These are not backslidden saints, by the way. These are people in love with Jesus, who want to see His face!

The Gospel has been making inroads world-wide for many centuries. It is at its all-time greatest expansion today. The Gospel is on every continent and in every country. But there are cultural groups, some say several hundred, living in those countries that have not a word of Scripture in their native language. Do all qualify as “nations” in the Bible sense? Will Jesus wait until every man, woman, and child has had a chance to hear a word of Scripture in his own language? Is that the requirement? Then what of the millions who have already died without hearing that Word?

Or was Jesus’ statement general on purpose, adding only one more backdrop for the condition of the world when He is about to come? It is true that the world will not end until the Gospel has gone around the world, but that process has taken many hundreds of years, and may take many more. It cannot be a “sign”, for no one knows exactly when it is fulfilled. In fact, is it fulfilled now?

In the next verse, 15, is a statement that is so specific that it far overshadows all that has been said so far. I believe it is the answer the disciples were seeking. It is backed up by Scripture and followed up by an action scenario that leads quickly to the end of the world!

Let me make that last point again. It will change forever your idea about the end times. If you are able to grasp what I am sharing here, you will be able to lay aside human opinions that have for so long governed Matthew 24. The point is this: There is absolutely no textual need for any break between verse 15 and verse 31. That is, the “sign” mentioned in verse 15 kicks off a series of events that leads in a relatively short time to the very revelation of Jesus Christ in the clouds. This is one understanding you will not receive in most other discussions of this passage available today. It sweeps away theories. It frees itself from historical speculation. It ties itself directly to passages in Daniel and Revelation and leads God’s people to see that One Spirit spoke to all. The message is awe-generating, even frightening at times, but not confused.

Do you see it? A signal is given, panic ensues, worldwide trouble follows this, so bad that the time period is shortened by God Himself, more false prophets appear, Jesus comes! Those who see the beginning of this series of events will most likely see its end (Matthew 24:34). Otherwise it could not be considered a sign. If the “abomination” took place in the first century but I live in the twenty-first, why should I think it was signaling anything?

Granted, in A.D. 70, armies did encircle Jerusalem, and the Roman conquerors destroyed almost everything standing. And the Temple was defiled by Caesar’s general Titus. And those in the vicinity panicked and ran, not necessarily because Jesus had told them to (for the unsaved Jewish community had long since written Jesus off) but because that’s what you do when you are met with such a forceful attack. Yes, Jews were protected in neighboring Edom, at Petra, etc. But the rest of chapter 24 did not happen. Jesus did not return to Earth! And the instructions given to us remain intact: “Let him that reads understand.” I think no one was reading about this catastrophe in A.D. 70. But we read. And more and more, we understand. This event has not yet occurred, though the Jews of the first century had a very real dress rehearsal.

I realize that what I am proposing will set predictive prophecy study back many years, and that’s a great idea. Let’s set it back, in fact, to the days when it was first spoken, and read for ourselves what Jesus said!

Let’s continue on with chapter 24 and then go back to verse 15 to answer the key question that arises there: What is the abomination of desolation?

Verses 16-20. Those listening, and especially those reading , are told to get out of town when they see the signal. Yes, there is still some unfinished business to take place in the Jewish community. The fact that A.D. 70 was a “false alarm” does not cancel out the ultimate judgment coming to that part of the world. The Word of God still stands, and it is unfulfilled. Thanks to Him for the many who have gone to Israel to call out a remnant of the Jewish people to salvation. But the great majority of Israelites will not accept Israel’s God until forced to do so.

Yes, Israel will run again on that day. In the midst of the prophecy of this destruction given in Zechariah 12, God says to Israel (v. 12) that they will be asked to look on the One Who was pierced for them. A spirit of supplication will come upon them as they look and are grieved at what they see. While fire rains from Heaven all around them, they will be taken to a place of refuge and exposed to the truth about Messiah. 144,000 such believing Jews are enumerated in Revelation 7:1-8. The woman of Revelation 12, whom we know to be Israel, is taken to a hiding place for three and one half years and nourished miraculously. Here is where they meet Messiah, in my opinion. This would explain why there is still going to be some running in Israel’s future. They will run right into Jesus’ arms.

Needless to say, none of this happened in A.D. 70. The prophecy is not fulfilled.

Verse 21 should have been the “give-away” thought to all of us who lived through the turbulence of the 20th and early 21st centuries. We should have seen that a temporary destruction of Jerusalem by an ancient Roman army was not what Jesus was talking about when he mentioned unprecedented trouble. Never before, never since, says verse 21. No world catastrophe that comes near this one. And yet we can all think of or read of times when the peoples of our world, or even the Jews alone, were in greater trouble than those days of history following Jesus’ stay here. How many people perished in the World Wars? How many Jews in the Holocaust? What about atomic bombs and nuclear warheads?

Jesus saw the chaotic drama of all time taking place. So horrifying, so universal, so devastating that our Sovereign God will step in and shut it all down (v. 23) before every living thing on the planet, including those chosen to enter into Kingdom life, is snuffed out. That was not A.D. 70. Our thinking must change. The sign of Matthew 24:15 points to the end.