Kingdom Come Series - Episode 9
We'll Know It When We See It
Matthew 24 is an entire chapter dedicated to Jesus’ detailed teaching of end-time events. Verse 3 informs us the topic Jesus will be discussing for the entire chapter:
Matthew 24:3 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?”
If you can read on at least a third grade level, you don’t need to be informed that the text is combining the idea of the bodily return of Jesus Christ back to this current planet within history to begin a new age. Again, the end of the age and the return of Jesus Christ are the same event.
Jesus answers their question with one clearly identifiable event believers can expect to visibly see with their eyes:
Matthew 24:15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place . . .”
Jesus is speaking plainly. He assumes the historical person of Daniel is the author of the book containing the content he is referencing. That content is found in four different places in Daniel (Dan 8:11; 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). Jesus cites this event marking the beginning of a 3.5 year time frame of unprecedented global horror immediately before his return. Again, to put it plainly, Jesus assumes this will be literally fulfilled in the distant future marking the timing of his return to the earth. While the text instructs us we can’t know the specific day or hour of Jesus return, we are commanded to know the season we are in.
1 Thessalonians 5:1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
Matthew 24:32 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: 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.
When this information is given to Daniel in chapter nine, it is spoken directly to him by the angel Gabriel. It isn’t some apocalyptic, highly symbolic vision that is open to interpretation. It is a direct communication. We have a good idea of how to interpret the passage, because the passage has been partially fulfilled in history. This is true of much bible prophecy. A prophecy is given, it is partially fulfilled in history in the near term, it is fully fulfilled at some other point in the distant future. Here is an example:
BY DR. BROCK HOLLETT: “Many eschatological passages in the Old Testament Prophets conceal the “already and not yet” aspects of God’s kingdom by not differentiating between the two. This phenomenon is known as the prophetic perspective. The New Testament reveals the mystery of the two advents of the Messiah and assists the reader to identify the portions of the Old Testament prophecies that have been fulfilled and those that will be fulfilled at the end of the age. One classic example of this phenomenon is recorded in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 4:18-19, 21). The passage explains that Jesus of Nazareth opened the scroll of Isaiah the prophet (Isa. 61:1-2a) and read the following passage: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor . . .” Then he claimed, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:18-19, 21, emphasis added). Notably, he quoted the portion of this prophecy that he was presently fulfilling, but at mid-sentence, refrained from declaring the following portion:
. . . and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. (Isa. 61:2b-4)
Jesus did not recite the remainder of the prophecy because he intended to fulfill those aspects at his second advent. This latter portion of the prophecy is concerned with “the day of vengeance of our God” (Isa. 61:2b), also known as the day of the Lord (cf. Isa. 34:8). Jesus used a variant phrase – “days of vengeance” – in the Olivet Discourse (Luke 21:22). The prophet Isaiah revealed that the day of vengeance is when the Lord will comfort Zion’s mourners so that they find everlasting gladness, and rebuild “the ancient ruins . . . the former devastations . . . the ruined cities” of the land of Israel (Isa. 61:2b-4; cf. 58:12; 60:21; Amos 9:14; Zech. 12:10-14; Matt. 5:4). These prophetic events do not match any first-century events, but represent the “not yet” of prophetic fulfillment.”1
All bible prophecy is about Jesus’ first and second coming. The promises of God to Israel are fulfilled secondarily to God’s agenda for his son. That’s why we should expect this prophecy to be fulfilled literally as a God ordained sign that his son is about to return to fulfill his destiny, and we ought to be prepared to meet him.
A partial fulfillment happened at the hands of a king named Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who ruled the Jewish people through the Seleucid empire sometime between 175 and 164 BC. This provides us with an example of how we should expect the prophecy to be fulfilled in the future. King Antiochus, in frustration over the difficulty of managing Jewish conflict:
“raided the temple in Jerusalem, stealing its treasures, setting up an altar to Zeus, and sacrificing swine on the altar.”2
This event literally fulfills the prophecy made by Daniel some 300-400 years earlier. But Jesus declares it to have a more complete future fulfillment just before his return that believers ought to look for and expect. We should expect this prophesied event to be fulfilled in the same way it has been fulfilled. For those of us who are dull minded and hard hearted, God has provided us an example of what to expect in history through Antiochus.
The Apostle Paul gives further detail about what to expect concerning this event:
2 Thessalonians 2:1 “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”
Paul informs us that the final abomination will be a man enthroning himself in the Jewish temple declaring himself to be God. Again, this isn’t an apocalyptic vision subject to interpretation. Paul is instructing us plainly and directly about “the coming of our Lord”. Nothing like that has ever happened in history to indicate that it has already been fulfilled. And unless I’ve missed something, Jesus hasn’t returned yet either.
The Apostle John in the book of Revelation reinforces this idea, this time in a symbolic way, referring to satan as “the dragon” and to the antichrist as “the beast”, demanding to be worshipped by all of the inhabitants of the earth:
Revelation 13:3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshiped the dragon (satan), for he had given his authority to the beast (antichrist), and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” (see also 13:8 and 13:12)
The only thing that makes this prophetic motif difficult to understand is unbelief.
It has been hard for interpreters to take these passages literally for much of history when the nation of Israel no longer existed, much less a Jewish temple.
But then WWI and WWII happened, by far the largest and deadliest wars in all of history, creating the context which allowed the nation of Israel to be miraculously restored.
Then the six day war allowed the Jewish people to regain control of the city of Jerusalem.
It is no mystery what will allow them to regain control of the temple mount and reestablish their ancient pattern of worship, which is clearly required for these prophecies to be fulfilled. And to set the prophetic clock of the final week of Daniel ticking. We’ll know it when we see it. But satan will not let it happen without a fight. War is coming.
Hollett, Brock David ; Hollett, Brock. Debunking Preterism: How Over-Realized Eschatology Misses the "Not Yet" of Bible Prophecy . Brock D Hollett. Kindle Edition.