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Lesson 81 Ch24
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Matthew’s Gospel is a Jewish account containing a number of Jewish cultural expressions that were inherently understood by Jews in that era but can be confusing to gentiles in the modern Church that is so many centuries removed. Taught by Tom Bradford.

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THE BOOK OF MATTHEW

Lesson 81, Chapter 24 Continued 2

The Gospel of Matthew is a delight to teach because it offers such opportunities to provide application to our modern lives, as well as to prepare us for what lay ahead. Chapters 24 and 25 form what is nearly universally known as the Olivet Discourse (Olivet because it's occurring on the Mount of Olives). It is Yeshua's final large block of teaching that is recorded. Unlike some chapters in Matthew, chapter 24 consists nearly exclusively of Christ's words and they are far reaching and have enormous implications for us, theologically and practically, and thus those words need to be carefully fleshed out. Very few words (the statements that are outside of the quotation marks) have been added by Matthew to create background or to express his own conclusions about what Christ's words mean. Mark 13 and Luke 21 do similarly. This means we are immediately faced with a decision: are these words within the quotation marks truly the words of our Messiah? Or are these words at least partly those of the Gospel writers, written to advance a personal agenda? While most of you have probably not even thought of such a possibility, I'd have to say that the preponderance of modern era Bible commentators say that indeed some of what we read are the inventions of the Gospel writers and aren't actually Jesus's recorded words. What is their evidence for this? First, it stems from a belief that prophecy itself is a primitive superstition and is not real. So the evidence mostly amounts to a scholarly consensus of opinion among like-minded academics, based on the various study disciplines of literary and textual criticism. At times it seems to involve a predisposed (perhaps subconscious) viewpoint of the scholar, including when they believe that a Gospel writer actually wrote, and from whom he might have obtained his information. Another influential factor in their determinations has to do with a desire to support certain denominational doctrines or worldviews they openly agree with. I shall go forward believing and teaching that if we are to take the Gospels as inspired of God, then except for obvious later Christian glosses and simple copyist errors, we have no choice but to take them at face value. And (here is an important point of application) should Yeshua's recorded instruction interfere with our beliefs, then it is our beliefs that are to be held suspect and not Messiah's words.

Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 24.

RE-READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 24:9 – 14

The words "at that time" (or "then" in some Bible versions) immediately tells us that we must find (if we can) the intended connection to something that characterizes or defines when "that time" is. That characterization is found in verse 8 when we're told that certain things will come about that signal the "birth pains" of the End. In the Hebrew sense of it, the birth pains are meant as those earliest twinges that a woman feels before the labor begins in earnest. These birth pains are events of the future that will happen as listed in verses 4-7. They begin with an appearance of a series of false Messiahs, the leading astray of many of God's people, the noise of wars nearby and the news of other wars that are happening far away, of ethnic (racial) strife and hatred, of national governments battling with one another using their armies, and of cataclysmic famines and earthquakes in many places around the world (in other words, not just in the Holy Land). Again: these are the signs we are to watch for that signals the first twinges of End Times birth pains. For those who accept Yeshua's words as actual true divine prophecy we now know what to look for… and also what to dismiss… that reveals whether we have arrived at the dawn of the End Times.

As verse 9 says, at that same time when certain perilous conditions begin (the first birth pains appear), then Believers in Jesus will start to be arrested and turned over to authorities for punishment, and the distrust and hatred of Christ followers will start to rise into what will in time become a deafening and murderous crescendo. I would be dishonest if I didn't at this point express my opinion (and I want to stress, this is my personal view and nothing that I could confidently frame as "the Lord told me"). While I do see indications that we may be living at the time of those first twinges of the birth pains, I am unable to say with certainty that this is the case. For instance, we can look historically back to the time of the Inquisition of the 12th century and discover something that looks very much like what Yeshua is describing. For those of you who aren't history buffs, the Inquisition was a period in the history of the Catholic Church of the 12th century when the leadership wanted to root out so-called heretics. Heretics were usually whatever local Church authorities defined them as. If we read a synopsis about the Inquisition usually it will say that it was Muslims and Jews that were singled out for examination and worse. The problem is that this is a bit misleading as it sounds like Muslims hid themselves among Christians in order to subvert the faith; and that Jews hid themselves among Christians in order to destroy their belief in Christ. What is actually meant is that former Muslims who now professed Christ, and Jews that had legitimately turned to Yeshua as Lord and Savior, were under suspicion as liars. Christianity as it was practiced by the Catholic Church had become so Romanized and prejudiced that they could not accept the idea of Semitic people… Arab or Hebrew… in their fold. Thus if one was an Arab or a Jew (a non-European ethnicity) then it was nearly inconceivable to the 12th century Catholic Church that they could REALLY be Christians. So in Christ's name these people were murdered by the thousands. And by the way, this included many non-Jews and non-Arabs who merely LOOKED Jewish or Arab to some Church authority. There is no verifiable evidence of which I am aware that the alleged Arab and Jewish subversives were actually anything but innocent and devoted Christ followers.

The point is that long ago Christians were arrested and turned over by other Christians to Church leadership for punishments and even executions. Therefore might not some Believers living through that horrific time have thought that this must be the foretold beginning of the birth pains of the End that Jesus spoke about? Those Arab and Jewish Christians that were arrested, tortured mercilessly, and executed by a zealous Church surely must have. But as horrific as it was, it was not the sign of the birth pains of the End, was it? Therefore it is very difficult to say with too much confidence that we have arrived at the time of these birth pains, even with rising persecution within the Church… except for one key thing: the rebirth of Israel as a nation. This astonishing event MUST happen first in order for us to know that the End Times are at least on the horizon. There are several prophetic Scriptures that speak of this event, but here is one of the most profound.

CJB Isaiah 66:8-11 8 Who ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Is a country born in one day? Is a nation brought forth all at once? For as soon as Tziyon went into labor, she brought forth her children. 9 "Would I let the baby break through and not be born?" asks ADONAI. "Would I, who cause the birth, shut the womb?" asks your God. 10 Rejoice with Yerushalayim! Be glad with her, all you who love her! Rejoice, rejoice with her, all of you who mourned for her; 11 so that you nurse and are satisfied by her comforting breast, drinking deeply and delighting in the overflow of her glory. 

So do I think we are experiencing the earliest birth pangs that doesn't signal that we have entered into the End Times, but rather that it is about to erupt? Yes I do. But the only way to know for sure requires that we patiently wait and see what happens next. Just as the expectant mother that feels those twinges knows that whatever preparation time remains for her to be ready for the actual labor and birth is short, so that is what every vigilant Believer ought to be doing right now: preparing. Preparing our minds and our lives for the return of Messiah and what comes with it. Soon, Yeshua will give some illustrations and pronounce some Parables to emphasize this point.

Verse 10 continues by saying that many will be trapped into betraying and hating each other. The KJV says that many will be offended and this will cause people to hate each other. The NAS says that many will fall away and betray others. First, we must understand that this is not talking about the world in general; this is only talking about those who profess to be followers of Jesus… what we could loosely call "The Church". It is Believers being trapped, or offended, or falling away and then hating or betraying other Believers. The Greek word that is being variously translated as trapped, offended or falling away is skandalizo.  The CJB saying "trapped" is pretty good; although the terms offended and falling away are not as good. The idea is to picture a snare used to catch small animals. A trap is being set by the enemy using Church insiders and many members will be captured by it. We need to remember the context for what Yeshua is saying and all that has led up to what He is prophesying. He has just removed Himself from within the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to the Mount of Olives, and from His ongoing verbal battles over Scriptural truth with the Scribes and the Pharisees to prophetic pronouncements of the future to His inner circle. He had been accusing the Jewish leadership of being the ones who are setting the snares with their lies; snares that those Jews who seek God and want to worship Him properly and to participate in the Kingdom of Heaven, are going to fall into. This will prevent many from ever becoming members of God's Kingdom. So it's not outside forces (pagans and tyrants), but rather inner forces of Church and Synagogue leadership that will be the culprits; it is they who will set the traps.

Somehow… as shocking as it is to hear and painful as it may be to contemplate… we must wrap our minds around the Jesus-spoken reality that it is not going to be the forces of national governments that set the snares for Believers. From a spiritual perspective, it doesn't matter whether one lives under Communism, or a monarchy, or a Socialist or a Capitalist Democracy. It also doesn't matter whether one regards their civil and national government as evil or good. While some may indeed be immoral and wicked oppressors, that is not what Yeshua is warning about here. It is the leadership authority of the Believing community that is the subject. It is they that He prophecies will be the persecutors just as in 1100 more years it would be the Catholic Church during the Inquisition. Look like I do, or be punished. Believe as I do, or be banished. Behave as I do, or be turned over for discipline or death.

The result of being ensnared will be the falling away from God and the loss of salvation or its opportunity for many. But, what exactly, is the trap… the snare… which is a metaphor to illustrate something else? It can be nothing other than what Jesus has been accusing the Pharisees of for some time: teaching false doctrines as though they are the commands of God. What a Believer believes is everything. Faith is only faithfulness to God when the beliefs we hold have a basis in divine truth. Any old faith is not a saving faith. Faith in your Pastor or Rabbi, or even in what they say, is not how God determines your faithfulness to Him. While Yeshua was brutally combative and condemning regarding the teaching of the Scribes and the Pharisees… the Jewish religious leadership… it is because the common people suffered (usually unknowingly) since they had little to no choice but to get their religious instruction from those leaders. If a Scribe said "thus saith the Lord", the common man didn't have a ready means to fact check him, he just accepted it as the truth. Today, however, it is very different. Bibles are cheap and easily obtainable. Most countries have a pretty good level of literacy so that the Bibles can be read by their owners, and Bibles are now published in literally hundreds of languages. So what excuse is there for a modern Christian who goes to Church, or for a Jew who goes to Synagogue, not to take a few minutes to fact check what his or her Pastor or Minister or Rabbi says is "thus saith the Lord"? In my book, none. It is pure laziness or disinterest on the part of the congregation. I know this is case because at one time in my life that was an apt description of me and my Christian friends. The point is that while in ancient times the religious leadership bore nearly all the guilt for wrong doctrine, it was due to the lack of accessible biblical material for the people; but today that guilt for wrong doctrine must be equally shared between the religious leadership and the individual members of a congregation. So an ancient Jew might have been able to plead "but my Rabbi told me" thus and so and receive some level of mercy from God; but can a modern Christian expect the same when their excuse for not obeying God is "but my Pastor told me"? Yes, I am highly accountable to God for what I teach you; but you are also highly accountable to Him for verifying in your Bibles if what I'm teaching you is accurate and true.

Verse 11 says that many false prophets will appear. The issue is not so much that they come, but rather that what they say will fool many Believers. What are these false prophets going to fool people about? Since the subject is the Believing communities' leaders and teachers, then again it can only be what these leaders and teachers (here characterized as prophets) advocate about God, His Word, and His Son. In another sense, it must also include what these leaders prophesy in the sense of professing what the future holds; that is, prophets as claiming to be seers. I can't imagine the number of God worshippers over the ages that have fallen away because they placed their trust in what a person that held themselves up as God's prophet told them, but it never came to pass. A little speculation here and there by a Christian leader or teacher is normal and OK as long as it is identified as such. But when that leader declares that God has given him personal knowledge of something about the future that He's told no one else? Be very wary and do not put your faith in that. The likelihood that it will happen or that God truly told him, is not impossible but it is remote.

Verse 12 is an example of what we've just been talking about. It says that many people's love will grow cold (this, again, is talking about Believers). But what is the cause of this lack of love among Christ followers? The CJB says it will be "because of increased distance from Torah". The KJV says "because iniquity will abound". The NAB says "because of the increase of evil doing". The NAS says "because lawlessness will increase". Quite the range of translations and meanings isn't it? So what's the reason for this variation? The word that is at the heart of the issue is the Greek anomia. Interestingly, it's not a complex word with many meanings; it's pretty straightforward. Nomia means "law". Anomia is the opposite; it means the lack of or no law. Lawlessness is a very good English translation; iniquity and increase of evil doing is off the mark so why phrase it this way? Because the translators were likely more concerned about upholding a doctrine from their Church sponsors. And the doctrine they wish to uphold is that the Law (the Law of Moses) is dead, gone, altogether irrelevant, and has no place in the lives of Believers. Because they perfectly understood that the only law that any Jew would have given any credence was the Law of Moses and certainly not Roman law, then the meaning had to be obscured and sent in a different direction. In other words Yeshua of course isn't saying that breaking the local Roman laws or of whatever society you're part of, amounts to God's determination of lawlessness; otherwise the standard of sin and righteousness would be infinitely variable. Instead it is meant in an entirely religious sense, so it is God's laws that are the issue and not human laws. Believers breaking the speed limit or not filing a tax return will not lead to their love growing cold.

One could ask at this point whether this coldness is speaking about love for God, or love for our fellow man. I don't think the two can, at this point, be separated. To love God is to obey God; that is one of the first biblical principles taught. Therefore should our God commanded love towards our fellow man grow cold, we are disobeying God and thus through our disobedience we are not showing love towards Him. This leads us to a matter so critical to Christianity in general that it has formed perhaps the primary faith principle (after salvation in Christ) that Seed of Abraham Ministry is founded upon, and at the same time it creates (sadly) such a division between us and the institutional Church. It is our faith principle that the Law of Moses remains in effect, for gentiles and Jews, and we are to follow it the best we can in the circumstances we find ourselves in that are not under our control. The Law of Moses does not save us and never has; but it does define what sin is, what righteousness is, and what love is. This can directly oppose a rather widespread doctrine that implies that we are to go by what our hearts tell us, because that's where the Holy Spirit dwells in Believers. Thus, out of this logic, the definitions of sin and righteousness are customized for each individual Believer. What is sin for me might not be sin for you or for anyone else. If the Holy Spirit hasn't told me that something is wrong or a sin, then I hold no obligation to it. If my heart tells me I don't have to tithe, then I am exempt. If my heart tells me that gay marriage is OK, then it's OK. If my heart tells me that it's OK to declare anything I desire as proper food, that's my prerogative. This leads to the final result that God's commands in the Bible can disagree with what my heart tells me, and I'm in the right to disregard God's laws and instead do what my heart says to do. And this is because Jesus has made it thus.

I could easily spend the remainder of our time together today debating this doctrine, but I don't want to turn this lesson on Matthew 24 into an apology for the Law of Moses. I'll only say this: the earliest Christians… including the earliest gentile Christians… certainly did not think this way. Such an erroneous mindset only took hold once the number of gentiles overwhelmed the number of Jews who trusted in Yeshua, and the new gentile leadership wanted to reorient the practice of faith in the God of Israel and His Son Yeshua into a new religion that was more appealing to gentiles. Two things were needed to do this: a Christian Bible had to be created (as apart from the Hebrew Bible… the Old Testament), and the Law of Moses had to be set aside. Thus early in the 3rd century the first was accomplished and a few decades later the second. It was a critical turning point in the history of the Church. Therefore we should grasp that the term lawlessness (anomia) has no discernable biblical meaning if it isn't referring to the Law of Moses. So the CJB saying "many people's love will grow cold because of increased distance from Torah" while not fully literal, does indeed capture the meaning and intent of Yeshua's thought. And since the Torah commands love of our fellow man as second only to love for God… and since the Law of Moses describes in some detail what love towards God and love towards our fellow man looks like in practice… then when that standard is abolished by humans, it becomes impossible to please God. Without the Law of Moses as our standard, we are wanderers without map or compass.  

Verse 13 sums up what Jesus has been saying. It is that those who persevere in their love and obedience until the End during times of trials and tribulations and temptations will be delivered… they will be saved. Let me say this another way: within the Church body only a portion (which could amount to millions) will maintain a saving faith as pressures increase to condone and embrace the newest doctrinal trends. The additive effects of centuries of manmade doctrines and traditions, and of the teaching of false prophets, will (as part of the birth pains) finally take their full toll. Many who fill our Churches and Synagogues today will, according to Jesus, lose their faith and fall away from God. The confusion of volumes of conflicting manmade faith principles will finally overwhelm and actually encourage rebellion among God-worshippers. This verse is another that is sometimes disavowed by Bible scholars as an improper addition by Matthew because it directly contradicts the popular (and historically recent) doctrine of "once saved, always saved". Some Evangelical denominations, understanding that contradiction, have worked towards a middle ground that doesn't so much disavow this verse as it does interpret it to say that the Believers Jesus has been speaking about were never actually Believers… they were pretenders. The doctrine of pretenders… or anything like it… simply doesn't exist in the New Testament so far as I have observed, and certainly it never shows up in the mouth of Yeshua. In so many places in Old Testament prophecy, and in Christ's words, and later in other New Testament writers' words, there are regular warnings to God worshippers to beware and not to fall away from God. Or as Yeshua's brother James (Jacob, actually) says it:

CJB James 5:19-20 19 My brothers, if one of you wanders from the truth, and someone causes him to return, 20 you should know that whoever turns a sinner from his wandering path will save him from death and cover many sins. 

And then there is this even stronger warning in the Book of Hebrews:

CJB Hebrews 10:26-29 26 For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, of raging fire that will consume the enemies. 28 Someone who disregards the Torah of Moshe is put to death without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. 29 Think how much worse will be the punishment deserved by someone who has trampled underfoot the Son of God; who has treated as something common the blood of the covenant which made him holy; and who has insulted the Spirit, giver of God's grace! 

It's not enough to believe for awhile and then fall away later when things get difficult and say "but Lord; I used to believe a long time ago, so that ought to count permanently as my salvation". And what is at the heart of "not falling away from God"? Obedience and perseverance, according to Christ.

After Yeshua has pronounced some pretty unpleasant things that none of His disciples would prefer to hear, He counters with a word of encouragement. Verse 14 says:

CJB Matthew 24:14 And this Good News about the Kingdom will be announced throughout the whole world as a witness to all the Goyim. It is then that the end will come.

So there it is: a very general roadmap from the time of Christ to the End Times has been laid out, with the final mile marker being that the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven has been proclaimed to the entire world. The term Goyim in verse 14 means gentiles; gentile individuals and gentile nations (the sole non-gentile nation on earth is Israel). So even though to this point Yeshua has told His disciples to NOT take the Good News of the Kingdom to gentiles, but only to Jews, that was only meant to be the case for a short time. Once it changed the mission became to take it to all people everywhere as it said it would in this verse. While Jews soon after Yeshua's death and resurrection started on their own to take the message of the Gospel to a few gentiles, the sort of official kick-off moment that Yeshua set Jewish Believers on a mission to evangelize gentiles was when He confronted Paul on the road to Damascus. Upon God's determination that this process of evangelizing has been fully accomplished, then not only the End Times arrives, so does the end of history as we know it. So has this already been accomplished in our time?

Depending on whose data you believe, it seems that while this mission hasn't been fully accomplished, we are close to it. Clearly it hasn't been completed in God's eyes or Christ would have returned by now. I want to say, however, that the point of Yeshua's statement was not that every last individual on earth must have personally heard the Good News as the condition of His return and the End of history. "All" isn't a precise term in the Bible and it doesn't mean 100.00%. "All" is a general term that means the vast majority or the preponderance of something. We must never think that God is so rigid as to make some person who for some nearly indefinable set of circumstances has not personally heard the Gospel in his own language, as being automatically doomed.

CJB Exodus 33:19 He replied, "I will cause all my goodness to pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce the name of ADONAI. Moreover, I show favor to whomever I will, and I display mercy to whomever I will.

And, by the way, Paul employs this passage to explain one of God's attributes in Romans 9:15. The only explanation for the adulterer and murderer King David to be called "after My own heart" by God, and to guarantee that David's line would produce a royal and eternal king, is God's mercy that He bestows upon whomever He decides. So it isn't necessary that every last individual living on earth before the last trumpet sounds must personally hear the Gospel before the End arrives or in order for them to necessarily be shown such divine mercy. But for those who have heard it and made a choice against, such mercy is not available.

Open your Bibles again as we read a few more verses.

RE-READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 24:15 – 22

Now we enter the realm of the mysterious and contentious. Yeshua sort of combines the quotes of 3 places in the Book of Daniel when He says that when you see the abomination that causes desolation… the Jews of Judah are to run for the hill country. Here's those 3 places in Daniel:

CJB Daniel 9:27 He will make a strong covenant with leaders for one week [of years]. For half of the week he will put a stop to the sacrifice and the grain offering. On the wing of detestable things the desolator will come and continue until the already decreed destruction is poured out on the desolator." 

CJB Daniel 11:31 Armed forces will come at his order and profane the sanctuary and fortress. They will abolish the daily burnt offering and set up the abomination that causes desolation.

 

CJB Daniel 12:11 From the time the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 

The mysterious nature of this passage is self-evident: what is the abomination that causes desolation? The contentious element of this is a little less self evident to Bible students. A contention that few Christians are aware of is that some of the most influential among modern Bible scholars do not believe that the Book of Daniel is authentic (nor written by Daniel) and therefore the all-important prophecies in it aren't credible. The most prevalent belief among them is that Daniel was written in the Holy Land (not in Babylon) about 150 to 160 B.C. (and not in the 6th century B.C.) The reason those dates are important is that 160 B.C. is not long after the Syrian dictator Antiochus Epiphanies desecrated the Holy Temple by setting up the image of a Greek god (Zeus) in its sanctuary, and then sacrificing a pig to it on the Temple altar (the record of this can be found in 1Maccabees chapters 1 and 6). So the thought is that the writer of Daniel essentially forged a prophecy by prophesying something that had already happened by his day (similar to the belief among many Bible scholars that Yeshua's prophecies about the destruction of the Temple had already happened and so Matthew was writing about it in hindsight while pretending it was an event yet to come).

This brings us back to the opening of today's lesson. Here we have words of Jesus clearly SAYING that this is a prophecy of Daniel that He is personally validating as true. And more, since Antiochus Epiphanies' desecration of the Temple had happened going on 2 centuries prior to Yeshua's prophetic statement, obviously that cannot be what Christ is prophesying about; it had to be something future to Him in order to be a prophecy. It also confronts us with the issue that according to much of modern Bible scholarship, Christ may not have known that the author of Daniel had faked his prophecies and wrote them after the fact; or as an alternative Matthew inserted fake prophetic words into Christ's mouth in his Gospel account so that Matthew's Jewish agenda could be fulfilled. If any of these contentions are accurate, then not only must the Book of Daniel be removed from our Bibles, but so should the Gospel accounts.

Then of course we have the matter that Paul in 2 Thessalonians also wrote about the abomination of desolation.

CJB 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 But in connection with the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah and our gathering together to meet him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be easily shaken in your thinking or anxious because of a spirit or a spoken message or a letter supposedly from us claiming that the Day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until after the Apostasy has come and the man who separates himself from Torah has been revealed, the one destined for doom. 4 He will oppose himself to everything that people call a god or make an object of worship; he will put himself above them all, so that he will sit in the Temple of God and proclaim that he himself is God. 

Since we have Paul saying these words many years after Christ's death, then the scholarly response is that Paul must have believed the tradition of what Jesus said about Daniel's prophecy. Meaning (for them), that Matthew was accurately writing down what Yeshua is said to have prophesied, however Yeshua was in error because He had been fooled like everyone else by the Daniel forgery. I remind you: this entire line of thought has at it's core the disbelief that there is such a thing as true prophecy.

Let's see if we can tie this together. Yeshua has been cautioning in chapter 24 that these sorts of false teachings from what He labels as false prophets, which in our time may be reflected by some of the Christian leadership advising their students to not trust Holy Scripture, will eventually lead to Believers falling away from their faith. When we have modern Bible scholars and teachers whose teachings overtly throw doubt on the authenticity of God's Word, and that forms the basis of what our Seminaries and Christian Theological Schools lean on to instruct their students, what do you suppose is the result? And then when the graduates of those particular schools (certainly not all) move on to become Pastors of Churches and for others the leaders of their denominational governments… well, now you can see how Christianity has arrived at a time not unlike the condition of the Hebrew faith of Yeshua's era. If we are taught to not believe parts of our Holy Book then what is it that we are to believe? This new trend in Christianity is another good reason for us all to at least be alert that we just might be experiencing some of those early birth pains that Yeshua told us to look for; time will tell.

There's also another aspect to this that can easily escape us. Since we know that Yeshua can only be talking about the future, then either this desolation of the Temple he's talking about must happen within the 35 or so years following His death (because by then the Temple will have been destroyed by the Romans), or He is referring to a far later time. We have no record of the Romans desecrating the Temple like Antiochus Epiphanies did. Therefore this can only be the prophecy of an event far into the future after Yeshua's time, and well after Herod's Temple is destroyed in 70 A.D. So in order for the desolation to occur, yet another Temple has to be constructed and operating… a 3rd Temple… because you can't desecrate a Temple that doesn't exist. It is generally believed that this desecration will be perpetrated by the dreaded Anti-Christ that is to come prior to the End; likely having a statue or image of himself as god placed within the Temple sanctuary; something that more or less repeats what Epiphanies did. As of now, from my perspective, this is the most likely explanation for what we're reading.

We'll pause here for today and continue next time with more of Matthew chapter 24.

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    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 9, Chapter 4 As we work our way through the Gospel of Matthew and discover so many important details buried in the text, and also discover those present in Christian traditions and just as importantly in the ancient Jewish traditions, we are regularly going to…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 10, Chapter 4 Continued The Early Church Father Chrysostom said this about the temptations of Christ: "The devil begins with the temptation to indulge the belly. By this same means he cast out the first man, and by this means many are still cast down."  In…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 11, Chapters 4 and 5 Our previous lesson in Matthew chapter 4 left off at a time when Christ was gathering His first disciples. Teachers and Holy Men gathering disciples was nothing new; in fact John's Gospel says that Andrew was John the Baptist's disciple…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 12, Chapter 5 The Sermon on the Mount will be our topic for the next few weeks as it takes up Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. I think I can say without much objection that the Sermon on the Mount represents the most consequential…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 13, Chapter 5 Continued The richness and depth of instruction contained in the Sermon on the Mount is so breathtaking and yet foundational to the life of a Believer in the Father and in Messiah Yeshua, that after much time studying and researching it, I…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 14, Chapter 5 Continued 2 We have now completed studying 7 of the Beatitudes. It is usually said that there are 8 of them, but some Bible commentators say there are 9, and others say 10. My position is that the separating away of the…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 15, Chapter 5 Continued 3 I want to begin by acknowledging that we've spent the better part of 3 lessons covering only the first 16 verses of Matthew chapter 5; I know this is a very slow pace. I'm afraid that it is not likely…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 16, Chapter 5 Continued 4 Today we continue our careful and deliberate study in Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount. Last week we spent our entire time together on the pivotal verses 17 – 20 because these form the basis and the backstop…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 17, Chapter 5 Continued 5 We've been in Matthew chapter 5 long enough that a reminder of the setting and background for the Sermon on the Mount is in order.  The setting is the Galilee. It is the serene rural agricultural and shepherding center of…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 18, Chapter 5 Conclusion Despite the happy fiction that in Yeshua's day the Jewish people practiced a religion that was rather pure and Torah driven, in reality what they practiced was a religion based mostly on Tradition. Naturally the Jews were not a monolithic culture;…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 19, Chapter 6 Our duty, and our hope, as followers of the Messiah Yeshua is to place our feet into His footprints. The Sermon on the Mount is showing us the way. Matthew recognizes how crucial Yeshua's speech is and so takes 3 full chapters…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 20, Chapter 6 Continued We'll continue in Matthew chapter 6 directing our focus upon the Lord's Prayer of verses 9 – 13. Leading up to this prayer example that Christ presented to those listening to His Sermon on the Mount, He gave His listeners a…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 21, Chapter 6 Continued 2 As we continue today in the Lord's Prayer, we'll begin at verse 13. Verses 11, 12, and 13 are sometimes called the "we petitions". This is because of the use of the plural "us" to begin each of these verses.…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 22, Chapter 6 Continued 3 We ended last week by discussing Matthew 6 verse 19. Beginning with this verse and on into the first part of chapter 7 Yeshua deals with an array of matters that in modern vocabulary we would probably label as "social…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 23, Chapter 7 We have now completed 2 of the 3 chapters that Matthew devoted to Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount. Every now and then it is probably profitable to remind you that Matthew did not write in chapters; ending one and beginning another. Rather…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 24, Chapter 7 Continued As we continue in Matthew chapter 7, we will review what we covered in the prior lesson. Let's begin by opening our Bibles and reading the opening verses.  RE-READ MATTHEW 7:1 – 6 Around a century ago, Thomas Walter Manson, a…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 25, Chapter 7 Continued 2 Matthew chapter 7 concludes the Sermon on the Mount that began in chapter 5. I'm hoping that by this point a better understanding is being gained about the context and intent of Yeshua's long speech; a context that has been…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 26, Chapter 7 Continued 3 In our previous lesson in Matthew chapter 7, Christ continues His Sermon on the Mount by making this unnerving statement in verses 22 and 23. CJB Matthew 7:22-23 22 On that Day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord! Didn't we…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 27, Chapter 7 and 8 We'll conclude Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount today, which we have spent 17 lessons studying because of its incomparable value, and we'll also open the door into Matthew chapter 8. But first let's take a look back on the all-important…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 28, Chapter 8 Continued As we delve deeper and deeper into Matthew's Gospel, to this point we have found three elements to be always present and repetitive; therefore it is crucial for us to notice them and to understand that Matthew has constructed his Gospel…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 29, Chapter 8 Continued 2 We took another extensive detour last week in our continuing study of Matthew Chapter 8 to explore some of the Early Church Fathers in order to trace their viewpoint on the all-important matter of Believers in Christ having an obligation…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 30, Chapter 8 and 9 We are in the midst of several miracle stories of Jesus. The first involved cleansing a man who had Tzara'at. The second was healing a house slave of his infirmities (at the request of a Roman army officer), without Christ even…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 31, Chapter 9 We're going to spend a little more time today with the story that opens Matthew 9; that of the paralytic man who was brought to Christ so that he might be healed. Let's begin by re-reading verses 1 – 7. RE-READ MATTHEW…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 32, Chapter 9 Continued The subject that we'll focus on to begin today's lesson is a dispute between John the Baptist's disciples and Yeshua's disciples, ostensibly over the subject of fasting; this is what Matthew 9:14 – 17 revolves around. We'll go forward today in…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 33, Chapter 9 Continued 2 As we continue in Matthew chapter 9, we left off last time with verse 27 that says: CJB Matthew 9:27 27 As Yeshua went on from there, two blind men began following him, shouting, "Son of David! Take pity on…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 34, Chapter 9 and 10 We'll conclude Matthew chapter 9 today and get into Matthew chapter 10.  What we've been reading in chapter 9 has all been occurring on the shores of the Sea of Galilee; largely in Yeshua's new hometown of Capernaum, itself a…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 35, Chapter 10 Miracles are at the foundation of biblical faith. It begins with Creation itself as a miracle. After all, how does a Universe that never before existed have a definite beginning? Yet beyond simply declaring something a "miracle", we tend not to think…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 36, Chapter 10 Continued As we continue today in our study of Matthew chapter 10 there's a couple of important context items to keep in mind. First, Matthew lived and wrote well after the events he is speaking about. He was not the Matthew (also…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 37, Chapter 10 Continued 2 The topic of what Christ signified when He called Himself "the Son of Man" is how we ended our last lesson. In the Torah Class study of the Book of Daniel, lessons 20 and 21, I spent extensive time explaining…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 38, Chapter 10 and 11 Of the several passages in Matthew chapter 10 that we studied last week, verses 26 – 31 dealt with fear, death, and the problem of evil. In context it had primarily to do with what Yeshua's 12 Disciples might face…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 39, Chapter 11 From the panoramic view perhaps one of the main take-aways from all 4 Gospel accounts is that Yeshua was misunderstood by His own Jewish countrymen; and surprisingly by those one might think would have understood Him best. Since it is various individuals…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 40, Chapter 11 Continued Perhaps one of the more important, yet difficult to capture, statements made by Christ is found in Matthew 11:11 – 15. Another comes at the end of the chapter that we'll get to later. We're going to get pretty detailed and…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 41, Chapter 11 Continued 2 Before we continue in Matthew chapter 11, let's back-up a wee bit and reset the context. The first 19 verses of this chapter were about John the Baptist in relation to his connection with Christ. First, he was the foretold…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 42, Chapter 11 and 12 We wrapped up the prior lesson with a message of awareness to a sad but dangerous reality within Christianity in modern times, in which not only is it acceptable within the academic branch of the Church for agnostics or even…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 43, Chapter 12 We closed last week with discussing the establishment, purpose and ongoing relevance of the Sabbath. This stems from the opening verse of Matthew 12. CJB Matthew 12:1 One Shabbat during that time, Yeshua was walking through some wheat fields. His talmidim were hungry,…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 44, Chapter 12 Continued While every chapter of the Book of Matthew is packed with important information for the Believer, chapter 12 is one of the meatiest of them all. This chapter also helps us to recognize something I highlight in the very first lesson…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 45, Chapter 12 Continued 2 Of the several things Matthew continues to underscore in his Gospel, here in chapter 12 we seen this growing contrast… an unfriendly polarization, if you would… between Christ and the leaders of the Synagogue. As we read let's always remember…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 46, Chapter 12 Continued 3 Last week in Matthew chapter 12 we left off with the thorny issue of what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit amounts to. And the reason that is important is because even Christ's death on the Cross can't atone for it.…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 47, Chapter 13 Matthew chapter 13 begins this way: CJB Matthew 13:1 That same day, Yeshua went out of the house and sat down by the lake; 2 but such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there while…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 48, Chapter 13 Continued We began last week's lesson with a somewhat long dissertation about the true nature of parables because in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 13 is where Christ's use of parables begins in earnest. I'll briefly review.  One of the most important elements of…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 49, Chapter 13 Continued 2 Do you want to understand what the Kingdom of Heaven is like? Assuming you are Believers in the God of Israel and His Son, Yeshua, then little is more important in our faith journey than to pursue this understanding. In…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 50, Chapter 13 Conclusion "Communion with God by means of prayer, through the removal of all intruding elements between man and his Maker, and through the implicit acceptance of God's unity, as well as an unconditional surrender of mind and heart to His holy will,…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 51, Chapter 14 The first dozen verses of Matthew chapter 14 bring us back to the subject of John the Immerser; more specifically it tells us of his death. That he was in prison was already established back in chapter 11. Now chapter 14 begins…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 52, Chapter 14 Continued Keep your Bibles open and handy as we're going to do much reading today.  The beginning of Matthew chapter 14 was covered in the previous lesson. It is the story of the execution of John the Baptist. The request for his…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 53, Chapter 15 Today we start Matthew chapter 15. The first 20 verses represent perhaps one of the most controversial segments of any Gospel account. There is a parallel account of this same incident in Mark 7. We'll look it at as well because it…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 54, Chapter 15 Continued We'll continue this week in Matthew 15, one of the more challenging (and therefore controversial) chapters in the New Testament. At the same it is one of the most inspirational, instructional, and therefore among the most important for Believers to get…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 55, Chapter 15 Conclusion Before we continue in Matthew 15 today there's a couple of housekeeping issues I would like to get out of the way because I am regularly asked about it and enjoy the opportunity to offer an explanation. The first is my…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 56, Chapter 16 Who is Yeshua? What is Yeshua? This is a question that has yet to be fully answered to this point in Matthew, and even though most 21st century Christians think it is an answered and settled matter in The Church, it is far from…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 57, Chapter 16 Continued I began the previous lesson with the rhetorical questions: who is Yeshua? What is Yeshua? It is such a complex issue that as we go through this chapter I'll continue to weave-in some needed background about the historical Jesus so that…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 58, Chapter 16 Continued 2 We will continue to carefully work our way through Matthew in this chapter that is nearly a Gospel within a Gospel. Some of the more elite Bible scholars of the past make chapter 16 of Matthew among their most extensive…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 59, Chapter 16 and 17 Last week in our study of Matthew chapter 16 we ended with an important topic Yeshua raised beginning in verse 24, which is the high cost of being His disciple. Let's immediately go to our Bibles and read from verse…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 60, Chapter 17 We opened Matthew chapter 17 last week, which begins with one of the landmark occurrences within Yeshua's short ministry on earth: The Transfiguration. I promised that we'd try to untangle the meaning of it and we'll do that shortly. This is going…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 61, Chapter 17 Continued Last week we concluded our study of the opening portion of Matthew chapter 17 that focused on The Transfiguration. Truly this nearly unfathomable event of an epiphany of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus together is one of the most mysterious in the…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 62, Chapter 17 and 18 Last week we began to delve into the interesting story that ends Matthew chapter 17 about a certain tax collector coming to Capernaum where Yeshua was residing with Peter, and the tax collector asks the question " doesn't your Master…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 63, Chapter 18 We began chapter 18 last week and immediately the topic became humility. It is that humility is to be perhaps the chief virtue for anyone hoping to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Verses 1 – 14 are essentially an examination of Godly…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 64, Chapter 18 Conclusion We began to study Matthew 18:15 – 20 last week and shortly we'll re-read that section. Before we do that we need to set the context. This is necessarily going to involve some amount of sermonizing to go along with the…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 65, Chapter 19 We begin chapter 19 of Matthew's Gospel today, and it begins with a bang. Immediately some dicey subjects arise; dicey for the 1st-century Jewish community and they remain problematic for God worshippers to this day. The subjects are divorce, monogamy, and celibacy.…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 66, Chapter 19 Continued Marriage, divorce, polygamy versus monogamy, and celibacy… these were all important issues in Yeshua's time, and remain so in the modern era. While polygamy in the Western developed world is found only in smallish and offbeat remnants of our societies and…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 67, Chapters 19 and 20 In Matthew chapter 19 we find the story of the rich man who asked Yeshua how he could obtain eternal life. We find this same story in Mark and Luke as well, with only minor differences. Let's re-read it. RE-READ…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 68, Chapter 20 We began Matthew 20 last week and dealt with the Parable of the Fair Farmer who paid the same amount of money to workers that had labored from dawn to dusk equally as workers that had worked perhaps no more than an…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 69, Chapter 21 The first 20 chapters of Matthew have set the stage for what we'll encounter beginning in chapter 21. Those chapters could almost be set apart and in summation titled "How We Got Here From There".  Thus far we have learned much about…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 70, Chapter 21 Continued As we opened Matthew chapter 21 last week we read about what Christianity calls the Triumphal Entry. In this short but revealing action in Yeshua's life and mission, He enters Jerusalem riding upon a donkey, accompanied with the donkey's foal. This…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 71, Chapter 21 Continued 2 In Matthew chapter 21 Yeshua's journey to the cross is gaining speed as the proverbial snowball rolling down a steep hill. We find Him having now arrived at the place of His foretold and impending death: Jerusalem. In many ways…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 72, Chapter 22 Today we open Matthew chapter 22. It begins with quite a long Parable. Unlike some of the other metaphorical and symbolic illustrations that Jesus has been using to instruct and to reply, this is a true Parable in the Hebrew literary sense…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 73, Chapter 22 Continued Matthew chapter 22 records a series of hard-hitting verbal reprimands and instruction that Jesus had with some representatives of the Temple organization and others from the Synagogue organization. Generally speaking, these two organizations were populated and led by members of two…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 74, Chapter 22 Continued 2 When we follow Yeshua's career on earth and especially His Wisdom teachings, we find that just as in the manner our teachers taught us in elementary, High School and college, over time He built-up knowledge in His followers by starting…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 75, Chapter 23 In opening Matthew 23, if I were to give it a title, it would be "Exposing the Hypocrisy of the Leadership". It is an interesting reality that as a person gets older and knows that death is not far off, or at…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 76, Chapter 23 Continued Our study of Matthew 23 continues today, but bear with me before we re-open it's inspired pages. Early in the Book of Genesis we learned of a fundamental governing dynamic of God: He divides, elects, and separates. One of the most…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 77, Chapter 23 Continued 2 Because I had the great privilege of being raised in a Christian household from my earliest age, my family and I spent every Sunday in Church. Child Psychologists and most parents (especially moms) can verify that even when a child…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 78, Chapter 23 Conclusion As we inch closer and closer to Yeshua's death on the cross in Matthew's Gospel, there's so much context and background and many subjects that we encounter that are in need of explanation and fleshing out that at times we're going…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 79, Chapter 24 Before we dive into Matthew chapter 24, I think it is best to first offer you an exposition and summary of not only what we have learned thus far in Matthew about the crucial role that Jesus plays in Redemption History, but…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 80, Chapter 24 Continued Last week I installed a framework for us to try to better comprehend not only what we have learned thus far in the Gospels about Yeshua's role in Redemption History, but also about the several stages of it. And that beginning…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 81, Chapter 24 Continued 2 The Gospel of Matthew is a delight to teach because it offers such opportunities to provide application to our modern lives, as well as to prepare us for what lay ahead. Chapters 24 and 25 form what is nearly universally…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 82, Chapter 24 Continued 3 If the End Times matters to you; if where we likely stand in the timeline of Redemption History matters to you; then the study of Matthew chapter 24 and 25 are crucial to your understanding and I don't want to…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 83, Chapter 24 Continued 4 For the majority of New Testament commentators, the explanation of Matthew chapter 24 is among the most (if not the most) extensive required of all the Gospels combined. The main reason is because Yeshua speaks so considerably about the future…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 84, Chapter 24 Continued 5 Matthew 24:30 says: Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, all the tribes of the Land will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with tremendous power…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 85, Chapter 24 and 25 Verse 42 of Matthew chapter 24 sums up perhaps Yeshua’s most indispensable teaching about the End Times: CJB Matthew 24:42 So stay alert, because you don't know on what day your Lord will come.  Awareness, alertness, and preparedness form the recurring…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 86, Chapter 25 Continued In our previous lesson we ended with delving into the fascinating and illuminating Parable of the Talents. The most common method within Christianity (and often within Messianic Judaism) to study or preach this parable is by using allegories to separate out…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 87, Chapter 25 and 26 Last week the ending portion of our study was essentially a word picture of the final judgment that also goes by the name Judgment Day. This is one of those things that isn’t particularly pleasant for a Pastor or Bible…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 88, Chapter 26 Last week we began what is popularly known as the Passion Narrative, which essentially dominates the remaining chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. The circumstances of leading up to Christ’s execution, burial, resurrection, and the immediate aftermath represents probably the most focused upon portion…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 89, Chapter 26 Continued When we closed our study on Matthew chapter 26 last time, we had been looking at the rather strange act of the common Jewish woman in Bethany that had just poured a great deal of costly perfumed ointment on Christ’s head.…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 90, Chapter 26 Continued 2 We open today with what is known as the very intriguing Last Supper. Clearly from the way in which this event is covered in all the Gospel accounts, each writer sees it as dramatically meaningful for those who love and…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 91, Chapter 26 Continued 3 In our previous study of Matthew chapter 26 we took a careful look at a rather peculiar ceremony that took place at an unknown location within the city walls of Jerusalem, with Jesus and His 12 disciples in attendance. It…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 92, Chapter 26 Continued 4 When we left off last time in Matthew 26, Yeshua had just been identified by Judas and betrayed to the Temple authorities. It was nighttime, a short time after the Last Supper, and so it occurred within the first few…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 93, Chapter 27 Matthew chapter 26 concluded with a mixed group of Jewish religious leadership, representing both the Temple and the Synagogue authorities, gathering at night in an official capacity at the High Priest Caiaphas’s home with one purpose in mind: to find false allegations…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 94, Chapter 27 Continued Verses 11 through 26 in Matthew chapter 27 have been perhaps the chief source for persistent anti-Semitism within our faith; and this has been so for as much as 1800 years. The question these verses have been alleged to deal with…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 95, Chapter 27 Continued 2 As we are nearing the end of our extensive study of Matthew’s Gospel and all that has been revealed about Jesus’s life and teachings along the way, we have arrived at the epic Redemption History milestone that had it’s beginning…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 96, Chapter 28 END Today, we shall conclude what amounts to a 2-year study of the Gospel of Matthew. Although there are some additional facts and events surrounding Christ’s death, resurrection is far and away the central matter of chapter 28, as it ought to…