The interpretation of figurative language, metaphors and symbolic passages.
INDEX AND CHAPTER ONE html -- INDEX AND ALL TEN CHAPTERS pdf
Those who believe in the Pagan doctrine of an immortal soul from birth and Hell have no plain statements. That they must reinterpret figurative language, metaphors and symbolic passages into literal statements SHOWS THE WEAKNESS OF THEIR BELIEF, that it is from man and not from God. Parables and figurative language are made to be superior over plain statements. The clear language must be made to agree with what is thought to be said in the symbolic language, therefore, THE LITERAL PASSAGES MUST BE MADE FIGURATIVE TO KEEP THEM FROM BEING IN CONFLICT. Many of the metaphors about the destruction of Israel have been discussed in the first seven chapters. This chapter is a close look at some of the other symbolic passages that must be made into literal statements.
Many of the passages spoken by John the Baptist and by Jesus about Israel's rejection of Christ and its destruction are misapplied to Hell. Matthew 24 is often misused to prove Israel will be restored, and Christ will return to earth and rule the world forever from Jerusalem and that the saved will forever live on this earth, not in Heaven.
THE JEWS THAT CAME TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. "But when he saw the PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES coming to his baptism, HE SAID UNTO THEM, YOU offspring of vipers, WHO WARNED YOU TO FLEE FROM THE WRATH TO COME? Bring forth; therefore, fruit worthy of repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, WE HAVE ABRAHAM TO OUR FATHER: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to rise up children unto Abraham. AND EVEN NOW THE AXE LIES AT THE ROOT OF THE TREES: every tree; therefore, that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance; but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, BUT THE CHAFF HE WILL BURN UP WITH UNQUENCHABLE FIRE" [Matthew 3:7-12]. John was the Elijah that was to come [Matthew 17:11; 11:10]. Cutting down a tree or forest is a common symbol of judgment and destruction of cities and nations in the Old Testament [Isaiah 10:34; Jeremiah 46:22-23; 22:7-8; Ezekiel 31:3-14].
Adam Clarke says this is "the desolation which was about to fall on the Jewish nation."
Lightfoot: "By the axe being now laid to the root of the tree, may fitly be understood, first, the certainty of their desolation; and second, the nearness, in that the instrument of their destruction as already prepared, and brought close to them; the Romans that should ruin their city and nation, being already master and rulers over them."
B. W. Johnson: "Think not to say...we have Abraham to our father. They believed that Abraham's race was to be saved, if all else was destroyed...'The axe is laid at the root of the tree.' A sign that the tree is to be cut down. The tree meant is the Jewish nation. Every tree. A fruitless fig tree was afterward made by our Lord to representative of the whole Jewish nation (Luke 13:6)." Also, Matthew 3:10-12 "And with fire. The term fire is used in verse 10, and there means a destroying agency; it is used again in verse 12 in the same sense; it is used in verse 11, also, the intervening verse, and must be used in exactly the same sense as in the other two verses. It cannot mean a curse in verses 10 and 12, and a blessing in verse 11, without a word of explanation. It is strange, therefore, that all commentators should not agree that the baptism of fire is a baptism of trial and suffering. THERE WERE TWO CLASSES BEFORE JOHN. SOME WOULD REPENT AND BE BAPTIZED FINALLY IN THE HOLY SPIRIT; THERE WERE OTHERS WHO WOULD REMAIN IMPENITENT, AND BE BAPTIZED IN THE AWFUL TRIALS THAT WOULD COME UPON ISRAEL" B. W. Johnson, "The People New Testament With Notes," 1889, Gospel Light Publishing Company.
"But the SONS OF THE KINGDOM shall be cast forth into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth" [Matthew 8:12]. Even according to those who believe in Hell, no one is cast out of Heaven, BUT WHEN THIS "WEEPING AND THE GNASHING OF TEETH" IS MADE TO BE AFTER THE JUDGMENT IN HELL, IT IS THE "SONS OF THE KINGDOM" THAT ARE CAST INTO THE OUTER DARKNESS. IN TRYING TO PROVE THE OUTER DARKNESS IS HELL, SOME ARE MADE TO BE CAST OUT OF HEAVEN INTO HELL AFTER THE JUDGMENT. If "and yourselves cast forth without" is cast into Hell where those who believe in Hell say the "weeping and gnashing of tenth" will be, THEN THIS MAKES THOSE FROM THE EAST AND WEST GO TO HEAVEN AFTER THE JUDGMENT DAY. THEY HAVE SOME GOING INTO HEAVEN, AND SOME BEING CAST OUT OF HEAVEN AFTER THE KINGDOM HAS BEEN DELIVERED UP TO GOD, THEREFORE, AFTER THE JUDGMENT. This is more than those trying to prove Hell want to prove, for they do not think any will be cast out of Heaven after the judgment and no one who is in Heaven after the judgment will go to Hell so why is this passage used in a way that makes it prove there will be some cast out of Heaven after the judgment?
J. W. McGarvey, Matthew 8:11: "AND I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT MANY SHALL COME FROM THE EAST AND THE WEST, AND SHALL SIT DOWN WITH ABRAHAM, AND ISAAC, AND JACOB, IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN [Jesus here predicts the conversion of the Gentiles, since that fact is suggested to him by the faith of this centurion. The east and the west represent the extreme points of the compass in the directions in which the world was most thickly inhabited. But Jesus refers rather to spiritual separation than to geographical distances--Mal. i. 11; Isa. xlix. 19; Jer. xvi. 19; Zech. viii. 22.] 12 But The Sons Of The Kingdom [The child of anything in Hebrew phraseology expressed the idea of special property which one has in the thing specified, as, for instance, children of disobedience (Eph. ii. 2). Jesus here means, then, the Jews, to whom the kingdom belonged by hereditary descent--Rom. ix. 4] SHALL BE CAST FORTH INTO THE OUTER DARKNESS: THERE SHALL BE THE WEEPING AND THE GNASHING OF TEETH. [In this paragraph Christ's kingdom is set forth under the simile of a great feast, a familiar simile with Jesus (Matt. xxvi. 29; Luke xxii. 30). The Jews were accustomed to speak of the delights of the Messianic kingdom as a feast with the patriarchs (Luke xiv. 15), but lost sight of the fact that Gentiles should share in its cheer and fellowship (Isa. xxv. 6). Marriage feasts and other great feasts of the Jews were usually held in the evening. Inside, therefore, there would be joy and light and gladness, but outside there would be darkness and disappointment, tears and bitter self-reproach (Matt. xxv. 10-13). The despised outcasts should be brought in and placed at the festal board, while the long-invited guests-the natural and fleshly heirs of Abraham's invitation-would be excluded (Matt. xxi. 43)" The Fourfold Gospel, Page 272, 1914, Standard Publishing Company.
J. W. McGarvey, Luke 13:28 28: "There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, AND YOURSELVES CAST FORTH without. 29 And they shall come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold [little as you may think it], they are last who shall be first, and they are first who shall be last. [A familiar proverb of Christ's (Matt. xix. 30; xx. 10), to be interpreted by such passages as Matt. xxi. 31 and Rom. ix. 30, 31. The Jew who thought the Gentile had no hope at all, and that he himself was sure of salvation, would be surprised to find that his opinion was the very reverse of the real fact as time developed it]." The Fourfold Gospel, 1914, Standard Publishing Company. The Jews were cast forth OUT OF THE KINGDOM, but nothing is said about CASTING INTO "HELL."
B. W. Johnson, Matthew 8:12: "BUT THE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM. The Jews, the natural children of Abraham, the 'Father of the faithful,' heirs of the promises made to him. CAST OUT because they rejected the Messiah, in whom all the promises center. INTO OUTER DARKNESS" The People's New Testament With Notes, Gospel Light Publishing Company.
THE THREE TIMES "OUTER DARKNESS" IS USED BY CHRIST [Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30], ARE IN THREE PARABLES, WHICH REFER TO GOD'S DEALING WITH THE JEWS BEING CAST OUT AS GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE. IT HAS BEEN CHANGED TO BE THE LOST IN HELL ARE IN OUTER DARKNESS. THE SEVEN TIMES [Matthew 8:12; 13:42; 13:50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28] "WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH" ARE USED BY CHRIST ARE ALSO ABOUT THE JEWS BEING CAST OUT AS GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE. IT ALSO HAS BEEN CHANGED TO BE THE LOST IN HELL THAT ARE WEEPING AND GNASHING THEIR TEETH. Although many of the wisest preachers and writers whose writings have stood the test of time like B. W. Johnson, J. W. McGarvey, Adam Clarke, Lightfoot, H. Leo Boles, Barnes, R. C. H. Lenski and many others say the "weeping and gnashing of teeth" is speaking of the Jews being rejected as God's chosen people, some still misuse this as did Stephen Wiggins in the Firm Foundation, 2006, Page 6. Gehenna is not even in any of the same passages. If he did any study, it would be difficult to believe he did not know the weeping and gnashing of teeth has no reference to "Hell." Is this not just a desperate attempt to find a passage that teaches eternal torment?
SIX PARABLES CONDEMNING ISRAEL
[1]. ISRAEL, THE FRUITLESS FIG TREE [Luke 13:6-9]. "And he spoke this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit thereon, and found none. And he said unto the vinedresser, behold, these three years I came seeking fruit on this fig tree, and found none: cut it down; why does it also cumber the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit thenceforth, well; BUT IF NOT, YOU SHALL CUT IT DOWN." Barren national Israel would be cut down. "And seeing a fig tree by the way side, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only; and he said unto it, Let there be no fruit from you hence forward forever." [Matthew 21:18-19].
[2]. THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS [Luke 16:19-31] See "Part Two" of this chapter.
[3]. THE TWO SONS [Matthew 21:28-32]. "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will, sir; and he did not go. And he came to the second and said the same thing. But, he answered and said, I will not; yet he afterward regretted it and went. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, the latter. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to YOU the tax-gatherers and harlots will get into the kingdom of God before YOU. For John came to YOU in the way of righteousness and YOU did not believe him; but the tax-gatherers and harlots did believe him; and YOU, seeing this, did not ever feel remorse afterward so as to believe him."
[4]. ISRAEL, THE HUSBANDMAN [Matthew 21:33-45]. "Hear another parable: there was a man that was a householder, who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandman, and went into another country. And when the season of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandman, to receive his fruits. And the husbandman took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them in like manner. But, afterward he sent unto them his son, saying, they will reverence my son. But the husbandman, when they saw the son, said among themselves, this is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance. And they took him, and cast him forth out to the vineyard, and killed him. When; therefore, the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do unto these husbandman? They say unto him, HE WILL MISERABLY DESTROY THOSE MISERABLE MEN, AND WILL LET OUT THE VINEYARD UNTO OTHER HUSBANDMEN, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons, Jesus said unto them, did you never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner: this was from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes? THEREFORE SAY I UNTO YOU, THE KINGDOM OF GOD SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU, AND SHALL BE GIVEN TO A NATION BRINGING FORTH THE FRUITS THEREOF. And he that falls on this stone shall be broken to pieces: BUT, ON WHOMSOEVER IT SHALL FALL, IT WILL SCATTER HIM AS DUST. And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, THEY PERCEIVED THAT HE SPOKE OF THEM" Israel was scattered as dust in A. D. 70 when no Jews were left in Jerusalem or the country around it. Most millennialists admit that this refers to the Jewish rejection of Christ. THE KINGDOM WAS TAKEN FROM THE JEWS AND GIVEN TO THE GENTILES AT THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS. Millennialists say it will be taken from the Gentiles and given back to the Jews.
[5]. THE MARRIAGE FEAST Matthew 22:1-14: "And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again, he sent out other slaves saying, Tell those who have been invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast. But, they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. BUT, THE KING WAS ENRAGED AND SENT HIS ARMIES, AND DESTROYED THOSE MURDERS, AND SET THEIR CITY ON FIRE. Then he said to his slaves, The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast. And those slaves went out into the streets, and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. But, when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen." The Jews killed the prophets God send to them, and they and their city were destroyed and the Gentiles were brought into the kingdom.
[6]. THE NARROW DOOR Luke 13:24-30 "Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and has shut the door, and begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say to you, I know you not where you are; then shall you begin to say, we did eat and drink in your presence, and you did teach in our streets; and he shall say, I tell you, I know not were you are; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, WHEN YOU SHALL SEE ABRAHAM, AND ISAAC, AND JACOB, AND ALL THE PROPHETS, IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AND YOURSELVES CAST FORTH WITHOUT. AND THERE SHALL COME FROM THE EAST AND THE WEST, AND FROM THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH, AND SHALL SIT DOWN IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. AND BEHOLD, THERE ARE LAST WHO SHALL BE THE FIRST, AND THERE ARE FIRST WHO SHALL BE LAST" This is about the coming rejection of Israel and the Gentiles being accepted into the kingdom of Heaven, which is the church. Not about some being cast out of Heaven, which is what it would be if the weeping and gnashing of teeth were in Hell. ISRAEL WAS THE "SONS OF THE KINGDOM" ["children of the kingdom" King James Version] THAT WAS CAST INTO OUTER DARKNESS, NOT THOSE WHO NEVER BELIEVED. THE JEWS, WHO WERE THEN THE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM, WERE CAST OUT OF THE LIGHT AND ARE NO LONGER GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE, INTO THE DARKNESS OF THE WORLD WITHOUT THE LIGHT OF GOD'S REVELATION. "O JERUSALEM...BEHOLD YOUR HOUSE IS LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE" [Luke 13:34-35]. Those who believe in Hell leave out the rest of what Christ said in the next two versus when He says the Gentiles will come into the kingdom, and verse 30 the Gentles who were last become first. If this were after the judgment, the Gentiles would be coming into the kingdom in Heaven after the judgment.
"Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you [the Jews], and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" [Matthew 21:43].
WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH are both used in the Old and New Testament.
[1]. WEEPING for miseries and grief, both for personal miseries and as a nation [too often to list them: use any good concordance]. It is used in the New Testament the same way it was in the Old Testament. See Matthew 2:18; Mark 5:28; Luke 7:38; 8:52: John 11:33; 20:11 Acts 9:39; 21:13; Philippians 3:18 and James 5:1. The weeping is the Jews when they see Israel being cast out as God's chosen people, and Jerusalem and the Temple being destroyed, and the end of their national identity See Matthew 24, Daniel 9 and 10.
[2]. GNASHING OF TEETH shows anger and rage, and is used in both the Old and New Testament. "They hiss and gnash the teeth" Lamentations 2:16, See Psalms 35:16; Micah 3:5. Used the same way in the New Testament. "And they gnashed on him with their teeth" [Acts 7:54]. Those who stoned Stephen were angry with him, not in pain; they were not dead and in Hell, they were alive and on this earth. If gnashing of teeth were in Hell, as many teach it is, who are they going to gnash with their teeth? Does anyone believe some in Hell will be angry with others in Hell and gnash them with their teeth? The gnashing of teeth is their anger and rage towards those doing the destroying [the Roman army], and maybe even toward God for letting it happen. GNASHING OF TEETH IS BECAUSE OF ANGER OR RAGE. IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF THE PERSON DOING THE GNASHING OF HIS OR HER TEETH ARE BEING TORMENTED IN HELL. IN THE BIBLE GNASHING OF TEETH IS ALWAYS BECAUSE OF ANGER IN BOTH THE OLD AND THE NEW TESTAMENT. IT IS MISUSED TODAY TO SHOW TORMENT IN "HELL."
Weeping and gnashing of teeth are two different things, which are sometimes both found together, but most often are not together. Neither one ever occurs in the same passages with hades or Gehenna. That either one or both will be in Hell is an assumption that is preached over and over. Could an immaterial, invisible part of a person gnash its teeth?
THE CENTURION GENTILE Matthew 8:5-13: "And when he was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lying in the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And he said unto him, I will come and heal him. And the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. And when Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, NOT IN ISRAEL. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: BUT THE SONS OF THE KINGDOM SHALL BE CAST FORTH INTO THE OUTER DARKNESS: THERE SHALL BE THE WEEPING AND THE GNASHING OF TEETH. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go your way; as you have believed, [so] be it done unto you. And the servant was healed in that hour." After seeing the faith of this Gentile, Jesus says the Gentiles will sit in the kingdom and the sons [Jews] will be cast forth. The same as at the marriage feast (above), the Jews, because they rejected Christ as their king was cast out of the kingdom. The church, not Israel, is now God's kingdom. Those who teach Hell read the prophecies of Christ about the judgment of Israel in AD 70 and move the weeping and gnashing of teeth to Hell after the Judgment Day is over. They have not found one passage that says anything about the lost after the judgment. Nothing can happen to nothing. After the second death there could be nothing said, for there will be nothing to say anything about. There is a first death, a resurrection from the first death, then the second death, but nothing is said about a third life after the second death. They need something to prove their Hell, and try to make it look as if weeping and gnashing of teeth could only be in Hell; although both weeping and gnashing of teeth are used throughout the Old Testament and those who believe in Hell do not believe weeping and gnashing of teeth in the Old Testament have any reference to a time of punishment after the Judgment Day, but they assume that in the New Testament both are used in reference to punishment in Hell after the judgment day. Weeping and gnashing of teeth has a reference to Hell only when they want or need them to.
WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH: God says the "wages of sin is death," not an eternal life of weeping and gnashing of teeth in Hell and will go on forever, for there is no death for the soul that cannot die. We would never be able to know that this weeping will be in Hell unless:
Some of the words used by Christ to describe the Jews: blind guides, hypocrites, murderers, adulterous, transgressors, faithless, perverse, fools, generation of snakes. "O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM...BEHOLD, YOUR HOUSE (the temple Christ had just left) IS LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE" [Matthew 23:38].
B. W. Johnson, Matthew 23:33-39. "The People's New Testament With Notes" Gospel Light Publishing Company, 1889.
"That which Israel seeks for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened" [Romans 11:7]. Whatever Israel did not obtain, THE ELECT HAD OBTAINED IT AT THE TIME PAUL WROTE THIS. It is not something that will be obtained after the coming of Christ by Israel or anyone. How is anyone saved today, Jew or Gentile? By the Gospel. I was saved when I heard the Gospel and obeyed it. All that are saved are saved in the same way. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is THE POWER of God for salvation to EVERYONE who believes, TO THE JEW FIRST and also to the Greek" [Romans 1:16]. Neither a Jew nor a Greek can be saved without believing and obeying the gospel. Today a nation cannot be saved as a nation (Israel or any other nation). All the individuals must believe and obey the Gospel. There is no other way. "But if SOME OF THE BRANCHES were broken off, ["some of the branches," plural, are individuals Jews, not "some of the nations"] and you, being a wild olive, was grafted in among them [among some of the branches, the Jews that believed and were not broken off]...Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith...for if God spared not the natural branches [individuals Jews], neither will he spare you [individuals Gentiles, not nations]. Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell (individuals, not nations), severity; but toward you, God's goodness; otherwise, you also shall be cut off. And they [individuals Jews] also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in" [Romans 11:17-24]. Many of the believers in the early church were Jews. Paul was a Jew, and he said, "Even so than at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace [at the time Paul was writing this and today some Jews believed]" [Romans 11:4]. Salvation is always available to Jews or Gentiles if they will accept Christ. The law was only a shadow of that which was to come. Israel cannot be restored as a nation without restoring the shadow, including restoring animal sacrifice, etc.
"Woe unto you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. So you are witnesses and consent unto the works of your fathers: for they kill them, and you build their tombs. Therefore, also said the wisdom of God, I will send unto them prophets and apostles; and some of them they shall kill and persecute; that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, MAY BE REQUIRED OF THIS GENERATION; from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary: yea, I say unto you, IT SHALL BE REQUIRED OF THIS GENERATION" [Luke 11:47-51].
[1] ON THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM: In Luke 19:41-44 Jesus tells His disciples of the destruction of Jerusalem in which His language is similar to Luke 21:5-33. "And when he drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known in this day, even you, the things which belong unto peace! But, now they are hid from your eyes. FOR THE DAYS SHALL COME UPON YOU, WHEN YOUR ENEMIES WILL THROW UP A BANK ABOUT YOU, AND SURROUND YOU, AND HEM YOU IN ON EVERY SIDE, AND WILL LEVEL YOU TO THE GROUND AND YOUR CHILDREN WITHIN YOU; AND THEY SHALL NOT LEAVE IN YOU ONE STONE UPON ANOTHER; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation" [Luke 19:41-44 New American Standard Version].
[2] IN AN ADDRESS TO THE PHARISEE AT JERUSALEM [Matthew 23:29-38]. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees...You serpents, you offspring of vipers, HOW SHALL YOU ESCAPE THE JUDGMENT OF GEHENNA? Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them you kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed of the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Verily I say unto you, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL COME UPON THIS GENERATION. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem that kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent unto her! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! BEHOLD, YOUR HOUSE IS LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE."
"ALL THESE THINGS SHALL COME UPON THIS GENERATION" Christ used "generation" about twenty-six times IN REFERENCE TO THE JEWS OF HIS DAY, ten of the twenty-six are in Matthew [Matthew 11:16; 12:34; 12:39; 12:41; 12:42; 12:45; 16:4; 17:17; 23:33; 23:36; 24:24]. "But first he (Christ) must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation" [Luke 17:25; also Mark 8:12; 8:38; 9:19; 13:30; Luke 7:31; 9:31; 9:41; 11:29; 11:30; 11:31; 11:32; 11:50; 11:51; 21:32]. "Genea," the Greek word from which "generation" is translated never means "race" as the dispensationalists millennialists contend that it does in Matthew 24:34.
"THIS GENERATION" The generation of Jews in the time of Christ.
If "this generation" means "this race" as some millennialists teach, are there forty-two "races" spoken of in Matthew 1:1-17?
The use of "YOU" clearly identified the "generation" Jesus was speaking to in Matthew 24. When speaking to His disciples Jesus said:
[3] THEN AN ADDRESS TO HIS DISCIPLES ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES OVERLOOKING JERUSALEM Matthew 24:1-51.
Matthew 24:1-2 "And Jesus went out from the temple, and his disciples came to him TO SHOW HIM THE BUILDINGS OF THE TEMPLE, but he answered and said unto them, see you not all these things? Verily I say unto you, THERE SHALL NOT BE LEFT HERE ONE STONE UPON ANOTHER, THAT SHALL NOT BE THROWN DOWN." The stones were the "buildings of the temple."
Matthew 24:3 "And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us":
The disciples, thinking of what the Lord had said, asked two questions, which they supposed both would be at the same time. When shall these things You speak of be and what shall be the sign that these things are about to come to pass? NEITHER IN WHAT CHRIST SAID OR IN THE QUESTIONS THE DISCIPLES ASKED IS THERE ANY REFERENCE TO THE SECOND COMING. AT THE TIME THEY ASKED THESE QUESTIONS THEY DID NOT EVEN BELIEVE OR KNOW THAT JESUS WOULD BE PUT TO DEATH OR THAT HE WOULD BE GOING BACK TO HEAVEN AND COMING A SECOND TIME. THE DISCIPLES STILL THOUGHT THE CHRIST WOULD RESTORE THE EARTHY KINGDOM OF ISRAEL JUST AS ALL THE JEWS DID. "And they understood none of these things, and this saying was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said" [Luke 18:34; also Luke 19:11; 24:21-27; John 16:16-18; 20:9]. Forty days after He was raised from the dead they still did not understand therefore, they did not expect Christ to go away and return to earth a second time at the end of the world; they expected Him to restore the kingdom to Israel "They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, do you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" [Acts 1:6]. MILLENNIALISTS MUST MAKE THE DISCIPLES BE ASKING A QUESTION ABOUT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST THAT THE DISCIPLES DID NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT OR BELIEVE AT THAT TIME, BUT THEY MUST HAVE THE DISCIPLES ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT PREMILLENNIALISM AND THE RAPTURE TO MAKE THIS CHAPTER TEACH THEIR VIEW. I have never seen where any Premillennialists say how these disciples that did not know what the kingdom was to be and that Christ was to die and be raised from the dead explain how that knew anything about the rapture and the thousand years. From where do they think the disciples had this knowledge?
A) SIGNS OF THE THINGS THAT WERE TO COME TO PAST THAT CHRISTIANS WERE TO WATCH FOR.
Matthew 24:4-15: "And Jesus answered (His answer was to the questions they had asked about the destruction of the temple, not about His second coming) and said unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not troubled: for these things must needs come to pass; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places. But, all these things are the beginning of travail. Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all the nations for my name's sake. And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of many shall wax cold. But, he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come. When; therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that reads understand)."
B) NATURAL DISASTERS TO ISRAEL AND ROME.
(a). WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS [Matthew 24:6] with nations and kingdoms rising against each other [Matthew 24:7]. There were many conflicts and battles before A. D. 70 in which thousands of Jews were killed. In one battle with the Syrians about 5,000 Jews were killed. From A. D. 66 to 70 there were many wars and rumors of wars. Many thousands were killed in the many wars in the 5 years before the destruction of the temple and Israel in A. D. 70. "The Jewish war began in A. D. 66, and ended five years after. During this period all the Roman Empire was filled with commotion. Nero, the emperor, was overthrown by Galba; six months after, Galba was overthrown by Otho; a few months after, Otho was overthrown by Vitelius; a little later, he was overthrown by Vespasian. All of these but the last, who ascended the throne shortly before Jerusalem was destroyed, died violent deaths...Tacitus, the Roman historian, says of this period: 'It was full of calamities, horrible with battles, rent with seditions, savage in peace itself.'" B. W. Johnson, "The People's New Testament With Notes" Gospel Light Publishing Company, 1889.
"When Christ was born, there was a universal peace in the empire...From the time that the Jews rejected Christ, and he left their house desolate, the sword did never depart from their house, the sword of the Lord was never quiet, because he had given it a charge against a hypocritical nation and the people of his wrath, and by it brought ruin upon them." Matthew Henry, Matthew 24:6. Zondervan Publishing House, 1721.
(b). FAMINES IN DIVERS PLACES [Matthew 24:7]. In the years between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem there were severe famines especially in the area of Jerusalem. Paul took up a contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem [Romans 15:25; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4] which many churches took part in. Agabus signified by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius, and the disciples sent relief unto the disciples in Judea [Acts 11:28-29].
(c). PESTILENCES [Matthew 24:7 King James Version]. Pestilences tend to come with famine. There was a great one in AD 40 in Babylon when many Jews died and many more fled because of it. Another one in AD 65 in Rome when many died. I have seen no history that tells how many died by wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes in the years before the destruction of Jerusalem, but no doubt it was many thousands. During the siege of Jerusalem but before the fall, the dead from famines and pestilences filled all the room for burial within the walls of the city and Josephus claims 600,000 more bodies were thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem and left unburialed.
(d). EARTHQUAKES IN DIVERS PLACES [Matthew 24:7]. The earthquakes are spoken of as a dreadful judgment against the nation of Israel, "But all these things are the beginning of travail" [Matthew 24:8]. "Of these significant emblems of political commotions, there occurred several within the scene of this prophecy, and, as our Savior predicted, in divers places in the reign of Claudius there was one at Rome, and another at Apamea in Syria, where many Jews resided. The earthquake at the latter place was so destructive, that the emperor, in order to relieve the distresses of the inhabitants, remitted its tribute for five years. Both these earthquakes are recorded by Tacitus. There was one also, in the same reign in Crete that is mentioned by Philostratus, in his Life of Apollonius, who says, that 'there were others at Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, and Samos; IN ALL WHICH PLACES JEWS HAD SETTLED.' In the reign of Nero there was an earthquake at Laodicea. Tacitus records this also. It is likewise mentioned by Eusebius and Orosius, who add that Hieropolis and Colose, as well as Laodicea, were overthrown by an earthquake. There was also one in Campania in this reign (of this both Tacitus and Seneca speak) and another at Rome in the reign of Galba, recorded by Suetonius." George P. Holford, "The Destruction Of Jerusalem," 1805. Some cities of Israel were totaled destroyed by earthquakes before the destruction of Jerusalem. I have not found an estimate of how many Jews died by earthquakes but like both the famines and the pestilences, without doubt many more thousands died in the earthquakes before A. D. 70.
Dr. Philip Schaff says there is scarcely another period in history so full of corruption, vice, and disaster as the six years between Neronian persecution in A. D. 64 and the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70, History Of the Christian Church, New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.
C) PERSECUTION FIRST FROM JEWS AND THEN ROME. THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.
(a). "BUT ALL THESE THINGS ARE THE BEGINNING OF TRAVAIL" [Matthew 24:9].
(b). CHRISTIANS WOULD BE DELIVER UP, KILLED AND HATED BY ALL THE NATIONS [Matthew 24:9]. The persecution of believers came first from the Jews. Acts 4:3; 4:18; 4:21; 5:18; 5:28; 6:12-14; 7:58-60; 8:1; 8:3; 9:1-2; 13:44-51; 14:2; 14:19; 17:5-8; 17:13; 26:9-10; Paul was one of the persecutors and then one of the persecuted. "Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned...I have been in...dangers from my countrymen" [2 Corinthians 11:24-26]. "For you also suffer the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophet, and drove out us" [1 Thessalonians 2:14-15]. It was soon followed by the persecution of Nero of believers, which began about A. D. 64. After the fire in Rome Nero attempted to clear himself by blaming it on the Christians. He then persecuted the Christians with such cruelty that even many of his fellow Romans were taken back by his cruelty "But before all these things, they shall lay their hands on you, and shall persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prison, bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake" [Luke 21:12]. See Hebrews 10:32-34. Both the persecution from the Jews and the persecution from Rome were severe. I have just touched the hem of the garment.
(c). MANY SHALL STUMBLE, DELIVER UP ONE ANOTHER, AND HATE ONE ANOTHER [Matthew 24:10]. As a result of the persecutions the weak stumbled. "And brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all on account of My name...and a man's enemies will be the members of his household" [Matthew 10:22-36].
(d). MANY FALSE PROPHETS [Matthew 24:11]. See 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1; 2:18; Galatians 1:7. Many false teachers saying they were the Christ [Matthew 24:5]. Josephus says that they did come about the time of the end of Jerusalem.
(e). LIGHTNING "For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be" [Matthew 24:27]. For the use of "lightning" in the Old Testament for God's angry and judgment see Exodus 19:16; 2 Samuel 22:7-15; Isaiah 30:27. It is also used symbolically in Revelation of judgments. Revelation 4:5; 11:19; 16:18. The false prophets saying they were the Christ were only seen by a few. The coming of Christ in judgment on Israel with the total destruction of Israel as a country was seen in all the known world just as lightning in the east is seen in the west.
(f). MANY DISCIPLES WILL FALL AWAY, BUT THOSE WHO REMAIN FAITHFUL SHALL BE SAVED [Matthew 24:13-14].
(g). THE GOSPEL SHALL BE PREACHED TO THE WHOLE WORLD [Matthew 24:14]. The persecution against the church in Jerusalem scattered the saints abroad, and they went about preaching the word everywhere. [Acts 8:1-4]. The gospel was preached throughout the world, as it was known before A. D. 70. "The hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven" [Colossians 1:23]. Paul says to the Romans, "Your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world" [Romans 1:8]. In Romans 10:18 he says, "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." "World" as it is used in the New Testament is all the civilized world of that day, all the known world. See Luke 2:1; Acts 11:28.
D) THEN COMES THE END
(a). THEN COMES THE END WHEN THEY SEE THE ROMANS IN JERUSALEM. "When; therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet [Daniel 9:27], standing in the holy place" [Matthew 24:14-15]. The parallel passage in Luke 21:20 says, "But when you see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand." There will be no armies in Jerusalem to see at the second coming of Jesus. In the Old Testament the worship of other gods is an "abomination" [Deuteronomy 7:25; 12:31; 17:3]. The Romans worshiped many gods. The idolatrous army of Rome in Jerusalem was an "abomination of desolation" to them. Daniel speaks of this "abomination of desolation" at the time when the regular sacrifice is abolished [Daniel 12:11; 9:27].
(b). "THEN LET THEM THAT ARE IN JUDAEA FLEE UNTO THE MOUNTAINS" [Matthew 24:16]. The last signs the disciples were to look for was the Roman army in Jerusalem. After going through the country around about Jerusalem and destroying the cities and killing many thousand of the Jews, Cestius Gallus came to within one mile of Jerusalem, then after about four days entered the city but fled with many Jews pursuing him. THE DISCIPLES WERE TO FLEE UNTO THE MOUNTAINS WHEN THEY SAW ALL THE ABOVE SIGNS.
E) INSTRUCTIONS AND WARNING TO THE DISCIPLES Matthew 24:17-20. "Let him that is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house: (18) and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak. (19) But woe unto them that give suck in those days! (20) And pray you that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath; for then shall be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, not ever shall be. (22) And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (23) Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not. (24) For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. (25) Behold, I have told you beforehand. (26) If; therefore, they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness; go not forth: Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not. (27) For as the lightning comes forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. (28) Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together."
(a). They were to flee without taking time to take things from their house, and those in field were not to take the time to return to their house for things [Matthew 24:18-19]. "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city" [Luke 20:20-21].
(b). Woe unto them that have a small child [Matthew 24:29]. Those with a child would have hardships in fleeing to the mountains, but at the end of the world this will be no problem, no woe to those who will be caught up to meet Jesus in the air.
(c). They were to pray that it not be in the winter or on a Sabbath for the gates of Jerusalem were closed, and no one could depart from the city [Matthew 24:20]. Because the streams were then impassable from the heavy rains, the cold wet weather would be hard on those who were fleeing. The gates of Jerusalem have never been closed after A. D. 70 and it will be no problem if the gates of Jerusalem, or any city was closed at the second coming nor will impassable streams or cold weather be a problem at the second coming.
(d). There would be a greater tribulation than the world had ever seen or ever will see [Matthew 24:20-22].
(e). There would be many false Christs and prophets that would show great signs [Matthew 24:23-27]. But, when Christ came in judgment on Israel, He through His judgment was seen by all. False Christs and prophets will not be a sign of His second coming at the end of the world.
(f). Wheresoever the dead body of Israel (the carcass) was the eagles would gather [Matthew 24:28]. The Jewish nation was a dead and rotting carcass with its birds of prey.
"For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled" [Luke 21:22]. Jeremiah ends his prophecy made in Gehenna [valley of Topheth] outside of Jerusalem with, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words'" [Jeremiah 19:15].
(a). "Let him that is on the housetop not go down." Most first century houses in Jerusalem had flat roofs, and a person could travel from one housetop to the next. Today there are almost none with flat roofs and what few there may be would not be useful as a roadway to the gate of the city.
(b). Not on the Sabbath. The gates would be closed, and no one would be able to leave the city. Today there are no gates. The Law forbids going more than a Sabbath day journey, which is less than a mile, and others Jews might have stopped them for breaking the Law.
(c). Not in the winter. Travel would be hard then but not today with today's ways of travel.
(d). "For the days shall come upon you when your enemies shall cast up a bank about you, and compass you round, and keep you on in on every side" [Luke 19:43-44]. Then the common way that was used by the Romans to take a walled city was to build an embankment next to the wall for the army to walk up to the top of the wall. Today's cities, not even Jerusalem, do not have walls as they would be useless with modern planes and explosives.
(f). "And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." After Jerusalem was completely destroyed, the cities of Israel that had not been destroyed before Jerusalem was also destroyed. If the Roman army had kept going, the fateful Jews beyond the mountains where Christians had fled to would have also been destroyed. This would make no sense when it is applied to the second coming of Christ as it is by many millennialists.
Luke 21:24 "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all the nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." In A. D. 70 all the Jews that were in Israel that was not killed were led captive into all the nations.
The siege of Jerusalem was at the time of the Passover when millions were within the walls of the city. "Of the Jews destroyed during the siege, Josephus reckons not less than ONE MILLION AND ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND, to which must be added, above TWO-HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN THOUSAND who perished in other places, AND INNUMERABLE MULTITUDES WHO WERE SWEPT AWAY BY FAMINE, AND PESTILENCE, AND OF WHICH NO CALCULATION COULD BE MADE. Not less than two thousand laid violent hands upon themselves. Of the captives the whole was about NINETY-SEVEN THOUSAND." George P. Holford, "The Destruction of Jerusalem." He also says that at this time bands of robbers and murderers plundered the other towns and slew the resistance of many of the towns.
"No history can furnish us with a parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews:-rape, murder, famine, and pestilence within: fire and sword, and all the horrors of war, without. Our Lord wept at the foresight of these calamities; and it is almost impossible for any humane person to read the relation of them in Josephus without weeping also." Adam Clarke, Commentary on Matthew.
"The destruction of Jerusalem was more terrible than anything that the world has ever witnessed, either before or since. Even Titus seemed to see in his cruel work the hand of an avenging God." C.H. Spurgeon, Commentary on Matthew, Page 412.
"And indeed the multitude of carcasses that lay in heaps one upon another was a horrible sight, and produced a pestilential stench, which was a hindrance to those that would make sallies out of the city, and fight the enemy: but as those were to go in battle-array, who had been already use to ten thousand murders, and must tread upon those dead bodies as they marched along, so they were not terrified, nor did they pity men as they marched over them." Josephus, The Wars Of The Jews Or The History Of The Destruction Of Jerusalem, Book VI, Page 1. This is only a small sample of the pages in Josephus's history of the destruction of the Jews as a nation, of the wars of the Jews with the Romans before, during, and after the destruction of Jerusalem, of the famines and earthquakes through out all Israel unto the entire nation was destroyed. It is not for those with a weak stomach.
"The Roman leaders endeavored to strike terror to the Jews and thus, cause them to surrender. Those prisoners, who resisted when taken, were scourged, tortured, and crucified before the wall of the city. Hundreds were daily put to death in this manner, and the dreadful work continued until, along the Valley Jehoshaphat and at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great numbers that there was scarcely room to move among them. So terrible was the visited that awful imprecation uttered before the judgment seat of Pilate: 'His blood be on us, and on our children Matthew 27:25'" The Great Controversy. The nation of Israel sowed a cross and reaped thousands of crosses.
"Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another" [Matthew 24:2]. Titus wanted to save the temple and give command that it be not destroyed, but Christ had said it would be. It was set on fire against the command of Titus, and the gold melted and ran down into the foundation stones, and the soldiers dug up the foundation stones looking for the gold. Not one stone was left. In Luke's account of this [Luke 19:41-44] he says the temple would be even with the ground. After the destruction of Jerusalem one could not know by looking at the spot that the temple had been on it. A Moslem Mosque, called the Dome of the Rock, is now on the spot where the temple was.
"Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them." Josephus, "Antiquities of the Jews" 10.11.7.
"Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together" Matthew 24:28. "I wonder and can any understand these words of pious men flying to Christ, [in the rapture] when the discourse here is of quite a different thing: they are thus connected to the forgoing: Christ shall be revealed with a sudden vengeance; for when God shall cast of the city and people, grown ripe for destruction, like a carcass thrown out, the Roman soldiers, like eagles, shall straight fly to it with their eagles (ensigns) to tear and devout it." John Lightfoot, Matthew 24:28 "A Commentary on Matthew." NOT JERUSALEM ONLY BUT ALL THE NATION OF ISRAEL WAS DESTROYED, AND ALL THE LAND THAT WAS THE NATION OF ISRAEL WAS TAKEN OVER BY OTHER PEOPLE. THE NATION OF ISRAEL CAME TO AN END.
Matthew 24:29-31: "But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: (30) and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (31) And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Matthew 24:1-28 is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem. Then in the next verse Christ says, "But immediately after the tribulation of those days" and gives a list in verses 29-31 of things that are to happen then, immediately after the destruction, not at His second coming. Then in verses 32-44 He gives us the parable of Israel the fig tree in which His coming was "nigh, even at the doors." These verses are highly symbolic of something that took place immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem. In symbolic language, the sun is a great ruler and the stars are lesser rulers. There were no rulers or teachers in Israel immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem and all the cities of Israel. All was darkness for Israel. "And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn" (see Matthew 10:23 where the coming of Christ is in judgment on Israel). In the next parable, Christ is "nigh, even at the doors" and "this generation shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished." Though not literally, Christ did come in judgment in the destruction of Jerusalem. If this were at the judgment when all will be raised from the dead for judgment by Christ, I find it difficult to see how any could think that He will not give forth His light at the Judgment, and what then are the stars that shall fall from Heaven? If verses 30 and 31 were speaking of the second coming, they would be out of place for the second coming was not "immediately after the tribulation of those days" (verse 29) and not in the "generation that shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished" (verse 34). Many teach that the things in Matthew 24 are events that are happening today, but if so, there would some very old people be living today.
"The sun shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken" [Matthew 24:29]. Jesus used the same symbolic language to describe the fall of Israel that Isaiah used to describe the fall of Babylon [Ezekiel 32:7-9] and is commonly used in the Old Testament. "For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light" [Isaiah 13:10]. Luke adds, "And upon the earth distress of nations" [Luke 21:21].
Matthew 24:30: "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven." "In Heaven" is where the Son of Man is, not where the sign would appear. What did appear was the destruction of Israel. The sign proves that the man Israel rejected had the power to destroy the nation that had rejected Him. This sign proves that Jesus is the Lord and is the ruler over all nations.
In speaking of God's coming in judgment on Egypt Isaiah says, "The oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud, and is about to come to Egypt" [Isaiah 19:1; also Jeremiah 4:13; Ezekiel 30:3-4]. This is not God literally riding a cloud into Egypt, but is figurative language of His coming in judgment on Egypt. When they saw Jerusalem destroyed, they were seeing Jesus coming in judgment on that city. Jesus told the high priest, "YOU SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, AND COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN" [Mark 14:62]. The high priest did not literally see Jesus in Heaven, but he and all Israel did see in the coming of Jesus in judgment on Israel.
"The signs in the heavens, the darkening sun and falling stars, refer to the falling of Jewish dignitaries, casting down of authorities and powers, long established, and signified the darkness that settled upon the Jewish state, the sun of the Hebrew temple was darkened, the moon of the Jewish commonwealth was as blood, the stars of Sanhendrin fell from their high seats of authority...The sign of the Son of man in the heaven was a signal, the evidence of divine visitation and intervention in the downfall of the Jewish authorities and in all the transpiring events. The mourning of all the tribes of the earth refers to the lamentation of the Jewish families all over the world because of the destruction of their city and their temple and their state. The coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven is not a reference to the second coming of Christ but to the coming foretold by Jesus to Caiaphas in Matthew 26:64: 'Hereafter shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven.' Jesus told Caiaphas that he would see it, he would be living witness to these event" Foy E. Wallace Jr., "The Book of Revelation" Page 354.
"And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn." When their country was destroyed, the Jews that were in other parts of the earth would mourn. The word translated "earth" is "gee" and in the King James Version is translated "land" forty-one times, "ground" eighteen times and "country two times. "Gee" is translated land in Matthew 2:6; 2:20; 2:21; 4:15; 9:26; 11:24; 14:34; 27:45; Mark 4:1; 6:47; 6:53; 15:33; Luke 4:25; 5:3; 5:11; 5:24; 8:27; 14:35; 21:23; John 3:22; 6:21; 21:8; 21:9; 21:11; Acts 7:3; 7:4; 7:4; 7:6; 7:11; 7:29; 7:33; 7:36; 7:4013:17; 13:19; 13:19; Hebrews 8:9; 11:9; Jude 5. "Gee" is translated "ground" in Matthew 9:29; 13:8; 13:23; 15:35; Mark 4:8; 4:20; 4:26; 8:6; 9:20; 24:35; Luke 8:8; 8:15; 22:44; John 8:6; 8:8; 12:24; Acts 7:33. "Gee" is translated "country" in Matthew 9:31 and Acts 7:3. Had it been translated "land" in Matthew 24:30, "And then shall all the tribes of the land [gee] mourn" most of the confusion would not have existed. See Zechariah 12:11-12.
"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 24:31]. Still speaking in figurative language Jesus is saying He will send His messengers into all the world with His Gospel and gather them to Him in His kingdom, the church. Just as there was not literally a "great trumpet" that was heard in Egypt and Assyria [Isaiah 27:13], there was not literally a "great trumpet" after the fall of Jerusalem. "And they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other," is figurative from all over the earth, just as is "from east and west, and from north and south" [Luke 13:29 also see Matthew 24:14]. All the saved "His elect" are now gathered together in His kingdom, the church.
Those in the first century would understand "blood, fire, vapor and smoke" to be used as it was in the Old Testament [Acts 2:19; Joel 2:28-32], but would never have understood it to be referring to a nuclear war as many millennialists apply it. Christ used the symbolic language of the Old Testament as it was used in the Old Testament, as those hearing Him would have understood, not something in today's newspapers.
THE SON OF MAN SEEN COMING IN HIS KINGDOM "Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING in His kingdom" [Matthew 16:28]. The parallel passage in Mark says, "Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power" [Mark 9:1]. His kingdom came in Acts 2; therefore, Christ was seen coming in His kingdom in power and glory in A. D. 30. Christ came both in the coming of His kingdom and in judgment on Israel, but neither one was a visible coming as the second coming will be that all, both the living and the dead will see. The problem many have when they read Matthew 24 is that they see only His second coming and therefore must interpret much of Matthew 24 to be speaking of the end of time. Neither His coming in His kingdom in A. D. 30, nor His coming in judgment on Israel in A. D. 70 was the second coming when the saved will put on immortality and forever be with Him.
COMING OF CHRIST BEFORE HIS DISCIPLES HAD GONE THROUGH THE CITIES OF ISRAEL. Matthew 10:16-23. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and in theirs synagogues they will scourge you; and before governors and kings shall you be brought for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what you shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what you shall speak. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you. And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child: and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next: for verily I say unto you, You shall not have gone through the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come."
"After the destruction of Jerusalem seventeen hundred Jews who surrendered at Macherus were slain, and of fugitives not less than three thousand in the woods of Jardes. Titus having marched his army to Caesarea, he (Titus) there, with great splendor, celebrated the birthday of his brother Domitian; and according to the barbarous manner of those times, punished many Jews in honor of it. The number who was burnt, and who fell by fighting with wild beasts, and in mutual combats, exceeded two thousand five hundred." G. Holford, The Destruction of Jerusalem.
Adam Clarke lists some that were killed at other places. "By the inhabitants of Caesarea, above 20,000. At Scythopolis, above 13,000. At Ascalon, 2,500. At Ptolemais, 2,000. At Alexandria, 50,000. At Joppa, when taken by Cestius Gallus, 8,400. In a mountain called Asamon, near Sepporis, above 2,000. At Damascus, 10,000. In a battle with the Romans at Ascalon, 10,000. In an ambuscade near the same place, 8,000. At Japha, 15,000. Of the Samaritans, on Mount Gerizim, 11,600. At Jotapa, 40,000. At Joppa, when taken by Vespasian, 4,200. At Tarichea, 6,500. And after the city was taken, 1,200. At Gamala, 4,000, besides 5,000 who threw themselves down a precipice. Of those who fled with John, of Gischala, 6,000. Of the Gadarenes, 15,000 slain, besides countless multitudes drowned. In the village of Idumea, above 10,000 slain. At Gerasa, 1,000. At Machaerus, 1,700. In the wood of Jardes, 3,000. In the castle of Masada, 960. In Cyrene, by Catullus the governor, 3,000. Besides these, many of every age, sex, and condition, were slain in the war, who are not reckoned; but, of those who are reckoned, the number amounts to upwards of 1,357,660, which would have appeared incredible, if their own historian had not so particularly enumerated them." Clarke's Commentary on Matthew. The unknown number that was destroyed throughout the country by pestilence, famine, earthquakes and robbers throughout the reign both before the destruction of Jerusalem, during the destruction, and the years after it must be added to this. Also, Adam Clarke says most of those taken captive "above seventeen years old were distributed through the Roman provinces, to be destroyed in their theaters by the sword, and by the wild beasts."
"'In the reign of Adrian,' say Bishop Newton, 'nine hundred and eighty-five of their best towns were sacked and demolished, five hundred and eighty thousand men fell by the sword, in battle, besides, an infinite multitude who perished by, famine, and sickness, and fire; so that Judea was depopulated, and an almost incredible number of every age and of each sex, were sold like horses and dispersed over the face of the earth' - (Newton, vol. I, Page xviii.) The war which gave rise to these calamities happened about forty-four years after the destruction of Jerusalem" G. Holford, The Destruction of Jerusalem.
"Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be called Topheth, not the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place to bury. And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. THEN WILL I CAUSE TO CEASE FROM THE CITIES OF JUDAH, AND FROM THE STREETS OF JERUSALEM, THE VOICE OF MIRTH AND THE VOICE OF GLADNESS, THE VOICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE VOICE OF THE BRIDE; FOR THE LAND SHALL BECOME A WASTE" [Jeremiah 7:32-34].
John Calvin, "For within fifty years the city was destroyed and the temple ruined, THE WHOLE COUNTRY WAS REDUCED TO A HIDEOUS DESERT." "Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelist, Matthew, Mark, and Luke." All Israel, the whole nation, not just the temple was totally destroyed, "reduced to a hideous desert."
Josephus says, "The Dead Sea too was filled with corpses which the river (the Jordan River) carried down to it by the thousands."
"And except these days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" [Matthew 24:22]. If the war had gone on it would have reached beyond Israel unto Pella and other cities in the mountains where many Christians were that had left Israel; but it was stopped before it reached them. "No flesh" will be saved at the second coming. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" [1 Corinthians 15:50]. That the days were shortened and some flesh was saved proves this is not speaking of the second coming of Christ.
[4] HE (CHRIST) IS NIGH, EVEN AT THE DOORS Matthew 24:32-44. "Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that the summer is nigh; (33) even so you also, WHEN YOU SEE ALL THESE THINGS, KNOW YOU THAT HE IS NIGH, EVEN AT THE DOORS. (34) VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, THIS GENERATION SHALL NOT PASS AWAY, TILL ALL THESE THINGS BE ACCOMPLISHED. (35) Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (36) But of that day and hour knows no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only. (37) And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. (38) For in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, (39) and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. (40) Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left; (41) two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left. (42) Watch; therefore: for you know not on what day your Lord comes. (43) But know this that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to broken through. (44) Therefore be you also ready; for in an hour that you think not the Son of man comes." This makes it clear that all Jesus had said before this applies to the destruction of Jerusalem and not to His second coming for "this generation" has long ago passed away. "ALL THESE THINGS" are the things He has just told them. When they saw the signs coming to pass, they know that the end of the temple and Israel was at hand. Although we are to watch and always be ready, we are not given any signs, as they were, that we can see and know that His coming is soon, not even that it will be in our lifetime or in the next thousand or ten thousand years. Commentaries on verses 35-44 are divided on whether this is speaking of the coming of Christ in judgment on Israel or His second coming. It seems unlikely to me that He would have changed from speaking of judgment on Israel in verse 34, then His second coming in verse 35, and back to judgment on Israel in verse 40 with nothing to show He changed. He was speaking to His disciples at this time [Matthew 24:1], and telling them they were to watch for the signs He gave them of His coming in judgment on Israel. We are given no signs but are always to be ready for His second coming.
"ALL THESE THINGS" Is things before 70 A. D., not at the second coming of Jesus. Luke says, "But when THESE THINGS begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draws nigh" [Luke 21:38]. This redemption draws nigh to those of that generation. It was a redemption from the persecution of the Jews. "This generation shall not pass away, till ALL THINGS be accomplished" Luke 21:32. Not the redemption of the U. S. from Russia or any other redemption today.
Matthew 24:34 is a key to understanding all that came to pass before it, all that has been said up to this point must come before "this generation" would pass away. Not at the second coming of Jesus at the end of the world. A generation is about 40 years. It is the same "generation" spoken of in Matthew 23:36.
Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." He had assured them that the end of Jerusalem was coming, now He assured them that His word would come to pass, that the heavens would end and the earth would pass away but not His word; the end of Jerusalem was sure. He may be speaking of the end of the Jewish heavens and earth, the end of their nation, not the end of the world. They did not know the season when the end would come but was told to pray that it be not in the winter season nor did they know the day but were told to pray that it not be on a Sabbath Day. "But watch you at every season, making supplication, THAT YOU MAY PREVAIL TO ESCAPE ALL THESE THINGS THAT SHALL COME TO PASS, and to stand before the Son of man" [Luke 21:36; Matthew 24:42-44; Mark 13:35-37]. The Christians did watch and did escape all these things, all the things He has just warned them about that were coming to Israel; but no one will escape the judgment to come.
JOSEPHUS, the Jewish first century historian, recorded concerning the year 70, "Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself; while they did not attend, nor give credit to the signs that were so evident and did so plainly foretell their future desolation; but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see, or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them." Josephus, who was not a Christian, understood these signs to be related to the soon coming judgment. This coming in judgment was fulfilled in the destruction of the temple, the city of Jerusalem, and all the nation of Israel.
JOHN LIGHTFOOT (1859) "This generation shall not pass." Hence, it appears plain enough that the foregoing verses are not to be understood of the last judgment but, as we said, of the destruction of Jerusalem." (A Commentary of The New Testament, Volume 2, Page 320).
JOHN WESLEY (1754) "This generation of men now living shall not pass till all these things be done - The expression implies that great part of that generation would be passed away, but not the whole. Just so it was; for the city and temple were destroyed thirty-nine or forty years after."
MATTHEW HENRY "As to these things, the wars, seductions, and persecutions, here foretold, and especially of the ruin of the Jewish nation; 'This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled (Mt 24:34); there are those now alive that shall see Jerusalem destroyed, AND THE JEWISH CHURCH BROUGHT TO AN END." One Volume Commentary on the Whole Bible.
[5] ISRAEL THE UNFAITHFUL SERVANT Matthew 24:45-51. "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season? (46) Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing. (47) Verily I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he has. (48) But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord terries; (49) and shall begin to beat his fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken; (50) the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expects not, and in an hour when he knows not, (51) and shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Like all parables, all that are in them are not to be taken literally. They teach a lesson which is the main point of the parable. The point of this one is that Israel had been unfaithful and a judgment was coming.
[6] UNPROFITABLE SERVANT - OUTER DARKNESS Matthew 25:30; 8:12; 22:13. IT WAS THE "UNPROFITABLE SERVANT" AND "SONS OF THE KINGDOM" THAT WERE CAST INTO OUTER DARKNESS, NOT THE ONES WHO NEVER BELIEVED, NOT THE LOST FOR THEY WERE NEVER IN THE KINGDOM. The Jews who rejected Christ were cast out of the light, no longer to be God's chosen people, into the darkness of the world without the light of God's revelation. Christ said many [the Gentiles] shall "came from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." This says nothing about there being outer darkness in Hell. Fire and darkness do not go together. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent unto her! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" [Luke 13:33-34]. Their house without God in it is darkness.
[7] DAUGHTERS OF JERUSALEM Luke 23:27-31. "And there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of whom men who bewailed and lamented him. But, Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never give suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" See Hosea 19:7-8 where they cry to the mountains to cover them in the destruction of Samaria. An Old Testament expression of wanting to escape destruction.
[8] THE WRATH IS COME UPON THEM TO THE UTTERMOST. "And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children!" [Matthew 27:25]. "For you also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always: BUT THE WRATH IS COME UPON THEM TO THE UTTERMOST" [1 Thessalonians 2:14-16]. This was written about A. D. 53.
[9] MORE TOLERABLE Christ spoke of the Day of Judgment for lands or cities. More tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the cities that did not receive those He sent out [Matthew 10:14-15, Mark 6:11, Luke 10:10-12]. More tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum [Matthew 11:21-24, Luke 10:10-12]. WHEN ARE CITIES AND NATIONS JUDGED? WHEN IS THEIR DAY OF JUDGMENT TO BE? "And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You shall descend to Hades" [Matthew 11:23]. It was a great city but would go down to hades-the grave. Today, there are only a few ruins of Capernaum. They went from greatness (exalted to heaven) to non-existence (hades-the grave). Individuals, not nations and cities will be judged at the judgment at the second coming of Christ. Matthew 24 is of the judgment of Jerusalem [Matthew 23:36-38]. ALL THESE CITIES HAVE HAD A DAY OF JUDGMENT AND WERE BROUGHT DOWN TO THE GRAVE. THE DAY OF JUDGMENT FOR THEM IS PAST. The destruction of Sodom was quick and soon over. The destruction of Jerusalem, which saw and rejected Christ was long and drawn out with much more suffering, therefore, much less tolerable. The Day of Judgment for a city or a nation is the time when God will cause it to be destroyed. The Old Testament is full of God's judgment of cities and nations. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES THAT REJECTED CHRIST AND HIS APOSTLES WERE WORSE (Matthew 24:21) THAN THE DESTRUCTION OF THOSE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. "These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand...And as you enter the house, give it your greeting. And if the house is worthy, let your greeting of peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your greeting of peace return to you. And whoever does not receive you, not heed your word, as you go out of that house or that city, shake off the dust of your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves. But, beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues; and you shall even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But, when they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you are to speak. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. And brother will deliver up brother to death, and father his child; and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. But whenever they persecute you in this city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, YOU SHALL NOT FINISH GOING THROUGH THE CITES OF ISRAEL, UNTIL THE SON OF MAN COMES" [Matthew 10:5-23]. In this part Jesus seems to be speaking of when they would be sent out after His resurrection more than at the time He was speaking to them, for at that time they were not to go to the Gentiles, but after the resurrection they were. Also, they were brought before governors and kings and were hated and put to death after the resurrection, not before. He did come in a judgment on these cities and though all were destroyed, the destruction of Old Testament cities was much less terrible than was the destruction of Israel and her cities. Christ coming in judgment on a city or nation in the Old Testament or the New Testament is not the second coming of Christ when the saved will put on immortality.
"And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" [Matthew 27:51]. As it is said today when an entertainer has finished, "God has left the building."
[10] IS MATTHEW 24:36 A "TRANSITION TEXT?" Many think Matthew 24:36 is the "time text" or "transition text" where Jesus changes from the destruction of Israel to the second coming at the end of the world. Luke gives this view some problems. In his discourse to the disciples a few days before His discourse at Jerusalem, Luke put both the "two women" [Luke 17:35-36] and "as it was in the days of Noah" [Luke 17:26-27] before this "time text" [Luke 17:37]. If this were the "transition text" Matthew put both after the "transition text" and Luke put both before it. Luke also used "that day" in reference to the destruction of Israel, not of the second coming [Luke 17:31, Matthew 24:17].
The A. D. 70 doctrine that all the passages, which speak of the second coming, were fulfilled in A. D. 70 is not true. It is not my intentions to go into this doctrine; therefore, I will give only two of many passages that could be used. "So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation" [Hebrews 9:28] and "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also" [John 14:2-3]. No one went to the place Christ went to prepare in A. D. 70 and no one will go to it before the resurrection.
SUMMARY:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Does hades have a good side and a bad side? This parable is one of the most used scriptures to prove a person has a part of him that goes to Heaven or Hell or that this part of a person goes into a holding place unto the resurrection. If it were a literal story and not a parable, as many believe it is, it would be both in conflict with and a contradiction of the belief that all go to Heaven or Hell at death.
Many realizing that the Orthodox teaching that a person goes to Heaven or Hell at death is not from the Bible, and no one will be in Heaven before and without a resurrection and judgment, knew they had to have an intermediate place that is not Heaven or Hell, a third place to put their immortal soul from death unto the resurrection. Is the best they can do is to try to make a parable into a true story, making Abraham's bosom into a holding place unto the resurrection? In doing this, they must set aside the plain teaching on death and the resurrection as if they did not exist. Making this into a real story and not a parable may be a life or death struggle with them, for the Bible gives them nowhere for the living soul to be living in before the resurrection, no other place, and they need to make this into a real place. If they do not, they have living souls with nowhere for them to be living in before the resurrection and judgment. They cannot have them in Heaven or their Hell unto the resurrection; but they must have somewhere to keep them. They cannot even agree among themselves, for some say it is a parable, and some say, "No it is a true story." Many that think it is a parable will use it as if it were a true story. They say it teaches the same thing either way. "Notes On The Parables Of Our Lord" by R. C. Trench is ranked as one of the best on the parables. He not only says this is a parable, but on page 17 says parables are not to be made the first sources to teach a doctrine. To go from the clear to the obscure has been recognized as the law of Scriptural interpretation, but this has been forgotten by those looking for an argument to sustain a weak position, and often invent for themselves support in parables. On page 162 Trench says it is most important to keep in mind that this parable has as it's central thought the rebuke of unbelief. Nevertheless, this parable is used as the first and only source to teach a doctrine that is not found in any other part of the Bible.
Some that believe in Hell often point to Luke 16 to prove there is torment after death; but when pushed, most of them will admit hades is not Hell; but they need to prove there is torment in Hell and therefore use the torment of the rich man in hades in this parable and hope in some way to transfer the torment in hades to torment in Hell. EVEN IF THIS WERE A TRUE STORY AND NOT A PARABLE, IT MAY PROVE THAT THERE IS TORMENT BEFORE THE RESURRECTION; BUT IT WOULD PROVE NOTHING ABOUT WHAT WILL BE AFTER THE RESURRECTION, OR THAT THERE WILL EVEN BE A HELL AFTER THE RESURRECTION; yet, Luke 16 is one of the most used passages to try to prove there is a Hell and there is torment in it even though there is nothing about Hell in the parable. They are desperately looking for proof of Hell, which they cannot find. It says nothing of Heaven. Hell, or a soul. The complete silence of the scriptures about the dead being anywhere before the resurrection other than the grave is a deathblow to the doctrine of an immortal soul. THOSE WHO MAKE THIS PARABLE INTO A LITERAL STORY AND ARE TRYING TO PROVE THE ABRAHAM'S BOSOM VIEW, OR TO PROVE HELL, USE IT TO PUT ASIDE HUNDREDS OF PLAIN PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE.
This is the last in a series of five parables all spoken to the Pharisee and Scribes in this speech.
Five "a certain" in a row.
The objection of some is that it is not called a parable. Less than half, only 11 of the 26 parables in Luke are called a parable. The three parables before this one are not called parables but no one questions them being parables. The objection of others is that parables do not use proper names. "And he took up his parable, and said, 'From ARAM has BALAK brought me, the king of MOAB from the mountains of the East: come, curse me JACOB, and come, defy ISRAEL'" [Numbers 23:7]. Not one but FIVE PROPER NAMES are used in one parable. "SATAN" [Mark 4:14] and "THE SON OF MAN" [Matthew 13:37] are used in parables.
If one attempts to explain all the elements as though they are literal, the difficulties of making this be a true story will be seen. In the parable:
[A] THE RICH MAN is an allegory of the Jews who were rich in God's blessing. Israel was spiritually rich [see Romans 9:3-5]. All Luke 16 is on the subject of stewardship. The Jews failed to share with the Gentiles giving them only the crumb, and most of the Jews failed to believe in Christ. The Gentiles were spiritually poor. This parable is a satire condemning the Jewish nation, the Scribes, and Pharisees. Christ used one of their own fables, which those He was speaking to would know about [see Josephus and others], which He changed only slightly as the base of this parable to show the end of the Jewish nation as God's chosen people. See Matthew 21:43-45; 24:2; Luke 13:28; Matthew 23:1-39. Throughout much of the Old Testament, Israel did not obey God and rejected Christ, therefore, was rejected by God. They are no longer His chosen people. Their torment was being without God and rejected by Him, and as a nation Israel is dead and in hades, the grave. As long as they reject Christ, there is no comfort for them, no water to cool their tongue [Luke 16:24].
A picture of the rich Jews and the poor Gentiles is given in Matthew 15:22-27. "And behold, a Canaanitish women came out from those borders, and saying, have mercy on me, O Lord...But he answered and said, I was not sent but unto the house of Israel. But, she came and worshipped him saying, Lord, help me. And he answered and said, It is not good to take the children's [Israel's] bread and cast it to the dogs [Gentiles]. But she said, Yea, Lord: for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." He gives her the crumbs and healed her daughter.
"And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth" [Matthew 8:11-12]. "Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" [Matthew 21:43]. "O Jerusalem...your house is left unto you desolate" [Matthew 23:37-38].
"Odunaomai" [Used only four times in the New Testament, Wigram, Page 524] is translated "tormented" in the King James Version in Luke 16:24 and 25, but is translated "in anguish" both times in the American Standard Version. It is used only two other times and was translated "sorrowing" in the King James Version, when Mary said to Christ "and I have sought thee sorrowing [odunaomai]" Luke 2:48 and when Paul told the elders at Miletus that they would see him no more, "sorrowing [odunaomai] most of all for the words which he had spoken" Acts 20:38. THE ANGUISH (or sorrowing - not torment) OF THE RICH MAN WAS ISRAEL BEING REJECTED BY GOD AS A NATION. This parable is about those who were rich in God's blessing and those who were poor in God's blessing. "Ptokos" is used thirty-four times in the New Testament and is always translated "poor" except in Galatians 4:9 and in this parable where it is translated beggar in the King James Version, but changed to poor in the New American Standard.
Dr. Gill, an orthodox Protestant who believed in the intermediate state of the dead, in his commentary of Luke says, "The rich man died: It may also be understood of the political and ecclesiastical death of the Jewish people, which lay in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and of the temple, and in the abolition of the temple worship, and the whole ceremonial law: a Loammi was written upon their church state, and the covenant between God and them was broken; the gospel was removed from them, which was as death...their civil power and authority, were taken away from them by the Romans." Space will not permit the many orthodox writers who say the same.
[B] LAZARUS is the Gentiles, the people in spiritual poverty who had only the crumbs of God's blessing [see Matthew 15:21-26], but become the seed of Abraham-the church. Lazarus [the Gentiles] becomes rich in God's blessing by the Gospel. Christ says, "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" [Matthew 21:43]. "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ" [Galatians 3:14]. See Matthew 8:11-12; Luke 8:28' Acts 8:46; 26:23; Romans 2:29; 9:3-5; 3:26-29; 4:28; Philippians 3:3; Romans 2:28-29; 11:7; Ephesians 2:12-13]. IN THE PARABLE LAZARUS (THE CHURCH) IS NOW IN ABRAHAM'S BOSOM WHERE THE JEWS ONCE WERE. "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise" [Galatians 4:28]. "For we are the circumcision, who worship by the spirit of God" [Philippians 3:3]. "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart" [Romans 2:29]. "And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" [Galatians 3:29]. Paul calls the church "the Israel of God" [Galatians 6:16].
[C] "ABRAHAM Galatians 3:6-22; Romans 9:8. The blessing of Abraham came to the Gentiles through the Church. Israel does not now by birth have the blessing of Abraham, therefore are "in anguish, and sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." Israel is not now in covenant relationship with God. The Church is now the "sons of Abraham" [Galatians 3:7]. Israel has been "broken off" or "cast off" [Romans 11]. THE CHURCH IS NOW "THE ISRAEL OF GOD" [Galatians 6:16].
[D] THE GULF: The rejection of Christ cut Israel off from Abraham and the blessing of God. One cannot reject Christ and worship God. Without believing in Christ and His resurrection, there is a gulf between God and Israel. One cannot go back to the Law as some Jews in Paul's time tried to do. As long as they reject Christ, there is not "a drop" of spiritual comfort for them in Christianity. Those that believe in Christ can give no comfort, no hope of salvation to them that do not believe whether they are Jews or Gentiles. The Law of Moses, which Israel gloried in, died at the death of Christ. "Having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross" [Colossians 1:13]. "Be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage" [Ephesians 2:11-22]. Also Acts 15:24. We cannot cross the gulf and go back to the Law [Galatians 5:1]. "That which Israel seeks for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it" [Romans 11:7]. The only way any person can become a child of God today is by being born again. The Law is dead and will never be restored. The nation of Israel can never be restored. The only way any Jew could ever again be a child of God is to believe the Gospel and be baptized into Christ. "By their unbelief they (branches-plural, Jews, not nations-plural) were broken off" and Gentiles (not Gentiles nations) were grafted in. "And they (individual Jews) also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them (branches - plural Jews - not plural nations of Israel) in again" [Romans 11:17-24].
The rich man [Israel] went to the grave [hades]. Israel is no longer God's chosen people. Lazarus, the Gentiles believers go to Abraham's bosom [into a covenant relationship with God], not to the grave. Abraham's bosom is not a division of [one side of] the grave [hades]. Many draw a circle and make one side of it be where the rich man is and the other side where Lazarus is with a gulf between the two sides. This circle is in the back of most Bibles printed by Star Bible and Tract, and in many other books printed by members of the church of Christ.
[E] THE FIVE BROTHERS: Christ was telling the Pharisees and scribes they would not believe even when He rose from the dead. [See Trench "Notes On The Parables" Page 162]. Judea and his five brothers became six of the twelve tribes. Some believe five brothers are used to identify the rich man as Judea to the Pharisees to whom He was speaking this parable.
In the parable Abraham tells the rich man that if their own scriptures cannot convince them of their error, neither would they be persuaded if one rose from the dead.
Making this a true story and not a parable: