By Angus Harley

One of the prominent characteristics of the PP reading is that, due to the Jewish hermeneutic, it focuses so intensely on Matthew 24 that Matthew 25 plays a subordinate and peripheral part. The literary and theological unity of the text is thereby weakened. What follows in this section are a series of arguments that maintain a far stronger union between chapters 24 and 25.

MATTHEW 24-25: THEMATIC OVERVIEW

Big-picture wise, Matthew 24:1-41, 24:42-25:30, 25:31-46 retain the same general structure, as these sections feature Christ as first being present, then leaving, to suddenly, and without warning, return in his Second Coming. Jesus is preparing his disciples for the time when he will not be there on earth. It is they who associate Jerusalem’s demise with his physical presence. He does not, obviously. He is about to leave and go to his Father in heaven, and they will not see him for a while (John 16:10). In the interim, God’s judgment will fall upon the Israelites and the nations. It is after these things he will return physically in his Second Coming.

Present-gone-return pattern

24:1-41

This passage one might describe as the precursors of the coming Son of Man, for the coming final judgment on the nations by the Son of Man is preceded by numerous judgment-events upon the nations and upon Israel. In this section, the elect will be sore pressed to follow the Lord, and fake believers and fake Christs, with their fake ‘returns’, will rise up. The faithful must reject these Christs and hold on until the end, until Christ returns.


See how in this section, Jesus warns his disciples that many will look for the physical return of Christ and he will not be there. He is absent. Only after the many judgment-events will the Son of Man reappear, physically, not in the destruction of the temple (which is but a judgment-event) but visibly in the heavens.

Due to the intimate union between the judgment-events and the Son of Man’s return, it is described as happening suddenly, immediately, so that his return is “near” in relation to the judgment-events that are precursors (24:27, 29, 32-34).

24:42-25:30

Using parables, this section builds upon the nearness/suddenness theme of the previous passage. The Son of Man has gone away. Yet, because the Son of Man will return at any time, the elect must busy themselves in the Lord’s kingdom and not be indolent. Those who are fake members of the kingdom will be identified by their lack of industry in the time of the Son of Man’s absence.

25:31-46

It draws the reader right into the moment of the Day of Judgment itself, wherein the elect will be separated from the non-elect. This is to say that, those who were not busying themselves in the time of the Son of Man’s absence, having subsequently been exposed as fake believers by his return, will not be allowed into his kingdom. Those ushered into his kingdom are the elect, the sheep, who were busy servants in the work of the kingdom when he was absent and also when he returned.

The visibility of his personal return

Every mention of Jesus’ personal return is explicitly stated in language that describes it as visible to the human eye.

24:27-28

“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.” ”

Of v28 in particular, let us remember that the one- the international and Judean judgments- are indicative of something else: the corpse, that is, the time of the end when the Son of Man will indeed return to destroy his enemies and deliver the elect.

24:29-31

It says:

“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 electfrom the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.” ”

25:31-33

“31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nationswill be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.””

Parallels

The parallels between 24:29-31 and 25:31-33 are overpowering:

  • the Son of Man will come visibly, in-person, in glory;
  • with his visible, in-person, angels;
  • it is the time of the judgment of all the nations of the world, i.e., the tribes of the earth;
  • what proceeds is the separation between the elect and the tribes of the earth, the sheep and the goats;
  • the coming of the Son of Man is visible to both the elect and non-elect, and their judgment by the Son of Man is visible, too.

Matthew 24:29-31 could just as easily sit in place of Matthew 25:31-33, and vice versa. In fact, hyper-preterists are so certain of this flexibility that they correctly deduce that both are referring to the same coming. The only problem is, they interpret it to be the supposed coming of the Son of Man in judgment to destroy the temple, and thereby deny the physical Second Coming of the Son of Man at the end of time.

All things are visible!

All the parables that Jesus teaches, including that of the fig tree, imply, or explicitly mention, a physical, visible return of Jesus. More than this, the human eye sees even the leaves budding: the time of the judgment events on “this generation”.  Both seasons- spring and summer- are visible, physical events (24:32-33). The difference is that the one season alone, summer, contains the return of the Son of Man. There is no invisibility factor going on; it is all complete visibility.

Universal Son of Man and the elect

Another aspect tying together both chapters in Matthew is the title “Son of Man” (24:27, 30, 37, 39, 44; 25:31) and the references to the “elect” (24:22, 24, 31).

PP’s view

PP’s reading is temple-centric, even Jewish centric, telling us how judgments will come on Israel and the temple, and the elect of Christ will have to endure tribulations associated with those judgments.

The elect

However, Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 24-25 focuses upon the elect and their life in this world. In other words, PP reverses the polarity of the text, making what happens to the Jews the main focus, but not what happens to the elect. Jesus speaks repeatedly of the “nations” (24:7, 9, 14), incorporating, in the same breath, the nation of Israel. The disciples are called “the elect” (24:22, 24, 31), a deliberately generic phrase in a passage (Matt.24-25) that is concerned with the specific and oft repeated characteristic of those who endure to the end as faithful servants. In chapter 24, it is endurance through tribulations; in Matthew 25, it is faithful, enduring, labor in the kingdom in the light of the absence of the Master of the house, the Son of Man. In both passages, the expectation is that the elect will remain faithful unto the end. Neither passage is concerned, therefore, with whether the elect are Jews or even elect Israelites.

Son of Man

Undoubtedly this generic feature of kingdom-subjects is one reason why Jesus calls himself the “Son of Man”, as it describes his character as the faithful, enduring, servant of the Father, who will return to judge the nations. This universalism is behind the metaphor of separating sheep from the goats: not Jews separated from Gentiles, or elect Jews from non-elect Jews and the Gentiles, but the elect separated from the rebellious nations. Similarly, as the Son of Man is universal Man in both judging the nations and blessing the elect, he and his elect are concerned with the Gospel of the heavenly kingdom, not an earthly kingdom (24:14; 25:1, 34, 39). Therefore, it is not an earthly, Jewish Gospel as such, although it patently absorbs elect Jews; for it is the Good News of a kingdom that is entirely heavenly in its nature (John 18:36).

We now move on specifically to Matthew 24. We will also look at first more broadly or thematically. ,

MATTHEW 24: A THEMATIC OVERVIEW

How do the events of Matthew 24 mirror the final return of our Lord?

The mirror effect

PP’s reading

Of course, to PP, the mirror effect consists in dual phases of the one Second Coming. In particular, the destruction of the temple is itself the coming of the Son of Man via the Romans, which mirrors the greater phase of the one coming at the end of time.

Not returning ‘in’ tribulations

However, that view conflates the tribulations with the return of the Son of Man himself. Throughout Matthew 24, the Son of Man returns after tribulation, not during it. Only after the tribulations that come upon the nations, and after the Gospel will go to the entire world, will the end come (v14). The end does not come via these events, ‘in them’, as it were. Similarly, the tribulation events of Judea recorded in vv15-26 are mere precursors of the Son of Man who will suddenly appear (vv27-28). He does not come, therefore, in the tribulation of Rome’s destruction of the temple.

Which event(s)?

What precisely and exactly is the form of the Lord’s spiritual return during the time of “this generation”, according to PP? Is it the destruction of the temple itself and alone? It would seem not, as it is also commonly stated by PP that this judgment includes the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Yet, sometimes the language of PP blurs the distinction between these two events (the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem) and the other judgments mentioned in Matthew 24:15ff.. If it is merely those two events that constitute the Lord’s spiritual return, why is it that the entire section of vv15-26 is concerned with Judea as a whole, which includes the temple? It is not apparent to me that the divine judgments on the temple are in any way described as being different in nature and importance to the other judgment events in Judea. More on this theme later.

If the coming of the Son of Man was via the Romans, ‘embodied’ in their actions, why are not the rest of the Romans’ actions throughout Judea cited as a form of the Second Coming (spiritually)? What about the Roman-Judean War that started in 67AD?

Judgments then returning

The mirror effect of Matthew 24 consists in many judgment-events that come upon the world and upon the elect that are cut short by the Son of Man’s return. We go back to Jesus’ prophetic mindset that placed together the present with the future. Plainly, the present circumstances mimic the state of the world until the end, when Jesus will return visibly, in-person, physically, and with his angels, who are visible and in-person, too. In that way, the “end of the age” is properly delineated, and is not conflated with the destruction of the temple and the other judgment-events.

Returning glory of the Lord

PP’s argument is that Jesus returned in glory to destroy the temple. This violates, however, the visibility factor of his return, and it also does not properly present a symmetrical, mirroring, effect.

OT model

In the OT, for example, the sign of judgment on Israel was the departure of God’s glory from Israel and from its temple. What resulted was the destruction of the temple at the hands of pagans. The return from exile theme of the Latter Prophets was accompanied, therefore, with an emphasis upon a new temple that was filled with the Lord’s glory (see Ezekiel 40ff.).

Is it not apparent that a similar OT model is in play in Matthew 24? This is clearly evidenced in Luke 21:24, “ “and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” ” This is not the model of returned glory, but of utter destruction using the hammer of human nations.

The return of the Lord’s glory is associated with the end of exile in the OT. That event in the Latter Prophets is described as salvation for the Jews and judgment on the Babylonians. Likewise, Jesus’ return at the end is to deliver his people from this world and its exile, to usher in the final exodus, and, at the same time, destroy finally the enemies of the elect.

And just so this point is not counteracted, it will not do to argue that the destruction of the temple or of Jerusalem was an act of salvation or redemption, a return from exile. The return from exile finds its fulfillment in the Lord returning at the end to deliver his own and destroy the nations.

The Romans

So as to leave absolutely no doubt, the Romans destructiveness was not the coming of the Son of Man, but the mark of the Son of Man’s withdrawal, his absence, and, therefore, a sign of his final return yet to come.

Surely this has to be so, for the Romans themselves must be judged as all men. Therein lies the symmetry. For the Romans are used by God as one rebellious nation to punish another, but the Romans themselves will suffer much warfare, tribulation, and death as participants in international mayhem, for they came after the elect, too. Aren’t the nations of Matthew 24 described as evil, the world full of antichrists, and then the Son of Man returns?  When grouped together, the Romans and the Jews are tantamount to, reflected in, and mirrored by, the goats of the end described in Matthew 25.

In the next article we will enter into exegesis of Matthew 24-25.