Tom Pittman's WebLog

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2006 September 13 -- Matthew 24 in Perspective

The Dispensationalists insist that everything in Jesus' Matthew 24 prophecy is still in the future, after today. They are wrong.

The Preterists insist that everything in Jesus' Matthew 24 prophecy happened in 70AD. They are also wrong.

The key to understanding Matthew 24 is in verse 15, which the Evangelist carefully points out is obscure, using the words: "let the reader understand." It is a reference to Daniel's "abomination that causes desolation." Anybody aware of Jewish history knows that reference so accurately describes Antiochus Epiphanes that the anti-supernaturalists argue for a late composition of Daniel. Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled two centuries before Jesus spoke those words, and yet Jesus makes it yet future again.

If not twice, why not three (or more) fulfillments? Nothing in Jesus' teaching restricts it to a single future event. The Matthew 24 prophecy predicted both 70AD and some future event or events.