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Matthew 24 – Part 8 – What is “the sign?”

What is “the sign?”

“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:30-1.

So, what is that sign? Could it mean the sign that the Son of man is in heaven and not a vision of Him coming from heaven? The sign that the Son of man is in heaven refers to Jesus’s statement to His accusers in Matthew 26:64: “Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” In other words, Jesus knew that after He was executed, resurrected and ascended to heaven, He would have all power in heaven and on earth to destroy His enemies and His church’s enemies.

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Matthew 24 – Part 5 Jesus Makes Clear “When” – So When Will We Listen to Him?

Jesus Makes Clear “When”

“And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Matthew 24:2.

“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matthew 24:34.

Like bookends, Jesus explains perfectly when His coming occurred. Yes, occurred – past tense. Particularly when we have the benefit of historical hindsight, our refusal to listen to Him now is even more unforgiveable. Jesus told His disciples that not one stone of the temple would stand upon another, then the disciples asked Him when that event would happen, then Jesus told them. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. I hate to tell you this, but you have missed the Great Tribulation.

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The Book of Acts & the Last Days

The Disciples Acted Like the End was Near

Consider the book of Acts. In Acts 2, after the crowd made comments about the disciples appearing drunk, Peter preaches and quotes from the prophet Joel:

“For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'” Acts 2:15-21.

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Last Means Last Except . . .

Double Meaning & Continual Ending Tricks

Let’s get one thing out of the way. When you encounter a scripture passage with clearly literal elements mixed with symbolic or allegorical elements, you interpret the literal parts literally and the allegorical parts allegorically, not the other way around. Second, everyone recognizes symbols in scripture, including those who shout the loudest about not interpreting the scripture symbolically. Third, you interpret the bible’s symbols using the bible’s symbols, not your modern spin on those symbols. These three points will take you a long way toward interpreting the bible, not only correctly, but also much more intelligibly.

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Last What?

“Last” means Last, right?

We could talk about the fact that the Hebrew and Greek can mean “last,” as in “final.” Same for the word “end.” But is that the way to study scripture? Or does scripture interpreter scripture? Is the context more important? By the way, that last question is really important. Did I just use the word “last” in a different way than last? The last question I asked was not the last question of this post or this blog or in history. It was simply the most recent sequential question before I said it was really important.

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Rest in the Sovereign God

The Sovereign God & Worldview Application

You can go to Meditations on the Sovereign God podcasts, you can blog about the sovereign God, movies & the bible, science, end times, voting, download Information Pages on Interesting Bible Topics, blog about the bible & jurisprudence or the bible & civil government, or get a book on voting fraud. All can be found at this site. The topics I cover are not redundant, not the same ole thing you’ve heard before; you get interesting, new content here, whether its the bible or movies or civil government/law issues.  Or just relax with a podcast with which you can Meditate on the Sovereign God. Rest, decompress.

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Matthew 24 – Correct Interpretation

Jesus Did Not Try to Trick Us

Let’s get one thing out of the way. When you encounter a scripture passage with clearly literal elements mixed with symbolic or allegorical elements, you interpret the literal parts literally and the allegorical parts allegorically, not the other way around. Second, everyone recognizes symbols in scripture, including those who shout the loudest about not interpreting the scripture symbolically. Third, you interpret the bible’s symbols using the bible’s symbols, not your modern spin on those symbols. These three points will take you a long way toward interpreting the bible, not only correctly, but also much more intelligibly.

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Timing & Confidence

The Timing of the End Matters to Your Confidence

Timing is very important to your view of the last days or end times. My view is very different from most of the popularizations of these terms. Imagine, if you will, that you’re a player on a football team, and you show up for the game after it’s over but don’t know it. You might go out on the field to do battle for your school with no other team mates. You might end up playing for another team whose game was scheduled after yours. If you lost because you played another team all by yourself, having missed the game, you would go to school the next day and report your bad news. Your school mates might tell you, “Hey, we won, don’t be so down. But where were you?” You might be happy to know your team won but sad to know you weren’t part of the effort. What if no one told you and let you go away thinking you had lost the game? What if it were the championship game and ruined your entire year? You get the point. Timing is not everything, but it can sure mess alot of things up.

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