45 - Matthew 24:34

’Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.’ -Matthew 24:34.

We have already noticed that the word generation is not always in the Scriptures restricted to the meaning commonly assigned to the word. In Proverbs, for instance, we have, "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes." Here the word corresponds to a class of men. Some interpret our text as referring to the Jewish people, and prophesying their continuance until the second advent of Christ. We do not, however, object to the ordinary and obvious sense, in this passage. We incline to think that our Lord intended that his disciples should look for the fulfilment of these predictions in their own day. But what are we to understand by "all these things"?

After the intimation that not a stone of the temple should remain in its place, the disciples, sitting with the Master on the Mount of Olives, over against the city, said, "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Here are three questions; one concerning the destruction of the temple, one regarding the coming of Christ, and one touching the end of the world (dispensation). But the questioners evidently considered these three to be virtually one. They had much to learn (from the risen Saviour and the Spirit of Pentecost) before they could accurately separate these events. Christ does not now undertake to enlighten them with regard to the non-identity of the destruction of the temple and his future advent in glory; but as these questions were blended, so his answers are blended. He speaks of the overthrow of Jerusalem and the termination of the Jewish economy, and of the coming of the Son of Man and its signs, and of the judgment of the tribes of earth by the separation of his elect; grouping all together as though they belonged together in time and not merely in moral significance; leaving it to the light of future events to furnish the means of distinguishing between the earlier and the later fulfillments. He refers to the fig-tree, whose tender branches and young leaves are a sign that summer is nigh: "so likewise when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." We are here called to distinguish between "all these things" and "it," between the great event and the things that indicate its approach. "All these things" in verse 33, therefore, may not be applied to verses 27-31, where the coming of the Son of man is spoken of, but to the events preceding it: tribulation, persecution, temptation, false Christs, etc. And the words have of course the same meaning in verse 34. The object of the whole is, that believers may not be led away by false notions of the things coming upon the earth, of the triumphs of the Gospel the glory of the Church; that they may not be soon wearied or faint in their minds, but endure to the end; that they may give themselves to the spread of the Gospel through the world, knowing that the Gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world for a witness before "the end" can come, but that they may be sustained in all their toil and sorrow by the blessed assurance that the Son of man cometh in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory.

They that heard the words of this prophecy, some of them at least, actually saw the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, the overthrow of all those Mosaic institutions which were bound up with the national life of the Jews. But before that day of retribution and of judgment dawned, multitudes of Christian churches in all parts of the world had been made acquainted with these prophecies of Christ, and multitudes who were outside of those churches had also heard of them. Then when those remarkable events came to pass, assurance was carried to the hearts of all who gave the slightest heed to this chapter of prophecy, that there should be the future advent of the ascended Messiah in glory and in majesty, a manifestation as unequivocal as the lightning, flashing conviction upon the hearts of all mankind, and the gathering together of the elect, the fusion of all bodies of believers in one. The following words of Josephus will show how obvious it was to all that the ruin which fell upon the Jews was of the nature of a judgment from heaven, marked, signal, tremendous: "I cannot but think that it was because God had doomed this city to destruction, as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge his sanctuary by fire, that he cut off these its great defenders and well-wishers, while those that a little before had worn the sacred garments, and had presided over the public worship, and had been esteemed venerable by those that dwelt on the whole habitable earth when they came into our city, were cast out naked, and seen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts." (Wars, iv. 5. 2.) In these last days we have many scoffers, not merely outside the Church (there was never any lack of them there), but strange to say, in the Church, in the pulpit, in what they call the ministry of Christ and of the Gospel; men boldly scoffing at the true Christ and the true Gospel, denying the atonement, the miracles of Scripture, the physical resurrection of Christ, the possibility of a future advent. Their grand argument is, that since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning; Nature evidently knows nothing of the Supernatural. But the prophecies of Christ actually made necessary the lapse of all these centuries, for it made necessary the preliminary preaching of the Gospel unto all nations; it was necessary that time should flow on until the era of geographical discovery and of perfected communications should bring the outlying tribes of earth, Australians, South Sea Islanders, aborigines of America, and others to the knowledge of the rest; and it was necessary that in such an advanced era the spirit of Missions should awaken, and evangelists be found for all these scattered and long-unknown tribes.