The Point(s) of the Son Appearing

Matthew 24:29-31, 34-35

Immediately after the tribulation of those days:

the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will fall from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, 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 out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. . . . Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Aaron Orendorff

Whatever our particular opinion on what the events Jesus describes here in Matthew 24-25 refer to—whether they find their primarily referent within the life span of the disciples (v. 34) or beyond—the primarily thrust of Jesus’ teaching must not be overlooked. Three simple points—easy to define, but hard to actually live beneath—are being made. First, Jesus wins. Second, Jesus—in both his first and second coming—is the center of history. Third, Jesus’ words are true. These points are not hard in the sense of being uncomfortable or difficult to cope with; rather, their hardness stems from the weakness of our faith and our ever present desire to make ourselves the winners, the center of history and the last and final word. The most humbling truths are always the most precious.

The “Royal Appearance” of the Son of Man

Matthew 24:15-16, 21, 23, 27-28 (cf. 15-28)

“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. . . . For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. . . . Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. . . . . For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming [literally the ‘parousia,’ the royal appearance] of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures/eagles will gather.”

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 2)

Once again, the terrible times of the first century are echoed by the terrible times that the world, and the church, have had to go through many times over. As I write this I am conscious that some of my brother and sister Christians will today be running away from evil regimes, will be tortured and killed for their faith. They will be tempted to follow false messiahs who offer them quick solutions. But the passage is not primarily about today. Its main significance lies in the fact that then, in the time of Jesus and the disciples, the world went through its greatest convulsion of all, through which God’s new world began to be born. Living with this fact, and working out its long-term implications, have been essential parts of Christian discipleship ever afterwards (119-20).

Amillennialism and The “Future” Kingdom of God

A common misunderstanding about amillennialism—the belief that the millennial period from Revelation 20 spans from the time of Christ’s first advent to his second—is that covenant theologians regard the kingdom of God as a wholly invisible and wholly present reality with no future, earthly fulfillment. It is argued that because amillennialists have no place in their eschatological scheme for Jesus reigning upon an earthly throne in Jerusalem, they therefore by necessity have no place for an earthly, consummated kingdom. Far to the contrary, the amillennial position on the nature of God’s kingdom is that it is both a present and future reality – i.e., that it is both already-and-not-yet, inaugurated but not consummated – and that both these present and future elements of the kingdom include spiritual as well as earthly dimensions. This fulfillment, however, will not take place during a future millennial period but rather at the end of the age when Christ returns and heaven and earth are renewed. To say that because amillennialists do not affirm Christ’s earthly reign “from a throne in Jerusalem” then they cannot affirm an earthly future for God’s kingdom is to confuse a particular (premillennial) understanding of what Christ’s reign will look like with the broader category of God’s kingdom. Such an assertion would be similar to an amillennialist saying that because premillennialists do not affirm that Satan is currently bound so they cannot affirm the current, spiritual presence of God’s kingdom.

The follow excepts (follow the link below) are meant not necessarily as arguments in favor of the amillennial position but rather as a clarification of what is the amillennial position concerning the kingdom is.

Amillennialism and The “Future” Kingdom of God