End
Time Prophecy: Matthew 24.
1Jesus left the temple and was
walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to
its buildings. 2"Do you see all these
things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here
will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."
3As Jesus was sitting
on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell
us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the
sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"
4Jesus answered:
"Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For
many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, and will deceive
many. 6You will hear of wars and rumors of
wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen,
but the end is still to come. 7Nation will
rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be
famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All
these are the beginning of birth pains.
9"Then you will be
handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be
hated by all nations because of me. 10At that
time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each
other, 11and many false prophets will appear
and deceive many people. 12Because of the
increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but
he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And
this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
15"So when you see
standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,'
spoken of through the prophet Daniel¡Xlet the reader understand¡X 16then
let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17Let
no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house.
18Let no one in the field go back to get his
cloak. 19How dreadful it will be in those
days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20Pray
that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For
then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the
world until now¡Xand never to be equaled again. 22If
those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake
of the elect those days will be shortened. 23At
that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he
is!' do not believe it. 24For false
Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and
miracles to deceive even the elect¡Xif that were possible. 25See,
I have told you ahead of time.
26"So if anyone
tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he
is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. 27For
as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will
be the coming of the Son of Man. 28Wherever
there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
29"Immediately
after the distress of those days
" 'the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be
shaken.'
30"At that time
the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of
the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of
the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he
will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his
elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
32"Now learn this
lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its
leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33Even
so, when you see all these things, you know that it is
near, right at the door. 34I tell you the
truth, this generation
will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35Heaven
and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. |
In
this text, Jesus has just prophesized the destruction of the temple which
happened about 40 years later.
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1. Wars
everywhere and among people groups. (WWI and WWII)
2. Frequent
famines and earthquakes.
3. The
persecution of churches.
4. The world is
filled with crimes and greed.
5. Gospel is
being preached to the whole world.
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6. False
prophets: continuous secularization in the "post-Christian age".
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7. The fig tree:
the rebirth of Israel?
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