I’ve covered in other articles how the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 has been falsely interpreted to be an End-time event by most evangelicals today. However, because I kept hearing false interpretations about it from people close to me, I felt the need to write something short and thought-provoking to try to lead my fellow brothers and sisters to a deeper and correct understanding of what Jesus was saying to His disciples. I hope to convince you from the Scriptures alone that the Great Tribulation He spoke of in Matthew 24 is NOT an End-time event.

The Olivet Discourse is the prophecy Jesus gave His disciples about the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. Evangelicals today interpret Matthew 24 to be an End-time event. And why? Because the Scofield Reference Bible says so! They don’t compare Matthew 24 with Mark 13 or Luke 21, for if they did, they might understand that most of Matthew 24 is talking about the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Roman army in 70 AD.

In case you are a new babe in Christ and are unfamiliar with what evangelicals teach about Matthew 24, just do a Google search with the words Matthew 24 End time prophecy and see the number of hits.

I would say 12,200,000 hits indicate that most Christians today believe the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 is an End-time event.

I want to make it clear I didn’t come to a good understanding of the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 on my own. Commentaries by other men of God, especially by Bible scholars who lived in the 18th century and earlier helped me greatly. They were men who lived before John Nelson Darby taught Jesuit futurist eschatology in the 19th century which was promoted by the Scofield Reference Bible and the Dallas Theological Seminary in the 20th century.

Let’s start this condensed study of Matthew chapter 24 with verse 15:

Matthew 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

What Scripture spoken of by Daniel was Jesus referring to? The second half of Daniel 9:27 says:

… and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

What is this talking about? Who uses abominations to make what desolate? Luke who wrote his Gospel to the Greek Gentiles who had not read the prophecy in the book of Daniel defines the abomination of desolation in Luke 21:20 as:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

The Roman army was an abomination to the Jews! What do armies do to their enemies’ territory? They desolate it! They destroy as much as they can to defeat their enemy. That’s what happened when the Jews rebelled against the Roman government. By 70 AD the Roman army destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem and killed over one million Jews in a relatively short time.

Matthew 24:1-2 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said unto them, See ye 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.

Do you see how the beginning of Matthew 24 is clearly referring to the destruction of the Temple? History tells us the “he” of the second half of Daniel 9:27 was General Titus who led the Roman army. According to Josephus, he didn’t want to destroy the Temple at first, but his soldiers were so angry toward the Jews Titus couldn’t control them.

Matthew 24:16  Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Just ask yourself, if Matthew 24 is supposed to be an End-time prophecy of great worldwide tribulation of all the peoples of the earth (who according to Scofield missed the rapture) why would Jesus specify Judaea? And why would Jesus use the verb “flee”? Flee from what? Flee from the End-time Beast who controls the entire earth? Flee where? If you live in the Great Plains of the USA there are no mountains to flee to. I submit to you therefore this prophecy only makes sense when applied to the followers of Christ who saw the armies of Rome invade their homeland of Judea in 66 AD when the armies of Rome first approached to stop the Jewish revolt against the empire.

Matthew 24:20  But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

If this is an End-time prophecy that will affect the entire world, why would Jesus tell his disciples that? If it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s summer in the Southern Hemisphere. And why pray their flight from danger is not on the sabbath day? Because the gates of Jerusalem and other cities in Judea are closed on the Sabbath day! The believers wouldn’t be able to leave the cities they are living in on the Sabbath day! I submit to you therefore the prophecy of not talking about the End-time but was specific to the followers of Jesus living in Jerusalem and Judea just before the invasion of the Roman armies the time of the first Jewish revolt that started in 66 AD.

Matthew 24:21  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Verse 21 is where evangelicals get the words, “great tribulation.” But is that what the other two synoptic Gospels call it?

Mark 13:19  For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.

Luke 21:22  For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

Days of affliction on whom? Days of vengeance on whom? On the Jesus Christ-rejecting Jews who did NOT flee Jerusalem and Judea! The followers of Christ who believed the prophecy Jesus gave on the Mount of Olives obeyed Him and were not in Jerusalem or Judea at the time the Roman armies were crucifying the Jews. They left and camped out somewhere in the mountains where they were safe from attack.

Matthew 24:22  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

What can this mean if the followers of Jesus were safe from attack by the Romans? I think it’s logical to say they were fighting for survival in the mountains with limited resources. The Lord therefore shortened the days of the Roman attack so they could go back home. What do you think? It sure makes sense to me.

This is not to say Bible believing followers of Jesus Christ will not face tribulation and persecution in the End-time. No matter who wins the US presidential elections this coming November, half of the country is going to be mad! The US may erupt in a civil war. Insiders like Bill Gates even predicted one!

Jesus did promise His followers tribulation.

John 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

I was taught we can KNOW EXACTLY how long that End-time tribulation will last, and I don’t believe that anymore. My Bible teachers were influenced by the doctrines of dispensationalism that Darby and Scofield taught, doctrines that put Israel, not Jesus Christ, at the center of End-time prophecy. Dispensationalism AKA Futurism says that a future Antichrist will tribulate the world for 7 years just before the return of Christ. Some say only 3 and a half years. But both these doctrines are based on a false interpretation of the 70th Week of Daniel, something I wrote extensively about on this website.

Christians from the very beginning have suffered persecution and tribulation by the Roman Beast (government) and yet many American Christians think they will be raptured out to Heaven just before the Antichrist rises! The Antichrist has been around for a long time now! How long? I would say from the time Constantine made Christianity the State Church. That was the Devil’s change of plans. He saw persecution by pagan Rome only made the Church grow. By making Rome officially Christian, when the government persecutes believers, it’s no longer called persecution of Christians, it’s called persecution of heretics!

So what will happen? One researcher I know of says Donald Trump will win in November, defeat the evil Left, and bring to America a new era of peace and prosperity based on Christian principles, what some people call “Christian Nationalism.” It will seem very good at first, but the Jesuits will be controlling it at the top and lead the government to persecute anybody they don’t like, especially the Bible believers. This can’t happen under the present US Constitution. Will there be a civil war that leads to the Constitution being revoked or amended? We shall see.

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