom… With a Brady-bunch quiver ready to strike at my undeveloped teenage vocal cords, I crooned out the following warning to my classmates: “There’s no time to change your mind, the Son has come and you’ve been left behind.” If you are blanking on the reference, take a moment to enjoy some dispensational cringe and then come back for the article proper.
Wonkavator in the Sky
When it comes to eschatology, the most common view bumbling around pulpits and popular Christian literature these days asserts that at some point in the immediate future, believers will be whisked away from the world in a secret rapture. Christians will apparently vaporize, leaping invisibly into the heavens, leaving clothing, dentures, and plastic surgical additions piled neatly behind them. Planes will fall out of the sky. Unmanned cars will careen over cliffs. And all the world will be thrown into the kind of panic that only a cavalier Antichrist could rectify, which will jumpstart a seven-year tribulation that ends in Armageddon.
This kind of murky reasoning once seemed rational to me. That is until I left the eschatological bog of big Eva publishing swamps and started reading the Bible for myself. It is amazing how such a simple action can clear up so much confusion. Who would’ve thunk it?
With that, today, I want us to explore what the Bible says about the rapture in Matthew 24. Is it God’s heavenly dispensational wonkavator that is meant to zap us out of here before the world gets really crazy? Or, have we misunderstood what the Scriptures are saying about these things and need to adopt a better view? Let us begin!
A Brief Disclaimer
As I have mentioned before. Jesus is going to return at the very end of human history. The dead in Christ will rise. The living and the dead will be judged. Some will be thrown into the lake of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And some will enter into the eternal kingdom with Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. All of that is true and is still in our future.
But, what we have also shown in this series, is that many of the most popular eschatological fantasies, peddled as the Gospel today, will not happen in the future, because they have already happened in the past. For instance, over the last several weeks we have shown that the rise of False Messiah’s, Wars and Rumors of Wars, Earthquakes and Famines, Tribulations, Signs of the Times, the Abomination of Desolation, The Great Tribulation, and the “Second Coming” (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), all occurred in the events that happened in the Church’s first tumultuous forty years.
If you are all caught up on the series, today, we will examine how the events of Matthew 24:36-41, are not referring to a pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-tribulational “rapture”. But, instead is more evidence that Jesus was describing events that would happen in the first century. If you are not caught up, this post may be interesting, and I feel sure you will get something out of it, but, I would suggest reading the previous articles in the series for a fuller treatment. You can find those in blog form here, or in podcast form here.
The Text:

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.—Matthew 24:36-41

A Past Day in View
While many believe this section of Scripture is referring to a future rapture of a righteous church, the context of Matthew 24 makes it abundantly clear that Jesus is referring to events that have already happened in the past to the unrighteous nation of Judah. We know this for at least three reasons. First, the context bears it out. Jesus is answering the disciples’ questions about when the temple will be destroyed, what will be the sign this is about to occur, and how will that factor into the end of the Jewish age of redemption (Matthew 24:1-3). From verse 3 onward, Jesus is giving an unbroken answer to their question, describing events that must soon take place in their lifetimes, without deviating from that objective. There is not a single moment in verses 1-35, where Jesus jarringly shifts away from His audience to the distant future, to somehow wax proleptically. He stays on task and so should we.
Second, Jesus said a mere two verses earlier: “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (v. 34). This tells us unequivocally that Jesus believed everything in this prophecy would occur within a forty-year window. That alone should end the debate, right? Do we believe Jesus or not?
Third, whenever Jesus uses the word “day” in this chapter, He is not referring to an indeterminate day that will occur sometime in an undisclosed future. Instead, He is referring to a well-defined day, known as the “Day of the Lord”, which makes its Biblical appearance in the Old Testament prophetic writings. According to the prophets, the “Day of the Lord” was a special day when God uniquely brought His covenantal fury against His enemies. According to Jesus, that day had come in full when Judah rejected the reign of God (See Matthew 23:35-36). This undoubtedly served as the chiefest of all betrayals and pitted the Jews as mortal enemies with God. This is why Jesus alludes to, quotes from, and appeals to the very prophets who refer to this awesome and terrible day because that day would afflict the very generation He was speaking to (See for example Joel 1& 2; Amos 5; and Malachi 3 & 4).
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Satan hates godly, fruitful, multiplying, ruling, and subduing humans. He hates the Church that is taking back his territory. And he hates most fiercely covenant Christians who catechize their children.

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves (the devils) are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.—C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.—Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Between these two quotes exists a powerful point. As it relates to Satan and the demonic realm, we must not dismiss, obsess, or live in ignorance of our greatest foe. Instead, as good soldiers of Christ, we must understand who our enemy is, what he hates most, and where that hatred is aimed in our society today.
A Crash Course on Satan
In the spirit of knowing our enemy well, here is a bare-bones summary of the prince of darkness.
He is called the devil, the dragon, a deceiver, the serpent, the prince and god of this world, and an “angel” who is in charge of the abyss (Revelation 9:11; 12:4,9, 13-14; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 6:15; Genesis 3:1-5, 13; John 12:31). He is chief among the fallen devils who were cast out of heaven for their rebellion against God (Revelation 12:9). Originally made as the most beautiful of all God’s angelic hosts (Ezekiel 28:12-19), he became the father of narcissism, enamored with his own beauty, a megalomaniac who wanted to elevate his throne over and above the Living God (Isaiah 14:12-15). He and his entire demonic horde of minions were cursed to slither along the face of the earth, like a starving pack of famished lions, seeking whomever they may devour (1 Peter 5:8). He is morally corrupted and evil to his rotten core (Matthew 13:19). He is a pathological liar and has been a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). He is a seditious schemer and slanderer extraordinaire (Ephesians 6:11; Job 1:9-11). All of this along with the fact that he disguises himself as an agent of light while secretly planning your demise (2 Corinthians 11:14). That is who Satan is.
In regards to what Satan does, he is ever working in opposition to the people of God (Job 2:1-7). He attempts to thwart angelic aid dispatched to us in times of need (Jude 9; Daniel 10:13-21). And he stands vigorously in defiance of all of God’s purposes (Matthew 16:23), His written and spoken Word (Matthew 13:3-19), and against God’s righteousness (1 John 3:7-10). He works for the exploitation of human weakness (Ephesians 4:26-27). He labors incessantly to ensure we fall away from God (1 Thessalonians 3:5). And, along with all of this, he is the chief accuser of humanity before the throne of God (Revelation 12:10).
What Satan Hates the Most
When you take all the verses in Scripture as a whole, you begin to see a malevolent spiritual being who salivates in searing hatred against humanity. After this dazzling creature was cast from the halls of heaven, God knelt down in the dust of the earth to craft a being to rule over and defeat him. As Satan stood from a distance, he watched with perfect hate that God would design such a feeble creature to be the one that rules him. The purest form of disgust washed over him as God imprinted His glorious image upon the soul of man. Blind fury consumed him as God breathed His life-giving breath into Adam’s lungs. Jealousy gripped the fallen spirit’s heart as man and woman, embodied creatures with an immaterial soul, communed in paradise with their God. A past time the cursed angel once enjoyed.
With the envy of a teenage girl whose darling former sugar muffin was now dating her bestie, Satan was driven into compulsive hatred. His jealousy propelled him into an unrelenting war against the man and the woman. He placed the crosshairs of his ire squarely on the shiny new couple, and all of their offspring forever. As man had been sculpted from the dust, Satan took on the body of a slithering serpent and snaked his way into the garden to eliminate his opposition.
Through his cunning and craftiness, he tricked the man and woman into vacating their thrones, abdicating their crowns, and being subject to his slavery and death forever. Like prisoners of war, Lucifer gleefully tortured the race of man, laughing every time they squealed, concentrating the lion’s share of his wrath to be aimed right at the center of their purpose. Since man was made to be fruitful, multiplying, ruling, and subduing, and the extenders of God’s dominion, Satan would attack their fruit, make them divisive, weak, and subjected, and the agents who build up his kingdom instead of God’s. Since men were made to be leaders in their homes and to hold fast to the commands, Satan would convince them to be weak, pathetic, passive, and disinterested in what God says. Since women were made to joyfully submit to her husband, build a home, and bear much fruit, Satan would work tirelessly to convince her to oppose her husband, abandon the home, and abandon her motherly instincts.
We must remember, it was Satan who came first to Eve, the one who would bear the race of serpent-crushing men. Under the influence of this unclean spirit, it was Cain who butchered human life, killing his brother in a fit of rage. It was the serpent-wearing Pharaoh who called for all the male children to be murdered in the Nile. It was the serpent-worshipping people of Canaan, who threw their children into the flames of Molech. And it was the maniac despot Herod, who worshiped the lord of darkness, by killing all the infants in Bethlehem. Throughout the Bible, Satan has been attacking the race of man, stealing, killing, and destroying everything man was called by God to be.
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When it comes to the comings of Christ, the parables shed much light on why the Son of God came. Contrary to the prevailing evangelical notion, Jesus came for more than to simply save sinners. He came to a specific people, at a specific time, in a specific context, for a specific and dual-functioning purpose. That purpose was to bring judgment upon His enemies and salvation to His people, which can be demonstrated throughout the parables of Christ.
For instance, when Christ comes, He will identify two groups of people in His incarnation. One that will be prepared for judgment. And the other who will be prepared for His blessings. These two themes show up in the vast majority of parables and give us insight into Jesus’ conception of His incarnation.
For instance, in one parable you have the righteous man building his house upon the rock, while the wicked builds in hubris upon the sand (Luke 6:46-49). In that story, the righteous man survives the near-term calamity and experiences ongoing blessings while the wicked man undergoes sudden destruction when the storm appeared.
Truth from parables like these can be applied in spiritual and universal ways since all who build their life on Jesus Christ will be ultimately and eternally spared, whereas building on anything else will warrant eternal calamities forever. But, spiritualized interpretations often miss the poignant reality this would have conveyed to the original audience. Jesus is warning that a first-century storm is coming and only those who were with Him would survive it, which gained terrifying clarity in the events of AD 70.
This kind of dualism between the imminent doom of the wicked and the near blessing of the righteous is too overt to ignore. For instance, the sheep will be brought into blessing, whereas the goats will be set apart for destruction (Matthew 25:31-36). The wheat is to be stored in Christ’s heavenly barns while the tares will be thrown into the flames (Matthew 13:24-30). The branches that bear fruit will be pruned for greater fruitfulness, and all those who are fruitless will be burned for their worthlessness (John 15:1-11). The king will bring new guests into the joy of His wedding while sending his armies to destroy the ones who were found unworthy (Matthew 22:1-14). On and on we may go.
Clarifying Parabolic Time
Some of these parables helpfully add a clarifying element of time, which let us know more will be going on in the first century than a hyper-spiritual application can account for. In the spiritual application, the parables were written for me, my benefit, and concern the things going on in my world. Jesus’ parables, however, clearly address events that apply to His contemporaries and things that will be happening in their world even while we still find comfort and application in them as well.
For instance, Christ the master will go on a long journey. When He returns, He will bless the slave who is found doing what He commanded (Luke 12:35-44). But, to the one who is lazy, wicked, and evil, He will bring violence, death, and destruction (Luke 12:45-48). This happened in AD 70.
The temptation today is to read a multiple thousand-year gap into texts like these, supposing that its contents apply to us or some future generation. Beyond breaking the most basic rules of Biblical hermeneutics, this is not how the story world of a parable works. In the parable, a human master goes on a human journey that seemed especially long to his human servants. When he returned, those same servants were still alive. Some were rewarded for their faithfulness while their master was away. The others were punished and even killed for their wickedness.
Had the master in the story left on a two-thousand-year journey, both he and his slaves would have to be near immortal to survive until he returned, which cannot be Jesus’ point. But, if Jesus was preparing His disciples for the forty-year gap that existed between His ascension and judgment coming on Jerusalem in AD 70, the parable would make great sense. Jesus’ return would bring blessing to the ones who were committed to following Him. But, death and destruction for those who remained in their rebellion, such as the Jews.
One triad of parables makes this blessing / judgment coming of Christ undeniably clear. In Matthew 21-22, Jesus tells three successive parables, one right after the other, where one group will gain tremendous blessings and the other awful judgments. In the first, Jesus interprets the parable of the two sons, telling the Pharisees that the prostitutes and tax collectors will get into heaven ahead of them (Matthew 21:28-32). In the second, He interprets the parable of the landowner, warning the Jews that God’s kingdom will be taken away from them at His coming, and given to a people who will produce His fruit (Matthew 21:33-46). And in the third, Jesus reveals that the Jews were found unworthy to participate in His coming Kingdom so they are thrown out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 22:1-14).
In each of these parables, the coming of the Son of Man is accomplishing a dualistic purpose. For the elect, Jesus’ coming will usher them into all the salvific blessings and eschatological joys available in God’s newly inaugurated Kingdom, the Church. For those who reject Him, there will be suffering, weeping, gnashing teeth, and imminent destruction. To the Jews, this happened during their lives, when their city was set on fire, their temple was devoted to destruction, and the Old Covenant kingdom of shadows and types came to a sudden cataclysmic end.
The parables Jesus taught prepared the discerning disciple for this apocalyptic outcome.
The Prophets and Dual Purpose Comings
This same theme of salvation and judgment at the Messiah’s coming shows up in the prophetic writings as well. For instance, in Joel 2, God promises to blow a trumpet of war, empowering a Northern army to bring swift and awful judgment against the Jews of the first century (Joel 2:1-11). But, His coming will also provide a way of salvation for the elect who will repent (Joel 2:12-17). In case we doubt the first-century timing of this prophecy, Joel cites Pentecost, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as the sign that will identify when his prophecy will occur. Here again, we see that Messiah’s first-century coming will be good news for some and terrifying for others.

The apocalyptic genre takes old images of the past, and the author applies them to his present people and discusses near-term important events that would soon happen in their future. In Matthew 24, Jesus plunders the pages of the Old Testament, grabbing pregnant images and metaphors, to speak volumes of information to His disciples in just a few sentences.

And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.—Matthew 24:31

An Eschatological Rosetta Stone
As one of the engineering divisions, of Napoleon Bonapart’s army, was preparing another Egyptian building for demolition, one of his lieutenants inadvertently stumbled upon one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the modern era, the Rosetta Stone. Built right into the wall of that house, moments from being torn to the ground, was a massive stone text with an inscription written in three different languages, that would unlock the keys to understanding Egyptian Hieroglyphics from that day forward. Before that find, the pictorial language was nothing more than esoteric images arranged neatly on pottery shards and on the sides of ancient buildings that scholars could not make heads or tails of. Yet, after that, the entire world of the ancient Egyptians opened up like never before. The key had been found.
If you carry this as a metaphor over into the world of Biblical studies, the apocalyptic genre is very much like those Egyptian Hieroglyphics. The genre is not only well known for its confusing images, words, signs, and symbols, which are arranged in the most obfuscated ways, but it has also been a source of confusion among the scholarly community who come up with one theory after another attempting to crack the code. Thankfully for us, the Rosetta stone we need to interpret these events has already been found.
Instead of looking at current geopolitical events, reading Reddit subthreads about the rise of Luciferians and Ancient Freemasons, or buying that tinfoil hat from the cooky guy on Youtube, the key to understanding the Biblical apocalyptic genre is found right in the pages of Holy Scripture. Unlike most genres of the Bible, apocalyptic is entirely dependent upon past revelation, since it borrows language, images, and symbols that come right out of Scriptures that were previously recorded. With that, the key to understanding the prophecies that are given in this genre will not be found in piecing together current events 2000 years disconnected from their author but will be found in understanding the Old Testament Scriptures those authors were alluding to.
Today, I want us to look at a poignant example of this. If you have been following along with this blog, our thesis has been that, in the prophecy given to His disciples in Matthew 24, and especially in the apocalyptic section listed in verses 27-31, Jesus was not talking about the end of the world or of human history but was instead speaking about the doom that would soon befall wicked Judah. To support such a claim we have cited linguistic evidence, historical data, first-century extra-Biblical sources, contextual factors, and other lines of compelling data to resoundingly prove our premise. Today, I would like to add a few more cherries on top of this rather large Sunday.
Brought to You Courtesy of Red, White, and Blue Apocalypticism
One of the distinguishing features of the apocalyptic genre is that it communicates urgent news and important truth, using ancient signs, symbols, characters, and figures. The writer, who had an urgent message to share with his contemporary audience, would ratchet up the intensity of his message by reaching back into the annals of his past, resurrecting common images, stories, and characters from their shared collective history and experience, employing them in the story-world of his apocalyptic vision. Wow, that was certainly a mouthful… How about a country music example to drive home my point?
After the harrowing events of September 11th, one of the songs that captured the American heart and became a ballad of courage for so many was “Courtesy Of The Red, White, And Blue”, which was written by country music legend Toby Keith. In that song, Keith masterfully employed American apocalyptic images in order to threaten destruction upon the terrorists who had weaponized planes against our people. Addressing the terrorists directly, Keith bellowed out the following lines:

Hey Uncle Sam, put your name at the top of his listAnd the Statue of Liberty started shakin’ her fistAnd the eagle will fly, man, it’s gonna be hellWhen you hear mother freedom start ringin’ her bellAnd it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you…Brought to you courtesy of the red white and blue

If you were living in the year 40 AD or 4000 AD, none of this would make the least bit of sense to you. But, it is obvious to all twenty-first-century Americans what Toby Keith is saying. He does not have an angry uncle named Sam who is fond of making kill lists. Some Statue that is dedicated to Liberty did not come to life in fist-shaking fury. Mother freedom (whoever that lassie is) did not begin ringing any strange bells. And some object that is colored red, white, and blue did not come to life to fight any actual battles. All of this is apocalyptic imagery.
Toby Keith is borrowing from the common canon of American iconography, not only using these well-known images but also bringing them to life in visionary and war-like ways. Why is he doing this? Because this powerfully communicates the message of vengeance and doom that would soon come upon those who attacked America. This is why Uncle Sam in the song, a symbol of American Patriotism and troop recruitment, is going to gather up the soldiers for war. This is why the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of our ordered liberty and national freedom, is angered when that same freedom is in jeopardy. And that is why the nation will become unified in administering furious justice, which is represented by the red, white, and blue flag that is raining munitions down on top of the terrorist’s heads. All of these images are apocalyptic and we understand them easily because they are our national images.
The same is true for the first-century disciples. While their images may look different than ours, the symbols Jesus used would have been meaningful to them and would have communicated intense judgment and fury was soon to come upon the enemies of God. If we have any hope of understanding this passage, we cannot employ our images, our categories, and our presuppositions. We must endeavor to understand their images and symbols so that the passage comes to life in all its honky tonk glory.
The Angels Sent Forth
Jesus told them

And He will send forth His angels…

After Jesus describes the 40-year period of trials that would lead to Jerusalem’s downfall (24:4-14) and the Roman / Jewish war that will leave the old covenant city as a smoldering pile of rubble (24:15-26), He switches to the apocalyptic genre in verse 27 to drive home His point with visionary intensity and a sobering finality. As we discussed in the previous two articles, the sun, moon, and stars (which are Genesis 2 images of celestial covenantal rule) were reacting to the judgment of Judah, by going dark, refusing to give their light, and falling out of the sky. The heavens were also shaking which is a common prophetic image for the upheaval of nations.
We also discussed how the tribes of the land (all those within Judah and Jerusalem) would see the sign of Jesus’ heavenly enthronement (An image coming out of Daniel 7), where Jesus ascends up to the Ancient of days and sits upon His throne to reign over His blood-bought Kingdom. This caused the people of Judah to mourn as they were being destroyed, not because they regretted their actions, but more like those who weep and gnash their teeth in hell.
In verse 31, however, Jesus switches His apocalyptic referent. He is no longer talking about the grim events that will be coming upon Judah when they are punished with fire in AD 70. Now, He moves on to share what will happen to the church, who suffered tremendously during this forty-year period of time. More specifically, He addresses how redemption will be accomplished in this unique era between the ages. What do I mean between the ages?
Redemption between the Ages
As the old age of temples, priests, sacrifices, and priests was coming to a jarring halt and the new age of Christ’s Kingdom was dawning, this forty-year period from AD 30 to AD 70 became a unique era where both ages coexisted simultaneously. This created more than a little confusion among Christians who converted from Judaism. Should they worship in the temple or in their homes? Should they be circumcised any longer or not? Should they worship on Saturday or Sunday? And I am sure you can imagine more than a few additional questions that life-long Jews would need to have answered while the temple and Judaism were still standing.
One of the questions we know they were asking is where do the believers go, who were killed during the overlapping of ages? For instance, suppose a Christian was killed by a band of Jewish zealots in the year 55 AD. What happened to them, since the old covenant kingdom had not been fully put away? Since their temple still stood? Since Jesus had not yet returned in judgment against them? Do the martyrs, who died before all these things took place, get all of the blessings that Jesus promised?
Paul’s Answer
Paul addressed this question to the Thessalonian church, who was asking the same question, in the mid 50’s AD. Apparently, there was a band of fools that had infiltrated the church and were attempting to convince people that Jesus had already returned and those who died before His judgment coming against Judah would miss out on the resurrection (See 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10). Paul not only assured them that Jesus would return soon to punish the Jews (in 2 Thessalonians 2) but in 1 Thessalonians 4, he also assured them that all who believed in Christ would be gathered into the savior’s Kingdom regardless of when they lived and died. They would not miss out on the resurrection!
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Jesus promised a sign would occur in the heavens, when He ascended there, sat on the throne to reign, and began the work of putting all His enemies under His feet. His Kingship is the sign!

Nickel Therapy Sessions and Judgment Comings
The melancholy boy walked timidly away from the five-cent therapy booth, questioning the psychological advice Lucy had given him again. “There is no better emotional outlet than kicking a football”, she mused with an air of clinical sensitivity. “If you cannot trust your therapist”, Charlie Brown muttered to himself as he was walking away, “then who can you trust?” That thought seemed to push him over the edge, propelling his lumpy little body awkwardly toward the prize, activating his casserole abs and cupcake quads into the locked and loaded position and ready to fire. With the safety off and the trigger pulled, his foot swept briskly through the air, missing the ball entirely that had now been pulled out from under him, yanking his husky little body up toward the sky like Darius on a warm summer day, only to crash under the weight of his unmet expectations.
When scenes like this play out over comic books or airwaves, we chuckle at the silly dolt who fell for it once again. We laugh, even while detesting all of the modern-day Lucy’s over at Buzzfeed and the ad approval division at Twitter who treat us in much the same way. Yet, as much as I personally detest clickbait and rug pulls, I found myself almost giving in to my inner Lucy on the blog last week. Almost.
For a split second, I almost went with the title, “Ten Reasons Why The Second Coming Has Already Happened”. And of course, if you read the article, that is perfectly true so long as you let me define the word “coming”. But after some prayer and counsel from an older brother in the faith, I added the clarity that was needed to the title, and all was well. But, I am sure you are wondering, why is all of this important?
Because I do not want to be a Lucy in your life when it comes to this topic. I want you to kick the eschatological ball down the field and through the uprights. I want you to understand what the Bible is saying about these things and not be left lying on your back in eschatological grief and confusion.
Spiritual v. Physical “Comings”
To do that, we have been introducing the concept that there are two kinds of divine “comings” in the Bible. There are times when God “comes” against a people for their sins. When this occurs, the coming is always spiritual, covenantal, always in the apocalyptic genre, and always in the context of divine judgment. There is also another kind of “coming” where God pursues a people in order to rescue them. When this happens, the coming is always physical, incarnational, and personal.
For instance, when God comes bodily in the garden, it is to rescue Adam and Eve from their sins. When God comes bodily to Abraham it reveals God’s promises to Abraham and to cut him into the covenant. When God comes physically to the people of Israel, it is to rescue them from Egyptian slavery. When God comes physically and incarnationally in the first century, it is to rescue all of God’s elect who were in slavery to Satan, sin, and death. And, when Christ comes physically at the end of human history, it is to rescue God’s people, finally and forever from the curse and death, and to deliver them imperishable and incorruptible into eternity with Him (See 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4).
And yet, this bodily, salvific, and incarnational coming does not account for all of the kinds of “comings” that we see God engaging in within the Bible. For instance, look at Isaiah 19:1

Behold, the Lord 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

In a passage where lifeless idols, made of wood and stone, take on personified attributes of trembling, and where human hearts are melting faster than a Yankee candle under a flamethrower, then is it any wonder that the language of “coming” is not describing a physical and bodily event but a spiritual judgment coming of God against a wicked nation. When you also understand that “clouds”, “suns”, “moons”, “stars”, and “heavenly shakings” show up in every single passage where a major nation or city comes under the judgment of God (such as Babylon In Isaiah 13, Egypt in Isaiah 19 and Ezekiel 32, Tyre in Isaiah 23 & 24, Edom in Isaiah 34, Judah in Jeremiah 4, and against Jerusalem in Joel 2 and 3, Amos 5 and 8, as well as various other passages) then you realize that there is a tremendous amount of passages where God truly and actually “comes” against a nation in judgment, without it being bodily and incarnational.
As we have been proving over the last several episodes, the “coming” passages described in Matthew 24, especially in verses 29-31, do not represent the end of human history and the bodily final coming of Jesus but are the fulfillment of prophecies in the Old Testament, where God promises His day of wrath will eventually fall on Judah. When Jesus answered His disciples’ questions in Matthew 24, a forty-year countdown clock began, that would end in God “coming” against the Jews and their city being leveled to dust.
In that spiritual, covenantal, and apocalyptic sense, I can say that the second coming has already come. And I intend to share more evidence with you this week that this reading of Matthew 24 is the Biblical reading. But, for the sake of clarity please let me repeat my aforementioned qualification. I am not a full preterist. I believe in a bodily end of world history coming. And I believe that this coming is still in our future. I contend that this is not what Matthew 24 is speaking about, and to that end, let us continue where we left off last week.
Evidence 4: The Sign in the Sky?
When Jesus says:

And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky…—Matthew 24:30a

We have several issues that need to be understood. First, the time frame has not changed. “And then” signals a logical and chronological sequence of events that ties this entire prophecy together. After forty years of signs and evidence that will increase in magnitude and intensity over a single first-century generation (Mt. 24:3-28, 34), one of the final signs will be shown in the heavens that will signal Christ’s Kingdom has come and that the old Kingdom is passing away.
Second, there are a few linguistic challenges in this passage that need to be worked out if we are going to understand what it means. For now, we will only deal with the first one, which is the translation of the word “sky”.
In our modern English translations, it appears as if the Son of Man will make an appearance in the sky. If you read further down, it seems like all the world will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds and the people of the earth will mourn over what they have done. This is what the dispensational types would have you to believe, but it is not a faithful translation of the text.
More will be said below, but the word that is being translated as “sky” here, which exists in the material realm, is actually the common word for heaven, which is in the spiritual dimension. To illustrate my point, you and I cannot build a rocket that will fly to the heavenly throne room where God dwells, because heaven does not have a physical address at some interstellar crossroads in the cosmos. Heaven exists in an entirely different plane of existence that we cannot travel to with material ends. One might say that heaven is skyward, but that is only until you start accounting for the rotation of the earth, our location in orbit with the sun, and various other issues like this.
Whenever God appears in bodily form, or divine form, or also when He disappears in bodily form, He does not go up or down or take a specific direction of flight. He simply shows up at a location, or leaves a location, almost out of thin air. For instance, when the crowds are looking to kill Him, He vanishes. When He transfigured before His disciples, He does not go anywhere but merely pulls back the material curtain so that they can see the spiritual realm. In this sense, heaven is not a location that one needs to travel to but an overlapping sphere of reality that God may step in and out of effortlessly without even moving.
The only exception to that rule is Christ’s ascension UPWARD into heaven, which has massive theological implications that we will look at in a moment. For now, suffice it to say that heaven is not a physical or material space where God travels to and from. It is an immaterial and real plane of existence that God may step in and out of at His pleasure.
This is incredibly important because we need to know where the sign occurs. If it occurs in a material sky, and if Jesus will be riding a material cloud, and if all the material world will see it happen, then we have a problem. Because there is no record that an event like this ever occurred. In that case, this would be good evidence to support a futurist conclusion.
But, this interpretation ignores the fact that a switch in genres has occurred and that we can no longer interpret these verses with the same rigid wooden literalism we employed before. Usually, most people (not including dispensational futurists) understand this kind of linguistic switch intuitively when it happens.
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But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.—Matthew 24:29-31
Pardon Me While I Let a Little Cat Out of a Very Big Bag
Of the things Christians are usually divided over, Jesus’ incarnational first coming seems to be a point of unity. We all agree that He was born a few years BC, which humorously might suggest that the Christ was born before Christ, a rather ironic blight upon poor Dionysius Exiguus’ dating system. Yet, notwithstanding a Scythian error or two, we all agree that Jesus lived to be less than 40, He died a horrific death at the hands of the Jews, He rose again visibly and bodily in Jerusalem, and He ascended into heaven in the early thirties of that first common era century. His Ascension into heaven not only ended His first incarnational coming, but it also ushered in His heavenly reign over His Kingdom, the Church, that continues down to this day.
Yet as clear as His first coming has been, there has been an unbelievable amount of confusion on when the second coming will occur. For instance, some—among the full preterist types—believe everything in the New Testament has already happened and that a future bodily coming of Christ is unnecessary or, at the very least, was not recorded in the Bible so we cannot expect it. On the other end of the eschatological spectrum, the full-fledged futurist types tend to quibble over whether Jesus’ second bodily coming will be a pre-tribulational, mid-tribulational, or post-tribulational escape via a wonkavator-like-rapture.
What very few seem to notice is that there are two kinds of divine comings in the Bible. There are the bodily comings where God takes on a human body, such as when He walks with Adam and Eve in the garden, passes by Moses, dances in a fiery furnace, comes as Lord and Messiah to the Jews, and returns bodily at the end of human history. All these we affirm. Yet, there is another kind of “divine coming” in the Bible, where God spiritually comes in judgment against a wicked nation that we must not overlook if we are going to understand this passage.
That is the eschatological cat I would like to let out of the end-times knapsack and that is where I would like us to dive in today. For clarity, I will provide 10 reasons why Jesus’ second coming has already occurred in the first century, but with that, I will give you the most important qualifier that is needed before I begin. Here goes…I believe Jesus will physically return at the end of human history. I believe that He will come back in bodily form, give us new spiritual bodies, and call us up to meet Him in the air (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15 & 1 Thessalonians 4). My contention in this article is that the “coming” Jesus is referring to in Matthew 24 is not the end of human history coming, but a divine judgment coming against the Jews for their covenantal infidelity.
To support this view, I will be giving 10 lines of cold hard Biblical data that come right out of the text. But, if you would like more information on what these two kinds of divine comings are (Physical Incarnational and Judgment Covenantal) and how they are used in the Bible (e.g. Isaiah 19:1), then see the article I wrote a few months back that covers this very topic.
For all others, onward!
Evidence 1: The Meaning of “Immediate”
Many, such as eminent New Testament Scholar, D.A. Carson, suggest a multi-thousand-year gap between verses 28 and 29 of Matthew 24. Those within that ilk conclude that our Lord is referring to the downfall of Jerusalem in AD 70 in verses 15-28, but then wrongly assume Jesus hopscotched 2000 years forward into the modern era when moving along to verse 29. This suggestion could be reasonable if there was a shred of evidence to defend it. Yet, the evidence is insurmountable in the opposite direction.
In fact, the insurmountable evidence I am speaking of rests on a single word… “Immediately”! Notice how the passages flow:
For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29 But, immediately after the tribulation of those days…—Matthew 24:27-29a
Assuming a multiple thousand-year gap between verses 28 and 29 is the scholarly equivalent of trying to sell ice to an Eskimo. To say it differently, it might be a tough sell. But, I suppose it could be done if there were actual contextual factors, that were right there in the text, alerting the reader that Jesus consciously intended to wax proleptically. But, this cockamamie thesis falls apart quicker than a house made out of toilet paper when you stop to consider what the word “immediate” means.
Not to state the obvious, but if verse 28 is referring to the downfall of Jerusalem, as many attest and we just proved last week, then verse 29 cannot refer to an entirely different era. It must happen immediately after the previous one, limiting its fulfillment to the first century.
Evidence 2: “All These Things”…
Before we get to the meat of verses 29-31, let us recall the sauce Jesus prepared for us in verses 34-35. He said:
Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.—Matthew 24:34-35
We do not have to know mathematics on par with men like Isaac Newton to understand that 34 is just a bit larger than 29, 30, or 31. And we do not require formal training from men like Noam Chomsky, to comprehend that “all these things” means all the things Jesus just said in verses 1-28. What we need is the courage of men like Luther, Calvin, and Knox to believe what Jesus said, even if it is difficult to imagine and especially if it messes with our theological system.
Let me say it plainly, verses 29-31 happened in the first century, in that generation, because Jesus said “All these things” would happen in a single generation in verse 34 and we believe that He meant it. This is the unavoidable conclusion you must come to unless you want to turn yourself into a human pretzel.
Evidence 3: The Sun, Moon, and Stars as Apocalyptic Imagery of Judgment
Jesus said:

But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.—Matthew 24:29

In the words of Ricky Ricardo, it looks like we have some “esplainin to do”. If we are positing that all these things happened in the first century, then it sounds like we are saying that the sun darkened, the moon stopped shining, and a host of stellar luminaries fell from out of the sky, all within a generation from Jesus speaking. To be fair, that is what I am saying, but not completely.
Like Carson and other scholars, I also detect a switch has occurred between verses 28 and 29. Yet, instead of seeing that switch happening in the timing of the prophecy’s fulfillment, I see the switch occurring in the kind of genre Jesus is employing. For instance, in verses 3-28, Jesus is using the normal kind of language one would use when speaking to a friend. He is answering their questions in a straightforward and dialogical way that the disciples accurately record through historical prose. This form of communication is straightforward, plain, and easily discernible.
Yet, as Jesus continues speaking, He switches to a common Old Testament form of communication that His first-century interlocutors would have easily comprehended. This switch was to the apocalyptic genre, which foretells future-oriented events through the lens of symbols. The word apocalyptic means “to reveal” and it does so through visionary, figurative, and metaphorical speech patterns that were common to His contemporaries but not so to the modern man.
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