Honesty and intellectual integrity require that we view every passage according to its context. And what we have seen is that Matthew 24, far from being a prophecy of end-times disaster, was the blisteringly accurate prediction by Christ that great tribulations were coming to apostate Judah. 

Introduction: Biggest Loser No More
If failed end-time predictions were a category in the winter Olympics the competition for the biggest loser would be the most competitive event (By a long shot)! From Simon Bar Giora declaring the end of the world as Rome invaded Judea in AD 67 to Edgar Whisenaut’s “88 Reasons Why The Rapture Could Be In 1988” it seems that the Christian church has become an ever-growing trash heap of failed predictions that never ended up materializing. I might be inclined to call it a dumpster fire, but that might be giving it too much credit.
Some, the ones among us who always say “if at first, you don’t succeed, then try try again”, continue right along in the ministry of failed predictions unabated, believing that the right combination of news articles, numerology, and blood moons is just around the corner. Yet, amid the echo chamber of eschatological fanaticism, so few stop and examine the real reason these predictions don’t come true. That is because it already happened!
In what follows I will share thirteen reasons, from the text, why the great tribulation has already occurred. I will not appeal to nanobots, the next appearance of Halley’s comet, pandemics, or of Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum. I will cite Scripture alone and prove once and for all why every end-time prediction about a coming tribulation is doomed to fail. My hope is that Christianity would recover from the gangrenous rot of dispensational madness and march onward in our mission to disciple the nations for Jesus. To that end, let us begin.
The Olivet Scene
In case you are just joining us, this article is a part of a longer series that gives a tremendous amount of context for these events. If you would like to catch up before reading further, check out the other articles in this series by visiting our blog. But, if that seems like too much effort to satiate your current curiosity, here is a three-sentence summary of how we got here.
Jesus predicted in a variety of ways that the temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed for rejecting Him (Matthew 22-24:2). This news so deeply unsettled the disciples they wanted Jesus to give more details on how all of this would play out (Matthew 24:3). Then, in passages normally perverted by futurists, Jesus answered their specific questions with specific evidence that would happen in their lifetime (Matthew 24:34). This will become our first evidence that these events have already occurred.
Reason 1: This Generation & All These Things
When Jesus said: “Truly I say to you, THIS GENERATION will not pass away until ALL THESE THINGS take place” (Matthew 24:34), He is giving us two very powerful criteria for understanding the Olivet Discourse. First, He is limiting the scope of fulfillment to about forty years, which is a Biblical generation. Second, He is affirming that everything He said prior to verse 34 (and the explanatory verses that follow) would happen within that same forty-year window. This means the rise of false messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, and famines, persecutions and tribulations, increased lawlessness and apostasy, worldwide Gospel proclamation, the abomination of desolation, the great tribulation, signs and wonders, the sun darkened, stars falling from the sky, the heavens shook, the tribes of the land in mourning, the Son of Man returning on the clouds, and the so-called “rapture”, have all already occurred.
When Jesus said “all these things” He really meant every single one of the things He shared would occur in the life of His disciples! Further, when our God in the flesh, with all intelligence and all wisdom limited the fulfillment of this prophecy to a single generation, He meant for us to lay down our opinions and simply believe Him. And while there is a phenomenal amount of evidence that supports this view, we do not need to understand any of it to adopt a humble, submissive, and faithful posture. If He said everything will happen in one generation, that really ought to settle it. To go on insisting these events, listed in the Olivet Discourse, necessarily occur in the distant future, just because we cannot imagine a scenario where they have already been fulfilled, is to not only challenge the infinite wisdom, intelligence, and integrity of Jesus Christ, but it is to set our teaching over and above His, which seems like a foolish, unsafe, and unholy thing to do.
Reason 2: Jerusalem Surrounded
In Luke’s account of the great tribulation, Jesus says:
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near.—Luke 21:20
In an age of such rampant confusion, it is vital to remember how pronouns work. In fact, I would even argue that the pronouns in the Olivet Discourse alone sufficiently prove that the great tribulation has already occurred. For instance, when Jesus says “you” in this passage He is not unclear on what that means. He doesn’t flip-flop His pronouns like a Disney star before a new album release. He knows what these words mean and He is using “you”, a second person plural pronoun, to refer to the men standing right in front of Him in 30AD.
This is critical to understand, because when we know Jesus is applying the meaning of this passage directly to His disciples, and not vicariously to us, then any thought that a great tribulation must occur, many thousands of years into the future, long after the death of Jesus’ disciples, becomes all the more untenable. The case becomes more certain when you notice that Jesus is telling those men to pay attention to the comings and goings related to the first-century city of Jerusalem.
In sum, Jesus believed some of His disciples would live to see armies approaching Jerusalem to destroy it. He believed that when this happened, it would signal the end for that city, the end of the Old Covenant era, and the beginning of a great tribulation that would be unparalleled in the history of the world. And since no other city on earth had the religious standing of Jerusalem, possessing the very house of God, where the creator of time and space literally promised to live and dwell among His people, then surely the destruction of this city and this temple would be unrivaled in the history of men and would have monumental implications.
All these things happened when Rome surrounded the city, reduced the buildings to rubble, and burned the temple to the ground.
Reason: 3 Fleeing Judeans!
…then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.—Matthew 24:16
…and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city.—Luke 21:21
Before the great tribulation occurs (Matthew 24:21), Jesus tells His disciples to be on the lookout. When they (not us) see the Roman armies surrounding Jerusalem, and when they see the defiling of the temple, then they (again not us) must flee to the mountains for safety!
In our day, this makes very little sense. If a world leader (aka an “Antichrist”) surrounded Jerusalem with his armies to kill the Jews who were worshiping at their newly rebuilt temple, then it would make very little difference whatsoever if they fled the city to go to the mountains. Helicopters would mow them down, tanks would saw them in half, mortar rounds would rain on top of their heads, and drones would cut them down before they reached the foothills. There would be no escape for them in the modern world, yet, this is the way Dispensational thinkers imagine Matthew 24:16 will play out.
Instead of comic book eschatology, let us think about what the passage is saying. Jesus is telling His disciples to be on the lookout for a Roman invasion that began in 66 AD. At first, the Romans concentrated their power in Galilee and Judea, conquering one town after another, which motivated the population to abandon their smaller towns and flee to Jerusalem. By the time the Romans arrived at Judah’s largest city, the population of Jews had swollen to unsustainable proportions from taking in refugees and country folk who were seeking the city as a place of refuge.
At that time, that is simply what you did. When an army attacked your nation, you went to the highest, most fortified citadel, where the largest amount of resources could be amassed, which in the case of Judah would have been Jerusalem. Jerusalem also boasted an underground water supply, which meant it would have, under normal circumstances, been an ideal place to wait out an enemy siege. Yet, because Jesus knew this was not a normal event, He warned His disciples to abandon their conventional wisdom and flee to the countryside instead. Going to Jerusalem would signal certain death for anyone within their walls, so instead, He told the earliest Christians to leave Jerusalem and seek shelter elsewhere.
Could this be why the earliest Christians sold their property in Jerusalem (Acts 4:34), knowing that they would need to live a highly mobile life that was ready to leave at a moment’s notice? Is this also why history does not record a single Christian dying in Jerusalem during the Roman siege? In fact, we do have a record that when the Roman armies began coming, the Christians left, just as Jesus told them to, knowing their ministry to apostate Judah was complete. They preached the Gospel faithfully, like Noah, in the city that hated them, they endured innumerable persecutions in the service of Christ in that wicked generation, and then they got out before the wrath of God fell on those people.
Reason 4: Rooftops and Bag Packing
Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house.— Matthew 24:17
In the same breath, Jesus used to tell His followers to flee the city before the great tribulation, He also warned them with a very peculiar example that does not apply very well in the modern world. He told them not to go down from their flat rooftop patios in order to collect their belongings within the house. Today, this would be almost meaningless, since almost no one on earth lounges, congregates, or spends any meaningful time on their rooftops.
In most of the world, pointed and pitched roofs would be dangerous to climb on, much less do life on. Yet at that time, houses became insufferably hot during the daytime, so congregating on a flattened roof would have been most comfortable until the home cooled off in the evening. This means meals would occur on the roof, as well as parties, family gatherings, and many more significant occasions of life that would all take place on top of the house instead of inside of it. Inside, you would sleep, store your supplies and possessions, and spend the cooler moments, but that is about it.
Since many of the houses in Jerusalem were built into the wall that surrounded the city, homeowners who were escaping the swelling heat inside the home would have a perfect view of an advancing army. Jesus warns these homeowners not to go down into their houses and waste time packing their bags. They must flee immediately or it would be too late.
This warning makes perfect sense in their world and at that time and is just another proof that these events have already taken place.
Reason 5: Hey Farmer, Leave Your Coat!
Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.—Matthew 24:18
In a similar warning, Jesus tells the farmer not to go back home and get his cloak. This made great sense in an agrarian society where the majority of the Judean landscape was filled with farmers who all cared very deeply about their cloaks. At that time, a good coat said a lot about you (remember Joseph). And, we have Biblical examples of bloodthirsty men gambling to have a desirable coat after its owner was crucified (remember Jesus). Today, a coat is not ordinarily one of the most prized possessions that you own and few people would run into a situation of imminent danger to save their pullover or cardigan. At that time, people thought about that particular clothing item a bit differently.
The same is true of farming. When Jesus gave this warning, it would have applied to the majority of the population who extracted resources by the land and sea through tremendous labor and energy. Judah was dominated by farmers, shepherds, and fishermen, so this warning would have been highly relevant. Not so in modern Israel today.
The geographical region Jesus was referring to, once home to blue-collar tradesmen, has now become a sprawling metropolis filled with high-tech industry. Instead of farms filled with plants, the landscape is dominated by server farms, cybersecurity operations, information, and communications technology firms, and various research and development enterprises, which comprise the majority of modern Israel’s economy. Sadly, farming does not even contribute meaningfully at all in modern-day Israel, making this warning totally irrelevant to any modern-day “Judean”.
The plain and simple fact is that this was a specific warning to people living in the first century on how to avoid the great tribulation. Forcing this into the modern world is to accept the ridiculous.
Reason 6: Winter, Pregnancy, & Zealous Sabbatarians
But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.—Matthew 24:19-20
If you were planning to flee your ancestral homelands when Vespasian brought his Roman legions to your doorstep, you would appreciate Jesus’ warnings here. Beyond not going home to get your cloak, or coming down from the roof to get your rolling pin, it would be a good idea to know what other travel hindrances might afflict you. For instance, if speed was the critical component of your flight, then being pregnant would certainly slow you down. Stopping to nurse infants while you were frantically running for your life would not only be difficult, but any crying babe would risk revealing your position. Winter travel would make your flight miserable and would expose you to the elements. And, with all the hard-line zealots running around Judah at that time, trying to do any moving on the Sabbath would get you killed. All of this applies brilliantly to a group of ancient refugees leaving Jerusalem.
Yet, with temperature-controlled automobiles, heated runways, hospitals everywhere you could possibly flee to and have a baby, and scant few hard-liners paying attention to where you are going on the Sabbath, these words lose their meaning. If the “dispys” are right, and a future Antichrist wages all-out war on Israel, being pregnant, nursing, traveling in winter, or on the sabbath, really won’t impede you in the slightest. This is yet another proof of how these words find their perfect fulfillment in that very generation that fled the great tribulation of AD 70.
Reason 7: These Be Days of Vengeance
…because these are days of vengeance so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.—Luke 21:22
At some point in my lackluster elementary school career, I was introduced to the concept of near and far demonstrative pronouns. A near demonstrative pronoun describes things that are close in relationship to you, whereas a far demonstrative pronoun identifies things that are at a distance from you. For example, “I can eat THIS apple because it is right in front of me. But, if I were to eat THAT one, pointing to the television commercial, I would need to travel through airwaves.” This silly example proves my point. We use “This & These” to describe things that are near to us and we use “That & Those” to point to objects further from our purview.
Knowing this, Jesus says that “these days” are the ones where God’s vengeance would be poured out. He is not speaking of the far-off years that could be rightly labeled “those years”, He is talking about the years immediately in the purview of Him and His disciples. By using the word “these” it seems clear that Jesus is limiting the fulfillment of this prophecy to a time frame that would be near to the disciple’s experience. If multiple thousands of years into the future was Jesus’ aim, His sentence would again be rendered meaningless.
In addition to basic elementary grammar, Jesus cites the fulfillment of Old Testament passages, such as Isaiah 63, Daniel 9, and Hosea 9 as the reason the great tribulation would occur in that very generation. Case in point, notice how Hosea speaks about the punishment that is coming and why God is going to bring it in Hosea 9:7, 17.
He says:
The days of punishment have come, The days of retribution have come; Let Israel know this! The prophet is a fool, The inspired man is demented, Because of the grossness of your iniquity, And because your hostility is so great. 17 My God will cast them away Because they have not listened to Him; And they will be wanderers among the nations.—Hosea 9:7, 19
Not to keep beating the same old drum, but that already happened!
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In the years after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, millions of abominable sacrifices were offered on those altars in rejection of Christ. At some point, the Zealots came into the temple, with the help of the Idumeans, and laid waste to their countrymen, destroyed the idolatrous priests, committed all kinds of abominable actions in the temple, and ended the regular sacrifice. Then, at the very end, the Romans came into the temple courtyard and finished the job by setting the temple on fire, robbing it of its treasures, and polluting its ashes with their idolatrous symbols. God’s judgment was complete by AD 70 and each of these four events played a part in its destruction.

As the sun was setting lazily in the western sky, the disciples were setting up camp atop the Mount of Olives, which overlooked the city to the East. With the tumultuous events of the day still ricocheting in their minds, none of them felt at peace, and all of them would have had more questions than they had answers. Not one of them, however, involved a new future temple.
Earlier that morning, Jesus went toe to toe with the Jewish elite in the city, riding in as the true King that they would reject (Matthew 21:1-10). Immediately after this spectacle, He defiantly cleansed the leprous temple, as the true Priest, whom they would soon be sacrificing on a Roman altar (Matthew 21:12-17). Before this happened, He took up the mantle of true Prophet, issuing three scathing parables of judgment, two humiliating rebukes at the leader’s woeful ignorance, and seven covenantal curses upon the city, all signaling its imminent demise (Matthew 21:28-23:39).
By these events, Jesus had more than certainly added jet fuel to the homicidal fires that were already smoldering against Him. Soon, the feckless Jewish aristocrats would succeed in butchering their creator and covenant God. Yet, by inflicting such malice upon God’s beloved Son, that generation unwittingly sealed its doom (Matthew 23:35; Matthew 24:34) and its temple, which was put under demolition order by the King of kings, would soon be reduced to rubble (Matthew 24:1-2).
But now, as the ephemeral rays of sunlight began dissipating amid their campsite, the time had come to pop the three biggest questions they had to their Lord. “Jesus”, the disciples asked, “When will these things happen? what will be the sign your judgment coming draws near? And will this be the end of the Jewish age?” As Jesus turned to see the last remaining photons of light dancing upon Herod’s magnificent temple, with a tear in His eyes He began to answer them accordingly.
Jerusalem Becomes the Mountain of Doom
Looking right at them, Jesus told them forty years had been set apart until the destruction of Jerusalem and that there would be many signs and evidence that the end was drawing near (Matthew 24:34). For instance, He told them that the people would appoint false messiahs to untangle them from Roman oppression and that the disciples must not be deceived when these things occur. He told them that the Roman empire, normally known for peace, would experience a heightened period of instability through an uptick in wars and rumors of wars that would shake the foundations of the entire known world. He alerted them that earthquakes and famines would also descend upon the land, signaling spiritually significant seismic shiftings were afoot as the old world lurched away from Jerusalem being the center of Yahwistic worship to Christ being the only Way, the only Truth, and the only pathway going forward to Life.
As these signs were happening, persecutions and tribulations would be ratcheted up against the fledgling church, who loved Jesus to the point of death. In the same way that a rabid dog attacks most furiously in the moments before the mercy-filled bullet enters its brain, so the Jews, led by various zealot factions, would lash out tirelessly in their final hours, beating, maiming, and executing Christians all throughout the Roman world for sport. And while in their staggering confusion, believing they were earning the favor of God, God mercifully put them down for their extreme lawlessness and hatred of love.
Yet, even while it seemed the entire world would be set against the earliest Christians, Jesus also promised that the Gospel would have a tremendous effect during those forty turbulent years. He predicted as Judah furiously protested like a king mackerel on the line, the Gospel would be preached in all the known world (Greek Word Oikoumene), which was an allusion to the Roman empire. And as we saw in the preceding weeks, this was fulfilled by the late fifties and early sixties AD as Paul tells us that the Gospel was preached to every creature under heaven and was having an effect in all the known world (see Colossians 1:6, 23; Romans 10:16-18; & Romans 16:25-26).
Jesus told them all of these signs would begin occurring before the final end was finally upon them, like labor pains setting an eventual delivery in motion. Today, we move from that initial phase to the active labor that immediately precipitated the end. When Jesus says “Therefore” in Matthew 24:15, He is narrowing His prophetic timeline to the events that would happen just before Jerusalem fell to the Romans, pushing us forward to the year 68 AD. This is what Jesus said:

15 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), – Matthew 24:15

Dispensationalism’s New Techni-Colored Temple
Now, for a bit of snark. As insurmountable evidence for a first-century fulfillment has been steadily stacked up high as heaven, the balking futurist will nimbly look right past that colossus towering over him to retort “Wait just a minute! How do you think the temple will be rendered desolate if it is no longer in existence? Can you tell me that?” Just then, with the kind of twinkle of their eye, normally found among a starving predator chasing down some maimed gazelle in the Serengeti, the dispensationalist lunges forward into the attack, asserting: “Clearly, Jesus is talking to you and me about a future Antichrist, who will rise upon the world stage, turn his back on a newly reconstituted Israel, by polluting their newly rebuilt modern temple, with such disgusting abominations that it will be rendered desolate”… “That must be what this passage is saying”, he proudly attests with an air of thinly veiled self-righteousness that was never meant to be hidden. He concludes: “clearly you do not know your Bible.”
I can think of nothing more Biblically illiterate, intellectually pathetic, or downright laughable than the exchange I just hypothesized and yet so many people believe this is exactly what Matthew 24 is talking about. Instead of Jesus answering the disciples’ first-century questions, He must be looking past them to answer ours. Instead of judgment upon that generation, it must be a punishment upon the modern world for some unknown reason. Instead of Herod’s temple being brought under specific covenantal curses for her specific covenantal trespasses and left desolate in a single generation (which is what the text actually says), hermeneutical hula hoops must be jostled incoherently about gyrating hip flexors to even come close to making Jesus mean a future temple. The absurdity, given the mountain of context in favor of a first-century view, is about as hard to stomach as drinking dishwater after the family ate a large Italian dinner.
To be fair, a new shiny temple is the only possible way a futurist could ever claim Matthew 24 applies to the future. It is essential to their entire theological schema. It is the thread, that if pulled, will turn the entire sweater back into a ball of yarn the cat will play with. That is precisely why they will ignore the contextual evidence we have shared that comes right out of this passage. That is why they will scour the recesses of the interwebs looking for evidence of temple blueprints and future construction projects that will begin at any moment. Yet, with the third holiest religious site belonging to the world’s most violent religion standing defiantly in their way, they must adopt the Babylonian mantle of Belteshazzar to ignore that kind of unmistakable writing on the proverbial wall standing right in front of them! And, that is by far the easiest problem standing in their way!
Beyond the unassailable issues found within the context and beyond the even more impossible geopolitical situations found in modern-day Israel is the theological issue created by a new temple, since it would entirely invalidate the Gospel. The New Testament tells us that Christ is the final and perfect sacrifice that was offered for our salvation. It tells us that the blood of bulls and goats were altogether ineffectual for the cleansing of our sins and that they were only types and shadows serving as placeholders until the perfect sacrifice had come! To revert to such a regressive system of lambs and bulls would be akin to a man divorcing his wife to marry the picture of her hanging over the mantle. It is insanity upon insanities to think God would so easily nullify the sacrifice of His dear child in favor of the future blood of smelly livestock and dumb animals.
With all of this evidence before us, we rightly approach Matthew 24:15 fully expecting it to have a first-century fulfillment. This is because we know that no new temple is coming. Second, the context in this chapter has unmistakably led us here. And third, we believe Jesus wasn’t playing games or lying to us when He said “All these things will come upon this generation” (Matthew 24:34). To that end, we will explore the abomination that causes desolation to the Jewish temple and we will begin with the meaning of the words.
Time for Some Definitions
According to the Old Testament, an abomination occurs when one of two deviant things takes place. First, when something sacred is used in the service of or is dedicated unto the worship of an idol, then it becomes an abomination unto God (See Deuteronomy. 7:25; 27:15 for examples). Yet, even when things are offered to the one true God, they may be offered in such an unregulated and disobedient way, that God considers them detestable in His sight (See Leviticus 7:18; Leviticus 10; Deuteronomy 17:1 for examples). Thus, an abomination can be right worship offered to the wrong god or wrong worship offered to the right God.
Knowing this, we can see exactly what Jesus was prophesied in Matthew chapter 24. He is not looking ahead to a twenty-first-century rebuilt temple that will need to be defiled. He is looking at the temple right in front of Him, prophesying that it will be defiled, so much so that it will be left desolate forever. The question we have to wrestle with is did such an event occur in the first century?
The Difference Between A Jewish and Gentile Gospel
The least shocking thing I may say in this blog is that when Jesus spoke to His disciples on the Mount of Olives, He was communicating to them in a very ancient and very Jewish way. It would only make sense for a Jewish Messiah, whose ministry existed 2000 years ago, to think, feel, and communicate to a very ancient group of Jews in ways that were profoundly consistent with their ancient context and Jewish orientation, right? This would naturally make the meaning of this passage much easier to come by if one were ancient, Jewish, or even better yet, both. Therefore, we must be very careful, as modern-day Gentiles, when reading this passage, so that tremendous confusion does not arise from our contextual ignorance.
When Jesus delivered His Olivet Discourse, He employed some of the most richly Jewish language found anywhere in the New Testament. This is especially true in the record given by Matthew, which is by far the most Jewish of all the Gospels.
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As Jesus declared, false messiahs would arise in Judah. Wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, and persecutions would likewise break out within the empire. According to His Olivet prophecy, many confessing Christians would be tortured into apostasy, the nation of Judah would be plunged into murderous insanity, and the Gospel would be declared boldly throughout the Roman world by evangelists like Paul and his companions. All of these things happened before the legions of Rome surrounded the city of Jerusalem, which means we are not waiting on a future fulfillment, but we may rightly extol the glory of Christ for this magnificent prophecy that was perfectly fulfilled in a single generation just like He said. 

Today we continue our look at the signs of the times by looking at several additional pieces of evidence that Jesus gave that would mark this tumultuous period immediately before Jerusalem’s fall. He tells us in Matthew 24:10

10 At that time many will fall away 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. 14 This 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 24:10-14

Many Will Fall Away
Before Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman armies, a period of increased apostasy would plague the first-century church. Jesus predicted that the combination of persecutions, false messiahs, false doctrine, and other calamities brought about in this unique period would be so severe that many would fall away from their faith and would stop walking with Him. This would be especially tempting for those who converted from Judaism since they could likely end their suffering by denying Christ. Scripture attests to the veracity of all of this.
For instance, Paul expresses shock in one of his earliest letters that so many Christians were abandoning Christ (Galatians 1:6) and going after a false Gospel (Galatians 5:4). He warned the Thessalonian church not to be deceived by any of the liars or false teachers that were busily fomenting perverted teachings in their midst because a great apostasy had to occur before the Lord would return in judgment (2 Thessalonians 2:3). He told Timothy that the Spirit expressly revealed this period of apostasy was coming (1 Timothy 4:1), where men would become spiritually shipwrecked and stray away from their Christian faith (1 Timothy 1:19-20; 6:20-21). He warned that abandoning Christ and apostolic teaching, to return back unto Judaism, would cause them to become re-enslaved to the powerless law (2 Timothy 4:10; Galatians 4:8-10) which tickled many apostates itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Paul is not the only one who acknowledges this reality and affirms Jesus’ prophecy. Peter warns the saints not to follow the false prophets (2 Peter 2:1-3), who behave like unreasoning animals (2 Peter 2:10-15), who return to their own vomit (2 Peter 2:20-22). If they follow such men, Peter warns them that they will be carried away (2 Peter 3:17) and driven into the same eternal darkness those who are polluting them are destined for (2 Peter 2:17).
Jude, likewise, calls the apostates within the community hidden reefs that will bring tremendous ruin upon the church (Jude 12) who are called to contend for the Gospel and build themselves up on the most holy Gospel (Jude 4, 20). The author of Hebrews says that some, who had tasted the goodness of that Gospel, unforgivably decided to return back to the damnable troughs of the Jewish religion (Hebrews 6:4-8; 10:26-31). They did this instead of waiting on the judgment coming of the Lord (Hebrews 10:35-39).
The apostle John, in much the same manner, reminds his audience that everyone departing from the community of faith was not truly in the faith, to begin with (1 John 2:19), but even so, the faithful should attempt to call those who left to repentance before destruction overtakes them (1 John 5:16-17; See also James 5:19-20; Jude 22-23).
The plain and simple truth is that we are not waiting on a future apostasy to fulfill the words of Jesus in Matthew 24. That period has already occurred within the early church where countless believers made shipwreck of their faith and ran back to the manure of religion. Sadly, they would find the sacrifices and trappings of Mosaic Judaism ill-equipped to stop the judgment Christ was bringing.
Many Will Betray and Hate One Another
Another sign Jesus gave was that Jewish people would hate and betray one another, which went beyond the persecutions they would inflict upon the Christians. Jesus told them elsewhere that a “brother would betray his own brother” and that family members would turn in violence upon one another in those darkest of days (Matthew 10:21-22). This fact is illustrated powerfully in the writings of many ancient historians, which we will not have time to cover extensively but will sample for just a moment.
After Jesus ascended into heaven, the nation of Judah underwent rapid political instability that drove them towards madness. From emperors like Caligula demanding that his statue be erected in the temple to Roman procurators like Gessius Florus who killed thousands of Jews in the city, simply for mocking his greed, it seemed like the Jews were being provoked toward all-out war and they were taking the bait “hook, line, and sinker”. Yet, instead of unifying together against their common enemy, factions splintered and they began attacking each other.
Josephus tells us that the land became filled with despicable tyrants, murderers, and robbers who murdered their own countrymen for more than two decades (Wars 2.12.5). After that original band of murderers was put down by Governor Felix, a new group of Jewish assassins, called the Sicarii, began slaying their own people in broad daylight for obeying the Romans (Wars 2.13.3). Another group soon began polluting the city with talks of insurrection and like the former was put down by Governor Felix (Wars 12.13.4). Still another faction began murdering anyone in the city who refused to revolt from Rome, even setting houses on fire with women and children in them (Wars 2.13.6) and plundering the corpses for sport.
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The reason the church of Jesus Christ is still standing strong today is that a generation of rock-hard believers endured ultimate sufferings with great joy and great hope, turning the world upside down with their great faith. Instead of kicking up our feet and being repulsed by discomfort, I am praying this generation of Christians will learn from our elders, get ice in our veins, and turn this world upside down for Christ once more. They probably will not kill us for doing so, but we should give them every reason to want to.

THE RUINING OF GOOD WORDS AND THE EPICENTER OF CRAZY
Amid a bounty of red-capped toadstools, psychedelic peace signs, and long-haired hippies, the word “gay” lost its mirth and merry undertones morphing into the new moniker for sodomy in the 1960s. This same kind of word assassination has taken place today changing common sense words like mother into “birthing-person” or cold-blooded murder into “women’s health.” If I had to guess one of the top job skills on Satan’s resume, I might be inclined to say word-shifting, but that is the topic for another blog. For now, let it suffice to say that good words often lose good meaning and when that happens “the crazy” ensues.
In the evangelical world, our little rotten apple hasn’t fallen far from Babylon’s big tree. Instead of mythologizing what a woman is to fit a transgender agenda, we have mythologized what a tribulation is to fit a left-behind storyline. And, as a result, a century and a half of Christians have become necessarily confused by what Jesus meant in His Olivet Discourse. Today, we want to continue unraveling this mangled cord and share a sober Biblical view that reclaims this forgotten Biblical word.
“Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name” – Matthew 24:9
A BRIEF WORD ON OUR METHODOLOGY
To begin, I will not be gratifying the popular seven-year super-cycle of future cataclysmic phenomena as a viable option for what this word means. The Bible tells us not to answer a fool according to his folly and taking that approach would certainly be akin to groveling in the eschatological pig slop. Further, we will not be citing newspaper articles about Israel, hunting down red heifers, or treating isolated Bible passages like bread crumbs in a forest leading us to grandma’s house. Or, however, those metaphors go.
In this blog, we will look at the words that are on the page, ask some common sense questions, assume a very helpful body of data that has been covered in previous episodes and blogs, look at some Scriptures that prove the point, and provide a Greek reference on the side to make sure we sound really smart. To that end, let us gayly begin.
THE MEANING OF WORDS
The first word of importance in this sentence is “they”. In this context, “they” does not refer to a YouTube social influencer’s ever-changing pronouns, but to a specific group of people. That group is not a 21st-century cohort of liberal American God-haters, but a first-century cadre of Jewish and Gentile God-haters who were scattered throughout the Roman empire.
Remember, Jesus is educating His disciples on when their temple would be destroyed. He is helping them understand what signs they are going to see that will accompany this event and showing them how it will change the course of redemptive history (See Matthew 24:1-3). Jesus is not lapsing into a moment of temporary ADD to harangue about a future seven-year tribulation that was irrelevant to His disciples. He is appropriately warning them that “They” will be beaten, bruised, killed, and persecuted. He is telling them what they will soon be facing in their service to Him.
Second, the next very technical word we must understand is “you.” In this sentence, “you” is not referring to “us” or some future audience of post-moderns who will rip this passage clear out of its context. “You” meant the very disciples Jesus was speaking to since that is how conversations work. Think about it, when you are looking right at the person you are speaking to, answering specific questions they directed at you, and then pull “you” out of your repertoire of available words, the only conceivable reason for doing that would be if you were talking to them and about them. In this scene, Jesus is talking to His disciples about a tribulation they will face in their lifetimes. This point is essential for us to grasp.
Third, knowing this, we must understand what the word “tribulation” means if we have any hope of understanding what Jesus is saying. According to our really smart Greek lexicon, the English word for tribulation comes from the Greek word “θλῖψις” (Th-lip-sis). Instead of a plague-filled future septennial, the word means troubles or trials that will inflict distress, and suffering on men (See the following passages where the word θλῖψις is used: Matthew 13:21; Mark 13:19; John 16:33; Acts 11:19; 14:22; 20:23; Romans 5:3-5; 8:35; 12:12; 2 Corinthians 1:4, 8; 7:4; Philippians 4:14; Colossians 1:24; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 3:3-4; 2 Thessalonians 1:4; Revelation 1:9). This is precisely what Jesus was prophesying over His disciples and this is exactly what happened to them in the years ahead.
THE LABOR MOTIF
Now, before citing some examples of tribulation from the New Testament, I want to share a brief reminder about the Labor motif that is found within this chapter. Like a woman in labor, the birth pangs will begin with a certain level of intensity. Then, as time moves along, the pain from her contractions will inevitably grow in magnitude and frequency as the pregnancy nears its terminus. In much the same way, the signs Jesus has been forecasting begin with increasing intensity until everything Jesus predicted comes true (Matthew 24:8).
So far, we have looked at signs like earthquakes and famines which increase in intensity from the time Jesus is raised in AD 30 to the downfall of Jerusalem in AD 70. We have also shown how the proliferation of false prophets and messianic figures only became worse as the hour drew nearer to the fall of the city. Now, we will look at how the sign of persecution and tribulation went from bad to worse in the Church’s first forty years of existence.
THE INFANT CHURCH IN TRIBULATION
Like all good evangelicals, I affirm that life begins at conception in the womb. Yet, the joy of a plus-signed pregnancy test will soon come with morning sickness, foot aches, hormone imbalances, and forty weeks of discomfort and bloating, all eclipsed by the tremendous pain of human life moving her way down the birth canal to make her appearance known. In much the same way, the church was conceived at the resurrection of Jesus Christ and grew rapidly during those first 40 years of gestation. But it wasn’t until the great pains associated with the downfall of Mosaic Judaism that she was thrust upon the world, as the only way to know and approach the one true God, Yahweh. In this prophecy, Jesus gives signs that will cover the whole forty-year period, but like labor will increase in intensity as the event draws near.
For instance, Jesus told the disciples, even before He went to the cross, that they would soon be arrested, betrayed, persecuted, murdered, and handed over to Jewish synagogues where all these abuses would take place (Matthew 10:17-25; 23:34-37). Jesus even warns the disciples that a future hour would come when the murder of Christians will be viewed as religious piety by the apostate Jews (John 16:2). Those tribulations would begin in a matter of days from the crucifixion.
For instance, not many days after that first Pentecost, the apostles were arrested by the Jews for teaching about Jesus in Jerusalem (Acts 4:1-3). After being released from prison, they were jailed again just one chapter later (Acts 5:17-20). On this occasion, an angel from the Lord helped them escape so that they could go on preaching Christ in the city. That day of preaching caused the apostles to be arrested a third time, whipped the same way Jesus was whipped before He was crucified, and released with injuries and scars that would cling to their bodies for a lifetime. This was the beginning of their tribulations.
Soon the Jews would take to murdering Christians in the street as they did with Stephen (Acts 7:54-60). They would send young zealots like Saul of Tarsus as hitmen to find, arrest, and even kill believers who were hiding in various cities (Acts 8:1-3). When one of those hitmen converted to Christianity, the Jews sought to have him murdered as well (Acts 9:23-25). The book of Acts even calls this a period of “great” persecution (Acts 8:1), or maybe one might be tempted to call it a “great tribulation” for the church.
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The years between Jesus’ crucifixion and the downfall of Jerusalem witnessed a marked increase in earthquakes both by number and by volume. The same is true for famines that attacked the residents of Rome and threatened to evaporate the people of Judah. But these events are not random. They were prophesied by Jesus and they happened in the lifetime of the disciples just like He said. 

If the Glove Don’t Fit…
Perhaps the most explosive and prolific trial of our lifetime was the OJ Simpson murder trial in the early 1990s. As an eleven-year-old boy at the time, I still remember watching the primetime aerial coverage of a white bronco lazily loafing down the LA freeway with as much agility as a soppy wet sponge. After that, I recall the media frenzy as millions all over the country tuned in with popcorn and rapt attention to watch a kangaroo court deliberating the case with all the panache and showmanship of a Ringling Brothers Circus. But, what stands out as the most memorable moment in the trial, at least in my memory, is when Juice’s dream team head attorney quipped: “If the glove don’t fit, then you must acquit”. Ultimately, the jury did acquit as successive civil cases raged in court for the years to come.
Now, without getting into the weeds of that trial, the point was simple. If the evidence in the case cannot be reconciled to the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt, then he must be acquitted of the charges. But, if the glove used in the murder did fit, then getting to a guilty verdict would have been all the more reasonable of a conclusion.
In the case of eschatology, my goal thus far has been to show that most (not all) of the passages that are normally associated with a future-oriented perspective do not fit the glove. They do not align with the evidence presented in the New Testament and do not pass the sniff test to meet any reasonable burden of proof. And, instead, it is the preterist view that offers the most compelling explanation for these passages.
To prove this hypothesis, I have presented line after line of evidence in a systematic way. I began by showing how the eschatology of Malachi looks forward to a first-century judgment coming of Christ against the Jews. You can find that article here. I then conveyed how John the Baptist expected an imminent judgment coming by Christ against the Jews (i.e. the ax was already at the root of the tree) found here. From there, I demonstrated that this was, in fact, the general expectation of Jesus, which is laid out specifically in my post on Matthew 21, Matthew 22, Matthew 23, and in the introduction to Matthew 24. Then, over the last couple of weeks, we have been looking at specific signs that Jesus gave (Such as the Rise of False Messiahs and Wars and Rumors of Wars) that so clearly point to a past fulfillment that the burden of proof has swung almost fully in the favor of the preterist position.
This week we continue through the evidence Jesus presents so that we might have a comprehensive view, so we can see the reasonableness of the position, and so we will not be led into trembling by the end-times prognosticators and tribulation hucksters. Today, we look at Matthew 24 and the end time signs of Earthquakes and Famines that Jesus gave, in order to see if this evidence fits hand in glove for a first century fulfillment as all previous evidence has done.
Covenantal Earthquakes and End-Time Seismic Shifts
Before we look at Matthew 24 and the evidence of earthquakes in the ancient world, I want us to see the New Testament expectation for Jesus’ first-century, earth-shaking, end-time coming. Said plainly, I want you and I to see that when Jesus came to the world, He intended to give it a good last days shaking. Whatever remained would be left for Him to rule. Whatever fell away would be like chaff devoured by the scorching east wind.
For instance, In Hebrews chapter 1, the author tells us plainly that we are living in the last days (Hebrews 1:1-2). To him, the “last days” represent the entire era of New Covenant redemption (i.e. the church age). After he drops that bomb, he describes how the era of priests, temples, and animal sacrifices was rolled up like a scroll to be put on the shelf (Hebrews 1:10-14). That long chapter was finally closed and now the final chapter of human redemption has come through God’s Son.
Near the end of the book, after Christ replaced the Old Testament types and Old Covenant vestiges, the author gives a vivid picture of how Old Testament time will end. Not surprisingly, it ends the same way it begins with a wiggle wobbling and jiggle joggling covenantal shake. In the Old Testament, that happened on the local level, by earthquakes at mount Sinai. In this new covenantal era, the entire world and heaven will need to be shaken in order to welcome God’s eternal Kingdom to this earth (Hebrews 12:18-29). While that shaking is clearly spiritual and covenantal, we shouldn’t be surprised when the rocks cry out and when the fault lines tremble. They often see what is happening more clearly than we do.
The Unleashing of Earthquakes
When modern-day prophecy charlatans read the words of Christ:

“In various places, there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” – Matthew 24:7-8

… They assume Jesus is talking about phenomena that will necessarily plague the modern world. When this ilk of newspaper scholars spy a random earthquake in California or hear tell of an occasional famine in the Middle East, they are the first ones to dust off their heavenly suitcases and prep their underground bunkers for the inevitable tribulation. It is as if they believe we are the only people in human history who’ve ever felt the earth tremble under our feet or have seen our plants die in the dusty scorcher.
It is important, however, for all of us to remember that Jesus is responding to specific questions, concerning first-century events, that the disciples were asking Him about. They wanted to know when the temple would be destroyed (Matthew 23:38-24:1-2), what would be the signs that this event was drawing near and how would this bring about the end of the Jewish age (Matthew 24:3).
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When we read Matthew 24:6-8, we must not allow ourselves to be afraid. The wars and rumors of wars that Jesus mentioned were all a part of the downfall of Jerusalem (not a modern event) because of Judah’s covenant crimes against her God.

Like a Woman in Labor
As Jesus and His disciples left the temple mount Tuesday afternoon, memories of what just occurred were still ricocheting in their minds. Early that morning, Jesus had cursed a fig tree as a dramatic parabolic display of what would soon happen to Jerusalem. Then, after a brief encounter with the Pharisees where they challenged His authority in the temple, Jesus delivered three scathing parables describing, with increasing clarity, the covenantal catastrophe that will soon befall Old Testament Judah.
The Jews, while listening to their national epitaph, received His parables with about as much grace as a decapitated rattlesnake, still opening and closing its mouth, able and willing at a moment to strike. It was at this point Jesus challenged their authority, humiliating them in front of all of Jerusalem. First, by answering their trap-like questions. Second, by posing questions they could not answer. And third, by declaring 7 Deuteronomic woes upon the city, that would soon feel the full weight of God’s awesome wrath for their crimes against the covenant.
As the disciples were walking away from the city and the temple they adored, they must have been hoping they misunderstood Jesus’ words about the temple. But after pointing to the temple complex looming over them, they were struck with the piercing finality of His linguistic precision and clarity. The temple before them would be destroyed. Brick by brick would be torn apart. The city would be burned. And God’s redemption of sinful humanity would transition away from priests, temples, sacrifices, and feasts of Israel to a new and final era centered on Jesus Christ, our only hope for salvation.
With such seismic shifts about to break upon the landscape of redemption, is it any wonder the disciples wanted to know three specific things from their master and Lord? They wanted to know, 1) When the temple would be destroyed? 2) What signs would occur showing them its destruction was drawing near? And 3) Would its destruction signal the end of the Jewish age?
Last week, we saw Jesus tackling their second question first, giving them a few signs that the end of Jerusalem was coming. Jesus told them it would be like a woman whose labor pains increase with intensity as the delivery draws near (Matthew 24:8). So, in the same way, the signs Jesus gave them would increase in intensity until the city was destroyed. Last week, we saw the first sign Jesus gave, which was the rise of increasingly volatile false messiahs who would lead the nation into greater and greater ruin and disaster climaxing in their delivery over to Rome. Today, we will see the second sign, which is the dawn of iterative wars and rumors of future wars. But first, let us briefly remind ourselves about signs.
Reminder About Signs
The disciples are asking Jesus a question and expecting a meaningful response. They are looking for things that they will be able to see with their own two eyes and understand with the minds God has given them. They want to know things that they can be on the lookout for and not information about the end of the world.
I mention this as a cautionary reminder. Because as we read the text, our orientation must not be that Jesus is speaking directly to us, although, I do grant that the text speaks to us and teaches us by the Holy Spirit. But in this case, we must remember that this is a conversation among first-century disciples and their Lord. Jesus is speaking directly to the disciples, answering their specific questions about the temple and Jerusalem, and giving them real answers that would be meaningful to them in their lifetime. He simply is not looking past them and using this opportunity, to opine about twenty-first-century wars, tribulations, and late great planet earth style raptures. If you can make the text say that, you can twist it and manipulate it to say anything.
Here is the text we are going to be looking at today:

You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places, there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.—Matthew 24:6-8

The Pax Romana
When Jesus says: “you will be hearing” He does not mean twenty-first century Christians who are eavesdropping on His conversation will hear about rumors of upcoming wars. He means “you”, as in the disciples who are looking Him in the eyes as He is speaking will hear these things. The disciples were going to be hearing of wars and rumors of war, which is more important than you may realize. Why?
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John the Baptist had warned the people to repent before it was too late (Matthew 3:2). Jesus also came calling the rebels to repent, to lay down their lives, and follow Him to life instead of to destruction (Matthew 4:17). But when they refused Him, He pronounced dreaded woes upon their cities (Matthew 11:20-21; 12:41) and nation (23:13-36). He told them parables that vividly portrayed the downfall of their kingdom (Matthew 22:1-14). In Matthew 24:4-5, Jesus began answering His disciples’ questions about when these things would happen. He told them many false messiahs would arise in Judah and that they were to avoid such wicked men. The nation had rejected the true messiah. Now, it is only fitting that their demise came about at the hands of many false ones.

It Wasn’t Addressed to You
Suppose I told you that my great grandfather was a proud and noble German, who survived the first world war and began raising children before the second. I want you to imagine that sometime around the year 1920, my grandfather received a message from God, that he was commanded to write down and share with his children, which would detail events soon to take place in their lifetime and country.
In those letters, my great grandfather describes a rising German tyrant; a man who will reinvigorate the German economy, win an improbable election, convert many of their people into party loyalists, would build the greatest spy network in history to surveil his own people, and would kick off the bloodiest war ever waged by invading neighboring Poland. As the letter ends, imagine my great grandfather warns his oldest teenage son, “When you see these things happening, do not speak about them with anyone! Your own countrymen will certainly betray you. Instead, son, I want you to run for your life! Take your sisters and brothers and escape from the Fatherland. Do not speak to anyone and tell them what you are doing… Just go!”
If I were wise, I would see that my great grandfather perfectly predicted the rise of Nazi Germany and gave my grandfather a perfect road map to follow so that he and my family members would live. If I were a great fool I would begin reading that letter as if everything in it applied to me or some distant future generation.
Sadly, this is exactly what has happened in the study of eschatology. Many sit down and read the conversation notes between Jesus and His disciples in Matthew 24, where He was warning them with specific signs and evidence for the Roman invasion of Judah (that would happen in their lifetime) and ignorantly conclude: “yeah, this must be about me”.
To correct this egregious error, we have been studying the Biblical context of Matthew 24 and seeing how Malachi, Jesus, John the Baptist, and the immediate context of Matthew 21-23 all paint the same exact picture. Matthew 24 is not describing events that will happen in the far-off distant future. Jesus is not describing John Hagee’s blood moons, Left Behind’s Antichrist’s, Late Great Planet Earth’s tribulations, or locusts doubling as Apache helicopters. Matthew 24 is describing the downfall of Jerusalem by the invading Roman armies and today we will look at the first lines of evidence Jesus will give to His disciples.
The Appearance of False Messiah’s
After Jesus’ shocking prophecy of a destroyed Jewish temple (Matthew 23:37-24:2), His disciples come to Him asking questions such as: “when will these things happen?” In Matthew 24:4-5, Jesus begins answering His disciples’ questions. He says:

“See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. – Matthew 24:4-5

Before we look into the history books to see if an emergence of false messiahs occurred between the giving of this prophecy and the downfall of the Jewish temple, there are a couple of phrases we need to look at to confirm our suspicions.
“See to it”
When Jesus looks at His disciples and says “See to it”, He is communicating an expectation that applies to them. He is not telling them to be on the lookout for events that will happen in OUR future, long after they are dead. He is using a word that means “to watch out for”, “to be prepared for”, or “to direct your attention carefully to what is in front of you”. Why? Because these events will happen in THEIR lifetime and they will need to be fully awake and on guard if they are going to see them!
“That No One Misleads You”
Second, Jesus instructs His disciples on why they need to be on constant high alert. The reason is that liars and deceivers did arise in the days ahead, attempting to lead many of them away from Him. Jesus is saying, as the temple and Jerusalem are near imminent destruction, false messiahs will grow up in the land, among the people, and will attempt to lead many of them astray. Jesus warns them because He wants them to avoid such people at all costs so that they will be spared from their destruction. He does not mention this because He wants them to be worried about the future false messiahs that will be misleading all of us.
A Bit About “Messiahs”
Now, before I prove such a period of false messiahs occurred, I would like to give just a bit of history on why it happened. To do that, I want to talk about what the word “messiah” means, what expectations the word brings, and the historical events that created a messianic vacuum. Then, in conclusion, I want us to look and see how Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24 came true with shocking accuracy.
The Meaning of the Word Messiah
The word for messiah originally comes from “χριστός” (khris-tos’) in the Greek and “הַמָּשִׁיחַ” (maw-shee’-akh) in the Hebrew. Instead of those words meaning a single person who is called “the Messiah”, both words originally just meant “a person who was anointed for service”. For instance, in the Old Testament, there were three kinds of people who would be anointed in Israel. There was the anointed high priest, who oversaw the worship of God at the temple. There was the anointed king, who made sure the enemies of God did not triumph over God’s people in the land. And then there were the anointed prophets, who called the people to repentance whenever they broke their covenant.
Here we see that the word messiah was a much older and more widely used word that was given partly to the high priests, partly the monarchs, and partly to the prophets of Old Testament Israel. Since the fullest expression of messianic identity included these three anointed roles, and since no Old Testament man held even one of these roles perfectly, the Old Testament anticipates a coming Messianic figure who would be anointed for all three, as true Prophet, Priest, and King.
The Socio-Political Expectation for Messiah
By the time Jesus burst upon the scene, many were trying to guess the identity and the role of the coming messiah. They were asking things like “Would he be the final anointed king who would throw off the tyranny of Rome? Or would he be the final prophet that leads the nation into covenant renewal and fellowship with God? Or would he be the final end-time priest that cleanses the people and ushers in an era of resurrection?” If you are interested, the first-century Jews have much to say within the Qumran writings about their expectations for the messiah.
And while no one at that time was thinking the Messiah would be the perfect embodiment of all three offices, they were anticipating an end-time priest, king, or prophet who would free them from their slavery to Rome and exalt them high above the other nations. Therefore, it should come as no surprise when the Pharisees ask John the Baptist if He is the messianic prophet they were looking for (John 1:19-23), or challenge Jesus if He had the authority of a messianic high priest to cleanse their temple (John 2:18).
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Once you stand up from your study, your goal is not to leave those truths in the Bible, but to carry them away inside of your heart for a life time. One of the best ways to solidify truth in your heart is to meditate on it throughout the day. Biblical study is also not simply a devotional and spiritual exercise. Bible study also requires that we love God with all of our minds, which means we also need mental and cognitive tools to be able to extract Biblical data from the text as well.

One of the saddest truths in the American church is that we have so many resources to study and learn the Bible and yet there is so much Biblical illiteracy. This article is my humble attempt to equip Christ’s church to study the Word. I want everyone who reads this post to feel encouraged and equipped to study the Bible with an easy “step by step” guide that will aid and enrich their time in Scripture. May the Lord be praised as we study His Word!
What is Bible Study?
Bible study is a lot like paleontology. The first step is to go out into the field with all of your tools and begin collecting the raw material. You carefully dig through the sand, sediment, rock, and earth to collect bones, fragments of bones, and fossils that you will one day examine, assemble, and put on display for the world to see. In the same way, Bible study begins with specific tools that are designed to help you collect the raw Biblical data (This is called the Observation Phase). Once you have that data, you will examine it and attempt to assemble it into meaningful and coherent thoughts (This is called the Interpretation Phase). And then, once you have some concrete thoughts on what the passage means, you will begin displaying that truth so that you and also others can benefit from what you learned (This is called the Application Phase).
With that example in mind, let us consider the three phases of Bible study, beginning with the Observation Phase.
Step 1: The Observation Phase
As we said above, there are specific tools that are going to help you extract the Biblical data from the text. Remember, this is not just an academic exercise but also a spiritual exercise. So, let us begin by sharing some tools that will help you engage with the Bible spiritually.
The Spiritual Tools for Observation
Spiritual Tool 1: Read the Passage 10 Times
This may sound like an arbitrary number, but reading the passage multiple times will peel back various layers and help you get to the heart of the text. My recommendation is to use various faithful translations of the Bible (like the ESV, NASB, KJV, etc.) and then read the passage in each of these different translations. As you do that, like a good paleontologist, jot down notes in your journal. Take note of differences and word changes between the translations. Note questions you have about the text. Jot down any new insights that you gain or see. And then move on to the next step.
Spiritual Tool 2: Pray Through the Passage
What you want to do is read a few words and then turn those words into a prayer to God. For example, in Psalm 23 it says: “The Lord is my Shepherd”. Take those words and pray them back to God like this: “Lord, thank you for being the one who leads me, protects me, is guiding me, and looking after me like a good and faithful shepherd. I am like that poor sheep that keeps falling off cliffs and getting stuck in large cracks, but you are always faithful to find me and keep me safe”.
Once you have spent some time in prayer, move on to the next tool which is confession
Spiritual Tool 3: Confess Through the Passage
The goal of Bible study is not dead knowledge, but a thriving relationship with the living God. And in that relationship we need repentance. It is the lifeblood of serious devotion and no serious relationship can survive without it. By repentance we mean acknowledging our sin to God, asking God to help us kill that sin, and then turning away from it in courage to a life without that sin. Here are some pointers for you as you do that.

As you read the passage, list any sins that your Bible passage exposes. Sometimes those sins will be spelled out explicitly in the text and sometimes the Holy Spirit will use implicit truths to reveal your sin to you. However this happens, take an account of what the Spirit is revealing to you.

Take a moment and confess that sin(s) to the Lord in prayer.

Remember that Jesus has triumphed over this specific sin on the cross.

Remember that the Spirit has raised you to new life and has given you the power to
make war with this specific sin.

THEREFORE, repent and turn away from this sin, lay it down, and ask the Lord to help
you stay away from it moving forward.

Spiritual Tool 4: Worship Through the Passage
Remember that you have been forgiven. When you lay your sin down and repent from it, resist the temptation to remain in sullen shame, but instead celebrate the forgiveness you have in Jesus! Praise Him. Sing a song of victory. Let your heart be stirred that your sins have not been counted against you because they were poured out on Christ. And as you see that, let your love and affections be multiplied for your savior who loved you so much to be treated as you have deserved.
Spiritual Tool 5: Journal Through the Passage
A journal is one of the most important tools you will have. Not only should you record any questions you have, or the list of sins you will be repenting of, but you should also write down some initial thoughts about the passage. What do you think it means? What are the implications for your life concerning this passage? And even be thinking about ways you could communicate this truth to others.
Spiritual Tool 6: Meditate Through the Passage
Once you stand up from your study, your goal is not to leave those truths in the Bible, but to carry them away inside of your heart for a life time. One of the best ways to solidify truth in your heart is to meditate on it throughout the day. Here are some tips for you as you practice this discipline.

Revisit the thoughts on lunch break.

Set an alarm to read through your journal or pray through the thoughts you discovered.

Calendar a reminder to think through the questions you still have.

Try seeing situations in your day where you can implement the truths you discovered that morning.

Try avoiding things in your day which will tempt you back into old patterns of sin

Pray for a real opportunity to share these truths with someone else.

The above 6 items are very helpful tools that will get you thinking spiritually about the text. BUT, Biblical study is also not simply a devotional and spiritual exercise. Bible study also requires that we love God with all of our minds, which means we also need mental and cognitive tools to be able to extract Biblical data from the text as well. So, below I list out some tools that will help you study the Bible academically.
NOTE: Not every tool is the right tool for every text. Some may be helpful in one scripture but not very helpful in another. With time you will learn how to intuitively employ each of these tools, but for the time I want to list them out so you will have them and can begin using them.
The Study Tools for Observation
Study Tool 1: Identify Key Terms
With this first tool, you will seek to identify key words, phrases, parts of speech (like nouns, adjectives, and verbs) and any word that sticks out to you in the text. For instance, in John 6:44 it says:

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them”.

With this verse, you could grab a journal and list the following key terms with a few words of explanation as to why these particular terms stood out to you.

“No one” (Noun) – All humans have a fundamental inability caused by sin.

“Can come” (Verb) – That renders our actions incapable of getting us to God on our own.

“To me” (Preposition) – The only hope of salvation is through coming to Christ and we are incapable of this on our own.

“Unless” (Conjunction) – God provides a condition that could allow us to come to Jesus.

“Father” (Proper Noun) – That condition is that God can use His perfect ability to choose us in our inability.

“Draws” (Verb) – The way God chooses us and gets us to Jesus is by dragging us to Christ… Since, we were so unwilling and stuck in our sin, praise God He grabbed and dragged us to Christ!

Study Tool 2: Identify Authorial Emphasis
With your journal, jot down a few notes on why you think the author is writing this and what the author is trying to emphasize to us. What is the underlying theme of this passage? And why is that important?
Study Tool 3: Identify Repeated Words
Sometimes, an author reveals his intended emphasis by repeating a word and using it multiple times in a passage. For instance, in John 8, Jesus and the Pharisees are engaged in a detailed argument. And as you read it, it would be easy to get lost in the mix of the details and miss the overarching point of what is going on. To avoid that trap, we look for repeated words and see that the word “father” and other familial words like that are used 8-10 times in this chapter. As we look more closely at the word Father and how John is using it in John 8, we see that both the Pharisees and Jesus are claiming God as their Father and both are appealing to various evidences to prove it. This lets us know that the passage is about who has a true relationship with God? Is it the one claiming to be the Son of God? Or is it the religious leaders who claim to speak for God? Once we know that this is the authors emphasis, we can see how Christ is the only solution!
Study Tool 4: Identify Cause and Effect Relationships
Whenever one event causes a particular response you have a cause and effect relationship. And these can be incredibly important whenever you see them and you should get into the habit of noticing them and noting them in your journal. For instance, look at Romans 8:28, which says:

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

In this passage God is promising to call men and women according to His purpose and bless them with His good. The point is very simple, if we have been called by God unto salvation (The cause) then everything must and will work out for our good (God’s desired effect). Knowing this will encourage us as we look at situations in our life that do not feel good, but in some way, are good and are working good according to the Father. Knowing this will allow us to lay down our definition and expectation of good and accept His.
Study Tool 5: Identify If / Then Relationships
This is a specific kind of cause and effect relationship called an “if / then” relationship, which is much simpler to identify. Essentially it looks like this: “If____ happens, then ____ will be the result.
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First, we need to remember why the disciples are asking these questions in the first place. They have not been thinking about global events that will transpire at the end of the world or cataclysmic phenomena that would usher in the end of history. These men were thinking about the things that were in front of them, such as the abandonment and destruction of their beloved temple and when Jesus would return to make sure that event happened. They were not assuming a multi-millennia wait for the second coming of Christ. They saw His next coming would be against Jerusalem when He destroyed it within a generation.

Black Mamba Eschatology
One of the things that separate great players from legendary players is drive. Great players wake up early in the morning and give everything they have in practice. Legendary players get up hours before everyone else, play through blood, sweat, and tears, perfecting every facet of their game before practice, and then outwork everyone else during practice. Great players get scoring titles and end up in the hall of fame. Legendary players put their teams on their back and will get them into championship, after championship, after championship. Great players are disappointed after a hard-fought loss. Legendary players would rather die than lose a game.
That, in my humble opinion, is what differentiates truly great players like Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, and Lebron James from NBA legends like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, (also known as the black mamba). One group was truly great and deserves all the accolades we can give them. The other group lived with a never-ending obsession to be the greatest that ever lived and they are in a class all by themselves.
One of the ways we see this distinction playing out is among childhood fans. Fans love the great players and cheer for them. But when it comes to who they want to be when they grow up, or who they pretend to be in their driveway when no one else is looking, children almost always choose the legends, because they can sense the difference. And as a child growing up in the 80s, I certainly fell afoul of this fandom, wanting with all my heart to be “Like Mike”, while being unwilling to put in the effort of men like Jordan and Kobe. This silly introduction, ironically, may help us understand one of the great dilemmas in eschatology and may aid us when we come to Matthew 24.
The Most Important Chapter
When it comes to Biblical chapters of eschatology, Matthew 24 is the zenith of all the end-times passages. It is the Superbowl, it is game seven of the NBA finals or the last round at Augusta. No one wins at that level accidentally just as no one begins to understand Matthew 24 by sloth. It is a chapter that will only yield its treasures to the ones who are willing to put in the maximal effort. Perhaps this is why so few understand eschatology in the church today. Because passages like this one can only be understood with rigorous effort, which is out of style in a culture of easy believism.
For the last eight weeks, we have been working towards Matthew 24. We did so by attempting to understand the basics and introductory materials of eschatology in our first couple of weeks. Then we moved along to Malachi where we learned the hermeneutical principles for interpreting eschatology. From there we saw those principles playing out in the theology of John the Baptist and our Lord. And over the last several weeks, we have observed how Matthew 21-23 provides the essential context that will aid us in understanding Matthew 24. Had we not labored in the way we did, we would not have been prepared for what we now face. So, with that introduction, let us remember very briefly the context and then let us dive, or maybe only stick our pinky toe, in the water of Matthew 24.
Remembering the Context
Matthew 24 occurs as a part of the dramatic events surrounding Jesus’ final week where He will bring judgment to some and salvation to others. In judgment, He rides into the fruitless city, judges the fruitless temple, curses a fruitless tree, and shows how this judgment applies to Jerusalem (Matthew 21). With three successive parables of judgment, Jesus demonstrates that Jerusalem will soon fall and that God’s Kingdom will be given to a people who will bear God’s fruit (Matthew 22). After prophesying Jerusalem’s downfall, Jesus seals their fate with seven covenantal curses of woe and pronounces the wrath of God upon the city and its temple (Matthew 23). In Matthew 24, Jesus does not abandon the narrative of judgment against Jerusalem but instead gives the clearest prophecy ever uttered describing its downfall.
Since this passage is of the utmost importance for our understanding, we will move slowly through it over the next several weeks until we have sufficiently covered its material. Our goal is that we would understand it, not fly through it. With that, let us begin.
A Shocking Point
The passage picks up immediately where Matthew 23 left off. Jesus finished uttering fiery woes against the Pharisees (Matthew 23:13-33). Then He prophesied God would visit that generation with the harshest judgment ever given (Matthew 23:34-36). And then He tells them Jerusalem’s house, the temple, will be left entirely desolated (Matthew 23:37-38).
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Like the generation whose dead bodies lined the wilderness floor, the generation who killed God’s Son would be shut out of God’s New Covenant kingdom and would pay mightily for their crimes. That is the context we must understand if we are going to understand Matthew 24, which is one of the most misunderstood chapters in all of the Bible.

The Confusing of Curses
As a child who grew up on Disney, I learned that curses came from magic spells, brought to boil in a big black cauldron, were wielded by wicked witches in shadowy towers, and cast upon unsuspecting innocents. These evil potions turned princes into frogs and princesses into ogres, that would be locked away in castles. But, should a hero arise, discovering the magical power of eroticism, and other such things that will make you gag, then the curse would be broken by the power of love and all would turn out right again.
Perhaps nonsense like this is why I had so much trouble understanding curses in the Bible and why God was the one putting people under them.
I was never told that God invented blessings and curses as a feature of covenantal relationships and not as a weapon against the innocent. You see, a covenant is a terms-based relationship between God and man. It is a relationship where a holy God makes promises to dwell with a sinful people. To do that, laws must be instituted to limit human sin and sacrifices must be given to atone for that sin. Without that there would be no relationship.
Then, once the relationship has been codified, God gives a sign to the people to remember their commitment to God and His commitment to them. For those who obey God’s covenant, great blessings and favor end up coming upon the people. The greatest and best blessing of course is being near to and knowing God. But, for all those who hate God, spurn His commands, and live in opposition to His covenant, God would rain down curses upon them.
In the Bible, curses do not come from the hand of a malevolent tyrant but a merciful God. They are not applied to good people who need to be rescued, but to deplorable people who must be destroyed. And the way these curses are avoided is not through the triumph of a love-sick, dragon-slaying, hero but by the loving obedience of the dragon-slaying LORD.
By the time we get to Matthew 23, the people have hated God so ferociously and lived in opposition to His covenant for so long, that the cup of His bitter curses was about to tip and drown them in His suffocating wrath.
The Need for Curse
God was gracious to outline all of the stipulations, laws, and requirements in the Mosaic covenant. He gave them explicit and specific commands to obey, feasts to attend, and sacrifices to offer whenever they sinned. He gave them priests to represent them before God and to mediate reconciliation on their behalf. The point of the law was not perfect obedience lest a lightning bolt will be slammed on top of your head. The covenant was a relationship of grace with a thousand mercies for sinners to be reconciled to God. Only those with the hardest of hearts toward God would experience the curses laid out in chapters like Deuteronomy 28.
In that passage, God warns the ones who persist in covenant rebellion, that they will be brought under a total and unrelenting curse (Dt. 28:14). This curse would impact their food supply, it would poison their produce, and would kill all the livestock in their possession. It would cause the nation to be plunged into insanity, confusion, and chaos. It would doom their children, infect their citizens with incurable illnesses and diseases, rain down plagues upon the population, and leave their soldiers dead and roasting in the sun.
If the people did not repent after the first round of seven curses, an additional seven curses would be poured out onto the people with terrifying and increasing intensity. This would culminate in a bitter exile where the people would be violently removed from their ancestral lands and mistreated in a place that was not their home. If they still did not repent, even after all of that, a terrifying nation would overwhelm them, besieging them in their cities, cutting off their food supply, raping and killing them, leaving them so hungry for food that they would willingly roast their children in the fire (Dt 28:15-68). As revolting as all of this sounds, this was precisely the kind of disasters that befell Judah during the Roman invasions of AD 70.
In Malachi-like fashion, Jesus came to Jerusalem to forecast their destruction. The culmination of all of God’s covenantal fury was soon to descend upon them, destroying the root and branch of Jesse through covenantal cursing. In Matthew 21-22, Jesus came into the city with the prophetic fire (Mal. 4:1-2) but the people refused to repent. Now, in Matthew 23, His righteous indignation is boiling over and the hard-hearted people will be left to their demise.
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