Jesus’ Last Days Prophecy

The video link is at the bottom of the page.

1. Introduction

Jesus’ Last Days Prophecy is the first in our series on eschatology, which explores the end times.

Some quote Matthew 24 as proof that we are living in the last days. Therefore, we must examine Jesus’ teachings carefully to understand the correct explanation.

2. The Prelude to Jesus’ Last Days Prophecy

A. The Eight Woes of Jesus

In Matthew 23:1-31, Jesus proclaims eight woes against the followers of the Old Covenant.

B. The Number Eight

Number eight in Hebrew numerology represents a fresh start. Using the number 8, He proclaims that He is beginning something new called the New Covenant. If there is something new, then the old is about to pass.

C. Judgement is About to Come

He issues these warnings to the scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites when He states that the blood of innocent people is about to fall upon them.

that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Matthew 23:35

D. When will it Happen?

And then, in the next verse, He provides a timeframe for when it will happen:

Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Matthew 23:36

To correctly understand Jesus’ Last Days prophecy, we need to know what defines a generation.

3. How Long is a Biblical Generation?

A. Forty Years

The most commonly used number for a Hebrew generation is forty years. For example, the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, which was considered one generation.

So the LORD’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone.

Numbers 32:13

B. One Hundred Years

There is a second meaning of generation, which is seen when God, speaking to Abraham, told him it would be four hundred years before they returned to Israel, and that equated to four generations.

Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Genesis 15:13-16

We will see that Jesus’ prophecy was correct within one 40-year and one 100-year generation—exactly!

4. The Signs of the Times and The End of the Age

There are three questions that Jesus will answer in Matthew 24:4-35:

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?“

Matthew 24:3

See also Mark 13:3–13 and Luke 21:7–19.

1. When will these things be?
2. What will be the sign of His coming?
3. And of the end of the age?

5. Question 1: When Will These Things Be?

We have observed a 40-year and a 100-year generational span in the Old Testament.

The questions in Matthew 24:3 relate to Jesus’ discourse in the previous chapter:

Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Matthew 23:36

Ending with:

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.

Matthew 24:34

Therefore, based on Jesus’ prophecy, everything in Matthew 24:4-33 will occur within one generation.

6. Peter’s Pentecost Sermon Starts the Last Days

A. Last Days Start

In his first sermon on the day of Pentecost, Peter quotes the prophet Joel, declaring there will be judgment for the Jews during the last days. Peter was there for Jesus’ Last Days Prophecy a few months earlier. He understood that there was only one generation before Jesus would return, as foretold in the judgment of Israel and the destruction of the temple/sacrificial system.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

Acts 2:17a, 19-20

Peter recognised that he was living in the last days, and then told the Jews that they had rejected the Messiah.

Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;

Acts 2:23

Therefore, the Jews needed to repent:

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38

B. Peter Confirms One Generation Limit

Peter’s use of Joel’s prophecy confirms the Last Days will finish in one generation.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

Acts 2:17a, 19-20

7. What Event Ends the Last Days Prophecy by Jesus?

Jesus prophesied the destruction of the temple in 30 CE. The temple’s destruction happened in 70 CE, exactly forty years later. The final removal of its stones to build Aelis Capitalis took place in 130 CE, a hundred years after Jesus’ prophecy. Jesus’s last day’s warning was precise and accurate, using biblical definitions of a generation—40 years and 100 years.

And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Matthew 24:2

Today at the Wailing Wall, it’s the sub-foundations of the temple, not the temple itself.

8. Taking a Closer Look at the Last Days Prophecy by Jesus

As Jesus laments over Jerusalem, let’s examine carefully what He is saying.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'”
Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Matthew 23:37-24:2; See also (Luke 13:34-35)

A. See! Your House Is Left to You Desolate 

The Roman army was the abomination of desolation, bringing about the final disappearance of the Old Covenant in 70 CE. The vanishing of the Old Covenant occurred because the priesthood could no longer perform sacrifices following the destruction of the temple. In The Law No Longer Applies, we read that the Old Covenant had already been abolished in 30 CE.

“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand),

Matthew 24:15

The abomination that causes desolation refers to the Roman Empire’s entering Jerusalem in 70 CE. The term ‘holy place’ is translated from ‘hagios topos’ in Greek.. Hagios topos never signifies the temple in the New Testament. Having ‘stood’ in the city for several days, the Romans finally took the temple, destroying it. The Romans took the remainder of the city a few days later, destroying it in September 70 CE.

We know from ancient history the eagle was the emblem of the conquering armies of Rome.

For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

Matthew 24:28

Luke clarifies what brings the desolation – armies.

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.

Luke 21:20

B. Jesus’ Prophesy

Precisely by Jesus’ prophecy, this happened within one generation. Titus first came in 67 CE with his armies and surrounded Jerusalem. He was unsuccessful, with the Jews defeating Titus. He then reinforced his army and was about to siege Jerusalem to destroy it in 67 CE when he returned to Rome to quell a revolt. Those who believed remembered Jesus’ prophecy:

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

Luke 21:21-22

The believers fled from Jerusalem between 30 November and 9 December 66 CE, and those who recognised that the law was no longer valid and that the Passover had been fulfilled were wise not to return to celebrate Passover in 70 CE. We discuss this in detail in the lesson titled “Great Tribulation.”

C. Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

The establishment of a new kingdom and a New Covenant occurred in 30 CE, and the Old Covenant was fulfilled when the High Priest offered the last sacrifice on the 14th of July, 70 CE and the Temple was destroyed on the 10th of August, 70 CE. I cannot over-emphasise the importance of this. The kingdom is here now, and we reign now!

The kingdom is not in a future millennium.
Indeed, the Church Fathers did not believe the kingdom was yet to come or would come in a future millennium. The theory of Dispensational Millennialism only began in the 19th century.

D. Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple

The physical destruction of the temple meant that the Old Covenant had ceased to exist, as it was no longer possible to practice the sacrifices. On the 14th of July, 70 CE, the Jewish priests ran out of lambs due to the siege. Some present-day Christians want to rebuild the temple and re-establish sacrifices before Jesus returns. However, rebuilding the temple would mock Jesus’ prophecy about the temple being internal and Jesus’ sacrificial death.

(See also Mark 13:1, 2; Luke 21:5,6)

having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Colossians 2:14

In its entirety, the law and all its feasts and Sabbaths were nailed to the cross with Jesus.

In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews 8:13

Therefore, it vanished when the Romans destroyed the sacrificial temple system forty years later in 70 CE.

E. The Carcass of the Law

So far, we have seen that the eagles are the symbols of the Roman legions that form the Roman army. The Roman military is also called the abomination that caused the desolation of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

Matthew 24:28

So what was the carcass the Romans were coming to feed on in 70 CE?

There were no physical dead bodies when the Romans arrived to lay siege. The Jews defeated the Romans on November 25, 66 CE, and the Romans returned to Rome. The physical dead bodies only started after the Romans returned.

However, there was something dead.
All that remained of the law was a dead carcass; it had died forty years earlier on the cross. And therefore, Roman’s eagle came, destroying any opportunity to reinstate the law. The Romans ensured no stone was on another, pulling the temple to the ground. However, historians tell us that the stones stayed within the temple’s vicinity for 60 years.

Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury, Titus Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and Temple…

Josephus

“It was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe Jerusalem had ever been inhabited.”

(The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem. Book VII, Chapter 1.1)

Jesus prophesied these events, and Paul also told the Hebrews a few years before its destruction when He wrote to them in the book of Hebrews.

Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews 8:13

F. Final Destruction in 130CE

Sixty years after this destruction, the Roman Emperor Hadrian completed the job. Here is a recent quote from historian Sara Toth Stub:

The Bar Kokhba revolt was a major turning point in Jewish history. It was the final crisis that scattered the people of Israel into a diaspora that would last nearly 2,000 years. Yes, the famous destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, which left the Second Temple in ruins, also sent people fleeing to the diaspora, but the brief attempt to throw off Roman rule in 130 CE was the last straw. Enormous numbers of Jews, both soldiers and civilians, were slaughtered. Many of the survivors were sold into slavery. Others fled a nation that had been decimated by war. It was a loss that completely severed a people from its roots.

Remembering Hadrian, Destroyer of the Jews: Sara Toth Stub

Do you remember how the Jewish Generation was both 40 years and 100 years? Here, we see Jesus’ prophecy is incredibly accurate. Firstly, in 30 CE, Jesus prophesied the temple’s destruction within one generation.

• Forty years later, the Romans destroyed the temple, and then,
• A hundred years later, the Romans finished what they had begun. They ransacked more than 1,000 villages, killed over 600,000 people, and Jerusalem was no more, with the Jewish people scattered into a diaspora until 1948.

9. Question 2: What Will Be the Sign of Your Coming?

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 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.

Matthew 24:29-30

A. Sign of the Last Days’ Prophecy of Jesus

It is key to see it as a sign of the Son of Man’s coming, not the final parousia of Jesus. Jesus still has to come in the future for His glorious Bride. In this scripture, Jesus refers to His visit to Jerusalem before Jerusalem’s judgment in 70 CE. We must be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking of the word parousia as only meaning the future return of Jesus. Parousia refers to six separate “comings” of Jesus in the New Testament, as shown in ‘Jesus’ Comings.’

In Matthew 24, Jesus states that He will come in power and glory within 40 years. This sign indicates that the kingdom of God has arrived with power. The sign of the coming of the Son of Man occurred when Jesus visited on 31st May 66 CE, which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, three and a half years later. Josephus, Tacitus, and Pseudo-Hegesippus described this visitation. Jesus’ visitation is the sign of His coming, not the actual final return of Jesus.

Note that Matthew 23:36 states that all these things mentioned in the previous verses will happen within one generation.

Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Matthew 23:36

10. The Last Days

Each of the apostles knew that they lived in the last days.

A. Peter During Pentecost 30 CE:

‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
And your old men shall dream dreams.

Acts 2:17

B. Paul:

Talking to Timothy before he died, between 64 and 67 CE, about the last days, it is clear that Paul instructed them to separate from the sinners with whom they were living during those ‘last days’.

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

2 Timothy 3:1-5

In Hebrews, Paul states they are already living in the last days.

has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

Hebrews 1:2

C. Peter:

 Peter refers to being in the last days before Jerusalem’s destruction.

knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,

2 Peter 3:3

D. James:

Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.

James 5:3

Are all the church fathers mistaken? Present-day Futurists still hold that we live in the last days now. However, the Word of God is quite clear!

The prophecy by Jesus is correct; the last days were fulfilled within one generation.

11. Question 3: And of the End of the Age?

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

Matthew 24:35-36

A. Only the Father Knows!

Do you notice the change? Heaven and earth are still here. Jesus knew what would happen in the next generation—the last days.

But only the Father knows when the heavens and the earth will pass away, and Jesus will return!!

Only the Father knows because when Jesus said this, He did not have the authority at that time.

12. The End of the Age – Not Part of the Last Days Prophecy by Jesus

We need to interpret what the word ‘age’ signifies in Greek:

αἰών aiōn; an age; by extension, perpetuity (also past); by implication, the world; especially (Jewish) a Messianic period (present or future): — age, course, eternal, (for) ever(-more), (n-)ever, (beginning of the, while the) world (began, without end).

The Greek word ‘Aion’ is where we get the phrase ‘eon’ from – a long period of unknown length. However, the age was set beforehand according to Jesus’ prophecy of being one generation.

It is important to recognise that Jesus distinctly differentiates between the last days and the end of the age. The writers of the New Testament understood that they were living in the last days.

A. Jesus is With Us Until the End of the Age

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Matthew 28:19-20

B. The Time of the Final Harvest

The end of the age is when the final harvest occurs.

The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

Matthew 13:39

C. When the Kingdom is Returned to the Father

Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Matthew 13:40-43

13. Theology of Futurists

A. Incorrect Theology of the Last Days Prophecy by Jesus

Futurists insist that Matthew 24:4-35 applies both then and now to sidestep this significant issue. However, careful examination finds no biblical proof to support this ‘leap of faith.’ Futurists claim they have the correct theology, so we are told we must change the gospel.

Futurists believe we are now in the last days rather than the end of the age. They preach that a future millennial kingdom reign will be on earth, centred in Jerusalem. Yet, they fail to see a difference between the Last Days and the End of The Age. Futurists must hold to Cessationalism and Dispensationalism to remain faithful to this theology. They must discount that the power of God is for today if they want to stay true to this theology. They believe that there is a coming Great Tribulation, yet Jesus taught us that the Great Tribulation would happen within one generation and never again!

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Matthew 24:21

Futurists teach that Matthew 24 refers to the 40 years and the future. Jesus said the Great Tribulation would never happen again! Is Jesus a false prophet? No! Jesus’ last days’ prophecy was fulfilled. What is yet to happen is the end of the age and Jesus’s final coming.

B. Cessationist and Dispensational Theology

My teachings on this subject align with those of the church fathers, as taught by Augustine, Martin Luther, and Spurgeon. It is only since John Darby in the 1880s and the release of the Schofield Bible that “theologians” have shifted to the modern Futurist view. These same “theologians” decided to teach that healing and miracles are not happening today! They say this because they adhere to Cessationist Theology and Dispensational Theology. These people often haven’t seen anyone healed or raised from the dead. (I have seen the Holy Spirit heal every disease group and death in the name of Jesus Christ).

13. Summary of the Last Days Prophecy by Jesus

Jesus is not a false prophet—everything declared between Matthew 23:36 and Matthew 24:34 happened from 30 CE to 70 CE, ending around 130 CE. That’s exactly 40 years and a century of Jesus’ prophecy—one generation!

Using Matthew 24 to claim we are living in the last days now is poor exegesis.

The Last Days concluded in the generation Jesus prophesied, as the apostles taught.

The Last Days and The End of the Age are two separate events. The future End of the Age will occur after we complete the Great Commission and before the day of judgment.

The Last Days concluded in the generation Jesus prophesied.

© Use by Permission Awakening Impact Ministries/Dr Neville Westerbeek van Eerten D. Miss. 2025