An Interpretation of Matthew 24-25 (Part 27)
Dr. Thomas Ice
"and then the sign of the Son ofMan will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power andgreat glory." -Matthew 24:30
In the previousinstallment I was providing reasons why the context argues in favor of thefuturist interpretation that the sign is visible to the human eye in heaven,which is the sky. The following isthe final reason for taking this view.
Fifth, I believethat "the sign" will likely be some form of the Shechinah Glory that has beenmanifested throughout history. After all, it was the sign of Christ's first coming-the ShechinahGlory-that flashed upon a darkened sky announcing His birth to theshepherds. It was the ShechinahGlory star that led the Wise Men from the East. So it is that His sign, the sign of the Son of Man will onceagain be His trademark, the Shechinah Glory Cloud.
A SignlessSign?
Preterist KennethGentry argues that "they will see. . ." Christ's ". . . coming on the clouds"is once again not visible sight (the eyes of faith) nor a physical coming.
the sign" of verse 30 is"when the Romans lay waste the temple (vv. 6 and 15 anticipate this) and pickapart Jerusalem (v. 28). That is, whenthe government of Israel utterly collapses (v. 29), then it will be evidentthat the one who prophesies her destruction is "in heaven." The "sign" is not a visible token inthe sky. Rather, the sign is thatthe "Son of Man" rejected by the first century Jews is in heaven. The destruction of Israel vindicatesChrist.[3]
Itis hard to believe that Gentry could put forth this view with a straight face,since, unlike many preterists, he understands Acts 1:11 as a second comingpassage.[4]
And after He had said thesethings, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Himout of their sight. And as theywere gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men inwhite clothing stood beside them; and they also said, "Men of Galilee, why doyou stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come injust the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11)
The language inActs 1 is clear that Christ is ascending upward to heaven in verse 9. It is equally clear that verse 11speaks of His return as a coming down from heaven on a cloud. Further, the Greek word for "coming" inboth Matthew 24:30 and Acts 1:11 is erchomai. Thus, once Christ has ascended into heaven, His next act of coming couldnot be up, but only down-down from heaven to earth. This is clearly the picture our Lord paints, not only in thespecific passage (verse 30), but throughout the overall context (verses27-31). Dallas Seminary professor,Stanley Toussaint adds the following:
It will be conceded by all that thefirst part of Matthew 24:30 looks back to Zechariah 12:10. However, it is important to notice thatin Zechariah the mourning of 12:10 is explained by the verses that follow. It is a repentant lamentation by Israelbecause it results in the purification of the nation (Zech. 13:1). The context of Zechariah 12:10 is mostsignificant. Rather than prophesyingthe destruction of Jerusalem, it is predicting the opposite. "And it will come about in that daythat I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem"(Zech. 12:9). This is the tenor ofZechariah 12:1-8. It looks aheadto God's future deliverance of Israel when Jerusalem will again be surroundedby enemies. "In that day" isprophetic of a time of deliverance of Israel, not judgment. (Note the constant repetition of "inthat day" [12:3, 4, 6, 8 (2x), 9, 11; 13:1, 2, 4]). It is clear that the context of Zechariah is a mourning thatresults in cleansing and deliverance for Israel. Whatever the sign of the Son of Man is, it results in thenational repentance of Israel. This parallels perfectly what Paul says in Romans 11:25-27. This explanation of Matthew 24:30a setsthe stage for the understanding of the last half of the verse.
It is true that in the vision ofDaniel 7:13 as it is translated in the nasbthe Son of Man came up to the Ancient of Days to receive the dominion torule. However, the Hebrew verb hasno idea of direction; it simply means to arrive or to reach. This specific verb is only used inDaniel where it may refer to something reaching up as Nebuchadnezzar'sgreatness did in 4:22, or it may describe something going down as in 6:24 wherethe detractors of Daniel were thrown into the lion's den. It has no intrinsic sense ofdirection. Nor does the followingpreposition indicate direction in itself. The construction simply means the Son of Man approached the Ancient ofDays. But even if it describes theSon of Man coming up to the Ancient of Days, it only looks at the bestowment ofauthority. The question is whereis the authority expressed? Keilsays it well when he writes:
In this very chapter before use there is noexpression or any intimation whatever that the judgment is held in heaven. No place is named. It is only said that judgment was heldover the power of the fourth beast, which came to a head in the horn speakingblasphemies, and that the beast was slain and his body burned. If he who appears as the son of manwith the clouds of heaven comes before the Ancient of days executing thejudgment on the earth, it is manifest that he could only come from heaven toearth. If the reverse is to beunderstood, then it ought to have been so expressed, since the coming withclouds of heave in opposition to the rising up of the beast out of the sea verydistinctly indicates a coming down from heaven. The clouds are the veil or the "chariot" on which God comesfrom heaven to execute judgment against His enemies; cf. Ps. xvii;10f., xcvii 2-4,civ. 3, Isa. xix 1, Nah. i. 3. This passage forms the foundation for the declaration of Christregarding His future coming, which is described after Dan. vii. 13 as a comingof the Son of man with, in, on the clouds of heaven; Matt. xxiv. 20, xxvi. 64;Mark xiii. 26; Rev. 1.7, xiv. 14.[5]
Insummary, Matthew 24:30 describes a visible appearance of the sign of the Son ofMan, the repentance of Israel and the triumphant return of Christ to reign onplanet earth.[6]
The aboveinformation show us why the next time Jesus comes, it will not be some"signless sign" that did not actually exist in the form of the Roman army, butinstead the visible, bodily, physical return of Christ that mirrors Hisascension. Matthew 24 is notconcerned with the destruction of Jerusalem, but with the coming of theLord. No one in a.d. 70 recorded a second coming ofChrist, not even Josephus. The NewTestament predicts the destruction of Jerusalem, which was fulfilled in a.d.70, not a second coming.
All The Tribes of TheEarth Will Mourn
We have seen upto this point that God is preparing the cosmic stage to showcase the mostspectacular event in all human history-the glorious return of Jesus Christ toplanet earth to reign for a thousand years. First, this will occur after the events of the tribulation(24:29). Second, it will interruptthe campaign of Armageddon. Third,God will darken the sky by causing the sun, moon and stars to ceaseshinning. Fourth, in the midst ofthis blackened background, the sign of the Son of Man with burst forth inbrilliant light and glory. Finally, then, and only then, will the stage be set for Jesus to returnto planet earth-to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. It is within this scenario of events that Jesus says, "thenall the tribes of the earth will mourn."
The next part ofverse 30 says, "then all the tribes of the earth willmourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky withpower and great glory." Whywill they mourn, because they will see the undeniable sign of the returningChrist. Dr. Gentry says, that thismerely refers to the Jewish tribes of Israel in a.d.70.[7] NO! This is a universal term used of global unbelievers. Every time this plural phrase is usedin the parallel Book of Revelation it clearly refers to Gentiles. For example in Revelation 13:7 itspeaks of "every tribe and people and tongue andnation." Every use in theOld Testament of "all the tribes of the earth" has a universal meaning in theSeptuagint. The Old Testament usesthe term "all the tribes of Israel" (about 25 times) when it wants to refer tothe Jewish tribes.
Most importantly,the verse goes on to say, "they will see the Son ofMan coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory." It says, "theywill see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky." The text says, "they will see the Sonof Man." This has to be areference to the visible, bodily, physical return of Jesus Christ to planetearth! This did not happen in a.d. 70? Josephus does not record it. This cannot refer to a symbolic, naturalistic interpretationthat somehow Jesus returned in conjunction with the Roman army in the firstcentury. Jesus said, "they willsee the Son of Man."
Christ's Return StillFuture
If Jesus returnedin a.d. 70, as preterists say,then, on what day did He return? Since this is a past event, we should be able to know the exact day ourLord supposedly returned and fulfilled this passage. I have never read in any preterist material, any of them whocan tell me the day and exact manner or event that supposedly was Christ'sreturn in a.d. 70. In fact, this was such a non-event interms of church history, that it was not until the seventeenth century that wehave an extant record of anyone suggesting anything like a preterist view thatrefers Matthew 24:27 and 30 to a.d.70.
Had Christreturned as described in that passage, surely Josephus would have observedit. But even the verbose Josephusdoes not record such an event, because it did not occur. When the second coming of Christ-asdescribed prophetically in Matthew 24:27-31-occurs, we will all be able to notethe day and the hour. Thedescription of Christ's return in this passage is of a nature that it will besuch a public event that will be observed by multitudes of people. The exact day and hour of this eventwill not be lost in human history. Maranatha!
(To BeContinued . . .)
Endnotes
[1] Gentry in Thomas Ice and Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., TheGreat Tribulation: Past or Future? Grand Rapids: Kregel,1999), p. 58.
[2] Gentry, Great Tribulation, pp. 57-59.
[3] Gentry, Great Tribulation, p. 58.
[4]Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., He Shall HaveDominion: A PostmillennialEschatology (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics,1992), p. 275.
[5]C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on theOld Testament, 10 vols, Commentaryon the Book of Daniel, (GrandRapids: Eerdmans, 1975), pp.235-36.
[6]Stanley D. Toussaint, "A Critique Of The PreteristView Of The Olivet Discourse," an unpublished paper presented to the Pre-TribStudy Group, Dallas, Texas, 1996, n.p.
[7] Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., Perilous Times: A Study in Eschatological Evil (Texarkana, AR: Covenant Media Press, 1999), p. 83.