An Interpretation of Matthew 24-25 (Part 10)
Dr. Thomas Ice
"And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up oneanother and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, andwill mislead many. And becauselawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, heshall be saved." -Matthew 24:10-13
Jesus isprogressing through His description of the first half of the tribulation,building toward the middle of the seven-year period of verse 15. In this section our Lord describes thespiritual state of the Jews within the land of Israel (Matt. 24:10-13). Their spirituality is not good, fromGod's perspective.
The Hatred of JewishBelievers
In verse 9 Jesuspredicts that all the nations of the world will hate the Jewish believersliving in Israel during the tribulation. Why? Because they hateJesus, the Messiah! This sectionof Christ's discourse (verse 9-13) is parallel to Revelation 6:9-11 and thefifth seal judgment. Thus, manywho professed faith in Jesus as the Messiah in easier times, will deny Him andcooperate in exposing those who are true believers in Jesus. Such an understanding of this passagecoordinates well with the sheep and goats judgment of Matthew 25:31-46. "Brothers" in Matthew 25 are thepersecuted Jewish believers during the tribulation that are being spoken ofhere in Matthew 24. Only genuineGentile believers will be willing to risk their lives in order to help theJewish remnant. While this speaksof persecution of believers, especially Jewish believers, during the first halfof the tribulation, the entire seven-year tribulation will be a time of greatpersecution.
The externalhatred from the world (verse 9) puts all who profess the name of Christ underpressure. This in turn producesinternal hatred among the professing Christian community during thetribulation. "And at that time"locates the events of verses 10-13 to be the time of tribulation mentioned inverse 9. It is clear that allthese things will take place during the same time period. When the pressure comes, those who arenot genuine believers will do three things at this time: 1) fall away, 2)deliver up one another, and 3) hate one another.
FallAway
The verb "fallaway" carries the idea of "to cause to sin," and in the passive use, as we havein this instance, it means to "let oneself be led into sin," thus "fall away"from the truth.[1] This word is the verbal form of thenoun "stumbling block" that is used often in Matthew (5:29f; 6:3; 11:6; 13:21, 57;15:12; 17:27; 18:6, 8f; 26:13,33), although that is not the nuance here. Thomas Figart says that this word"refers to a stick-trap used to catch animals. Such entrapped persons could hardly be classed as truebelievers; rather, they arte exactly like the seed which fell on stony groundin 13:21: . . . This leads to betrayal of one another, which is engendered byhatred."[2] Matthew 10:16-23 is a parallel passage,which also speaks of the persecution described in this passage in greaterdetail. All of these things willtake place during the tribulation.
DeliverUp One Another
Look at Matthew10:21-22: "Andbrother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and childrenwill rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all on accountof My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will besaved." This is exactly the samething that is going on here in Matthew 24. Because of the global reach of the antichrist and his regimeduring the tribulation, the pressure will be so great that even fellow familymembers will turn against one another rather than face the consequences of notfollowing the instructions of the global leader. "The greatest expression of apostasy was betraying others whointended to remain faithful,"[3]notes Craig Keener.
HateOne Another
The hatred by allthe nations (verse 9) against believers, especially Jewish believers (theremnant) in this context, will create such external pressure that it willresult in hatred within the believing community among themselves. That is, false professors will turnagainst and hate the true believers. "The repeated reciprocal 'one another,' thus refers to betrayal ('theywill betray'; cf. v 9) and hostility ('they will hate'; cf. v 9) within theranks of the followers of Jesus."[4] There will be virtually nowhere to turnfor the remnant of Jewish believers. The only place where they will be able to turn for any kind of help willbe Gentile believers. Thisexplains the rationale of Matthew 25:31-46 and why there will be the judgmentof the Gentiles at the second coming for how they treated the Jewish believersduring the tribulation.
Past or Future?
Although weakeron this verse than others, it is not surprising to find that preterists believethat verse 10 has already occurred in the past.[5] "The pagan Roman historian Tacitusspeaks of Christians in the era of Nero as universally 'hated for theircrimes,'"[6]declares Kenneth Gentry. Hecontinues, "In verses 10 and 12 we discover a consequence of the persecution."
Further, it hasbeen noted above that verse 9 is linked to verse 10. Verse 9 says, "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name." Those whom Jesus calls "you" in verse9, are referred to as the "many" and "one another" (2x) in verse 10. Since our Lord speaks of the same groupof people (the saved remnant) in both verses, whatever happens to them in verse10 must be the same people referenced by the plural you in verse 9. If, as preterists believe, that verses9 and 10 happened to the disciples to whom Jesus was specifically addressing inthe passage, instead of a still future group of Jewish believers in Jerusalem,then those events did not happen in the first century. When did many of the apostles fall away?[9] When did many of the apostles betray one another? When did many of the apostles hate one another? Instead, they loved one another.
This verse, likeall of them in Matthew 24:4-14, does not reference a past event. Instead, they look forward to a futuretime and a global event that will take place in literal Jerusalem.
Many False Prophets
In conjunctionwith the events of the preceding verses, "many falseprophets will arise, and will mislead many." This did not occur in the first century, to the extent thatfulfilled the language of this passage, as taught by preterists like Gentry andDeMar.[10] False prophets are not the same asfalse teachers, as some suppose. The use of the term "false prophets" reinforces our understanding of theJewish orientation of this passage. Bruce Ware notes the following:
Here [2 Pet. 2:1] false prophets are distinguished frompseudodidaskalos, "false teachers." The implication is clear: False prophets were Israel's trouble; false teachers are the church'sproblem. Jesus' use ofpesudoprophetes, then, in the Olivet Discourse calls for a Jewish understandingof the term unless some contrary internal contextual evidence can be advanced toshow that the word has taken on some different and rare meaning. Since there is no such evidencecontextually, it is best to understand the word to refer to false prophets inJudaism. Again this "Jewishelement" in the discourse remains Jewish and does not relate to the church.[11]
Arno Gaebelein echoes Ware's understanding of this passage when hetells us:
The Jewish age has false prophets; the Christian age has falseteachers. "But there were false prophets also among the people, asthere shall be also among you false teachers, who shall bring in by the byedestructive heresies, etc." (2 Pet. ii:1). These false prophets who come in the end of the Jewish agewill be possessed by evil spirits. Such was the case during the great apostasy of Israel under the reign ofAhab. The Lord permitted then alying spirit to take possession of the false prophets as revealed by theprophet Messiah (2 Chronicles xviii:18-22).[12]
Thetribulation will be a time in which prophecy will be restored to Israel duringthe seventieth week of Daniel. Thus,Jesus provides instruction warning the nation of Israel to exercise discernmentconcerning this matter. Warefurther explains:
Whom then could Jesus be warning? Obviously the warning is to Israel through the Apostles (whorepresent their nation Israel-this nation that anxiously looks for herMessiah). Jesus warned Jews in thetribulation not to be deceived by false Christs no matter what signs andwonders they perform. Israel is in danger of following false Christs because shehas not yet recognized the true Christ. Unquestionably this is another example of exclusively Jewish element inthe context of the Olivet Discourse which proves, along with the othercontextual items not handled by Gundry, that Jesus addressed the nation Israeland its future in accordance with the intent of His Apostles' questions.
Conclusion
This passage laysout a future time of great persecution and hatred. Robert Gundy says, "Throughout , we see a logicalprogression: persecution byoutsiders causes many in the church to avoid persecution by betraying fellowsdisciples to the persecutors; and through failure to condemn this woeful lossof brotherly love, easygoing false prophets exacerbate the problem of treacheryin the brotherhood."[14]. The events described by our Lordwill occur during the future tribulation period. This time period will require great perseverance on the partof the Jewish remnant. Maranatha!
(To BeContinued . . .)
Endnotes
[1] William F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, AGreek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1957), p. 760.
[2] Thomas Figart, The King of The Kingdom ofHeaven: A Commentary of Matthew (no publisher given, 1999), pp. 438-39.
[3] Craig S. Keener, A Commentary on The Gospel ofMatthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), p. 571.
[4] Donald A. Hagner, Word BiblicalCommentary: Matthew 14-28, Vol. 33B (Dallas: Word Books, 1995), pp. 694-95.
[5] See for example, Gary DeMar, Last DaysMadness: Obsession of the ModernChurch, (Power Springs, GA: American Vision, 1999), pp. 82-85. Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., PerilousTimes: A Study in EschatologicalEvil (Texarkana, AR: Covenant Media Press, 1999), pp.52-53. R. C. Sproul, The LastDays According To Jesus (GrandRapids: Baker, 1998), p. 35.
[6] Tacitus, Annals 15:44.
[7] Gentry, Perilous Times, p. 52.
[8] Tacitus, Annals 15:44.
[9] This cannot be fulfilled through Judas, since hewas a single individual and the text says "many." Also, Judas' defection was at least 40 years before theRomans destroyed Jerusalem in a.d.70.
[10] See Gentry, Perilous Times, pp. 53-54 and DeMar, Last Days Madness, pp. 84-85.
[11] Bruce A. Ware, "Is the Church in View in Matthew24-25?" Bibliotheca Sacra (April-June1981; Vol. 138, No. 550), p. 169.
[12] Arno C. Gaebelein, The Gospel of Matthew: An Exposition (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, [1910] 1961), p. 484.
[13] Ware, "Is the Church in View?" p. 169.
[14] Robert H. Gundry, Matthew: A Commentary on His Handbook for aMixed Church under Persecution,second edition, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), p. 479.