The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

V. Jesus’ Great Prophecy Spans Christian Era

1. THE TWOFOLD PROPHECY ON THE MOUNT

The so-called “Synoptic Apocalypse”(principally Matthew 24, 25, Mark 13, and Luke 21) gives Jesus’ matchless prophecy spanning the full Christian Era, sweeping past Jerusalem’s approaching destruction arid the allotted period of great religious persecution, and on to His glorious second advent and the end of the world. With cumulative force, evidence upon evidence and sign upon sign mark out with increasing detail the last fateful segment of the prophecy. PFF1 141.1

Not long after the triumphal entry, Jesus had foretold that not one stone of the temple would stand upon another, and the disciples asked, “When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” We can picture Jesus sitting on the Mount of Olives deep in converse with the disciples. Looking across the valley to the teeming city and the magnificent temple, He gives this comprehensive twofold answer to the disciples’ twofold question. He blends into one all-embracing prophecy the events connected with the approaching fall of Jerusalem and those leading up to the end of the age and the second advent. PFF1 141.2

2. BEGINNING OF SORROWS

They are to expect false christs, and early wars and rumors of wars, but “the end is not yet.” They are to expect persecution; they are to flee in haste to the mountains when they see the “abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15)—or “Jerusalem compassed with armies” (Luke 21:20)—and they are to pray that their flight might not come in the winter nor on the Sabbath. ⁴ Here is depicted the fate of the Jewish people—falling before the sword, led away captive to all nations, with Jerusalem under the heel of the Gentiles “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24.) PFF1 141.3

3. GREAT TRIBULATION

Some of the predictions belong particularly to the generation of His hearers, and some definitely to the last days, and some are evidently of twofold application. Certain elements, such as wars, persecution, and tribulations, seem to be not only characteristic of the nearer crisis, but also applicable in varying degrees throughout the history of the church, and are repeated intensively before the end of the age. Jesus passes lightly over the intervening centuries, lest the disciples be sorely discouraged at the prospect of the centuries stretching ahead before the coming of their Lord’s kingdom of glory—centuries to be marked by triumph and failure, by blood and agony and tears, even by “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” The days of tribulation must be shortened, and those who endure to the end will be saved. PFF1 142.1

4. SIGNS OF THE END

Jesus gives only this glimpse of the outline of the intervening period, although He implies that it will be no short interval, because the gospel is to be preached “in all the world for a witness unto all nations” before the end comes. (Matthew 24:14.) But just as the budding of the fig tree is a harbinger of summer, so will many latter-day signs appear to show when “the kingdom of God is nigh at hand,” “even at the doors,” although no one will know the day and the hour. (Luke 21:29-31; Matthew 24:32, 33, 36.) There are again to be wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, false prophets in the latter days, and abounding iniquity, so that the love of many will wax cold. PFF1 142.2

Immediately after the great tribulation, or “in those days, after that tribulation,” there will come a darkening of the sun and moon (cf. Joel 2:31) and a spectacular falling of stars. On the earth there is to be “distress of nations, with perplexity,“ and “men’s hearts failing them for fear” of the future. For the careless and the wicked will be caught unawares by the last day, and the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see Christ coming in the skies. But the faithful ones are to look up, and lift up their heads; for their redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28.) Such are the specifications of Christ’s matchless prophecy of the Christian Era. PFF1 142.3

5. THE SECOND ADVENT

The false christs and false prophets will all but deceive the very elect, but the faithful are not to listen to those who announce Christ’s coming locally—”in the desert” or “in the secret chambers.” “Believe it not,” he solemnly warns, for the Son of man is to come visibly, gloriously, even as the dazzling lightning shines forth from east to west. He will come in a blaze of glory—”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” (Matthew 24:30, 31), “from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven” (Mark 13:27). His second advent at the end of the age was the apex of all His promises. PFF1 143.1

Then He continues the absorbing picture in the parables of Matthew 25, portraying Himself as the Bridegroom, taking both wise and foolish virgins by surprise; the Investor, returning to receive account of His talents; the King, coming in glory with “all the holy angels,” and seated on the throne, judging the sheep and the goats, and receiving His own into the kingdom to reward them with life eternal. PFF1 143.2

In this thrilling, incomparable prophecy Jesus turns the eyes of the disciples toward the future, toward the sorrow, the tribulation, and the final triumph. But in this twofold prophecy He mercifully mingles the events of the near and the distant future—the time of the fall of Jerusalem, and the time shortly before the end of the world. He thus answers both their questions, but admonishes them to watch and wait, because they know not at what hour their Master will come, and leaves His followers to discover for themselves the meaning. And the meaning is to become clear in the fulfillment. PFF1 143.3