What a strange comparison. Not really. Just as I loved her more after 35 years of marriage than I did at first, so I love this passage more now than when I first read it. And just as I would have fought for her safety and honor during those years, I wish to do the same for the greatest prophecy in the Bible.
But isn't this passage honored now? By many, yes. But even by those who love it and honor it, there are misunderstandings. Such misunderstandings should never persist in a marriage, and they should not in true Bible understanding.
Would you be surprised if someone were to say that there is a huge, purposeful series of lies being told about this great prophecy of Jesus? The lie and its attendant evils come about from claiming that the events in Matthew 24, were fulfilled in 70 A.D. or are beginning now.
Who has the will and patience to expose this false idea? There are millions who do not--victims of churches that adhere to an agenda that denies the futurity of prophecy. And there are those who sensationally say that they are presently taking place.
Are we talking about years of arduous study and cross checking of obscure facts? Actually, these could be quite helpful. But there is a much simpler way to verify that the events in Matthew have yet to occur. Read the whole chapter. Ask if all the events are past, or yet to be fulfilled. Simple as that.
Some will claim that Matt. 24 is presently being fulfilled. There have certainly been wars and rumors of wars. Nations have risen against nation. There have been famines and earthquakes in various places. Sounds convincing, doesn't it? But Jesus said these are just the beginning of sorrows. The end is not yet.
What about things that all will agree have yet to take place? Has the gospel of the kingdom been proclaimed to the whole world?
In spite of great efforts the world has not received the gospel. The kingdom has not been preached. It is not the task of church missionaries to proclaim it. The kingdom gospel will be proclaimed by an angel from heaven (Rev. 14:6) after the rapture of the church. This gospel preaching, along with the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, will occur in the future. They did not take place in 70 A.D, They are not occurring now. They apply to Israel, not to the church.
If we just read this one passage, and the chapter before it, a lot of confusion will disappear. It only takes a few minutes to prove that this is about Israel, the rebuilding of her temple, and the end of the present world. The church has her own prophecies, plainly written in the words of Peter, Paul, John, and Lord Jesus in Revelation chapters 1,2, and 3.
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