By Mario A Olcese
The crucial Questions:
In Matthew 24:3 the disciples ask the following question to the Lord: “Tell us, when will this take place, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end (the completion, the consummation) of the age?” Here we find basically two questions: One, When will these things be? That is, when the temple of Jerusalem will be destroyed (v.1,2), and the other one: And what sign (see the singular) will there be of your coming and of the end of the age? Some say that there are three questions, but I see only two. Now, many Bible students have not stopped to meditate for themselves that the disciples asked a concrete and specific sign that would indicate for them the real coming or return of the Lord (not his proximity!) and of the end of the world. Yes, the disciples wanted to know A SIGN And only ONE SIGN! This particular detail we all must KEEP IN MIND, because many Bible students have failed to notice it, and are continuing to look for many signs. So, we must focus our attention on the manner of Jesus coming, the same manner as is given by Jesus in Matthew 24:30 and by the angels of God in Acts 1:11.
The Sign of Jonah and the Sign of the Son of Man
¿Which will be that singular sign requested by the disciples to Jesus in Matthew 24:3? In order to understand what we want to say for the sign, let's see the so-called Sign of Jonah pronounced first by Jesus in Luke 11:29-30, and that says: "As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. 30For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation." (See that also in Matthew 24:30 Jesus expresses us a similar sentence, but this time as: The Sign of the Son of Man). Here basically Jonah's Sign is the same Jonah, because Jesus said that Jonah himself was sign to the ninivites. In the same way, Jesus himself would serve as a sign, or would be sign, for a perverse generation. From there that Jesus spoke about the sign the Son of Man. It is not an extraordinary or mysterious sign like that one of a cross in the sky, or a sound of any trumpet, or any brilliant light, or any spaceship, or some out of common meteorological event. The sign of the Son of Man, as it was with the sign of Jonah, refers to the same mentioned person —that is, to Jesus, the Messiah! Again, Jesus, as Jonah, would be A SIGN. This concept must be kept in your mind: ¡Jesus himself would be a SIGN for a perverse generation that would see His parousia and the end of the age"! Later on we will see how Jesus will be useful as a SIGN for a malignant generation.
His Proximity's Signs:
In verses 4-6 of Matthew 24 Jesus says that before his return, and of the end of the world, many false Christs would say that they are the promised Messiah, or the Christ incarnated in them. Examples of these are many through the centuries. Recently we can mention Jim Jones who died in Guyana with his church, and David Koresh, who died with 80 of his followers in Waco, Texas. Right now, new false leaders (as Reverend Moon) are passing themselves off as the Messiah, and are deceiving a great number of sincere followers (v.5). Also Jesus talked about wars and rumors of wars (v.6), but these wars would not be the sign of the end! (v.6) At this point Jesus does not give us a single or specific sign of the end of the age. In verses 7-14 the Lord Jesus clearly prophesied the international conflicts (v.7). Then Jesus talked about the great tribulation that will come to his chosen because of his name (v.9), and the surging of false prophets or fraudulent teachers eager for money and power (v.11). In verse 14 Jesus announced that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all over the world as a testimony ... and then the end will come. But even here we do not have the UNIQUE or singular SIGN that was requested by the disciples about His coming and the end of the world. Many Christians mix up these signs of the proximity of His coming as if it were proof of his real coming. Being about to come does not mean that His coming already took place. Another group of Christians believe that the sign is really a set of signs. But this idea is an error! The disciples are asking Jesus for A sign, and Jesus will openly and immediately reveal it to them without evasiveness.
Moving on to verse 23, Jesus predicts again the coming of false Christs. Verse 24 repeats the same thing and adds the coming of false prophets that will do portents and will deceive many, even the chosen ones belonging to God. 26 Jesus notices the coming of false Christs and false prophets that will appear (“horizontally”) in the deserts and rooms (Notice: Not from heaven, or “vertically”, of up- down), and whom we must not believe.
It’s in verse 27 where Jesus begins to unroll, so to speak, the unique SIGN (singular) of His true coming or return, contrasting with those false comings of false Messiahs or Christs that shows up from the deserts and rooms (hotels, houses, splendorous temples, etc) of verse 26, and to whom we must not believe. Jesus reveals in verse 29 that after the happening of all the events of verses 4 to 27, 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken”. These strange and hair-raising events that will happen in the sky, PRECEDE the manifestation of the UNIQUE OR SINGULAR expected SIGN.
In verse 30 we find, at last, the clear and concise SIGN given by Jesus of His true Paruosia or second coming in glory and power. He says: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and ]beat their breasts and lament in anguish, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory [in brilliancy and splendor].”
In response to the question of the disciples about a clear and singular SIGN of his coming (not His proximity!) and of the end of the world, Jesus says to them that the SIGN IS HIMSELF, PER SE, DESCENDING CONSPICUOUSLY FROM ABOVE (not from the deserts and rooms) WITH POWER And GREAT GLORY. Unlike the false Christ that appear horizontally and secretly, the true Christ comes vertically and visibly, from above downwards, to the earth.
So, if any so called “Christ” does not come VISIBLY AND CONSPICUOUSLY from above downwards, to the earth, with the angels of His power and with great glory, THAT CHRIST IS NOT THE REAL ONE!. There are men that use to proclaim themselves as The Messiah, but THEY HAVE NOT COME vertically from above to the earth, with power and great glory. Besides, no man has yet been seen descending from heaven to the promised land in the biblical way. But when Christ returns in the exact way as it was prophesied, we will know that He is the expected Messiah, and therefore, there will immediately follow a resurrection of the saints (John 5:28,29; 1 Thess 4:16,17). The false Christ will not be able to descend from heaven, neither will he have the power to rise all the faithful dead, in order that these, along with the alive Christians, may be snatched away by Him to the clouds to meet Him (read Again 1 Thess. 4:16,17— see the word meet of verse 17).
Additionally to what has been said previously, in Acts 1:11 we read that two angelic creatures gave more details of the true Parousia of the Messiah, with these words: “Men of Galilee, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven”.
His Proximity's Signs:
In verses 4-6 of Matthew 24 Jesus says that before his return, and of the end of the world, many false Christs would say that they are the promised Messiah, or the Christ incarnated in them. Examples of these are many through the centuries. Recently we can mention Jim Jones who died in Guyana with his church, and David Koresh, who died with 80 of his followers in Waco, Texas. Right now, new false leaders (as Reverend Moon) are passing themselves off as the Messiah, and are deceiving a great number of sincere followers (v.5). Also Jesus talked about wars and rumors of wars (v.6), but these wars would not be the sign of the end! (v.6) At this point Jesus does not give us a single or specific sign of the end of the age. In verses 7-14 the Lord Jesus clearly prophesied the international conflicts (v.7). Then Jesus talked about the great tribulation that will come to his chosen because of his name (v.9), and the surging of false prophets or fraudulent teachers eager for money and power (v.11). In verse 14 Jesus announced that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all over the world as a testimony ... and then the end will come. But even here we do not have the UNIQUE or singular SIGN that was requested by the disciples about His coming and the end of the world. Many Christians mix up these signs of the proximity of His coming as if it were proof of his real coming. Being about to come does not mean that His coming already took place. Another group of Christians believe that the sign is really a set of signs. But this idea is an error! The disciples are asking Jesus for A sign, and Jesus will openly and immediately reveal it to them without evasiveness.
Moving on to verse 23, Jesus predicts again the coming of false Christs. Verse 24 repeats the same thing and adds the coming of false prophets that will do portents and will deceive many, even the chosen ones belonging to God. 26 Jesus notices the coming of false Christs and false prophets that will appear (“horizontally”) in the deserts and rooms (Notice: Not from heaven, or “vertically”, of up- down), and whom we must not believe.
It’s in verse 27 where Jesus begins to unroll, so to speak, the unique SIGN (singular) of His true coming or return, contrasting with those false comings of false Messiahs or Christs that shows up from the deserts and rooms (hotels, houses, splendorous temples, etc) of verse 26, and to whom we must not believe. Jesus reveals in verse 29 that after the happening of all the events of verses 4 to 27, 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken”. These strange and hair-raising events that will happen in the sky, PRECEDE the manifestation of the UNIQUE OR SINGULAR expected SIGN.
In verse 30 we find, at last, the clear and concise SIGN given by Jesus of His true Paruosia or second coming in glory and power. He says: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and ]beat their breasts and lament in anguish, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory [in brilliancy and splendor].”
In response to the question of the disciples about a clear and singular SIGN of his coming (not His proximity!) and of the end of the world, Jesus says to them that the SIGN IS HIMSELF, PER SE, DESCENDING CONSPICUOUSLY FROM ABOVE (not from the deserts and rooms) WITH POWER And GREAT GLORY. Unlike the false Christ that appear horizontally and secretly, the true Christ comes vertically and visibly, from above downwards, to the earth.
So, if any so called “Christ” does not come VISIBLY AND CONSPICUOUSLY from above downwards, to the earth, with the angels of His power and with great glory, THAT CHRIST IS NOT THE REAL ONE!. There are men that use to proclaim themselves as The Messiah, but THEY HAVE NOT COME vertically from above to the earth, with power and great glory. Besides, no man has yet been seen descending from heaven to the promised land in the biblical way. But when Christ returns in the exact way as it was prophesied, we will know that He is the expected Messiah, and therefore, there will immediately follow a resurrection of the saints (John 5:28,29; 1 Thess 4:16,17). The false Christ will not be able to descend from heaven, neither will he have the power to rise all the faithful dead, in order that these, along with the alive Christians, may be snatched away by Him to the clouds to meet Him (read Again 1 Thess. 4:16,17— see the word meet of verse 17).
Additionally to what has been said previously, in Acts 1:11 we read that two angelic creatures gave more details of the true Parousia of the Messiah, with these words: “Men of Galilee, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven”.
Further, in Revelation 1:7 we read: “He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen”. This prophecy never happened before. Not every eye in 70 AD from all people of the earth saw Jesus coming in the same manner as He returned to heaven. In 70 AD Jesus never descended from heaven and touched the Mount of Olives, as it is prophesied in (Zacariah 14:4 NKJV) "And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south."
Summary:
Summary:
In Matthew 24:3, the disciples asked Jesus for a single sign that would indicate to them His coming from heaven and the end of the world, and, of course, the Lord Jesus will give them very clearly and without evasiveness that single sign in verse 30.
The other supposed signs of the verses 4-29 are events that will be presented before His glorious coming, and that they would become more and more notorious and generalized in the measure that Christ's coming came closer, as the pains of a pregnant woman's childbirth. To affirm that wars —including that of the Jews with the Romans— and the rumors of wars, were a sign of Jesus' arrival in glory and in His kingdom in 70 A.D, is to twist what the same Christ taught us concerning His return. Jesus said in Matthew 24:6 that wars, and rumors of wars, would not indicate the end of the era or His second coming but His proximity (Luke 21:9—“for all this must take place first, but the end will not come immediately”). So the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place by the war of the Jews with the Romans, was not the sign of Christ's second coming and the end of the age. Jesus never said that the destruction of Jerusalem would be the sign of His paruosia, or second coming.
The singular Sign that Jesus left us of His real parousia, or second coming, is His personal descending, coming with the celestial clouds in power and great glory. The false Christ have appeared "horizontally" from among men in the deserts and rooms. On the other hand, the true Messiah will come "vertically;" that is, from above downwards, visibly, personally (the same risen human Jesus) from the clouds of heaven with the angels in His power. These specifications given by Jesus Himself and later by the angels for the parousia, were never mentioned by Josephus in his writings for his supposed coming in 70 AD.
The other supposed signs of the verses 4-29 are events that will be presented before His glorious coming, and that they would become more and more notorious and generalized in the measure that Christ's coming came closer, as the pains of a pregnant woman's childbirth. To affirm that wars —including that of the Jews with the Romans— and the rumors of wars, were a sign of Jesus' arrival in glory and in His kingdom in 70 A.D, is to twist what the same Christ taught us concerning His return. Jesus said in Matthew 24:6 that wars, and rumors of wars, would not indicate the end of the era or His second coming but His proximity (Luke 21:9—“for all this must take place first, but the end will not come immediately”). So the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place by the war of the Jews with the Romans, was not the sign of Christ's second coming and the end of the age. Jesus never said that the destruction of Jerusalem would be the sign of His paruosia, or second coming.
The singular Sign that Jesus left us of His real parousia, or second coming, is His personal descending, coming with the celestial clouds in power and great glory. The false Christ have appeared "horizontally" from among men in the deserts and rooms. On the other hand, the true Messiah will come "vertically;" that is, from above downwards, visibly, personally (the same risen human Jesus) from the clouds of heaven with the angels in His power. These specifications given by Jesus Himself and later by the angels for the parousia, were never mentioned by Josephus in his writings for his supposed coming in 70 AD.
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