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29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man 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 and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. - Matthew 24:29-31

PARDON ME WHILE I LET A LITTLE CAT OUT OF A VERY BIG BAG

Of the things Christians are usually divided over, Jesus’ incarnational first coming seems to be a point of unity. We all agree that He was born a few years BC, which humorously might suggest that the Christ was born before Christ, a rather ironic blight upon poor Dionysius Exiguus’ dating system. Yet, notwithstanding a Scythian error or two, we all agree that Jesus lived to be less than 40, He died a horrific death at the hands of the Jews, He rose again visibly and bodily in Jerusalem, and He ascended into heaven in the early thirties of that first common era century. His Ascension into heaven not only ended His first incarnational coming, but it also ushered in His heavenly reign over His Kingdom, the Church, that continues down to this day.

Yet as clear as His first coming has been, there has been an unbelievable amount of confusion on when the second coming will occur. For instance, some - among the full preterist types - believe everything in the New Testament has already happened and that a future bodily coming of Christ is unnecessary or, at the very least, was not recorded in the Bible so we cannot expect it. On the other end of the eschatological spectrum, the full-fledged futurist types tend to quibble over whether Jesus’ second bodily coming will be a pre-tribulational, mid-tribulational, or post-tribulational escape via a wonkavator-like-rapture. 

What very few seem to notice is that there are two kinds of divine comings in the Bible. There are the bodily comings where God takes on a human body, such as when He walks with Adam and Eve in the garden, passes by Moses, dances in a fiery furnace, comes as Lord and Messiah to the Jews, and returns bodily at the end of human history. All these we affirm. Yet, there is another kind of “divine coming” in the Bible, where God spiritually comes in judgment against a wicked nation that we must not overlook if we are going to understand this passage.  

That is the eschatological cat I would like to let out of the end-times knapsack and that is where I would like us to dive in today. For clarity, I will provide 10 reasons why Jesus’ second coming has already occurred in the first century, but with that, I will give you the most important qualifier that is needed before I begin. Here goes… I believe Jesus will physically return at the end of human history. I believe that He will come back in bodily form, give us new spiritual bodies, and call us up to meet Him in the air (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15 & 1 Thessalonians 4). My contention in this article is that the “coming” Jesus is referring to in Matthew 24 is not the end of human history coming, but a divine judgment coming against the Jews for their covenantal infidelity. 

To support this view, I will be giving 10 lines of cold hard Biblical data that come right out of the text. But, if you would like more information on what these two kinds of divine comings are (Physical Incarnational and Judgment Covenantal) and how they are used in the Bible (e.g. Isaiah 19:1), then see the article I wrote a few months back that covers this very topic.

For all others, onward! 

EVIDENCE 1: THE MEANING OF “IMMEDIATE”

Many, such as eminent New Testament Scholar, D.A. Carson, suggest a multi-thousand-year gap between verses 28 and 29 of Matthew 24. Those within that ilk conclude that our Lord is referring to the downfall of Jerusalem in AD 70 in verses 15-28, but then wrongly assume Jesus hopscotched 2000 years forward into the modern era when moving along to verse 29. This suggestion could be reasonable if there was a shred of evidence to defend it. Yet, the evidence is insurmountable in the opposite direction.  

In fact, the insurmountable evidence I am speaking of rests on a single word… “Immediately”! Notice how the passages flow: 

“27. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29. “But, immediately after the tribulation of those days… - Matthew 24:27-29a

Assuming a multiple thousand-year gap between verses 28 and 29 is the scholarly equivalent of trying to sell ice to an Eskimo. To say it differently, it might be a tough sell. But, I suppose it could be done if there were actual contextual factors, that were right there in the text, alerting the reader that Jesus consciously intended to wax proleptically. But, this cockamamie thesis falls apart quicker than a house made out of toilet paper when you stop to consider what the word “immediate” means. 

Not to state the obvious, but if verse 28 is referring to the downfall of Jerusalem, as many attest and we just proved last week, then verse 29 cannot refer to an entirely different era. It must happen immediately after the previous one, limiting its fulfillment to the first century. 

EVIDENCE 2: “ALL THESE THINGS”… 

Before we get to the meat of verses 29-31, let us recall the sauce Jesus prepared for us in verses 34-35. He said:

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. - Matthew 24:34-35

We do not have to know mathematics on par with men like Isaac Newton to understand that 34 is just a bit larger than 29, 30, or 31. And we do not require formal training from men like Noam Chomsky, to comprehend that “all these things” means all the things Jesus just said in verses 1-28. What we need is the courage of men like Luther, Calvin, and Knox to believe what Jesus said, even if it is difficult to imagine and especially if it messes with our theological system. 

Let me say it plainly, verses 29-31 happened in the first century, in that generation, because Jesus said “All these things” would happen in a single generation in verse 34 and we believe that He meant it. This is the unavoidable conclusion you must come to unless you want to turn yourself into a human pretzel. 

EVIDENCE 3: THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS AS APOCALYPTIC IMAGERY OF JUDGMENT

Jesus said: 

29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. - Matthew 24:29

In the words of Ricky Ricardo, it looks like we have some “esplainin to do”. If we are positing that all these things happened in the first century, then it sounds like we are saying that the sun darkened, the moon stopped shining, and a host of stellar luminaries fell from out of the sky, all within a generation from Jesus speaking. To be fair, that is what I am saying, but not completely. 

Like Carson and other scholars, I also detect a switch has occurred between verses 28 and 29. Yet, instead of seeing that switch happening in the timing of the prophecy’s fulfillment, I see the switch occurring in the kind of genre Jesus is employing. For instance, in verses 3-28, Jesus is using the normal kind of language one would use when speaking to a friend. He is answering their questions in a straightforward and dialogical way that the disciples accurately record through historical prose. This form of communication is straightforward, plain, and easily discernible.

Yet, as Jesus continues speaking, He switches to a common Old Testament form of communication that His first-century interlocutors would have easily comprehended. This switch was to the apocalyptic genre, which foretells future-oriented events through the lens of symbols. The word apocalyptic means “to reveal” and it does so through visionary, figurative, and metaphorical speech patterns that were common to His contemporaries but not so to the modern man. 

Now, we know that Jesus makes this hard switch in the conversation because He stops using His own words and begins quoting from well-known apocalyptic passages in the Old Testament to hammer home His meaning. By quoting from those texts, He was inviting His disciples, and us by extension, to interpret His words in light of their apocalyptic meaning instead of continuing along to interpret them in the wooden literalism of the preceding section. 

Take for instance a silly example. When a husband and wife are discussing options for dinner they are in the realm of dialogical communication. They are speaking of actual buildings, addresses, and menu options up for consideration. But, when the matter of where to eat is settled, and the husband exclaims: “Great! Let’s go… My stomach is eating itself”, the wife would be wrong to reply: “O no! How could we think about dinner at a time like this?? We’ve got to go immediately to the hospital and have you checked out! You could die from a thing like that!” Any moderately sane woman would understand that her husband was not dying from a rare disorder, but had instead switched the genre of his language to drive home the point. In fact, this is precisely what Jesus is doing in Matthew 24.  

And, while a detailed account of the apocalyptic genre would certainly be helpful, especially in light of how it employs astronomical phenomena, I will only briefly be able to sketch out what Jesus means in this passage, why the apocalyptic genre was so necessary, and how all of this applies to Jerusalem. To begin, first I want us to see God’s original purpose for the sun, moon, and stars and propose a reason that they would be dimming, falling, and shaking during the fall of apostate Jerusalem.

THE PURPOSE OF THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS 

In Genesis 1, God created both the kingdoms and realms that would be occupied by His creations as well as the kings and rulers that would reign over those spaces. For instance, on days 1-3, we see God separating out the spaces such as the light from the dark, the heavens from the earth, and the waters from the dry land. These are the empty kingdoms waiting to be filled. 

Then, on days 4-6, we see God, in perfect order, filling those spaces with various rulers who are given the authority to reign on God’s behalf. On day 4, the cosmos is filled with the sun, moon, and stars, who are given the authority to be rulers over the cosmos by day and by night (Genesis 1:14-19). On day 5, the skies and waters were filled with birds of the air and the fish of the sea who would rule over the atmospheric heights above and down into the watery depths below (Genesis 1:20-23). Then, at the pinnacle of God’s creative work, on day 6, He installed human beings to be the rulers over the dry land and to extend God’s blessed reign to all the dusty places (Genesis 1:24-28). These are the triad collections of kings God set about to rule over the triad of realms, with man being preeminent among the created. 

If you are a visual learner, see the chart below developed by Meredith Kline:

In case you are wondering why this is so important, I want you to remember that the apocalyptic genre reveals the truth in visionary ways. For instance, when man, who is called to rule on earth, is undergoing divine punishment for rebellion, the kings and rulers in the sky not only take notice but shake with apocalyptic fury. Why is that?

Because each of these sets of “kings” was designed to swarm, teem, and gather into meaningful collected bodies that give glory and honor to God. The stars were organized into meaningful patterns called constellations, in order to declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). The birds flock together in Yahweh’s praise (Psalm 104:12), and the sea creatures team to magnify His great name (Psalm 148:7). Only the man organizes Himself to be in rebellion against God, which is why God’s strongest language of judgment does not come against individuals but against wayward nations and cities (see the prophecies concerning Babel, Nineveh, Tyre, Sidon, Assyria, Babylon, Jerusalem, Israel, and Judah for examples). 

Understanding this, it makes good sense why the sun would grow dark and the moon would refuse to give away its light. As rulers in the cosmos, they would rather abandon their function of shining than to gratify the misdeeds of wayward men. In a sense, there is both shock and shame being emanated from the kings of heaven when they view the rebellion of man. This is why the heavens shake with fury and the stars flee from their place. It is not because matter and energy have been rendered unstable, or that stars suddenly leap billions of light years in nanoseconds (which would collapse the cosmos). Instead, these are apocalyptic images of one set of kings being shaken to fury over the waywardness of the other set of kings and demonstrating what would soon come upon men. 

Can I prove this? Of course, I can. Look at what happens to the heavens when the man is judged for his rebellion in various Old Testament Apocalyptic passages. 

THE HEAVENS SHAKE DURING THE DIVINE PUNISHMENT OF MAN

In Isaiah 13:11-13, God says:

Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the Lord of hosts In the day of His burning anger. - Isaiah 13:11-13

When man, who is the ruler of the dusty ground, is under the judgment of his covenant God, who is ruler over all, then all the rulers of the skies shake and tremble at the fury of the Lord and man’s unforgivable haughtiness. The skies did not undo themselves physically, the skies showcase covenantal judgment. 

The same is true on earth. The realm man was called by God to rule, shakes with fury when man abandons his purpose to rebel against God. Notice what Isaiah says in Chapter 24, verses 5-6, and then also in verses 18-20.

5 The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit, And he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare; For the windows above are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake. 19 The earth is broken asunder, The earth is split through, The earth is shaken violently. 20 The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard And it totters like a shack, For its transgression is heavy upon it, And it will fall, never to rise again. - Isaiah 24:5-6, 18-20

Again, the earth is not in a drunken stupor from having too many drinks with Mercury. This is not physical phenomenon but covenantal judgment. We see this same pattern in the heavens when Joel prophecies about the coming downfall of Jerusalem:

Before them the earth quakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness. - Joel 2:10

And again described by the shaking of the earth when Amos prophesied Israel’s coming ruin for her sins:

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 “Because of this will not the land quake And everyone who dwells in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt. - Amos 8:7-8

With all this before us, is it any wonder that Jesus prophesies that “the POWERS of the heavens will be shaken” in the downfall of Jerusalem? Throughout the Old Testament, the heavenly kings underwent a shaking whenever the earthly kings fell into sinful misery and ruin. This is not a physical shaking, where the fabric of the universe tips off kilter with seismic rumblings, but a covenantal response from the cosmic kings over what sinful man has done. It is God’s way of describing, with hyperbolic apocalyptic personification, what is about to be done to man. Whenever God causes the cosmic kings in the sky to shake, the kings of men ought to know they are about to undergo a shaking, purging them from their place and propelling them off their thrones. This is a common apocalyptic judgment language against sinful nations, states, and cities. 

THE FADING OF THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS

This same linguistic phenomenon happens in the skies, which is another evidence that a sinful nation-state or city is about to undergo the wrath and fury of God. For instance, when the ancient city of Babylon comes under the judgment of God the stars go dim, the sun grows dark, and the moon refuses to shine (Isaiah 13:10). This occurs during the downfall of Tyre (described in Isaiah 23-24) where the moon becomes ominously bashful and the sun hides as a precursor and omen of imminent divine fury (Isaiah 24:23). When God judges the land of Edom in Isaiah 34, the sky is described as being rolled up like a scroll and the heavens are said to wither away, enacting the rolling up and withering that will soon come on Edom (Isaiah 34:4). When Egypt is destroyed by God, God covers the heavenly lights as a symbol that Egypt will likewise be extinguished (Ezekiel 32:7). And as we have seen, when Jerusalem’s day of judgment comes in AD 70, this same language is liberally employed (see Joel 2 & 3, Amos 5 & 8, and Zechariah 1 for positive examples for this theme.)

Not to take a victory lap here, but when Jesus cites one of the most common apocalyptic images for a fallen nation-state, we should understand Him in the genre He is speaking. We should not look up into the sky and imagine how the universe survived multiple occasions in our history when the sun went dark, the stars ran away, the heavens shook, and the moon stubbornly turned off the lights all those times. We should see that Jesus is evoking common covenantal language, showing that God will enact in the heavens among His obedient cosmic kings what He is about to bring upon the earth against the rebellious rulers of men. To treat these texts as physical events is to abuse the genre with which they are written and to unfortunately adopt a hermeneutic that cannot lead to understanding. 

THE RISING OF NEWLY ILLUMINATED NEW JERUSALEM

This language is not only covenantal and apocalyptic, but it also signals Jesus is serious about Jerusalem’s downfall! As the sun is darkened, the light will go out on Judah. As the moon refuses to give its light, God will no longer luminate Old Covenant Jerusalem. As the stars are scattered across the heavens so the Jews will be scattered among the nations. And, as the powers in the heavens are shaken, so the powers of Old Covenant Judah will be shaken to rubble, making a way for the New Covenant Kingdom of Christ to rise from her ashes. 

One last thing. It should not be surprising to note that the New Covenant church is described as a “new Jerusalem” in Revelation 21 that comes down from the heavens. What may be surprising is why God no longer calls the sun and the moon to shine on her. John tells us:

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God… 23 And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. - Revelation 21:10, 23

While the downfall of the old and temporal Jerusalem was signaled covenantally in the heavens, the New Jerusalem will never fall into the same kind of misery and ruin because she is not being illumined by the gaseous balls in the sky, but by the living God. Because He is directly sustaining her, she no longer needs solar photons to radiate her existence, but the divine illumination provided by Christ and His Holy Spirit. While she may sometimes falter like Judah, she will never fall like Judah. Amen and Amen! 

CONCLUSION

Today, we have seen how Jesus’ second coming was not a bodily and physical coming at the end of human history. Instead, it was a spiritual, covenantal, and judgment coming upon Jerusalem, at the hands of the Romans, in AD 70. Furthermore, as we have said previously, we believe in an "end of human history" physical coming of Jesus Christ. But, that is not what Jesus is speaking about in Matthew 24. As we have seen, the judgment God foretold in the heavens would rain down on them for their infidelity. 

Join us next time as we explore 7 more proofs for this partial preterist reading. But until then, God bless you!