Note carefully what Jesus said would take place upon His return:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

MATTHEW 24:29-31

Since it is clear none of these things happened in AD 70, some people have chosen to allegorize them into some kind of spiritual application or figurative meaning because of their belief that the Olivet Discourse is not prophecy. But the context will not allow this in light of the fact that this was not a teaching per se, but was more of an intelligence briefing in which Jesus was revealing the future of the world to the quartet of disciples.

Jesus went on to teach two parables in Matthew 25 to illustrate what the mindsets of the Jews and mankind will be like at the time of the fulfillment of the Olivet Discourse. In light of the fact that I hold to the pre-tribulation rapture view, I do not believe that most of the content of the Olivet Discourse has any application for the church, outside of motivating us to share the gospel with as many people as we can, including the Jews, because of what is coming upon the whole world. I do not believe, however, that everything in the Olivet Discourse is limited to the seventieth week of Daniel or the tribulation or specifically to the Jews.

The group of disciples who posed the questions in Matthew 24:3 to Jesus were a unique group. They were Jews, and also founding members of the church. Because the questions were posed about the future, and the future would include nearly 2,000 years of church history—and because two of the men who asked the questions, Peter and John, would play significant roles in the early church—we are not imposing on Scripture when we conclude that the answer Jesus gave would include information about the latter days of church history prior to the seventieth week of Daniel. In fact, when we study Scripture, two of the crucial elements in interpreting the content are (1) who is speaking? and (2) who is being spoken to? In the Olivet Discourse, the Holy One of Israel, who is also the head of the church, is speaking to four Jewish disciples who were also among the 12 apostles of the church.

Excerpt from The Time of the Signs by Barry Stagner. Order Now.

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