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Preface
The Olivet discourse should be the ultimate proof text for our Lord's identity as the Christ. When compared with the historical writings of Christians and pagans alike, we see, with staggering detail, the fulfillment of Christ's words of judgment against his own covenant breaking people in the first century. However, the rise of dispensationalism in the last century or so, has obscured the great truth of prophecy fulfilled, the waters have been muddied by the bad eschatology that came out of that system.
The celebrated intellectual Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), author of the book "Why I'm not a Christian" sited the Olivet discourse as a major contributing factor to his atheism. Russell saw the many different "time statements" or indicators in Jesus' message as contradictory to reality, for if Christ said he would return within a generation and failed to do so, then he was wrong, thus not who he said he was, namely the Christ.
__Bertrand Russell:
"I am concerned with Christ as he appears in the Gospels, take the Gospel narrative as it stands and there one does find some things that do not seem to be very wise. For one thing, he certainly thought that his second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at that time. There are a great many texts that prove that. For instance, 'You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come' (Mt. 10:23) Then he says, 'There are some standing here which shall not taste death till the Son of Man comes into his kingdom' (Mt. 16:28); and there are a lot of places where it is quite clear that he believed that his second coming would happen during the lifetime of many then living. That was the belief of his earlier followers, and it was the basis of a good deal of his moral teaching. In that respect, clearly he was not so wise as some other people have been, and he was certainly not superlatively wise." (R.C. Sproul, "The Last Days According to Jesus," p. 12-13)
*T4tT:
Futurism doesn't answer these objections, Russell may have been wrong about a good number of things, but the man knew how to read. When one sees a time text as specific as he sites, they cannot help, if they aspouse a futurist eschatology, and are honest with themselves, admit that Christ, either misunderstood the details of his own coming, or that he purposely misled his followers. T4tT is not comfortable with either possibility, and that is the reason for this study, wherein an alternative view, as we shall see a view aspoused by some of the most influencial Christian thinkers throughout church history, Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, we've got them all right here in this commentary. So no more ado, John Wesley we turn first to you.
Matthew 24
v.1-2
"Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, "You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down."
"There shall not be left one stone upon another."
__John Wesley:
"This was most punctually fulfilled; for after the Temple was burnt, Titus, the Roman General, ordered the very foundations of it to be dug up; after which the ground on which it stood was ploughed up by Turnus Rufus." (Wesley's Note on the N.T.)
__Josephus:
"There was left of Jerusalem nothing to make those who had come thither believe it had ever been inhabited." (cf. J. Marcellus Kirk, "An Eschatology of Victory," p. 83)
*T4tT:
This verse clearly portrays Jesus pronouncing doom on the actual Temple of the first century, not some distant hypothetical rebuilt Temple two thousand years removed from the conversation. The anticipation of a restored Temple on a Muslim holy site, by modern Zionists is not only unbiblical but dangerous. Hank Hanegraaf wrote a fictional novel on the dangers of the Zionist dream of a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem titled, "Fuse of Armagedon," I would encourage you to read this book, it really puts the Arab/Israeli conflict in percpective, it also shows the inevitable danger dispensationalism poses to the world."
v.3-5
"As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered them, "See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray."
"Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in My name."
__John Wesley:
"Indeed never did so many imposters appear in the world as a few years before the destruction of Jerusalem; undoubtedly because that was the time wherein the Jews in general expected the Messiah." (Wesley's Notes on the N.T.)
__Charles Spurgeon:
"A large number of imposters came forward before the destruction of Jerusalem, giving out that they were the anointed of God." (C.H. Spurgeon, "The Gospel of the Kingdom," p. 414)
__J. Stuart Russell:
"False christs and false prophets began to make their appearance at a vey early period of the Christian era, and continued to infest the land down to the very close of Jewish history. In the procuratorship of Pilate (A.D. 36) one such appeared in Samaria, and deluded great multitudes. There was another in the procuratorship of Cuspius Fadus (A.D. 45). During the government of Felix (A.D.53-60), Josephus tells us 'The country was full of robbers, magicians, false prophets, false Messiahs, and impostors, who deluded the people with promises of great events." (J. Stuart Russell, "The Parousia," The New Testament Doctrine of our Lord's Second Coming, p. 69, quoting, Josephus, "Antiquities," 20:8.5-6)
__St. Luke:
"There was a cretain man called Simon (Magus), which before time in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, 'This man is the great power of God.'" (Acts 8:9,10)
__Justin Martyr:
"In the time of Claudius Caesar, Simon Magus was worshiped as a god at Rome on account of his magical powers, he is known to have said, 'I am the word of God, I am the Comforter, I am almighty, I am all there is of God.'" (cf. Mansel, "The Gnostic Heresies," p. 82)
__Irenaeus:
"Simon Magus claimed to be the son of God and creator of angel's" (cf. J. Marcellus Kirk, "An Eschatology of Victory," p. 92)
__Origen:
"Diositheus claimed that he was the Christ foretold by Moses." (ibid)
v.6
"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet."
"Wars"
__Eusebius:
"You can read of (in Josephus) how many and what famous Jewish cities were besieged and finally how terrors and worse were seen by those who fled to Jerusalem as if to a mighty capital. You can study the nature of the whole war." (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History p. 201)
__Charles Spurgeon:
"Both the realities of war and the rumors of war there were many such ere Jerusalem was overthrown." (C.H. Spurgeon, "Gospel of the Kingdom," p. 414)
*T4tT:
"The false prophets of the preceding verse were responsible for a great many deaths when Rome sacked Jerusalem, for as we shall see the Lord warned those in the city to flee to the mountains when the armies began to mount, but the lying prophets were herding the children to the city for a sacrifice, as the phrasing of Eusebius indicates, 'They fled to Jerusalem as if to a mighty capitol,' in other words, as if it were still under God's protection. It never crossed their minds that God's Son was the one doing the razing. So they sought refuge in "God's City" choosing to believe the false prophets over their own Messiah, and paid for this trangression with their lives.
"Rumors of Wars"
__J. Stuart Russell:
"Josepus says, in the reign of Caligula great apprehensions were entertained in Judea of war with the Romans, and so too in, Alexandria, Seeucia, Babylonia, Syria, and Greece." (J. Stuart Russell, "The Parousia," p. 69)
*T4tT:
"The murmmerings of war could be heard as early as Caligula, who reigned from March 16 A.D. 37-41. Thus we see these birth pains, the beginning of sorrows, comencing within years of Christ's death, with the anticipation already building though the war was still decades off. The rumors of war began with Caligula's proposal to place a statue of himself in the temple at Jerusalem. And as Russell points out above, the talk of war was everywhere: Africa, Asia, and Europe, the rumor of war abounded.
v.7-8
"For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains."
"Famine and Earthquakes"
__Eusebius:
"Omitting then the details of their misfortunes from the sword and otherwise, I think it necassary to adduce only their sufferings from famine, of those who perished in the city from the famine: the number was countless and their suffering indiscribable. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History p. 203)
__J. Stuart Russell:
"In the reign of the Emperor Cladius (A.D. 41-54) there were four seasons of great scarcity. In the fourth year of his reign, the famine in Judea was so severe, that the price of food became enormous and great numbers perished. Earthquakes occured in each of the reigns of Caligula and Claudius." (J. Stuart Russell, "The Parousia" p. 70)
Note: For info. on the earthquakes at this time see: Acts, and the, "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle."
v.9-10
"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.""Many shall betray one another."
"You will be hated by all nations"
__Charles Spurgeon:
"The New Testament give abubundant proof of the fulfillment of these words. Even in Paul's day, 'This sect' was, 'Everywhere spoken against." (C.H. Spurgeon, "Gospel of the Kingdom," p. 416)
__St. Luke:
"You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends." (Lk. 21:16)
__Jeremiah the Prophet:
"I will smash them one against the other even parents against their children says the Lord: I will not pity nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them." (Jer. 13:14)
v.11-13
"And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved."
"False Prophets"
__Eusebius:
"Take then and read what is related in the sixth book of the, "Jewish War" (in Josephus): "Now at that time there were many imposters and lying prophets." (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History p. 221)
__St. John:
"Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world. Here's how you know the spirit is of God, every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, but this is the spirit of Antichrist, of whom you have heard is coming and already is in the world." (1 Jn. 4:1-3)
v.14
"And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
"Gospel preached to all the world (oikumene'), then shall the end come."
__Paul the Apostle:
"Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."
__Charles Spurgeon:
"Before Jerusalem was destroyed, 'this Gospel of the kingdom' was probably 'preached in all the world' so far as it was then known." (C.H. Spurgeon, "Gospel of the Kingdom," p. 417-418)
*Commenter's Note:
see: T4J #10.1, "Matthew 24 Fulfilled Introduction: Literalism's Limited "World" View"
see also: Luk. 2:1 & Acts 11:28, and ask yourself if the whole world is in view. Hint: It is not.
v.15
"So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let her reader understand)"
"Abomination of Desolation"
__St. Luke:
"The Army of Desolation" (Lk. 2:10)
__Charles Spurgeon:
"This portion of our Savior's words seem to relate solely to the destruction of Jerusalem. As soon as Christ's disciples saw 'the abomination of desolation,' that is, the Roman ensigns, with their idolatrous emblems, 'stand in the holy place,' they knew that the time for them to escape had arrived; and they did 'flee into the mountains.' The Christians in Jerusalem and the surrounding town and villages, 'in Judea,' availed themselves of the first oppertunity for eluding the Roman armies, and fled to the mountain city of Pella, in Perea, where they were preserved from the general destruction which overthrew the Jews... They fled the moment they saw Jerusalem compassed by armies." (C.H. Spurgeon, "Gospel of the Kingdom," p. 418)
*T4tT:
Both Matthew and Mark render this verse, "Abomination of Desolation," followed by the exhortation, "Let he who reads this understand." Whereas Luke in his gospel says, "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by soldiers..." Notice he doesn't add the phrase, "Let he who reads this understand," because unlike Matthew and Mark he identified this Abomination that brings desolation as the armies of Rome.
__Clement of Alexandria:
"The days which Daniel indicates from the desolation of Jerusalem, the seven years and seven months of the reign of Vespasian. For two years are added to the seventeen months and eighteen days of Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius; and the result is three years and six months, which is "the half of the week," as Daniel the prophet said. For he said that there were two thousand three hundred days from the time that the abomination of Nero stood in the holy city, till its destruction. For thus the declaration, which is subjoined, shows: "How long shall be the vision, the sacrifice taken away, the abomination of desolation, which is given, and the power and the holy place shall be trodden under foot? And he said to him, Till the evening and morning, two thousand tree hundred days, and the holy place shall be taken away."
These two thousand three hundred daysm then make six years four months, during the half of which Nero held sway, and it was half a week; and for a half, Vespasian with Otho, Galba, and Vitellius reigned. And on this account Daniel says, "Blessed is he that cimeth to the thousand three hundred and thirty five days." For up to these days was war, and after them it ceased." (Clement of Alexandria, "The Stromata, or Miscellanies." Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, p. 334)
v.16-18
"Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.
"Then let those in Judea flee"
__Eusebius:
"The people of the church in Jerusalem were commanded vy an oracle given by revelation before the war to those in the city who were worthy of it to depart/ Those who believed in christ migrated from Jerusalem. Then when all the holy men had altogether deserted the royal capital of the Jews and the whole land of Judea, the judgment of God might at last overtake them for all their crimes against the Christ." (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History p. 201)
v.19-20
"And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath."
"Pray your flight isn't in the winter or on Sabbath"
__Eusebius:
"Such was the reward of the iniquity of the Jews and of their impiety against the Christ of God, but it is worth appending to it the infallible forecast of our Savior in which he prophetically expounded these very things." (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History p. 215)
v.21-22
"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the elect those days will be cut short."
"The Great Tribulation"
__Charles Spurgeon:
"Read the record written by Josephus of the destruction of Jerusalem, and see how truly our Lord's word were fulfilled. The Jews impiously said, concerning the death of Christ, 'His blood be on us, and on our children.' Never did any other people envoke such an awful curse upon themselves, and upon no other nation did such a judgment ever fall. We read of Jews crucified till there was no more wood for making crosses; of thousands of the people slaying one another in their fierce faction fights within the city; and of the fearful carnage when the Romans at length entered the doomed capital; and the blood-curdling story exactly bears out the Savior's statement uttered nearly forty years before the terrible events occured." (C.H. Spurgeon, "Gospel of the Kingdom," p. 419)
"Unless those days had been shortened"
__John Calvin:
"It cannot be doubted, that when many persons entreated that they should be slaughtered in this manner, Titus was restrained by God from giving permission to his soldiers and to others who were excessively desirous to carry such a design into execution; and therefore when the Roman Emperor at that time prevented the utter destruction of the whole nation, that was the shortening here mentioned, 'for preserving some seed.' isa. 1:9" (Calvin, Commentary, vol. 17, p. 138)
v.23-26
"Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' di not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If the say, 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it."
"Behold, I have told you beforehand"
__Eusebius:
"The people of the church in Jerusalem were commanded by an oracle given by revelation before the war." (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, p. 201)
v.27-28
"For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the eagles will gather."
"As Lightning"
__Jonathan Edwards:
"The coming or revealing of Christ, so often spoken of by Christ and his apostles that was to be so suddenly, was at the destruction of Jerusalem." (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 2, p. 789, [42], discussing Lk. 17:30-37, a parallel passage.)
"Dead Carcass and The Eagle"
__Charles Spurgeon:
"Judaism had become a 'carcase,' dead and corrupt; fit prey for the vultures or carrion-kites of Rome... The birds of prey gather wherever dead bodies are to be found; and the judgments of Christ... poured out when the body politic or religious becomes unbearably corrupt." (C.H. "Gospel of the Kingdom," p. 421-422)
__J. Stuart Russell:
"The eagles were the objects of religious worswhip to the soldiers; and the parallel passage in St. Luke is all but conclusive evidence that this is the true meaning. We know from Josephus that the attempt of a Roman general Vitellius, in the reign of Tiberius, to march his troops through Judea was resisted by the Jewish authorities, on the ground that the idolatrous images on their ensigns would be a profanation of the law." (J. Stuart Russell, "The Parousia," The New Testament Doctrine of our Lord's Second Coming, p. 73)
v.29
"Immediatly after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken."
"Sun and Moon Darkened, Stars Falling From Heaven"
__Isaiah the Prophet:
"Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not gibe their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogantm and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless... Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them... their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms the spendor and pomp of the Chaldeans will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them." (Isa. 13:9-11, 17-19)
__Jeremiah the Prophet:
"Thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon... I will send to Babylon winnowers, and they shall winnow her and they shall empty her land when they come against her from every side on the day of trouble...Sharpen the arrows! Take up the shields! The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance for his Temple... O you who dwell by many waters, rich in treasure your end has come; the thread of your life is cut. The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself: surely I will fill you with men, as many as locusts... I will stretch out mjy hand against you, and roll you down throm the crags, asnd maker you a burnt mountain. No stone shall be taken from you far a corner and no stone for a foundation, byt you shall be a perpetual waste... Set up a standard on the earth ; blow the trympet amon the nations for war against her... the kings of the Medes and every land under the]ir dominion. The land trembles and writhes in pain, for the Lord's purposes against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation... The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come." (Jer. 51:1-2, 11, 13-14, 25-29, 33)
*T4tT:
These verses are classic examples of the apocalyptic genre found in scripture. These words are not to be taken literally, the stars did not fall in 6th century B.C. when the medes destroyed Babylon, nor did they have to fall when Jerusalem fell in A.D. 70.
__John Calvin:
"The sun he says will be darkened and the moon will become as blood, and the stars will withhold their brightness... What he says of blood and darkness is, no doubt, to be taken metaphorically for a disordered state of things; for we know that calamities are often compared to obscurity and darkness... We the see that the Prophet does not express what would be, word for word, nor is he to be understood as spealing, as they say, literally, byt he uses a figurative mode of speaking, by which he sets forth such a dreadful state of things, that the very element would seem to put on a new appearance... The Prophet, by blood, by darkness, and by dark clouds, sets forth metaphorically that sorrow, by which the minds of men would necessarily be possessed." (Calvin Commentary, vol. 14, p. 52-134)
v.30
"Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they willsee the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
v.31
"And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
v.32-33
"Learn the parable of the fig tree: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. (33) So also, when you see all these things, you know that He is near, at the very gates."
v.34
"Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things be fulfilled."
__Charles Spurgeon:
"The king left his followers no doubt as to when these things should happen: It was just about the ordinary limit of a generation when the Roman armies compassed Jerusalem, whose measure of iniquity was then full, and overflowed in misery, agony, distress, and bloodshed such as the world never saw before or since. Jesus was a true prophet; everything he foretold was fulfilled." (C.H. Spurgeon, "Gospel of the Kingdom," p. 424)
v.35
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
