29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His [ x ] elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
Matthew 24:29-31 (NASB) 中文
Signs
Jesus warned about the coming of false Messiahs and clarified that when He comes back, it will be obvious. Now for more signs and future events.
More Signs of His coming
These verses are interpreted in different ways by holders of different end times beliefs. I will not attempt to do what others have already done. The one I tend to follow is that of what’s called “pre-tribulation” where the Church is raptured before the tribulation starts. And what is being talked about here, then, is at the end of the tribulation – when Jesus comes back to bring judgment. For the most part, the graphic below from planobiblechapel.org represents what I currently believe (I’m not ruling out the possibility for change in my view as I study more). The one exception is I’m not sure about the “preparation period”.
Notes on these signs
- This happens right after the tribulation period.
- These continue the idea of an obvious return from yesterday’s passage.
- The signs in the heavens (sky) are quotes from various OT passages (so NASB uses upper case) such as Isa 13:10, and Eze 32:7.
- The sign of Christ could be a cross in the sky. But considering He will return as He left at His ascension (Acts 1:9-11) my guess is it’s His glory.
- “This is probably the language of appearance: this is how things will look, not that these heavenly bodies will literally change. The ‘powers of the heavens’ probably is a collective reference to the sun, moon, and stars.” (planobiblechapel.org quoting McNeile)
- “Tribes of the earth will mourn” – possibly refers to those still alive on earth who haven’t believed and mourn their coming judgment.
- The “trumpet blast”, for a pre-tribber, would refer to one different from the rapture (1 Thess 4:16).
- The picture here is, “the regular word for the arrival of a governor into his province or for the coming of a king to his subjects. It regularly describes a coming in authority and in power.” (Barclay quoted by enduringword.com)
- From the four winds typically means from every direction. From one end of the sky to the other could mean many things. The idea could be that Jesus will send the angels to gather together all believers, dead or still alive at that time.
RЯeflection
- Why is this not laid out as simply as other Bible truths such as salvation? Sure God knows and can communicate it. Maybe His desire is to encourage us to study. Most likely, He wants us to live in a state of expectation, of readiness. He wants us to “make the best use of time for the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16).
- It could also be that it’s as knowable as His first coming. The Jews, for the most part, didn’t understand when Messiah would come or that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies. When we look at His first coming, we see it as “obvious”. But hindsight is usually 20/20. What’s the bottom line? Be ready!
