Matthew 24:4-13

II. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND ITS TEMPLE (24:4-35)
GENERAL WARNING AGAINST MISLEADING SIGNS NOT RELATED TO THE END (24:4-13)

TEXT: 24:4-13

(Parallels: Mark 13:5-13; Luke 21:8-19)

4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray. 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled: for these things must needs come to pass; but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places. 8 But all these things are the beginning of travail. 9 Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all the nations for my name's sake. 10 And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. 12 And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. 13 But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

a.

What is important about warning the disciples against being misled?

b.

How could anyone living in Jesus-' generation, many of whom knew Him personally, be fooled by false Christs and led astray?

c.

What image would the claim, I am the Christ, conjure up in the mind of the Hebrew listener? Did pretenders to this title appear in the first century?

d.

Although the events predicted would be deeply alarming, there is a certain comfort in knowing that they were certain to occur. What significant kind of comfort are these predictions calculated to inspire?

e.

Jesus said: These things must come to pass. Do you think He approves of bloody revolutions, destructive earthquakes and helplessly hungry people? If not, what does He mean?

f.

Popularizers of pet theories of prophecy often point to these great world disasters as signs of the near approaching end of the world. What are the specific phrases Jesus used in this context to convince everyone that these disasters are not signs of anything?

g.

Jesus affirmed that war, famine, pestilence and earthquakes are but the beginning of sufferings. How does this help everyone form a correct concept of world history and a sound eschatology?

h.

To what kind of tribulation would the disciples of Jesus be delivered up? What details do Mark and Luke make specific? What kind of a Messianic Kingdom would the disciples have been expecting, if this warning is thought to be a corrective to their view?

i.

What kind of a Kingdom does Jesus represent, if only the hardiest believers endure to the end and are saved?

j.

Could not Jesus have broken the bad news to His disciples more gently? What is the advantage to His followers in His using such plain speech? How would you have reacted to such a bleak outlook, if you had known what you know now about martyrdom in Church history?

k.

What does this blunt speech predicting a horrible future for the disciples tell you about Jesus as a leader? Can He be a loving Lord, if He talks like that?

1.

What does His blunt speech tell you about Jesus as a Prophet?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

Jesus began His answer to them by saying, Watch out that no one mislead you about this. In fact, many imposters will come using my title, claiming, -I am the Christ!-' and saying, -The time of the end is close at hand!-' They will fool many people, but you must not follow their leadership.
You will be hearing of wars going on and rumors about wars and revolutions being planned. So, when you do, do not panic or be overly alarmed. These are things that must happen first, but the end is still to come. The end will not occur immediately, because one nation will go to war with another; one kingdom will declare war on another.
There will be severe earthquakes in various localities, as well as famines and epidemics. There will be fearful events and great portents in the skies. All this, however, is but the early pains of childbirth.
Be on your guard, because, PREVIOUS TO ALL THIS, they will arrest you and hand you over to Sanhedrins to persecute you. You will be flogged in synagogues and cast into prison. You will be summoned to appear before governors and kings on my account. This will furnish you an opportunity to bear testimony before them. In fact, the gospel must first be proclaimed to all peoples. However, when they lead you away to hand you over, make up your minds not to worry ahead of time or meditate how to defend yourselves or what to say. When that time comes, just say what is given you, because I will provide you such eloquence and such logic that none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute you. This is because it will not merely be you doing the talking, but the Holy Spirit.
One brother will betray another to death. A father will turn his child in to the authorities. Children will rebel against their parents. People will put some of you to death. You will be universally hated because of your allegiance to me.
At that time many will be so stunned as to lose their faith. They will betray each other and hate one another. Numerous false prophets will come on the scene and deceive many people. Because of the spread of lawlessness, the fervency of most people's love will cool off. However, the disciple who never gives up until it is all over is the one who will be saved. You will not suffer the slightest damagenot even a hair of your head! By standing firm under fire you will gain your lives.

SUMMARY

Jesus warns against all misleading signs of the approaching end, such as false messiahs, wars, natural upheavals, persecutions, apostacy and indifference. However, the period will be marked by victorious gospel proclamation, even if individual Christians must personally endure great difficulties, even martyrdom.

A. Practical Warnings Against Misleading Signs Not Related to the End
1. False Christs are not the signal (24:4, 5)

Matthew 24:4 Take heed that no man lead you astray. Jesus-' opening sentence forms the ethical and intensely practical backbone of everything else He shall teach. His goal was not to gratify men's curiosity about the end of time, but to protect believers against deception by unscrupulous pretenders as much as by sincere, but misguided, prophecy enthusiasts. He is not interested in furnishing His people with a printed program of Last Days Events. More practical than this, He emphasizes the attitudes they must have on ANY day, for it may be their last.

Because the disciples had connected Jerusalem's fall with Christ's return to earth, as if they were one momentous event, Jesus must first place them on their guard against deceivers who would lure people into concluding that frightening episodes surrounding the decline and fall of Israel should be interpreted as heralding the grand intervention of God. They were not to be deceived into supposing that His personal, visible Second Coming were near in the context of these events. Any rumor to the contrary must automatically be branded false. In fact, the only absolutely certain information concerning the time of His return is that it would take place when no one could expect it (Matthew 24:39; Matthew 24:42-44; Matthew 24:50; Matthew 25:13). Thus, there would be no sign, no warning. Consequently, any human calculation or announcement is an attempt to lead you astray, or tending to that result.

In times of severe suffering, nothing is so diabolically deceptive or so productive of unreasoning illusions and of such heated debate as fanatical eschatological prejudice that spawns ungrounded, self-deceptive expectations and even enflames racial hatred. And yet the Israel of Jesus-' day was impregnated with just such a volatile mixture of Messianic hope and nationalistic prejudice that, among other things, laid the groundwork for its destruction. Dana (New Testament World, 135ff.) lists three elements which, in the final days of Jerusalem, would explain Israel's tragic blindness and vindicate our Lord's counsel of caution. They believed.

1.

that God would manifest a special interposition of divine power, either directly or through the Messiah.

2.

that the nation of Israel would be supremely elevated and all other peoples humiliated.

3.

that the absolute subjection of the world to the rule of Jahweh and of His Anointed must necessarily and deterministically eliminate human free will in order to inaugurate an era of endless righteousness where God's sovereignty could no longer be challenged.

How significant this warning today! The very events which prophecy popularizers cite today as signs of the end of the world were rejected by our Lord as indicative of anything. Interpreters have penned volumes for centuries to point them out in their own era. But Jesus could well foresee how easily false messiahs and teachers could utilize questionable methods of exegesis to mislead disciples, not only in that age, but perpetually. Even to consider the dreadful list of natural and political upheavals as antecedents of the final death-day of the world is to be misled, because Jesus denied these are mysterious indicators of anything special in God's program.

Note how practically Jesus ministers to His followers-' needs: He distracts them from an over-interest in future events, emphasizing what kind of people they must be as His servants. (Cf. Peter's method, 2 Peter 3:11; 2 Peter 3:14.) Even as He lets them into His secret, He puts brakes on their curiosity. He is not content to furnish them a plan for the future so they can manipulate it for their own purposes. Rather, He pushes them back to common duty and discipleship.

Political Messianic Fanaticism

Matthew 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray. The name which impostors would apply illegitimately to themselves is not Jesus, His personal name, but Christ, His rightful title. There were hundreds of men in His day named Jesus. (Cf. Colossians 4:11; Acts 13:6; Luke 3:29; Matthew 27:17 margin Jesus Barabbas.) What distinguished THIS Jesus from every other was His well-founded claim to be THE CHRIST. The unsubstantiated claim of the false messiahs was not that they were a reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth, but that they were attempting to cash in on that title for which He was justly famous.

What special image would the claim, I am the Christ, have conjured up in the mind of the unbelieving Jewish community? For us, to be the Christ is to be that particular Anointed of God authorized to speak in God's Name. But for anyone who rejected Jesus-' claims and clung to his own misdirected messianic fantasies, the appearance of ANYONE answering to the popular Messianic dream of an earthly, material kingship would certainly deceive and gather a massive following. Consider the much vaster multitudes Jesus could have commanded, had He but conceded to say, I am the Christ, in the grossly materialistic sense hoped for by His contemporaries. (Cf. John 6:14 f. in contrast with John 18:36; see notes on Matthew 8:4; Matthew 9:30; Matthew 12:16; Matthew 12:19.) Thus, Jesus warns against those who claimed His rightful title and authority, but with totally other motivations, intentions and concepts of Messiahship.

Just how real this danger was is documented by Josephus who reports (Ant. XX, 5, 1).

Now it came to pass, that while Fadus was procurator of Judea (i.e. 44-46 A.D.), that a certain magician, whose name was Theudas, persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects with them, and follow him to the river Jordan; for he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, divide the river, and afford them an easy passage over it; and many were deluded by his words. However, Fadus did not permit them to make any advantage of his wild attempt, but sent a troop of horsemen out against them; who falling upon them unexpectedly, slew many of them, and took many of them alive. They also took Theudas alive, and cut off his head, and carried it to Jerusalem.

Concerning the time of Felix (A.D. 52-61; cf. Acts 24), Josephus (Wars, II, 13, 4-5) writes that Jewish affairs were gradually degenerating, not only because of terrorists who used robbery to finance their program but also because of impostors who deceived the multitude:

There was also another body of wicked men gotten together, not so impure in their actions, but more wicked in their intentions who laid waste the happy state of the city no less than did these murderers. These were such men as deceived and deluded the people under pretense of divine inspiration, but were for procuring innovations and changes of government; and these prevailed with the multitude to act like madmen and went before them into the wilderness, as pretending that God would show them the signal of liberty. But Felix thought this procedure was to be the beginning of a revolt; so he sent some horsemen and footmen, both armed, who destroyed a great number of them. But there was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews more mischief than the former; for he was a cheat, and pretended to be a prophet also, and got together thirty thousand men that were deluded by him; these he led round about from the wilderness to the mount which is called the Mount of Olives and was ready to break into Jerusalem by force..

The Egyptian promised his victims that he would show them from hence how, at his command, the walls of Jerusalem would fall down; and he promised them that he would procure them an entrance into the city through those walls, when they were fallen down (Ant. XX, 8, 5-6). Felix took a dim view of this, attacked first, slaughtered four hundred of his followers and captured two hundred prisoners. But the Egyptian himself escaped! Again, in the procuratorship of Festus (A.D. 61), Josephus (Ant. XX, 8, 10; cf. Wars, II, 13, 5) documented how

Festus sent forces, both horsemen and footmen to fall upon those that had been seduced by a certain impostor, who promised them deliverance and freedom from the miseries they were under, if they would but follow him as far as the wilderness. Accordingly those forces that were sent destroyed both him that had deluded them and those that were his followers also.

THESE were the kind of Christ that made sense to the first century Jews. So, it was against this kind of false messiah that Jesus alerted His followers.

2. International war is not the signal (24:6, 7a)

Matthew 24:6 Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. In Israel's history, wars and rumors of wars were not always bad news, since they offered hope of freedom. (Cf. Jeremiah 51:45 f.) However, wars of liberation were the exciting logic of misdirected, fanatic Messianism too. Remember: the first-century Palestine Liberation Organization was JEWISH. But Hebrew Christians in every part of the Roman Empire could not but be affected by the unsettling rumors that foreshadow the coming of war. So, the emotional involvement of the Christians must be defused, lest they too be swept up in the political turbulence such rumors must foment.

National upheavals were the order of the day for the entire Roman Empire. Tacitus (Histories, I, §2, 189) sighs dismally,

I am entering on the history of a period rich in disasters, frightful in its wars, torn by civil strife, and even in peace full of horrors. Four emperors perished by the sword. There were three civil wars; there were more with foreign enemies; there were often wars that had both characters at once. There was success in the East and disaster in the West. There were disturbances in Illyricum; Gaul wavered in its allegiance; Britain was thoroughly subdued and immediately abandoned; the tribes of the Suevi and the Sarmatae rose in concert against us; the Dacians had the glory of inflicting as well as suffering defeat; the armies of Parthia were all but set in motion by the cheat of a counterfeit Nero.

Rumors of war were heard as Tiberius (A.D. 14-37) ordered Vitellius to attack Aretas of Arabia (Ant. XVIII, 5, 1-3) and started to march across Palestine with his Roman eagles. Just ten years after Jesus began His ministry, war rumors raced through Jewish cities as Caligula ordered an army to march on Jerusalem to place his statues in the Temple or massacre anyone who attempted to stop the attempt. This abomination of desolation was averted by the heroic Jewish plea at Ptolemais and at Tiberias made to the Roman commander, Petronius (Wars, II, 10, 1-5), as also by Herod Agrippa's timely intercession (Ant. XVIII, 8, 1-9).

Under Cumanus (48 A.D.), during a Passover feast a tumult in the temple cost 10,000 lives trampled to death, because of the presence of Roman soldiers in and around the Temple (Ant. XX, 5, 3; Wars II, 12, 1). In the same period a fierce war was barely averted between Jews and Samaritans (Wars, II, 12, 3-7). Gessius Florus (65 A.D.), whose rapacious administration made his corrupt predecessors appear almost righteous by comparison (Wars, II, 14, 2), deliberately provoked the Jews to war (Wars, II, 17, 4). The eloquent Agrippa II formerly pleaded with the Jews not to declare war against Rome solely due to Florus-' abuses (Wars, II, 16). Nonetheless, Zealot agitation continued and finally forced the suspension of regular sacrifices for the Roman emperor. Since this was a direct repudiation of loyalty to Rome, it marks the true beginning of the Jewish war with Rome (Wars, II, 17, 2). From then on, it was one fierce, almost continuous, civil war between revolutionary terrorists and a determined peace party (Wars, IV, 3, 2); a war, however, wherein Jewish terrorists murdered the high priest and unarmed Romans on the Sabbath (Wars, II, 17)! In a one-hour massacre, 20,000 Jews were butchered by their pagan fellow-citizens at Caesarea (Wars, II, 18, 1), 10,000 at Damascus died (Wars, II, 20, 2). Civil war in Scythopolis left 13,000 corpses (Wars, II, 18, 3). Anti-Jewish bloodbaths accounted for 2,500 dead in Askelon. At Ptolemais 2,000 were killed and many in Tyre. 50,000 died in Alexandria (ibid., §7, 8).

Wars and rumors of wars streamed incessantly from Rome upon the death of Nero (68 A.D.) as three emperors contended for the throne, slaying and being slain in turn: Galba, Otho and Vitellius (68, 69 A.D.). This unsettling news of chaos at the head of the world empire would create tensions everywhere. (See Wars IV, 9, 1-2, 9-10.)

See that ye be not troubled. In light of the historical reality meant, the disciples must have grasped with astonishment at Jesus-' inconceivably calm order not to be alarmed. These conditions would try the strongest faith and determination to hold firm in the face of temptations to surrender to fear or flee prematurely before the Gospel testimony could be given, and still He expects people not to get excited or worry?!

Jack Lewis (Matthew, II, 122) quotes Genesis Rabbah 42:4: When thou seest the kingdoms fighting against one another, look and expect the foot of the Messiah. Our Master sharply repudiated this apocalyptic eschatology based on wishful thinking. Since wars are a part of the negative destiny of sinful men, Jesus is concerned that Christians not throw themselves into some ill-omened political venture under the leadership of self-styled prophets who promise messianic significance for their program.

These things must needs come to pass. God is not the Author of war or human disaster. The direct causes are human selfishness, greed and ambition. Nevertheless, in the purpose of God, these human ingredients, especially human free choice inspired by Satan, will be permitted free rein until Final Judgment. In such a case, these things compose the kind of world in which the Christian will find himself. This assurance of God's foreknowledge of world history is intended to calm the disciples-' fears and induce him to reasonableness in the face of these terrors. (Cf. John 16:1 ff.) By announcing God's intention to permit this frightful state of affairs to continue, Jesus aimed to debunk a Messianic utopia on earth. Jesus the true Messiah came not to bring peace on earth. but a sword and a cross (Matthew 10:34-39). Thus, He diverts His follower's attention from popular Messianism to the eternal purposes of God and restores his perspective. God has in mind, not the peace of an earthly Jerusalem, but its desolation.

But the end is not yet. The end of what? That end about which the disciples had inquired, i.e. the Temple's destruction and anything else actually involved in that event. (See on Matthew 24:3.) He refers, therefore, not to the destruction of the universe, but to the end of the exclusively Jewish age, their world, not ours; the world as they had known it heretofore, not as it became thereafter. Jesus-' prophetic realism stands out in sharp contrast to those of His age who embraced a view of history that promised Jewish political vindication by God. But history vindicated Jesus, not His contemporaries.

But the end is not yet. To appreciate Jesus-' meaning, we must feel His points of emphasis, so as not to be misled by some prophecy preaching that blatantly misappropriates the very features just mentioned by Jesus, as if they were signs of His Second Coming. Ironically, such teaching unconscionably contradicts our Lord Himself. Here is what HE said:

1.

Do not go after them (the deceivers) (Luke 21:8).

2.

See that you are not alarmed; for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once (Matthew 24:6; Mark 13:7; Luke 21:9).

3.

All this is but the beginning of sufferings (Matthew 24:8; Mark 13:8 b).

4.

But before all this they will lay their hands on you. (Luke 21:12).

5.

And the gospel must first be preached to all nations (Mark 13:10; cf. Matthew 24:14).

6.

This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come (Matthew 24:14).

7.

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near (Luke 21:20).

8.

This generation will not pass away till all these things take place (Matthew 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 21:32).

9.

No signs will precede the Second Coming to give warning to anyone (Matthew 24:37 to Matthew 25:30).

There is no intention here to say that wars, famines and pestilences on earth and horrors in space have only occurred in the past or shall not do so in the future. Rather, what is acid-clear is that Jesus emphatically denies that these are prophetic indicators that His Second Coming is imminent. This harmonizes with His equally emphatic declarations that deal directly with this subject (Matthew 24:42-44; Mark 13:33; Mark 13:35; Luke 21:34; Matthew 24:50; Matthew 25:13).

Matthew 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. For: his verse explains the foregoing assertion on wars and rumors of wars. Note His parallelisms:

6. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

7. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

All this is but the beginning of the sufferings.

Amplifying His thought in language reminiscent of 2 Chronicles 15:6 and Isaiah 19:2, Jesus not only depicts the human distress of wartorn countries, but prepares those, who recognize these allusions to Old Testament language and situations, for His later revelation of the coming divine judgment on Israel.

3. Disturbances in nature are not the signal (24:7b, 24:8)

Next, He names the awful fruits of war: there shall be famines and pestilences (Luke 21:11). In wartime, uncertain living and working conditions hinder the normal production and marketing of food, leading to shortages and famines. These lead to uneven diets, vitamin deficiencies and sickness. Where normal hygiene is interrupted by civil chaos, pestilences fester and spread.

One famine occurred during the reign of Claudius when Fadus was procurator (45:46 A.D. See Ant. III, 15, 3.). Queen Helena of Adiabene bought corn in Egypt and a cargo of dried figs from Cyprus at great expense and distributed it in Judea. Her proselyte son, Isates, furnished money to Jerusalem's leaders too (Ant. XX, 2, 1-5). This is the same famine predicted by Agabus, for which the Christians sent disaster relief (Acts 11:28 f.). Other historians characterize the reign of Claudius as a period hard-hit by famine conditions, one famine in Greece, mentioned by Eusebius, and two in Rome, according to Dion Cassius and Tacitus (Annals, XII 43; Expositor's Greek Testament, II, 270).

Not only would crops fail, but the earth itself would seem out of joint with itself: earthquakes in divers places: here, there, anywhere, not more specifically located. Just a few years after the Church began, the Mediterranean world was rocked by disturbances in nature and terrors in the supernatural realm (Luke 21:11). There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. Alford (I, 236) listed five principle earthquakes within the period 46-63 A.D. Tacitus (Annals, XII, 43) describes 51 A.D. as one such ill-omened year:

Several prodigies occurred that year. Birds of evil omen perched on the Capitol; houses were thrown down by frequent shocks of earthquake, and as the panic spread, all the weak were trodden down in the hurry and confusion of the crowd. Scanty crops too, and consequent famine were regarded as a token of calamity.

Concerning the year 62 A.D. Tacitus wrote (XV, 22):

During the same consulship a gymnasium was wholly consumed by a stroke of lightning, and a statue of Nero within it was melted down to a shapeless mass of bronze. An earthquake too demolished a large part of Pompeii, a populous town in Campania.

Near the end of 65 or 66 he relates (XV, 47):

At the close of the year people talked much about prodigies, presaging impending evils. Never was lightning flashes more frequent, and a comet too appeared, for which Nero always made propitiation with noble blood.

According to Tacitus (XVI, 13), the years 65 and 66 encompassed much that chills the blood:

A year of shame and of so many evil deeds heaven was also marked by storms and pestilence. Campania was devastated by a hurricane, which destroyed everywhere country houses, plantations and crops, and carried its fury to the neighborhood of Rome, where a terrible plague was sweeping away all classes of human beings without any derangement of the atmosphere as to be visibly apparent,

Earlier (Histories, I, 2), Tacitus had written:

Now too Italy was prostrated by disasters either entirely novel, or that recurred only after a long succession of ages; cities in Campania's richest plains were swallowed up and overwhelmed; Rome was wasted by conflagrations, its oldest temples consumed, and the Capitol was fired by the hands of citizens. Sacred rites were profaned; there was profligacy in the highest ranks; the sea was crowded with exiles, and its rocks polluted with bloody deeds.

Josephus (Wars, IV, 4, 5) recounts that when an army of Idumeans, sent for by the Zealots, arrived at Jerusalem, they were shut out of the city by Ananus the high priest. That night over Jerusalem broke a terribly violent storm of strong winds with the largest showers of rain and continual lightnings, terrible thunderings and amazing concussions and the bellowing of the earth, that was in an earthquake. Note Josephus-' personal deduction:

These things were a manifest indication that some destruction was coming upon men, when the system of the world was put into this disorder; and any one would guess that these wonders foreshowed some great calamities were coming.

Josephus-' personal opinion is remarkable, because it is precisely the sort of guesswork that Jesus warns His followers against: such disasters must not be considered a critical sign of anything special in the plan of God. Close attention is not to be dedicated to these physical disturbances in nature that understandably capture the imagination and demand some theory of their cause. However great and fearful they be, they are emphatically NOT the heaven-sent signal.

Matthew 24:8 But all these things are the beginning of travail. This statement completes Jesus-' parenthetical amplification of Matthew 24:6 begun in Matthew 24:7, and is parallel to the last half of Matthew 24:6. The basic message of these verses is, whatever you do, DO NOT CONSIDER THESE DISASTERS AS SIGNS OF ANYTHING! They are not indications of the end, but of the beginning! He would rescue His people from that apocalyptist's eschatological fever that fondly and confidently points to wars and natural catastrophes as unequivocal cues to the end of the age. These are to be seen, instead, as just so many episodes in the common history of man.

Travail (ôdìnôn, pangs of childbirth, birth-pangs), according to some, suggests that, because birth-throes lead to the birth of a child, therefore the travail in question here must lead to a happy outcome, i.e. His return in victory over the world. Several responses are possible.

1.

Granted that the birth of a child follows the travail, it does not follow that the happy event here (supposedly) intended is the Second Coming or Judgment. Rather, the almost unbearable calamities pictured here could be the birthpangs of the new epoch in God's dealing with man. And, contrary to Jewish expectations, the new era dawning would not be characteristicly Jewish or limited to Hebrew rites and customs, but truly universal, a Kingdom of God open to all men, not Mosaic but Christian. Lenski (Matthew, 931) believes that Jesus adopts the term which was used by the rabbis to designate the sufferings and woes which they thought were to precede the Messiah's coming: cheble hammashiach, dolores Messiae. All these tribulations would bring forth the new era. If He deliberately utilized this language common to earlier Jewish thought (cf. Jubilees 23:18-24; IV Ezra 5:1-12; 6:14-24; 8:63-9:12; Sibyl. Orac. III, 796-807; II Baruch chaps. 27-30; 70-72), it would be to correct its mistaken notions. The era to follow this travail would not glorify national Israel nor justify popular concepts thereof, but offer hope and blessing to all the world through the proclamation of the Gospel by a truly universal Church. Could the travail signal the dawn of the regeneration (palingenesìa) of Matthew 19:28, when the Apostles-' reign with Christ would occur, i.e. during the Kingdom, now?

2.

However suggestive the foregoing theory may be, the element of PAIN stands foremost in Jesus-' mind, as everything He says next will show, especially in Mark 13:9 ff. and Luke 21:12 ff. Travail, here, foreshadows those more severe troubles that excite horror preliminary to the full maturing of the catastrophe. Odînes (travail) may be utilized for the pains of death, without implying passage to a happier life by birth. (Cf. Acts 2:24; Psalms 18:5 [LXX Psalms 17:6;] Psalms 116:3 [LXX Psalms 114:3]; see also Luke 2:48 odunòmenoi.)

Because these things are the beginning, Jesus would forestall the error that the Second Coming should be expected early in the first century. In the same way He warns that the breaking up of the Jewish State must await the maturing of events. These things are the beginning; the rest He proceeds to sketch in detail clear down to Matthew 24:13 (see also parallels), moving from the general to the specific, from general world conditions to the specific situation, life and problems of the Church. Immediately on the heels of His exposure of the false alarms, Jesus proceeds to sound a warning that was to be more personal, more directly related to the early Christians than the preceding perils. With the ax of confident prediction and with His call to trust His word on good evidence, He effectively severs the roots of fears that could cloud men's minds, especially of those very people upon whom the propagation of His Gospel would depend. This quiet, steady faith and witnessing, not fear of world events, is to be their main concern. Thus, Jesus set the gyro-compass that would hold the Church steady and on course, flying into the teeth of the devil's worst.

4. Troubles inside the Church and out are not the signal (24:9-13)
a. Persecution of the Church (24:9)

Matthew 24:9 Then, as a word in this context, is ambiguous, in that it has two meanings:

1.

At that time, i.e. during the period just described;

2.

Thereupon, next in order of events or time, because very often in Matthew tòte represents the Hebrew wâw consecutive, and is thus simply continuing the narrative (Souter, Pocket Lexicon, 263).

However, if taken in this second sense, Matthew would appear to contradict Luke, as Matthew seems to affirm that the tribulation suffered by Christians would follow the alarming world events, whereas Luke has But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you. (Luke 21:12). However, as pointed out at Matthew 24:7, Matthew's Matthew 24:7-8 are amplificatory in that they furnish further information concerning His prediction of wars and their sociological and economic results. Now in Matthew 24:9 Jesus returns to His original outline which had been interrupted by that parenthetical explanation and takes up the next characteristic of that same troubled time, persecution of the Christians. This, as Luke says, shall occur prior to the end of the epoch torn by mind-boggling tragedies. So, Luke's before all these things aims only at greater chronological precision without controverting His colleagues, Matthew and Mark who merely identify the character of the period without establishing a tight chronology. So, the first definition of then is preferable: during the time just described, then, in those days.

The Choice Between Death and Loyalty to Jesus

They shall deliver you up to tribulation, and shall kill you. Here Matthew briefly summarizes material that Mark and Luke record in considerable detail (Mark 13:9-13 = Luke 21:12-19). These warnings addressed to the disciples concerning their future labors include information our Apostle had already recorded in his version of their ordination sermon. (See on Matthew 10:16-22.) This is not new revelation. Rather, it clarifies to what period Jesus-' earlier words actually apply, i.e. to those years just before the Jewish war with Rome. (See Introductory Notes on Matthew 10, Vol. II, 248-255.)

Tribulation (thlìpsis) is pressure, hence the suffering caused by pressure: persecution, affliction, distress. Here the pressure is the persecution of Christians who suffer because of their devotion of Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah. This cannot be a general expression for, or type of, the great tribulation mentioned in Matthew 24:21, because there the malevolence is directed at unbelieving Jews, not Christians. (This does not deny attribution of this phrase great tribulation in Revelation 7:14 to Christian suffering, which may well include some of the wretchedness indicated here in Matthew 24:9.) As the Jews are to have their great tribulation, so the Christians are to be subjected to tremendous pressures which find their origin in the clash that must come when the believers-' new allegiance, his new norms and his wholly new world-view clash with those of everyone and everything else that finds itself in diametric opposition to all that Christ stands for. This tribulation would be characterized in various ways:

1.

JEWISH PERSECUTION. Jesus refers to a time when the Church was considered a Jewish sect and prosecutable as such by Jewish authorities (synagogues and councils cf. Acts 22:19). It was also a time when the Jews themselves did not possess the authority to prosecute capital crimes, hence their accused must be brought before governors and kings for judgment (Mark 13:9; Luke 21:12). The fulfilment of Jesus-' prediction is documented in pain and blood. (Acts 4:3-7; Acts 5:18; Acts 8:1-4; Acts 11:19; Acts 12:1 ff; Acts 13:50; Acts 14:5; Acts 28:22; 2 Corinthians 6:4-10; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12; 2 Corinthians 8:2; 2 Corinthians 11:23-29; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16; 2 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Timothy 3:12; Hebrews 10:32 ff.; Revelation 2:9 ff; Revelation 3:9 f.) No less than Stephen, James, the Apostle, and James the Lord's brother were executed or assassinated before 70 A.D. (Acts 7; Acts 12:1 ff.; Ant. XX, 9, 1; Eusebius, Eccl. History II, 23-25.)

2.

FAMILY HATRED TOWARD CHRISTIANS (Mark 13:12; Luke 21:16; cf. Matthew 10:21). Terrible persecutions are in store not merely as torture for the body, but also those crushing torments of the heart when one's own family and friends turn against him. Pagan family members feel betrayed by the conversion of one of their own, but this is acutely felt among Jewish families. Tragically, such hatred was not even entirely anti-Christian sentiment. The entire nation would be torn by internecine strife that became virtually a civil war, ripping apart even private families (Wars, IV, 3, 2). Such betrayals were typical of the closing years of the Jewish war.

3.

UNIVERSAL HATRED FOR CHRISTIANS. (Cf. Matthew 12:22.) Ye shall be hated of all the nations for my name's sake. Not only hounded and branded by antagonists of their own race (Acts 28:22), early Hebrew Christians would be subjected to pagan molestations wherever the Gospel advanced. All nations confidently envisions the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) as a foregone conclusion: Christ's victorious influence is assured, even in the face of seeming defeat!

One sample of these ordeals occurred when Nero burned Rome, leaving many citizens burned to death. Read Tacitus (Annals XV, 44) whose own antipathy toward Christians is ill-disguised. Schaff (History of the Christian Church, I, 381) summarizes the Roman historian's documentation of Nero's attack on Christians:

Their Jewish origin, their indifference to politics and public affairs, their abhorrence of heathen customs, were construed into an odium generis humani (hated against mankind) and this made an attempt on their part to destroy the city sufficiently plausible to justify a verdict of guilty.

Tacitus reports a vast multitude of Christians that died in the Neronian persecution of 64 A.D. It was for this that Peter prepared his readers (1 Peter 1:6; 1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 3:13-18; 1 Peter 4:12-19; 1 Peter 5:10; cf. Revelation 6:9 f; Revelation 7:14). Later, the apostles, Peter and Paul, experienced death as martyrs.

But these tribulations must be suffered for my name's sake, i.e. for all that Jesus stands for as this is revealed in His message. But it must be for Jesus, not our own pride, ignorance or folly, that we suffer (Matthew 5:11 f.; Matthew 10:22; Matthew 10:32 f.; 1 Peter 4:14 ff.). However painful these tortures might be, none of these tribulations mean the end of history for the Christians, because the disciple trusts Jesus to conquer.

b. Religious confusion and widespread faithlessness (24:10-12)

4.

APOSTASY AND BETRAYAL. Matthew 24:10 And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver one another, and shall hate one another. Then, see on v. 9. Here is a practical warning: times of suffering produce quite opposite effects! While undergirding the hope and determination of some, such times weaken and break others. Jesus predicts a gradual but serious deterioration in Christian faith and practice.

a.

Many shall stumble (skandalisthésontai, lit. be entrapped, see notes on Matthew 18:6 f.). True to His understanding of human psychology which He expressed in the Parable of the Soils (Matthew 13:3-9; Matthew 13:18-23), the Lord discerns how many will be entrapped by their (often unconscious) lingering attachments to the world. They will walk right into the trap, because they desire the bait! (Cf. James 1:14; contrast 2 Peter 1:4!) Others, seeing that God fails to act decisively by setting up His Kingdom on earth, are shocked and quit. Christ delays His coming, so still others drop their discipleship and turn apostates. Pliny, governor of Bythinia (c. 109-111 A.D.), described in his letter to Trajan (Ep. X, 97) some former Christians who willingly repeated after him

... an invocation to the gods, and offered adoration, with wine and frankincense to Caesar's image. together with those of the gods, and who finally cursed Christ, none of which acts, it is said, those who are really Christians can be forced into performing.. Others who were named by that informer at first confessed themselves Christians, and then denied it; true, they had been of that persuasion but they had quitted it, some three years, some many years, and a few as much as twenty-five years ago. They all worshiped your statue and the images of the gods, and cursed Christ.

b.

Many shall deliver up one another. This they did in different ways:

(1)

An apostate, by virtue of his inside information and former connections as well as by his abandonment of Christianity, psychologically motivated to turn over to the authorities those whom he has abandoned. Sometimes he could diminish his personal torture by turning traitor to expose his former fellow-Christians.

(2)

Warring Christian sects might justify to themselves the betrayal of those whom they refuse to recognize as Christian brethren. (Cf. Philippians 1:15-18.)

(3)

Tacitus (Annals, XV, 44) recorded that such betrayals occurred: Several Christians at first were apprehended, and then, by their discovery, a multitude of others were convicted and cruelly put to death, with derision and insult.

c.

Many shall hate one another. Hate is a cover-word Jesus utilized to express, for example, the jealousy and suspicion that animated the false brethren who endangered Paul's ministry (2 Corinthians 11:26), allured converts away from the truth (Galatians 1:6-9; Galatians 2:4; Galatians 3:1; Galatians 4:16 ff; Galatians 5:7-12; Galatians 6:12) and attempted to discredit him (2 Corinthians 10:1 f., 2 Corinthians 10:10; chap. 11).

5.

FALSE TEACHERS: Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. That false teachers and doctrine abounded even in the apostolic age before Jerusalem's fall is amply attested by New Testament illustrations and warnings: Matthew 7:15 ff.; Acts 20:29 f.; Romans 3:8; Romans 16:17 f.; 1 Corinthians 15:12; 2 Corinthians 11:1 to 2 Corinthians 13:10; Galatians 1:6-9 etc., 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 1 Timothy 1:19 f.; 2 Timothy 2:17 f; 2 Timothy 3:8 f.; Titus 1:10-16; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:18-26; 1 John 4:1; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7; all of Jude. False prophets and teachers would be harder to deal with than overt persecution from outside the Church, because these arose within the ranks of the believers. Motivated by personal animosities, selfish ambition and erroneous convictions, these schismatics would allure earnest disciples to swerve from truth in order to follow their teachers.

History of the Christian Church, Schaff (ibid., I, 564ff.) distinguishes three types of heretical perversions of the Christian message in the first century: the Judaizing tendency, the paganizing tendency of the Gnostics, and the syncretistic tendency to blend Christianity with pagan thought. Each arose as a caricature, respectively, of Jewish Christianity, Gentile Christianity and of the truly universal Christianity that reconciled the genius and truth of both these conceptions.

In every age we must beware of even one, single false notion that distorts Christ's teaching. Every heresy has a grain of truth that renders its error palatable to the uncritical. Do not think that a false prophet is exclusively someone who twists the entire body of Christian doctrine or who never says something true.

6.

WIDESPREAD FAITHLESSNESS. Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. Iniquity (anomìa; lit. lawlessness) expresses itself in rebellion against restraints of any kind whether inside the Church or without. The first step in Gospel proclamation is the often painful awakening of man's consciousness of his guilt. Preaching this unwelcome truth invites rejection by the majority that refuses it, dampening enthusiasm for righteousness. Further, when the hypocrisy of some insincere Christians is discovered, the sincerity of the honest ones becomes suspect. Disciples become mutually suspicious and dare no longer believe in each other. The unfortunate, natural consequence is the cooling in the intensity of their love for one another. The custom of abandoning the common Christian assembly was already growing in the first century, making mutual encouragement vital even then (Hebrews 10:25).

Although He means essentially the same thing, Jesus did not say, The faith of the many shall grow cold, but The love.. Here is the real distinction between a shallow, formalistic faith and one that is deeply felt, real and living. Is your faith a love that seizes the imagination, warms the heart, informs the intellect, reinforces the conscience, empowers the will, causing you to love God and people as Jesus did? The kind of love Jesus has in mind is the true definition of spirituality, not, as some hold, the abstinence from a certain list of worldly pleasures. This fervor will show itself in earnest, active, brotherly concern for one's fellows (Matthew 25:34-40; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 Peter 2:17; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 Peter 5:14).

Does this lawlessness (anomìa) forepicture that libertinism or antinomianism that began cropping up in early Christianity by turning the grace of God into lasciviousness? (Cf. Jude 1:4; Romans 3:7 f; Romans 6:1 to Romans 7:6; 2 Peter 2:1 ff.) Further, laxity in doctrine cannot help but involve moral laxity. What one believes does affect how he acts, since the same authority governs both doctrinal correctness and moral practice.

c. Individual perseverance one's only hope (24:13)

7.

INDIVIDUAL PERSEVERANCE. Matthew 24:13 But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. Potentially, Jesus-' subtle proverb embraces an (perhaps deliberate?) ambiguity: two ends and two salvations: (1) the salvation of the individual's soul at the conclusion of his life of faithfulness, either at his death or at the world's end, whichever comes first, and (2) the preservation of the Christian's physical life at the end of Jerusalem.

It may be objected that Jesus cannot have three separate ends in view contemporaneously: (1) life; (2) Jerusalem; (3) the world. Further, could the salvation promised be so ambiguous as potentially to involve both physical liberation from the destiny of Jerusalem and spiritual salvation from sin and death contemporaneously? What, too, of those disciples who died a natural death or were martyred for Christ before Jerusalem's fall? Surely, early martyrs would not be lost merely because they died before 70 A.D. Would it not also be a senseless truism to argue that the life would be spared of him who endured to the end of his life? So, it is argued that He means, not Jerusalem's end, but only the believer's death, hence the salvation involved is entirely spiritual.

However, since the believer's salvation at the conclusion of his life of obedience and the early Jewish Christian's physical preservation beyond the death of Jerusalem are both true to the context, must we choose between them? In the near context (Matthew 24:9), Jesus had predicted martyrdom for some of His people. (Cf. Luke 21:16.) In this case, those who died would have endured to the end of their life testimony for Christ and so would be saved spiritually. Earlier, Jesus linked fearless testimony during persecution with spiritual salvation and with being acknowledged before the Father (Matthew 10:32 f.). Those who, under fire, denied their faith in Him would not be recognized as His and they would be lost spiritually, even though they live to a ripe old age and die in bed.

Nonetheless, because the Lord proceeds immediately to describe how Christians could avoid the holocaust destined for Jerusalem, it is also conceivable that, for a large sector of the early Church, the end and the being saved would vitally concern their own earth-life quite as really as that to come. The end is the same referred to by the expression, these things (Matthew 24:3; Matthew 24:34 and parallels) and those days (Matthew 24:19; Matthew 24:22 and par.), i.e. the period when Israel would be ruined nationally. It is the same end heralded by the proclamation of the Gospel throughout the whole world for a testimony (Matthew 24:14). Accordingly, the salvation intended refers also to physical escape by precipitate flight to the mountains when Jerusalem would have been surrounded by enemy troops (Luke 21:20 f.). By believing Jesus to the very last, the believer would escape the doom of the city. Even if some individuals would be martyred, the Church as a whole would elude the bloody end scheduled for the unbelieving Jewish people.

Here, then, is His justification for deliberately speaking ambiguously: The person who believes that I know what I am talking about and trusts me right on past the complete fulfilment of these predictions, is the person who will really save his life. Lifeboth temporal and eternalwill not be the conquest of the wayward doubter who casts in his lot with the unbelieving and the fearful of this nation for whom God has prepared the furious punishment I describe. So, to learn to trust Jesus in the midst of fire and cruel tests of endurance would provide a double benefit for those Christians yet living in Palestine during the last hours of Israel's national existence. Their lives would be spared and their souls saved. In those crude, brutal days when human flesh was cheap and the skin of a Christian was worth nothing, many believers would doubt that they could endure. In fact, he that endures to the end is really what will be left of the Church after the defections, the betrayals and apostacies, no less than the staunch believer who outlives the Palestinean tribulation! Hence, the Lord holds out concrete hope for those embattled saints, motivating them to hold firm in holding off false teachers, enduring taunts and keeping enthusiastic for Jesus, even while their entire country was flying apart,

FACT QUESTIONS

1.

Quote the various expressions Jesus used to indicate that disturbing world and local events were not to be considered signals of the approaching end.

2.

List the various events that are not to be interpreted as signaling anything special in God's plan, but must be considered as merely the beginning of sufferings.

3.

Does history record the appearance of pretenders who claimed, I am Christ? What would Christ have meant to the Jew who did not believe in Jesus?

4.

List some of the wars and rumors of wars that characterized the period prior to 70 A.D.

5.

What must the disciples-' attitude be toward the world-shaking events surrounding them?

6.

Explain how Jesus means the expression, this must take place: has the purpose of God foreseen or planned wars and tumults? In what sense must they take place?

7.

According to Mark and Luke, what is the tribulation into which men would deliver Jesus-' disciples? In what chapter of Matthew has Jesus already described these troubled before?

8.

What other characteristics of the period are listed exclusively in Matthew?

9.

According to Jesus, what is the beginning point of this period and what the end point?

DOES 24:4-14 SURVEY CHRISTIAN HISTORY TO THE WORLD'S END?

Some would not confine their interpretation of Matthew 24:4-14 to a specially Jewish situation or era limited to the decline and fall of the Jewish state. Rather, say they, these verses depict the chief features of the Christian era down to its end. Even if they involve the nearer history of the great catastrophe of 66-70 A.D., they project a decisive, prophetic shadow on the farther future end, as a sign or foretaste of that chain of events from the time of the Church to the final event that summarizes them all in Christ's Return. What happens to Jerusalem is seen as typical of general human conduct. Hence, the events preceding the Jerusalem debacle are to be conceived of as signs typical of the final world disaster. Is this analysis correct? Farrar (Life of Christ, 544) argues,

As we learn from many other passages of Scripture, these signs, as they did usher in the destruction of Jerusalem, so shall reappear on a larger scale before the end of all things is at hand. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:2, etc.)

However, the conviction that the end is at hand on the basis of other texts which mention world conditions similar to those mentioned in Matthew 24:4-14 does not require us to consider this paragraph as general or capable of referring both to Jerusalem's end and to that of the world as well. Similarity suggests, but does not prove, identity.

Further, while it is true that spiritual decline, international war, political intrigue and world catastrophes may characterize the Christian dispensation with increasing intensity right down to the end, this does not permit us to dismiss lightly the four decades between Jesus-' prophecy and its fulfillment in that period.

The disciples-' expression, the sign of your coming and of the end of the world, (Matthew 24:3) does not justify the unfounded conclusions drawn from this chapter, since their question was wrongly framed and needed correction before it could be properly answered. What many interpreters mistake for signs of the end in Matthew 24:4-14, Jesus flatly terms a mistaken clue about which nothing at all should be made. Rather, the painful commonness of such phenomena proves they could never constitute a sign in the normal, specialized sense of the word.